Letter #1 - Tel Aviv - Moscow - Delhi - Mcleod Ganj

Hi,

Guess I progressed since the journey / trip to Australia, when I used a simple mailing list with several recipients with whom I was glad to share my experiences. This time I chose to do this via a blog. I hope that all parties would benefit from that refreshing change.

You may kindly invite others to the follower's list of the blog, who may sign up the form on the upper-right. If the letters are too small to read, you can always press Ctrl + ("Control" and "+") to increase screen, and, of course, vice versa (Ctrl -) to reduce back.

Unexpected Experience

My journey began when I was left by my beloved brothers, who gave me a lift to the airport named after David Ben Gurion, which is adjacent to the colorful and desirable town of Lod. When I reached the clerk at the departures check-in desk, she informed that my visa to India was about to expire before the date of return issued for me, and informed to me that she could not let me board the plane in that situation. Ultimately, I boarded the plane ... because by the end of the day - it all works out, and even if not now, it will probably work out sometime later.

Kuritza and Jethro Tull

I got on an Airbus three hundred and something, which carried me and a few dozen other travelers to Moscow, the capital of Mother Russia. I was glad that they didn't screw up and served me with a vegan meal, as I asked in advance. Most of the passengers hurried to ask for "Kuritza" (chicken), which they were grounding with their hungry teeth. I was promised to be able to watch movies during the flight, but apparently there were no screens on board, so I spent the time of the flight trying to forget the experience of almost not being let in the plane and listening to Jethro Tull.

Moscow

In Moscow

A few hours later, we landed in Moscow. I greeted farewell the Aeroflot stewardesses, who were dressed in red with the famous Soviet hammer icon (without the sickle, this time), who were greeting us farewell, with their Bolshevik eyes and fresh white skin. It was 7:00 am. I was still recovering from the fact that I survived the biting Israeli check-in desk thingy, and that now I was in the capital of the country of the hard-workers vodka-drinkers, and frozen chicken (Haladyets)-eaters (joking here, eh?).

Travel in Moscow is prohibitted VS.  travel in Moscow is allowed

So, I asked one of the info officials how could I quickly reach the fast train going from the airport to the city. She asked me in broken English "You have a visa?" and I replied "Mmm ... nope ..." She replied, "Then you cannot go" and I went like: "Okay." This was a very fascinating first conversation I had in Russia and meanwhile I continued walking around bleary-eyed until an Israeli-looking girl crossed my sight. She said that she was in Shermetevo airport from 8pm of last night. We approached together again to the info counter and asked the woman sitting there, regarding to how to get to the city (using my terrible broken Russian: Mi khachu pa-guilat na-gorod. The Russians among us – please do not try to fix it. I did my best here…). The woman smiled at us mischievously, as if we were going to do something very playful and mischievous and directed us to a certain room (as she continued sending us sly smiles). We went to that room, where we were led to another room. In the other room, the people were talking in between themselves, as I was all this time telling them "Gorod, Gorod" in various versions. They phoned someone and all of a sudden an English speaking pilot arrived and quickly led us to a place where the clerk issued us what seemed like a single-day approval to visit Moscow town.

Moscow

At the Red Square

Happy and satisfied, we were successful purchasing a train ticket with the AeroExpress train, which frequently comes and goes in the station, and within 35 minutes we were in downtown Moscow (Beiloruskie station). We walked quite a long way, especially along Tvierskaya St. towards the Red Square, the Kremlin. The weather was fare, but quite chilly and gray-cloudy. I felt almost at home, because everyone there was Russian. It was like visiting Bat-Yam (a small city south to Tel Aviv), only much bigger, and with much less Moroccans. Near the Red Square, we were revealed to a line of dozens of people waiting to enter the mausoleum of Stalin. We decided to give up on that experience, and went to watch the beautiful Basilica at the square, more closely.

WiFi at the Shermetevo Airport

When I was back at the airport in Moscow, I looked for a single socket to connect my laptop. I found one, which was already taken by a machine that belonged to a colored hair girl. I kindly asked her to use the socket, a request which was gladly accepted.

"The Godfather" and tomato juice

I was spending the flight from Moscow to Delhi watching "The Godfather" and the beginning of "The Godfather #2". Great movie. Lots of bullets going into people's bodies. I enjoyed a few cups of tomato juice with a pinch of pepper (in my opinion, there is apparently no greater pleasure that). In addition, I also spent time listening to Jethro Tull, a band I use to listen to all their albums in 5-year cycles. It was a nice and exciting experience.

Moscow

Spontaneously tired taxi drivers

In Delhi airport I discovered that there were many Indians. I got into a taxi to Delhi with two Israeli girls, after we agreed with the driver on 300 rupees (amount in rupees can be divided by 16 to get the New Israeli Shekel. An alternative way for those who does not feel like dividing 16: divide by 10, then divide by 20, then get the average between them. Those who are not capable of doing that too – well, try Youtube.com to learn some first class math). 5 minutes later, the driver decided that he was too tired and wished to go back to the airport taxi station. So he took us to the airport, where we bought a governmental taxi ticket, that was rather rubbish, but at least we had not been again returned her to the airport with disgrace.

Reaching Main Bazzar and first grime in India

We were dropped off at Main Bazaar, one of the best known and musty streets in central Delhi. By recommendation of one of the youngsters of the "Hara Rama Guest House,
we stayed there. It was 3:00 in the morning, and I was too exhausted for bargaining, so I took a room which was not quite sympathetic, but such that allowed a reasonable night sleep, after many hours of barely sleeping nights, at the price of 400 rupees. I realized for the first time, that the Indians don't randomly fix switches on their walls, but rather concentrate them up in a kind of rectangle somewhere on the wall, which has 10 switches altogether, of which only random three really work. My job was to discover which one is responsible for what, and so I finally clicked on all of them, whenever I wanted turn off the light or turn on the ceiling fan. While showering, I made efforts for not get into any contact with the wall, the sink, and some other suspicious elements (I will spare you from the description of these, at present, mainly in order to give free rein to your wild imagination).

Thali in the market

After four hours of sleeping, I woke up to the noise of the waking market. I went out on the street and had my first-ever Thali: vegetable curry, potato, rice and chapatti, which was unsurprisingly satisfying. Then, I continued to walk along the street, trying to avoid the gazes of people, who were mostly traders that might have been interested in trying to coax me of their merchandise. Number of people complimented me on my new sandals. After buying several bottles of water to complete the missing fluid, I took all my belongings out of the room and waited down in the lobby for the bus to take me up-north, to Dharamsala region, or more specifically – to McLeod Ganj town.

Almost on the wrong bus

After almost got on the bus to Manali, at last minute the one in charge of transportation reached me and took me to the right bus. He was kind of angry at me and said "The bus has gone. You'll go tomorrow". Then he began to lead me to where the bus was supposed to leave. I apologized, thanked him, and I gave him a bill of 100 rupees, in order to dull his pain. The bus did not go without me. In fact, it had not even reached the place.

Monosodium glutamate in 15 hours drive to Dharamsala

The travel to Dharamsala lasted for hours, which I passed with four other Israelis who were heading to the villages Bhagsu and Dharamakot, which are full of Israelis. After many hours of aching butt and milling food coloring and monosodium glutamate snacks, and of course, listening to Jethro Tull, who managed to encourage me, I was able to travel the long night of 15 hours and arrived in McLeod Ganj, in the early morning. I greeted farewell the other fellows, who headed to the two other villages and immediately was clung by two agents of two different hotels. I went to check out one of them. It had stunning view, but I didn't like the rooms much. Then I went to the other hotel, accompanied by the other agent, a nice and graceful Nepali of whom I felt comfortable almost immediately. The rate per night has been very reasonable, so I settled in a fairly large room with clean bathroom and a balcony overlooking the beautiful valley and mountain.

The Basilica in the Red Square, Moscow

McLeod Ganj

I managed to walk a little up the moderately dirty winding streets of McLeod Ganj, and probably have not yet found all its secrets. The town is built along and constitutes mainly of two or three long, parallel streets, which of most full of small shops and stalls. There is a relatively large Tibetan population here, but also Hindus. The town is built on a fairly moderate mountain slope. There are hostels and many grocery stores, one of which I purchased oats, and I even found Tahini, which looks whole-grained (relatively expensive - 165 rupees for 400 grams). Fruit and vegetables are very cheap here but imported products in favor of the tourists, of course, are not much cheaper than their original price of their homeland.

Torrential monsoon rains

As I am writing this (2:20 am), rain is falling and flooding the surrounding green mountains. Lightning can be occasionally observed. The temperature is quite reasonable during both day and night, and it is possible to get around dressed with just short clothes most of the day. I ended the first day in McLeod Ganj delighted with cooked vegetables with two chapattis, examines the WiFi surfing at The Seed restaurant, which is located nearby my hotel, named Avoca Guest House.

Good night.

The view from my room's balcony in Mcledo Ganj's Avoca Guest House

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