another cliché
travel blog

Shortest fourteen hour flight ever. Stayed up till close to three pacific time, then slept most of the way. Routinely woke up with a mouth that was bone dry (an awkward feeling) so took a sip of water from a bottle that magically appeared itself in my seat and went back to sleep.

Made some progress on the transcript for The Web Ahead episode 113, but evidently mostly slept.

The connection flight was easy. Finished out the transcript and started reviewing and correcting it.

It’s almost 90 degrees and humid as fuck in Singapore. What the shit.

Got off the plane, took a cab to the hotel, changed, and started exploring. Ended up on Duxton lane, found a cute little bookstore, then found a Spanish tapas place, that of all things, had Jamon Iberico. That was awesome.

Justin met up with us, then the three of us walked back to the hotel, met up with Katie, and all four of us got dinner at The Public Izakaya. Meh.

Made it out of Delhi no problem, it was an easy flight to Zurich. I slept most of the flight, though I didn’t realize it until I saw that we only had 1,100km left to fly. We got into Zurich at 6:30 as planned, then made it to the Google office there. Ate breakfast, got coffee, answered emails, took a shower, then back to the airport. Felt exactly like a Google office.

I’m beginning to think Marx had it right. I can go to basically any major city in the world, eat, sleep, shower, work out, play, or work without having to ask ANYONE. By being able to enter the building, it’s proof that I have been granted the rights to do so. It’s a head trip.

Upon Bethany’s urging, I checked my flight info again and found an off by one error in how google figures travel arrangements. I’M GOING HOME!!!

India’s been great, but I’m ready. This trip has made me realize that one thing I really value is potable tap water.

So, last day: we had brunch at the hotel, slowly got ready and answered work email, and left the hotel around 2:30. We walked over to Jantar Mantar, an observatory built in in the 18th century to tell time, now made unworkable by the surrounding buildings, then over to the India Gate, a arch built by the British to commemorate the young men they got killed fighting in wars on the other side of the world.

We got back to the hotel room, packed up, met up with Bethany’s friend Ajit for dinner and ice cream, then headed to the airport.

We got up early for yoga, had an ok session (The instructor tried to force me into a headstand, which is always a good maneuver), then breakfast. Bethany dashed to the airport, I packed up, then stashed my stuff with the front desk. Hung out at the Swiss cafe for a couple hours, went swimming, walked the strip, got lunch, then showered and headed to the airport. Got into Delhi around 11, hired an Uber to The Metropolitan, which turned out to be in a much nicer area than The Westin and overall more comfortable, if not quite as luxurious.

We woke up at 6:50 for yoga at 7:30, which was held on a roof of a nearby hotel overlooking the beach. Not bad.

After yoga, we walked back up to our hotel, had breakfast, talked with the front desk about what the hell happened the previous night (their story was that he confused the room numbers with some other guests who were leaving that night), and showered. I answered email and scheduled my flight back to Delhi, while Bethany met up with Shaji to work out costs. I got an Ayurvedic massage (eh), met up for lunch, then headed to yoga at 3:30. This time it was held inside, still on the roof but in a cavernous windowed room. Pretty cool. Part way through, someone in robes came in with what looked like a censer, but that sprinkled water (maybe salt?). Following that, we went swimming with the other person in the class, Fanny, a french woman visiting there with her mom. She seemed to give zero fucks, and stripped down to her underwear right on the beach to go swimming, drawing many a look from the Indian men. I glared back at them in return, and they quickly looked away.

We showered again, then wandered the strip looking for dinner. We ended up having s nice slow dinner, at Spice Garden, then head back to the room and passed out at midnight for 7 am yoga.

Woke up around 6:30, well before my alarm went off, turned on the geyser (geezer in local parlance) and lounged in bed for another hour. Finished the Use of Weapons, then took as long of a nice hot shower as the geezer allowed. Unfortunately, I knew it wouldn’t run long enough to shave, so the beard stayed. Ugh. Started malaria prophylactics. insert Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “ugh double ‘ugh’ ugh ugh”. Had a couple cups of tea upstairs at Nick’s, ran into Catherine one last time, and then hired a taxi back to the airport. The driver’s name was Lucky, and we had a nice conversation down the hill. He was hoping to buy a car next month, rather than having to rent/pay someone else for the use of the car he was driving. Among other things, we talked ut local traffic laws both in Himachal Pradesh and California, and I mentioned it was something like a $200 fine for not wearing your seat belt. He looked at my shocked and said that was like two months salary for him.

At the airport, waiting the flight, the whole place lost power for about ten seconds before things had way clicked back on. Interesting.

Walking out to the plane on the Tarmac, it struck me how very different it felt than the last time I was here. Anxious, nervous, unsure how I was going to find my destination, unsure about the week ahead. Coming back couldn’t have contrasted more. I wonder how much of that was having at least a rough plan, and how much was having data, having the knowledge that I could look up whatever info I could need. Maybe it’s just that my next step is to go lay on a beach and get a massage, rather than do something I hope I’m prepared for up in the mountains.

We arrived in Delhi with just under enough time to comfortably leave the airport, check out a coffee house, and return, so after making it through security (having my boarding pass reviewed or stamped on no less than five occasions, all for things that no one seemed to care about) I began rereading Use of Weapons and wandered. Saw a single ladder being carried by four people, with a fifth to supervise. Walked to the end of Terminal 3 by gate 26B, and saw an airport employee with an oversized butterfly net hanging out. Hmmm. Not far past him, at the end of the terminal where the class walls come to an overhung point, pigeon feathers littered the ground. Walking back, I even saw one flying down the terminal like it was no big deal.

Unrelatedly, I’ve decided I’m not a fan of Delhi.

Something that occurred to me: so much of India’s pop culture is about attraction between men and women (not to say the US is any different) but arranged marriages are still common, at least outside the metro areas. Hmmmmm.

##later After reaching TRV (whose name I’m still hopelessly unable to pronounce), I got out of the airport and met the driver outside. I realized that if I was somehow unable to meet him (or her), I was kind of a pickle. Bethany was likely passed out, I had no idea the name of the hotel I was staying at, where exactly it was, who I was supposed to meet…really any details. Whatever. It was 80 degrees and swampy. I could literally spend the night nearly anywhere and be fine. Luckily though, a man holding a sign that said Mr. Matt Sugihara was out front. We exchanged pleasantries, then took a 20 minute drive to the hotel. Checked in, and the bell hop was exceedingly eager to take my bag. Unfortunately so. I figured he was working for a tip, but when we got to my room, he dropped my bag and promptly disappeared.

Bethany and I were both stoked to see a familiar face. We spent the next hour trading highlights while I got ready for bed, then we passed out around one.

At three, the same bellhop burst into our room, saying “wake up wake up wake up” turned on the lights, and then, once he saw he had out attention kept repeated “luggage”. Really? I tried to figure out what he was after, but Bethany had the right idea. “First off turn off the light!” Which he did, then when I got up in only my underwear to try to figure out what he wanted, she just shouted “Leave! Get out,” which he understood.

We promptly deadbolted the door and passed back out.

After passing the night in a literally freezing, but otherwise comfortable room (no electricity, uninsulated wooden walls), having had some pretty wild dreams, I woke up before dawn and alternately watched it get progressively lighter and dozed. Around 7:45 John woke us up with tea and we slowly collected our things as the weather improved.

We took our time coming down off Triund, descending in four hours what easily could have been two, but it didn’t feel bad to take it slow. The cook and I started out by high tailing it until we reached the magic view chai shop, at which point I ordered tea and chatted briefly with two doctors from Calcutta, (Apurva and Ayan?)

We had passed everyone coming down the mountain, and it was early enough that no one had made it that far up, so for the better part of fourth minutes, we sat in relative silence. Then asshats with speakers, dub step, and litter showed up and started yelling. Eh.

Once Catherine and John caught up, we sat for a bit, then continued slowly down, letting the guides go on ahead of us. We hiked to Himachal Trekkers HQ, where we had a great lunch, then back to McLeod gang via tuk tuk to pay Malkeet the remaining balance.

We squared up, then both got rooms at Kunga guest house. I wandered for a bit, bought the cheapest cell phone I could find that had wifi for testing, then sat reading and drinking tea all afternoon. A man who turned out to be the owner struck up a conversation about phones, and after that conversation ran its course, I stood up to use the restroom in my room. As I walked out, one of the staff stopped me and asked if I was hungry, indicating to an extra plate of bruschetta the kitchen had made for a Swiss couple. I accepted the food, ate it, then dropped stuff in my room. I came back for another cup of tea and some reading. Even though I came by the food because of a mistake in the kitchen, I still benefited form it and felt compelled to pay for the Swiss couple’s meal (and I had a slice of cake). The couple came by and thanked me for their meal, and we chatted for a bit. Turns out they run a guest house in Einzeidel, Switzerland, just north of Zurich, a place called St. Joseph’s, and offered me a room if I ever came by. She also slipped me a Swiss Army knife, which was totally unexpected, but awesome.

After that, Catherine and I talked about the importance of genetics on relationships, then Amy and I talked for a couple hours before I passed out.

Gorgeous hiking. The best so far, by a long shot. It occurred to me without strong conservative land use policy, in a country of over a billion people, if it’s a place worth spending time, people will live there. So, it’s really hard in India to get anywhere nice that doesn’t have a village stuck there, too.

Got some great photos.

Hike hike hike. Saw a beautiful updraft through the valley. Had a great conversation with Catherine about sins of the father, what right a 20 year old German person has to feeling guilty about the holocaust, what right I have as the grandson of people sent to interment camps AND a captain in the Air Force during world war 2 to feel guilt and or indignant, what right I would have, if I were to convert to Judaism, to the Jewish legacy, and how the discourse of rape in the United States lacks nuance. So, light conversation.

Got to our guide’s home where we spent the night. After setting up the tent, Catherine and I both journaled fir a bit, then I went out and walked around John’s village for an hour. As I was coming back, John was just bringing cups of soup to the tent. That woke Catherine up and we took them along with us as we scrabbled around the hills by John’s house. From the top, I snapped a photo of my shoes for today’s shoey back in mountain view, and had enough signal to send it off. After that, we both sacked out for a bit, then once John came back from the village, we had dinner (dal and rice, which I still don’t think I’ll ever get sick of), saw the baby get washed, rubbed down with mustard oil, and swaddled in the cutest blanket that had one corner doubled to turn it into a hood. John then brought out his wedding album and we checked that out.. Pretty cool stuff.

At this point John had one half tied on, I promised him a phone. He’s relatively well off, has a TV, glass windows in wooden frames, a Pooja sewing machine, and a nice house, but no toilet. So sending him a nexus, eh.

Had an interesting conversation though. The first adjective John used to describe Apple was “expensive” and “not worth it”, which itself is interesting, because it further suggests that Android is popular because of price, not just because it’s android. However, another data point is one of Natasha’s aunties, who said that she had Apple phone and returned it because she didn’t like it.

Mr. John woke us up with tea. What kind of luxe shit is this? At the time, I was half a world away dreaming that I was in a restaurant/something close to a Google cafe. Natasha was definitely involved, we had a big group table downstairs, and we were going somewhere together. Vishanka (but not her. She looked like some one else, blonde, used a cane) ordered a sugar doughnut, but they only had glazed sugar donuts. That was ok. 500 calories, still. It turned out we had less time than we thought, so I went upstairs to the kitchen to get the attention of the staff to try to get everything to go. The kitchen staff was busy, so to get their attention, I basically threw a shit fit by piling my three bags right in the walk way in front of the counter, blocking the way. As soon as the staff noticed, a couple other people in our group were coming up the stairs, one of whom was Not-Vishanka, and then I woke up to mr. John, chai, and the Himalayas. Ok.

Hiked up, will attach pictures when I can.

One photo of a beehive/shrine to the God of work.

First snow in our path

Snow hovels

Bear tracks

Got back. Had lemon and honey tea. Passed out for a bit, had dinner. Finished dinner, went dancing. Taught the kids thriller, the chicken dance, the shopping cart, and wanted to teach them to tweak, but Catherine gave me the stink eye. Probably for the best. Then around ten we went to bed. Venga boys is playing. boom boom boom, I want you in my room.