Yesterday I was switching towns. I was going from Srignar, in Kashmir, to McCloud Ganj, which is in H.P. Not that the details really matter. Anyway after a jeep ride and then a bus ride (total time 16 hours) I get dropped off in this town called Gaggol. At a little past midnight, there isn't much to do there. Actually nothing to do. There is no hotel. Nothing is open. A guy on the street tells me that there is a bus coming at 12. It is a bit after 12 by my watch and 10 till by his. So I wait. Nothing. No cars, no nothing. Just the sounds of a bum talking in his sleep. What do you do at midnight with nothing around? My ipod is out of batteries, I just finished my book and don't have another.
I roll a , um cigarette and figure I will walk up the hill to there. A car pulls up and asks me where I am going. He says another bus will come by at 1:30. He also said that he would be passing by a bit later and if I was still there he would give me a lift. So I wait. And wait and wait. I am pacing up and down the street. Talking to myself. Trying to figure out what I want to do with my life and where I want to go live next. (I still can't decide)Finally at 2:30 someone drives by and gives me a lift.
I get into town and nothing is open. Nothing at all. Nobody is answering their doors, all the guest houses are closed. Then some guy pulls up on his bike. He starts talking and asking me what kind of room I want.
He says he has one and that it will be about $6 for the night. The guy is drunk and probably high. But what can I do. I get a good vibe from him. So I go with him.
Anyway I follow him to his place and see the outside. It's a tattoo parlor. Its also his house. 1 room.
It stinks. It smells like unwashed filth. But oh well. I roll up a cig and we smoke it. he tells me about himself, he's from Pakistan, his name is Ashok.
He says he's married to a Swiss girl. And he wants to call her. So he looks for her number in a book and can't find it after 20 mins. So he goes to the sink and pours fuel over the book and lights it on fire.
He leaves to book burning while looking through a different book and finds her number, but doesn't have a phone. He grumbles and then he goes to the sink and warms himself by the fire, which has now filled the room with smoke.
He burns all the hair off his hands and melted some of his hair. After about 15 min. I try to put the fire out. Books burn for a long time. The water doesn't work in his place. I put the fire out with a little water, that I found in a bottle. That is the end of my story. Hope you enjoy.
Oh and the room didn't cost me anything.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
India continued
India is fantastic. I love it here. Been traveling and studyinghere. I started off in the south, and went to a Hindu elephantfestival. Wild! Then I did a house boat tour of the back waters.Really beautiful place. They have a sort of commune there. Everything is pooled and shared amoungst the members. From there I went to Munnar and saw fields and fields of tea. It was pretty, but only worth a day.
From there I headed north and spent a couple weekson Paradise beach. It was amazing. My days were so relaxed. I spent my days smoking hash, swimming, chilling with somegood people and playing frisbee. Evenings were spend looking at dolphins playing the sea. It was just what I needed before mystudies.
I spent a month in Delhi. I was studing for a certificatefor English teaching. It will allow me to get better jobs and it mademe a better teacher. It was good. Didnt' have much of a social life.Spent much of my time with my studies and with my class mates. I enjoyed it, but I didn't have any free time for four weeks. I was in the British Council for on average of 12 hours a day. That is where the course took place. I didn't even notice how hot Delhi had become until the weekend and the one day I had of vacation.
Since then I have been in Kashmire. Spent a couple of nights on ahouse boat and then went to the mountains and did some hikng.I've been smoking a fair amount of Kashmiri hash. It is fantastic.While on the trek, my guide, mixed some with some cardimin. It wasfantasic. Now back on a different houseboat and going to chill for the next couple of days and explore the town, apply for jobs, update the resume all that sort of fun stuff. Next I am not sure yet. Either McCloud Ganj, where the Dalai Lama rests his head or off to another place in Kashmir. I have 't decided.
From there I headed north and spent a couple weekson Paradise beach. It was amazing. My days were so relaxed. I spent my days smoking hash, swimming, chilling with somegood people and playing frisbee. Evenings were spend looking at dolphins playing the sea. It was just what I needed before mystudies.
I spent a month in Delhi. I was studing for a certificatefor English teaching. It will allow me to get better jobs and it mademe a better teacher. It was good. Didnt' have much of a social life.Spent much of my time with my studies and with my class mates. I enjoyed it, but I didn't have any free time for four weeks. I was in the British Council for on average of 12 hours a day. That is where the course took place. I didn't even notice how hot Delhi had become until the weekend and the one day I had of vacation.
Since then I have been in Kashmire. Spent a couple of nights on ahouse boat and then went to the mountains and did some hikng.I've been smoking a fair amount of Kashmiri hash. It is fantastic.While on the trek, my guide, mixed some with some cardimin. It wasfantasic. Now back on a different houseboat and going to chill for the next couple of days and explore the town, apply for jobs, update the resume all that sort of fun stuff. Next I am not sure yet. Either McCloud Ganj, where the Dalai Lama rests his head or off to another place in Kashmir. I have 't decided.
Monday, March 16, 2009
India
So i haven't written for a while and the Red Pants have left Korea. It took me longer than I thought it would. I was supposed to leave on March 1st, but didn't end up leaving until the 11th.
I had some issues with my passport. My old one went through the wash and wasn't in the best of shape. I sent it to the Indian Embassy for my visa and they sent it back. I didn't have enough free pages in it. So I rushed out of Jeju, leaving it a week early. Didn't get the good bye I wanted. Was rushed out of there. and went to the American Embassy. They wouldn't give me more pages. They told me I had to get a new passport. So I get them to rush it. And I got it about 8 day later and then off to the Indian Embassy for my visa and that took another week. No rushing it. Frustrating. But I finally got out of Korea.
This is going to be short. I hate the keyboard I am typing on. Anyway so I get to India and go to Kochi and get a guest house. nice place. a bit outside the tourist zone, about a 10 min walk.
the people who run it were fantastic though. A Latvian woman with her Indian husband and his family. brother, who was a bit slow and his mom. His mom showed me how to cook and I usually ate with the family. Did some site seeing and caught a show and went on a house boat tour.
then went up to Munnar to get away from the heat spent a day there and saw the tea plantations. bought some weed and am smoking it. now i am back in Kochi waiting for the next train to Gokarna. that is it for now. will update soon, I promise
I had some issues with my passport. My old one went through the wash and wasn't in the best of shape. I sent it to the Indian Embassy for my visa and they sent it back. I didn't have enough free pages in it. So I rushed out of Jeju, leaving it a week early. Didn't get the good bye I wanted. Was rushed out of there. and went to the American Embassy. They wouldn't give me more pages. They told me I had to get a new passport. So I get them to rush it. And I got it about 8 day later and then off to the Indian Embassy for my visa and that took another week. No rushing it. Frustrating. But I finally got out of Korea.
This is going to be short. I hate the keyboard I am typing on. Anyway so I get to India and go to Kochi and get a guest house. nice place. a bit outside the tourist zone, about a 10 min walk.
the people who run it were fantastic though. A Latvian woman with her Indian husband and his family. brother, who was a bit slow and his mom. His mom showed me how to cook and I usually ate with the family. Did some site seeing and caught a show and went on a house boat tour.
then went up to Munnar to get away from the heat spent a day there and saw the tea plantations. bought some weed and am smoking it. now i am back in Kochi waiting for the next train to Gokarna. that is it for now. will update soon, I promise
Monday, January 5, 2009
Since Thanksgiving
I
So, it has been about a month since I have written on this thing. Sorry, I have been busy as of late. It is the holiday season and I have been on vacation from work, where I usually write this thing up.
I started off this Holiday celebration by going out to eat dog with a couple of friends before Christmas. Dog doesn't taste like any other meat that I have tried, and I have tried my fair share of different meats. The smell of dog isn't the best. Actually it smells pretty bad. The flavor of dog is nice. It is quite tasty. Thoroughly enjoyable to tell the truth. The first bit was a bit odd. I am a dog lover and have always respected the animal, that said, all meat is fair game for my belly. The dogs that are used for meat, are not pets. They are raised for their meat. There is a girl on the island who decided to save one of them and take it home. It is the stupidest dog I have ever met. They don't make good pets. So, if you get the chance to try a little dog meat, I say go for it. It tastes good, and according to Koreans, it is good for a man's stamina.
The following weekend, EPIK had a reunion for us. They flew us all to Seoul. Nothing like a free trip to Seoul. I was planning on heading up there that weekend anyway. So it saved me about $170. I flew up on a Friday. So it also gave me a day off of work. Got in and promptly started to hear speeches. That is after traveling on the subway for an hour and 45 minutes. Which is about twice as long as the flight took to get to Seoul. It wasn't that bad. The talk went on for about an hour and then it was break time. At that time we got to move around and visit with friends. I ended up hanging with some of my people from Busan and skipping the second talk session, which ended up being a bitch session anyway. Not something I needed to be involved it.
That night EPIK took us to a show called JUMP. It is a comedy, kung fu, thing. It was really funny and really enjoyable. I don't have any pictures to put up about it, just know
that it was good. I followed that by going out with a couple of friends to a Mokoli bar. Mokoli is a milking rice drink. It was down this dank passageway., complete with a placard of drunk Koreans drinking mokoli. We stayed there for a while before heading off again to go onto another bar. It was a dive bar, my kind of place. Cheap drinks and a cheap atmosphere. We stayed there until closing and then tried to find a cab back to the hotel. That proved to be a bit troublesome. Cabbies in Seoul will only take people if they want to go in that direction. Our hotel wasn't in the most prime of locations and finding a cab was proving to be difficult. We finally found a van, which proved to be a blessing, as we had enough people for 2 cabs. We over paid, but between us all, it all worked out. Johnny and myself jumped into the back. I did a proper job of jumping the seat. I got my foot caught outside the van and got hung up, giving myself a nice bruise right above the knee.
The next day was the riverboat tour of Seoul. The last thing in the EPIK reunion. The tour would
have been better if it were not fall. Seeing brown shores and bridges wasn't the most interesting of things. But it was a good way to unw
ind. They just kept telling us how many people died here and when. Sort of a depressing journey. Following that, I went with a few friends and checked out the 63 building. The tallest bui
lding in Seoul. It was tall, But not that pretty. The views from it were quite nice though. Following the tour of the building, it was off to a sauna for a nice soak and lunch.
It turned 4:30 and it was time for me to head off again and meet up with some other friends. We had plans to have dinner together and go see Evil Dead the Musical. I being myself showed up a bit
late, but it wasn't so bad, as everyone was late as well. We still had plenty of time to get some grub into our bellies before heading off to the show. We went to some fusion restaurant. Here it is just an excuse not to cook the 
food properly. It wasn't bad. Just not the best. Then it was off to the show. The show was in Korean, but as I am a huge fan of the movies, it was easy to follow. The end of the show, was the gory bits, and I was sitting in the second row, being a big white guy, I was targeted. First i was shot in back of the head with a bloody squirt gun. And then the zombies came into the audience. I knew I was going to be targeted and boy was I ever. The pic of me is after the sprinklers turned on and washed some of the blood off. I got covered with blood, and the nice zombie told me that he loved me. We had a moment. It was touching. The show was awesome. If you see it playing anywhere near you, head out and see it. It is well worth it. Quite fantastic.
Following the show, we needed to find a place to sleep and clean up. Thus we headed to the subway. Our group was given a clear path and several odd stares along the way. Nothing like being covered in fake blood to clear a path. We headed to the area, where we would be drinking that night. We got a couple of rooms in a love motel. Love motels are cheaper hotels. They are usually quite nice and the foreigner population stay in them quite frequently, as they are cheaper than a real hotel. Koreans tend to use them for what they are called. Young couples get them to have a bit of fun, before heading back home to live with their parents. Koreans tend to live with their parents until marriage. Anyway getting a hotel wasn't my idea. When I head up that way I stay in the saunas. They are 8 dollars a night and have a sleeping area. The love motel ended up being $70, split in two.
We then headed off to the bars. We met some of Benney's friends and started to get our drink on. I didn't want to drink that much and was kind of watching my budget, as it was the end of the month and I was running out of cash. So I had 2 beers at the bar, and a shot. The shot wasnt' of my choice and I didn't ask for it. One of Benney's friends ordered a round of them. Then it was time to divy up the bill. Which they decided to split evenly. So my beers were going to coast me about $50 as they were pounding back girly shot after girly shot. That wasn't flying with me, so I told them that I was going to pay for what I drank. Oh and I had to pay for that shittly little shot that they ordered me. So I wasn't in the best mood after that. We went to a dance club afterwards. They weren't playing very good music, and I wasn't drunk enough to dance. So myself and another guy left and decided to head off to home. Thus ending my time in Seoul as I was flying out the next day. Christmas and New Years will be written in another post as my fingers are tired from typing and I want to get back to my book.
So, it has been about a month since I have written on this thing. Sorry, I have been busy as of late. It is the holiday season and I have been on vacation from work, where I usually write this thing up.
I started off this Holiday celebration by going out to eat dog with a couple of friends before Christmas. Dog doesn't taste like any other meat that I have tried, and I have tried my fair share of different meats. The smell of dog isn't the best. Actually it smells pretty bad. The flavor of dog is nice. It is quite tasty. Thoroughly enjoyable to tell the truth. The first bit was a bit odd. I am a dog lover and have always respected the animal, that said, all meat is fair game for my belly. The dogs that are used for meat, are not pets. They are raised for their meat. There is a girl on the island who decided to save one of them and take it home. It is the stupidest dog I have ever met. They don't make good pets. So, if you get the chance to try a little dog meat, I say go for it. It tastes good, and according to Koreans, it is good for a man's stamina.
The following weekend, EPIK had a reunion for us. They flew us all to Seoul. Nothing like a free trip to Seoul. I was planning on heading up there that weekend anyway. So it saved me about $170. I flew up on a Friday. So it also gave me a day off of work. Got in and promptly started to hear speeches. That is after traveling on the subway for an hour and 45 minutes. Which is about twice as long as the flight took to get to Seoul. It wasn't that bad. The talk went on for about an hour and then it was break time. At that time we got to move around and visit with friends. I ended up hanging with some of my people from Busan and skipping the second talk session, which ended up being a bitch session anyway. Not something I needed to be involved it.
That night EPIK took us to a show called JUMP. It is a comedy, kung fu, thing. It was really funny and really enjoyable. I don't have any pictures to put up about it, just know
that it was good. I followed that by going out with a couple of friends to a Mokoli bar. Mokoli is a milking rice drink. It was down this dank passageway., complete with a placard of drunk Koreans drinking mokoli. We stayed there for a while before heading off again to go onto another bar. It was a dive bar, my kind of place. Cheap drinks and a cheap atmosphere. We stayed there until closing and then tried to find a cab back to the hotel. That proved to be a bit troublesome. Cabbies in Seoul will only take people if they want to go in that direction. Our hotel wasn't in the most prime of locations and finding a cab was proving to be difficult. We finally found a van, which proved to be a blessing, as we had enough people for 2 cabs. We over paid, but between us all, it all worked out. Johnny and myself jumped into the back. I did a proper job of jumping the seat. I got my foot caught outside the van and got hung up, giving myself a nice bruise right above the knee.The next day was the riverboat tour of Seoul. The last thing in the EPIK reunion. The tour would
have been better if it were not fall. Seeing brown shores and bridges wasn't the most interesting of things. But it was a good way to unw
ind. They just kept telling us how many people died here and when. Sort of a depressing journey. Following that, I went with a few friends and checked out the 63 building. The tallest bui
lding in Seoul. It was tall, But not that pretty. The views from it were quite nice though. Following the tour of the building, it was off to a sauna for a nice soak and lunch.It turned 4:30 and it was time for me to head off again and meet up with some other friends. We had plans to have dinner together and go see Evil Dead the Musical. I being myself showed up a bit
late, but it wasn't so bad, as everyone was late as well. We still had plenty of time to get some grub into our bellies before heading off to the show. We went to some fusion restaurant. Here it is just an excuse not to cook the 
food properly. It wasn't bad. Just not the best. Then it was off to the show. The show was in Korean, but as I am a huge fan of the movies, it was easy to follow. The end of the show, was the gory bits, and I was sitting in the second row, being a big white guy, I was targeted. First i was shot in back of the head with a bloody squirt gun. And then the zombies came into the audience. I knew I was going to be targeted and boy was I ever. The pic of me is after the sprinklers turned on and washed some of the blood off. I got covered with blood, and the nice zombie told me that he loved me. We had a moment. It was touching. The show was awesome. If you see it playing anywhere near you, head out and see it. It is well worth it. Quite fantastic. Following the show, we needed to find a place to sleep and clean up. Thus we headed to the subway. Our group was given a clear path and several odd stares along the way. Nothing like being covered in fake blood to clear a path. We headed to the area, where we would be drinking that night. We got a couple of rooms in a love motel. Love motels are cheaper hotels. They are usually quite nice and the foreigner population stay in them quite frequently, as they are cheaper than a real hotel. Koreans tend to use them for what they are called. Young couples get them to have a bit of fun, before heading back home to live with their parents. Koreans tend to live with their parents until marriage. Anyway getting a hotel wasn't my idea. When I head up that way I stay in the saunas. They are 8 dollars a night and have a sleeping area. The love motel ended up being $70, split in two.
We then headed off to the bars. We met some of Benney's friends and started to get our drink on. I didn't want to drink that much and was kind of watching my budget, as it was the end of the month and I was running out of cash. So I had 2 beers at the bar, and a shot. The shot wasnt' of my choice and I didn't ask for it. One of Benney's friends ordered a round of them. Then it was time to divy up the bill. Which they decided to split evenly. So my beers were going to coast me about $50 as they were pounding back girly shot after girly shot. That wasn't flying with me, so I told them that I was going to pay for what I drank. Oh and I had to pay for that shittly little shot that they ordered me. So I wasn't in the best mood after that. We went to a dance club afterwards. They weren't playing very good music, and I wasn't drunk enough to dance. So myself and another guy left and decided to head off to home. Thus ending my time in Seoul as I was flying out the next day. Christmas and New Years will be written in another post as my fingers are tired from typing and I want to get back to my book.
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