Bye Bye India

Another post and a new country to go with it.  I left Dharmsala a few days ago and had a lovely 12 hour bus journey through the night that I didn’t sleep a wink on thanks to a combination of no legroom and a chubby monk next to me who for some reason thought that because I made polite conversation with him at the beginning that he could proceed to sleep on me for most of the journey.  He was a monk, what was I supposed to do?  The bus left at 7.30pm and by 8pm they had turned all the lights off, there went my plan to read Ranulph Feinds biography of Captain Scott (the Arctic explorer).  Instead I listened to my iPod for 12 hours and stared at the patterned seat cover in front of me, what a laugh.

I had one night and a couple of days to kill in Delhi before my flight to Bangkok, same old same old really.  I did get pissed off when on my last day I got ripped off by a rickshaw driver who nicked 100rps of my change.  Ah well, win some and you lose some, serves me right for not checking it I suppose.  I knew there was something strange about a rickshaw driver who could change a 500rps note!

I’m going to miss India.  As I walked through Paharganj at 6.30am when everyone was just waking up and the mess from the day before had yet to be burned at the side of the road I felt a strange affection for the place.  India has been wonderful, the people are generally some of the most honest and trustworthy people I have come across.  They are invariably hospitable and if you start to talk to them hours can pass while you talk about everything from the local crime rate to how much money you earn in the UK (they love that one).  Whilst the incessant questions can get annoying, some of the best times I have had have been talking to random people in a restaurant or sitting around in a park.  Once you know how to get by without being hassled every 5 minutes and bed yourself in there really is no problem in getting around and doing your thing.  The sheer size of the country means that there is so much diversity in the kinds of places you can visit, there really is somewhere for every mood you could find yourself in.  The heat at this time of year makes it bloody hard work getting around and seeing things but that is soon sorted out when you go up to the hills of Sikkim or Himachal Pradesh, those weary of ‘India’ can find themselves in what seems to be a different country sometimes when you are in Gorka populated West Bengal or the foothills surrounding Darjeeling.

In short there are countless places that I didn’t see and I’m damn sure that I will be back to see some of them at a point in the not too distant future.  Part of me wondered why I was leaving when I still had a month left on my visa.  Getting itchy feet is a funny feeling, I can’t quite explain it I just knew that I wanted a bit of a change of scenery, a bigger change than simply going up into the mountains could provide.

So I find myself in Bangkok.  Grabbed a decent guesthouse not far from the infamous Koh San Road, close enough to be in the backpacker grapevine and just far enough for a bit of peace and quiet.  Coming out of the airport was a revelation, as was the drive into the city.  In just over an hour I did not hear one car horn!  After India when the tings were going 24/7 every second it felt like I had put ear plugs in!  The driving was fairly moderated, everyone kept a fair distance apart and even obeyed the traffic lights, amazing what people can do when they put their mind to it!  I haven’t ventured too far yet, in fact I haven’t ventured anywhere.  I was too engrossed by the word ‘bacon’ on the menu for breakfast!

Not too sure what my plan is at the moment, I think I will end up going north towards Chiang Mai for a couple of weeks before going across the border into Laos.  Guess I will travel south for a bit and then either cross into Cambodia or come back to Thailand and set up shop on Ko Tao for a week or twos worth of diving.  I will let you know in more detail when I figure it out!

Missing you all

xxx