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I can’t say that I am completely happy about the bus ride that is looming on Monday. There were no train seats available from Pathankot to Varanasi, or any train seats available from Pathankot to Delhi. So the overnight sleeper bus it must be for 650 rupees. At least they had the single sleeper still available.

Here was the view from my sleeper section on the trip out.

I just had an excellent dinner with my good friend Asif at his new home. His wife is an excellent cook, and very friendly. She is also a little more forgiving on the ways of the Koran. Although she stared in disbelief when I mentioned that I did not believe in God, and giggled a lot when I told her that I believed that humans had evolved from monkeys. She wanted to see my tail. More on this dinner and afternoon to come…

Try doing this in your studio, or even on the side of a building!

Or build one of these things

I feel I have been in India long enough to start missing certain foods. Coffee is always high on that list, and thankfully McLeod Ganj has caught up with Delhi, and is serving good espresso in some places. This small cafe just before the ‘chocolate log’ even had the coolest milk jug ever. I didn’t trust them with a cappuccino, and as milk is nearly always served hot in India (even on cornflakes in the middle of summer) I got milk on the side.

And below is some proof that I will never rise to fame as a food photographer, and certainly would never even want to try. Food and jewelry photography are an art in themselves. Kakeage-Egg Don is my favourite Japanese dish ever, aside from Sushi, which I am sure America has bastardised. It would benefit from some meat, but they are a vegearian restaurant, so it will have to do. It is vegetable tempura, with sticky rice, an egg over it all and some kind of oyster sauce. To the left is Miso Soup and some kind of pickled vegetable with sesame seeds. It is really delicious and dare I saw even a little healthy, the trouble is I have never seen it on a menu outside of this small Himalayan restaurant. (It tastes much better than it looks)

There is a good article at BBC news here, that discusses how the Dalai Lama thinks the Chinese handled the recent earthquake, and his positive outlook on the future.

Team warming up with a song (Can’t work out how to post actual video, sorry)

Here are the competitors in the quarter finals of the mens competition.

The event was not very well organised, and after every round when a person had missed the target, they all had to run back and search for their arrows. Needless to say, the target was not hit too often, I would say about every fourth arrow was a success. It took about two hours for the fog to clear and then about an hour and a half for the mens archery to be completed. I left at the beginning of the womens archery, and was expecting it to continue for another few hours. The clouds rolling in, made for some interesting shots with my Mamiya 7ii, but didn’t help the crowds of journalists. There were easily more journalists than competitors and probably only a dozen actual spectators. On may 25th (this Sunday) the final day of the event, and the opening and closing ceremony is held at TCV (Tibetan Children’s Village), and that is expected to draw a good crowd.

Home of the Tibetan Oracle, located at the CTA

When I lived in Exile House with Hunty in ‘02/’03, we got fairly used to the large spiders that would hand around in the corners of the house. Hunty would try and remove them occasionally, picking them up with a magazine and placing them outside. One day he scooped one up and noticed that he had knocked 3 of it legs off, and in a rush of guilt, he put the spider back into its little corner. “Five Legs,” lived with us for the rest of our time there, and was often a topic of conversation. He was about 2 inches across, and seemed fairly able to live his life missing nearly half of his legs.

He was in no way the size of this monster that was hiding behind the door of a cafe bathroom I went in at the CTA. It was also the worst smelling restroom I have encountered here so far. The acrid smell of human waste and ammonia, was a real challenge on my photographic skills, as proved below….

I went down to the Men Tse Kang today, after visiting the Tibet Museum archive and meeting the new program director, Jigmey. The medical museum was an interesting visit that brought my attention to this thangka that explained the process of conceiving and giving birth to a child. There are several stages of the fetus which are defined by three animals, a fish, a turtle and a pig. There is a fairly comprehensive article about the wisdom of Tibetan child birth here. Although I think this painting is really all that you need to see to understand everything necessary for the good deed.

I was also surprised to see this sign below the main hospital near the CTA (Central Tibetan Administration). It seemed to be a sign that had a Chinese one child undertone.

The original “Captain” is of course the infamous Christian Jennison. I don’t know the origin of this title, but it was one that soon swapped over to my good self. The local shop keepers would yell “Captain” at the top of their lungs and salute you as you walked by. The honor was always returned to the person yelling, with as much if not more enthusiasm. The main culprit was this young shopkeeper, whose name I never knew, who would often want a hug or to casually hold hands, as most young Indian virgins deem acceptable. Sadly, soon after his marriage and the birth of his twin girl and boy, his daughter passed away and his wife soon followed. She can’t have been older than 24, and the daughter not even a year.

Since he is no longer in town, and his small shop is taken over by a sour faced young man who expects me to pay 50 rupees for a chocolate bar, there is only one “captain” left, excluding myself. “The Movie Den” kid is now working at the Korean restaurant, and was very excited to see me yesterday. It was funny to see him wearing an apron and having to be courteous.

I was planning on remaining fairly vegetarian on this trip, but the idea of eating an animal that primarily feeds on human excrement got the better of me, so I had to get a Chili Pork at the Hotel Tibet. I think it cost me all of 80 rupees ($2) and was some of the best swine I have eaten in a while.

I followed the dubious meat trend today by ordering some Non-Veg momo’s at the Hotel Tibet. Although I must admit, they are nowhere near as exciting as the soup dumplings at New Green Bo. (which may well be called Nice Green Bo now, according to citysearch?) But when in Mcleod, they are a fair alternative. The chili flakes mixed with soy sauce and a little vinegar is the best sauce. In 2002 we discovered that HP sauce is an excellent stand in when your stomach can’t do all of the spices.

And to complete this epic journey of food, I went to a Korean restaurant last night with some people and got a dish that I couldn’t even begin to pronounce. I think it began with a D, and had lots of woong and boo words attached. I didn’t actually write it down unfortunately, but it contained chicken and lots of chili and some vegetables. The pickled side parts were nearly as good as the dish, and the brown soup on the right was delicious. It tasted a little bit like beef stock, or even marmite soup! I am sure my Korean friends back home could tell me what it all was. The Korean guy on our table who we didn’t know, grabbed my bowl of rice half way through and started mixing it into my main dish, as if I was an idiot for not thinking of this earlier. The sooner the Koreans work out the impracticality of slippery metal chopsticks, the better!

I am off to Lungta Restaurant for dinner tonight, for my favourite vegetarian Japanese dish ever – Kakeage-egg-Don. I am sure pictures will do it no justice!

It seems that all of the trouble that happened in Tibet after the March 10th riots has sparked some activity among the Tibetans. The Tibet Museum is finally using its screening room, and is showing a movie every day at 2pm. There is a continual hunger strike that is at day 78 or something, outside the temple, and every day there is a march through town with much chanting and shouting. The other day they all wore Panchen Lama masks, and yesterday they carried candles and were led by a picture of the Dalai Lama. I grabbed a few shots outside of the prayer wheels on the Temple Road. I just joined “Team Tibet,” by buying a rather sporty, black track jacket that says “Team Tibet 08″ on the back and was $40 less in India than the SFT site quotes (I didn’t think to pack for an altitude of 7,000 ft).

Here is a picture of the most expensive meal so far. It cost me 800 rupees at the Marina Hotel in Connaught place in New Delhi. The rice alone was 100 rupees, when in McLeod Ganj a plate of rice is normally 10 rupees (20 cents). It isn’t unusual for a whole meal (eat as much as yu like) in a Dhaba to be around 15 rupees, which would include some vegetables, some dal, rice and chapati’s.

The green dish is Palak Paneer and the orange turd looking things are Seekh kebabs. The green soupy stuff behind the glass is the dipping sauce for the kebabs, which tastes like a mint and coriander sauce. The bread is a chapati, which are my favourite carbohydrate to eat with a good curry. I am still not entirely sure what the differences between a Roti and a Chapati are. Maybe those wiki links will help you decipher it, as I have yet to see the difference when I order either one.

Having worked in outdoor retail for so long, I have heard all sorts of clothing decisions come to light. Possibly the worst, yet most enlightening was when a woman strolled into EMS with her husband and saw all of the Life is Good stuff. She rushed over to it and yelled, “ooh honey, we can have matchies.” It was an important moment in my young mind, where I decided never to marry anyone that would want “matchies,” especially in the pajama department.

I guess among unsuspecting friends it is different and so finally I have a photo of myself in India. I am with Pintu, a good friend of mine from yesteryear and restaurateur in McLeod Ganj. He is the proud maker of my favourite Karahi Chicken of all time. His restaurant is called Malabar, and is a small but friendly place situated in the middle of town on the Jogiwara road. I ordered a Chicken Manchurian today and it turned out that we were both wearing the same T-shirt. Or as the Kashmiri salesmen would say, “same same, but different!!”

…allows you to spin and dance around during prayer.

…has gods that look like teenage mutant ninja turtles on acid.

…allows you to wear nothing but a loin cloth.

…tells you that the correct haircut is a rats tail coming from the middle of your head.

…serves cakes like these at its entrance

This is a cake bought at the doorway of the Isckon Temple in Delhi. The main Hare Krishna temple in the capitol of India. I bought one for my taxi driver as well, even though he enjoyed the treat immensely, I am sure he would have rather had the 40 rupees had he known its value. He tried, much to my chagrin, almost directly after to take me to a tourist shop. Driving a foreigner to a shop gives all auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers a nice bonus (The shop owners eyes light up when they see my big camera!). I think the baksheesh comes to about 100 rupees, which can sometimes be a good tool to save you money when negotiating with taxi-wallah’s. However having already spent an extravagant 750 rupees on this air-conditioned miniature vehicle, I was reluctant to waste time and make anyone anymore money (as a good American I did slip the driver a 100 rupee note at the end). I justified the taxi’s expense by the 100 degree heat, high humidity and direct overhead midday sun. I was also driving across all of Delhi for a good hour or more to the Bahai Lotus Temple, Qtab Minar and Isckan Temple. More on those first two to come…