|| garden \\ sunset

In Srinagar we stayed a short walk's distance from two incredible gardens, Shalimar and Nishat very near Dal Lake. I'll keep this one short and use pictures instead of words. More on these places in the podcast. 

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The power of a sunset. More isntagrams, fewer words. A short post. 

|| driving \\ flying

A few days back Will and I hired a driver to drive the Leh-Srinagar route. It's 450km and 11-13 hours of driving. Yep. The road is that slow and dangerous. It was an experience I will never forget. Some sections of the road were wide enough for us to pass a truck on the right (right side driving here) whilst a second truck goes past on our right in the opposite direction. Other sections were very narrow, barely enough for two small cars, let alone a jeep and sometimes an oil truck to pass each other. I was a bit scared and nervous at times, but for me that turns into joy and grins very quickly. If it's not at least a little dangerous, how much fun could it be, right? The worst part wasn't the 12k mountain pass that was largely single-track, it was the town roads when it got dark. Horns and signals and brights are a constant. Turns out, turn signals are actually used to tell people to pass you, not to indicate a turn. It's an experience much different from the USA, my horn doesn't even work and it's seldom an issue. 

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I'm actually wiring this on the plane from SXR-CXR-BOM. A long day today, ending in Tapei after 5 or 6 airports and about 11 hours in the air. The security was a hassle again in Srinagar but didn't take as longn as I thought it would. Budget airline, no leg room! Bummer, but short flights. 

More later probably as I'll get bored on the many plane rides to TPE. Reminds me, I haven't recorded audio in a while, I need to find a place in the airport where I can record. 

Last thought, any of my Valpo friends can see that this-a school in Leh has a very similar logo!

|| altitude \\ cold

The past few days in Leh have been perfect. Two days ago we drove south east and visited two monestary, Hemis and Thiksay. Yesterday we went west and down into the Indus River valley, where the Indus and Zanskar meet. The rivers are two completley different colors and the view is absolutely stunning. It compares to the few times I have been to the Grand Canyon.

Thiksay Monestary.

Where the Indus and Zanskar meet. 

 

Since the 22nd we have been above 3000m, about 10k feet. Here in Ladakh the altitude is closer to 3800m, 12,000 feet or so. I love it. I haven't stayed this high since I went camping at about 12,500ft on Colorado with Kevin. The air is very dry, which suits me. I much more like dry than humid. On the first day I had a slight headache, but I drank about 4 liters of water and haven't had an issue since. Will has had a headache the entire trip, we figured his limit is below 3500m, as he did not have an issue in Srinagar, which is about 3000-3100m.

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I love the mountain culture surrounding Ladakh in northern Jammu-Kashmir. Everyone is healthy and very nice. There is very little crime in this area, I think due to the hard nature of everything. To survive the nasty, long winters the town has to often help each other out. The road we are taking tomorrow from Leh to Srinagar (450km, 12 hour fangerous drive) is closed usually starting in mid-November and opens again in April. Even the airport closes for a few weeks at least every winter. Winter is around the corner, with the nights falling below 0c currently. With that comes frozen pipes and frequent power outages...and cold rooms at night without heat. 

The shower only gets lukewarm and I have to say that is the only thing I miss about home so get-warm showers. Not so much the wa water, but being warm when drying off is a big help when it's only 12c out. Shower in the middle of the day when it's warmest so you can go out into the sun and get warm after!

My view as I write this couldn't be better. 

Tomorrow we take the long and dangerous car ride to Srinagar. I'm very excited and will have plenty of footage and pictures from that drive. 

|| leh \\ security

This has got to be one of my favorite places in the world. It's so beautiful it should be illegal. I'm staring at a mountain that's one of the lowest 8000m peaks. I need to look up what it is specifically called at some point but I'm  writing this without internet. How humbling is that! Such power mountains have. Leh is not exactly at sea level, it's over 11,000 feet, around 3500m. So walking uphill today is a little bit of a struggle. Will is currently napping off an altitude headache. Traditionally I haven't got many issues adjusting to altitude besides slowing down activity. I drink a tom of water, yak butter tea helps and so does chomping on coffee leaves (according to Will. I haven't tried this.). Yak butter tea is very salty and the butter is raw, so beware if you ever try it. It's drank a lot in the winter by natives because there isn't a lot of food come true winter season, sometimes 6-8 cups with a good amount of butter in it. My kind of drink! Anyway, Leh is awesome and I will one day return and go Pangong Tso and the highest road in the world that sits at about 23k feet, 7000m. Plus I plan on mountain biking while I'm here. Right now it's a bit cold where they drop you at 5600m to so that, close to freezing. Who wants to join me for a few jeep rides and mountain bike descents? Let me help you with a few recent pictures. 

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I've been taking notes on airports and flights on this trip. Here's my entry about Srinagar airport in Kashmir. 

SXR - High security. Must fill out customs forms upon arrival if not Indian native. Know where you are staying first, will make things easier. Government checks on hostel and hotel registers vs customs forms and can fine or take license from them if they don't match. Departures, if possible schedule flight morning so you can get through security before 9:00. After that, I'm told it gets very busy. The first security checkpoint is 1km from airport. Frisk, wand, x-ray. Next is before you get into airport. They check your flight so have it printed out. Bags go through another x-ray at airport entry by airline. After checking bags and ticketing, one more security. Frisk, wand, x-ray. If you check a bag, you must ID it officially so they can move it into the bins for the planes. Hand bags must then be checked by guards and then stamp tags. One more security check before boarding, just a frisk and check of hand bag tags. Then you are allowed to board. A big hassle. Will try to avoid this airport in the future.

|| mumbai \\ lag

Mumbai is a crazy place. It's loud, dirty and there's overcrowding issues. I love it, it's amazing. Will and I went for a walk and managed not to get run over. I'm not sure how, but the constant horn honking helps I suppose. Everyone asked me while planning this trip "Why India?" This is why. Plus, once you get here everything is very cheap. 3 litres of bottled water for 54rs, that's under 1usd. It's so different from any big US city and that's exactly why I wanted to come. 

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We're staying in the Khar district if any locals happen upon this. Anyway, it's off to lunch for my first real Indian meal. Breakfast didn't really count...had an omelette! After we're taking a walking tour of Mumbai that promises to be pretty insane. More later.

|| heathrow \\ hostel

Damn, am I glad to have booked a stopover in London. Definitely worth the time and money. Got to see a good bit of town just by walking around for a few hours...got to see the London Eye (line was too long and light fading too fast to actually go in it) and all of Westminster Abbey. Somehow I plain didn't get to Buckingham Palace. I don't know why I spaced on it, but I got distracted and walked around Trafalgar Square instead. I guess it evens out because I got a few amazing iPhone sunset pics (didn't take my real camera out. Regretting that too, but the best camera is the one that's with you right?) along with some potenially solid GoPro footage. I've only been here 8 hours and have only 10 before I get back on the road to the airport again. Sunday morning should be easy, but I'm not taking any chances. I'll be sure to go out with my camera in a few weeks when I'm back here and go to Buckingham palace. 

In only the order in which the pictures were taken...

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I have to admit, I was pretty nervous/apprehensive when I first arrived. I had trouble finding the hostel at first because I am used to square streets. Umm...look at a map of London proper (I am just south of the London Bridge). No such streets exist. It's a flippin mess. I finally got my bearings in the rain and got to my hostel. I am pleasantly surprised. It's very clean and nice, everyone is social plus they have a deal with the attached pubs/restraints and you get 25% off food and a few drinks are even2 for 1. Safe to say I will be staying here again in the future. St. Christopher's inn at the Village/London Bridge for those of you playing at home. Hot water and power a big plus too. 

Safe to say, I'm no longer nervous for inpedependant international travel. It's only spurred me on even more. 

Next time I will probably be writing you from Bombay!

Flew right over my house too...

|| visa \\ time

So I am writing this as I'm sitting on the blue line headed downtown. I just thought, "Im so thankful and lucky to live near such a hub of activity and diversity." I spoke with two wonderful people from St. Joseph, MO about Chicago. They haven't ever been here before so I was sharing what I knew about the town. I like to think I know a lot, but in reality there is so much more I could know about the city. 

I'm actually headed to the Indian consulate right now to finish up my visa process. Hopefully all goes well and I'll be sure to share my experience (I plan to record some audio here as well) so that others can learn from it if and when y'all decide to take some time and see the world! I might even move to Nepal and teach English at a monastary for a while if I like it enough, who knows. 

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I also had a consult with a man-crush of mine-Vinnie Tortorich. We basically shot the breeze for 90 minutes, but he also helped me with my plateau of my nutrition and fitness. I told him I don't like to train for specific things and he said he was similar. That's encouraging because I don't want to think that my athletically competitive career is over, but I don't yet have the drive to race again. It's reassuring to know that it's normal and ok and that it will return to me!

|| o'hare \\ food

The India and Taiwan travel extravaganza of 2013 fall has begun. I'm sitting here in the united international terminal (it's terminal 1, not 5) at O'hare with my phone plugged in to actual working USB power! Amazing. I'm super excited but am already tired. I had to get up relatively early the past few days and have been trying the no jet lag diet (will try to link later). Basically, you switch your eating schedule to wherever you're going. So in eating dinner around noon most days and fasting the rest of the day. Combine that with the No Jet Lag tabs (link later), and I should be totally set for the next few legs of the journey. 

My goal is to blog and record at every location at least a little. You can bet I'll be taking plenty of photos and video as well to go along with it. Look for the podcast before Thanksgiving. I get bakc the 11th so I hope to have it wrapped up by the 16th or 17th. 

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I got to eat a lot the last few days and love that I have been able to do so. I had to get rid of a lot of food at the apartment so I've been slamming down the fat lately and love it. Had 4 eggs, chicken, apple, green smoothie all for dinner today. Yummy. Really looking forward to trying new food over the next few weeks!

My day started by driving downtown at about 6:15a to take my dad to the northwestern medical campus (routine checkup, everything's cool). Beautiful morning light on the Trump Tower. This is where Dean Lorey wants you to think "The Crazy Ones" takes place. Leo Burnett is in a building catty corner (2nd pic) and they are a top ranked global agency. Pretty cool!

Also, I hope whoever this ambulance was for is ok!