this is the end.

after spending a couple of days in chandigarh, doing such things as going to the cinema to watch a bolliwood movie (much better then most hollywood ones) and drinking some (piss tasting) beer with the locals (not much fun when the pub contains no girls, but there was pool), oren and i took a bus to amritsar. we slept last night at the temple and ate dinner with all the pilgrams (like eating at Oz!) and today we do some shopping and fly home. its about time, and im happe to come back (maybe even with a brand new tabla...)

thanks for bearing with me,
om mani padmu hum
noam

way to valley of flowers may contain an ascent

well, i took that bus, then started the walk to the valley. the lonely plant mentioned a pleasent 13 km walk to the base camp. it did not mention it all being a steep ascent. but it wasnt so bad, i was the only non indian around, and the path was swarming with sik's. it appears it was their holliday when they all pilgram to a tempel near the valley. they were wearing turbans, some of them swards, and singing all the way up. later i became a little sick myself because of an evel tali- but that passed quickly. i spent a night in the "base villge" (i dont remmeber the room i just got there and blissfully collapsed), and come morning got inside the national nature reservation of the valley of flowers. after a little more climbing i actually entered the valley, which didnt have all of its flowers (i came late in the season) but also didnt have anyone else - i had the whole national park pour moi. imagine walking through a "Tao Tao" valley with flowers blooming and butterflys humming and streams gushing and..well you get the picture. its the kind of scenary that would go well with Murcof's music. when i got to the end of the valley, i turned around and began my journey to tel aviv. (around about that time the clouds began to cry). this will include going all the way down again (i rented a pony. i hate going downhill and besides ponies are cool), going tomarrow to rishikish, finding oren again, spending two funny days in chandigar (the european-indian city), a night at the golden temple at amritzar and then flying home, to tashkent, uzbekistan. i will land in tel aviv on the 29th. will soon be coming home, where the yak never roam.

monkies also fall down from trees

i spent a few days in rishikesh were i met oren again and did some yoga aswell as bath in the gangas. it is nothing like the tel-aviv beach, trust me. rishikesh has many indian turists aswell as monkeys; you can tell them apart by checking who is more cunning. oren stayed in rishikesh to pursue his dream of becoming a reiky master, while i took a 10 hour local bus today back to the mountains (where i naturally feel more at home as a karmelist). when the long drives stop being a means and stard being part of the fun you know you have accustomed yourself to the indian mentality. tomorrow i will walk to the valley of flowers. there will be no internet there so dont worry.

noam

shnaim sikim im kinaur

long time no read!
let me fill you in on my recent adventures:
i came back to himachal from ladakh, (not before attending the festival in leh and watching a polo match) stayed a few days resting in vashist. this is a vilage where you can realax reading under a tree, see a movie in a turist restaurant (i saw samsara again- a great flic if you want to get to know budhizm and see where i was in ladakh)spend the evening in hot springs and the night in an uphill nature party. i also did the university beeding there, which was a real unrelevant headache. after a month of happy traveling i parted with oren over a bottle of shivas and went my own way looking for adventures and gold. i found no gold, but went to the remote kinaur vally. this place has been cut off from the rest of the world for a while and even now i had to trek to some of the villages, so turist were very few. on the first night i go there i found no place to sleep, so a nice kinauri guy called anup took me to his home village. i got up the next morning with a hang over from his kinauri wine to discover 6000 meters of mount keener kailash in front of me. this place was a dream come true i didnt even know i had- its hard to express the effect of the solitude, amzing scenery and even the sound of the wind through the trees while a group of voltures fly by.if you would have met me there you would have not recognized me as i was walking with a smile on my face. the mountain is supposed to be the place where lord siva goes to do his hashis inspired meditation, and appropriatly the whole area is swarming with marijoana plants growing free. you can just pick the flowers like daiseys, which the japanese couple i met there promtly did every day. i traveled with Kazuo san and Emi san for about 4 days, speaking only japanese since they know no english (this put me in a funny frame of mind if you can imagine). they were really sweet and i might visit them some day soon in Hokkaido. i also met a middle aged swiss budhist taxi driver, a wierd french environmentalist, and a "new aged" american writer working on his humorous spiritual book. i left sangla valley today and tomorow i head for rishikesh. as for photos, they are on film, so youll have to wait.

book corner: read some good books i fill like recommending:
the tin drum (gunter grass): the strangest book i ever read, of course i liked it. also solves the riddle of the onion cutting in the PATAT an nachalat binyamin.
sidhartha (herman hesse): a great twist on the story of buddha.
my traveles with my aunt (grahm green): surprisingly funny and smart, thanks adva!!:)
1984 (you know who): the movie does not do justice. read it. (you dont really have to)

getting friedly with the locals

well friends, here are the news: as a result of some stomach problams i went to a tibetian doctor called Karma, who gave me some very intresting things to eat without hesitation. armed with these newfound magic beans i went on a three day trek with a group of 8 people, a nepalese guide and cook and more then a few ponies (bells included). on the first day i saw some mountains which looked like those office gifts with sand and oil that make little mountains when you flip them around. we also saw some yak (see picture- adva this is for you). on the second day we went through a valley i could swear was shangri la, where there was a remote village surrounded by golden barley and many other colours of things my food usually eats. we spent the night high in a tent, acompanied by planetarium skies (imagine, a desert+remote+very high+very dry). on the third day we went up the mountain pass, which is not easy to do with virtually no oxygen, but the ponies did it so we had to also. the pass was breath taking (literally) surrounded by wet sand castles (only bigger). several times on the trek i found myself naturally walking way ahead of everyone else, and goor, i missed you there. we have to do a real trip sometime, gali in the trunk and all. i am now back in leh, tomorrow there is a big festival starting here, and i might also get to see the dali lama speak (more impressive then a michael jackson concert). what next, i dont know. i miss agadir. noam.

feel the wind blow through your hair while you still have some

Took a two day bus to ladakh. the first day was amazing, but i got some Extreme Mountain Sickness while we were going through the world second motorable pass on the second day (which means i had a whopping big headache, and my mind was working in 5 second delay). i am now in the capital of ladakh, leh, slowly recovering from the above EMS. this place is a dessert, but a very high one. this means it is like midbar yehuda only in a bigger scale and snowy mountains around. the scenery is as extraordinarily beautiful as it is lonely. electric power here is not fluent, and i might not have the chance to use the net again if i go on some trip, but dont worry im probably fine (unless some wild camel kidnapped me).
joolay! noam.

p.s: for those of you trying to post comments on the blog without signing in to blogger, choose the "other" option and i think it will work fine.

p.p.s: mom and dad, i must thank you again for your ipod present, it was a life saver on the long jurney to ladakh, kept working long after all the diskmans died out.

feeding my snow obssesion

been in manali for the last few days, yesterday oren and i got a lift to the nearest mountain pass at about 4000 meters where we quickly (it was cold) got on our mountain bikes and drove about 4 hours down back to manaly (it is all descent, surrounded by, well, snowy peeks, waterfalls, green slopes, butterflies, you get the picture). of course i managed to spred myself like butter on one of the bends, but luckily i was wearing my protective "gatkes" which saved me from certain pain. i am now contemplating some importent issues, like where to go next and what to have for dinner, but you shoud know i do miss you (if you are wondering whom im talking to, if you are reading this blog - its you. unless of course you are one of those guys who surf strangers blogs for fun- in that case i dont know you, and seldom miss you), and just to prove it im adding a funny picture of me. no charge.

oh i just cant wait to be king

took the local bus with oren to a remote tibetian buddhist village no one ever gets to. why? who knows. its called Tashi Jong and is very famous amongst its habbitants. we slept in the monysteries rooms, and felt like real ascetics. all that changed when we took a riksha to a place called palace hotel. it was once the winter place of the maharaja of kashmir, and is now run as a luxorious hotel by his sun. we were the only ones there, apart from the many indian servants saying to us "as you wish sir" and "you are most welcome sir". we had to order our dinner 4 hours in advance(chicken curry, malay cofta and banan fritts if you must know) and waited to it resting by the pool and playing a game of badminton (!). all this cost us both about 50 shequels. after being served dinner by the local version of alfred we walked back to our monistary, to spend the night with the fleas. "heir today gone tomorrw" indeed.

give me a home where the buffalo roam

this is why humans like to climb mountains. a sunset is universaly pleasing. coming back from this trek i had me a tabla (indian tone drums) and sitar (indian guitar with 19 strings) lesson by this funny indian guy. Mcloaud ganj is course heaven, you can learn anything here. you can guess i did not take up cooking. also i usually only have the patience for one lesson. i also visited the dalai lama's home. it is extremely peacefull, i dont know exactly why. i will join oren tomorrow in taking the local bus to some town no one heard about. we want to see the real india for a while, where no one is playing ehud banay on the stereo. later, who knows, maybe the roof of the world.

ever looked upon a flying falcon from above?

for all of you who are thinking "well, yes he is in india, but he is not doing anything about it" this image clearly shows me climbing a mountain. i would have added an image of the pass i got to, but the feeling of awe that gave cannot be captured by (my cheap) camera. i cannot stress enough the advantage of being above the rain cloud while its raining. tomorrow i think i will move my things to that pass and start climbing from there, maybe see some snowy himalayan peeks. everybody likes snow you know. another advice for you future travelers, whin an indian fellow tell you he knows where a certain path leads, he may be lying.

morning air

good news! ive just gotten used to the 3% oxygen in the air in this 2000m town, and will soon be climbing even upwards. the carebares knew what they were doing living up in the clouds i tell ya.

arrival

just spent 31 hours of continious commuting and no sleep to get from tel aviv through uzbekistan and amritzar to the dharamsala area, and specifically McLoud ganj, a village on the begging of the hymalays where the exiled tibetian government are. im ok but kind of beat, so i now go to sleep and hope to be smarter later. by the way, india is wierd.
noam:)

genesis

i will be posting my adventures in the land of brhama here.