Hi there.The Jordanian flag marked the beginning of our new journey.as we were told by two young arab-israeli students, who study in Amman, things are not so simple at the jordanian side. we were not allowed to leave the border post to meet our taxi-driver. "it's for your own safety"said the police officer. after he shook hands warmly with the taxi stand manager and we were forced to take a taxi from the border post. there were absolutely no farther problems, and we boarded the flight to Bahrain. it was a new airbus 330 with personal screens and good food. after a couple of hours we could see the wild over-developed shores of the Persian golf. we had 6 hours to spend in Bahrain airport. it's quite a cosmopolitan place. people from all over the world with strange dressing. airports are boring all over the world, but at least we had a chance to chat a bit with people from places we don't normally meet. a young Saudi guy, an Afghan school teacher, an Iranian woman traveling alone...at last we boarded our flight to Delhi. we were served with indian food,got indian music in the head-phones, and many indians rushing out of the plane once it landed.
In Delhi business is at usual. the same clerk, the same black and yellow taxis,the same heat. we took half day of shopping and changing money, met a friend from israel in the street (Gopal) and took a night train towards Almora. oh, the madness of indian train-stations... the only way to know which platform your train is leaving is to ask a porter. somehow, they know it all. then we only had a 3 hours jeep ride and here we are, in Mr. shah's unbelievable guesthouse, on the hills of Almora. I was happy to meet Mr. Shah again, energetic and happy, at 90 years old.
It only takes 45 hours to get from israel to Almora. now we are chilling out in this colourful town, where it seems like no-one is allowed to paint his house in the same colour as his neighbour. soon we'll head north, closer to the peaks of the himalaya.
it's good to be here again. feels like we never left, combined with the feeling it's our first time here. India is great !
Assaf
Traveller, Earth.
