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Staying Alive in India!

India is one of those places on earth that no matter how healthy or fit you are it will kick your ass literally. India holds the record for the most polluted air in the world… which makes my days in Los Angeles smog seem like a walk in the Swiss Alps. The streets are filled with trash, cow poop, monkey poop, dog poop and human poop, this place is for sure the dirtiest place on earth. With all that this place is a perfect recipe for getting very sick! They say that 85% of all foreigners come down with some sort of travel related illness. For me the hardest part is the air pollution, I have had bronchitis before and I am now very vulnerable and can get it easily. Last time I was here I felt the early signs of bronchitis coming on so I did the next best thing and flew south to southern India where its clean and the people are friendly and the beaches have some of the best sunsets in the world. I am now finding myself 2 years later in the same situation, after spending a week in Varanasi India sucking on a tail pipe my lungs are shot! So I am leaving today to head south, the journey is going to take a few days. First I start with a 27-hour train ride from Varanasi to Mumbai, which could easily turn, into a 37 hour ride “Indian Time” and then it’s a quick 1 hour flight to Goa from Mumbai (I opted for the flight rather another 12 hour train trip.) I am looking forward to spending Christmas relaxing on the beach. After reading this blog you might think to yourself “Well I sure don’t want to go to India now!” Well the truth is… yes India is a hard place to travel, there’s a lot to deal with and many people waiting to rip you off. But there is something about India that makes it all worth it… You just have to come and see for yourself!

UPDATE: When i wrote this blog i forgot to post it online, so now its a day old. I am now in Mumbai or Bombay (Bollywood) airport. I just got here after a 32 hour train ride!! So i was right my 27 hour train ride did end up taking longer then i thought. Traveling in India can test the nerves of the most calm people, i think even the Dalai Lama would find it difficult and annoying.  I’m now stuck in the airport for 12 hours until my flight tomorrow…. the hotels near the airport are very expensive and the thought of jumping in a taxi at 1am to try to find a hotel doesn’t sounds to exciting. So if everything goes as planned i will be watching the sunset on the beach in Goa!

Posted by Jimmy under India, Thoughts, Travel Tips, Uncategorized, Updates | Comments (1)

Happy Thanksgiving from India!

Well while most of my US friends and family are back home enjoying Thanksgiving, im here in Varanasi India where they don’t celebrate the holiday of Thanksgiving and for that matter don’t have any turkeys! Varanasi is one of the craziest cities I have ever been to. The best view of Varanasi is from the roof of my hotel. Up here I can sit for hours watching all the crazy and different things happening all around me. Dead bodies floating in the Ganges River, people eating, sleeping, cooking, washing, monkeys being monkeys, goats, cows, pigs, kids flying kites and mothers breast-feeding babies. I decided to take some photos and try to share this interesting world from my eyes… all these photos are taken from today (Thanksgiving day) so hopefully you will enjoy these photos of “A day in a life from the roof tops of the Ganges river, Varanasi India”. Its now 8pm here and im off to try to find the best subsist for a turkey dinner.

[Show as slideshow]

Posted by Jimmy under India, Photos, Thoughts, Travel Tips, Uncategorized, Updates | Comments (1)

Update Nepal

I know i haven’t wrote much over the last week or so… but after my hike into the Himalayan mountains i needed a break! I have spent the last week or so in Kathmandu Nepal enjoying the amazing food, getting visas for India, sleeping, sun bathing on the roof of my hotel and stuffing my face with gummy bears (a new addiction) Its now time for me to leave Nepal and head for India. New adventures lie in India, but i will sure miss all my new friends in Nepal. For any of you reading this i really recommend visiting Nepal, you wont regret it!

Posted by Jimmy under India, Nepal, Projects, Thoughts, Uncategorized, Updates | Comments (1)

Into the Wild

I have been getting a lot of emails from friends and strangers that stumble upon my website saying that they just saw the movie “Into the Wild” and that my life is very similar. In April 1992 a young man from a well to do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness. His name was Christopher McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter in an abandoned bus. The book “Into the Wild” is from one of my favorite authors Jon Krakauer, and now its been made into a Hollywood film directed by Sean Penn. Since there’s no chance is seeing the movie in this part of the world I have opted to read the book. I’m only on chapter 3 but I’m not sure if I should take people saying my life is similar, as an insult or a compliment cause so far this kid seems like a nut job… wait a minute… are you guys trying to say something? … haha anyway but never the less I will continue reading it as I have a lot of time to kill on my 36 hour bus ride to India!

Posted by Jimmy under India, Nepal, Projects, Thoughts, Travel Tips, Uncategorized, Updates | Comments (1)

The real Billy the Kid!

Ok I know my last blog post stated that I would be gone for 3 weeks…. well here’s what happened. When I set out to trek (hike) into the Himalayan Mountains I knew that I didn’t want to carry my own bag. My plan was to hire or buy a donkey to carry my gear, which was mostly heavy camera equipment. I quickly learned that its not possible to get just one donkey as they work in a “Donkey Train” which is a group of donkeys from 8 to 30 following a senior or lead donkey. So now that my dream of buying my own jackass was crushed it looked like I was going to be humping my own gear! I must first say that I’m no mountain man, my experience consists of day hikes with friends in the California foothills… not the highest mountains in the world. Like usual I set out under prepared and poorly equipped with in the first 3 hours of hiking on the first day my feet developed some pretty serious blisters thanks to my cheap Chinese made hiking boots. So on the second day I opted to hike in my trusty sandals, the weather was warm so it seemed prefect.

When the sun was out during mid day I was hiking in only shorts and no shirt, people looked at me as if I was lost and looking for the nearest beach. After hiking for 2 days my shoulders were killing me so I decided to hire the next best thing from a donkey… a human mule. The Annapurna trails are full of human porters carry everything and anything you could imagine. The area I was hiking in had no roads so the only way for these small towns to get supplies was on the back of these human mountain goats. I was amazed by the strength of these guys, the average weight of the loads these guys would carry was around 100-kilos which is 220 pounds!!!! That’s almost twice my weight. I felt like a complete wimp since my bag only weighed around 10-kilos or 20-pounds. The biggest load I saw was a guy carrying what looked to be a refrigerator. The age range of these guys was insane, from 12 to 74…. yes that’s right 74 years old carrying 220-pounds over some of the highest mountain passes in the world, where most of you reading this would have hard enough time just walking let alone carrying that kind of weight. My porter was a 57 year old grandfather…. yes I know it sounds terrible… I can read your mind right now… “Jimmy how can you have an old man carry your bag?” Well this is where the story gets good….
Read more…

Posted by Jimmy under Nepal, Photos, Travel Tips, Uncategorized, Updates | Comments (4)