Daramkot

Im still in Kashmir, and im totally "Sachi" which means "not stoned." Amongst israelis here in India being "sachi" is an oddity, plainly absurd, something that comes about as a tragic accident that must be remedied immediately by getting back to a guest house full of bongs and chillums and other smoking paraphernalia.

So back in Daramkot, like I said, we had fun. A local restaurant called "the Israeli" and had menus only in Hebrew, showed movies every night. I saw Lord of the Rings 3 there, and fell asleep during the movie. Im having deja vue like I already wrote about this in my last post: NOOOOOO!!!

The girl next door to us, Raz, a 28 yr registered nurse in a Tel Aviv suburb with deep reservations about returning to israel in less then two weeks, went with me to free dance, basically an event in a room with a view and a DJ and people dancing like wild orangutans during the day. The sweaty room began to vibrate with the big bass beats and I grooved hard. I think I hyperventilated and passed out because i woke up in a local hospital the next day without anything on but a buddhist necklace engraved by a well known Tibetan guru.

We met a big group of Israelis a floated the idea of coming to Kashmir. Our departure was to be on Monday. The Israelis would leave on Sunday night by bus and meet us in Kashmir.

I met Michal on teh street and joined her for Chai at a cafe. I ate three Nutella croissants. She left Daramshala on Saturday and India on Monday. The cafe I sat at with Michal is called Trek Cafe and I went there often despite the disappointing food. The "G" there preferred not to be called "G" but rather "rasta" due to his dreadlocks ("rastot") and bob marley shirts. I spent my time there playing poker with other "sachi" people who find it hard reaping pleasure from doing absolutely nothing but smoking jaras. The israelis in D didnt smoke too much, especially compared to Kasol and Manali. I also read a couple of books in D: Miss Wyoming by Doug Coupland and Beyond Belief by VS Naipaul, both excellent.

Storekeepers in D are much less aggressive with their sales. I think this is the Tibetan influence. They dont run out at you and hassle you like in the other tourist villages. Kashmir has the most aggressive sales tactics, ill get to this later.

In D we had a full moon day and the moon was all yellow and quite big and looked like the sun. Many people took pics. I wanted to but my battery is dead and nonchargeable. After this I went down to The Jewish House in Bagsu only because I was going there to meet a girlfriend of Michal who had gone to Tibet and was going to give me some info and trip planning. I got there after an hour long trek and was overwhelmed by the amount of jews but completely underwhelmed by the food: chicken soup with carrots and rice? The rabbi blabbered something about peace in the new year and how happy he was to be in India and then, after a few questions to the girl about Tibet, I left.

On Monday morning we left Dharamshala.