Worming my heart in Freezing Dharamshala

As all the good things in life- it's started from a Facebook massage. Roni, dear old friend from highschool that i haven't seen for the last 3 years, wrote me that she is volunteering in a village next to Dharamshala and invite me to come visit her and so i did.
It's not the season to go up on the mountain now, but the 12 hours journey in horrible bus was definitelly worth it.
Roni is amazing girl that in her short period of life (year younger than me) studied in Nelson Mandela international programe in Hong Kong, helped poor people build up houses in china, did theatre workshop with orphages in South Africa, created peace conferences between indians and pakistans in india, and between americans and iraqians in Jordan. this list just getting longer and longer and i'm sure i didn't folow it all. so now she was living in a nice appartment in the village and working as a researcher for a feminist organization. it was great coming with her to work and see what great work she is doing, catch up about the last years and waking up next to the snow capped mountains of the Himalaya every morning. thank you Roni, thanks to facebook.

Arabien nights in the great Rann of Kutch

Due to my close relation with the isreali emmbasy in india, I was invited by the government of the state of Gujarat to visit "Rann Ustav" festival. they welcomed me with flower whaen I went off the train, took me in fancy vehicles to visit all aroun. I had an entourage including my host, a guide, a driver and two other vehicles of police- one infront us and one behind.
The event took place in the special desert of kutch (called "Rann"), which is cover by thick layer of salt. on monsoon time the ocean fill the area with salty water, and after they're sinking just a white surface remains. the festival was in the full moon and we were taken to a camel ride along the beautiful place and saw the ground shining to the moon light. for 4 days i've seen dance and music preformence, visited the colorful villages, Maharaja's palace, and beautiful beach. evantually i was taken back to train station, said goodbye to the whole entourage which included 8 people and sat in the train for the next 24 hours. I was surrounded by people and garbage, looked at the cockroach walking next to me and thaught how extreme india is and how lucky I am to enjoy the whole range of it.

הו אחמדאבאד!

אחמדאבאד היא העיר הבירה של מדינת גוג'אראט, שאיננה יעד תיירותי מועדף על ישראלים פשוט משום שישראלים אינם מבקרים בה. קלימנס, חברה צרפתייה שאירחה אותי בפריז בזמן שטיילתי באירופה כתבה לי שהיא תשהה שם בדירה של חבר והזמינה אותי להצטרף אליה. בפעם הראשונה שנפגשנו בפריז, הייתה שעת לילה מאוחרת ובאין תחבורה ציבורית, דיוושנו על אופניים חצי מפריז עד שהגענו אליה הבייתה ב2 בלילה. אני רכבתי עם התיק הגדול שלי והיא רכבה עם בחור לטבי שהתארח אצלה גם הוא. לכן אולי יכולתי צפות שגם הפעם הפגישה עימה תהיה לא שגרתית.

לצערי כשהגעתי אל תחנת הרכבת של אחמדאבאד בבוקר, הפגישה פשוט לא קרתה. קלימנס לא חיכתה לי שם והטלפון שלה היה סגור. נסעתי ברכבת לילה שבה פגשתי משפחה מקסימה והתידדתי איתם במהלך הנסיעה. לשמחתי הם הזמינו אותי אל ביתם. האב היה גנרל בצבא הודו וסיפר לי את כל הפרטים והעובדות על מלחמת יום כיפור ומבצע אנטבה, אותם למדו.

האם, קשמירה, הכינה לי אוכל גוג'ארטי טיפוסי וכל השכנים שלהם הגיעו לפגוש אותי ולהזמין אותי לחתונות שונות.

ביליתי כמה שעות בלנסות לאתר את קלימנס ולכתוב לה הודעות בפייסבוק, ובחוסר מעש גם פתחתי את הבלוג הזה, עד שלבסוף הצלחתי לקבל תגובה ממנה. היא חשבה שאני מגיעה בערב. היא הגיעה לאסוף אותי מיד ביחד עם פארת', חבר מקומי.

קלימנס בחורה נהדרת ומבריקה. היא נולדה וגדלה באפריקה, וחיה כרגע במדגסקר ויש לה חברים מכל מקום ובכל מקום. כך יצא שביומיים באחמדאבאד ביליתי עם פארת' (שלקח אותי לסיור על האופנוע שלו בכל העיר והזמין אותנו לחתונה הודית שבה כל האוכל צמחוני- חלום שהתגשם), ארג'יט (סטודנט לארכיטקטורה שגר שנה בפריז ולקח אותנו לסיור בקמפוס המדהים שלו), רושיר (בחור מקאוצ'סרפינג) וליילה, חברה של קלימנס ממדגסקר.

בערב האחרון יחד עלינו על הגג להעיף עפיפונים לשמיים, לפני הפסטיבל הגדול בעיר, שבו כל השמיים יהיו מכוסים עפיפונים.

אחמדאבאד הייתה המרכז והמטה של פעילותו של גנדי, אך לא ממש הספקתי לבקר באתרים הקשורים לכך, או אתרים כלשהם בכלל. אחרי יומיים של חיי חברה פורים והרבה סיבובים על האופנוע הביא אותי פארת' לתחנת הרכבת בדרך לקאץ'

Translation and appology: i saw a hebrew keyboard and i couldn't resist.

i wrote here about 2 great day i spend in Ahmedabad, city in the state of Gujarat, where i met my friend clemence that host me before in paris and hang out with her friends for 2 great days all over the town.

Bolywood dreams

i loved Mumbai (Bombay) from the first moment. beautiful colonial architecture, art galleries and good coffee. i felt like i was traveling in europe again, enjoying bohmian life and culture. so i bought MumbaiTimeOout and planned to go to see some galleries but for 4 days just couldn't do it- things kept happend and my plans changed.
i met Jill and Harold, american couple that left U.S. and decided to travel to Japan for 6 monthes, but came back only 15 years later. meanwhile they were traveling through asia to africa and the middle east, lived in differenet places along the way and took only 4 flights this whole period. we spend 7 hours sitting in cafe, just talking and talking, the day became night and we didn't even notice untill day kicked us out of that cafe.

i've heard a lot about tourists that were taking part in bolywood productions but never guess how easy it will be to do the same. i went with random-new-australians-friends to a bolywood movie. it was so stupid and so much fun, the best escapism. just when we walked out from the theatre a guy work for "Agency for foreign modles" (no kidding), offer us to be extras in movie and TV production. the next day they picked us up and brought us to a studio. we had breakfast on the floor, eating with our hands, like real bolywood stars- that's india! we wear thw most ugly dresses i've ever seen for the scene that was suppose to take place in a fancy party in london.
we shared the make up room that had no makeup, with the most unpleasent, competitive girls that didn't talk to us even thogh we tried. we were waiting there for around 8 hours till we find out that the shooting were cancelled beacuse the actress didn't show up. that's show businuess. but look at the bright side: we still got payed and had a great laugh all along the day and i definetly know what career i don't want to have. next time i'll just try to make it to the art galleries.

My route in india

the red line is the way I allready did since i got here, a month ago.

the green line is the rout i'm going to do in the next 2 weeks.

i didn't plan it this way, i was just folowing the people i love and wanted to meet along the way and didn't care much where am i excatly and what shall i do next.

traveling experiende based much on the people you meet along the way and not just impressions from the differenet places and cultures. after 10 months of traveling alone most of the time, i missed my friends and couldn't say no when i had the oppportuinity to meet so many of them.

so i landed on Kolkata and met on the airplane dutch guy called Ramco. he was traveling all the way from the netherlands to india by land and couchsurfed* in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.

he told me on that i will always remember the 1st of novembre, the day of the flight. he was right. how could i forget how we got picked up by the driver of a great indian guy that we met named Jayesh, brought to his house to have dinner and he showed us around.

after hearing all kinds of stories about people landed in india, straight to the poverty or people who ripped them off i just felt overwhelmed.

Ramco told me that india is like a mirror- it will you what you will show it. he was right again. ever since i got here i can not take the smile of my face and the most incredible things happend.

from Kolkata i had a train ride lasted for 4o hours, which i slept 30 out of them, so i could meet my dear good old friend Chen in kochi. we traveled together for 2 weeks, out of them spent 6 days literly in the clouds. up on the mountain on small village called Vatakanal. it was the first time i looked down on the cloudes and saw the most beautiful sunrise i've ever seen. than i continue to a an anciant magical town called Hampi. and spent 2 days on the beach of Goa with my good friend Aino, that i met while doing volunteer wotk in Nepal.

than i went to Mumbai and most incrideble things started to happen!

coming soon:

*how i almost become bolywood star,

addopted by indian family,

fell in love in Ahmedabad

and invited by Gujart government to a festival in the desert!

* i will write more about couchsurfing in the future. basicaly it's a social network that alow you to open a profile and offer your couch/matress/sofa for travellers, wihtout payment or any exchange.

i traveled for 5 months in europe doing only couchsurfing and believe it's the best way to travel.

i also did it in Thailan, China and Vietnam and planning doing it in India.

for more information:

couchsurfing.org (my username: Rony Margalit)

the day i become a blogger

because i feel everyone got sick of my my mass e-mailes.
because i'm sick of writing them, so i write only once in a month and try to do it briefly.
because i just CAN'T do it briefly. it's always coming out long.
because i can barely remembre who am i writing to, my mailing list first created more than a year ago and it's keep growing, as long as i keep on traveling and meet more people along the way.
because i want to write.
because if you want to read you can choose to do it.
because i believe in free choice. i don't believe in spaming your e-mail inbox.
because i want to become a blogger.
because i met great indian family in the night train and in the morning they picked me to their house. they made me local Gujarati food and made me feel like home. the father was in the indian army and they have been learning about the israelies wars there so he told me all the details about Yom Kipur war. than i was sitting next to their computure.
because i wanted to share.
because i had nothing better to do.
just because.