Confucius says.....

....capitalism is alive and well and living in china. Well, he might say that if he were alive today.

The sprawling metropolis' of Shanghai and Beijing, and the almost completely reclaimed Hong Kong, are testiment to that. But China is at a crossroads in many ways. Mao Zedong would probably be turning in his grave if he knew the direction his country was taking today. The speed at which it is clearly hurtling towards domination of the financial world and a place at the head of the globalisation table, is plain to see. In 1921 Mao, a library assistant, and his young revolutionary colleagues met in Shanghai for the first time, and the manifesto was clear; The people should have control and ownership all of things Chinese and no one should be more important than the republic. Based on the theories of Marx and Engels, the Communist Party of China (CPC) was formed and are still very much in power today under the leadership of Ju Hintao. However, the focus has shifted to economic reform and wealth generation, trends seen in Cuba and other "red' countries around the world. Perhaps this is an admission and realisation that human nature is such that it will not let all humans be equal. Greed and money are too powerful for that.

The centre of Shanghai is a classic example of the crossroads the republic is at. The Huangpu rivers flows through the centre of Shanghai and a walkway laongit, known as The Bund, is a very pleasant way to see the city. On one side of the river is a long stretch of beautfiul old buildings, many of them art-deco in style, which look quite beautiful. The other side of the river is the City and along with numerous sky scrapers, China's tallest building, The Shanghai World Financial Centre (looks like a big bottle opener if you ask me). This symbolism was striking to me and reflected where I see China right now. Its on the cusp of crossing the river from the old ways to the new and it will be fascinaiting to see who is willing and who digs in their heals.

Chairman Mao may not have expected his country to go this way when he and his contempories met some 89 years ago, but I also wonder whether he could imagine the pain and heartache his policies caused the millions of people who refuted the party line over the years. The museum of the first meeting of the CPC is set up in a way where you can't help feel they were great young thinkers who wanted a new beginning for the country they loved. There was not a mention of the "Iron-fist" (reference: Chris Jarrey) with which the party ruled over the years, not surprisingly of course.

A walk through Tian'anmen Square in Beijing is a strange and somewhat disturbing one. Its soulless and dull facade cannot hide the pictures in the mind's eye of the demonstrations in 1989 and particularly the man standing in front of the tank, then laying down in front of it. The protests were about the governments over-zealous and heavy-handed influence in peoples lives and was triggered by the death of a party official who was popular with the people. The way the government and the army dealt with the increasingly hot headed situation was to murder somewhere between 500 and 3000 people, depending which report you read. Yet, despite all this it is very clear to me that the party and particularly "The Chairman" Mao are still very popular in many parts of China. I have seen many posters and photos of Mao on the walls of restaurants hotels and peoples homes, in fact he has almost become a retro symbol with is statue being soled in many markets and shops. I find it hard to correlate the clear popularity of the man with the history of his regime. I also can't dispute this may all be a farce demonstrtaing the power the party still has over it's people but China is a very complex place and a month travelling around it isn't enough to truly get a grip all these things.

One of the major challenges for China now to is to engage the rural areas. The country's population is about 80% rural (that's 1 billion people!) and many provinces are relatively poor and have little or no access to the services and benefits a city dweller has. A good example of this is the situation for China's people with disabilities. The 2008 Paralympics and current Asian Para games have had a positive effect on raising the profile of this huge group of people. During a press conference I watched recently, the organisers of the Asian Para games talked about the issues facing the government today. There are 83 million people with a disability in China, 80% of these live in rural areas and have poor access to services. One representative talked about the organisation of the games being more difficult that the Asian Games or Olympics, prior to it. This is due to the challenge of accomodating so many people with particular needs, in a city (Guangzhou) which, much like the rest of China's cities, have had no thought for access and social inclusion for disabled people in their development and architecture over the years. It's a massive challenge and one which I believe will be a litmus test in the future if China really is to call itself a "modern society".

So the country which can call itself the "oldest civilisation on earth" is becoming a new one. I loved China and would love to go back one day and I will follow it's journey with great interest. I sincerely hope the skeletons in the cupboard re: human rights violations will be swept clean as at this time there is still a huge question mark. According to Amnesty International, in 2008, there were still 180 prisoners being held for protesting about what they beleived, in 1989 in Tian'anmen Square. This can't be the actions of a government of the modern day, and as Confucius did actually say "An oppressive government is more to be feared than a tiger" (Confucius Circa 500BC).

As I write I am on the island of Koh Ya Noi in Thailand. I was unable to blog in China as the site is blocked. Our 8000km trip round China was amazing and I would recommend anyone to go there. For me now though there is a beach and a cocktail waiting. Merry Christmas.

Ps. No photos this time.. it's a long story but the memory card with our China photos on didn't arrive in Thailand with us. It is very sad and annoying but things like this happen and we are still alive so onwards and upwards!

I'm a trekker... get me out of here!

Well, where to start, where to start. This very delayed post has been brewing for weeks and has changed focus many many times. Initially this post was to be about the immense beauty of the Sagamartha National Park and our trek to the roof of the world. We took 15 days to walk to 5550m above sea level, almost touch Everest and back. We stood at the foot of the Khumbu ice fall (base camp) where Hillary and Tenzing started their ascend to the camp 3 on the south col in 1953. We followed the route they took from the airport in Lukla through the many high villages staying in the same places they, and numerous other expeditions, stayed (including the ill-fated 1996 expeditions) while ascending to the most famous and revered mountain on earth. While we walked another subject came to the fore. That of Acute Moutain Sickness. My post was then to be about the numerous people who come on treks in high altitude without any knowledge of the dangers and set themselves very ambhitious intineraries which cause them to become ill and need to return to lower altitudes as soon as possible ( I was gonna call it Positive Mental Altitude, ha ha). We met numerous people who despite the warnings were acsending well over 500m a day and seemed to be surprised that they were vommitting and feeling so ill (it can easily kill you). This issue became at talking point daily and my surprise at the amount of people succumbing around us was huge, many never made it to the top at all.


I also wanted this post to be about the Nepalese people. A people of huge pride, who have a government which is negligent at best, yet seem to hold themselves with dignity at all times. I wanted to mention the porters who carry almost all the goods up the up the mountains (for us westerners to consume mainly), sometimes more than 70kg at a time. They are really hard people but humble too. They are the most well natured and kind of nations and make you feel welcome and at home at all times. We love Nepal and it's people and will be back one day for sure.


All of this seemed to pale into insignificance when we arrived back at the airport in Lukla. We had heard on the way down that there had been problems with flights getting out due to low cloud. When we arrived the town was in a shroud of mist and visibility was poor. We had a day and a half til our flight, so weren't too worried. We didn't even worry much when we met people who had missed their flights and had been in the town for a few days already. Everyone seemed to be waiting for a break in the weather and hopefully they would get on a flight soon. Our flight was on November 17th at 12:00. The airline we booked with was the biggest of the 3 which operate flights out of the so-called "Worlds most dangerous airport". Tara Air operate about 15-20 flights a day on a normal day. The day of our flight the weather was clear in the morning and we got to the airport early. We knew we were flight 14, this was not good as it meant we had to wait for 7 planes to come and go before we would get on ours. Or so we thought. We soon heard that Kathmandu was closed due to fog, however a few planes came in again later that morning. What became clear though was that no one in the tiny cramped departures lounge was getting on the planes which were leaving. People started to talk to eachother and it became clear that planes had left which people should have been on. Many people had tickets for flights 2 and 4 and had not been told to board any planes. The staff at the airport were not helpful at all and kept asking people to come back later. "Come back in 2 hours" became one of the joke lines of this experience and I would be happy not to hear it again for a long while. It was clear something was up. We understood that there were flights that did not happen, like ours for example. There were no more that 8 flights on the day of our flight so we knew we had had no chance of flying. However, many people should have flown but didn't.

I noticed there was a lady selling tea in the airport and went to buy a cup. She was swiping a credit card at the time. She turned to the person and said "Thats with 5% service charge so 630". It took me a few momentts to realise the tea lady was swiping the card for 630 US dollars! The lady who paid was soon on a plane, I think you get my drift about what was happening. The next few days was like something between a horror movie about being stuck in the mountains and a mafia gang film. We were told that if your flight had not arrived then you went to the back of the queue and would be allocated a flight when the "back log" had been cleared. We met people who had been waiting for 5 days already and due to the obvious corruption happening it was clear that we had no chance of flying for days, weeks even, as this was the end of the high season with many people arriving daily from the higher mountains at the end of their treks/expeditions. Everyday only 5 or 6 flights managed to arrive and leave (on one day there were none), meaning hundreds of people not getting their flights which inturn meant hundreds of people being added to the back log. The office of the airline was full with people daily getting angry and frustrated about the situation and accusing the staff of taking bribes. At one point we saw a chair flying through the office window onto the boarding area below and two Czech guys being led away by Police. I have to say by this time I knew exactly how they felt. One thing that added to the frustration and, to be honest the sheer ridiculousness of it all, were the excuses we were given about why flights were not coming or why Kathmandu was closed. There was many occasions where it was clear that planes could not land as we were often clouded in but we were also told that Maoists had been riotting at the airport and it was closed, we were told a Saudi Prince had arrived and the airport was closed for him as it was for the President. We were also hearing rumours about whole groups of trekkers paying thousands of dollars to take the seats of a whole plane, and therefore bumping off 20 people onto the "waiting list". It was a dire situation and many people, including us, were getting worried about how they could get out. It got to the point where many of the local Helicopter companies were brought in, mainly by trekking companies to ferry out their clients. The thing was, the corruption was even more rife here. We got desperate enough on a few occasions to agree to pay 600 or 700 dollars each to get out by helicopter. The choppers could fly in the cloud by following a river through the valleys and within a couple of days the flow of private choppers was pretty constant. Every time we thought we had got on a chopper we were bumped of by someone paying more. We heard rumours of people paying over 1000 dollars to get out. We met people who had lost their jobs, people who had missed their flights home. We met alot of people who had been calling their embassies demanding help but none was arriving. I tried on a few occasions but the phones never seemed to work properly, it was desperate stuff. We were stuck on a mountain and it seemed the only way to get out was to either walk the 6 day trek, which was very tough and we were exhausted, or wait and pay our way out. I should also mention that we had no clean clothes, very little money, the food was terrible everywhere and the lodges were very uncomfortable! At one point we decided to split up (no, not like that!). It seemed easier to get out if you were alone or in a group. Marianne managed to get a seat on a chopper and I waited on the other side of the fence to wave her off, the idea was she would try and organise something from Kathmandu and at least one of us was out. While she was waiting I saw a guy I used to play cricket with in Winchester (Andy from the Hyde) he was waiting with a group in the chopper area. I called him and we had one of the "blimey, fancy seeing you here" moments. He had only arrived in Lukla the day before and within minutes he was on a chopper. I noticed the Nepalese guy he was with before and called him over, this would turn out to be a tipping point as our new friend Finzu was a man in the know.

Within 10 minutes we were booked on a chopper for 750 dollars each. Mariannes other seat had never materialised and some of the people we had been hanging out with were also getting on one, things were looking up. We rushed to get our stuff and talked our way through the security in the chopper area and waited. And waited. It never happened. Finzu assured us a chopper would be here in the morning and he seemed to be our only hope. We even called him that evening to check, and to make sure he didnt forget us. We were so deflated that night I could have cried, were we ever gonna get out!?
The next day was a beautiful day, the most beautiful for almost 2 weeks and the planes started to land early. We were not even thinking about them anymore though as we had no chance and we put all our energy into getting a helicopter. Anyway, I had begun to detest the planes as the people on them were too lucky or had bought their way on, I hated them! We met finzu at 7am and he mentioned that many of the Nepalese people had complained to the authorities about what was happening and it had been on the news in Nepal. I felt better that it had at least got out that this was going on, we were not alone. Suddenly Finzu called us and said there was a military helicopter on the main landing area, it must have arrived at dawn, and there was 2 spaces on it. Our mate Terry had leant us the cash money so we ran like the wind with our packs (which at 2600m is tough!) and got to the main airport where there was the most ginormous chopper and some very cheerful looking soldiers. We were told they had come to rescue us, although it would cost 35o dollars please. You had to laugh, one guy we met was even told to pay airport tax! (about a quid). 350 USD may seem like a lot of money but to us at that time it was music to our ears. We jumped at the chance and got on the first chopper out of there and into what was the beginning of the end of a very surreal experience. We were taken to a base halfway between Lukla and Kathmandu where they had made a kind of holding area with toilets and a medical point. The army seemed to be loving it, we thought they probably didn't have much else to do! By midday we were back in Kathmandu and sipping a cold beer reading about ourselves in the paper. It was hailed in the Nepali press as a great rescue.. they forget to mention the bit about the 350 dollars though.
We will never forget this little taste of adventure and in some ways I am glad it happened. Iwon't forget soe fo the bahviour we saw thoguh. People canbe very greedy and will do anything to get out of a situation like that. greed is a nasty thing. There were many people who didn't have time like us and lost alot including their marbles, I hope they can look back on it and laugh one day. 'Cos you have to laugh.

So now we are in Hong Kong and back in civilisation. This place could not be more different, I have never seen such a place and we are loving it. It does kind of stink of money though which after our little jaunt in the hills rings a slightly different bell to me now. Next, mainland China and to the one place I have been itching to get too........

The goddess and the pickpocket...

There are many street children in Kathmandu. The following info gives you some idea of the difficulties facing children here: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/nepal_nepal_background.html

I think you'll agree it's pretty grim reading.

Since being in Kathmandu, the countrys capital, I have had contrasting experiences with two children from both ends of the spectrum.

While walking along one of the main shopping streets a couple of days ago I was pick pocketed. The thing is, I caught this creature red handed, with his hand in the front pocket of my bag. I say creature because I came face to face with a dishevelled child who's clothes were ripped and dirty, whose face was filthy and black, nose running and his bare feet were those of a person who had trodden many a rough path. The first thought that came to my mind was my belongings. He had managed to get my head-torch out and and I noticed the orange strap wrapped up in a cloth in his hand. I pointed at it and he dropped it on the floor. The next few seconds felt like minutes. Neither I or the child appeared to know what to do. People were gatherered around us at this point. The child just looked at me as if he expected me to punish him or hand him into the police, who were no where to be seen. I expected something to happen but it didn't. The child slowly drifted away until he was about 20m from us, then he fled, like the wind. At this point I felt no anger, no motivation to have him caught. I felt quite numb. This feeling slowly changed to sadness. He was no more than 10 years old. He's not been far from my thoughts since.



A couple of days later a very different experience. I saw a Kumari Devi. Kumari literally means Virgin, Devi means god. The living goddess which is the Kumari is an intriguing, and to me a somewhat disturbing tradition here in Nepal.

A section of the Nepali community called the Newari people has a clan who go by the name of Shaklya. From this clan the Kumari is chosen to be the living vessel of the god Durga. There are numerous Kumaris in Nepal and India but the most famous is the Royal Kumari (although now there is no monarchy I think the royal bit has been dropped) who "lives" in the grounds of the royal palace in Kathmandu. In a place called the Kumari Ghar to be precise. So, what is disturbing about this? Well, it's all about the selection process. When a new Kumari is to be selected a frenzied search begins. For a start she must be a virgin and pre-menstrual. She must have the "Neck of a conch shell", a "body like a banyan tree", "eyelashes like a cow", "thighs like a deer", a "chest like a lion" and a voice as "soft and clear as a duck". Once the contender has met these criteria the next phase of the process begins. The child must show signs of serenity and fearlessness. On a certain night 108 buffaloes and goats are slaughtered and beheaded then placed in a room. The room is illuminated by candlelight and masked men dance menacingly around. The child is placed in the room alone and must not show any fear, for the whole night. If this isn't enough she then has to pick the belongings of the previous Kumari out of a pile of clothes and other items. If the child passes all these tests she is then kept in the palace in isolation until she reaches puberty when she is reunited with her family.



While being the Kumari the child has to fulfil many ceremonial obligations. She is not allowed to set foot outside the palace unless she is carried and has to remain composed at all times. Then, on the very day she menstruates for the first time she is no longer the Kumari, she returns to her family with a pension of around 100 GB pounds a month (not bad here) and although she is no longer seen as devine she never quite shakes off the reverence of being a living goddess.



We went to the Kumari Ghar and were lucky to see her (it is good luck apprently). There is a window she appears in occasionally for a few seconds. It appears to be for the tourists but there were a few Nepali there too hoping for a glimpse. I have to say I felt similar feelings when I was pick pocketed a few days before. She too was no more then ten years old.

Below is a picture of a Kumari.

Tea is the new beer....

One thing I have not mentioned in this blog, quite erroneously, is the caste system here in India. The caste system is a complex system of social strata which is based in the Hindu religion (although not exclusively as around the world there are similar systems in some Islamic and Christian religions). There have been many changes to it over the years and the Indian government has outlawed caste based discrimination, however it still exists and has a significant effect on Indian peoples lives, in particular in rural areas where the vast majority of Indian people live. There are regional differences and mobility within castes is also known. The reason I need to mention it is because much of what I have been writing has been about the new India, the booming India etc and it is very difficult for me to see how the two can exist together. My first thought is how can caste based discrimination be outlawed when the very essence of it is to place a person on a social level? Surely this is a form of discrimination in itself? Interestingly the caste system was strengthened during the British raj as the British rulers at the time saw it as a similar model to the class system at the time in Britain (clearly they thought it would be a good people control tool). Needless to say the class system in Britain has been proven to be discriminatory and reduces social mobility, which in turn does not help economic growth.

Something I have noticed alot is that entrepreneurship is alive and well in India, this suggests that people can move up (and down) socially and economically. Many businesses express hopes of bigger things by naming themselves "..... Trading" or "... Enterprises" when the reality is they sell shoes or trinkets only ( I like to call them specialists, as I am sure they do too). There is no Indian I have met who would not tell you he can offer you all kinds of services, no job is too small and they are always willing to help. However I think if you dig a bit deeper there are many people involved in all transactions, all taking their slice. The person who originally helped you is merely the messenger and will benefit financially in the region of a few pence, if they're lucky. I have noticed this alot when being offered a service like a train ticket for example. There are many people involved. I have no idea whether the caste system is involved in this but there seems to be a hierarchy in all these things. It's another example of the difficulties the common man of India must have when correlating his/her own life and the supposed rich, world beating economy they are told of repeatedly. I recently read a survey about the Dalit people. Dalit is a caste and another word for "The untouchables". These people are seen as the lowest caste, many of whom live, not surprisingly in the state of Bihar, Indias poorest state. The survey tries to look at their quliaty of life compared to 20 years ago. (see here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/soutikbiswas/2010/10/is_the_free_market_improving_the_lives_of_indias_d.html

The survey attempts directly correlate improvements to the "free market" effect on these people lives. There are indeed improvements but when you see those improvements are to do with issues which belong firmly on the lowest rung of Maslows hierarchy then you can see how far India has to go before it can say it is a modern nation.

We have been travelling for over a week, taking in some of the most amazing sights. The Taj Mahal, the worlds most famous monument to love, Varanasi, the holy city on the banks of the River Ganges and Darjeeling, high in the hills covered with tea plantations. We have had the pleasure of travelling with Meena and Jag, a British-Indian couple from West london. Jag is a man on a mission, a snack food mission. We have been eating some weird and wonderful foods and the fact that Jag speaks Hindi opens doors, of the snack food world, like never before. In particular we have discovered the Aloo Tikki. Essesntially its a potato pattie, fried then covered with chilli, sweet sauce, yoghurt, sliced ginger, coriander, lemon juice or a combinaiton of these. it is so tasty we have often had two for our dinner. And at the very reasonable price of about 30p a pop we have been enjoying them regularly!

We left Meena and Jag in Varanasi and moved onto Darjeeling. A very interesting place with it's own colonial and recent history worth mentioning. Darjeeling was controlled by the British in the 1800's after a history of governance by various states like Bhutan and Sikkim. A certain Mr Arthur Campbell planted a tea seed, which he brought from China, and started the first tea plantation there. The tea is now world renowned and sold, among other places, to Harrods (The beer here is awful, so it's Tea all the way). This spawned rapid development there and the creation of the "toy train", a narrow gauge mountain steam train which still works today. One of only three left in India (Shimla and Nilgiri are the others). The main draw here is the cool climate which I am told is the reason for the tea being so special. In recent times the people of Darjeeling, many of whom hail from Nepal or Tibet, have been pushing for an independent state. Everywhere you go there are signs saying "Welcome to Ghorkhaland". This has also lead to the creation, in 1980, of the Ghorkha Liberation Front who have often used violence in their campaign. Thankfully, all was peaceful during our visit. The highlight for me is the view. In the mornings there is the most beautiful horizon with the worlds 3rd highest mountain, Kangchenjunga dominating. It is awe inspiring and tells us we are getting closer to the really big mountains. Kangchenjunga is only about 300 metres smaller then Everest and stunningly beautiful, I could sit and look at it all day.

As I write we are in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. I am thinking about our time in India and I have to say I am torn. It was great to go back but the strengthening with age of my own pre-conceived perceptions and the glaring contradictions effecting the people of India I have been somewhat subdued in my enjoyment. There is clearly a relatively small amount of private enterprises, in the big cities, fuelling this surge in economic growth. But until I see proof that equality and respect has come to India (in my view a true measure of a countries modernity) then I cannot bring myself to forget the limbless and homeless people on the streets, the children begging and working, the roads which are impassable in remote places, the constant power cuts, the high illiteracy rates, the mountains of waste dumped on the side of the roads and hills, the disrespect towards women, the fact that to make a phone call people still need to go to phone box and perhaps most importantly the fact that there is still this system in place which means you are designated a social position at birth which means you will have little or no power over your potential and opportunities in life. Until I see this improving then I see a failed state reaping the benefits of the rich few and leaving its people behind to suffer.

Nepal however, doesn't propose to be anything other than in a state of political turmoil. It's one of the poorest Asian nations and since I was last here it couldn't have changed more. Picture this: 10 years ago I vividly remember being shoved to the side of the road by an armed soldier, it soon became clear that there was a very important person coming and the road needed to be cleared. As the cavalcade went past, inside the tinted windows, I clearly saw the King and Queen of Nepal. Being a bit of a royalist at heart I really enjoyed this. The pride on the faces of the Nepalis was also clear to see. 3 weeks after I left Nepal on June 1st 2001, the Kings son, Prince Dipendra picked up a machine gun and in a drunken rage murdered the King and Queen and 6 other members of the royal family before turning the gun on himself. Nepal has never been the same since. Chaos reigned for much of the time after this until a few years ago the monarchy was abolished and the republic was formed. Relative calm has recently prevailed but upcoming elections and their importance has caused tensions. So the kingdom is no longer the kingdom but one thing Nepal has which no one else has is 8 of the worlds 14 mountains over 8000m . This is the himalayan nation, the roof of the world and on November 2nd we fly to what is reputed to be the worlds most dangerous airport, on the ridge of a mountain, to start our trek to Everest base camp. I can't wait.

Below are some of the faces we saw while in India, one thing that is not in dispute is the Indian peoples complete confidence that all will be well, here is just a few of them.....

A State of failure and some very sore toes.

Over the past few weeks, on and off, we've had a TV in our hotel room. Sometimes, we've been able to watch BBC World News. I recently watched their edition of Newsnight, which appears to be a "best of" from the daily Newsnights in the UK (Marianne was over the moon.. not). There was a very interesting debate comparing the Beijing Olympics and the Commonwealth games in Delhi. Mihir Bose, former BBC sports editor, and a respected Chinese author debated the differences between the two games and why Beijing did so well and why Delhi seemingly didn't. The background to this discussion was the fact that India and China are seen as the two booming economies of the world and they are both acutely aware of this fact and keen to be the country which becomes number 1 over the US . Amid current allegations of corruption and mismanagement of the Delhi games some points were made which I think were very poignant and really got me thinking about the way this country works. The main point which seemed to be discussed was that of the State and its interaction with the people. The Beijing games seemed, it was suggested, to unite the whole country and people across China did their bit, not only for the games, but for their country. It was suggested that the state was involved in all aspects of the games, countrywide, and and used it as a tool for unification. This was apparently evidenced by full stadiums right from the beginning of the Beijing games. I have no idea if this was truly the case but the opposite was said about India and I can't help feel this was true. There is no doubt there is a huge gulf between the state and the common man in India. The fireworks and pageantry of the closing ceremony could not be further from the India I have seen everyday in the last few weeks. Within 50 meters of where I sit right now there are people living on the street, piles of rubbish everywhere, children working and obvious poverty. Are these not the responsibility of the State? This booming, rich and modern Indian State?

My perception of how a State works is simple but probably about right. The leaders of a State make rules, these rules trickle down to the people via regional and local governments charged with implementing them. They may tweak them lightly to fit the population, but ultimately the States wishes are communicated in a top-down way. The people get to give their opinion of this in the form of elections, ensuring the bottom -up approach is competing the circle. I have feeling, and this may be just naive, but this is somewhat of a utopian wish in India at present. Take the city of Chandigarh for example. A large city not far from where I am now, famed for beng the first "planned" city in India. Formed only a matter of 60 years ago, it was designed by European architects using the grid system, a bit like the "blocks" you get in the states. The idea was to ensure free flowing traffic and ease of navigation. Chandigarh is now also famous for it's gridlock. I read a piece in the Hindustan Times about it yesterday and it talked about the fact that many communities have popped up around the main part of the city, without planning permission, causing the centre to become clogged with traffic and pollution to engulf the city. It was suggested that these communities would almost always be made "legitimate" just before local elections, indicating political corruption and further confounding the problem. I think this is a classic exmple of how the system, outside Delhi and the halls of Prime Minister Singhs offices, works and proves that the States influence barely touches the people in the towns and cities of India. I think the race for the number 1 economy in the world will be won by the country who's people are with the rule makers, in a majority at least. India, unfortuately from what I can see is nowhere near that yet. We'll be in China in a few weeks so I will be able to see whether there is evidence of the States influence from top to bottom or not, hopefully it will be in a humane way.

So, we are in Mcleod Ganj again after 4 days trekking in the mountains. It was a fabulous few days but it also taught us we are nowhere near as fit as we would like to be! The terrain, although not too high, at a maximum of 3200 metres, was very tough. The first two days were up up up and not on easy trails either. Large, ancient boulder steps seemingly going on for ever and with a 10kg pack on it took it's toll on our legs. We were yearning for a some "down" time then when it came, on day 3, we remembered that going down is as hard, if not harder, on the legs than going up! 9 Hours of traversing rivers, climbing boulders and occasionally not having a trail at all really took it out of us and we have been resting here for the past 2 days trying to get our quads working again and getting the feeling back in our toes. It was so great to be back in the wilderness again though. We stayed in small farming villages on two nights and even a shepherds hut on the side of a mountain by a lake. This was really roughing it, as we ony had straw to lay on and our sleeping bags for warmth. The evening was spent by the lake with an open fire and a clear sky which was lit up with stars like I haven't seen in a very long time, I was transfixed. A few shooting stars and a tod of sweet Indian rum made for a truly magical night. We only saw 2 other westerners during the whole 4 days we were trekking, and the only other humans around were our guide and porter, and the occasional shepherd. Himalayan eagles circled on the morning thermals and the snowy peaks on the horizon made for a truly awe inspiring first trek of the trip, albeit a lesson in how city life does not prepare you for mountains too!

Tonight we return to Delhi, briefly, to get a train to Agra (Taj Mahal), then Varanasi. Then it's onto Darjeeling where we will eventually leave India for Nepal and our Everest adventure. I am starting to love this place again, it's taken a while, but it really is like no where else on earth.