To India!!

Well, this will be my last entry before leaving to India for about 8 days. I am traveling to Gangotri. About 18Km from Gangotri up in the mountains (foothills of Himalayas) is the mouth of the Ganges river which feeds most of the Indian subcontinent. The Ganges originates from a glacier and I believe (but don't quote me) is the largest snow/ice fed river in the world. Naturally, it is one of the holiest spots for hindus and has a rich origin myth that I will describe in more detail after I come back. It is also one of the four pilgrimage sites for devout hindus. I believe there is a famous temple built in Gangotri in the mid 18th century to celebrate the river as well. I chose to go here after talking to my friend Luke. He spent a year (?) or more traveling throughout India and learning about the culture. He recommended going to Gangotri and I didn't have to deliberate very hard. The point that sold me was that I would need to hike through the mountains for a couple days to reach the site where the river originates. I think this will be very exciting. I just spoke with Bivash Pandav, the big cat specialist from WWF-Nepal, and he is from that area. He said that the hike is gorgeous and that you can see lots of critters. In fact there are actually tigers in the area. Woo-hoo! I think he means nearby not exactly where I will be. Unfortunately, it takes an all night train ride and all day bus ride to get to Gangotri. But hopefully I will get a chance to see some of the Indian country side.

I am writing this from Kathmandu again. I few days ago I came up from Chitwan because there was a possibility that I would be able to have that mystical meeting the Director General of the DNPWC to discuss my tiger camera proposal. Invariably, I was not able to have that meeting. In the meantime, I have been working on a proposal to fund the survey portion of my research. I went shopping yesterday for a few things. Got something for my friend, my mom (sorry mom can't tell you), and myself. I got a great small painting of the goddess of wisdom which I thought was fitting (hehe). I am staying in a different hotel called Yak and Yeti. It is nicer that Hotel Himalaya and much more central. However, like before, I get bored in a hotel even after doing work. I want to be doing field work and not so much computer work. I can do that anywhere. As I mentioned before, however, I had a very productive meeting with Bivash. He does lots of good work on tigers and has very good connections with people in Nepal. He gave me several very good suggestions which significantly improve my proposal and he also agreed to provide technical support for the project. Additionally, he said that if I continue having difficulties with getting permission that he would try throwing his weight around. The nice thing is that I have a couple people, including Bivash, who are willing to throw their weight around if I can't get permission this time around. The frustrating thing is that I will have to wait until after the Dasain festival (during which time I am in India) to keep pursuing it. It is foremost on my mind and it is hard for me to be productive in other aspects of my research because I keep hoping that we have a meeting soon.

I am picking Alex (SDSU doctoral student) today from the airport and then we are driving back down to Chitwan. He is conducting some interesting research on plant decay/growth rates and resource use by local people. He intends to collect this data in order to parameterize an Agent Based Model (too much to describe here, you can look it up if you are interested) that he is developing for the study site. I am looking forward to having some company in Chitwan. It can get pretty lonely there. After dinner the cooks lock up the guest house (!) and then leave the premises making me the only person there excluding a couple guards. Of course, the power goes off, internet goes down, AC turns off, lights go off in various combinations at various times leaving me with nothing to do and no one to talk to. I am not looking forward to the drive down to Chitwan though. The drive from Chitwan to Kathmandu several days ago was horrific. It was the first day when everybody goes home for the Dasain festival. Think about traveling by plane during Dec. 20-24th in the U.S. Like that, but on a mountain road. I am pretty sure I developed black lung while sitting in the traffic for hours on the way up. I am afraid that it will be the same on the way back. Yay! Then the next day I travel from Chitwan to the border of India to catch the train. Hopefully, that will be more eventful. The real work will take place when I get back. I will only have slightly more than 2 months to do a lot research and I have not been making as much progress as I hoped but I am not necessarily behind schedule. I just need to pick it up.

For clarification, I am leaving to India on the 25th and will be traveling by train to Dehradun and then I am taking a bus from there to Gangotri on the 26th. On the 27th, 28th, 29th, and 30th I will be hiking around. Then on the 1st I take a bus back to Dehradun and on the night of the 2nd I am coming back to the border area of NEpal and take a taxi from there to Chitwan on the 3rd. I think that I will be incommunicado unless I find the internet somewhere. Expect to hear from me sometime around the 3rd or 4th.