You know? After I got off the Israeli army, I went backpacking like everyone else. I was only 21 and that was my first time time leaving the country. I was stupid, clueless, and poor. I did not even have the money to travel. I was using a credit card with no funds. living of the overdraft. Few years after, when I was 27, I backpacked again with Gabi in Central America. A trip that almost killed our relationship. We wanted to concur all Central America and Colombia in 45 days. Such a damn stupid decision. We got so tried and so confused after only one week of travel. We managed to see in one week what an average traveler sees in two or three. And then we got married, went to school, got jobs and… and… we had Dahyna; our first born beautiful girl. At that point, I knew that backpacking age belongs to the ferry tale stories with Little Red Riding Hood and Peter Pan.
But guess what? I was so damn wrong. After having already three kids and great job, I went backpacking to India all by myself. Gabi was cool with it and even encouraged me to do so. Such an amazing wife (I call her wifi and she husbi). They don’t make wives like that anymore.
I had a blast. I was like a child who left his country for the first time. I was fascinated by everything and by nothing. It was only a month but it felt forever. I told Gabi on the phone in one of our talks “… a day feels like a week, a week feels like a month, and a month feels like a year….”. I really felt like being away from “life” for long long time.
One of the best parts of the trip was hugging a lot of people. Actually men. And the better part was recording most of it. I took all the shots with a cheap Cannon small camera that had video feature and made a great movie out of it. I always manged to find some other travel to tag along with me and shoot it.
I named the movie Hugging Rajas.
Do you wonder about the name? So let me explain. I don’t have to explain the Hugging part. Right?
The Rajas is a funny story. Everyone, or almost everyone who ever traveled in India, is familiar with the quality weed derivative called Jaras. It is a quality illegal drug made from the Cannabis plant. I never heard about it until I had arrived to India. So in one of the evenings, while seating with bunch of people in some place near Darahmsala, I mistakenly asked someone if what he has is Rajas instead of Jaras.
At that point, everyone, but everyone, burst into great laughter about this naive comment. And those who knew my Hugging obsession, stated to name me Hugging Rajas (btw, you can view the relevant pictures in my Picasa albums or in the home page slideshow).
So enjoy the movie and feedback here in the post would be great!
