India is amazing and i want to stay here for a long long time. i will need a long long time to see even a smidgen of it in the first place!
but I am off to Nepal in November with Jo to go trekking so it will have to wait. Jo is still in Cambodia with his girl and we plan on meeting in Delhi 30th Oct to head to nepal together.
But back to india cause that is way cooler!
Aaaaarrrghhh, where to start? How about the bus trip...
So after meeting the Israelis (sp?) and sorting a bus to Mcleod Ganj i headed off.
Obviously.
Man i am hopeless at starting (o;
On the bus i met two more israelis who occupied the sleeper across from me. We spent the time talking and we are now hanging out a bit together here in Mcleod. The actual trip would have been awesome - the sleeper beds are comf as after always taking locals - but it was cold and i really needed to pee. Like i won't be having kids as i think both damaged me! I was even wrapping myself in the curtains at one stage for the cold, foetal position and tempted to go climb in between the two israelis for warmth. i had on t-shirt and shorts and had stupidly left my warm stuff etc in my big bag locked in the back of the bus. needing to pee was funny thoug h cause a japanese guy (guess) needed to go even more. when the bus stopped for second i ran down to the font to jump out but was still beaten by him and he was thuimping the door to get out. haha, it was funny to watch. maybe one of those "had to be there" moments.
Mcleod ganj region (view from my room)...
when we arrived (passing beautiful scenery on the way too) we met another traveller Sarah who recommended a place to stay. The owner is tops, absolutely hilarious! Teaching me Hindi too. I ended up staying next door cause he was full but it's his mate and the rooms are nicer and the same price (o:
So we spent the first day (arrived at 8am) exploring. Visited a nearby village i call israel cause it's full of them and their food and also did a bit of food sampling and shopping (for me, looking). We tried to get a pass to see the Deli Lama too but they were sold out 3 days earlier - seating full up. Suck!
Street in Mcleod Ganj....
then today israel went for a guided trek with two other israelis (i declined) while i got up early to go see the Lama anyways. without a pass u can still see him walk in and leave again 3 hrs later.
so i cruise to the arena, find i can't go in with my camera and so have to go ditch it at a local hotel (NICE GUY 1) and then headed back. walking in i hit the stairs up to where the Lama would be giving his talk but i get stopped (along with a heap of other people over time) as we have no pass to proceed. one of the guards tells me i can see his excellence (or whatever they call him, i forget) walk past if i sit nearby. So i settle in next to a pillar to wait it out till 8 when he arrives.
I sit for about 10 minutes on my own and then the guard comes over to talk for a bit. he asks where i'm from etc and what i am doing and then tells me to follow him. i wonder why but hey, not doing much else. might as well.
so he takes me to the stairs and tells me to just walk straight ahead. says i'm not allowed up there without a pass but seeing as I'm on my own...
so i walk up and head straight to the end of the way cause i don't know where to go. I end up next to some guards and a wall and just stand there. then one of them starts asking where i usually sit. Usually? Huh? I explain it's my first time, praying like crazy that he isn't going to ask to see my pass and then he tells me i can't stand with him and to go find a seat.
so i try and walk through the crowd but this old man won't let me in! I can't figure out why and am making a fool of myself i figure and wondering where the heck i am supposed to be and feeling like a turkey at a chicken feast. I eventually make it to the back, pretty much force my way through, and then see a spot over by some old tibetan ladies is free.
i wander over and sit down and then one of the ladies starts bird womaning me; flapping her arms around and then when she realises i don't have a clue what she's on about she gives a resigned sigh and ignores me.
i'm left wondering, again, what the hell is going on!?
i then notice no one has shoes on (oh bugger, i should have known this!) and so i quickly remove my own. instantly the old lady is my best friend because i was obviously just slow to doing things and being so sexy and all, she couldn't stay mad for long.
she gives me a mat to sit on (i was sitting on the concrete floor) - NICE LADY 1 and so i settle in to see what happens next.
then the Lama does a sneaky on me and shuffles past when i blink and so miss seeing him!
monks then came round with little loaves of warm bread which another little lady grabbed for me (NICE LADY 2) and then afterwards butter tea. I didn't have a cup for the tea ( i must have been the most unprepared person there!) but yet another litttle old lady gave me a little bowl to use (NICE LADY 3).
the bread was good and fresh and the tea nice but the buttery after taste takes a little to get used to.
i then sat listening to the lama speak about something (all in Tibetan) and watching the people around me. most whities had a small radio with them which a translator spoke through. I wandered over to some guards to find out about getting one but it seems you buy them at the market (yet another thing i didn''t have!) and obviously if i left to get one i wouldn't probably get back in; having no pass and all.
So i sat and listened for a bit more, ate my bread and drank my tea and then decided to ask some whities to share their ear plugs with me cause i couldn't tell what the hell was being said and it was pretty dumb just sitting there (o:
I wandered over to a young guy and asked if i could listen with him and he was cool with that (NICE GUY 2). So I listened and pretended to take stuff in. In truth it was way over my head and i took in like 2% of what was said. all about living better of course and being cool.
but it was cool to listen to him speak. He really sounds at peace if you hear him. It's weird.
then when he finished a cool thing happened.
when he's done he wanders out along a certain path i just happened to be near. So i snuck over to the staircase he walks down and sat right in front of it. Then when he came out, shuffling along, looking like a man who's just won lotto, fell in love with the most perfect girl ever and dined on a godly meal while reaching enlightenment after having woken from a great deep sleep, he looked up and smiled straight at me!
Not the person next to me. Not the person behind me. Not even the shadow in front of me. But right at me!
And then he was away down the stairs and gone again from sight. And i don't believe in all that stuff but i broke into the biggest grin ever and it lasted an age! I was chuffed. Giggling away with people smiling at me and yeah, tops aye. He just exudes happiness. Such a peaceful, happy, loving person. It was the most sincere grin i have ever seen.
and he smiled at other people and touched some even, but for me that smile alone was worth the trip up here.
afterwards there was free lunch (rice and dell - i think that's what it's called. Lentils in sauce anyway) and then it was back to waste the day. I was still with the guy i'd met, a 19yr old aussie it turned out teaching at a local monastary through some GAP programme and his mate and so we planned to meet for lunch and maybe organise to go for a trek together 2moro.
i then wandered around this pilgrimage (why can i no longer spell?) trail which was real cool. thousands of prayer flags blowing in the wind and prayer stones and stupas and the prayer wheels you spin as u pass (i still have heaps to learn about indian culture as u can tell. i don't know what half the things are yet that i see. but i'm asking and will get there eventually. You'd know Jint).
then cruised up for lunch with Aussie (forgotten his name already) and met another kiwi, a dutch guy and three more aussies. spent lunch with them (ALL NICE PEOPLE!) and then went to find out about meditation courses.
phew. I am skipping heaps too. i could talk about the beggars (sad but friendly and smiling when i say hello and bow to them), the monkeys (cool but shy), the momos (nyum!), the monks (unique), chai tea (more nyum), the clothes (where to start?), the cows (everywhere and everywhere) and so much more! but meditation...
there is a free one where u don't talk to, look at or touch anyone for 10 days. intense. but sadly it doesn't start for another month here. they're all over the world though. called Vapassana or something. look it up. u can do it in NZ even and it is something not to be missed. you'll be reborn (Jo, this is what i will do as we travel and i reckon u should try too. if you'd like that is. it's extremely intense and not to be done half-heartedly)
so cause that's so far away time wise i might do this other learn to meditate and learn the basics of buddhist teachings course that costs like $150 NZ. Sound like a lot? Kind of to me, i can't decide. But it's a 10 day course. again no speaking but not as intense meditation wise as the other. so it's only like $15 a day and u live there with food provided etc too - you can;t leave (so if i do it i won't be in contact for like 12 days).
I'm currently getting by on around $10 a day but it sounds like fun and the lady in charge loves me after my discussion with her today. she reckons I'll be a challenge and a half and that she hasn't had a good one in a while whatever that means. i was joking with her heaps and asking bout what food i get, whether there's a spa, saying that being able to talk to the teachers (u can) is cheating etc. lots of laughs and she seems real cool.
mmm. so i might do that. i'd do it for sure but it's a week away when it starts (15th Oct). Probably do it though anyways. maybe chill here for another few days, check out Kashmir maybe or Punjabi and then cruise back for the course. then head to Delhi, grab Jo, do Nepal, push back my flight to Germany, do Rajustan (I REALLY want to do this region and a camel ride) and then go to Europe.
mmmm. so life is all good. had dinner with a canadian and a kiwi girl i met yesterday too. I just walked in to her room to say hi when i saw she was cooking and ended up eating with them and then going out for another meal afterwards with the Israelis too. everyone is so nice when you travel!
It's weird how SE Asia was cool and an experience and so on but this is different somehow. Like it's more real. more real life somehow. Even living with a Thai family in Thailand and right now being in a fairly touristy area here in India staying in a guesthouse. The country is just more authentic somehow. Mmm. Try and explain later. Nepal should be even more so.
Do not try to become anything.
Do not make yourself into anything.
Do not be a meditator.
Do not become enlightened.
When you sit, let it be.
What you walk, let it be.
Grasp at nothing.
Resist nothing.
I like that one (o:
