Buses, Bumps and Buddists

(sometime late March) As we arrived in the quite mountain town of Mcloed Ganj , home of the Tibetan gov't in exile, just north of Dharamasala, I immediately noticed a drastic difference from the other Indian cities I had previously been to.  While people had told me this place was much calmer and quieter than normal Indian cities I found it almost to quiet, and we soon learned why.  Two days before we arrived, a young Tibetan had self immolated himself in Delhi in protest of the Chinese government's visit, bringing attention to what the people of Tibet are having to deal with in their country.  Around the town hung graphic and heart wrenching photos of the Tibetan engulfed in flames running through the streets.  Obviously a somber and mourning feeling hung around the town.  Later that day, all foreign tourists were invited to participate in a peace march through the city streets leading to the Dalai Lama's temple and residence.  We all wore signs showing our country, carried our flags and chanted together such phrases like, "We support Tibet, we support the Dalai Lama," and "Stop the violence in Tibet."  I felt almost weird at first, I don't know why, but as we marched through crowds began to surround us.  Tibetans bowed to us in appreciation, while Tibetan women had tear streaked faces watching.  The next day the body of the young man was brought back to Mcleod Ganj to be cremated.  People lined the streets as cars paraded through supporting Tibetan flags leading the ambulance that was carrying the body.  Behind the ambulance were dozens of motorcycles with the drivers and passengers yelling things in Tibetan that I couldn't quite catch. Watching this gave me a feeling I really can't describe. I was confused, angry and sad with this community all at the same time.  It's clearly an issue that requires people to be more aware and for other foreign countries to step in and try to help in some way.

But despite the rather gloomy news I walked into, I was starting a three day trek that day in the Himalayans with Thomas, Emile and a new Swedish friend Peter!  As I would learn on this trek, and various treks after, the Himalayan mountains are astonishingly gorgeous.  After our first long day of hiking we reached our first destination in a little mountain village where we set up camp for the night.  Surrounded by mountains, fresh air,  local shepherds and their goats it was one of the most peaceful places I've come across in all of India.  The morning we were greeted with a warming sunrise and some morning group yoga to get our stiff bodies going again.  The remainder of the trek consisted of more sweating, hiking, food and gorgeous views.  We were able to enjoy the scenery a few more times with treks to waterfalls surrounded by Tibetan prayer flags and an overnight right up to Triund with a local organization called Mountain Cleaners.  A group of about 12 or 15 people hiked up the mountain picking up the rubbish along the way to ensure that other hikers would be able to enjoy a clean path.  The garbage problem in India is absolutely attrotious so it was nice to help out a little bit.  And it didn't hurt that at the end of the hike, reaching the top and turning a corner we were treated to the most amazing panoramic view of the snow capped mountain peaks.  It literally felt like the mountains were smacking you in the face.  Our entire group just sat there for awhile just watching the mountains and taking in the most beautiful view of the mountains that I've ever seen in my life. Indescribable.

My entire purpose of coming to Dharamsala was to participate in Vipassana, a 10 day silent meditation course.  But after hearing that the Dalai Lama would be doing a public teaching in a near by town I decided to cancel my meditation course and attend the teachings instead.  I felt it was a bit of a once in a life time opportunity to see the Dalai Lama in his current residence area surrounded by Tibetan monks and nuns.  The day of, after ensuring we had our security passes (except for Gordon) and radio translators in hand, we took off in a bumpy shared jeep packed with monks and nuns.  I shared the front seat nussled underneath a monks arms.  It was a hot day, and of course given Indian's inability to form organized lines, it was sweaty mosh pit to get into the temple.  Slightly ironic given that we were going to see one of the most peaceful souls on earth.  But we made it in, seated on the floor outside the temple walls.  There was a rustle throughout the audience and everyone stood.  At the door of the temple a young monk came out, pushing people aside and behind him came His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.  He is such a small man, but carried such a huge grin the entire time.  He bowed to the audience, gave a wave and headed back inside the temple to begin his teachings.  Listening to the teachings was incredible, but I was more humbled by actually seeing him in person and being in his presence.  I can't really describe it, it's just kind of one of those moments where I wasn't really sure if it was actually my life that I was living. I could never have imagined that moment.  He was funny to, telling jokes throughout his teachings and then chuckling to himself about his own jokes.  But his smile never faded, no matter what he was doing he always had a hint of a smile on his lips.

Somehow, I spent 2 weeks in Mcleod Ganj because I just loved the place so much and never felt like I got my complete fill of the place.  We spent time taking in the delicious food, sushi (sans seafood) and hanging out at night at the local hot spot, Carpe Diem where the roof top cushion area would fill up with easy going backpackers, Kingfishers (beer) and guitars.  I got the chance to step outside my comfort zone and go see an astrologer and get a Reiki healing.  Both were intense experiences and offered some great insight into my life.  It's a really weird feeling hearing things about yourself from a total stranger.  The Reiki healing was probably the most intense for me as this incredible man was able to tell me things about myself based on what he felt from my personal energy, rather than what he was being told from a computer screen based on my date and time of birth (which the astrologer did).  I would highly recommend Reiki healings to anyone who may be considering it and isn't sure about weather or not to give it a go.

Mcleod Ganj also introduced me to a number of AMAZING people who I shared my time with and made my experiences absolutely incredible.  Of course there was my traveling companion Anthony (told you I would mention you again).  I also have to give mentions to my enthusiastic Aussie Gordon, the fun loving and  gentle spirited Californian Hili, care free BC cheekas Cassie and Liz, my long time and now closer compadres Thomas and Emile and of course all the crowds of locals and travelers who I crossed paths with and shared experiences with.

It was time to leave, so Cassie, Anthony and I boarded some "comfortable" and long local buses to the calm town of Kasol, still surrounded by outrageously beautiful nature.  Kasol is also known as being a hot spot for an Israeli crowd to gather to when the weather starts to get to hot elsewhere.  And of course Israelis throw the best parties.  Our last day there starting at 10am and going until 10pm loud trance music rolled through the outdoor venue.  We didn't get there until later, but with faces painted in neon colours we joined the dance floor and danced the night away, or for as much trance music as we could handle.  Kasol was a quick stop over to see the beauty of the place and surrounding temples.  But then sadly it was time to say seeya later to Cassie. Anthony and I began our long journey of 24 hours of Indian buses to Srinagar Kasmir, or as we were told several times "Heaven on Earth", which turned out to be a fairly accurate description.

Golden Temple to the Yoga Capital

After leaving Varanasi I was off on a 24 hour train to Amritsar, something that could very well have turned out to be a nightmare was actually rather enjoyable.  I conversed with those who spoke English and made hand gestures and did my best to communicate to those who didn't but were curious to know about me.  In the evening I shared the cart with a lovely Punjabi family who shared their homemade meal with me and an American girl who was also on the train.  This was a foreshadowing to how welcoming all Punjabis were to me as I was in Amritsar.

After arriving I made my way to the Golden Temple which is the pilgrimage sight for Sikhs.  It's like Mecca for Muslims or the Vatican for Catholics.  The Golden Temple offers free accommodation for pilgrims who come from all over India and are kind enough to have a dorm area for foreigners visiting the sight as well.  I checked into there and began to immediately enjoy the experiences that come along in sharing one large building and one large bathroom with hundreds of other people.  The women's bathroom proved within the first hour to be a highlight of my experiences in Amritsar.  First I got scolded for using the wrong soap to wash my hands after using the toilet, I was unaware the soap used to clean the dishes was kept on the same sink... Making sure not to make another mistake I asked what sink I could use to brush my teeth, I was directed to one and then was watched curiously by various women as I brushed away.  Once I was finished, on of the bathroom attendants, a little Indian woman who came to about my armpit, put her arm around me and began jabbering away in Hindi.  Her friend joined the conversation and we simply smiled at each other and exchanged compliments on one another’s nose rings.  They were very excited that I had two! Then they lead me over to an elderly woman in the corner who grabbed my face, told me I was beautiful and then offered me a blessing.  It's interactions like that which have made me totally fall in love with Indian women.  Then, after my 24 hour train ride I was ready for a shower.  I was directed upstairs where I went to see an area with taps at about waist height with women squatting beneath them with their sari petty coats at their waists, bathing.  Well, I guess if this is how we shower here, I'll just join in.  Now the staring and curiosity that I love about Indian women didn't stop when I was half naked squatting beneath the shower tap taking a shower.  They would tap me on the shoulder to compliment my toe nail polish, or my anklet or to show me where I should keep my shower bag to try to keep it dry... I just had to laugh.

I spent the day in the Golden Temple and to the boarder closing ceremony between Pakistan and India which is a big production put on every night complete with yelling, stomping and theatrics.  To complete the day I took in a meal at the free kitchen of the Golden Temple.  Through out the day, the temple serves 50,000- 60,000 free meals to visitors.  It is a beautiful tradition started by one of the Gurus for a couple reasons.  First was because Sikhs believe no one should ever leave hungry, and the other reason was to shower that we are all equal.  Everyone is welcomed to dine together and it is an effort to eliminate the caste system by showing if we can all eat together we are all the same.  It’s a beautiful production with 100s of volunteers cooking, cleaning and serving.  I got a chance to see where the food is prepared, and they have a chapatti making machine that produces 3,000 chapattis per hour.  If you've ever made chapatti you would understand how amazing this is. 

I became very fond of the Golden Temple, and the energies that flowed through the place.  I would often spend my day just sitting off to the side of the courtyard watching the visitors go by and take in the beautiful energies that each person brought.  One day as I sat observing, a Sikh man named Ravi came to sit next to me.  He asked if I would like to learn more about the Sikh faith, and since I was keen I set off with him to another near by temple where we sat and chatted for hours.  He had such a lovely way of explaining things, and I learned so much about his beautiful faith.  After leaving my conversation with him I felt lighter and freer in some sense, he had said some things that really started to make me think...

Amritsar was full of fantastic experiences, which I think were all contributed to how holy the place is, and the intentions and energies of the people that flock there.  But it was time to leave, off to Rishikesh, the yoga capital of India.  Rishikesh is also on the holy Ganges River and another pilgrimage sight for Hindus. I started my adventure off by wandering the streets, listening to the Hare Krishna’s sing their tunes and then getting violently ill, so much to the point I couldn't leave the room for almost 3 days.... It's India and it was bound to happen, I'm lucky it hasn't happened more often.  A tip, no matter what other travelers may say, brushing your teeth with the tap water is never a good idea.  Once I felt better it was off to Phool Chatti Ashram with my good friend Spots (Rachel) to enjoy a week of silence, meditation and loads of yoga!

The ashram experience was a new one for me, and turned out to be one I really enjoyed.  We were a group of about 25 AMAZING people who were all on some sort of journey, looking to gain new perspectives and lessons.  Our yoga instructor Lalita Ji is a beautiful Indian woman with an amazingly calm and gentle spirit, teaching the practices that she has used for over 20 years in the ashram.  The other teacher, an enthusiastic Aussie named Chris, was a bubbly spirit, putting an amazing amount of energy into everything she talked about and taught.  Our schedule was pretty tight.  The day began at 5:30 with the wakeup gong and immediately went into meditation, cleansing, chanting, pranayama, hatha yoga, karma yoga and then a two hour meditative walk through the gorgeous and shanti surroundings of rishikesh, at the base of the Himalayans.  The morning was spent in silence, as was all meals.   This was at time difficult when the urge to communicate came about, but over all was a nice relief.  It allowed us to go deeper into meditation, and be alone with our own thoughts.  While I've always been a rather chatty one, I've always considered myself a person who "gets their energy from being with and around other people", as I have always put it.  But allowing myself to be silent, I realized I was able to recharge myself in a different way and get energy that way.  I was thinking only my thoughts, with no influence from anyone else and it helped to give a better understanding of what I am really thinking and really feeling.  I think it's a common issue in most people's lives that we constantly are wondering what others are thinking about us, how they are judging our actions and what can we do to better fit into our surroundings at the time.  Being in the ashram helped me to identify this, and start to work on being more me.  Of course I'm always myself, but I think a lot of times I allow myself to not only take on the energies of others around me, but their ideas and thoughts as well, and I don't think I am alone in this.

The meditative walks were amazing as well.  The area surrounding the ashram is out of this world gorgeous, so just being there was a treat.  But on the walks I really tried to make an effort to be fully aware of my body in the settings.  One of my favourite experiences was picking a flower from the ashram garden and walking in a line of people to the shore of the Ganges River.  As we stood in a line on the shore we began to chant together, but being in a line, it didn’t really seem all that together as you could really only hear the people next to you.  This kind of made it a very individual experience.  When we felt the time was right, we offered the flower we had picked to the river in our own special way.  Then, in your own way we would ritually cleanse ourselves in the river.  For me, this involved fully immersing myself into the water three times.  Entering the river water that runs off the Himalayan Mountains literally took my breath away.  I had to consciously calm my body's natural reaction to the ice cold water in order to really experience the ritual cleansing.

In the nights, after evening pooja (worship) we would gather around the sacred fire and start singing and chanting, allow the energies to build in the room.  The feeling was incredible, and utterly indescribable.  Almost everyone had some sort of percussion instrument in their hand, and participated in the chants in each individual persons own way.  Everyone in the room would feed off the person next to them, until the end when the entire room would be exploding with energy, music and sound.  It was one of my favourite things to just close my eyes and not only listen to my surroundings, but really feel them, what an incredible feeling.

The last night of the week we created a massive fire down on the beach and had a wee bit of a talent show.  Each country represented at the ashram had to come up with their own little song, dance or skit that represented their country.  Me being the only Canadian there, I decided to put a little Saskatchewan twist on things.  While I didn't exactly remember all the worlds, I sang AND danced to my own version of "The Mighty Pirates of Saskatchewan". Obviously brought down the house ;) The real deals of the group was the 7 Swedes who sang a beautiful Swedish songs complete with various instruments.  Then using those instruments once everyone was done, we sang and danced around the fire to various renditions of "I will survive" and of course several ABBA songs.

I spent several more days in Rishikesh with some friends I had met in the ashram.  We did some hikes, explored the selection of chocolate croissants and took in some yoga classes.  Some of the yoga classes were amazing, allowing me to get a different perspective of yoga from many different teachers.  Some of the yoga classes were interesting... complete with swaying in the wind like a tree and bringing from the ground mother earth and bathing ourselves in her.  Not totally my cup of tea, but I'm open to new practices!  I also met a man who I dubbed my gem stone guy.  Every time I entered his shop he offered me a stone for either good luck or happiness and a cup of tea.  We would sit chatting, and he would teach me about the healing powers of the gem stones and crystals that he had in his shop.  I loved going there to just be around him because he was so calming and so knowledgeable.  My trip has really been defined by my interactions with people like him.

After an amazing, eye opening and educational experience in Rishikesh it was time to leave.  Rishikesh has so much to offer, but it could be one of those places that you almost get stuck in and will never leave.  The people I met there taught me so much, and I will never forget those experiences.  Once again I was off on an over night train, complete with mice that kept weaving over my bag.  This time I had company, an Australian named Anthony who turned out to be my travel partner for over a month throughout northern India.