From Buddhism to Sikhism

Many people are drawn to Dharamsala to immerse themselves in Buddhism and other forms of spiritual practise. It is the home of the exhiled Tibetan government, its people, and arguably one of the most influential spiritual leaders the Dalai Lama. I found the Tibetan people to be very hospitable, friendly, and soothingly mellow. Getting to eat their regional food was a treat since it's a lot closer to mom's home cooking than Indian food. For about $0.25, you can get 4 freshly steamed 'momos' which are bit sized rice buns stuffed with asian green leaf vegetables, onions, and sometimes mutton or chicken.

With the zen aura of the Buddhist monks, the misty surrounding mountains, and my hope that the Dalai Lama was in town (in this case, it was his aura since physically he was out west) and snippets of philosophical discussions about 'ego' at the cafes, it seemed a very fitting place for me to conclude my first read of 'A New Earth' by Eckhart Tolle. My buddy Jo and I have been using his simple teachings to break down our life issues in the past 8 months. Referring to pieces of different religions including Buddhism and Christianity, he advocates the need to be present in our everyday actions to live more fulfilling and creative lives. A simple example from his book is when you walk, your focus should only be on that rather than the destination. This is not an easy thing for my wee little overactive mind! In so many ways, it has started to rewire me. I've probably already recommended the book to you but if not, think about getting a copy or download one of his podcasts.

Shifting gears, we went from Buddhism to Sikhism with a visit to the Golden Temple in Amritsar. It is the holiest temple in the Sikh religion. The religion was founded by Guru Nanak Devi who could not find fulfillment in Hinduism, particularly the caste system. The religion welcomes all castes to worship together and it emphasizes rebirth and karma. The temple is guilded with let's say lots of gold and a constant live chant echoes throughout the temple from 8 to 8. The whole experience was really pleasant and uplifting.

I'm on the train to Delhi now. I'm quite unsure of where this journey will take me next. 'Today is what matters now with tomorrow being the next today' as told to me by a very random encounter with a body reader in Shimla.

Shallow side notes:
-There were some extreme new age hippies in Dharamsala, one who was dressed like a hobbit with the haircut of Gollum.
-We stayed in our worstguest house in Amritsar. It smelled and tasted like fart.
-I've been wearing the same hammer pants for the 4th day in a row because I've been too lazy to get my other pants from the bottom of my pack. Cleanliness has disappeared from my vocabulary. At a public toilet, my feet feel dirty even though I am wearing shoes!

A Can-Indian Experience

The Himilayan mountain range is breathtaking. There's no other word to describe it.

First, I'll bring you up to speed since my last entry a couple of weeks ago. We arrived in Shimla, a hillstation/ monkey terrorist base at the start of the month. It was our first taste of milder weather with temperatures in the low 20's during the day and dropping to 10-ish in the evening. Shimla is a very frequented mountain town so it was quite overpriced and packed with the usual crowds. Notable to the town are it's Simian monkey terrorists. These monkeys are so naughty because they have been fed too much so they now attack passing tourists and break into any open entry in search of snacks. I was very freaked out about being rushed by a pack of monkeys but fortunately was spared. The monkeys did however break into our hotel room. When I entered our hotel room the first night out, I jokingly chuffed about monkeys breaking in. To my surprise, the balcony door was open and the monkey had gone straight for some sweets. We were so lucky that they did not tear through the I-Pod, cameras, and clothes conveniently next to the sweets as we witnessed the next day when a guy was trying to retrieve his wife's purse off a branch about 20 feet above him. Another case of monkey terrorism!

From Shimla, we went to Manali which is where I am writing from. Manali has every convenience a traveller needs including awesome internet connection, western food, etc. It's a primary lauching spot for further touring up north and it also happens to be a major tourist destination. Set against a beautiful mountain backdrop, it is tainted by constant traffic. Ironically, the car emissions seem a lot worse than Delhi! I'll comment more on that later. We are in Old Manali where the backpackers converge. It is the peaceful part of town unlike New Manali which might as well be New Delhi.

Just today, we returned from the most worthwhile motorbiking experience on the road to Leh. Although we did not make it to Leh due to the early season road conditions and a general lack of preparation, we were able to hang out in a little town Keylong which has yet to see massive tourism. On route to Keylong, we were surrounded by mountains soaring to 6000 metres, waterfalls, and valleys dotted with terraces ready to unleash the fruitful bounty of the Himilayas. It reminded us so much of home but at a magnitude I have never experienced until now.

Our trusty ride was our rented Royal Enfield. It could be compared to the Volvo of motorbikes; heavy, sturdy, reliable, and not so agile but more tank like. There were some pretty funny moments on this bike starting with loading it up with far to much weight, precariously teetering and wobbling down the steep path from our guesthouse, and then crashing at slow motion. This all happened at 7am when everyone was just waking up so immediately we were surrounded by a bunch of helpful locals. Aside from bruised egos, we escaped unscathed. The other funny moment was following a zen experience visiting an unfrequented fort in a hill town at around 4500 metres. It was about 20 minutes away from Keylong in possibly one of the most mellow places you could picture yourself being so of all places, it was a pretty ideal one to get a flat tire and we were able to roll ourselves down to the highway. I felt pretty relaxed but Nick on the other hand was delusional from the thin air or something. He was on high stress as he was changing the tire. The final straw was when he thought the mechanic did not give him the right tool. The mechanic Johnny, who had been his buddy two days ago was a yell outloud "COCKSUCKER" at that moment and with that, Nick accidentally thumped a hole in the seat of the Enfield. And the tire? Well, it popped out without the tool he thought he needed. Karma's a bitch when she's rubbed the wrong way!! Afterwards, we had a good laugh about how ridiculous the whole situation was.

Back to my earlier comment about car emissions. I saw some of the most amazing landscape in the past few days. I also inhaled the most emission ever and probably burned a loonie sized whole in my lung at a place called Rohtang (aka HELL!). Rohtang is a glacier that many tourists flock to. It's on the route to Leh and Keylong so it's absolutely unavoidable. For about an hour, we are subjected to following a non-stop lineup of cars to Rohtang. At the destination, there is a ridiculous parking lot of idling cars inching up a 200 metres stretch. Okay, so maybe I am spoiled because I have grown up with snow but really, where is the joy in driving up to this spot where all there is a dirty patch of snow that is black because of pollution? The sad thing is that this glacier will probably not exist in the next 5 years with the amount of car emissions just from the tourists. There is no drama here. On 3 seperate days, there was the same steady stream of cars.

Next stop is Dharamsala, the home of the exhiled Tibetan government and the Dalai Lama. Our time in India is drawing to close so stay tuned as we savor more moments from our wild ride!

Narinder Singh, Me, and a Serious Side of India

Our plans to go to Varanasi went sideways as we were not able to get on the train. We were on the wait list however with summer holidays in India, being on this list is pretty much useless.

So, we scrambled and made a quick decision to head north to the Punjab region and then further on to the Himilayas. This decision proved to be well worth it for a number of reasons. First, in Vancouver, with our large Punjab population, getting to see where they are from and experience their regional foods and traditions are insightful. Secondly, it seems that in this region, they are more accustomed to foreigners so we are not subjected to stares, touts, etc. as we had previously experienced. Thirdly, we are in Chandigarh, the capital of the region where it is unlike any city we have been too.

Chandigarh is an experimental city built in the 1950s by a French architect. It is very well organized for living, traffic, and green space so for the weary traveller, it is a welcoming calm oasis. It is here that I met Mr. Narinder Singh. When we arrived at our guesthouse, Narinder struck up a conversation with us right away. He is a jolly retiree who's hobby is to just help out tourists. He welcomed us with a necklace of marigolds and a petite scented rose bud. We made plans to meet him for chai tea the next morning. He brought us to a local diner, explained what each menu was, showed us a rooftop view of the city, and taught then grilled me on Hindi.

The special thing about him is his sincerity. I could look into his eyes and see the pure goodness of his soul come through. I feel grateful to have met someone with such a unique gift. We ended off our visit with a hug and his signature wish of good luck to me as his "daughter" after only knowing me for a short time.

The next part of this blog is the polar opposite of the above. In one of my earlier entries, I made a statement about not being surprised about the poverty. I still stick by this statement in general with child poverty being the exception. In most of the places we have visited, there are children under the age of 10 who freely wander the streets barefoot with tattered dirty clothing. Some have a garbage bag slung over their shoulder, some carry their baby brother/ sister, others have one limb intentionally chopped off to help them beg better, etc (you can gain more insight on this by reading "A Fine Balance by Rohinton Minstry"). In our side of the world, most children are in school. These kids are not and are destined for a life of poverty. It's so sad to see. I am not the social crusader type but I think it's important to be aware. When I look at all that I have, I know that it will be difficult to complain about what I wish I want but can't have. When I was growing up, my parents would always reference the starvation in Ethiopia when I left a bite of rice on my plate. In the 80's, that was the social cause. Well, my reference now are the impoverished children in India.

Rajhastan Update and the "How Many" Game

For the past week, we have been all over the place travelling at a rapid pace across Rajasthan.

To bring you up to speed, we arrived in Jodhpur (the Blue City) and concluded that this smelly, dirty city was by far our favorite spot so far. The Blue City is the old part of Jodhpur where it is inhabited primarily by Brahmins (priests/ teachers). On our first morning, we arrived at the entrance of the Mehrangar Fort a bit early where we just sat around and observed local rituals. The city is deeply spiritual so it is not uncommon to see gangs of cows hanging out, people feeding them chapatis in the morning, lots of cow patties, and many worship pit-stops. A Brahmin befriended us and brought us up to the main fort entrance. On the 10 minute walk up, he gave us a quick lesson on Hinduism. I'm a complete rookie at the religion as there are many gods to keep track of. The basic premise that Hindus believe in is that one's actions (karma) will determine one's next reincarnation in life. In the Hindu religion, there is the Brahman or the originator of everything. Brahman is formless and is not worshipped. There are three main representations of Brahman which are Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the preserver), and Shiva (the destroyer). The other god that I recall is Ganesh (lord of sucess) because he's the cute elephant figure (sorry, this is probably considered blasphemy) and that his parents Shiva and Parvati bestowed upon him the honour of being the god that Hindus need to pray to first.

I won't bore you with a detailed account of the fort. All I have to say is that this fort ranks in my top 3. The guy who handed out the audio tour guide sets had a wicked mustache and spoke in a booming made for television voice. He asserted that the audio tour would make our day to which I replied, "You have just made my day!". The audio tour had commentary from the maharajah about his past and present life that I found to be very interesting.

From the fort, we went on to the bazaar where we were pulled into a store that looked junky from the outside but inside, it was a total textile heaven. The owner of this understated textile store proceeded to pull out 20 bedspreads from cheap to chic, and testimonials/ pictures from celebrities and designers including Valentino, Bill Murray, Richard Gere, Greek royalty, Louis Vitton, etc. Needless to say, the glint in my eye sparked up and I left the store feeling a bit of post-buy mortem.

A day later, we made our way to Jaipur (the Pink City). Jaipur is totally overwhelming as it is the capital of Rajhastan. We met up with some fellow canucks from Kelowna and Victoria (Laura and Ryan) who made our stay in Jaipur super fun. For the first time, the guest house had a pool so we spent a few hours each day soaking in the pool until our skin was sufficiently shrivelled. In Jaipur, we did a whirlwind tour of the City Palace (not my favorite) and the Amber Fort (#1 fort!). The Amber Fort was really enjoyable because it was totally beautiful and we could freely wander all over the place which had maze-like passages.

From there, we now find ourselves in Agra. We have been here for 3 days resting and marvelling at the Taj Mahal. The Taj lives up to everything that has been said about it. It is a mausoleum built by Shah Jahan for his favorite wife who died during childbirth. It is made of marble and at one time was bejewelled all over. The Taj is impressive in its massive size and details.

As it is always the case, every couple of days, we subject ourselves to pure hell. This time, it was a day trip to Fatephur Sikri which was the old capital. A one hour convection oven bus ride later, we reached the ancient ruins. There is a mosque there. As with every sacred place, I have an expectation of serenity and holiness. That was not the case at this mosque. Upon entry, we were harassed by a guy who wanted to give us a tour and then have us visit his soapstone carving booth afterwards. I just wonder how Allah would feel about his sort of behaviour.

But alas, loss of privacy is all too common in India. As a traveller, you have to accept it and find it endearing or else your experience will be very tainted. I am happy to say that I have many more good days than bad days.

We are hoping that we can get to Varanasi tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, we didn't take a huge chunk of the Lonely Planet with us so we will be travelling handicapped until we find one. The boy down the street keeps changing his price and refuses to sell a 2nd hand version to us for half the cover price.

To end of this entry, here's a game of "how many".

1) How many cows were outside our guesthouse in Jodhpur? 6 just lazing around

2) How many times can the bus honk its horn at eardrum blowing leves in an hour? Hundreds

3) How many seconds can an Indian man stare at a foreigner (woman) at one time? Endless, without smiling, and quite creepy

4) How many Indian women are there compared to Indian men? I'd guestimate 50 to 1.

5) How many times can you be asked to take a cycle rickshaw ride in a 3 day stay in Agra? Every time Johnny sees you which is 2-3 times a day.

Pic 1 - The Cow Party

Pic 2- Jodhpur from the fort

Pic 3- Palace detailing in Mehrangar Fort

Pic 4- Ryan and Nico at the Jaipur City Palace

Pic 5- Palace and courtyard in Amber Fort

Pic 6- The Taj

Pic 7- The baboon that chased me at the Taj

Pic 8- One of the buildings in Fatepur Sikri

Pic 9- Snacks that may have gave us the runs

Pic 10- Camel Toes

Udaipur, Chittor, and Knee Sweats

We escaped from the busy streets of Delhi to find ourselves in Udaipur which is the first of our many stops in Rajasthan. Udaipur is best known for its floating Lake Palace. The palace, people, and surroundings are lovely BUT there is very little water in the lake. It didn't surprise us that much because this is the dryest time of the year but we were a bit disappointed. I was really happy to stay in a beautiful place right on the dry lake (Lal Ghat Guest House) which was a former 'havaeli' (former residence of a rich person). Back home, this would be considered a 5 star accomodation!

Today, we ventured out to Chittorgarh to see the fort buit by the Rajputs. The fort was built in the 8th century and improved up until the 1500s. It was seiged a number of times until the final attack where the maharaja decided to flee to Udaipur to re-stablish his capital.

On a side note, I discovered that it is possible to sweat very profusely behind my legs and knees. The trip was a 2 hours boths ways by bus and then an autorickshaw ride to tour around the fort, its palaces, and temples. Let's just say I was not on my best behaviour by the end of the day and could be labelled as the word that rhymes with 'witchy'. Don't get me wrong. I still love India. It's just quite hard at this time of year when a breeze feels like the hot blast of air when you open an oven that's been heated to 300 degrees!

Pic 1 - Lake Palace (Udaipur)

Pic 2 - City Palace (Udaipur)

Pic 3 - Lal Guest House "honeymoon suite"

Rest of Pics - All over Chittorgarh Fort

Hitting All the Senses in Delhi

Wow, that's the first thing that came to mind being in Delhi for the first time. It overloads all the senses right away.

Seeing - Action everywhere tuk tuks, cars, people, colorful saris, a roving cow here and there
Hearing - Honking honking beep beep boop boop, "Where are you from?", "Can I help you?", "Cheap price sir!"
Smelling - Gasoline, latrine, cumin, curry, lime
Touching - HOTNESS (45 Degrees today!), grimy
Tasting - Salty sweat, delicious food

Strangely, it leaves us wanting more. We absolutely love it here. It reminds us of Burma where there's still an old school feel to mostly everything. In some ways, I expected a more modern city similar to other emerging Asian countries like South Korea and Thailand that have ammenities and infrastructure that are comparable to the Western world. I also expected to see more poverty (as in beggers) but have not seen that much yet nor have I seen anything particularly shocking compared to other places I've been to.

Today, we trekked all over Delhi in the oppressive heat managing to see the Red Fort (Shah Jahan, the same person who conceived the Taj Mahal, built this only to see himself being imprisoned in the fort by his conniving son before its completion), Connaught Place, an underground bazaar where we probably were ripped off, Jantar Mantur (very large scale astrological instruments built by a maharajah that had a particular interest in astrology). Nico had a few "holy sh*t" moments including running across the road and just averting a bus before the traffic light changed and thinking that he had been pick-pocketed when his cash was actually in his other hand. We also met a lovely gentleman Raj who went out of his way to walk us to an air conditioned coffee bar during one of our lowest, dehydrated, and overheated moments of the day. He was very much into karma and invited us to have dinner with him if we were going up to the Kashmir area. By the end of the day, we were totally exhausted and rejuvenated at the same time if that's possible!

In the coming days, we will probably switch up our plans a bit. The heat of Rajastan combined with Nico's healing eye are swaying us to delay the motorcycling for later on and in the north instead.

Pic 1 & 2- Red Fort

Pic 3 - Jantar Mantar

Pic 4 & 5- Qutb Minar (built in 1193 by the Afghans after the defeat of the last Hindu kingdom of Delhi)

Pic 6- Jama Masjid (largest mosque in India that we didn't get into because it was too complicated)

Namaste.

Gilligan Had a Good Life

Full relaxation. That's the best way to describe what I've been doing for the past week and a half on the Thai island Koh Tao. This will probably be the only blog entry of this nature for a while as we prepare to embark on a motorbike adventure through the Rajhastan region in India. We will be going from zen to full on heart racing (heart attack) excitement.

While on the island, I've been getting reconnected to my yoga practise at the excellent Shambhala Yoga led by Kester, Tracy, and Ina. They teach a hatha practise that has a flow twist. The classes have been no less than awesome! I highly recommend trying their classes if you are in the area.

We've also been enjoying the snorkelling. The island has undergone some pretty significant development since our visit 3 years ago. Development at the benefit of local wealth but at the cost of nature; it's a dilemma that resonates everywhere on our planet these days. However, it is reassuring to see that the sea life has not gotten worse nor better. Beautiful huge parrot fishes and pairs of angel fish still grace the coral, some of which is astoundingly vibrant and shaped like bonsai trees. One day I was hanging out on our balcony when this guy decided that it was okay to walk half a kilometer on the coral in his crocs. I was seething. Walking on or touching live coral kills it and the sea life that it sustains. I told the man nicely and he responded that "he" was okay since he was wearing his shoes. After some explanation, I hope that his scope has expanded beyond himself. Following that incident, today, I saw a whole group of people stepping on live coral. Seriously, how would they if King Kong stepped on their house or if some donkey just stepped on their dinner?? If fish have feelings, I'd bet that they'd be pretty pissed off.

On the unfortunate side of things, both of us have had some bad luck with our health. I had a killer cough that I tried really hard to supress for fear that I would be cast aside for having H1N1. The media really took precautions with it and I would say that it was maybe a bit much. The news stories about thermal scanners at the airports were completely non-existent to us. Thankfully I don't have the virus and it has since gone away with excessive doses (overdoses, the bottle is shaped like a mini-jager bottle!) of cough syrup. Nico on the other hand is still plagued with an eye infection. He visited a hospital in Bangkok which had super professional service and was very much on par (even beyond) with our health services. From the sounds of it, he will be just fine.

That's about as interesting as island life gets. Next entry...the enchanting and mysterious India!