sunday news

Bummer! I forgot my camera to hook up and download latest pictures.

Oh well, have to do it next time.

So, these days I am learning lessons like a child. Life lessons, the way children learn life lessons, like how to be, how to behave, how to treat people, all about consequences of your actions. You'd think I'd have learned all I needed to learn in Kindergarten (have you seen that poster? "all i ever needed to know i learned in Kindergarten".)

I am glad I am still learning, still growing, and in such a tangible and active way, the way you did when you were a kid, even though I am now 35. I'd like to think I'm learning a bit FASTER and things are soaking in more quickly than they did when I was a kid. Hopefully I'm a little more aware of myself now. haha.

I am learning...... I have to be absolutely honest. I cannot get away with stretching the truth, telling little white lies or omissions. My conscience makes me crazy about it after if I do, even if I have a good reason. More on this later.

Anyway, enough talk about me.

Today is the last "free" day off before the course starts officially tomorrow. Then the class of 30 will be hard at work. It is all women in the teacher training. A bunch of really inspiring women. Women from all over: Singapore, Japan, New Zealand, Germany, Canada, India, America. All over.

We have been very busy getting to know eachother. Its all very exciting.

Yesterday I took a couple of them and showed them how to take the autorickshaw to the place where ATM machine is and I also took the liberty of introducing them to the place that makes banana chocolate samosas and the best chai in Rishikesh. These are important things to know I figured. I felt it was my duty. One of the girls, Celeste, said "THIS is the CLOSEST ATM machine to the ashram??" in disbelief. I guess its pretty far, compared to Canada where the nearest ATM is usually as close as the nearest store. But, this is India.

She is a dance teacher from Vancouver and cute as a button.

I also dispensed information on an ayurvedic cure for constipation to 3 women who were just desperate for help this morning. I don't know if I am supposed to do this, actually.... I KNEW I wasn't supposed to do this because I asked our teacher yesterday about it first before I did it. This is the situation to which I referred earlier, about learning lessons and telling truth and my silly conscience.

I suggested to the women I might be able to help them but I wanted to clear it with our teacher first. I didn't want to go playing doctor or playing teacher, when I am just a student myself. So I went to him to clear it first to make sure it was ok and I wasn't doing any of this sneaking behind the scenes. He said he would prefer if the girls came to him and his wife with any issues so that they aren't continuously coming to me during the course while I am trying to focus on my own work. (In the ashram when you, eat, sleep, breath and meditate together, there are no secrets, it is a very intimate setting to live together with one another for the whole month).

So anyhow, I agreed with him and said I would tell the women to come directly to him or his wife. I told them and one of them went to his wife who proceeded to give them the same advice I gave them for a cure, but she wasn't planning on supervising them while they did it. It is a yogic cleansing practice that I think is best taught supervised by someone who is experienced about it. So the women were going to do it anyway, on there own. And I thought: "I've got to help them. Surely my help is better than no help if they are just going to wing it on their own". I learned the technique at the clinical yoga and ayurveda program I took in November at Santosh Puri ashram. The technique involves drinking alot of warm salt water and doing exercises that causes the water to travel into the bowel and flush you out. It is wonderful relief and an all natural cure for the condition of constipation. But you have to get the amount of the salt right otherwise your body just absorbs it all and doesn't flush it out, and there are exercises and other tips that help it work effectively. I just felt I couldn't let them wing it. I didn't pursue them, but when I bumped into them this morning at the hot water "cooler", I felt I had to show them and guide them a bit. They were so desperate. So I snuck downstairs with them to the downstairs yoga hall where no one was around and surreptitiously gave them these teachings. Is THIS the way I am to begin my career as a health and lifestyle consultant? Sneaking around an ashram, giving advice on the sly? hilarious!

Then my stupid conscience was bugging me afterwards because I went against what I said I would do to my teacher. I felt so guilty. Isn't that just crazy? Even when I found out that all three girls had managed great success with the technique, three for three, I STILL felt guilty for... being dishonest. I know there are all sorts of justifications for doing what I did but why do I feel so guilty about it still? Like I have to come clean. Maybe that's what I should do. Maybe I should go to my teacher and tell him. Darn this conscience.

More than anything though, I am just happy that they met with success. I thought that even if one of the three of them were successful, then it would be worth it.

Very interesting.

Sorry, no elephant stories or camels today.

just stories about constipation. haha.

I have a whole book to read before tomorrow so I thought I would take today for myself and just spend it alone and read the book, somewhere. Maybe I can stay out of trouble that way. haha.

wish me luck.

school

well.
The busload of other teacher trainees arrived yesterday from Delhi, all wide eyed and jet lagged. Totally disoriented, no doubt, from the 15 hour flight and 12 time zone difference that has brought them here.

I am a bit torn between being excited to connect with them all and lamenting the loss of the tranquility that was permeating the ashram these last few days with only 5 or 6 guests staying in it.
Now our number is 30 plus and the meal time cacophany of conversation is overwhelming.
So i am torn:
be social or continue to journey inside myself. Perhaps I will strike a balance between these two.
I have learned over these last few months that so much wisdom and knowledge comes from within yourself when you can really be silent and observant. This is knowledge and wisdom that can never be gleaned from an outside source, from a conversation, a book, or a teacher. People can write about it and talk about it, but until you have the personal experience of it, the idea, concept or knowledge is only a superficial knowledge, not true knowledge or understanding. So obviously it is very valuable and a little bit rare and difficult to obtain because it requires such utter stillness and sensitivity. Our senses are so dulled by outer stimulus that we are numb. We are deaf and dumb to this inner wisdom most of the time. And indeed, we mostly lack the desire or patience to go looking for it.

"School" starts officially on Monday, and today is Friday so they have two days to acclimatize and get over their jetlag before the real work begins. I am excited to dig in.

So for today and tomorrow we will have our regular morning and evening yoga sessions, and three meals, tomorrow we will go on a hike to the waterfall, the one i HAVEN't been to yet, yay! and sunday is our day off, our free day, so that will be the last day for them all to shake out the cobwebs of jetlag and clear their heads.

For me it is kind of interesting to have already been in India for 5 months before this all begins. As well, I stayed one month in this very same ashram in September 2008, so it basically feels like home for me. But I've told you all that already.

But it is fun to watch it through their eyes, how everything must appear. How it all appeared to me when i first arrived, how strange and new everything was. I remember that first week when i was scared to go out in the street of the city and had to start in small doses, only an hour at a time. Amazing what you get accustomed to.

Now i see their disgust on their faces, the digust they try to hide with a mask of indifference, but i know they are shocked. Chetana, one of the main teachers and founders of the ashram, the Canadian, took us all on a "tour" of the area to show everyone where they can send email, where they can buy shampoo, books, etc.etc. and she took us through "the casbah" an area that is residential and pretty grungy. Its the shortcut from the shops to our ashram, but i'm not sure if I would take the fresh off the boat people through there. Not just because its a bit shocking how grimey and gritty it is, but also because it passes very closely through some people's back yards. Probably the people don't mind, being Indian, privacy is a non-issue here it seems, but it is a very intimate little alley, let's just put it that way.

I think they new trainees' stomachs wouldn't have turned so much if we hadn't been following a pack of work mules up the hill through the "casbah". (I call this area the casbah because of its winding streets, if you don't know the way you could easily take a wrong turn and get lost, just like the casbah, or market in Marrakech, Morocco. ) The work mules are stinkier, much stinkier than your average mule. Who knows if it is a result of overwork or poor treatment, or poor food, who knows, but they stink to high heaven. Those poor trainees. What an introduction.

I get the impression that Chetana likes to shock a bit, show them the real India, and I can understand that, it is a bit fun to take those uninitiated in the ways of Indian streets and initiate them. I can see how she could get off on that. Its a way of experiencing it all fresh and new again, like the first time, for someone for whom it has all become very "everyday".

So my roommate is from Vancouver. Stacey. And she just finished teaching English in Japan for 3 years, so I guess that is why Chetana bunked us together. There are alot of Canadians and many people from Vancouver in the training, but we are ALL women. All. Nary a man, except Vishwa, our teacher.
Stacey and I have a LOT in common, but we are pretty different too, as she is putting makeup and plucking eyebrows.... I have left off shaving my legs for ...oh... 3 months now. So we're pretty different. But essentially the same.

Everyone comes to the training for her own reasons.

As for me, my reasons are becoming clearer and clearer to me each day.

I feel this month is a landmark. And that i have been presented with the case that i have to go into it with a back issue to be aware of and nurture, rather than in perfect sound health where I can just go, go, go for it.... is causing me to have a different lens to look through in this process of learning to be a teacher. Its very interesting and illuminating and is teaching me alot. Alot.
I have got to run. The internet cafe i am in is having Nepal-esque power interruptions that are wreaking havoc on my writing and email.
Will write more as I can
love to all

up, up and away....

hi there,

posted the camels on youtube for anyone is interested.

just now i have an apple strudel in my bag sitting on the chair next to me and i saw this mouse out of the corner of my eye on the floor a while ago... well, the little guy figured out how to get up on the chair somehow!!!! and was getting ready to jump in my bag before i shooe him away. Sneaky guy.

well i'm all ready to heading into teacher training.

i have a strange calm and determination. Back or no back, i have a feeling i will do this. It feels... inevitable. I am very excited. Somehow, I will finish it. There will be a way.

Thanks to everyone for their support and encouragement in getting me here. Wish me luck!!!

i'll will write as soon as i have time.

love.

no news is good news

Hello my faithful armchair travellers.

I hear it is C.O.L.D. in B.C. right now. Brrrr.

Here, winter is just starting to turn around. The bitey edge of cold is receding and being replaced with an increasingly pleasant spring-like warm breeze. It is the time to enjoy nice comfortable weather because in another month its going to be back to sweating. Don't get me wrong.... I enjoy a good hot day and the nights are absolutely gorgeous, but its a bit much when the heat and humidity get way up there and sap your energy and suck all the water out of you through your skin leaving you parched and drooping.

So I am just trying to soak it up now this nice comfortable temperature.

I am all moved in to my new room at Anand Prakash Ashram where the teacher training will start tomorrow. I had a so so sleep last night for some reason. I had to trade out the soft mattress because a hard bed is better for my back, so now i am actually sleeping "Indian style" which means i have two wool blankets folded in half between me and the wood bed. It is a double room, 2 beds, so my roommate Stacey should be arriving tomorrow with all the rest of the group from Delhi. Its going to be interesting to experience India again through them with fresh eyes as they are all going to be fresh off the plane from countries all over the world, seeing India, many of them, for the first time. So that'll be fun. I think i'll skip the tour where they show all the trainees all over rishikesh and show them where to buy "supplies" and where they can do internet and make phone calls and all of these things.

I had a nice fancy chocolate in silver wrapping that I bought in Kathmandu airport to get rid of my last Nepali rupees and so I put the chocolate on my roommate's pillow for when she arrives... as a joke. ... you know fancy hotels have chocolates on the pillow.... hahaha, its an ashram, get it? I got a good chuckle out of it anyways.

I don't have alot to say really. Its a bit anticlimactic, story-wise, after all the adventure i was mixed up in on my Nepal trip. Makes for good stories, but not so much for peace of mind. Now all I can tell you is that I washed my laundry, by hand on the bathroom floor again and hung it up to dry and that the food is very good again. Ashram food is so healthy, nutritious and prepared with love. It's like eating at home.

To be honest I find it quite challenging to have the discipline to eat properly and choose wisely when I am fending for myself out in the world and eating in restaurants. I have a tendency to eat for entertainment and eat whatever I think would be most exciting, rather than what would be most nutritious. This is one reason it is so wonderful to be in the ashram. It is my goal to learn these good habits and have them ingrained in me over the next couple months, so that it becomes a way of life for me. Because I am seeing more and more how purification and what we put in our bodies totally effects our state of mind and capacity to develop to higher levels. When i put in "junk", my mind is heavy and dull, full of junk, rather than sunlight. Difficult to explain, but when you purify, you see the difference.

So, ya.

I have had a good couple of days visiting friends here and there in Rishikesh and taking care of business. I have a couple more photos i want to post as soon as i can. I assume once the teacher training starts that it is going to be quite intense and i may not have much time to email and internet. I'll do the best I can.

Ope! there goes two Indian boys affectionately holding hands as they stroll down the street. "Boys" in their 20's. This still makes me smile whenever I see it. I think it is so beautiful that they do this and it is "acceptable" and no one throws stones at them. They are not gay, of course. They are just friends. How lovely.

That's all folks!

I'll write and tell you how my course is going. Wish me luck!

back on home turf

I am so filled with joy to be back in Rishikesh. I arrived today. I still can't manage to walk through the streets without tears welling up in my eyes. I can't help it. Rishikesh just moves me like this for some reason.
I'm back reunited with my Bengali family that owns the guest house too. I thought i would spend one night with them and have dinner before i move into the ashram. Their guest house is just next door to the ashram where i start my teacher training in 4 days, so its very convenient. They seemed as happy to see me as i feel to see them. I feel like I have so many families in India now. WEll, at least 3. All three places give me as warm a welcome when i come back as my own family does when i come back. It is heart warming.
So I banged into my french friend, Gayatri in the street, just a couple hours after i landed in rishikesh. Its not just me that's a bleeding heart.... listen to this:
I had just finished feeding a cow my leftover spaghetti from lunch (i know, i know, Spaghetti? in India and you're eating spaghetti? you just gotta, once in awhile, ok?) .....and Gayatri spots this puppy. Tiny, black, and all alone, she decides she's got to save it. True, the puppy is way too small to be on its own and it looks sick, it looks less than lively. Either she's really really tired, or something is wrong with her. She didn't look too emaciated, but who knows. So we went on a crusade. Personally, I had had about enough of playing mother theresa in nepal, with people, not dogs, so i was willing to turn a blind eye to one more sad stray puppy, but she couldn't. Cradling it in her arms she stood there with me, weighing the options of what to do, where to take it, WHO would take it.
She, too, just got back into Rishikesh. She had been to Bali over Christmas and is now having to make the same trip i just made to Kathmandu for a new visa. I don't know why she didn't just do it in Bali, but anyways, i didn't think to ask her. Funny we are both back here now, together, standing in the street with this puppy on our hands.
We talk to a few strangers, foreigners.... more conversations ensue about what to do and analyses made of the puppy's health and current state. Finally it is suggested by one british guy who seemed to be in the know, to take her down to this guy who does the knitting by the river, incidently, the man who knitted my toque and my socks for me. I volunteer to show her where he is because the Brit doesn't have time and its on my way to where i am going anyhow. The knitter has 2 dogs already, one mom and one puppy, so i guess this is why he figures he would be open to adopting a 3rd.
When we get there Gayatri pleads with him but he won't take her, of course. So she turns to me and says "what are we going to do?" "WE?" i say, "sorry honey, but.... " and how do i break this to her lightly? there is a reason I didn't pick up the dog. I send her back to Pyramid cafe, which is the first place she thought of that might take the dog.
I am just beyond thinking about these things now, there are so many sick dogs, cats, cows, kids, people..... it is impossible to help them all. I still give alms everyday in the street as has become my usual habit, but after Kathmandu, I am ready to take a hiatus from trying to save the world.
I think once i go into the ashram tomorrow i will stay there as much as possible. i feel like i have had no space for spiritual practice because each day has been so full of LIFE for the past couple weeks.
The trip home was uneventful.
The flight, the taxi, the night train. I was starting to get the feeling when I got dropped off at Kathmandu airport yesterday, lugging all my luggage (aaah, so THAT's why they call it luggage!), that this travelling thing is starting to wear thin. I get moments when i have this singular thought: "i am getting too old for this". Its not as exciting as it used to be. Alot of the time its just a big hassle, especially these days with air travel. and expensive.
Of course these moments are still punctuated by the other moments of sheer wonder and amazement, but it is irrefuteable that travel is getting more expensive and more of a hassle all the time.
The night train was a little livelier than the night train i took on my way out (understatement). It was saturday night, and a long weekend to boot. Plus i purchased one class cheaper than the one i took last time (it was half the price!), so the sleepers are 6 to a compartment instead of 4, so its denser with bodies. It was quite the party in there till quite late, midnight, and then seemed to start back up at around 4am when some yahoos boarded, giggling their heads off. Plus we had a snorer in our compartment. I never ever say these words but I'm telling you: you haven't lived until you've ridden an Indian night train in sleeper class, it is just such an experience. You have to be flexible (both physically and mentally), small physically and big mentally to somewhat enjoy it, and definately in possession of your adventurous attitude. The Indians are mostly great and go out of their way to help you navigate the whole situation. I think alot of them realize what a shock Indian trains can be to the western sensibilities and do their utmost to cushion the blow. This small effort and consideration on their part scores big points with me, so I enjoy the train trip sufficiently well as a necessary mode of travel.
Bad things about the trains:
1. the stench of the loo.... very hard to get out of your nostrils
2. the crush of human bodies on the platform as everyone vies to find their car. it is best to just flow with the flow.
3. the stench of the loo (so bad you have to mention it twice)

you should see the THIRD class cars. I watched a train depart before I caught my train. I don't think there is assigned seating in third class cars. There is just bodies jammed helter skelter like Tokyo's Yamanote subway line at rushhour. There are so many bodies that people are spilling out of the door and men are hanging on to handles on the side of the train as the train begins to move out of the station, trying not to get left behind! Men are running after the train, getting LEFT behind, shouting, people yelling, pushing, its a grand game. its mayhem. I watched two old timers, Indians of course, sitting calmly on the platform watching all this last night and chuckling to eachother as they watched. I watched it, wide-eyed with amazement and disbelief. I was thinking to myself "I hope I bought a ticket for a higher up class than that or I'll be left behind for sure!"

Good things about the trains:
1. incredibly absolutely safe
2. astoundingly cheap ($3.75cad for a 7 hour trip from delhi to haridwar near rishikesh (and this is for second class, not the cheapest class)
3. Good fodder for sociological field study

I got some sleep, but it wasn't super long or anything.
then from haridwar to rishikesh by bus, except its sunday and there were no buses for an hour so me and this japanese yogi who was also waiting decided to ditch the bus station and take a rickshaw which, although very crowded, worked out well.
and presto, back in rishikesh. I felt like i could finally breath again here. I know many people, the mountains seem to smile and greet me, the energy is good, i feel at home here, like its my place .... its all good again in my world now that i am back.
oh, i was looking back over the pictures i posted of nepal and i must apologize. .... i am the world's WORST tourist!! I take these shadowy pictures of far off mountains... I don't even go INTO the mountains themselves and get proper pictures, just pictures out my back door. I didn't even go hiking up to the Buddhist Peace Pagoda across the lake like i said i was going to (different place than the buddhist centre which I DID stay at , mind you)..... i didn't even go out on the lake in a boat! not a very good tourist at all. I don't sightsee. I guess i might do if i was with a group or with a friend or something who wanted to do it, but i never want to spend the money on my own. I'm just as content to sit in a cafe beside the lake, drink tea, read a book and take in the view from there.
It costs money to do these things, trek, take boats, etc, go paragliding, and i am just sort of saving my money so that i can use it to LIVE here longer. I tell myself that if i were just travelling for a month or two, I would spend more and do these things, but i need the money for daily living expenses over a 10 month period. So that is why. I am justified. see?
OH!! i saw, for the first time, a real, honest to goodness supermarket! The first one I've seen in India. The kind with fruits and vegetables piled on shelves and everything together in one brightly lit superstore: dry goods, dairy, meats, etc. all under one roof instead of vegetables on a cart on wheels outside and dry goods in giant sacks on the floor of some little corner store than only sells rice, dahl and spices. The supermarket was in Old Delhi last night as I rode in a taxi from the airport to the train station. Man that train station was a zoo! i bet that was as worse as it gets being saturday night and on a long weekend. There were so many people, you couldn't move.
well, that just about brings us up to speed on the happenings.
peace and love!

quick update before I fly oer the mountains

Good morning!

Last day in Nepal. I fly out at 4pm.
Wanted to send a quick note to alleviate any concerns about my safety.
I may have overreacted in what I wrote last time about the political situation. After speaking at length with a young university student yesterday, I would like to revise my comments. I think I may have made it sound more dangerous than it is.
It is not the political situation that is unstable per se, it is that the Maoist group that was recently elected into government has not been upholding any of the promises that they made BEFORE the election in order to get elected. Doesn't sound like anything different from what happens in politics in the west, does it?

Instead of spending the money to fix problems, the government is keeping the money. Apparently. But it does not bode well for the future of Nepal and the people are very worried about their future. But its not like the situation is unstable in the sense that there are to be violent overthrowings of government and people taking power and things of that ilk. Although I will be keepig a very close eye on the developments here in the future as I have drawn very close to the people in only 10 days. I feel some sort of special kinship for some reason. They have such a beautiful spirit, as a people.

Well, yesterday was a real doozy of a day. I just was having run in after run in with the victims of poverty in the streets. And trying to weigh how best to reach out and help them, to do something that truly is a help, without getting totally ripped off in the process. There are lots of "games" going on out there. You don't know if the mother begging for money for milk for her baby is going to turn around and buy heroine with it or what. Street kids sniffing glue. This whole situation is absolutely heart wrenching. Big cities in poor countries. It makes you want to seek out some organization or START some organization that really gets to the root of these problems and helps on a ground level.

I don't really want to talk about that part of yesterday right now. Its a new day.

Lets talk about something else.
Yesterday I spent the night at Hotel Discovery Inn. Didn't discover much except maybe that the street below stays noisy til around 4 in the morning. So I moved back to my old hotel, the one I stayed in last time I was here. "Hotel Magnificent View" which is more pricey but I got a great night's sleep last night. I'm getting old. I can't go too many nights without a good night's sleep anymore. haha.
My room last time had a magnificet view of a brick wall but it was a brick wall over a quiet alley, rather than a noisy one, so I guess if you are measuring a magnificet view by sound, then it IS a magnificent view, indeed. This time when I came back there was a different person behind the counter and she was quoting me 25 and 12$ a night! i said "i am sorry miss, but last time i only paid 8 and that is as much as i CAN pay". .... so after some conferance, she acquiesced. My room was smaller but my view included sky this time, and the brick wall was on the other side of a large empty lot. So i was happy.
I did make a true discovery though, of a coffee house named "JAVA", a good and proper coffee bar replete with baristas and jazz, couches and cheesecake. It seems like my spiritual pilgrimmage has recently turned into a hedonistic romp in an urban jungle, a "cakes and steaks" tour of Nepal. (cakes and steaks are the words used by the travel book writers to describe the neighborhoods of THamel and Pokhara where i have been. That means that you can get anything here. Far from being restricted to rice and dahl, here you are never far from an apple pie or espresso, admittedly, a nice break from roughing it, but ultimately, if a traveller wants steaks and cakes, apple pies and espresso, they can just stay home in Canada or America or Europe or wherever they came from). But my mission I came here for is accomplished: new visa and old passport tightly in hand, I head back to the holy land.
Laxmi, my agent, sure gave me a scare, showing up a little late to meet me the other day.
To be frank this whole visa process was a little hair raising.... that it would be ready in time, that they would agree to give me the requested months (there have been so many declined visas lately), that my agent wouldn't run off with my passport, disappear off the face of the earth. To my credit, i didn't pay her until i had my passport back in my hot little hand. But it is a little unnerving travelling around a country without the security of knowing your passport is tightly pressed against your flesh. (You relinquish your passport to the India embassy while they process your visa, then they affix the visa right into your passport.) Man, sweating bullets. I hugged Laxmi when she gave it to me, but i wanted to kiss her.
Power Cut Update:
Nepal continues to do it's part to save the environment by going without electricity 16 hours a day.
There was a t.v. in my room again. This time it was already plugged in but it was all snow. I've had phones in rooms with no dial tones too. I'm not sure what the point of having tvs and phones in rooms that don't work anyhow. I guess it just looks nice.
See you all back in the motherland.

I cannot say that I am not eager to be leaving Nepal the day after tomorrow. As much as I really love Nepal and the people, the political situation is just a little too unpredictable and "adventurous" for me right now. I have, up until now, never been in a country where the government and what is happening politically have made me truly uneasy. Its just one thing after another here and when you read in the newspapers what is going on.... its amazing and unnerving. I have heard the word "time bomb" used to describe situations like this when I have read it in newspapers from the other side of the world. This is the only word that comes to mind when I try to describe the feeling I have now and why I am so eager to leave.
I started to really feel it arriving back in Kathmandu today by bus. Suddenly the bus just stops and lets us out in the middle of nowhere in Kathmandu. Not at the busstop where we picked up the bus heading out of Kathmandu but in a totally, totally different and unrecognizeable locale. It was suspicious because all the Nepalis that were on the bus got off the bus at some point before, like they were in the "know" about something, and it was only us tourists left, baffled. The road sort of ended, like it was under construction. There were tons of taxis and other busses around, driver's and touts shouting in the bus windows trying to solicite our business before we even got off. Big time competition. I asked the driver "Thamel?" as in ..."hey! this is not Thamel" (the district where we boarded the bus on our way to Pokhara and within walking distance of all the cheap hotels and shops and stuff). You would think that since I bought a return bus ticket that the bus would return to relatively the same spot as it departed from, right? i'm thinking... but no, this doesn't seem to be the case. "Yes, yes, Thamel!" the bus drivers assures us. Ahah, then this is why the taxi driver's are shouting "100rupees to Thamel" at us through the windows.... because we already ARE in Thamel. I don't think so buddy. But for some reason, he is not going any further. End of story.
The energy is strange. Driving in, before we stopped, there are more than the usual amount of people standing around on the street and they LOOK funny, or they feel funny to me, i'm not sure which one. I get the sense, and i don't know if it is because someone yelled something from the street in English that penetrated my brain or where it came from, but i get the sense that there is a strike or something for some reason.... my feeling is that the bus cannot go any further because it would be crossing a line of workers, or some business like this. But its just a feeling, and i can't confirm it.
I disembark. Its just me and 3 other tourists from Korea who are doing a really good job at looking totally disinterested and blase about this whole turn of events, but i can tell that they are just as disgruntled as i am.
I haggle with a couple drivers through the window over the price of a taxi ride, just to get a general sense of the environment I'm stepping into. I know I can walk one block in any direction from the bus and get the trip for half the price they are now quoting me.
Determined to take it like a pro, I slip out of the bus and into the middle of about 7 men all vying for my business. I hadn't, at this point, totally decided to go with the same hotel i stayed in last time, although it was nice, it was too expensive and I was thinking I would try something else. One of the men was waving a pamphlet for a hotel that is in my price range AND has an attached bathroom with hot water PLUS a free taxi ride there. He just said all the right things and pretty soon I am packed into a small taxi and we are squeezing between the taxi/bus/people melee. I can't resist asking him "What is going on?" Things are just too unusual outside. I begin to be even more suspicious when he evades my question "nothing, nothing, everything is normal". No one in the tourism industry or employed in work that is supported by tourism wants to let on that there is any problem that might deter tourists from visiting Nepal. So sometimes it is hard to get a straight answer about the state of things as they would rather carry on like nothing is happening. The worst thing that could happen for them is if word got out on the tourist/traveller grapevine that there were serious problems in Kathmandu or Nepal or that there was any reason to not visit, so they are going to downplay or minimize anything. That is why his strange denial rings false to me and raises my suspicions even more.
I look outside and there are piles and PILES of garbage. More than when I left a week ago. On top of one particularily large heap I see a sorry sight that will stay in my memory longer than I like: a lone seated figure, warming their hands on a small fire they have started from the refuse and sifting through the garbage, lazily looking for something of value. I strain to see their face but it is either half turned or half covered or so dirty as to not show its features. All I can see are the hands and the feet of this human, who looks wholly unlike a human, and they are blackened with filth.
This scene strikes me as something profound. This person, so desperate, living at such a base level that it is nothing for them to be seated atop this trash, burning trash and sifting trash, in the middle of a busy intersection. It is one for the record books, folks. A record book I'd rather not read.
I arrived at 3pm this afternoon and it is now 7pm. After reading a few newspapers and talking to a few people I learn that there is a garbage strike. Apparently the people were hassling the government garbage collectors because of other issues that they are trying to draw attention to, power outages being on the top of the list, "load-shedding" they call it. anyhow, so the garbage collection stopped, because they were being hassled and blocked by the disgruntled people. Garbage strike. Good thing its not july. But still.... you can't have heaps and heaps of garbage in the middle of a big 3rd world city (i hate to use that term) without a potential health risk developing.
Oh, i forgot where is was.... in the taxi, yes.
So suddenly, my hotel tout mumbles to the driver and jumps out of the taxi as we are driving. I see that a couple new busses have arrived, spilling out fresh disoriented tourists and he can't resist to stop and drum up more business. So we, the driver and i, continue on to Thamel.
I begin to recognize everything, even the street he turns down before he turns down an alley that leads to another alley that leads to a dead end. "This is gonna be killer to get to at night when the power is out" is all I could think to myself. I'll probably have to take a taxi just from the main street to the hotel front door just to find my way back safely in the dark. This is what i am thinking. seriously. It amazes me how the survival instincts come out. You only bite off as much as you can chew, and no more, when you are alone.
I have to say that being older and more experienced now than when I travelled to Europe the first time when I was a teenager makes me more wary and nervous, knowing what I know. When you are young ignorance is bliss and you still have no concept of your mortality. When you are little bit older, you are a little more concerned about your life expectancy and correspondingly more cautious.
The hotel is basic. Just barely meeting my standards, it will do for 2 nights. They pay the taxi for me and I move in.
To be perfectly honest, I'm getting tired of scuzzy bathrooms and scuzzy hotel rooms.... maybe its just a phase i'm going through but I am looking forward to getting back to the cozy ashram in Rishikesh which feels like home. sigh.
The world is a rough and tumble place for a little Canadian yogi, loose in Asia.

Unfortunately there is still more to this sad story. It is sad because the Nepali people are such a beautiful and proud people. They deserve a government that can provide for them and do things right, so that they may have a successful and peaceful future. As it is, the dissatisfaction and dissolutionment seems to grow by the day.
This morning in Pokhara, not to scare anyone, but there was a few riot police in the street. Our bus was late getting out of Pokhara because the roads were blocked or backed up from student protestors i guess. "The students are striking for better education" i am shyly told by my seatmate. He too is a student, but he is reluctant to talk too much about it. I sense that he too doesn't want to give his country a bad name and is downplaying the events as much as possible.
Its good, i think, that the Nepali people are standing up and making their demands and dissatisfactions known to their government. At least they have the freedom and chutzpah to do that and are not intimidated. But the sight of the riot 6 or 7 police in riot gear on the corner with shields shakes me up a little bit. Periodically as we drive out of Pokhara, there are peppered here and there the odd soldier in blue camo gear. I believe, police again. Just being a "presence" for order. But i see the looks on everyone's faces outside and they are looks of people waiting for something to happen. Looks of expectancy and unusualy alertness. The feeling unnerves me.
So this is why I am glad to be leaving Nepal. As much as I love it.
Now there is talk of the load shedding hours increasing from 16 to 20. 20 hours of no power every day.
As i walk down the streets of Thamel in Kathmandu, the city seems so edgey and alive and electric. (ironic for a city on 16 load shedding limitation, haha). Still for some reason I find it more relaxing after dark than in the light. I don't know why. Fewer people i suppose, less chaos and madness. There are bicycle rickshaws and people strolling, Germans eating chocolate pastries and kids. I see some things again, I wish I didn't see, that I wish weren't there, the homeless kids, KIDS, around a fire in the street. I give a few rupees to the one legged guy outside the baskin robbins. I almost collide with a man chasing two dirty boys around the age of 10, pulling them both up by their shirt collars and dragging them back to the shop that they just stole two wool hats from. Who knows if they stole the hats for themselves for warmth or to sell, but they weren't running when they were caught. The shop owner just kinda laughed as he took the hats back while the citizen's arrest guy scolds the kids and cuffs them both upside the head before releasing them. All of this amongst a celebratory atmosphere of music and good times in the streets of Thamel.
what next?
thank goddess I got my visa and passport back today.
My "agent" really made me sweat when she said she'd meet me at 5:30 and then proceeded to be late. I had all these thoughts running through my mind... i was thinking not nice things about her and doubting that she was even legitimate. Laxmi, honey, I am so sorry for thinking those things about you. She appeared, with my passport and my visa, just the way i needed it. She came through. man, i haven't sweated over anything so much in all my life. the mind really runs with it when it gets going, doesn't it.
so i paid her and hugged her, bought her a mango juice while we visited and then we parted ways.

last day in Pokhara

The morning is foggy in Pokhara.
I woman wrapped in the traditional Nepali red colour is talking gently to her young yak as she coaxes him down a rocky path. Women talking to yaks, guys singing to dogs…. What IS this place?
The town seems still asleep, even though it is almost 11, it feels like 6. The fog slows us down.

I spent a good first night in my sparse room at the Buddhist centre. It reminds me a lot of the summer camp I went to when I was a kid. Gavin Lake.

Not much is going on around there at the centre. Indeed I barely knew there were any other inhabitants except for an odd door creaking somewhere or a figure padding off to the communal bathroom.

The path down from the centre has power lines drooping dangerously low overhead. I could reach up my hand and easily touch them. If I was 6 foot tall I would be ducking to walk beneath them. But Nepali’s are not all that tall…so I guess it’s not an issue.

Last night there was no power as I sat on the terrace reading so, as the sky darkened, I gave up and went to my room. It was only 7 so I lit a candle and read by that for awhile before nodding off to sleep. I think the reading by candlelight at night is starting to strain my eyes so I will try to limit how much I do it. Perhaps MORE candles would produce MORE light. It has got me to thinking that I would really like to have laser surgery on my eyes and be done with wearing glasses.

My body feels like it needs a massage but I am more than reluctant to pull my clothes off in this chill that hangs over the valley. Perhaps I will tell my body to wait for a warmer month.

I have discovered here in Pokhara, a small enclave of paragliders. An intrepid bunch, mostly men, from many different countries all over the world, holed up in Pokhara for its favourable flying conditions and congregating at “My Beautiful” Café watching Monty Pythonesque British comedy on somebody’s laptop. You see the craziest things when you’re traveling.
Anyhow.
I was inspecting my shoes this morning. They are wearing pretty thin. They are starting to feel like moccasins on the pavement. Hope they last until I get back on Canadian soil. I am not excited about Indian sneakers.
Just biding my time on this visa run.
Tomorrow I head back to Kathmandu. I would like to stay an extra day here but have decided to give myself that extra day in Kathmandu instead, in case of any foul ups with the visa. Pretty responsible and foresightful of me, I thought.
Although I am not practicing any yoga or meditation these past few days, I am preparing myself mentally and psychologically for the teacher training that will start at the end of this month.
One thing that has been transforming is the way I look at my life. I don’t feel as much the pressure or expectation that I have to BE somebody, DO something, or GO somewhere, that I have felt my whole adult life. This is a pressure I have placed on myself. No one else ever put it on me. Perhaps I picked it up from society. But this pressure or expectation I placed on myself was stressing me out, robbing me of my peace of mind and making it so I was unable to enjoy the moment, for what it was..... perfect. Always looking to the future, looking to someplace other than where I was…..it was a sickness.

So I don’t feel that pressure so much. Something is shifted.
I mean, that’s not to say that one shouldn’t have ambitions or goals. Certainly we should. But at the same time, we should have complete and utter acceptance of ourselves and love ourselves like we are perfect, inherently, not based in measuring ourselves by external conditions: our degree of success in a career or how much money we make or how we dress or how many people wish they were us or what they think of us or any of those silly things. It is a jail to live like that. Isn’t it.

new digs

Hello folks!

Today I moved into the Buddhist Meditation Centre in Pokhara where i will stay for the next 3 days until i go back to Kathmandu. The centre is austere again. Not like my Canadian bed and breakfast place with the fluffy white towel. I am used to the austerity and feel a certain comfort in it now. I share the room with a daddy long legs. There is a single bed, one table. that is it. The floor looks like it is covered with that stuff you line your cupboard shelves with and it is peeling up at the door. There is a library where you can borrow books. so i love this part. It is very beautiful. No view from my room, but the view from the outdoor sitting area on the terrace is fabulous. It is a very peaceful place. It is up on the hill and there is a narrow footpath between houses and gardens and pastures to get there. I wonder if it will be as dark or darker as my other place, walking home at night. Usually I don't eat dinner until after dark and the power goes off. hmm.

we shall see.

i got some pictures downloaded for you all to see Pokhara. as you can see, it is a nice place.

i will try to get some more pictures soon.

Peace be with everyone.

passing the time in Lakeside, Pokhara

Travel guide book writers are hyper-critical sometimes. I guess in that way they are like food critics.... people paid to be critical hardly have anything good to say about anything. How unfortunate for them.
About Pokhara, Nepal they write: "You can't even see the lake for all the businesses built up around it blocking the view". The reality: I have discovered the lakeside trail which is a lovely worn footpath that runs lakeside BETWEEN the lake and the business strip, all along the lake! It is grassy, shorn short by grazing animals, and quiet and rural and you get to see yaks and boats and normal Nepali people going about their day. ... totally bypassing the commercialism on "the strip". I'm not sure what the writers are complaining about. I have taken to walking there in the morning. It is glorious, the view and the quiet morning light.
They also bad mouth the island that is out in the lake, saying that it is over run with Nepali day trippers visiting the temple there. I think its delightful. I love to see local tourists, enjoying their own country and I think it adds a nice ambience to have not only tourists from out of country but also from within the country, ambling around.
After breakfast this morning I took a walk past the town, following the lake around the corner. The road basically turns inland, away from the lake, into some farmland. I thought it might wrap around the lake, making for a nice walk. Of course not ALL around the lake, its pretty big, like about the size of East Barriere or Big lake in the cariboo.
The Annapurna range has been showing itself every day for the past three days which has been a real treat. This morning when i stepped out my door I got a nice eye-full of snowy peaks just to my left that I hadn't noticed before. I don't know if was just too foggy or if I was just not observant enough.
The morning is the best time for viewing the peaks which peek over the hills. They are pretty awesome. Very spirey, steep, and sharp. This is the land of the yeti. The mythical snow creature. I think its mythical. Sort of like an Annapurnan sasquatch or an Ogopogo. Yetis.
Its trekking country here and every traveller I see looks like they are here for trekking.
I actually feel a little out of place being solo. Most people are travelling in groups of at least 2. So I feel pretty unique. I always like to be unique, so this works out well for me I guess. haha.
I am quite content to keep to myself. I have a few good books and my journal and I just sit and read or write. Such a bookworm. I do chat with people but I am more and more selective with who I talk to... I guess as i get older, because I used to just be friendly and strike up a conversation with anyone, only to find 2 minutes into the conversation that I desperately want to extricate myself, thinking of other things I'd rather be doing. Talking can be such a wasteful drain of one's energy sometimes.
Anyhow.
I went to call my dad the other day and it was almost a whole dollar a minute to phone Canada!!!
wow, won't be making any phone calls from Nepal, it looks like.
paragliding is also very popular here. They jump off a hilltop between the lake and the mountains and land somewhere down on the flats here. Something I don't have the guts to do but looking at the pictures I thought my dad would absolutely LOVE that, being an ex-hanglider champion and everything.
haha.
well, that's it for me today.
signing off in Pokhara.
Have a good day!

Indians don't believe in starving

Hey there everybody!
As i am sitting in this internet cafe there is the 6 year old son of the owner next to me on a computer listening to an English learning program on his headphones and repeating English phrases that are cracking me up like: "I am from Mexico. I like to travel. I am an engineer. I would like a beer please". Hilarious.
I realized that in all the chaos and movement of the past couple days, I completely forgot to tell you about my trip from Rishikesh, my quiet little holy town in the foothills, to the lakeside resort of Pokhara, Nepal, where I am now settled.
The morning I came from Delhi to Kathmandu I saw camels... a whole fleet of them. This was one of the most exciting things. I had just arrived by the night train from Rishikeash and actually was fuming (something I hardly ever do) in the back of an autorickshaw, the driver of which had pulled a fast one on me at the New Delhi train station and was now whisking me off to Indira Ghandi International as I grumbled in the back seat, replaying the whole scammy scenario in my mind.
The camels, there must have been at least 50 of them, were ridden 2 abreast on the side of the highway by some kind of uniformed force. They looked like an army but as I was too busy holding a grudge and giving my driver the silent treatment, I couldn't ask.
I took a video and will try to post it on youtube as soon as i get back to India, the land of cheap internet.
The night train from Rishikesh to Delhi was cozy. Full of sleeping and softly snoring Indians.. No one even looked at me twice and I felt very safe. It is the single woman traveller's nightmare to be on the receiving end of errant, wandering hands in the night. Even the feeling of having to constantly be on the alert and watching your own back is enough to ruin an entire nights sleep. And nights have the potential of being very long indeed, alone, on a night train in India.
But by some beautiful miracle, the experience was entirely positive, even in ways that i didn't expect it to be. I look forward to repeating it in the near future.
It felt strangely.... maternal and womblike in the train. The collective conscious of so many peaceful sleeping people seemed to soak into you and make you feel like you were asleep as a babe in mother's lap. Is this why they call her Mother India?
The gentle rocking of the car bacak and forth on the track as it slowly made it's way south must lull even the worst insomniac to sleep. Not like Italian trains at all, speeding and lurching with that horrible clacking sounds of the tracks and the feeling of dread that arises everytime the train stops to pick up new passengers in the middle of the night. Passengers who might slide open you door and demand to share your compartment or rob you, depending on their temperment. This being worse than the clacking.
No, this train ride was nothing like that. I was warm and comfortable in a sleeper. The train was quiet and for some reason I had a 4 bed compartment all to my self with two Indian ladies in berths on the other side of the curtain. It was the best of both worlds. Safety and privacy. We arrived in Delhi at 8am without incident.
Once in the capital I had to take care of some things. First, the Indian Airlines office to request a change of return date. They happily obliged and at no charge either. Then to someplace where I could purchase my return train ticket to Rishikesh. It felt like I was all over New and Old Delhi by rickshaw before this second objective was accomplished but all was made right by my discovery of the "foreigners only office" at the New Delhi station..... A bookings and reservations office set up explicitly for the poor confounded foreigners, lost in the Indian train system. That would be me alright. Big cities are always a hassle when you are travelling, but big INDIAN cities are even worse.
It was time to head for the airport. I never made it to the official prepaid taxi stand to find out how much the offical cost of the trip would be. Amateur mistake, I allowed myself to get intercepted on the way by enterprising young taxi go getters. I must have gotten soft from all my time in the ashram.
To their credit, they are just trying to scratch out a living. Its a matter of like 50 cents or a dollar difference to the traveller and if you are stupid enough to fall prey... then you deserve it. I know this is how the law of the Delhi jungle works, but my indignance over being swindled makes me fume about it later. Its the principle, not the money, of course.
Anyhow, i'm not really ready to talk about it yet. The details will have to be told later.
And so.... several camels and one shady driver later, I'm at the airport. Being in the international airport is like already being outside India. Everything is so shiney and new and appealing. Just like a so-called "developed" country. When I saw the Subway sandwich outlet, I couldn't resist. I haven't seen a chain restaurant since I left Chennai and had a Pizza Hut flyer shoved under my door. The price of a Subway sandwich, I will tell you, costs more than my room in Rishikesh by 25%, and that is for one of the cheap sandwiches. I decide on the Paneer Tikka, which is a decidedly Indian thing, sandwiched between a brown roll with all the fixins', olives and hot peppers, a real cornucopia of international flavours. I knew I wasn't in Kansas anymore when the mayonnaise he offered me turned out to be like an herbed aoili. Something you only encounter in Canada in the finest of restaurants. Even in Subways in Canada we don't have herbed aoili.
I know. I'm sorry to go on about food but the culture shock coming back to the city and "civilization" was pretty extreme. I might as well have stepped out of a Himalayan cave and into Indira International for the total disorientation, chill and thrill I was feeling. Rishikesh is a little like living in the Biblical land, in Biblical times, but with internet access. Coming to the .airport was like taking a time capsule trip into the future
Security was TIGHT in Delhi. I guess those terrorist attacks in Mumbai didn't help any. Can you believe we live in a world now where words like "terrorist attacks" just roll off the tongue and are a regular part of our every day conversation? I can't.
My customs official had what appeared to be multiple personality disorder. One minute he is shouting at me very abusively for not signing my departure card (while I try to show the proper amount of remorse and innocence) and the next minute he is loudly singing my praises for being a yoga teacher (while I try to keep my head from spinning off and into his lap from the complete about-face he just did). With his superior officer standing just over his left shoulder, I decide the best expression to have on my face is none at all. I think he is trying to trick me or test me somehow with his bizarre behaviour but he lets me through without any further hassles

Security checks make a big show but are ultimately not that efficient nor effective. I go through three of them but I notice a few holes and glitches that leave me with the inescapable feeling that they are just going through the motions, for appearances sake. hmm
Boarding the aircraft I am still high from all the glitz and glamour of international airtravel... so unaccustomed I have grown to what is considered the normal consumerism and capitalism in the rest of the world. The perfumes and liquors on display in duty free, the exotic languages and well-heeled people pulling their designer luggage to and fro. Of course, in India, it is only the very wealthy who can afford to fly internationally. Not like in Canada where any blue collar worker can give up a few cases of beer and a golf game to afford to hop on a plane for a week somewhere. k
Its always been a favourite pastime of mine in airports to watch people, trying to guess where they come from, where they are going and imagine their lives. Its the family from Dubai coming to visit family in India, the wealthy Turkish businessman with his bejewelled and dyed trophy wife , his third marriage., money just drips off of them everywhere. There is the disheveled but honest and clear-eyed, dreadlocked hippy returning home to Europe somewhere after living in India for the past 10 months on about 1200Euro. The mishmash of people. It is so interesting, the airport. Any airport..

, The only thing noteable on the hour and a half plane ride is the food, which is incredibly good..
especially for airline food. In that hour and half we are served both a snack AND a full vegetarian meal while on American and Canadian airlines you are lucky to get a free peanut and a thimble full of water on an 8 hour flight. Indians don't believe in starving. ,.

Musings from Pokhara, Nepal

I have decided... I am officially in love with Nepal.
Most of this feeling is due, I believe, to the
16 hour a day power outages and the way the place is in the evenings, after dark, with no electricity. It's like camping. Its a little bit magical to be here. and it really, really makes you think about the power you use, or don't use, as the case may be. I know the Nepalis are a little frusterated and embarrassed by the situation, but I am absolutely delighted. It is so peaceful.
After dark is the best time when only some places have generators or alternative power sources and the rest are reduced to candlelight and old fashioned oil lamps, like the ones we had when I was a kid at the ranch. The street is alive and swinging. Its like a quiet mardi gras, the way people are just strolling around. Music blares out into the street from the generatored places.... rock, jazz, typical Nepali music, and Asian electronic fusion (my personal favourite) all pour into the streets as you walk along and incense and savoury smells from kitchens waft to your nose. It is so mystical and magical. Cooking is not a problem because they cook on gas. Only espresso machines and other electronic devices are down. The general feeling is warm and amicable and a little bit exotic and mysterious.
Last night when i returned in the dark side street to my guest house (i call it my bed and breakfast because it is so nice it reminds me of a canadian bed and breakfast, but it is cheap, $5 cad off season rate... I HAVE HOT WATER!!!!, no lights, mind you, but who needs lights when you have hot water, is my thinking. the hot water is solar).... so when i turned down my street from the main street last night, it was Very very dark. You can just make out enough of the sides of the street to keep yourself on it, lit only by the stars and broken shadows. You sort of feel your way along until things start to look familiar and then you turn in to your guest house. I notice the Nepalis use the same method of navigating in the dark. Its only the foreigners that are carrying small torches. I never seem to when i travel. i don't know. i just never found it a necessary accessory to pack.
I was on the ball enough to buy candles yesterday, but alas, forgot to buy matches, which was fine because i bumped into my hotelier who was falling over himself apologizing profusely for the absolute blackness that permeated the property from the front gate to my front door. "No problem, no problem!" I reassured him. I shared with him a secret..... that i really love power outages. I told him I had candles and bummed matches off him before retiring alone to my big, romantic, candlelit room. I had a great sleep. The Nepalis really know how to make up a good bed. wow. The room values are good in this season.
They also know how to make a good restaurant. The food, the service AND the ambiance are first class for what you pay. Everything is about twice as expensive as India, but you do get what you pay for. Its kind of a nice break from roughing it in India. It all feels very posh and upscale by comparison.
You find the most unusual and unexpected things on the menu in foreign countries. .... Like the crayfish sandwiches i found at the Hong Kong airport Starbucks ( i didn't eat it of course), and here... they have Egg Nog!!! homemade egg nog, of all things. and it is probably the best egg nog you ever tasted, though i haven't tried it yet. Perhaps i will and report back to you.
what else?.... i dunno, just sometimes there are some things that you would never expect. something obscure and strange, that they somehow get a hold of and put on the menu. Perhaps some foreigner was telling them about it. They are very ingenious and enterprising. If they think you will buy it, they will figure out how to make it, and make it good so you will buy it.
It has taken me 4 days to finally figure out the money here and the exchange rate of canadian dollars to Nepali rupees without converting it in my mind first through Indian rupees then to canadian dollars....(imagine the mental gymnastics required there!)
The internet is really expensive here in Pokhara. More than double what it is in India. Probably because they have to fire up the gas generator every time you go online.
But besides contributing to air pollution every time I need to use the internet, I am really enjoying the power outage situation. It is the single most defining aspect of the whole Nepali experience at the moment.
A nice and unexpected thing i've found here is FIREPLACES in restaurants. Its just like a ski chalet. So nice to warm your bones by wood heat during these cold Himalayan nights.
Pokhara is a lakeside resort type place and its off season, so it's pretty quiet. Alot of shops and restaurants and not alot of people to fill them. It seems popular with young Nepalis. I don't know if they are tourists too or if they live here.
I am here one week, and i sort of look at it as a vacation from my vacation. haha. although my travelling, living, and being in India is not a vacation in my eyes, its an education, and i work pretty hard at times there.
To give you an idea of the kind of place Pokhara is.... this morning as i ate my breakfast i looked out at some pretty nice mountain bikes lined up against a wall across the street. On the wall was painted "bikes for rent" and the bikes were not locked. There was no cable running through them to keep them from being taken. It is just not conceivable that anyone would do it, take them, i mean. and you easily could because there is no one watching them and even the shops nearby wouldn't necessarily notice if you did. If you DID want to rent one, the process would be going to each of the shops around there to find out who was doing the renting.
One store I looked in this morning that sold Buddhist art and painting had no shopkeeper. I browsed for 5 minutes and but the shop remained empty. Typical of off-season here.

Despite business being so slow, Nepali's are not pushy about selling their wares. You can't imagine that they sell more than 3 or 4 dollars a day in the off season now, but this doesn't seem to bother them too much. The merchandise is all beautiful from Yak wool sweaters, pashminas and bags to cushion covers and jewellry. It is all gorgeous and would fetch a pretty penny in the west.
I can't get over that they have twice as many non-power hours (16) as they do power hours (8). This just blows my mind. But you know if the world all went to hell in a hand basket and the economic system crumbled and we were out of fuel and out of power and no groceries on the shelves of the supermarket, you know that the people in Nepal and India would fair ok. They already know how to survive with very little, to live very basically and simply. Its us in the western and developed countries who would be mostly at a loss as to how to proceed.
Here, life is still somewhat natural and not totally divorced from instinct and common sense.
Not that I'm criticizing the west, I'm just observing some of the good things about countries like Nepal and India.
So, my hour is up. I'm going to go for a walk along the lakeside and see what i can see. Leisurely day. I already took my laundry in to the service (taking a break from handwashing it myself in a bucket) and i just have to sell a book and then my "chores" are done for the day.
I will probably move to the Buddhist centre in a day or two for the rest of my stay in Pokhara, when i am done relaxing in my bed and breakfast.
lots of love to all.

day 2 - Kathmandu

I immediately like the Nepalis. They are modest and unassuming, two very likeable qualities in people.

Nepal is like an upscale version of India. And accordingly more expensive. Everything is just a little more organized, a little more civilized and a little more polished than in India. I really like Nepal. Of course, my first love is still India, I suspect it always will be but I am pleasantly enjoying the subtle differences and nuances of the new country.

This morning, after a little trip to the Indian Embassy with my... what shall I call her? agent? (Yes, my "agent", the woman I've hired to jump through all the Indian visa application hoops for which I have neither the patience nor the connections to ensure the process goes off smoothly and timely. I can't afford any mistakes. I can't afford the application to be refused, there are too many plane tickets paid for and yoga courses registered for riding on my returning to India January 24th. I had talked to a few on the tourist trail that say that things are getting a bit tougher for visas in Kathmandu, hence... the agent. I figure it's worth it. That way instead of spending the week in the city, making the 2 or 3 more trips to the Embassy that will be required, waiting in line in the cold, and worrying about whether the outcome will be favourable or not, I can go to Pokhara in the mountains and relax and enjoy the view of the lake and the Annapurna mountain range while sipping a cup of coffee and reading a good book, letting her take care of it all. Sounds alright. She's an interesting character... sort of like the "interesting" customs official I had at the Delhi airport yesterday, but I'll tell you about that later.

It has taken me this many years of travelling to learn how NOT to torture myself by doing things the hard way. Sometimes it's just good to pay a little extra and be stress and worry free.)

Anyhow, boy I digress. So after the trip to the Embassy, I go looking for my original hotel choice: "the Shangrila guesthouse", which is supposed to be about $5 a night. Its on my map and so I go off looking for it. I walk and I walk and finally I find it. There, I see grand gates with golden lettering, drive thru valet and bellboys and guards. This is not my Shangrila guesthouse. It's Shangrila alright, but its Shangrila Hotel, that's 5 stars folks, so I won't be staying there tonight.

The journey to Kathmandu is like trains, planes and automobiles, the movie. Four rickshaws, one bus, one night train, one plane, a shuttle and a taxi ride later, I arrive in Kathmandu and it is everything my mom, who really wanted to come to Kathmandu, would enjoy.

At the airport there was another incident similar to the one that happened in Bangkok a few years back wherein I had my hotel all picked out only to allow myself to be persuaded by the taxi people to go to their friends' hotel where they will receive a commission for bringing me. I'm a sucker sometimes for going with the flow in that respect. The hotel they choose is always a little pricier than my choice, but it is always nice.

I explored Kathmandu, Thamel district, by night last night as it was dark by the time I got into my room. The street had a real mystical Asian feel to it at night that was very seductive, very exotic. I ended up having dinner in a place that was a proper restaurant (as opposed to a couple of plastic chairs and tables and a dirt floor with dogs laying around and a plastic roof as many of India's finest eating establishments are) and I was surprised and shocked to experience "dining" again, as a recreational experience as opposed to just a way to feed your face. In fact, all of being here is culture shock, to the extreme. Nepal is not that different from India, on a world scale, but relatively, it is SO different from the area that I have been for the past 6 months. Yesterday was a trip. Trippy and surreal are the two words that I couldn't get out of my head.

Kathmandu is extremely prone to power outages. 16 hours. That is the amount of time each day that they go without electricity! And the city functions, still. Somehow. Can you imagine this? so for 8 hours a day they have power. Some more established establishments have generators they run if they need to. Half way through my dinner last night, the power went out. They started the generator, business as usual. I sort of lingered there for awhile. It was getting late, I paid my bill and stepped out into the street, it must have been about 10pm, and all the street was black except for a few candle lights and the odd generator generated light in a shop, occasional car or bike headlight and, oh, and a couple of "street fires", usually garbage that has been lit up for light and for warmth. Its really crazy that they function like this, but they do.

I walked home in the dark. Everyone tells me the neighborhood is very safe even at midnight to walk alone in the dark and you can feel it in the energy in the street, its very cozy. I missed the turnoff to my street completely because it was so dark, but i realized it only a few steps further, that I had passed it and i turned back. My street is like an alley and it was darker than all the rest. There, there were a couple of shadows walking, and a couple of shadows standing, but you can tell they are benevolent by their feel. When you can't see, you see by feeling. Everyone, Nepalis and foreigners alike, all temporary or permanent residents of the city have to put up with this situation together so there is a little feeling of ... we're all in the same boat. I have never felt so safe in such a dark alley in a city at night in all my life. Quite the experience. Its a good thing I have a good sense of direction.

At the hotel, the generator was running so I went to my room and was writing for awhile. After about 15 minutes, the generator and the lights went off. I brushed my teeth and fished around for my pajamas in the dark and climbed into bed. Bed was wonderful. Bed was nice and firm and covered with clean sheets, then a fuzzy blanket (also wonderfully clean smelling) and then a big heavy duvet type blanket that i think is cotton stuffed with wool. It is heavy and so when you pull it on you , it really makes you cozy and comfortable with its weight. (The rooms are all unheated, except the 4-5 star type places, so heavy blankets are a must when the temp drops to around 3 or 4 degrees above zero at night (day:20 degrees)).........

So at about 4 in the morning I wake up to the lights being full on. The power is back on (at 4am when nobody needs power anyway, but anyway.....). I get up and turn them off and go back to sleep. In the morning, when i wake up to take a hot shower (hot water is electrically heated) and go to turn the lights on, the power is again out, and no generator on. So I just have a good laugh about that and go on with my day.

Here is the only place in the world I've every seen candle holders and a box of matches provided in room as part of the standard furniture and amenities. It's BYOC- bring your own candle.

This Ain't the Ganges anymore, Toto....

Kathmandu,
wow.
wow.
wow!
I'm a long ways from where I was. wow. I can't stop saying wow!
As loathe as I was to leave the peace and tranquil spiritual vibrations of Rishikesh, my senses are alive in Kathmandu.
Where to begin.
Well, i just wanted throw out some of my first impressions as i just arrived and i am wandering through the streets, in awe. I'm in the funky neighborhood of Thamel. There are all sorts of vices on offer here, but its very safe and friendly. I want to convey the contrast, of where i was to where i am. Ok, Rishikesh is all... holy men in white and orange robes and spiritual bookstores and yoga classes and teachers, and lectures on the scriptures and sacred cows and fire ceremonies. For real. a holy town. Everything shuts down by about 8pm there and its quiet.
Here... there is actual alcohol on the store shelves and the smell of steak, real beef, wafting through the streets without shame. (remember rishikesh is 100% vegetarian and no alcohol). There are dancing girl bars and live music with rock ringing out in the streets. These are the contrasts that are stunning me right now, because i have been in that other environment for 4 months, so this is like a circus now.
Kathmandu is unpretentious, low key, down to earth, vibrant, funky and real, and more chinese looking than india. India too, is unpretentious, but less clean, less manicured and shiney. Here you can BUY stuff! there is actually a Baskin Robbins!!! and cake! seriously, these are the things i have not seen in 4 months!
the people in the streets are outnumbering the vehicles and bikes by about 100 to one. its basically pedestrian dominated in this area. and there is no cow manure to constantly be looking not to step in!!! this is a nice touch.
the shopping is amazing. there are so many beautiful and inexpensive things i want to bring it all home for all of you. handmade paper journals and lampshades.... yak wool bags and pashminas... the list goes on and on.
well.
i'm going back out to have some dinner and will write more tomorrow.
when i'm settled.
just really wanted to share.

dogs

It's apparently puppy season in Rishikesh in January. There seems to be puppies EVERYWHERE! i'm not sure what the explanation for this is but i have seen at least 5 litters in the past 2 days. cute as all get out.
I finally broke down today, (I'm such a sucker,) and bought dried milk toast for this cute but very hungry looking mother of 5. She got me. All her fat little pups. They looked just at that age where they start to get really annoying with their little teeth and nails. She was as skinny as a dog can get and still be a dog.
As i approached on the street i saw her get up from nursing, almost as if she was like, "ok, enough is enough, i need more food now" and she headed straight for me, me, with my belly full of honey toast and wheat porridge and chai but nothing in my bag to give her at all. There is so little people activity in the street now compared to the busy season here, that her chances of a meal are greatly diminished. Don't forget this is a vegetarian town, so the prospects of chicken parts or even a fish head thrown her way are non-existent. Dogs here survive on vegetables, chapati and rice. I did see one enterprising young canine mother the other day trotting, head held high, with a half a young cow leg in her mouth, hoof and all. She was probably stoked to turn her little toothy rugrats loose on that tasty morsel.
Anyhow, as for me, i headed for the nearest canteen to buy a couple of chapati (traditional flatbread) for my dog. "no chapati" they replied there. I looked around me thinking "no chapati? how is that possible? Indians eat chapati with EVERY meal!" then it dawned on me as i looked about the shop.... "ONLY CHAI!" we, the family and i, all chimed together. So i went next door to a little shop, looking for dog food. What would a dog eat? there were candies, cookies, biscuits and pop...and a loaf of bread. i asked the shop keeper "i'm looking for dog food, what would a dog eat?" He points to the dry milk toast, kind of like a rusket. Not the most nutritious thing in the world, but it does have milk and wheat and sugar, so at least it will give her energy, if not an incredible thirsty desire to head for a drink at the river.
Turning back to where they were, i see the puppies, rolling around in the dirt, play fighting eachother. Then i find the mother. She is a nice dog. She happily eats the dry toast out of my hands, one by one. Every time one of the puppies steals one of the toasts i am feeding her, she lets them take it. Mother's ultimate sacrifice. It warms my heart, the selflessness.
Ultimately the puppies only nibble at the edges for fun and then abandon their own piece to fight one of their siblings for their piece. Practicing all their survival instincts for later.
A gentle cow looks on. I go over to give her some too. She is as gentle and mannered as the dog in the way that she takes my offering. Neither creature has grabbed or been pushy or greedy, both exhibit such delicacy and grace in the way they take the food, as if they are not starving.
Eventually the mother clearly starts to get dry mouth, and i start laughing at her and the dry toast. She finally stops taking the toast from me, so i show her a place where i hide the rest of the dry toast, in case she wants it for later.
The exchange buoys me for hours afterwards.
The place i had breakfast this morning is the same place i had lunch the other day, riverside with a beautiful Ganga view, across from where i saw the funeral. Apparently that is the burning ghat, the typical place where the people conduct their funeral ceremonies riverside, because as i ate my breakfast this morning, i watched another one. First there was nothing. No one. Then a couple people arrived. Its a BYOFW situation: bring your own firewood. Everyone brings a log or a stick to construct the funeral pyre, because its a big job, and there's no company you can hire, no organization that you can pay to do it for you. The people take care of their own. By the time i left the restaurant, the flames were leaping high in the air, the wheel of life continues to turn.

aaah india

Today I ate a lovely lunch with a view of the river and watched a body burn. sorry to be so crude. But its true. Nowhere else I'VE been in this crazy world can you eat lunch with a nice view of the river while a cremation ceremony is underway at the water's edge on the other side of the river. Nowhere but India. Life on your doorstep.
I feel a little "lax" in my duties as a travel writer here. For one, i'm not really travelling so much, i'm more sort of... camping out, so i guess i start to not see things that have become everyday to me. But there are still monkey fights and cow encounters and other random things.
hmmm. Things are really very quiet here in January. Very relaxed. All the store owners are just kicking back. Indians go with the flow. So business is down, they hardly stress about it. This is life as it ebbs and flows.
I like it. Its nice and cool and peaceful compared to october, november or march.
In two days I head to Delhi on the night train, so i'm sure that will turn over an observation or two.
From there i will fly to kathmandu, nepal to get the visa process underway.
when i get back to rishikesh at the end of january i start my teacher training which goes for one month.
i'm about half way through my trip i realized. wow. the time has gone by so fast.

secret routes and cow dates

Today i discovered a secret route.

From my hotel to the shops, this new road goes up the hill rather than down, through trees and empty cobblestone streets, in nature with cows and monkeys and birds, around all the hustle and bustle of the town and comes down between two quiet ashrams to the shops on the other side. Totally bypassing the noise, the traffic, the hawkers in the street, the beggars, the crowds, the craziness. In fact, it is a shortcut, so not only is it nice, quiet and peaceful, it is shorter! Or maybe it just seems shorter because it is more enjoyable. Regardless. I am very pleased.

On the way, I fed my dates to cows because this morning i discovered they were buggy! (the dates, not the cows) Buggy from inside the sealed package. They were that way when i bought them. so that wasn't a very fun discovery in my cereal this morning. The cows didn't mind though, and smacked their black lips in gratitude.

I have taken to making some food in my room. I can boil hot water as i bought a hot water coil and a big silver cup. SO i can make tea, and i can boil water for hot cereal. I have nuts and dried fruits and fresh fruits and granola and also some spices like cinnamon bark and green cardomom pods and fresh ginger. So its quite the apothecary. I can do all sorts of things with it, like boil the cinnamon and cardomom for a while and then pour the granola in the hot water, add some honey or apricot juice, nuts and raisins and banana and PRESTO! i have a hot, tasty, nutritious breakfast without ever having to leave my room and i sit in the sun on the balcony and eat it. I'm pretty proud. I won't lie.

I am feeling a little lonely after leaving the warmth and friendship of the ashram, but that happens every time i leave an ashram. i miss family and friends, as i always do when i am away so long. Its all natural and good. I still have friends here in Rishikesh from when i was here last time, so its nice to go and say hello to them and have chai. Chai, always chai, lets have chai. Its such a nice ritual.

I love the quietness of it here in the off season, but i do notice that people are just a little bit hungrier than they are in the tourist season, because there is less tourist money flowing, less people giving money in the street and its also a little bit colder so it requires more food to keep warm. So i notice this a little bit around me, but its very subtle.

I have very little to report. I just wanted to tell everyone that i miss you, and love you.

i hear you are getting lots of snow in Kamloops. I'll admit, i'm a little jealous. I love lots of snow.

Here the weather continues to be like a lovely spring or fall day in canada during the daytime, and a bit brisk at night, but i think we are still way above plus 5 or so. I am warm at night, cozy in my bed and that's all i care about.

I continue to soak up Indian culture and keep all my senses as open as possible at all times. The world is your teacher if you let it be.