It has been fo eva since I blogged, for which I sincerely apologize to anyone who at one point was interested in reading this. I have been having a marvelous time abroad and I haven’t found much time for blogging, but now that I have finally sat down to do it, I must say I’m already starting to enjoy typing it out. Anyways, when we last left our tragic hero, he was on his way to Dharamsala for some enlightenment from the Dalai Lama…
On October 1st, my new travelling companion Michelle (burning man participant, fashion designer, and all around cool cat) and I made it to the teachings of the Dalai Lama. The teachings lasted for 4 days and were based around the teachings of the Dharamdatu, a Buddhist scripture, and the idea of emptiness. The temple was pretty unimpressive for being the temple of the holiest person in Buddhism, imagine if the Pope preached in your local Methodist church, okay well maybe not that weird but still you get the picture. Anyways, the security to enter the temple was pretty intense. I got patted down and felt up by several Tibetan men, not one of whom bought me dinner or said I was pretty. The teachings themselves were very interesting but not being a Buddhist, I had difficulty following some of the concepts taught by the Dalai Lama. However, I did gather that attachments to worldly things, desires, and people leads to suffering, so it is essential to give up these attachments to reach nirvana. The Dalai Lama also spoke about the true nature of the mind as being empty, which is interesting as an empty mind in the west is considered to be characteristic of a dumb person. While the concepts taught may have been a bit complicated, the Dalai Lama himself expressed his happiness quite simply. It was very special seeing one of the most revered men in the world smile and laugh so much despite all the troubles and sorrows he has experienced. Maybe he really has reached another stage of happiness or enlightenment…
The town the teachings were in, Mcleod Ganj not Dharamsala (that is the larger town nearby), was incredible. It is situated in the lush mountains of north India and has a beautiful waterfall and river nearby. The town was filled with westerners and especially Israelis, who tend to come here often after their military service in Israel. All Israeli citizens are required to perform military service, and upon completion around the age of 21 or so, most of them use the money they earned to go traveling. I have been told by one Israeli group that most choose to go to India or South America, and boy do they roll in packs.
Anyways, after the teachings, I decided to do a 3 day meditation course at a local meditation center called Tushita. It was an incredible experience. Meditation and mindfulness are currently being researched as possible ways of treating mental illness, and I think that it’s a great practice for anyone trying to better themselves. The class was taught by a 60 year old American, UNC grad (!), who was wonderfully eccentric (she told me she was psychic and had a friend who cured schizophrenia). She taught about emotional balance, how to change bad behavioral cycles, and how to meditate. As she had been a psychotherapist, her teachings were incredibly interesting to me. The meditation she taught us dealt with teaching our brains not to think, which they have a bit of a natural tendency to do. She told us that meditation is a cumulative process so that the more you do it, the greater benefits you receive. The benefits of meditating seem to be greater peace of mind and contentment. I have been trying to do it at least once a day for about 25 minutes and I hope to continue when I return home, however, just like exercising, I often conveniently find a reason not to do it.
I also ran into my friends Jess and Matt in Mcleod Ganj (I met them in Mumbai), which was wonderful and greatly increased my time spent drinking, playing cards, and laughing. At this point, I had been in Mcleod Ganj for about 2 weeks, so I figured it was probably about time to move on. So, Matt, Jess, and I boarded our seats on the bus to Rishikesh. I started off sitting in the very back row of the bus on the right side next to the window, behind two incredibly anorexic twins (zombie twins). After a few minutes, the twins romantic partners came and asked to switch with us. The guys were very nice, we played some guitar and had a few laughs. Anyways, I find it really hard to fall asleep on night buses, which is what this was by the way (I’m a terrible narrator). Eventually, I fell asleep only to be awoken by two douchebags fighting about one of them pushing their seat back, which the one fellow really didn’t like. They woke up most of the bus until another guy threatened to “burn down the whole bus unless [they] shut the hell up and [went] back to sleep.” His tactics were a bit harsh but effective. So after another hour or two I was finally falling asleep when I was awakened to wild shaking of the bus and the sound of broken glass. Apparently, our bus had been swiped by a jeep in the back right corner of the bus. We checked to see if everyone was okay. Everyone was okay except for the guy who had asked to switch seats with me earlier in the ride. He was sleeping with his head on the window and after the accident, his head was outside of the bus.
His friend tried to wake him up, and when he didn’t wake up, we knew something was wrong. Luckily, some of the Israelis on the bus were medics and jumped into action. He had a major laceration on his head and was bleeding profusely. I will never forget the sound of him choking on his own blood. The medics used a pen to keep his mouth open and broke one of his teeth in the process. It took the ambulance over 45 minutes to arrive and the cops twice as long. I found it hard not to think about how I had been sitting in that seat hours earlier and how terrible I felt for Raoul, the victim of that car accident and how he had taken my place. I felt fortunate that it wasn’t me but I felt bad that I felt that way.
Eventually, we arrived in Rishikesh. We spent the rest of that day relaxing. The events of that morning seemed like they happened to someone else, ages before. That afternoon, we ran into another member of the bus who relayed to us the terrible news. The fellow injured in the bus crash, Raoul, had died. It took about 6 hours for him to get to an adequate treatment center and he had received no services before then. RIP Raoul. There’s nothing like a close encounter with death to make you appreciate the life you are living and the people in your life. I’ve learned to love life and the people in it because you never know when you might lose either.
Once we had dealt with the bus ride, we were better able to appreciate Rishikesh, which was an incredible city. Rishikesh is a very spiritual city, located on the Ganges river, which is incredibly sacred to Hindus. Rishikesh is also the location of the ashram (meditation and spiritual center) where the Beatles wrote much of the White album when they came to India. The ashram has not been used in over 13 years, and since then, the jungle has completely overtaken it. All of the paths are covered with vines and the biggest spiders I have ever seen. I also think I may have seen the inspiration for the line “I am the eggman.” On top of the residence halls are large white egg shaped structures that you can get inside of. When you are inside the sound resonates crazily. Its wicked cool and my guess for where that random line come from.
The next day, we went to a 2 hour yoga class. It kicked my ass, but I felt great afterwards. Then we went white water rafting, which was a gorgeous ride but not all that difficult. I did get the opportunity to swim and pee in the Ganges, making it slightly less sacred (or perhaps more so…nah), sorry Hinduism. The next day we went to Chilla trying to go to Rajaji National Park, which turned out to be closed, but we managed to find something to do. We snuck into the park and hiked around, which is where I was photographed in my most Indianness, which is definitely unsuitable for Facebook. On our way back to our jungle hut hotel (carrying a bag of food), we spotted a monkey, or more likely the monkey spotted us. The monkey jumped onto the road and then attacked. It ran straight for our bag of food, ripped it, grabbed food and scampered away with some sweets. We had just been monkey mugged. I have never in my life been more mad at a monkey. I cursed, threw several rocks, and generally made a scene. It was to no avail, the monkeys had won, as I always knew they would.
The following day, I said goodbye to Matt and Jess and made my way to Nepal; another nightbus, another night of little sleep. I arrived at the Indian/Nepali border at around 3 am and made it across by 6 am with the help of a bald fellow named Bhupesh. By throwing his dad’s government card around at the border, I didn’t have any problems. Then, I took another night bus from the border town to Kathmandu.
Kathmandu is a cool town. I stayed in Thamel which is the super western part of town, which is a nice place to recharge but not a great slice of real Kathmandu. Two days after arriving in Kathmandu, I made my way to Chitwan National Forest, where I was trying to fulfill my Asian dream of riding an elephant. I was one of two folks at the resort where I was staying. The other was another 22 year old named Angelina from Russia. She was tons of fun and loved all this naturey stuff, which I have come to love while abroad. I have typically been younger than the people I have been travelling with, Matt and Jess were 26ish and Michelle was 30. So, it was nice hanging out with someone my own age although, I’ve realized that age really is just a number...unless you are over 40 then you are officially an adult, no two ways about it.
At the park, we rode canoes, went hiking, and saw crocodiles, rhinos, peacocks, elephants, and lots of other birds. The coolest part of the trip was bathing with the elephants. Angelina and I rode our elephant, Stampy (I named him since I can’t spell or pronounce his Nepali name), into the river where she then started spraying river water at us with her trunk. She then flopped down in the river taking us with her. We got to help bathe her and we rode her without a saddle. It was epic!!! I fell in love. Elephants do not feel like I thought they were. Imagine a big hairy tank…
Back at Kathmandu, I visited a very cool park called Pashupatina and an amazing garden called the Garden of Dreams. I meditated there and stargazed for hours. I also had the opportunity to play guitar with some locals. I played guitar and sang, while the guys played a traditional drum, my egg shakers, and basically anything to make rhythm (clapping, spoons). Then, they played some traditional Newari songs, which were epic. We passed a few chillums around which definitely gave the experience a real Nepali flavor.
A few days later, I left for Tibet. Going to to Tibet requires you to go with a group, so I reluctantly signed up for a group trip. Luckily, this group was pretty cool: lots of cool people from all over. The trip involved going from Kathmandu to Lhasa Tibet in 7 days. I spent ages on a bus, but the landscape was amazing and it gave me a chance to listen to music, which always helps me appreciate nature. Also, Tibet is incredibly high, cold, and dry. I got horribly chapped lips and altitude sickness, as well as a greater appreciation and understanding of Tibetan Buddhism.
At one of the hotels we stayed at, I had difficulty falling asleep all night. Part of the problem was the dreams I was having. One of which was a dream in which I couldn’t fall asleep, which is very frustrating when you think you are awake in bed. The other problem was the rambunctious rodent in the room. I woke up several times with the distinct impression that something was crawling on top of me. I thought it was a dream until my roommate, Richard, a 61 year old Buddhist from England, reported the same thing. The following day upon returning to the room, I noticed a terrible smell. I checked the toilet (as that is usually the source of terrible smells) and it turns out the rodent was a rat after all and it had drowned in the toilet. Gross.
Besides that, Tibet was great. Lhasa was especially cool and Potala palace there was amazing and pretty monstrous. However, Tibet is not exactly what I was expecting. I expected lots of rural areas, loads of Tibetan Buddhists, and simple towns. The Tibet I found had serious Chinese influences. As you may know, China annexed Tibet over 5 decades ago and since then, has been shipping in more Han Chinese and basically trying to eradicate the indigenous culture of Tibet. Many of the monasteries had to be rebuilt since the Cultural Revolution (when the Chinese destroyed many of the structures) and Lhasa itself looks like a wild mixture of traditional Tibetan structures and ridiculous commercial Chinese buildings: so many flashing lights. I have never seen more soldiers and policemen in my life. It is sad to see the erosion of Tibetan culture. Although, there has been a resurgence of Tibetan culture in recent years. ‘
Also, people here are fascinated by my facial hair. One older woman, “ooed” at the hair on my arm and began to rub it. While at a night club in Lhasa, which was super ridiculous, I had a fellow rub my beard several times and take multiple pictures with me/my beard. He also bought us an absurd amount of beer. I was the only college age fellow so I drank most of it and then created a nice beeramid.
So, that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing for the past month. It has been a blasty blast. I’ll be in China for about 2 weeks and then I’m headed to Vancouver to see my buddy Colby Ramsay. I’m currently sitting on a 30 hour train ride from Lhasa to Xi’An where the Terra Cotta army is located. Writing this blog has helped me maintain my sanity and now that it is done, I will probably go crazy so it has been a pleasure knowing you all. Until we meet again dear reader…
