TravelStream™ news feed for member aissod on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/aissod en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 11 Jan 2009 04:18:12 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aissod/1/1231497720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aissod/1/1231497720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/aissod/1/1231497720/tpod.html Sun, 11 Jan 2009 04:18:12 -0500 India

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Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India

We have found a peaceful sanctuary in Bodh Gaya, the place of Buddha's
enlightenment, which, outside of the spectacular temple complex that
contains the Bodhi tree, I am sorry to report is the filthiest place I've ever seen in my life. I had expected to spend a large chunk of our trip here taking more music and perhaps cooking lessons, meditating under the Bodhi tree, and hopefully receiving some teachings. But there is really nothing here except thousands of Tibetan monks who are making the annual pilgramage for teachings from the Karmapa, one of their highest llamas. The last two days Matt and I had reached that point in our travels where we were at our wit's end with the noise, the smog, the stank and the piles of trash - as Matt put it, he was "OVER IT !!" Just as we were plotting our possible escape, we discovered a beautiful sanctuary just outside of town, with beautiful gardens, statutes, yoga and meditation space, clean delicious meals and quiet quiet quiet. AND we got this special room normally reserved for VIPs because we're only passing through for a few days. So we are happy happy campers and will be well rested and ready for the remainder of our travels. Today the sun came out also!!

We are onto the Taj Mahal in Agra and then the Pink city of Jaipur for a kite festival and some shopping!

xoxo
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Varanasi, Uttarakhand, India

We spent 5 peaceful days at a clean, peaceful ashram in Rishikesh and spent the first new years we could remember stone cold sober. :) A few of us gathered in the yoga/meditation hall and chanted mantras for world peace, and Matt and I rocked it out. We made great friends with truly sincere and fun folks from all over the world and chatted for hours over meals and on the roofdeck. I started off the new year with a freak-out that Matt had locked me out of my room (he actually left the key) and my yoga instructor consoling me by trying to make out with me -- I guess, all in all, your typical ashram experience. On a healthier note, I started off the year with a flute and tabla lessons and think I might be lugging some home - if I don't become the master I am envisioning, mom, they're all yours!

I thought Matt was overreacting with his gloomy outlook for our first overnight train ride given that we were unable to get tickets for anything other than the lowest sleeping class car. I thought: we take a pill and pass out and then eat a few snacks, see the countryside, drink some chai and its over. Well. The sleeping part was fine, and thankfully we didn't really know that we were running over 5 hours behind until around 3:30 the next day, although the fact that we stopped more than we moved gave us some indication. This smog/fog phenomona I mentioned earlier is quite a problem this time of year and they've cancelled some train lines for an entire month because of the visibility conditions. Three cars of the train were full of schoolchildren on a class trip, and the little girls who sat enough were shy and quiet enough for the first few hours. But as the hours dragged on and some irresponsible chaperons fed those kids some chai - this coupled with the fact that we had purposely dehydrated ourselves to limit trips to the lou - our ears and heads began to throb and it became the ride from hell, take 2. (number 1 being our car ride from Delhi to Rishikesh that took 7 hours instead of 3 or 4 it should, on a one lane road where everyone is driving biking and walking and playing chicken with each other).

Getting from A to B here takes a lot of work. On the bright side, Matt and I made some new friends, and got some great pictures of visiting snake charmers and trannies...we plan to post a few shots of what we looked like as the hours wore on. (All the best pix are on his camera by the way so I'll get them posted when I return).

Varanasi is one of the holiest cities for Hindus, and one of the oldest living cities on the planet, and is laid out on the Ganges River. We had heard Varanasi was noisy, polluted, and full of hassles, but it turned out to be very mellow for our visit and we soon were won over by its charms, despite our initial longing to never venture from our safe and clean ashram. The acclimation process was gentle. Once you've spent about a week in India - and spent a 24 hour train ride in sleeper class - you've pretty much seen it all and nothing is going to ruffle your feathers. Stepping through the mounds of buffalo, goat, dog, and human waste on the street? No problem. Walking by dead bodies and watching them burn? Fascinating. Bicycle rickshaw through the thousands of people and animals mobbed in the street? Great fun! I actually keep telling Matt I think the air is cleaner now, its not as smelly, and he tells me I'm crazy, I've just gotten used to it.
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Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India

here's those meditation caves, although the picture does not do it justice


and our purification dip in Mother Ganga
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Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India

Greetings my friends. We have escaped the ashram for the afternoon to get some caffeine sugar and internet!!! We did kirtan (chanting) last night, got ourselves to yoga class from 6 - 8:30 am and then joined in a fire puja (ceremony) this morning, so I think we've earned it. :) Chai, glorious chai, I cannot get enough. Here's a shot of our favoite (or at least first ) chai wallah, whose sugary connoction got us through 2 mornings of the most strenuous and amazing two hour ashtanga yoga class.

So lets go back a step. Our flights were smooth and painless. We were less than impressed with our "mid-range" room when we arrived in Delhi, with is eau du mothballs, but boy oh boy, after we ventured out into that smoggy craziness the next day, we didn't want to leave that sweet peaceful space ever again! It turns out mothballs is like the prevailing laundry cleaner scent here.

Leaving aside all the over forms of madness, the air in Delhi was like breathing directly from a campfire. There was not a sky to be found. We're fairly well worn travelers, but we were both genuinely stupified how the air could be like that all the time. The paper a few days later actually reported zero visibility fog conditions in Delhi. We know fog in San Francisco and that was no fog. It struck us very hard as we drove from Delhi to Rishikesh, waiting the whole ride for it to clear without result. In Rishikesh, which sits on the banks of the mightly Ganges and benefits from its winds, one can thankfully inhale and exhale deeply, and hack it all out with lots of fire breats. We both definitely felt renewed appreciation for our lot in life and the importance of our work. We can all agree that clean air and clean water are vital, but the import is much more tangible after this experience.

So Rishikesh is definitely a breath of fresh air. Nothing like some great yoga and a (very oily) ayurvedic massage to sooth the travel weary. We got hooked up with a great room and great info from some folks who saw us knocking on a hotel door on our 10:30 pm arrival and began easying in the next day and searching for an ashram. Our first choice totally dissed us, and I tapped in to the travel spirit and announced that we would wind up exactly where we were supposed to be. And here we are in a brand new, beautiful and quiet ashram with great teachers and delicious and healthy meals. Some of the ashrams we saw were definitely not our speed - especially the one with the mediation caves - dark dank and scary-looking halls resembling solitary confinement cells on Alcatraz. We've had days of good laughs about them, and are planning to go back for a good pix.

I'm sure it is no surprise to hear that there are lots of cows and monkeys about. The baby monkey on our balcony pictured below is cute enough...

but I'm a bit of a scaredy-pants after I was stalked and robbed of my bag of fruit from some big guys!! Lesson learned. :)

Will tell you more about the ashram and Varanasi next time. Best wishes for health and happiness in the new year.
xoxo
Love Andrea





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