Khajuraho
Trip Start
Oct 04, 2008
1
4
38
Trip End
Ongoing
Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh, India
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Sasha and the commission man (I forget his name, now) are in the picture. The commission man gets money whenever we go into any shop or restaurant with him near. He acted like a generous person touring us around for free. But he was nice enough and it was great to see his neighborhood and house. And the school.
I even taught briefly at the school! "I am happy/sad" (I think it was) and Jump-no-jump. Jump-no-jump is such a great game. They sit like a frog. If I say jump, they jump. If I say "No-jump", they should not. Anyone who makes a mistake is out. Thanks to Mahendra for this game! They were all laughing and excited by the end.
The principal asked Sasha and I for money but we said no. We know about this scam. Me from Bodhgaya. We later learned that the school was started and funded by a Quebec woman as well as some local volunteers. They money donated from tourists goes half to the commission man and half to the principal. Which isn't so terrible in a way since the teachers don't get paid much. But not how I want to donate.
Sasha was from the UK but had lived in Australia for a while and was traveling before moving back to the UK. She was fun. I met a couple from America too who were good. The four of us met on the bus coming in.
I met an interesting boy from the town who I talked with for a while. He invited me to see a Baba (holy man) which was nice. The Baba had raised this one orphan boy and taught him yoga. The boy he raised was now 20ish and attracted Western women easily. He spoke English well, said semi-deep things and was physically quite attractive. I was a bit jealous! The things he said were not that deep but I could see girls totally falling for it. He had been invited to Europe to teach yoga so his success wasn't all just hot air. I would have liked to hate him for his success with women but he was sincere, philosophical and friendly to me. And I'm not female. The Baba could not speak English. He wore orange robes. He passed a joint around the circle (Babas often smoke marijuana and the police let them because it's religious) (I'm not really into smoking but I took a puff just to be polite). Then we left. It was a nice time. The deep guy and my friend (the boy) hung out for a bit and we had a drink. Wine. Cheap alcohol, it could have been anything they fermented! It came in a 1L water bottle! They wanted me to buy lots more alcohol (the deep guy could apparently drink like a fish) and a feast of food since they couldn't really afford it and they figured I probably spent $100 a night drinking at bars at home in Canada. But I said no thanks and those 2 didn't pressure me that much about it. However their 3rd friend who had joined us did. He said (shortened version): "maybe you should just leave then if you don't want to spend $60+ buying the four of us food and alcohol." ($60 is a lot in India, I normally spend $10-$15/day) So I left. An odd end of the night. Still a nice night except for the end.
