The Taj Mahal! Unbelievable! 26th Nov 2009 - Agra

We all got up early so that we could go to the Taj for sunrise, however oddly they had an odd queuing system to get tickets & didn’t open the gates until the sun had nearly risen! Still once we were in it didn’t take away the amazing site of the Taj. It actually looks just like the pictures & you cant belive it is actually real. I touched the Taj but yet still when you look at our pics it looks like we were stuck on them! Inside the Taj its very open, apparently it was never finished, it did have a serene feeling to the place. Already by 8am it was getting hot so I was grateful that we had gone at this time of year that was apparently really cool. We sat down to mediate on one side of the Taj, I liked sitting quitely but the others said they were distracted by all the tourists going past. I enjoyed seeing the Taj but the overall experience wasn’t a patch on the Golden Temple, partly because no matter how hard you looked at the Taj & its wonderful architecture it just didn’t look real!

We also ventured off to the Red fort which was quite cool although like many of Indias buildings looked slightly worse for wear & neglected. The price that westerners pay for the Taj & other tourist sites is really expenie, the money is supposed to go to the restoration of the buildings but it didn’t look like they do much to me!

Agra was a tourist hub & therefore a place where you get a lot of hassle people everywhere wanting to get you a rickshaw or sell you something & not taking no for an answer. I was glad that we were getting out of there that evening on a night train to Pushkar (station near Pushkar that I have forgotton the name of) in Rajasthan. After the previous days experience I was hoping that the next train would be hassle free!

The train was delayed by 3 hours, more waiting! I remember Aeife saying that India has taught her patience & yes you definatley have to get used to Indian timings can mean anything! At the station it was funny me & Jay bumped into Paul , a dutch guy I had met in Mccloud Gange. I thought our paths would not cross but there we were 3 weeks later waiting for the same delayed train. We all played cards whilst waiting, then had a snooze until eventually the train arrived. At 12 at night the station had calmed down a lot & the only people around were now sleeping all around the station. Its amazing a lot look like they are dead as they cover themselves from head to foot in a blanket & then sleep on whatever they can find. Also people just cross the tracks to get to another platform, women, men carrying stuff, they don’t bother with the bridges!

When the train arrived this time things went a lot smoother, for starters knowing the carriage & seat your supposed to be in helps a lot! As it was so late the train seemed less busy, those that were on were busy snoring away, luckily in India you always have ear plugs with you as its generally v.noisey with either traffic or people! With ear plugs & eye mask & trusty Tibeten blanket from Mccloud I was able to get some sleep. The train was cold though even though I had thermals on! We arrived earlier than expected at our destination & then we headed for a bus to Pushkar, a place famous for its holy lake. Unfortunately when we arrived there was virtually no water in the lake as apparently it had been drained due to its dirtyness! Hahaha nevermind. Pushkar was a really cute little place with loads of stalls & nice different food places. We also had a guest house that had a nice big quiet garden & overlooking the mountains. Me & Jay had a wonderful time exploring the town, we got dragged down to the mostly empty lake to do a Puja offering by some locals, we thought afterwards that it was a half scam as they demanded money off us straight away. They said the money was for the Brahmans, Pushkar was the only Brahman town. Oh well you are going to get ripped off as a tourist in these kind of places & you just don’t know in India if you have to do these things or not, otherwise you might create bad karma, haha! Later on we & the whole town were invited to the local wedding. This was complete madness, it was a huge area & the bride & groom were at the front on thrown like seats been photographed, whilst all the women sat watching. At the side, there was an 80s style dance floor with a dj playing banging rave sytle music. It was crazy, all the locals got us to dance with them which was fun & then we got fo eat some lovely food. We went upto the couple who had a photo with us, hahaha! Pushkar had a lovely feel about the place & was a lot less hectic than some the towns we had passed through to catch buses, trains. It was a good first taster of Rajasthan, another time when I go back I would like to go into the desert, its really close by & supposed to be amazing, especially when they have the camel markets! Its one crazy party apparently.

Leaving Ispiice

25th Nov – I left Ispiice – Sascha, Verun & Aeoife & the local community. 5am bus to Chakki bank to catch a train to Agra where we were meeting Jay. For once in my life I was early for a train, this time 3 hours early! I tried to focus on this been a good thing & get over my inability to spend time waiting for things. This lasted for about 50 mins as I tried to write my journal , then I felt too tired to write but unable to sleep so I thought it would be a good opportunity to use the internet! It seemed like we were in the middle of no where but I was sure there must be one near by so I asked various people & they suggested a 10 min walk & I would find one. Whilst we had been there the same little begger boy had come upto us 4,5 times, each time we said no, I will not give money to kids even though they do look desperate & it breaks your heart, you know it will not help them, it only encourages them to continue begging. I left Natasha with the bags & headed to find the Internet, I managed to find the main street which interestingly didn’t seem to have any women on it, so I had a lot of curious eyes looking at me as I walked what turned out to be 15,20mins the wrong way! As I didn’t have any luck I turned round to go back, hot & tired, I still had my thermals on from the bus journey, as Dharmasala & the bus were freezing! As I was about to give up I found the interenet, by this time I only had about 30mins before the train, so quickly checked my mails & headed back to Natasha.

Now this would be both me & Natashas first train journey in India & neither of us were very savy about how things worked. I had a reserved ticket but when I looked at the sheet there was no seat or carriage number on it, whoops! Natasha didn’t even have a ticket & ended up by a local class ticket. We thought we would blag it so Natasha could sit with me on my sleeper seat, even though it’s the day you still have the beds out to lie down on so 2 people could share! When the train arrived it was heaving & hot! I made a decision that we should just sit on a free seat! We did this & when the guard came round, his English wasn’t too good & he gave up trying to get us to move & sort out Natashas ticket by saying she had to pay a fine by disappearing & not telling me where my seat was supposed to be. After feeling ok for a while & eating the amazing packed lunch Aeife had given us for the journey things started to get a bit troublesome after about 3 hours, the train was a 12 hour journey (that cost £5!) in total & I thought we were going to end up standing! Jay had said that all the train journeys he had been on the inidan people were really nice & let him join them in a good seating area even if he didn’t have the right ticket. This was not the case with me & Natasha, some Indian men got on & demanded that we were in their seats & that we didn’t have the correct tickets! They called the guard & after much kaffufle the guard told us we had to move & to follow him. Meanwhile the guys who were taking our seats had much fun laughing at us! I got slightly annoyed when none of them even helped us get all our backpacks down from the upper beds, you definitely get the feeling that women are not as respected as men in India! The guard took us to the guard room & basically kicked out some other guards & then finally with the help of another guard they managed to locate my seat, we were in the totally wrong carriage! As the right carriage for me was about 5 carriages away they told us they would find us a seat in the carriage near by. In the mean time they asked us if we wanted chai & then were really nice to us. They told us not to show anybody Natashas ticket as she shouldn’t be in the sleeper carriage! We got all the usual questions that you get in India, how old are you? What do you do? Are you married? When they find out my age & the fact I am not married they find it very strange & you get the distinct feelling they look at you like “poor girl left on the shelf” hahaha . I don’t care, the break from the squashed seat we were in with the sun blarring through was really nice & we actually had a seat & free chai!

Eventually the other guards wanted their seats back & moved us to another seat in the normal carriage, to our horror though they kicked some men out who were sitting there. We said we didn’t want to take their seats & we would share but the men moved anyway! The little seating drama was good as it wasted at least a couple of hours of the journey. When we settled into our seats the train didn’t seem that bad & I was quite enjoying seeing some of India. Every possible stop Chai sellers, beggers etc would join the train & try & get you to buy something, we were very grateful we had our packed lunch from Ispiice & our nibbles so we didn’t have to eat the food that passed by!

12 hours later we arrived outside Agra but then the train was held up for 1 hour outside the platform, by this time it was 11pm & we had been up since 4am so we were v.tired. Infact I had awoken at 2am as I couldn’t sleep as I was excited about going on my road trip through Rajasthan. First look of Agra train station at night & the place looked like a hole & it pretty much is apart from the Taj Mahal. We successfully found our hotel & met up with Jay who had travelled from Rishikesh.

Nov 21st & 22nd Nov= Travelled to Amritsar to see the Golden Temple! Beautiful !

Nov 21st & 22nd Nov= travelled to Amritsar. 5sam bus to Amritsar arrived at 10.30am. Natasha & myself headed on a local government bus early to Amritsar. The journey wasn’t too bad, quite bumpy but we managed to get some sleep, I had my trusty eye mask so that helped! On arrival to Amritsar we knew we were back in real India again, with lots of noise & people trying to get us taxi’s, rickshaws etc. We hopped into a cycle rickshaw straight to the Golden Temple; I had read that there was not a lot else to do in Amritsar apart from head to the Golden Temple. On arrival I couldn’t believe how many people were around, Indian people who were on pilgrimages to the temple. It says in the rough guide that the ultimate pilgrimage for a sikh is to come to the Golden Temple at least once in their life time. I felt quite primaliedged to be there when some people had clearly been travelling for a long time & they were overwhelmed. Anyone is able to come & visit the temple & eat for free & stay there on a donation basis. The authenticity of the place was incredible, with the sounds of the prayers & the chanting that was played right around the temple through speakers on every corner, it felt almost magical. The temple itself is surrounded by what is believed to be holy water, so you see men all around bathing in the water. There were no women bathing as this would not be proper etiquette but I did see women drinking the holy water once we visited the temple. We looked at the water & saw huge big orange fish in it & thought there is no way I would be drinking the water!

We made our way to a room where westerners can stay, it was a small room without windows that had about 15 beds in, it was nice & warm which made a change from the cold in Dharmasala. There was something very cosey about the place & it certainly was when it came to the eve the place was full. Me & Natasha offered to share a bed so that one of our beds could go to a Spanish couple that had arrived. Again I felt privaledged to have a bed at all when at night you see hundreds of Indian pilgrims who sleep on the floor in a court yard with nothing but a blanket to cover them. We dropped our stuff & then made our way to the food hall, they serve food to continuously to thousands & thousands of people. Its incredible you go into the hall & join the lines of people sat in rows & then people come round with huge buckets of dhal, beautiful coconut rice etc. They then come again & again to offer you more food. Afterwards you took your plate to the people washing up, it was amazing the sound of the clattering of the plates all day & night. We checked out the kitchens which had the biggest pots & pans you could ever imagine. Outside there are large groups of people peeling & chopping onion & garlic & other veg throughout the day. We joined a group & helped with the Seva (selfless service), it was great to joiin in & meet the friendly Sikhs even if we couldn’t communicate very well, most didn’t speak English or very little. When we got our cameras out all the men & women, who interestingly didn’t mix in their groups, all women together & all men together, all wanted photos of themselves. It was really funny but cute that they just wanted to see themselves in a photo. Mixing with the people who the Golden temple meant so much too, really made ithe whole experience, along with the atmosphere of the place. Even though there was a lot of people due to it been a Saturday, you could not help feel moved by the place.

We went to bed around 9pm as we were exhausted from the early start & travelling, now my patience were tested during the night. The last experience of sleeping in a dorm was at Tushita, where we were silent. I really appreciated the silence at bedtime because in this dorm there were so many people that it was to be expected that I would be disturbed from my sleep. Although I didn’t sleep that well, it didn’t deter me from getting up at 6am to go & queue to get into view the temple inside. It took an hour to queue but for once in my life I actually enjoyed the quue. I got to watch the sun coming up around the temple & experience the morning prayers & chants, where everyone in the queue joined in, there was an amazing atmosphere.

Once in the temple, we didn’t take an offering like everyone else as we didn’t know what to do with it! However we saw the live musicians (playing harmoniams, tablas, sittars etc) that basically must sit & play all day, incredible. There were also people sat in various alcoves reading prayers. People on the edge of the temple waters drank the holy water! I have to say the Golden Temple really was beautiful & well worth the long journey there. After we came out I sat on one edge of the water & did a mindfulness meditation. Although at that time in the morning it was cold, it was really nice to sit quietly. We then attracted a lot of attention & had indidans that wanted their photo taken with us, its so funny what a tourist attraction we were, despite been infront of this amazing building! I really loved the whole experience & would definitely go again. We headed back to Dharmasala on what we thought was a 11am bus, which turned out to be 12.15 but oh well, more waiting! The bus trip back wasn’t quite as smooth & we got stuck in loads of traffic (trucks everywhere!), we got back to Dharmasala around 8pm! We did have the usual chai stop on the bus where I braved it & tried some somosas from a street stall, they were lovely! I was grateful for the stop but couldn’t understand why on a 6-8 hr journey you stop either after 45mins or at the end of the journey on the way back , with only 45mins to go! Oh well that’s just India, nothing makes sense & yet in its own way everything makes sense!

Neglecting my blog!

I have not posted in a while as I have been having too much fun in the sun in Goa! I will recap over the events of the last 3-4 weeks soon. They include visiting Amritsa Golden Temple, travelling through Rajasthan, Pushkar, Udaipur , Mumbai & arriving in Goa. After recovering from Bronchitis when arriving in Goa I have now decided to settle in a beautiful place where I am now teaching yoga & living in a Ti-pee! It is like my dreams have come true! I had a wonderful time traveling through Rajasthan with Jay & it was a real eye opener to the real india. The sights that become normal, people sleeping everywhere in the streets, train stations etc etc. I wonder if the Government even try to do anything about all the people on the streets or if its just accepted as a normal part of life! The litter throwing, people going to the loo anywhere & everywhere, kids so young who are begging, doing dances on trains, slums right next to swanky houses. The sheer number of people everywhere! Trains like prison cells, or how i imagine them to be, this is in sleeper class as well! I still think India is such an amazing place, a country full of contradictions but the people for the most part are lovely with very kind hearts.

Mindfulness versus....

I meant to post this ages ago but forgot....

On the final morning of Tushita we all had our turn at going up to the front of the stage & reading out a mindfulness verse that we had written. The idea was to take your time, been mindful of the walk up to the stage with the microfone & then sitting quietly, taking a few breaths & then reading your verse. Speaking infront of 40+ people was obviously nerve wracking & not something i particularly enjoy but you had to remember everyone was in the same boat & become aware of your emotions & the arising feelings! One of my fellow students captured some of the versus that everyone had written & so I thought it would post them.

Heres mine!!!

Mindfulness Porrige

Everyday I ate my porridge with joy and mindfulness
but then I got sick and got the shits
and the porridge was no longer appealing!!

:-)

Below are other peoples versus, some about Karma jobs they were given!

May these verses that grew out of wisdom and silence
be a mindful sentry in your consciousness.
They were written by those of you that were in Carpe Diem at 15th November 2009.
If you weren't there and want to add yours, feel free to do so.
kind regards,
Jonas

When I look upon a stranger
I will not judge what I see
Their suffering is my suffering
They are another me

Leggen minden e'loele'ny boldog

Herkesi seviyorum

Through the goodness of my practice
may my spiritual teachers and guides of great virtue
the sun, the moon and all virtuous leaders of the world
The highest gods and evil forces;
celestial beings, guardian spirits of the earth and the lord of death
may those who are friendly, indifferent or hostile;
may all beings receive the blessings of my life.

Cutting:
My body is the knife
my intention the blade
yet cutting through nothing
realizing emptiness

Dressing up:
I put those cloths on to protect my body
but may my mind stay naked and pure
to welcome every situation
with ethics and compassion


As the group parts a drifts
they teach me their final lesson
in love without attachment.

To eliminate talking
is to eliminate awkward silences...
lets not bring back the awkwardness
with the talking

Dont forget the beauty of silence
and the awakened joy which
spills out afterwards.

With mindfulness, compassion and loving kindness
I wish for world peace, true love and to laugh, dance and be free!

All we have is this moment. Live it, be in it.