Delhi - training patience

One would expect that after having done a lot of Yoga and Meditation I should be able to face almost everything. Well, Delhi is a good place to test patience, resistance, and tolerance. I have never been in a place more crowded, polluted and loud so far, so every small task outside in the heat requires a big amount of will power in order to face the masses trying to communicate with you, mostly in order to make business. I am trying my best to keep friendly and relaxed but sometimes it becomes hard not to loose control and let the pour waiter pay for all the accumulated tension just because he was not able to bring a simple sandwich in one hour ;))) On the other hand this is the place to learn to take things and oneself less seriously and sometimes laugh even in the most annoying and surreal situations.
In the past days I discovered the Delhi Metro as the medium of transport which costs the least amount of nerves. No traffic jams, no honking, just huge crowds of people wanting to feel very close with one and other ;))) Together with a French friend I went to see Humayam´s tomb - the Taj Mahal was based on this building - and walked through Lodi garden …enjoy the pictures.

...if nothing important keeps me from doing so, I will write a closing entry making some kind of balance of the experiences made, things seen and conclusions drawn, so please bare with me for some more time even I am leaving this overwhelming country tonight. See you on the other side…


PS. I published the post about Amrizar 2 minutes ago, so keep reading and check out the photos, you will love them ;)

Amrizar - from gold to dust

As the end of this trip seems to be coming nearer in an accelerated manner I cut the time in front of the screen in order to inhale the some more breaths of the real India. Amrizar, the capital of Punjab certainly is a highlight of every Indian or visitor. The golden temple was found by the ethnical group called Sikhs, who are easy to recognize by there never cut hear and beards with their heads covered with different kinds of turbans according to their social and matrimonial status and not to forget their beautiful knifes hidden under their long, normally white shirts. Once more I got the feeling that I had entered the land of "1001 nights", observing majestic men and stunningly beautiful women walk along the lake surrounding the temple.
The Indians are demographically a very young people, so where ever you look you see babies and small children jumping around, playing, laughing and trying to get rid of their excess energy ;) It was breath taking with how much openness and friendliness the locals welcomed my travel maids and me. Many came to talk with with us with a sincerity and an interest which is hard to find. We ended up being photographed many times holding hands (in India this kind of physical contact forms part of the culture) with total strangers ;) With the perspective of my return home, I guess I will have to get used to the fact again, that in Europe it is not very popular among people if you look or smile at them openly without any apparent reason.
In golden temple more than 13000 people get fed per day for free by volunteer workers. Of course I wanted to experience this and was surprised to taste the best rice pudding, Dal Fry and Chapatis in a long time. Impressed by the friendliness and hospitality of the Sikhs towards what ever religion or ethnic group, I was tempted to stop cutting my hear and become one of them ;)))

Dharamsala - 10 day retreat

Yesterday ended the 10 day meditation-retreat and I am glad I can move freely again, communicate and have my own space. During the past 10 days all students followed a very tight and strict program starting at 4:30 am and lasting until 9:30 pm with short breaks for breakfast, lunch and a little rest. We spent about 10 hours a day sitting and meditating in a big hall learning different techniques while we lived the rest of the time in an monastery like environment in small huts or rooms for two or three persons. Basically the meditation-course was about purifying several levels of the mind by concentrating on the observation of one´s respiration or body-sensations. The fact, that according to the rules we were not allowed to communicate, read, write or do any other activity apart from meditating and satisfying our basic needs helped a lot to calm down the mind and improve it´s capacity of concentration. After a few days I managed to sit for one hour without moving at all, staying present, focusing on the changing sensations of my body. I don´t want to go much into detail here about what the meditation and what it is or is not because it is very difficult to explain something which is rather an experience than a theoretical concept, but I am happy to explain in more detail to those of you who want to know more as soon as we meet in real life again…

The experience of sharing one´s life with about 100 students of different social, cultural and geographical backgrounds had it´s surreal and funny aspects. The lack of movement and the two rather heavy meals (containing beans, peas, milk, chai…) per day had their consequences on the digestive systems of the students. So at times I started doubting if I was attending a meditation course or a fart-camp ;) The hilarious thing about the situation was the fact, that due to the rule of "noble silence" - no communication what so ever - nobody was supposed to react or say anything about the bio-chemical attacks of his neighbors, so some people toke advantage of that and ventilated their bodies in a shameless manner. By the 10th day I could identify the originator of a given fart or eruption by it´s sound and I started wearing ear- and sometimes even nose-plugs ;)))

Before and after the retreat I had the opportunity to explore the mountains around Dharamshala together with other travelers. We found some magical spots by accident climbing around some mountains… I leave you with some impressions. See you soon in real life. Big hug


PS. I know I am asking a lot, but I would really love to know who actually reads this… the only way for me tho find out is when you post a comment. So please don´t be shy, just imagine you are on Facebook and leave me few words or lines ;)))

Palolem - preparing for the silence

A friend had told me that at Palolem it is possible to rent a kayak and observe dolphins so I needed to go and see for myself. I went out twice and paddled to some bays near by with my eyes searching. The first day had the concurrence of some motorboats chasing after the sea-mammals but on the second day I got up early and could enjoy the silence on the sea. The dolphins seamed to be more comfortable without the noise of the motorboats too and let me come very close. I did not dare to swim with them but tried to follow them on their rounds through the bays. In two occasions a dolphin jumped out of the water a few meters next to me which was fascinating and a bit frightening at the same time ;)))

On the 1st of April I will start a 10 day retreat in Dharamsala next to the Himalayas so I will not be able to communicate in what ever form until the 12th. Have a great time meanwhile, big hug to everybody.

...one more detail which might be interesting especially for my Spanish friends. I just booked a ticket to Madrid from the 5th to the 23rd of May. Me hace mucha ilusión veros a todos de nuevo!!!

Hampi - on a motorbike through the surreal landscape

Feeling a bit like easy rider I took of to explore the monuments and ruins a bit further from Hampi, cruising over sand-roads, passing through rice fields and reaching places where the locals looked at me like they had never seen a westerner before. A beautiful thing in India is the natural and direct way people get in touch with each other and welcome strangers with open arms and a bright smile.
In the evening I went to a famous sunset spot on top of a mountain of big round rocks piled on each other. As I was a bit lazy to search for the way and already had practiced the day before I just climbed and jumped from rock to rock to reach the top. Up there a pack of monkeys was waiting for the tourists hoping to get some food or what ever they could grab to play with. I shook a finger with a young monkey and was stunned by their fearless behavior. When I had an adult monkey hanging at the strap of my rucksack I realized that these little bastards were ready to steal about everything they could lay their hands on ;)
This day I did not want to risk having to walk down in the dark so right after sunset I got on the way down, having to climb over an already locked gate of an Ashram near by in order to get out the motorbike…

People in Hampi celebrate Full moon with a huge bond-fire. Now I understand the concept of a "full moon party". In earlier days these were the occasions where people could take advantage of the bright moon light in order to stay up late and celebrate. As I am not a big fan of masses and and the crowd in ecstasy I went to sleep soon in order to gain some strength for the national "Holi-festival" the next day. I guess the pictures speak for themselves, it was great fun to throw color pigments at each other and dance to the percussion music with a child riding on my shoulders… Now I am sitting here, wondering if the stains on my skin will wash off in a few days ;) Big hug to all of you!!!

Hampi - night bouldering

The landscape around Hampi is so surreal, that no photo can capture it´s magical spirit. As I got briefed well about this place I hired a bicycle and started exploring the areas surrounding the town following a hand drawn map created by the biologist I had met on the beach. Over stones and sand I went with this one-gear-crap-bike which was falling apart little by little. At some point I had to leave it behind and hike and climb over big boulder-rocks (Hampi is a paradise for climbers…) to find ruins of temples and palaces.
In the afternoon I decided to search for a waterfall I had heard of. After some time and only with the guidance of a local, Fritz (a German guy I met somewhere lost in the middle of nowhere) and I reached the waterfalls, not without climbing and jumping over smaller river arms. Enthusiastic and in total bliss the two of us had a swim against the current, climbing on rocks in the middle of the stream and like this moving upstream. Swimming back to our base I felt like a Olympic swimmer because of the additional speed by the current.
Over taking photos, jumping form rock to rock, swimming, having a picnic and just enjoying the sunset we missed the right moment to get going back. Too self-confident and having underestimated the way, we got lost on the river, trying to find our way climbing over boulders, searching for a way which would not lead us through the water and high vegetation further down stream as there most likely live crocodiles (the biologist had found a dead crocodile when see was here only a few days ago) and snakes. The whole situation turned out to be a bit like in a horror-movie, where the protagonists die one after the other because of getting separated. Fritz (who had been a total stranger a few hours earlier) and I did not agree on the way, as I was not willing to walk through the water and high vegetation without seeing where I stepped… So under the threat of separating us (which was not fair at all from my side, but my urge to survive was stronger than my wish to be diplomatic and considerate at that moment) he followed me over the rocks until we reached a barbed wire fence, which we crossed to get help of the only family who seamed to be living on this Island in the middle of the river with it´s huge rocks. I guess that the river bed was about 100 meters broad, so even with the guidance of this local it took us some more time over boulders, through shallow water-passages and finally out of the river bed, where we found our bikes. Exhausted, but happy for having gotten out of there without a scratch we brought our bikes back through the moon-light of the night before full moon.

Gokarna - life sucks ;)

Among some friends we have the running gag of stating "life sucks", when ever we live moments of sheer happiness stunned by the impressions invading our wits. Gokarna is definitely a place where one would like to stay for some time, in fact almost all the people I met there stayed way longer than they had planned to ;)
Back from Kumily I tried my luck to catch a fully overbooked night train with 3 hours delay and the whole Indian Railway reservation system out of order and succeeded!!! The TT (don´t know what that means, he is kind of the chief-ticket controller of the train) accepted my appliance ticket (this ticket gives you the opportunity to ask the TT for admission in the train if there is space). Having arrived at a train-station some 30 kilometers form Gokarna I wanted to find a way to get there without having to rely on very business oriented rickshaw drivers. Luckily a nice man observed me negotiating and offered to take me in his car almost the whole way. He turned out to be a hard working physician who built up his own clinic and has become very wealthy dedicating all his efforts to his business and family. I felt a bit strange sitting next to a men, who maybe takes half a day off per week and only occasionally takes some time off in order to visit his two grow up children at the towns where they study, while I have been traveling for 4 and a half months now, spending only a few days working and a few weeks doing courses. I guess it is impossible to determine, which way of living is better, I guess this depends entirely on the dreams, wishes, possibilities and priorities of each person.
How ever it seemed that it was my job to keep the conversation flowing while the doctor did the driving ;)

The first photos you seen actually show the bus stop, where the man dropped me. I had to smile about the Indian way once more, improvising and keeping things simple. How needs signs, as long as the people and the bus-driver know where to stop?

A rickshaw ride later and 24 hours of traveling I landed at Om-beach, a nice spot with only a few restaurants and palm leaf huts. The hut I rented did not have a floor, so the beach-feeling started right after getting out of bed ;)
So every mooring I got up like a champion to do my Yoga practice and go for a swim, spending the rest of the day reading, writing and exploring other beaches in walking- or at least hiking distance. Had it not been for a nice and (maybe a bit hyper-) active biologist from Alaska, I would have taken things a lot easier, but like this I discovered Gokarna-town and 3 more beaches… According to her the dog is the only species which co-evolves with humans and thus always wants to be near us. Indian street dogs are not very considered by the locals, but they don´t get mistreated either, so these dogs are much more relaxed and friendly than most of the over-breded dogs in Europe.