Leaving McLeod Ganj, Amritsar and Jaipur

So, McLeod lasted longer than expected.. What a wonderful place... There were a number of westerners that I became close too.. Many there studying buddhism, others doing research for anthropology theses on Tibetans living in refuge.. still others doing pretty close to nothing.. which I think I admire the most... everyone has their wonderful stories... there's a certain energy of backpackers that bring you together quickly... you have so many experiences on a day to day basis, and meeting other backpackers gives you an opening to tell your story and hear other's stories... it's a natural attraction and it's good to experience it again... I stayed in McLeod longer after Dave left due to my desire to see and hear the Dalai Lama... I am very glad I did.. seeing the Dalai Lama and hearing him was more moving than I anticipated.. When I first set eyes on him, I was spellbound...captivated.. not by anything in particular, but by the energetic prescence he had.. it was very strong and yet overpoweringly gentle. He is a beautiful, warm, shining light... and listening to his teachings was wonderful... it was a 5 day teaching, and though I only went to one day it was well worth the extra 4 day stay in McLeod Ganj. The teaching was on the Boddhitsatva (sp?) and I took notes furiously.. "displace the self cherishing mind with cherishing for all sentient beings through compassion; generate compassion rather than attachment; exchange the self for others: the very factor in achieving buddhahood" - it was a great experience.

I was originally going to stay for the full teaching, but then realized that I was getting comfortable in McLeod Ganj after a week, and that wasn't why I came to India.... I longed to challenge myself again, travelling in what is considered a very difficult country to travel in... and challenge myself I have.

Tuesday morning, 3am, alarm goes off (only to find out later that my clock is 25 minutes fast).. time to get up to catch my 4pm bus from McLeod Ganj to Dharamsala, in order to catch my 5am bus from Dharamsala to Amritsar. Being in a small Indian town at 3.30am, alone with only the quiet groans of the cows on the small streets, as your cloud of breath in the cold hangs for what seems minutes, is a surreal experience...I could see the faint outline of the mountains by the quickly descending moon...

The bus ride consisted of me with four layers on, a wool hat, hood pulled over the hat and a wool blanket pulled over everything.. there was frost on the inside of the windows... Imagine your grade school bus from x years ago.. and now imagine that the same bus had been trudging the hills and potholes of northern India/Himalyas for those x years and you have an idea of the bus... Before getting on, I climbed up to the roof of the bus and secured my and Megan's (my travelling companion to Amritsar) backpacks... The bus moved at breakneck speeds around the mountain roads as I once again blended my mix of prayer and non-attachment (to my life)... I've been cold most of the time I've been in McLeod Ganj... the temperature in my guest house getting into the high 30's some nights - and I also admit to my own tolerance for the cold being at an all time low (thank you, california) - however, the bus ride from Dharamsala to Amritsar was frigid... (all of you talking about how hot India is have no idea what you're talking about).

The bus vacillated between completely packed, 3 to a seat grammar school-style, to nearly empty as it was also used as a commuter bus... The arrival in Amritsar was 'interesting.' 5 minutes before we arrived about 10 folks got on with it being quickly obvious that they weren't there for a ride.. one guy immediately sat next to Megan and I and asked if wanted a rickshaw to our hotel.. we said we did and got him from 100 ruppees down to 20.. (we knew how far our guest house was.. but even if we didn't 20% of initial offer is a pretty good benchmark). We arrived at the bus station with our rickshaw driver leading us off the bus... I quickly got to the back of the bus and climbed the ladder to the roof and as I unlocking the bags I watched as our rickshaw driver became engaged in a shouting match, then a shoving match, then fist fight with another man.. a huge crowd encirled them as it erupted, and I feel like I had the box seats as I stood ontop of a large bus looking down on this scene unfolding.. it was a real fist fight.... as we came to learn there's a rivalry between the auto rickshaw drivers and the bicycle rickshaw drivers... this autorickshaw driver apparently didn't like the fact that this lowly bicycle rickshaw driver had nabbed two of the only westerners they were likely to see all day... I guess it's kind of like the Cryps versus the Bloods.. only in India.

Amritsar is 30kms from the Pakistan border and is home to the Golden Temple. The Golden Temple (or GT, as I like to put it) is the holiest site to the Sikh people... it is essentially the Sikh equivalent to the Muslim's Mecca. They have large facilites to house the thousands of Pilgrims that come every day. They also have a part of the facilities that house western tourists, free of charge.. as I was to find out, though I paid no money for the room, it was not free.

Megan and I put our bags in the room and started wandering around the city... There were almost no westerners that we saw... For the first time (in India) I really felt like a freakshow. Not a single rickshaw or chai-walla, or street vendor passed us without at least some sort of stare. I started playing with my personal energy in determining how best to dismiss advances of all kinds without being mean. (which in some cases is the ONLY way to be left alone).... a typical interaction: "HALLO MY FRIEND.. HALLO MY FRIEND.. HALLO. SIR!... HALLOOWWW!"... finally, I begrudingly look in the person's direction and am immediately bombarded with whatever it is that this person wants me to give him money for. (many times it's nothing as the beggars and children manytime outnumber the vendors)... I then say "no..no.. no thank you..".. they persist.. HALLO!!! SIR!!! ... if the interaction gets more intense, I start saying NO more firmly... and have to sometimes stop, look the person directly in the eye and say "NO!.. GO AWAY!!!!"... to which the person backs off a little and inevitably says: "OK...... PLEASE?" I believe that part of what makes this coutry so exhausting to travel in is the countless interactions described above.

Amritsar is warmer than McLeod, (thank Shiva) so it was nice to walk around the town, grab lunch and then head to the train station to get tickets for the following day (an experience in itself.... a highly structured operation of inefficiency).. after getting my overnight ticket to Jaipur we headed back and got a shared jeep to the Pakistan border to watch the highly theatrical closing of the border...Megan and I were in what was about the size and shape of a Jeep Cherokee with 13 other people. It was a riot. An hour later, with my backside and feet asleep, we arrived at the border for a very dramatic ceremony.. There are stands set up on either side of the border so that Pakistanis as well as Indians can watch the ceremony that happens every night... There is a lot of flag waving, shouting and soldiers that doing tremendously high kicking, all in the very serious task of outdoing the other country.. It was great to see...and Megan and I agreed that the Pakistanis seemed to have their act together a bit more than the Indians.

That night, we were dropped off at what we thought was the Golden Temple, but alas the driver conveniently dropped us off at another temple that looked like the golden temple so that he didn't have to drive as far... We eneded up walking into the small alleyways of Amritsar at 8pm at night and it was awesome.. the town really comes alive at night.. the fabric stalls were endlesss and beautiful with garments hanging everywhere with lights painting walls beautiful colors as they shown through the fabrics... we were seeing how business was really done.. and as before we were the only westerneres we saw all night.. more than that.. Megan was the only woman on the streets.. the streets were packed with people and they were all men...needless to say if we got looks and stares beforehand, we got even more that night.

We found our way back to guest house... I had been told that we would have a badass Sikh guard with a sword and a menacing stare to police our living space. (I was excited about this). To my disappointment, there was no sword, and no menacing stare.. though he did have a comfortable chair and a cell phone with a number of tremendouly annoying ringtones. It took him hours to figure out which one to settle on.... In addition there was a flouesent light highly situated outside the room that shown through a high window and illuminated the entire space all night... I woke up many times thinking it had to be at least 10am due to the thousands of Pilgrim too excited to sleep. I ended up plying myself up at 5.30am after 3 hours of sleep in search of chai.

The Temple is a big complex that surrounds a beautiful lake and in the middle of the lake is a tremendous, well, golden temple. It's gorgeous. I mentioned the pilgrims, and there are a lot of them.. The GT also provides free meals to all pilgrims that are hungry (3X a day).. the serve over 30,000 meals a day. Megan and I went in and sat down crosslegged on a staw mat as a part of hundreds of others all sitting in multiple lines, stretching across the huge concrete floor. Servers were constantly coming by with Curried Dahl (lentils), Chapatis and rice.. it was delicious and a treat to be able to share this experience with thousands of my new boisterous housemates.

Amritsar is a cool town. It's big with Sikhs being the vast majority of the population, for obvious reasons, and feel like I was able to see how it really operated. My biggest impression was the lack of women on the streets, especially when compared to the other towns I have seen. I'm not sure if it's due to the Sikh religion and great oppression of women, Amritsar's close proximity to Pakistan (a Muslim state), or a mixture of both... it definitely stood out.

My train left at 4.30pm, 2 hours late....however that 2 hours gave me the opportunity to meet a wonderful family that was seeing their daughter and grandmother off to visit some other family. I became fast friends with their 9 year old, Nikihl. He helped me practice my Hindi, and I helped him with his English, including, but not limited to, "high five!!", "hang loose" and the the lyrics that I know to "gettin' jiggy with it" - through the course of my interaction with Nikihl, the mother decided that I would make a good match for her daughter and cordially offered me her hand in marriage. I politely declined. (sorry, mom)

The overnight train took me to Jaipur, Rajasthan where I am now in my second night.. Being in the desert is great. (and warmer)... I have hired a taxi who will take me to Pushkar, Jodhpur and Uddaipur (all in Rajasthan), prior to my flight from Uddaipur to Kerala (southernmost region of India...). I will be in Kerala for Christmas. (think: warm beaches, lazy boat rides, yoga)