DECEMBER 15
What a night! With the person in front of me "reclining" his seat, there wasn't room enough to get my legs in front of me, so I attempted sleeping first with my legs 90 degrees from normal (stuck out in the aisle), then 45 degrees down the aisle. Most uncomfortable! Cold and backbreaking, and wicked annoying when someone's big suitcase kept sliding down the aisle and bashing into my legs. About 2 a.m.a Tibeti man in the back seat saw my plight and offered to change seats. What a blessing! Not only could I stretch my legs down the center aisle, but the Tibeti doctor sitting beside me shared his blanket, and he and a Tibeti lady had me sandwiched tightly between them, so that I was warm as toast! Talked with a very interesting Russian lawyer lady from Uzbekistan- also sharing the back seat, then got a nice sleep till abou
7 a.m. |
| Eating at the ashram. |
We arrived at 9 a.m. and caught a taxi to uptown Rishikesh and checked in to the Sivadananda Ashram overlooking the Holy Ganges River. Free room and board, but you can make donations. ( I think we have 4 days before we have to buy our robes and shave our heads.) This is Anushree's Dad's Guru's Ashram. I have read about him-an amazing man who gave up all for the service of others. Quite austere rooms (naturally!!). Fairly comfortable beds. Mattresses and blankets are interchangeable, but it is COLD! No place to go to get warm except to bed. I wanted to help out at 6 a.m. in the kitchen, but it was so cold, I'd have frozen. Not many devotees staying here at present. We attended chanting sessions, worship services and meditations. All religions are welcome here. A lady from Argentina asked if we were going to be here on the 25th for the Christmas service.
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| Footbridge over the Ganges. |
DECEMBER 16
Slept in this morning. Too cold and dark to go to the 4 a.m. meditation. The temple walls have lots of open windows and the wind blows right through, and the marble floors can get wicked cold on your bare feet. We even missed the 7:00 breakfast.
Set up the next stage of our trip; 3 hour taxi ride to Haridwar, (($16), then 15 hour train ride to Gorakhpor, nearest stop to the Nepali border crossing. ($150). Spent the day in meditation, services and talking to some very interesting people. To the internet store to update the blogsite. I tried out a Sitar.
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| Yes, it's a cow. Just walk around it. |
Did more Ashram stuff, then at 3:00 caught our cab to Haridwar. Arrived at the station for our 5:00 train to find that our train was 6 hours delayed due to the heavy fog that hangs out along the foothills of the Himalayas all the way across northern India. It was a cold, dark, crowded railway station, and those 6 hours dragged slowly by. No edible food, so we survived on our old standby of crackers and cookies. Finally boarded the train at 11:00 and dragged all our gear into our very own little cubicle. We are traveling 2d class A/C. The cubicle has 4- 3foot by 5.5 foot padded beds, and a curtain to pull over the entrance for privacy. We had missed supper, so made up our beds crawled in and drifted off to sleep to the gentle rocking of the train.
DECEMBER 18
COOOLLLD NIGHT, even sleeping in all our clothes. I got up sometime in the night and put one jacket on regular way, and my second one on upside down with my legs in the armholes. We traveled along slowly all day. No breakfast. Ordered lunch, but somehow it never appeared. Finally, at 5:00, 26 hours after leaving the Ashram, we arrived in Gorakhpur, rushed off to a hotel, dumped our bags and raced off to a restaurant to fill our empty stomachs.
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| Safety procedures. what are they? |
Up early. Breakfast on a hotel roof in the freezing cold fog, then another 3 hour taxi ride through the thick fog to the Nepal border. Had an easy crossing, only to find that there was a transportation strike, and there would be no busses until the next day. Had to stay at the border, a trashy, decaying little town? and a rather risky place to hang out, but we got a room in a new hotel, and found a nice restaurant for supper. Booked a bus for Kathmandu.
DECEMBER 20
Up before daybreak after (need I say) another cold night. Caught a DELUXE??? bus, (like an old school bus with padded reclining seats) for 7 hours (actually 10) ofvery rough roads, mountain hairpin turns and high speed thrills. We arrived in Kathmandu at 5 p.m. and checked into the Kathmandu Guest House, oldest hotel in the Thamel (tourist) district and extremely classy! We took their cheapest room- $25. Many westerners here. None of them seem to smile! The Guest House had a comfy reception area complete with lots of nice easy chairs and couches and a fireplace fancy little boutiques gift shops, even an ATM. We got 4 extra puffs, and for the first time in a week, we were warm all night! Had a nice Nepali supper in a near by restaurant.
DECEMBER 21
Took the Thamel (tourist) district temple walking tour. Nepali and Tibeti handicrafts galore, all packed in very narrow, little streets not much wider than a sidewalk, and tucked among little Hindu and Buddhist temples. The streets are pretty empty until about 8:30, then they become jammed with rickshaws, bicycles, pedestrians, and lots of motorcycles travelling much too fast for such crowded conditions. Just walking down the street becomes an "extreme sport" experience.
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| Woman spinning Prayer wheels. |
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| The all seeing eyes of Buddha, over a stuppa. |
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| The inside of a Tibetan Buddhist temple. |
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