Hubli and December 29th...

I have been travelling back and forth to Mundgod and then onward to Tibetian settlement for the last week and it is very tiring to travel over 2 hours each direction.

At the same time, I can hardly believe that I've been on the road for almost a month.  It certainly has gone quickly.

My couchsurfing hosts have been amazing, and my current host was so worried that I couldn't stay in contact with him and everyone else that he bought me a android smart phone.  I originally insisted that I get a phone because they are so cheap here  and sois the time and EVERYONE communicates that way here.  I told him that we should go out one day and purchase one and if he could help me.  He instead surprised me the for Christmas with one.  I insisted on trying to pay him but he was upset that I would even suggest such a thing. So I thanked him profusely.

Now, I have to figured this thing out. EEK!
Siddu has more or less left me in this one bedroom apartment to use by myself.  He drops in every couple of days to see if I am okay, and to drink a couple of beers, 'cause he can't do that at home, 'cause the neighbors would talk!  Really a paradox.
 
I went to beauty parlor yesterday and absolutely all the young girls came in and watched me being waxed...kinda disturbing but they were certainly curious and one of the young girls said that my English is very different then theirs.  YES IT IS!  I have to talk very slowly to even be partly understood.  Another young woman asked me why I was so white...I laughed and said I was born that way.  Then I smiled and said why are you so brown?  She laughed and we shared a moment.

It is true, I can't hide.  I'm like an exotic bird here.  When I get a particularly amazing gawk I sometimes say, Yup, you weren't expecting that were you?

In a primarily Hindi country I wasn't expecting people to take the time off around Christmas, but surprise surprise the whole country is taking holidays from the 24 of December to about the 4 of January.  This is causing me booking problems for the train.  I would perfer to book a train than to take a bus.  Most of the buses travel at night and after my last washing machine experience, I would like to pass.

So Siddu tried to book an onward ticket for me to go to Mysore on the 3rd of January.  He went to the website and there was nothing available and there were people wait listed.
Today I went down to the train station.  They have a line for JUST women...but wait a minute why are all the men in the line???  Okay I get in line with a foreigner from France and wechat a bit.

Every train station operates differently and so there is one guy at the front of the line and there is me. I get to the front and ask about the train, the woman tells me to get the train number from the first kiosk and then come back. I do this but when I return there is one guy in the front of theline and there are three women behind him.  I get in behind him and then I turn to the women and ask them is this not the EXCLUSIVELY ladies line?  The raise their eyebrows at me and nod. I ask the man in front of me what he is doing in the line.  He says that he is getting a ticket for his wife.  I DON'T think so.  So now I have three other women in line and he is trying to get some solace from another guy trying to bump the line.  I point to the sign : Exclusively Ladies, Senior Citizens and Disabled.  I ask him if he is a senior citizen....so he finally backs away.  Just at the same time they close the wicket for 15 minutes.  He turns to me and tells me this.  I say I can wait 15 minutes.  He leaves but then wants to return to the front of line.  I say to him are you a gentleman?  He says yes.  I say good then you can wait until the ladies are done.  The women start to talk to me.  One of the younger ladies calls her aunty and tries to butt in front.  I say you can wait your turn.  So eventually when the wicket reopened I got my ticket, made some friends, 'cause there were other men in line at that time and so I asked another lady to step forward.  I spoke to the man behind the wicket why there were men in this line and he said he wouldn't serve them.  Yah right...until I left...HA!  But the ladies did say that they happen to be subservient...I said to them maybe that needs to change a little...hmmmm?

It is extremely disconcerting when you are at the front of athe line and a man or men just push you away.  I am getting with it and pushing back.  They say that you are supposed to stand your ground here as a woman, so I guess I need to get with it.

The Dalai Lama

On the 23th of December I headed down to Mundgod and after about 2 hours travelling on the bus and then another bus and then an autorickshaw I finally arrived at camp 1, where you could hear the Dalai Lama over the loud speakers giving his teachings in Tibetian.

I am not able to get there early enough, but it is an amazing experience just the same to be able to hear him.  I get to gate number 7, of the temple and they say where is my pass.  I show the guards (and there are many check points) my protected area pass and they say that I need another type of pass.  I tell them I am not sure what they are talking about.  After about 5 minutes of this they have a Tibetian woman volunteer come over and she asks me.  I tell her my story and then she realizes that I was not provided the information to pick up the secondary pass.

She kindly and patiently takes me to another area of the Tibetian town, (Camp 1 is huge a city unto itself) and I finally get what I fondly call my 'press pass'.  Then I had to purchase a small transistor radio so that I could listen to another frequency where there is English translation.

Finally, at around 11 am I settle down with  my pillow (because we sit on the concrete) and listen to the teachings of the Dalai Lama. The interepretations aren't without their laugh-ability, but interesting all the same.
At 11:45 His Holiness broke for lunch, the monks chant OM (amazing to listen to) and then the Dalai Lama came out about 50 feet from where I was sitting and waved to all the foreigners and smiled.
All the devotees were fed lunch and then promptly at 12:45 our lessons resumed.  There are absolutely thousands of monks.  It is a sea of burgundy robes.

I didn't arrive home until about 7 pm and I was pretty exhausted.

On the 24th I decided that I would take a break from all this bus travel and stay at home.  Siddu showed up and  took me out for dinner and then stayed with me overnight.

It is an interesting paradox here in India.  I know this shouldn't surprise me but it really is a man's world here. Or an independant womans....

Siddu has a wife and a girlfriend. He has told me this.  At first I thought he was referring to his wife as his girlfriend and then he clarified it.  I don't know what reaction he was expecting from me.  His girlfriend is also married.

From my perspective I guess when you put so much emphasis on the dowry and the caste system here, the best a girl can do is marry up.  (Actually, I thenk they should stay single... but the jobs are very sex oriented. They have active ads in the paper for marriage and they are quite explicit on religion, age and what they are looking for in a marriage partner.

The marriage's seem distant at least from my perspective, and perhaps that is why the men look to do something else with their time by coushsurfing people.

The difference could be in a name - do you think?  All except both Christopher's who have surfed me. The first was an American, and the second was a confirmed Indian bachelor who was amazing to get a real perspective from.  I asked this Christopher why he hadn't married and he said that the women he wanted to marry didn't want to marry him and the women that wanted to marry him, he didn't want to marry.  It made me laugh.  He said that he does worry about old age, but then again he figures that he could just hire someone to take care of him.  As I say; Same, Same but different?  Not so much.

Having said that, I have not been in anyway pressured by the men that I have been couchsurfing with. The sexes are segregated for the most part and so the men are not so comfortable as north americans are with having women to have relationships with for the most part.  Here I feel like  an exotic bird. Men stare particularly, but I also get stares from the women, and sometimes I can get the whole street to stop and stare. ;)

I sometimes just smile, or put my sunglasses on.  Most of the time they get the hint, but sometimes not.  I don't try to take too much from it.
 My impression of the women on couchsurfing is that they do it not to surf people but instead they want to meet people a cafe so they sign up for that purpose.  I have tried to meet the women who say they want to meet me but that doesn't happen.

You all need to know that I may break down and buy a phone as it here it is really quite cheap and it is the way that everyone communicates.  Everyone.  I can only say; resistance is futile - but don't tell anyone that!

Merry Christmas to everyone!
I wasn't feeling to well after eating or drinking something last night, but if everything settles down I will be heading down again tomorrow to see the Dalai Lama again for a day of teachings.
Here are some fast facts:

In Dharwad:
one bedroom apartment rents for $50 a month (it is one of the nicest ones I've been in)
Cable is $2 a month why yes and we have 450 Indian news stations!!! plus 450 Hindi soap operas Hee Hee

Most men are the cooks at the restaurants
Only women clean.  For $4-6 a session they will come to clean your house and then wash your clothes for you too.  Chris in Mumbai had the 2 cleaners come in 6 days a week to clean and it cost him $80 for both women a month....

So when you are cleaning the dishes in the place you stay, often my hosts, who are men, say don't do that...we'll have the cleaning lady come in and do that.  I just say, no bother and keep doing it.

Here at least one of the challenges:  Everywhere you go there is garbage.  People pretty much chuck it out their windows.  Outside Siddu's place their is the village garbage dump.  Does it smell. No, because the wild pigs, cows and dogs eat what is edible.  But the plastic is everywhere.  They have active programs in Pune saying a Clean Pune is a Green Pune.  Good on them, and the garbage is less noticeable but just for the most part displaced.  You don't see it in the 'tourist' areas, but everywhere else.
Men constantly stand on the road and take a wizz and I've been tempted to yell, there's a good stream!

I will be heading to Hampi for New Years, as Siddu has arranged for me to celebrate New Year in Indian fashion, and so I will have a hoot there, I'm sure.  Also from there I hope to head towards Mysore and find an ashram to work on my yoga and mediation practice.

Hope you are all well....

Here are some photos of the Tibetian colony and the Temple just outside Mundgod.

Me at the Tibetian Colony registering for the teachings Dec 21, 2014

Two of the thousands of monks in Mundgod

Dalai Lama

Siddu sleeps on the floor in the livingroom and gives me the bedroom.  It is a cold night...even for me.  

On the 21st of December, my first day here Siddu takes me out for breakfast and then we make arrangements to go to Mundgod to register for the Dalai Lamas teachings.  He has offered to drive me there to do the registration.  I am staying in Dharwad which is a suburb of Hubli and so we drive down to where the Tibetian settlement is.  

We stop to have something to eat at a dhabas.  
These are roadside restaurants that serve some pretty delicious food.  And they really do here.
Once we have had lunch we head into the Tibetian protected area to register.

Siddu asks me (yeah the one without the cell phone or wifi) where I found out the Dalai Lama was coming.  I told him on the internet.  He said he didn't even know. 

I am not surprised as it's not the first person who has said they have had no idea about the Dalai Lama's coming here to India.  

As we get into the town of Mundgod there is no signs or anything.  So Siddu asks where the Tibetian settlement is.  It is only when we get into the settlement that you see the prayer flags an the banners welcoming the Dalai Lama here.  So after being turned around a couple of times we find the correct police station where I have to register and then Siddu takes a couple of pictures of me and we head home.  

Siddu asks a couple of questions on when the event starts and we are told it starts at 6 am and that people will be lining up at 4 am. !
We have a long drive home as Siddu is trying to give me the scenic tour of the area surrounding Hubli which is pretty much agriculture.

December 22nd.  I get up at about 7 am and Siddu brings me to the bus station where I pick up a bus and head to Mundgod. There are many monks on the bus. It is an hour ride to Mundgod.  Many police are posted along the way. In the town of Mundgod they have cordoned off the street and we must exit the bus.  One monk engages me and asks where I am from.  I tell him and then ask where he is from he says Tibet.  I say I thought so.  He and I share a laugh together.  He asks me my name and I tell him and then he give me his, which I cannot pronounce, but say, 'that is a long name'.  He smiles.  He says that the Dalai Lama is arriving at about 1 pm and there are many people already lining the street.  I get off and head off in a general direction away from the crowd as I want to explore a little - it is only 10 am.  
I wonder down a street and am smiling at the locals.  I meet a man who wants me to sit with him while I watch the basket weaving go on.  
Then I head back just in time to see the Dalai Lama's entourage drive down the street and take a few pictures. It is 11 am.

I see a man and a woman on a motorcycle and she has a small baby.  I say what a beautiful baby, and we begin to talk.  He asks me where I am from and I ask him where he is from.  I tell him I am here to see the Dalai Lama, and he says where are you staying.  I say Hubli.  He said that is so far away, come stay with me and my wife we stay in the Tibetian settlement camp 7.  He give me his name and number.  His name is Karma Tenzin...I am surprised.  He says I believe it was Karma that we meet.  Come stay with us.

I am told  the Dalai Lama will rest today and will start his teachings tomorrow.  So I am here at an internet cafe blogging ...and will head home shortly.

Hubli

My journey has taken me this far.  and it has been absolutely amazing.
Staying with the hosts I have has revealed a real human side to India that I know I wouldn't have been given. Not to mention the expert advice and the opportunity to try all kinds of food.  :)
I had bought a train ticket which was to leave from Vascoe Railway station in Goa at 7:20 am.  Now the thing is that this happens to be on a Sunday and it's the only day off for most Indians.(would you want to get up at 5:30 am to get me there... and then again would it be worth the risk?) The local buses don't start working until 7 am and it is a 2 hour taxi/motorcycle ride, or I could try and find a place to stay closer to the station.  Then there is another option, the overnight sleeper bus.
Seem kinda dodgy to me.  But I would leave at 7:30 pm and get to Hubli at 12:45 am.

I didn't realize that Goa is the go to spot for the holidays and so there was no rooms to be had.  So the sleeper bus is a real good plan, or so I thought.

So because I couldn't get a room I did book a ticket on the bus...much more expensive than the train.  The train was R175 and the sleeper bus (or shaggin' wagon for short) is R915.  Big difference.  I hope it has free movies or something....You can choose between a single sleeper upper or lower berth (pick the upper!!)  Of course you can also choose a double side.  Now, if you only pay for one side of the double bed, you could wake up with someone else in your bed...hmmm  that could be interesting, now wouldn't it???

Christopher was helpful in guiding me on the booking the best seats on the train.  He said that I should book on 2nd class aircon that way I would have much cleaner bathrooms!  I do love getting the inside information.

To date I've been booking 2nd class non aircon, as I don't really like the cold of the aircon.  But with the windows open in those cars, it gets pretty cold for the Indians as they all have their winter jackets on and they look at me in wonder as I will only cover my shorts and short sleeve shirt with a light pasmina.

So at 6 pm my motorcycle taxi driver arrives to take me to Margao to meet my bus. The way to move on a motorbike with a backpack is to give the backpack to the driver who lays it over his handlebars and then I take a seat behind him with my day pack.  I thought I should get there early see if they will let me leave my backpack at their kiosk (nothing valuable in there) and then head out for a half hour to pick up something tasty.  Ah...nope. No room to leave a backpack so I had to babysit it until the bus arrived.
So I took the lower because of my experience with the upper on the train, and hiking my backpack way over head is a bugger.  So because of this I decide to take a lower berth on the sleeper train.
Wrong choice again!  

I figure I will understand better given a few more trips...or at least I think so.  Hope blooms eternal.
So you are pretty much on the floor (and if you didn't know, the Indians are smaller people so you pretty much are not horizontal.  There is a small rectangular window that gives you enough of a view that you think you are in a prison, and then there are curtains on the other side to afford you whatever privacy...and being a foreigner woman, you want to stay at least a little invisible as I am sure I would wake up to the staring of some guy.  I find that sunglasses do the trick for me.  I can look at them back without them thinking it is a come on...cause really it isn't.

The trip to Hubli I would liken to being in a washing machine.  I am an expert at bus travel, or at least I thought I was until I got on this bus.  Talk about some motion sickness...I had to get myself together because we kept twisting and turning and you have this 6 inch window that you have to sit up to see out of.  And no bathroom.
I told Siddu to meet me at 1 am at the bus stop, but when I get on the bus the bus guy tells me that the bus will get to Hubli at 2 am.
I actually arrived at 1:30 am and Siddu was there with a taxi.   Amazing.  They are such incredible hosts here.  We head back to his place.
Siddu started his career working in Goa 18 hours a day in the hotel industry.  He learned very fast that that wouldn't be his future and went into sales.  He is marketing some pretty innovative products for India, such as kotex pad dispensers in the schools and colleges and universities.  They come with an incineration unit so that the waste is taken care of too.  He also markets street sweepers and garbage trucks.  (Something they could use more of in India as the garbage is pretty much everywhere...and so are the cows and the pigs and the dogs that eat it.)

Siddu takes me to a one bedroom apartment where he has rented it for R2700 a month.  He has repairmen that come in from Bangalore to repair and service the equipment and so he rents this apartment.  He and his wife live in Hampi, where I was planning to go to when I leave Hubli.

Goa

Well, here I am in Goa.
I was on the overnight 2nd class train to Goa.  Most interesting.  The Indians do like to party. There I was on my perch (upper berth) looking down at all the going's on.  I have to say that I've had a very good experience  for the most part on the train.  They have a pantry car and so they make all kinds of food and then the chai wallahs come down the aisles all the time to give you tea or coffee.    Okay...now there is one thing.  You really, really don't want to use the bathrooms.

I am staying with Christopher my CS host and he is very cool.  He is into film making and documentaries and so he has so many wonderful stories to tell me about his work.  He has done a lot of real documentaries about varies real life issues in India, which have never been talked about or put on TV.

I haven't gone to the beach as the weather is still too hot and humid for me. Plus my fishy white skin would surely not like it... There are no reefs to enjoy when snorkelling where I'm staying in Arpora and there are so many Russians.   I'm waiting to get in the groove when I get to the Maldives....!

It is very reasonable to rent a scooter R250 per day, but the way they drive here, I have decided it isn't the best time to learn how to drive a scooter. My bones won't mend fast enough.  Plus you have the crazy Russian scooter drivers and the less crazy locals, and so who are you to follow?  I decided to use the local transport and it is very good R10 to most bus hubs.  Pretty reasonable if you ask me.

I've been just getting into the groove here and Goa is a place where a lot of artist talent comes from all over the world.  I didn't even consider this when coming here.   The last couple of nights Christopher and I have been checking out the artist scene.   He is well known here.  He has a scooter so I jump on his scooter with him and two nights ago arrived in Margao and attended a classical piano concert at a studio of a German fellow named Rudy.  We paid R300 for a two hour concert with only about 40 people in attendance.  Last night at the Astoria Hotel in another area of Goa  for R400 we went to a organized jam session where there were 6 different acts which consisted of  a famous Sufi musician, a flamenco dancer, a woman that does some pretty amazing hoola hoop, some Russian musicians and a German guy, named Naffe, who designs his own instrument and it plays sort of like a zither, amazing sound comes from an instrument he made with a Kenyan gourd and a bamboo.
Christopher documentary film maker here in India, and has done some pretty amazing stuff.  I'm trying to get a website and I'll link it here.

I am heading next to Hubli tonight on the sleeper bus...sounds kinda odd to me, but it's a five hour bus ride to Hubli where my next CS host will meet me.

Pune, India

As a foreigner it can have it's benefits as India sets aside a tourist quota for travelling on the train. This is so foreigners can actually travel, as the trains get extremely booked.  Especially during weekends.  The down side is that finding a wicket at the train station can sometimes get very confusing.  You would think that they would make it easier for foreigners to find the counter, but often times it's not even in the same building.

I was lucky enough that I had an older gentleman who had booked on the train also and was in my berth. My Russian friends Yuliana and Sasha came to check out the train and said they didn't think it was bad - 2nd class no A/C. It was just the me and the gentleman in the berth area when we left Mumbai.  That lasted about 1/2 an hour when we were inundated with youth that had booked a seat instead of a berth and then moved because they didn't like how crowded it was.  I had already secured my backpack on my berth and locked it ( I chose the top berth) but I could sit on the bottom berth.  I now just wonder if I would have woken up with someone beside me if I actually fell asleep on my berth.    I don't think I would choose the top berth on a day train, it's waaaay too hot up there unless you want to disappear into dust!

Indians don't travel lightly either. They take the whole house with them when they travel. So they want you to lift up your legs, tuck things around ou so they can store their boxes and suitcases.  I on the other hand seem to travel quite light compared to their standards.Then the ticket master comes along and finds out they don't have a ticket for the car you are on and chases them off, but that only lasts for about another 1/2 hour and they are back.

I was met at my train station by Sanjiv - my next couchsurfing host.  He took me to a condo he owns in a new area of Pune in the complex called the Yuthika, and the whole place was mine!  I was not expecting this, but it certainly has been a great place to chill.

I have come down with a respiratory infection. BIG surprise?  I should have just taken up smoking, 'cause this pollution has to be equivalent to smoking a pack a day.  Given the change in temperature leaving Calgary, flying across the international dateline and now the air quality...er, what air quality!  My CS host, Sanjiv is constantly worried about me.  I guess I don't need to worry 'cause I have so many other people worrying for me...;)  

Monday I decided to ride the public transportation system. I asked to see Koregaon Park, but instead I saw the greater part of Pune.  I finally arrived in Koregaon Park, around 4 hours later.  The bus is pretty much R10, so it was a pretty cheap and interesting adventure.  I took the bus back and arrived home in just 1 hour? I guess I got better on the way back, eh?  Sanjiv was waiting for me and was very worried. 
I was pretty pumped that I made it home!

This has been my experience so far:
I'm the one with the accent so what I say pretty much doesn't sound what I think it does to me.  So the best way is to write things down.  

So I purchased a tour bus ticket and needed to be where the tour took off. This would be Deccan. It is not usual for me to purchase a tour ticket, but I figured it might just cut down on the time spent in traffic.  Given the traffic is extremely daunting. The transit 'corporation' sells these tours in most of the cities and they are safe to take (not that I've found anything to be terribly unsafe), and I wouldn't have to do too much of my time looking for the interesting places to go.

Here is my experience:  
Got up at 5 am, to take public transit at 7:30 am.  I can't read Hindi, but ask a young lady at the bus station can she tell me the next bus to the 'corporation' (the bus hub). She directs me that the next bus is leaving to the corporation and so on I hop.  I get to the bus hub and then ask for the area that I'm supposed to get to - DECCAN.  I ask the bus drivers hanging around and I am told which bus. Before I get on the bus I say is this bus going to Deccan, yes, say two men. I then sit beside a woman and I ask her if this is the bus to Deccan.  Yes, she says.  I ask for a ticket to Deccan from the ticket taker.  Yup, how many times did I ask? Hmmmm....

I notice after about 10 minutes that the bus is not going the direction that it should be.  Could I be mistaken? I ask the woman beside me, how long to Deccan...37 kms.  HUH?  I dig out my piece of paper show her the spelling and she says oh, no you are on the wrong bus.  WT...?  I say what should I do?  She says get off and take a bus back to the 'corporation'.  I don't have time, because it is clearly now 8:30 when I was supposed to show up for the bus, but the tour doesn't leave until 9 am.  Bugger.  I grab an autorickshaw and off we go in choking traffic. I figure that if it is meant to be it is meant to be that I go on this tour.  I arrive at 9:05 and I am absolutely stunned that the bus is still waiting for me. Er, could I call this Indian time? I apologize profusely and off we go.
Somehow things all work out...don't they?

Today my infection seems a little better, so I decide yoga at the condo is the exercise for the day . I am the exotic bird where ever I go.  People stare and sometimes I even evoke a open mouth gobsmacked stare from children.  I laugh sometimes, as it takes me by surprise.  I've never received that look back home, for sure.

So I attend the class right on time - 9 am.  The only other woman and the instructor are there, and they ask if I belong in the class - have you taken a wrong turn?  I say no, I am staying with a friend and was told that I could come to the class.  Are you sure?  I say yes.  It's an interesting yoga inyengar class I've taken in a long time.   He had us doing asanas so quickly that I could no longer keep up - it's clearly too hot for me.  One of the women says it is so hot....I just snort.   You have no idea!  Two other ladies had joined the class and so there were four of us in total.  I may join the class again tomorrow and then I might go shopping with one of the ladies. They have the inside track...

My plans are to go with Sanjiv to Goa on the 15/16 of December.  He is going to drive and we will stay overnight in a place in Kohlapur.  Then continue on to Goa on the 16th which should give me plenty of time to get used to this pollution. Cough, cough.  I will try some snorkelling in Goa...

Here are some photos of the place I stayed at in Pune....

The room I chose to stay in (there were three)

The living room and diningroom

The complex Yuthika on Baner Road

Mumbai

I have arrived.  Leaving -34 C and arriving +30C is quite the experience.  Sort of like being launched into outer space...but much warmer.

It was a 19 hour flight and I've arrived at Chris' place my couchsurfing host in Mumbai.  He has a three bedroom apartment in Mumbai.  I didn't remember that I would be crossing the international dateline, so I actually arrived in the future in India, December 2nd.  I lost a whole day.

The thing that throws you is the bobble head.  You don't know if they are saying yes or no.  When you ask a questions and they hear you, and you think it's a yes....but could it be no?  It's kinda disconcerting...you want to laugh, but  that wouldn't be right....

The second day I was in Mumbai, Chris also hosted two Russian girls named Yulia and Sasha.  They were scared to death so I took them on the ride of their lives....an auto rickshaw driver to our Metro (subway) stop  Sakinaka station.  Then we rode the most beautiful subway R15 (yes, it was much better than the LRT) and then we transferred onto their other (old line)(okay, not better than then the LRT) where we bought 2nd class ticket R5 to CST station.  I went to get my ticket to leave to Pune.  The ride to Pune is 3.5 hours and I bought at 2nd class ticket for R140 (so around $2.50 Cdn)  Yes, I did say 2.50.  Incredible.

I almost came to blows with another Canadian when he cut in front of me in the ticket line...actually he tried to cut in front of 5 people who were in front of me.  He wasn't successful and the lady behind the ticket counter was pretty proud of me!  Hee Hee.  I couldn't believe the wanker.

My last couple of days in Mumbai have been  getting used to 30 degree heat, the absolute incredible traffic and taxi/autorickshaw(tuk tuk ) drivers.  The pollution is absolutely choking  here. And rush hour...well, even Toronto traffic doesn't hold a candle to this.  It's staggering.  It's like a auto rickshaw race.Every rickshaw for themselves. You get used to the absolute mayhem and learn to hang on.  It's as close as you get to a mechanical horse race. Yee Ha!


Pune is next....

India - Ready or not here I come!

Where in the world am I travelling to next?

 I'm excited to finally be going to a place that has been calling me for some time. (Can you hear it calling??)

 I hope to visit many ashrams and enjoy the people, the food (of course!), and enjoy the fine weather and scenery.

So here is my intention:
(know that intentions don't always work out exactly as we want them to, but somehow if you stop and breathe, serendipity  enters and takes you where you are meant to be) :D

India :

• Mumbai
• Pune
• Goa
• Hubli
• Mundgod to take part in the the Dalai Lama's teachings
• Head further south  dunno where, but  I will end up in Bangalore and then:
• Maldives to take a vacation from my vacation and go diving!!!
• Then back to India through Bangalore then perhaps take a train to the province of Kolkata
• Darjeeling
• Travel the top of India and do some hiking in the Himalayas
• Perhaps Nepal (if time allows)
• Delhi

Then I'm off to my first visit to Europe and to meet my great friend Barbara (aren't all great people named Barbara???) in Budapest to do some hiking or climbing or maybe via ferrata...who knows!)

I know that this might not make you feel better, but know that I will be feeling the heat just as much as you are feeling the cold...nope, I'm sure that isn't making you feel better....Hee Hee...
You can always come and visit me and slow me down on my way....!