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.
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 |
Hey Barbara,
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas!
Glad to hear that things worked out and you got to listen to the Dalai Lama in English. You certainly are an adventurous one.
The couch surfing really sounds like the way to go. You get the low-down on the area and even get driven around. I'm glad you haven't had any trouble with the men.
Thanks for writing the blog, it's very interesting to learn all about India without having to put up with the air pollution and all of the garbage.
Hopefully I figure out how to post this comment. I've done a few that haven't shown up. Just wanted you to know that I've been thinking about you.
Have fun and stay safe!