All You Need Is Love

Hello and welcome to another post. Since last time, we've been to see the wonder of the Golden Temple in Amritsar, gotten our Chakras straight in Rishikesh, visited the father of the Nation in Dehli and have arrived in the ancient town of Jaisalmer.

Amritser is a fairly unattractive town, but the Golden Temple is amazing. You walk in to this complex (after washing your feet, of course) and are immediately greeted with a view of this gleaming golden structure in the middle of a large man made pond. It is amazing to watch all the throngs of people with their multi coloured sari's and turbans. They are there on a pilgrimage, but they all look like they are on a picnic. It's religion without taking it's self too seriously. Really wonderful and relaxed place to be. After visiting the temple, we stopped by a music store where I bought a set of tablas (Indian drums). They have been a bitch to carry around but I am so excited to get home and play them. The day before we had gone to a Hindu temple (Matta Temple) where women go to pray for a baby (yes we said our own prayers:). The temple is like walking through an old fun house with mirrors, and streams, and tunnels. The colours were vibrant as usual, and we were welcomed to sit in the main prayer room where people chanted and prayed to the woman who founded the temple. We politely declined, and enjoyed the experience as observers. After this we treated ourselves to a box (!!!) of Indian sweets - a different way for BOTH of us to look pregnant.

On our last day we went to the Pakistan/India border town of Attari, and watched the border closing ceremony. It was extremely hot, and security was intense. The bleachers are surrounded by sand bags. Liza got fully frisked and patted down in a screened area twice. The second time she had to explain what her SheWee was (www.shewee.com). The security lady was confused but let it slide. Each side has bleachers where the spectators sit and watch as the border guards march around and face each other off. Our side easily had 5 times more spectators than the Pakistani, but we seemed to be quieter. Hearing hundreds of Muslims chanting "Allah who Akbar" (God is Great) in unison is very eerie and not something you want to hear when travelling by air. It sent shivers up my spine.

So then we took a train to Hardiwar, and a bus to Rishikesh. This is the town made famous by The Beatles. They came in the sixties for an ashram stay and apparently wrote most of the White Album there. Needless to say this is a HIPPIE town and there are yoga and meditation classes everywhere. I went to the Maharishi Yogi Ashram, where The Beatles had stayed. It is now abandoned and overgrown by forest. It is fenced off by the Indian Forestry Department. I had to pay a security guard 50 Rps. to see it. He told me that I had to be quiet about it as he could lose his job. I think he is quite an entrepreneurial man. Inside I came upon an older hippie couple laying on a bench. The guy looked like Jerry Garcia. They were smoking a joint and appeared to be enjoying the calm and tranquility of the place. The huts that the ashramites stayed in looked like the Ewok village on ground. It was a pretty neat place. Wandering around looking at old toilets I couldn't help but wonder if one of the Fab Four had used it. I took pictures just in case. As interesting as an abandoned bunch of buildings is I never got the sense of The White album. In other words I never saw a Strawberry field. Maybe I should have asked Jerry for a toke.

On the next night I went to a rooftop classical Indian music concert. It was amazing to see the music being played live and for the first time ever I saw a man play a nose sitar. Basically he hummed out his nose and it sounded like a sitar if you closed your eyes. For the finale we were treated to Indian dance. The lady moved beautifullly through the stories while a man sang them over tablas and a harmonium. The walk home was a little nerve racking as it was pitch black and cows monkeys and stray dogs were every where. I made it home safe enough. The worst thing that happened was I stepped in a cow pattie. Shitty.

On the next day we headed across this huge suspension bridge. On the bridge Liza was attacked by a bull. Actually it just moved it's head, but it bruised her abdomen with it's horn. It could have been much worse. I never trusted those things anyways, but now we give them an extra wide berth. We went for coffee and breakfast and then spent the day shopping. We also booked a yoga class for the next day our last. The class was really quite enjoyable. I have been to several, but they all seem to be about the poses. Yoga is much more and Mootrie (our teacher) was able to share some of the philosophy involved, as well as the stretches and breathing exercises. With our body and souls aligned we headed to the bus station. Our Rickshaw had 12 people and a baby in it. People were sitting on one another and Liza and I practically had to stick our heads out the window to make room. From there we took an equally crowded bus were a lady sat on the floor and slept against Liza's leg. When we got to the train station we waited five hours for our train to Delhi. During the wait I was attacked by a monkey. Actually it was a baby monkey who grabbed on to my leg. I was concerned at first (rabies) but there was no wound it had just startled me. Maybe it thought I was it's daddy.

With only eight hours to spend in Delhi we stored our bags and took a rickshaw to the Gandhi Memorial. It is in the place where he was assassinated. The path to his memorial is supposed to retrace his final steps, at the end of which there is a flame burning and what looks like a tomb. We then went to the Gandhi Museum where you can see his blood stained clothes that he was shot in and all his worldly possessions. There were also many pictures, showing his life. It was quite morbid, but it also showed how simple a life he lived. He was a true leader who sacrificed everything he could for his people. Made me think a lot of our leaders who travel in super premium class and eat thousand dollar a plate dinners, all on our dime and in our name.

We then took a train to Jaisalmer. This is a desert town. Camels are everywhere and we plan to ride them tomorrow to the sand dunes. All the buildings are sand coloured and it feels more like we are in the Mid East than in India. As we were arriving on the train there was a gentleman who used our berth to charge his phone. He appeared to be a government engineer, or something. There was an earthquake about 30 kms. from Jaisalmer and he was calling people for damage reports. When he got off the train he was saluted by a soldier and his bags carried for him. I was just shown a newspaper report from the man beside me showing that a little damage was reported and a person was injured from rocks falling from a crumbling building. Nothing too severe but apparently there may be an aftershock in the next twenty four hours. We'll keep our fingers crossed.

Well that's it for now look forward to hearing from you all and talk to ya soon.

MArk and Liza