In India, things that... / RIP Canon Digital Ixus V2

Things That Surprised Me
The non-existence of toilet paper.

Things That Interested Me
Trucks requesting, sometimes begging, for you to honk your horn.














Things That Frustrated Me
1. People stared at me so much that I started staring back at them. Imagine what it's like to play several staring contests with complete strangers in a foreign country.
2. Transportation is regularly late, beit train or bus, expect 1-5 hour delays on departure.

Things I Liked
1. Children - These two posed, and then ran back after every flash to see themselves on the camera, then ran back in front of it for another. This went on for about 15 pictures.
























Things I Never Figured Out
1. STDs...if anyone can clarify what it stands for, please do come foreward and enlighten me!















AND finally, it is official. My 4 and a half years companion of a digital camera took it's last picture on March 6th, of this Cricket match in Bodh Gaya.

While bribing the train attendant to let me stay in the sleeper car instead of the overflowing sitter ("stander" is more like it), I dropped my camera on the floor. I thought nothing of it, since I've dropped it many times before. I put it back in my pocket, only later to feel an incredible heat. The battery must have exploded or something. I only managed to salvage the memory card.


:_(

Delightful Darjeeling

I've just returned back to flat land, in Siliguri West Bengal, on my way back to Bodh Gaya. Darjeeling, despite the fact that it was freezing and foggy, almost changed my mind about doing this Buddhist pilgrimage. I was seriously debating whether to just forget about the meditation course, and just stay in Darjeeling a few more days, and then from there spend the rest of my week delving deeper into Sikkim, the province even more deeply wedged into the Himilayas, squished between Tibet, Nepal, and Bhutan. Partially I was upset that it was so foggy that I couldn't see Mount Everest. I came all this way hoping to see the Earth's highest point of land, and I couldn't! Even the Everest museum in Darjeeling was closed. What bad luck!

Fortunately, I did really appreciate the ambience of the town. Nepalese, Tibetans, and Bhutanese outnumber Indians there.

When it comes down to it...I really, really love these borderlands that defy America's simplistic ideas of race. In reality, there are no such thing as a White race, Black, Asian, Aboriginal race, and then "mixed race." In fact, everyone is mixed race. I really felt a feel-good warmth in my heart to see an entire community of people who looked half-Hindu, half-Chinese, half-white, half-whatever.

As for my health update, my bald head got sun-burned in Bodh Gaya. For the first time the surface of my head hurt, "this is a strange-feeling headache I've got," I thought to myself, until I touched it and little sheeths of skin snowed down like confetti.

My Whereabouts

I'm now in Darjeeling, known worldwide for its tea leaves, and for sitting at the "base" of 4 of the 5 tallest peaks in the world, including mount Everest. I say "base" in quotes because from the feeling I get looking down...I feel like i must already be on Everest! Man, just riding in the jeep-taxi made me feel like I was in an ascending airplane, and everything below the size of ants.

You may be wondering: "why is he in Darjeeling when just yesterday I read that he was in Bodh Gaya all ready to study Buddhism and meditation!" Well, the 10-day retreat basically keeps the participants in one compound the entire time, meaning I can't get out...the point is to really focus on the subject matter, and really meditate deeply on our own thoughts whilst having as little outside interference as possible. So, it starts on Friday (the 9th), so if I waited 'til after the course finished, I wouldn't have time to see the highest point in all the world. So after checking into a room at the Bhutanese Monastery at Bodh Gaya, and researching all the meditation offerings in town, I went right back and haggled with the monk not to charge me for the room, since I didn't even sleep there for the night! He was hesitant, but in the end, didn't charge me. I wasn't surprised, he's a Buddhist Monk after all...although i did sense a bit of irritation inside of him at first that he was suppressing.

The train ride was a bit of a crazy one. Everything was full. But in China and in India, they have no qualms about selling "standing" tickets. It really felt like a moshpit inside the train...some guys were even sleeping on the upper racks where you're supposed to store carry-on luggage. You really have absoultely no room to move even just an arm. I couldn't take it anymore, so went over to the sleeper cars, where one upper-class Indian businessman was in the same situation as I. After paying one of the attendants, he slept in a storage cabinet, and I slept underneath a bench in that area between two cars, next to the 2 restrooms. This for 13 hours. Not as bad as that 29-hour ride in China sitting in a non-reclining 90-degree seat.

Day 1 - Kolkata

I'm now in Bodh Gaya, after a freezing 8-hour sleeper-train ride that I got on last night at 8:35 PM. I had tried updating with a blog entry, but the Internet Explorer kept crashing on me...now I have to write everything again!

Things I didn't expect
1) I wasn't expecting so much traditional clothing to be worn by the women. The older generation wasn't much of a surprise, but girls my age I saw walking on the street were all wearing either saris or salwar kameez's (dress-like tunics and trouser combinations accompanied by long scarves). It didn't conform to my Bollywood-watching impressions of jeans and such.

2) I was stared-down like no other. There weren't many tourists in Kolkata, especially compared to Thailand...and tourists I saw were usually white...making me an exotic specimen. I mean, I got turning heads, even groups of people circling me and silently staring at me up and down, no joke.

3) The weather. I was expecting sweltering heat. Instead it's cool and dry here.

I arrived at the airport in the morning, welcomed by the familiar crowd of eager taxi-drivers waiting to prey on tourists, "hello, where are you going? Taxi?" He followed me for about 3 minutes before finally giving up on me, as I reached the bus stand and took a 1-hour honk-fest/nausea run through the labrynth of the bustling streets (9 Rupees / 20 UScents). And then walking into the train station made me feel like an ant running into an over-crowded ant-hill, bumping this way and that not knowing where to go or how to buy a ticket (every counter mysteriously directed me to another counter which then would direct me to another counter and after 1 hour I finally got to the right place). For lunch I had an 8 rupees (18 UScents) lunch of rice and veg-curry. It reminded me of the noodle-soup I found in LiJiang, GuangXi China for only 25 cents that I was so proud about, because it was super cheap yet super good food that's not so easy to stumble upon.

I can't seem to upload my pictures, will try next time.

Pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya

Bodh Gaya is a city in Gaya district in the Indian state of Bihar. It is famous for being the place of Buddha's attainment of Enlightenment. For Buddhists, Bodh Gaya is the most important of the main four pilgrimage sites related to the life of Gautama Buddha. - Wikipedia.org

In an intriguing display of architecture, monasteries are designed in a representative style of their homeland. Thus, the Thai Monastery is a brightly coloured wat, just as in Thailand. The Tibetan Karma Temple and Namgyal Monastery each contain sizeable prayer wheels and the massive Indosan Nipponji Temple is donned with a Japanese pagoda roof. Some other noteworthy monasteries are the Chinese, Burmese, Bhutanese, Vietnamese, Tamang, Daijokyo, and Nepali. - Lonely Planet

In 7 hours I fly to Calcutta, India. I shaved my head partially for its symbolism...to represent a simple yet spiritual lifestyle, to represent rebirth, and because it's probably darned hot in India! However, I've been told that monks are supposed to shave off their eyebrows too. I'll be bringing a razor for use on the train that'll take me to Bodh Gaya. Visit this blog regularly. In addition to my own personal reflective writing, I plan on sharing my experience daily on this blog!