Kathmandu

Walking the streets of Kathmandu after our adventurous arrival felt like heaven: fresh bakery products, real coffee, ATMs on all corners, hemp, not to mention the zillion beautiful small shops offering local products and tibi csoki!!!! You can immense yourself endlessly in the crowd, just scrolling the streets, discovering the overwhelming beauties of the city, shopping, enjoying the various culinary delights from basically all around the World. Though we are experimenting all kinds of local goodies wherever we travel, we always forget to mention them, so here the must try is the daal bhaat tarkari (lentil soup, rice, with curried vegetables and spinach) and the Tibetan kitchen with its' momo, noodle soup and tea (with butter and salt).

We nested in a hotel in Thamel, THE tourist quarter, which is loud of live rock and blues in the evenings (I guess it is the cultural heritage of the hippies hitting on the city in the 60's), from where we started our discoveries. One of the first and most amusing one is that in Kathmandu Valley there are three parallel times existing; if you open The Himalayan Times, the daily paper, you will find out that it is 2064 according to the Nelapi calendar, at the same time 1127 for the local Newars, and the rest of the World is living in its' illusionary year 2008.

Here comes the next surprise: this is the first country or contemporary culture I personally came across with, where they worship a living God, to be precise a Goddess. Kumari Devi lives in a wonderful palace (see the picture on the left) on Durbar Square, which is the architectural wonder of the Newar people's culture, who used to reign the Valley till the 17th century, now they represent 6% of the population with about 1 million representatives. Kumari Devi is a girl between 4 and a 10 plus, who is considered to be the reincarnation of Vishnu and her selection is a similar ritual to the selection of the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. She goes every now and then on strike like in 2005, but she is still to be seen on religious festivals a couple of times per year. Unfortunately we did not have the luck to see her, only on postcards.

I do not know what is wrong with most of the religions over here, but women are treated very awkwardly; just to mention one aspect, you are not allowed to enter the temple when you have your period (just like in the Russian Orthodox Church and in Hinduism), and poor Kumari Devi is also considered "unclean" after her first menstruation, when she falls from the throne of gods and shall continue her life as a mortal, ordinary human being. To make it worse it is considered unlucky to marry a former Goddess!

We took long walks to discover the UNESCO Wold Heritage site Durbar square and lose our way among the architectural treasures of the 17th century Newar culture, also to the non-touristic quarters south from Durbar square, where we could see the contrast between the real life of locals and the staged tourist district of Thamel. The photo on the right illustrates well the water supply situation and the dependence on springs, which also serves as major laundry spots for local women. There are several Buddhist an Hindu sites in the close nearby of the city, one of them is Swayambhunath stupa, or Monkey Temple for easier pronunciation for tourists, which is one of the most ancient Buddhist shrines in Kathmandu. The view is splendid from this hill-top, and the sweaty climb is made entertaining if you have something to offer to the louring monkeys, just be careful, they can get quite aggressive.

I shot hundreds of photos and I feel I could still not capture the city, which is to a great extent because of the various faces of the local people. However well equipped the city is (for tourists) you cannot forget the conditions we saw on the way to the capital; tanks scroll the streets, there are armed police and soldiers everywhere, long ques for petrol due to the country-wide shortage and pre-announced hours long black-outs in the mornings and evenings. Amazingly locals take it cheerfully; you hear no complaints nor accusation.

From Bodhgaya to Kathmandu

It has been so far the most trying trip: to get out of India: we left Bodhgaya on the 23rd of February in the morning and on the 25th of February 4 am we arrived to Kathmandu, Nepal. We had lots of adventures this time - new kind of adventures.

The train trip to Patna took us 6 hours instead of the scheduled 2. Arriving to Patna, especially after the South is a bullet in the head: the hotels were booked, they were and no value for money - or maybe we landed in the middle of high season business event... Rickshaw drivers offered sky high prices and we had extremely hard time to get it lower or get a ride at all. Finally we decided to escape from the place with the 10 pm governmental night bus to Raxaul, which is the border city to Nepal, with the naive hope to make it through to Nepal.

Well, the bus broke down in the middle of the night and waited 6 hours for a mechanic to repair it. Basically the bus crew abandoned us somewhere what looked like a desert where we had tea with some sort of a family warming themselves up around fire. At 10 am when we made it to Raxaul all we had in mind was just to get out of India. We made it through the Indian immigration without falling for the officer's attempt to be paid for a service which is for free, but we had problems with the Nepali visa, as we did not have USD. So having a funny conversation with the Nepali immigration officer, who ensured us several times in a loud voice that he is not making business, he is a government officer, we paid in INR a couple hundreds more than the normal fee and were happy to enter a country which was on strike. We started hearing that there is a strike in southern Nepal but it is hard to believe what the Indians say until you really see it (we have heard so many times fascinating stories about closed or burned down places that we just said - ok - on strike? so what? - yet another attempt to sell us overpriced services) .

Birganj, the Nepali border city looked like a war zone: roads were blocked with stones and bricks, lamp posts were thorn out of their places and laid over the road, there were no cars whatsoever, all shops were closed and citizens were marching on the streets with flags. Generally as there were no cars and no horning, one could hear deadly silence around which "sounded" not too inviting. Soon we learned that we will not make it from this place to Kathmandu or Pokhara unless we take a bicycle rickshaw or a horse carriage to the neighboring town, 25 km North, called Simara. Though we did not have any cash left, we hoped for a bank or an ATM in Simara to be able to pay for our horse carriage and make our way further by bus. Well, every time we said so far that it seems things are getting better, it just got worse: Simara was in a similar chaos as Birganj, there were no cash options and we have not been eating for the last 24 hours. That was a moment, when I started to count what would my ring and earrings worth as a payment for our ride in case some miracle does not happen and can get cash. The miracle arrived in the form of two Slovakian fellow travelers, who were angels and helped us out with a loan, I guess with no hope that they would ever see their money returned. But we decided to change our original plans and took the bus to Kathmandu, hoping for better facilities and a bit of peace. The bus was supposed to depart at 4.30 pm and arrive at 10 pm, so we were not prepared for a chilling cold night ride and had no time to eat. At the end Tomek threatened the driver to call the police in order to be able to depart at 6 pm , when we already suspected that we will not arrive to Kathmandu before the following morning (worked well as the bus departed within 15 minutes). So it happened and after a half an hour walk in the pitch dark of Nepali capital (being without electricity most of the time), we bumped to the first hotel and fell asleep.

Now having an almost warm shower, some sleep in a bed and food we can again better appreciate the small goodies of life. And Kathmandu is just addictive, you will see more in the next post!

Bodhgaya

After another joyride with a night train from Kolkata we arrived 6 am to Gaya in Bihar on the 21st of February, 2008. We were attacked by a tuk-tuk driver just the minute when descending from the train and we decided not to argue too much, we took the ride to Bodgaya with 3 funny Asian girls, all together 6 of us in the rickshaw. We had to put on our jackets not to freeze and hold ourselves so strongly - Tomek to the right, me to the left of the driver - as if holding to our lives in a thick fog, still before sunrise, rambling with 50 km/hour. Finally we disembarked at our accommodation, the Royal Bhutanese Monastery (see the photo n the left below), which was fast asleep and still. Luckily the gate was open and after some coming back and forth we found a guy who showed us to our room for half the price we usually pay, with HOT water, first time in 2008 :)!

Instead of a morning meditation at the neighboring Japanese Monastery we crawled into bed and had a wonderful sleep under a wonderfully protecting mosquito net. Hot shower (hmmm), breakfast (rather lunch), a bit of mapping the neighborhood and off we went to the famous Bodhy tree, under which Prince Siddhartha Gautama transferred himself to Buddha, the enlightened - 2600 years ago. However, this very tree is obviously not 26 centuries old, it is a descendant of the original one. Besides the numerous Buddhist monasteries from all around the world - from countries like Japan, Myanmar, Thailand, Bhutan, Burma, Tibet - the main attraction is the Mahabodhi Temple erected in the 6th century by Emperor Ashoka. It is the Nazareth of Buddhism, the most important Buddhist pilgrim destination, where (female and male) from all around the globe come, pray, meditate and chant. We spent hours just sitting and watching the hundreds of orange, yellow, crimson monks, old and kids, listening to the different country's characteristic chanting.

boomp3.com

In the evening we headed to the Tibetan Refugee Market, where eventually we had our momo in a tent restaurant, a Tibetan speciality, much alike Polish pierogi or Russian pelmeni. The place had mud floor and walls with some kind of plastic foil roof, but seemed to be so popular that there was a choice of at least five restaurants the same kind. We joined at the Chinese Monastery lighting hundreds of tiny candles organized in the perfect shape of Chinese characters celebrating the first full Moon in 2008, which is a great event for welcoming the moonlight helping the crops' grow and harvest later on. At 10.30 pm we faced the last challenge for the day: the monastery's gates were closed and we had no cash left. Since we know no impossible we got in and had the probably most quiet and peaceful night in two months.

On the 22nd of February we decided to visit the Dungeshwari Cave Temples, where Buddha spent years of penance (see the picture on the right). Our guidebook gave very little information about the whereabouts, hence we ended up in crowded shared rickshaw rides, being dropped in the middle of nowhere, jumping on a local bus and finally entering a noisy negotiation about the tuk-tuk fare, when we the bridge crossing the completely dry riverbed and somebody understood what we were looking for. The ride was long and tiresome, so bumpy that we were jumping in our seats and had to clinch like "majom a koszorukovon" (sorry, it is in Hungarian), but we finally made it. The best thing we learned today about how to make business when you do not have anything to offer: sell coins to foreigners to be able to give it away to beggars. Unfortunately we missed to figure out how much the coins they sell are worth and how low in the bargaining phase they are ready to go. It ain't no funny! Hunted by beggars, kids and monkeys we spent a half an hour chilling at the cave, which looked really nomad with a skeleton like golden Buddha statue in it.

We closed our day with a wonderful chanting session at the Japanese monastery accompanied by drums and singing a bowl. A little bit worn out by the filth, the unbelievable poverty, the constant blackouts, the difficulties to get our laundry properly washed, the beggars, the kids clinging on you asking for whatever you have, and the constant question how to find a toilet we are closing our last but one day in India very very happy and satisfied.

Kolkata

Planning the trip to the north has been a challenge. At the beginning we thought about taking a train but it would be a trip of sixty or so hours. We wanted to split it into a couple of days trip but somehow it became very difficult time wise and it would take us over a week. Hence we decided to indulge in a bit of luxury and booked a cheap Indian airline (no way to mistaken them for any other as the safety instruction picture in our gallery shows). Anyway we took a bus from Pondichery to Chennai airport and after two hour flying time we landed in Kolkata on the 19th of February - former capital 16 million plus inhabitants. We were a bit hesitant as to going to Kolkata since we imagined that it will be tougher than Delhi. The reality exceeded our expectations. Whereas we landed in a very decent airport and without any problems got a prepaid taxi to a booked in advance hotel (this time we did not dare to go and wonder around), the way to our place was completely outer space. In fact we commonly agreed that it was a bit like in the Mad Max 2 - The Road Warrior. The first thing that hits you in the eyes when you start your journey from the airport in the Ambassador (what already feels like being in the fifties) are the neons of huge new shopping malls, then slowly you start seeing rickshaws pulled by humans, and all kind of vehicles that should by law of physics and common sense not be able to move and clog the streets. The poverty, little fires on the street around which people warm themselves up blend with signs of KFC or any other western chain.

The atmosphere of the city was incredible and we both fell in love with it. The next day we started exploring it on foot (went to Victoria Memorial and Maidan park - nice and for some reason the main place for shepherds with goats). In Victoria we saw a very nice museum about Kolkata and how it was founded by the British. In fact it was so easy to walk around that we decided to stay one more day and take the explorations one step further. In short we decided to decipher the public transportation - buses. We did manage very well. They are almost for free and you just have to ask around to get to know the destination. Once though it got pretty tough as for some reason the road became blocked by the police and the driver refused to go any further. As a result we witnessed how the passengers have almost beaten up the crew of the bus as they did not want to give the money for the tickets back. Metro seems a better choice if you have the liberty of choice.

Otherwise, we have stumbled on "Social Communications 7th International film festival" screening Miklós Jancsó's movies (now after stumbling on a bakery powered by Hungarian "wheat grinding machines from 19th century" together with Hungarian cakes in Pondichery and Hungarian chicken in Bodhgaya (about this in next post) I feel like Poles are underrepresented considering the number of people leaving back home...Good job Magyarorszag ! We have also seen a great market place where we learned why most of the Indians are vegetarians :) We personally did not feel that it is by any means safe to buy meet there. I guess Indians developed such instinct instinctively.

Koklata has some kind of charm that is difficult to convey in writing. But it is something about peace between past and the future.

Everything in Kolkata coexists somehow in harmony does not disturb anyone. All in all we were was so happy about our adventures that one evening I managed to lose our mobile phone...this was the price for our happiness. I guess nothing comes for free.

Varkala & Pondichery

After reaching the southern most tip of India we obviously had to start our trip up north. Our first stop on the way to the very north was Varkala - not that far from our Ashram - right on the western coast in Kerala. In Varkala we met our Polish friends who are also touring India. Obviously our pictures can by no means be compared to his but it is definitely a good target for us to keep in mind :) Also lot of kudos for them for making it all the way from Goa in one day. It was great to see them and enjoy easy going afternoons and evenings while eating fresh fish right from the sea. We also met lots of people from the Ashram as it seems Varakala is a favorite retreat for those a bit tired of waking up at 5.30 am for meditation. So we met our Polish friends from the Ashram and at some point Rita ended up being the only "foreigner" amongst five Poles.

As usual when we arrived we did not know what
to expect from yet another place in India. What we have learned so far is ALL places are very different. There is no way of knowing what to expect. It can be awfully crowded and filthy or stunning in all aspects. One thing is for sure - every time you arrive somewhere you will be somehow surprised. Varkala for us was great. It is a stunning little beach resort with lots of beautiful little houses offering accomodation among palm trees. All of them are located on a top of the cliff right next to the sea. In fact you have to go down the stairs to reach the beach. The top of the cliff is lined with dozens of very nice restaurants and stalls selling all you can imagine but without too much harassment from the sellers if you just happen to pass-by. Therefore strolls along the cliff was always a very nice experience. The sea was a bit rough with strong currents but going in is still lots of fun. It was a beautiful setting for Valentines day! Incidentally we happened to find a lite version of India for that specific day:

After Varkala we set off with an overnight train to Pondichery. This relatively small town for Indian standards is located on the east coast of India. It was our first time on that side of subcontinent and we landed in "little France". Pondichery used to be a French colony and you can smell it everywhere - huge French consulate, baguettes everywhere, French schools and cultural center, Mediterranean type of architecture etc. Yet another setting for a relaxing day. We hired two bicycles and set off for explorations outside Pondichery and ended up in sort of slums or at least districts where life seems to have stopped some centuries ago. The contrasts in India are mind blowing - I think I have never in my life seen poverty and modern developments coexist so close to each other. In the evening we went for an open air jazz concert organized by Alliance Francaise - excellent venue and good music as such.

There was also an Sri Aurobindo Ashram in the nearby but we decided to skip it - otherwise we would never make it our of India - you can always find new things and places worth seeing.

Kanyakumari

With other terms it is Cape Comorin or the Lasnd's end. Actually it is the end of the Indian subcontinent, it is the most Southern corner of the land, where the Indian Ocean meets the Arabian Sea and the Bengal Bay. This is our first destinantion after leaving the Ashram to spend a day or two to be blown away by the wind and enjoy the breeze from the ocean from the 12th to the 14th of February. The city itself is very tiny in Indian scale, onlt 20 000 people, but a real pilgrimige site with its' temples, Gandhi Memorial and all the time ongoing spiritual rituals. As we learnt, Gandhi's ashes were kept in this memorial until they were spread in the ocean. Around the main temple there is as usal a bazaar with wonderful shells from the sea and smelly spices. After Tomek sent me alone to the temle - which is devoted to the Hindu Goddess, the Devi Kanya Kumari - to check out if it is worth seeing, I had the privilige to be shown around by a pilgrim. He did not speak English, but was very keen to show me every corner and introduce me to all possible ceremonies performed by the visitors, including climbing to the rooftop. I ended up with a big black and red mark on my forehead which was eventually quite difficult to remove later the day.

The highlight of the day was a small boat ride to the two rock islands along the shore, one with the giant 133 ft high statue of Tamil poet-saint Tiruvalluvar , the other a beautiful, clean and peaceful temple erected for the memory of Vivekananda, the 19th century wondering monk, who revolutionized India's spiritual life. We spent most of the day around these rocks enjoying the wind, the violent waves and the peace. In the evening we - accidentally - ended up scrolling the narrow streets of the local "residential district" along the sea side with fishermen. This are was hit by the Tsunam in 2004, but most of it was nicely renovated.

On the morning of the 14th of February we hit the road towards Varkala to meet our Polish friends from Warsaw.

Ashram

You will need a looong coffee this time; it has been quite some time that we have been only accumulating experiences but not sharing it, so now we try making it up all at once. To begin with let me state that life is beautiful; my tears were dropping today when listening to music on the train after 12 days of renouncement deprived from any "earthly" matters.

It was the 31st of January evening when we arrived to Neyyar Dam, a small village nearby Trivandrum to start a Yoga Vacation at the Sivananda Ashram. We planned some kind of yoga retreat long ago, but we were not quite sure about the where and how, especially about how we will take it. So we agreed to stay for minimum 3 days and maximum 2 weeks depending on our liking. It all began as a concentration camp - using the swami's (hindu monk) words when introducing the ashram life and rules on our first day. And it really was hard on most of us for the first few days after which actually we started to enjoy this very well organized, truly international, peaceful and strictly disciplined monastery environment. During the stay attendance at all classes is required, which meant more or less full time schedule from 6 am till 10 pm. When we checked in we received the house rules, which included items like smoking, alcohol, drugs, meat, fish, eggs, garlic or onions and pets are not allowed; mobile phones and cameras should be handed into reception upon arrival; guests are required to offer up to one hour of karma yoga per day, which means the ashram is self maintained by the guests. To respect the monastic tradition, guests shall restrain expressions of affection such as hugging or kissing in public and are advised to observe celibacy as part of the spiritual discipline. So you can imagine what a shock this schedule is particularly for one who has never done yoga before! But after the first 2-3 days we got acquainted with the place, understood that we are in the middle of the jungle, the various sounds got their meaning and place from lion roaring three times per day at feeding times at the nature reserve opposite the lake to the different bells and chanting around the clock notifying coming events of the day. Soon I will be oblivious to spiders after meeting species of the size of my palm and sharing the water with the crocodiles when swimming in the lake opposite the ashram. Eating with hands sitting on the floor became one of the comfort events of the day as we realized today that we have not sat in a chair for the last 12 days and as a matter of fact we have not sat in a car this year. No toilet paper and squating toilets were no problem after 4-5 hours of yoga excercise a day; your legs can surely hold you after a few days of practice and I will leave the no toilet paper part to your imagination to figure out with the hint that only right hand should be used for eating and serving food.

Besides the teachings the most valuable experience was the meeting with people from 40 plus different countries. After moving from one place to the other we felt some kind of belonging to some of the people we met and spent these days together. Though I have to say Hungarians were badly under represented me being the only one of the roughly 300 guests and I still have not bumped in any of my country man throughout our whole stay. Bhupendra, I hope you read our site, because we wanted to thank you so much for the cookies and your help; they served us for quite some days. And Gregg, I am grateful for you fixing Tomek's back after two years of pain; now I have my shoulder pillow:))).

Besides our normal schedule of waking up at 5.30 am, attending the morning meditation and chanting from 6 am to 8 am, yoga class from 8 am till 10 am, breakfast from 10.30 am till 11.00 am, karma selfless service from 11.00 am till noon, 12.30 till 13.30 pm coaching, half an hour tea, 2 pm to 3.30 pm lecture, 3.30 pm till 5.30 pm yoga class, 6 pm to 6.30 pm dinner, 8 pm till 10 pm evening medtation and chanting we had once a so called morning walk to the lake to see the sunrise instead of the morning meditation and one day off on Friday. We went on an excursion to the jungle to a waterfall where we could swim in the small pond which was a lot of fun until the rain started to pour like cats and dogs. We made our 2 hours walk back to the lake where boats were supposed to pick us up and give a 40 minutes ride to the ashram, but half of us did not fit to the boats and were left in the rain for another 2 hours. Still raining, no connection to civilization, 1 hour before it got dark and Tomek was in the first boat... This is an experience I will remember as one of the most trying ones not to lose my nerves, but people took it very positively which made it almost fun. Returning to the ashram we learnt though that it was not even worth to mention to locals; monsoon and tsunami obviously adjusted their standards.

If we manage with our gadgets you will soon be able to listen to an 80 years old swami woman's chanting and read more about our reflections after we digested it a little bit. Hinduism as the spiritual foundation for yoga in this particular ashram did give us a lot to debate, but buddhism is still there to discover in Nepal, Tibet and Thailand before any convertion :)

UPDATE: For more to see go to Rishio's beautiful photo collection from our life at the ashram.

boomp3.com
boomp3.com

Neyyar Dam - Sivananda Yoga Ashram

Here we are - doing yoga in an ashram in Kerala already for the fifth day (I cannot really believe I made it so far considering the schedule). I have never really had anything to do with yoga in my life so I was a bit hesitant to go straight to an ashram but why have it the easy way, when you can always make life more exciting. We agreed though that Rita helps me out at the beginning in case it is tough on me.

So we arrived - in an ashram that feels a bit like a student campus on a hill, right next to a national park with lions roaring every morning and evening. Beautiful location. Right at the entry we had to surrender our mobile phones and cameras to a deposit box. In addition we cannot go out without applying for an "out pass". Kind of strict rules.

For me the toughest thing is the four hours of exercies per day. The good thing is I can still move and I guess I have never in my life been so flexible. It will be a good preparation for our hikes in Nepal.

The internet is 15 minutes per person if you sign up early enough so a more thought over post about what we experienced here will come as soon as we get out of the ashram. There is actually lots we want to share as it is definitely a new and confusing experience.

Yoga - out of office for the coming week

This is our program for at least next seven days.

5:30 am - Wake-up bell

6:00 am - Satsang (silent meditation, Mantra Chanting and lecture/reading)

8:00 am - Asanas, Relaxation

10:00 am - Brunch (wholesome vegetarian meal)

4:00 pm - Yoga class

6:00 pm - Dinner

8:00 pm - Satsang

10:00 pm - Lights out