Pushkar, Camel Safari and Really Cute Kids!!!

India is amazing, but I wish for one day only the power would not go out, and the flies would go away.  I am sitting at the "Funky Monkey" cafe right now waiting for the power to come back on so the flies will leave me alone.  WOW!  It just happened!  Maybe this means I have good Karma?  Anyway - Kale and I are currently enjoying Pushka.  A little about this town... It's a holy place.  The food served here is strict vegetarian, and alcohol is prohibited.  BUT marijuana is legal, and you can order it as a "lassi," which is similar to a fruit smoothie.  It is listed on menus as the "bhang lassi" or the "special lassi."  These marijuana-laced beverages will run you anywhere from 40 to 80 rupees (90 cents to $1.80) and they are very strong.  Kale and I haven't tried one yet, but we are thinking about sharing one before we become Buddhist monks for 10 days.  Yes.  We are going to enter a Vipassana meditation center for a ten-day retreat.  We will not be allowed to talk for ten days.  It should be interesting.  Kale and I will be separated because males and females are forbidden to interact during the ten-day retreat.  We enter our monkship on October 12, and it ends on October 23.  Between now and then, we plan to just enjoy Pushkar.

Back to Pushkar - it is a sacred Hindu town, the main pilgrimage site of India and one of it's oldest cities.  Pushka is home to the world's only Brahma temple.  Brahma is the Hindu god of creation.  There are more than 500 temples that surround Pushkar's focal point, the sacred lake.  The sacred lake is surrounded by 52 bathing ghats where Hindu pilgrims go to cleanse themselves of sins and disease.  Tourists can walk down to the lake for a blessing, and receive their "Pushkar Passport," and since this includes a donation, there are several locals here that pretend to be priests so they can bless you as well as take you to the cleaners.  :)  However, if you have your passport you get left alone.  The passport is a small orange and red string wrapped and tied around your wrist, kind of like the red Kabbalah string.  Kale has his passport, and I do not.

This photo represents the southwest corner of the lake.  One the right is Sivitri Hill, and if you look closely, you will be able to see Sivitri Temple on the top.  Kale and I are going to climb this hill tomorrow morning.  I'm sure the experience will be lovely, and we'll be able to take some photos of the entire town of Pushkar once we reach the top.    

Yesterday we had scheduled a short camel safari and dinner with a local man named Kalu. We left Pushkar at 3pm and rode into the desert/hills for a couple hours. At one point we stopped to let the camels take a break and have a drink of water, as well as to give our butts a rest. After the break we took off again for another hour or so until we arrived at Kalu's family farm. Here we were greeted by his mother, grandmother and a five kids. Mum gathered a table and chairs for us and made us fresh chai tea. We sipped our tea and talked for a while then she was off to prepare a fantastic feast. While she was cooking we were talking and playing with the kids. Their ages ranged from 3 to 12, 2 boys and 3 girls. The kids were great, they were so happy and playful. One boy was happy doing his own laundry, he was 6. The little girls were the really playful ones, they would take our hand and lead us up a flight of stairs along the side of the home to the roof, their bedroom during summer. There we played dizzy time, picking them up by their arms and spinning around until we were both dizzy, you know the usual games you would play on a roof. Don't worry, there was at least a small wall around the edge. The kids were fearless and happy, they didn't have a tv, video games, or toys. They did have a wide open yard and fields to play in, along with camels to ride. They found stuff to do, they created their play instead of having it created for them. They were the most well behaved kids we have ever seen (aside from our lovely nieces, nephews and godson of course! lol).  One boy, Vikrm, was Kale's camel guide. He is 10 years old and works for his uncle Kalu. He just helps guide the camels on the tours. This boy was very intelligent, quiet, kind and very soft spoken. He was a true little gentlemen.  After we ate dinner, which was a combination plate of chapatti, dal fry, aloo gobi and basmati rice, we followed mum and Kalu's two sisters into a small room to look at Kalu's wedding pictures, as well as other family photo albums.  Whenever we would run across a photo of someone who has passed away, they would point and say, "him/her...die."  There wasn't any sorrow involved with telling us this either.  "He - die ... she - die ...my brother - die ... my sister - die ... my father - die."  The statement was very matter-of-fact, and said without any sadness.  We laughed about it later and now every now and then we say to each other, "he - die."  HAHA 

Here are some photos of our camel safari:

Kale and Vikrm

 Kale looking unfazed just after his camel, Krishna, tried to bite him on the leg!  HAHA!

 This is my camel, Jimmy:)

 Our friend, Olivia and our three camel guides...

 Jimmy

 My guide and I ... I've forgotten his name!!  Oops!

 Local ladies from the village...

 Camel toe :)

 

 Kalu's nieces - they were so sweet!

Here are some other kids we met on the street.  They wanted our bananas, and we couldn't say no to them.  They were way too cute!

Kale loved this motorcycle ... he wants a Royal Enfield when we return to the states.  I think we will buy one and ride it down to Peru ... :)

I took this while walking through a narrow alley.

  

India – Mayhem, Chaos and Naked Men Covered in Ashes...

Kale and I have now been in India for a little more than a month.  It’s been an adventure thus far, and we have only barely gotten started.  We left beautiful and quiet Palolem, Goa on Monday, Oct. 3 and flew to Jaipur, Rhajasthan.  Palolem is where many backpackers go to relax after traveling throughout the utter insanity of this subcontinent.  So Kale and I are actually doing things a little backwards thus leaving our peaceful little paradise on October 3 and heading north toward the insanity.  We were sad to say goodbye to our friends, Krishna and Susana, but we know we will be back to visit at some point.  When we arrived at the airport in Goa we were informed that our flight had been delayed, and instead of leaving around 3 pm, we left around 5 pm.  Bye-bye Palolem:(

We arrived in Jaipur around 8:30 pm, and took a cab to the Evergreen Guest House.  We decided to look at the evening train schedule before booking a room for the night, and found four trains running to Ajmer, which is only 11 km away from our final destination, Pushkar.  From Ajmer, we could catch a 5 am bus to Pushkar for 24 rupees.  We decided to take a rickshaw to the train station to buy a ticket to Ajmer.  After almost hitting a few pedestrians, our driver dropped us at our crowded destination.  The train station was packed with people lying all over the floor.  No one at the train station is too good to sprawl out on the ground and take a rest.  There are babies no more than six months old as well as elderly people possibly in their 80s all sleeping on the ground.  There are families that bring food and blankets and basically “camp out” while they wait for the train that will carry them to their next destination.  Now, I can’t say for sure whether or not everyone there is waiting for a train, or if it is just a place for them to sleep and not be hassled, but either way, the floor of the train station was covered with sleeping bodies.  The ticket counter was another story.  It was basically a mosh pit of people shoving their way to the front of the line.  Queuing up is not the Indian peoples’ specialty  As I waited in what looked like an attempt of a line, a guy came up to me, and told me that this was the men’s line and that ladies never wait in the men’s line.  He was almost laughing at my ignorance about this rule.  He pointed me toward the “ladies line” which was a smaller mosh pit at the front and center of the large mosh pit.  I braced myself, and went for it.  After some shoving, ass-grabbing and a bit of shouting, I successfully procured two tickets to Ajmer for only 100 rupees.  Kale and I would be able to take the next train, which was schedule to leave at 10:35 pm.  We found the departing platform, and decided to have a seat in the middle of the crowded terminal.  There were two small children sound asleep right in front of me who looked no more than 8-years-old, and there was also a very old lady with bare feet sleeping to my left.  There were families with luggage sharing food and conversation everywhere.  It was very loud, and I was graced, every so often, with the potent smell of poop that came from the open latrines in the trains.  Our train was about 45 minutes late, and when it finally arrived, we were told our train cars were located at the front of the train.  When we stepped onto one of the train cars, the space was so crowded that some of the passengers were using the luggage located above the seats as beds.  There was one man nice enough to let us share his seat, and we were off.  The two-hour trip went quickly, and when we arrived in Ajmer it was almost a quarter past 1 am.  We stepped off the train into complete madness.  Some traveling ascetics were playing drums and satyrs and signing/yelling into microphones while a fairly large audience clapped along.

The train station was basically “hopping” at this ungodly hour.  There were vendors left a right yelling, “chai, chai, chai, chaiiiiii.  Chai, chai, chai, chaiiiii,” and there were several small street vendors selling food.  Kale and I decided to try a samosa for 5 rupees before deciding on our next move.  As we enjoyed our snack, we walked past a sea of sleeping and awake bodies to the entrance.  Walking among the sleeping bodies inside the main entrance of the train station was a cow, of course.  Cows rule here by the way.  Drivers will break for cows before they will break for people.

After walking around and trying a couple of the street vendor snacks we decided to “camp out” among the sleeping bodies while waiting for the bus station to open at 5 am. We threw down our yoga mats and tried to catch a nap. It wasn’t easy to rest with the beating drums, vendors yelling, and the occasional breeze blowing thru a fresh or rotten batch of pee and poo.  After 3 or so hours we hailed a rickshaw to the bus station.  As we walked in we were immediately directed toward the bus to Pushkar. The bus was on its way after a 5-minute wait. The trip to Pushkar was about 20 minutes through the mountain pass and switchback roads.
It was 5:30 am when we arrived, awakened for some reason, in Pushkar.  After stepping off the bus we looked around and then at each other and wondered what to do next. The scene was out of an old western movie, dusty dirt street in almost total blackness. There were a few loners walking by here and there, and a man on the curb setting up for morning chai with a couple early customers awaiting their fix. The best part was that it was dead silent (a rarity in India), and the temperature was perfect. We started walking down the street toward what we hoped was the center of town. We asked a man if he knew of the guest house we were looking for and he pointed us in the proper direction. Almost everyone was saying good morning or Namaste to us when we passed. It was very peaceful and calming, thus adding to our excitement of finally having arrived after a grueling 18-hours straight of travel. Eventually, after asking a few more people about our guest house, we found it. One of the men we asked also gave us a business card for another hotel, which would soon prove to be a blessing. Around 0630 we finally got checked in and went to sleep. Unfortunately about 2 hours later construction began on the very building we were in. There was a cement mixer parked right outside our window, which was run by a pretty loud gas engine.

The workers began mixing concrete, using pulleys and buckets to get it up to the top floor while yelling back and forth.  By around noon, we had had enough.  We left the room for a while to walk around.  We pulled out the business card the man gave us earlier that morning and found the hotel. We agreed on a price of 150 rupee per night ($3.00) for a one-week stay. Immediately we rushed back to the other place, packed our crap and paid the man half the fee (200 rupees) for the room since were only checked in for about 8hrs.
Finally we could relax in our new hotel – Mama Luna. With our 700-rupee-per-day budget well within reach now, this meant that we could spend 550 rupee on food alone. That is a LOT of food!

So far we’ve spent our time here exploring, walking around, looking at the shops, trying different juices and foods, doing yoga on the roof top in the mornings with friends.  The highlight on our first day was feeding monkeys on the rooftop of one nice local’s home.

Later today (Thursday) we are taking a camel safari out to the desert. We met a nice man, Caloo, who started this business when he was 13. He and his brothers have run it since then; he is now in his late twenties. The camels seem to be treated very well so we decided to do it. We will start at 3pm and ride for 2 hours out into the desert, and then we’ll stop at his farm where his mother will teach us how to cook (and eat) a traditional Rajasthani meal. After dinner we’ll ride the camels back to town. We will be sure to post many pics and videos later of our camel safari:)

Namaste!

Fasting...Its a slow process. Sept 18th

What is the purpose fasting? Cleansing the body, giving it total relaxation inside and out, spiritual enlightenment, clarity of mind, just to name a few.  In every age and season, fasting has always been used. Most hear it mentioned in the sacred writings and think nothing of it. The ancient Greeks, like Pythagoras, would not allow his students to obtain his instruction without first fasting for 40 days. There is a purpose, and it is worth investigating.

Heidi and I decided to start another 7 day fast on Oct 18th. The plan was to only intake water and the occasional fresh lime juice in water.  Last year around this time we scheduled our first 7 day fast. I fasted for 6.5 days, Heidi went for almost 4. We both felt amazing afterword and noticed significant positive results within our bodies.  For me it was mainly improved joints. Since my motorcycle crash back in 2001 I had pains in both knees and ankles when bent for long periods, after the fast the pains were gone, it was truly amazing.

Back to last week.  Since day 1 I have not been able to sleep more than maybe 3hrs per night. I simply do not feel tired, although I want to sleep. On the morning of day 5 I woke up with a headache, which is normal during fasting. Later around 11am I started feeling lots of pressure in the throat, and then I would start to gag. Eventually this led to me puking up some kind of brown slime, which after a few heaves turned into yellow. This lasted a couple hours, gag, puke, sit for a while, then repeat.  To my surprise after a small break in the puking I began to puke up black slime/fluid. This went on for hours off and on. Mucous from my nasal glands were also in overdrive. It was draining into my stomach and out my nose. My body was getting rid of years and years of toxic build up.  Late afternoon came and I got chronic hiccups. They were almost painful. Heidi ran to the internet café to look up remedies and nothing seemed to stop them.  The hiccups lasted well into the night and next day, Day 6.  Every expert on fasting has always suggested that if vomiting starts, you should break the fast as soon as possible.  So Heidi went to get me a fresh papaya juice, unfortunately it didn’t stay down.  From Day 7 thru Day 10 the only thing I was able to keep down was a 6oz papaya juice and a couple small bites of bread and potato.  I then realized the puking wasn’t because of the food, it was the mucous running down my throat that was so thick it would make me gag, and then I’d puke it up.  So I didn’t try to eat anything at all, in fact I had no desire to eat. On Days 11 and 12 I was finally able to get some decent sleep.  I was able to eat small fresh fruits and veg with no problem. But at some point during the day I could feel the mucous coming and I’d gag again and only the mucous would come up.  Today is day 13 and all is cleared out, I feel like a million dollars and my energy is becoming very strong.  I also notice that my sense of smell is greatly increased.  As I gain my strength back I’m sure I’ll notice more things.  During this process I think I lost around 15-20lbs. Now that my cells have a fresh start I will treat them better.

Fasting and Eating for Health

The China Study. – This 20 year study will turn your world upside down.  The truth you cannot argue with.

The Gerson Institute. – A cancer treatment center, do your own research and you will be amazed. There are books as well is DVD's about this.
www.gerson.org

Palolem randomings for make posting of the bloggings

Krishna Das Baba, our yoga instructor, friend and favorite chef. His website we are building is www.yogavillapalolem.com 

Riding rain gear :)

The bus to Chawdi

For some reason I thought this would make a great pic

Our $3 room

Another beach shot

Heidi's favorite calf, he eats all our banana peels.

Not sure of his name, but he is a huge Shepherd, he stands guard outside one of the restaurants. 

Snowflake, the manager and CEO of Krishna's businesses.

We have noticed many very large frogs hanging out in the water channels.

Ganesha Festival — the elephant headed boy riding a mouse

Ganesha is one of the most well-known Gods of Hindu religion, which has five prime Deity’s. He is the
destroyer of obstacles, vanity and pride.  The Lord of success, knowledge and wealth.  He is a symbol, just as Jesus, Buddha, Thoth, Horus and the life giving omnipotent Sun is to their respective religions.

How this boy got the head of an elephant is another story of which I won’t go into here.

“Ganesha's head symbolizes the Atman or the soul, which is the ultimate supreme reality of human existence, and his human body signifies Maya or the earthly existence of human beings. The elephant head denotes wisdom and its trunk represents Om, the sound symbol of cosmic reality. In his upper right hand Ganesha holds a goad, which helps him propel mankind forward on the eternal path and remove obstacles from the way. The noose in Ganesha's left hand is a gentle implement to capture all difficulties.

The broken tusk that Ganesha holds like a pen in his lower right hand is a symbol of sacrifice, which he broke for writing the Mahabharata. The rosary in his other hand suggests that the pursuit of knowledge should be continuous. The laddoo (sweet) he holds in his trunk indicates that one must discover the sweetness of the Atman. His fan-like ears convey that he is all ears to our petition. The snake that runs round his waist represents energy in all forms. And he is humble enough to ride the lowest of creatures, a mouse.”  - Source: Hinduism Guide

Note the Om symbol on the left and Svastika on the right.

Another

If one were interested, you could look up the ancient meanings behind “Amen” and “Om”. You would find some similarities. J

No matter what religion you are or are not, the lessons are all the same. In the texts of sacred writings, almost nothing is meant to be taken in a literal sense. Even the scriptures that seem to have a simple straight forward understanding are still a parable to the hidden truth.  Just as the Masonic degrees to me and countless others, are parables to a deeper lesson. One Word, or one Symbol, once understood properly can point to volumes of knowledge you never knew existed.  You know what you know; you know what you don’t know. But you don’t know what you don’t know until you stumble upon a new Truth

Ganesh Chaturthi

Ganesha’s birthday is celebrated every year in India for almost a month. His birthday comes during the Hindu month of Bhaadrapada, starting on the shukla chaturthi (fourth day of the waxing moon period). from mid August to mid September. Here in Palolem, Heidi and I got to participate in the celebration on many nights of this month-long event. Almost every night around 7pm we would hear fireworks randomly exploding in the distance. Once darkness came the fireworks became more frequent. Soon we would hear loud music coming from the edge of town. Eventually the parade of cars, scooters and people dancing would make it to main street of Palolem. One car, or large truck, if the Ganesha was very large, would have the Ganesha in the rear hatchback. It would be decorated with flowers, Indian treats, and other alms, all as offerings to the Deity.  The treats were also handed out to anyone present for the celebration, including us.  Another vehicle would be blasting Hindu music and the streets would resemble a moving Disco. After slowly moving through town the Ganesha vehicle would back up to the entrance of the beach. The Ganesha would be unloaded with all reverence and carried to the beach and placed on a pedestal. More dancing, offerings, singing, and loads of fireworks continued, some blasts sounded like dynamite. 

When the ceremony was properly completed, Ganesha would be taken to the sea and submerged in the waters, eventually carried out to the depths of the ocean by the tide regularly ebbing and flowing. With it taking the misfortunes of all mankind, until the next year, when Hindu’s with great misfortune wish he would come early to relieve their troubles J

Below are some video’s of the celebration. Usually this party would last until at least 2am.

 

Can you find the man who had too much to drink?

Even the dogs were celebrating.

Last one, on the beach

Gokarna Day 2 - To Palolem

Gokarna, Day Two

I woke up very early Sunday morning after a terrible night of sleep.  I decided when I woke up that I was going to try to be positive and happy and accepting of any situation.  I grabbed my book and walked into the cafe to read my book.  I sat for a few minutes, and then decided to walk down the beach for a bit to see if I could find a different hotel as well as and nice spot to sit and possibly read my book.  As I walked, I noticed the water was very rough, and not good for swimming.  I thought maybe it was because it was morning.  But I would soon find out that it was actually due to the monsoons, which start in June, and then start to wane in September.  I walked quite far down the beach, and realized that the only other open hotel was hosting about 19 people to a room.  No thank you.  I decided to walk back to Namaste, and wait for Kale to wake up so we could talk about our next move.  As I was walking back to the beach, I started feeling raindrops, and then a terenchel downpour followed.  And of course I forgot my umbrella at the cafe.  Good thing I remembered my book though!  Idiot.  This time I actually laughed at my situation instead of cursing and writhing. 

When I got back to the hotel I decided to read while my clothing dried.  When Kale woke up, we sat at a table in the cafe to order some tea, and a very nice couple from Spain joined us.  They too, had arrived the previous evening and were hoping we could tell them what to expect out of Gokarna.  We were no help to them as far as their questions about Gokarna were concerned, however we all offered solace to each other, as we swapped horror stories about our experiences at Namaste hotel.  We were also joined by Linda from Germany who actually had to change rooms because her bed was covered in mold!  Oh, Namaste!  The couple from Spain decided to pack up and leave that afternoon.  Their plan was to take a train to the Goa airport and then fly south to where it is warmer and drier.  We decided to stay, and take a rickshaw into town with Linda to get online and plan our next move.  We walked around the town of Gokarna for a few hours looking in the shops and just observing.  We finally resolved to accompany Linda to Palolem, which is one of the southern-most beaches in Goa.  We thought about traveling south to Varkala, but it would have been a minimum of a 20-hour trip…no thank youJ  Palolem was a one-hour train ride north, and Linda knew a yoga instructor who was giving daily classes.  We’ve wanted to find yoga classes since we arrived in India, so we were really excited about the prospect of meeting the instructor in Palolem.       

When we got back to Namaste Kale and I decided to go for a walk to Kudle Beach, which was supposed to be about 20 minutes away according to Lonely Planet.  We walked on a trail that cut through some cliffs on the beach!  It was AMAZINGLY beautiful and I wasn't looking where I was going, and then felt something squishy on my foot that engulfed my flip flop, and when I looked down I realized I had planted my foot deep into fresh cow shit!  I screamed!  Good thing we were next to the ocean and I could rinse it off.  We never made it to Kudle Beach because it was getting dark, it started raining, and the beach turned out to be much further than 20-minutes away.  On the way back Kale sank his foot into cow crap!  HAHA! 

When we got back to the hotel we decided to have dinner, and get the best night of sleep possible before heading to Palolem in the morning.  YAY!

Palolem

We arrived in Palolem around 2 pm and Linda showed us to a great little hotel called, Mamoo’s Place.  We booked a room for two nights, and Linda ended up being our neighbor.  YAY!  We walked around the beach for a while and came to “Monkey Island” where we could see monkeys sitting around in their trees.  It was so awesome!  Too bad we forgot our cameraJ

After walking on the beach for a while we went to the bookstore and met Krishna, the yoga instructor and bookstore owner.  He was such a kind, and laid back person, and talked to us about breathing and Hatha and Ashtanga yoga for quite a while.  He also told us that he was going to get rid of our fat.  He was raised in an ashram and began practicing yoga when he was 15 years old.  We signed up for a class for the next morning.  After eating dinner we when back to our hotel room for a good-night’s rest.  We were happy to sleep in a bed with dry sheets and no mold on the walls!  YAY!

Our room at Mamoo's Place

The next morning we slept in and met Krishna at 9:30 am for yoga.  The class was an hour and thirty minutes, and felt really good to our muscles and joints.  After yoga we went back to the bookstore, which also has a small kitchen and living room area in the back, and Krishna poured us a cup of some of his kombucha, and made us breakfast, which was dal and toast.  Over breakfast he asked Kale if he knew how to make a Web site, and Kale showed him the site he built for his business.  Kale told Krishna he would work on one for him while we’re here, as well as improve the performance of his laptop, which was painfully slow.  We (Kale, Linda and I) made plans to have dinner with Krishna that evening to work on his computer, help him build a Web site and learn how to cook authentic, vegan Indian food.  Not only is Krishna a yoga instructor, but he is also a master chef when it comes to Indian cuisine.  He holds cooking classes during the busy season here in Palolem. 

We ended up having dinner at Krishna’s place with Linda three nights in a row, as well as doing yoga every day.  It was really fun, and the food was amazing!  We also decided to spend a month in Palolem.  We found a nice room across the street from the beach, and Krishna is pretty much our neighbor.  This will be a nice place for us to relax, read and hold onto our money while we plan our next step.

Our new German friend Linda

 The local cows find shelter at Krishna's store awning, and crushed Heidi's umbrella :)

 More computer work :)

 The main street in Palolem, taken from our favorite restaurant

 Our favorite restaurant on the roof

 The beach in Palolem

 Heidi and another new friend, Sandra from Spain

 Cooking class

Our posts will probably not be as frequent since we are pretty much stationary for the next four weeksJ