I left Tushita meditation center after 10 transformative days in silence in a taxi with Alex- the Danish 21 yr old guy from Copenhagen and my Scottish giggle buddy and Karma Yoga partner in crime, Mikey.
Our taxi pulled up to Seven hills guesthouse and we got a couple rooms - running into our friends Polly, the English Montessori school teacher and Rainer, the extremely interesting German hippie musician. They had walked and beat us there.
I love these people.
We all headed off to do various errands... Mikey and I stayed together- going to pick things up around McLeod Ganj and running into various friends all over the place.
We all met at Carpe Diem restaurant on the roof for dinner that night.
There were probably 30 of us up there laughing and getting to know the friends we had been sharing time and space with, locking eyes with, sleeping next to and knowing nothing about their regular lives somehow.
A smaller group of us went to Oliver's house for an after-party jam sesh. Oliver is this amazing Jim Morrison-esque musician who has been living in McLeod Ganj for a few months, teaching guitar and is friends with everyone.
His studio/home was beyond amazing and we made some really special music sitting around...
At one point the group dwindled to just oliver, Rainer, Mikey and me... And I recorded two fifteen minute portions- where the four of us are all just in the zone... Making sounds and music, singing, reciting words... Being so utterly expressive and creative and authentic
It was an hour of my life I'll never forget.
Then alex walked in and said "hey! You guys are still up! There are nine of us. Can we come in?"
In walked more amazing friends from the course... Changing the vibe drastically but as we all know- nothing lasts forever!
We've spent ten days recognizing impermanence afterall.
Around 1:30am I had to leave, as my bus to Amritsar was leaving early early and I had to be up at 4am. Alex, who I was sharing a room with volunteered to stay up til 4 so we'd definitely be up (and because it was just so hard to pull ourselves away from the group)...
I almost started to get misty eyed saying goodbye but kept reminding myself that nothing lasts forever and to be grateful for the time we had.
As I was hugging my last friend goodbye- Luca, the tall German kid that beamed sunlight every day next to me in the Gompa and never stopped smiling... Mikey came out of the blue with a headlamp on and announced "I gotta walk my sister home."
We laughed about everything (for a change) the whole way back to seven hills and then sat in the room and listened to the recording of what we just created at Oliver's hours before.
Just as it finished the entire group from Oli's arrived outside the door, coming to party in Polly's room- which shared a wall with mine.
I didnt mind at all.
I slept for two hours to the sounds of these amazing people, my friends and Dharma buddies on the other side of the wall drinking and laughing and singing, staying up with Alex...
Alex came knocking at the door at 4:15. My alarm was going off but silent to my sleeping ears.
We rushed down to catch a taxi from the main square escorted by our two friends, Ahshish, the Indian who lives in Dubai and was in the advanced course while we were at Tushita... And the other Polly, who we call Polly Pocket- a tiny little mini hippie who lived in Cambodia for a year and is fascinating and gorgeous...
We said goodbye, jumped in our taxi and made it just in time for the bus.
The journey down the mountain away from our beloved Dharamshala began at 5am.
Alex slept like a wet noodle on the window and I did my best to rest and relax for the 6 hour bus ride.
We finally arrived in Amritsar- a pretty decrepit city by all accounts, though it reminisced Padang to me a little bit and made me smile. It was missing the ocean though... No, we were far from the sea- in fact we were on the Pakistan border.
I didn't get a chance to go- but apparently at sunset when the border closes, the guards put on a whole show and do the Monty python high step and dance around.
I only had time in Amritsar to go to the Golden Temple- a Sikh palace and the most efficient way of feeding people I have ever seen.
After leaving all shoes and tobacco products outside, you enter this beautiful temple and sacred pond- and there is a food hall where you get given a free meal. I watched thousands of barefoot, cross-legged people getting fed... At least 300 people doing the washing up- throwing the metal plates and bowls to one another.
It was incredible.
Alex and I posed for about 25 photos. (the token westerners)... I actually didn't see ONE other tourist there the entire time.
Alex and I left, took a nap at his hotel - I did some yoga and then we had dinner at a swanky restaurant which felt nice to pamper ourselves a little after that bus ride- up and down and side to side shaving the sides of cliffs and bouncing around on the stone cold rock hard bus seats.
After dinner, alex escorted me to the train station and helped me find my first class cabin I would be sharing with a Finish man named Aleksi.
Aleksi had a Cal (UC Berkeley) backpack and had been in LA in march... He was also an opera fan and knew of my dad's friend Marty who is a famous bass in Finland.
He had been on the bus from Dharamshala too and was exhausted, so we both just made our beds and slept...
20 hours on the train went by in the blink of an eye.
I slept so well and dreamed vividly... Woke up and meditated, stretched, re-read my notebook from Tushita and before I knew it we were in Lucknow.
(nearly to Varanasi)
An older Indian woman came on board and sat with us chatting and before I knew it we were in Varanasi.
My Finish cabin-mate, Aleksi and I decided to share a autorikshaw down towards the burning ghat.
Here we were. It was no joke. Varanasi takes "intense" to a level I didn't really know existed.
I felt this overwhelming calmness in the face of the Varanasi energy, almost like going totally calm when someone is having a freak out... Just holding the opposite somehow.
Varanasi is far from mellow.
The dead bodies draped in sparkling orange cloths being carried above the heads of the crowded streets. The children, the cows, the touts, the babajis, the honking motorbikes coming down supposedly pedestrianized alleyways that are just covered in poo.
Yea... Poo.
Everywhere.
Our autorikshaw driver parked, grabbed our bags and walked us down an impossible maze of alleyways.
A huge cow came charging towards us. I jumped to avoid it.
Minutes later a mellow cow lifted it's tail and peed on my leg as I was squeezing behind it.
I laughed and just told myself it must be a blessing.
Finally- days later I walked up the cracked cement steps of the Shanti Guesthouse, bid adieu to Aleksi and saw my friend Aaron in the lobby, beaming his sunlight spirit as ever.
I got a small room- just a bed- threw my stuff and went to sit at the rooftop restaurant to catch up. Within minutes we were singing mowgli's songs to all of Varanasi- laughing, talking and smiling so big my cheeks hurt for 6 solid hours.
We made calls to friends in venice until i ran out of credit and then I slept like a baby.
I woke up first so I meditated for a while and then walked down the hall to Aaron's room- waking him up and leading him to the roof to give him a yoga private.
Then we walked down that maze I talked about and finally found his sitar lesson... After sitar we wandered a bit, came back to meet Aaron's friend Danny- went to meet the hand guru- a channeler who was incredible. He's too expensive for me, but Aaron is going to do a session. When I walked out of the Baba's chanelling house I got shit on by a bird. (again I referred to the old "it's good luck" idea to make me feel better - had the best lassi of all time (blue lassi) and then went to see the burning ghats (amazing) - watching a dozen or so cremations on the river all at once....
We stood in an old decrepit building to see from high above. There were sadus and junkies asking for money and it was pitch dark except for the embers flying around from the burning bodies and a couple candles lit next to an alter.
Eerie and beautiful at once.
Then aaron took us down the gaht to have the best chai in Varanasi and made our way back to the rooftop resto at shanti.
After/during dinner Aaron and I got infected with some kind of highly creative bug and just went off- we wrote 3 songs, read poetry to one another and just were buzzing.
Satisfied in our very full, unbelievably creative day... We called it a night around midnight.
Varanasi so far- ya.... Worth that journey already within 24 hours here eventhough I've been covered in cow pee, bird shit and human body embers.
I love it.
I'm not sure why I love it, but I do.
Thank you universe!
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