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Hello friends!
It has been a very long time since I last updated my online journal. Please forgive the tardiness! Yes, much of this entry will fill you in on things that happened in 2011 - how long ago! I am amazed at how the time has flown. Can't believe it's February already.
I am writing to you from an internet cafe in Rishikesh, India, a small community in the hills of the Himalayas. Pat and I are staying in the Anand Prakash Yoga Ashram at the moment, and I will tell you more about that later on. I have broken down this entry into two parts, for your reading convenience, if it makes it easier to take in this super long post.
PART 1
I last wrote in November at the end of my solo European travels. Unfortunately, visiting Amsterdam was apparently not meant to be despite my stubburn attempts to challenge impossible logistical complications; in the end, I spent a few extra days in Berlin (can I really complain?) and flew to Dublin in the third week of November. My friends in Ireland are so generous and kind and invited me to stay with them for a few weeks while I waited for my passport to return from the Indian Embassy in Dublin along with my approved visa. Getting my visa application accepted by that Embassy as a Canadian citizen and not as an Irish national was a bit...stressful...shall I say...and not as easy as my research and previous government communications had suggested (I was refused many times). In the end, the Embassy accepted my application and eventually I was approved for my visa. Phew! India!
After my short stay in Dublin I spent the rest of my days in County Cork with a happy week-long stay in Galway in there, getting ready as best I could for a Christmas away from home, drinking lots of tea, eating lots of fresh homebaked brown bread, reading, and enjoying a relaxing Irish winter with friends. I honestly can't thank my Irish friends (family) enough for their hospitality. They couldn't wait to get rid of me, I bet! :)
On December 18, I flew to Rome to meet Mum for a two-week stay in Italy. This was a pretty awesome trip, if I say so myself. We stayed in Rome for a generous amount of time, doing touristy things the first few days like walking about St. Peter's Square, standing beneath the incredible ancient dome ceiling of the Pantheon, watching a woodworker "named" Gepetto carving miniature Pinnochio's, tossing coins into the Trevi Fountain, touring the Colosseum and the Roman Forum (and pinching ourselves to make sure we weren't dreaming!), and navigating our way through markets and 'piazzas' and art galleries. We spent one full day at Vatican City taking in St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican museums, and one day wandering the northeast of the city to see more ruins, famous squares and the Leonardo Da Vinci Museum. Christmas Eve was a cold, rainy day, so we opted to tour the inside of the Castel d'Angelo on the riverfront. On Christmas Day, we returned to St. Peter's Square for the Blessing by the Pope. Seeing the Pope in person was certainly an experience to remember, regardless of if I wholy (*get it!*) agree with what he practices and preaches. So many nationalities were in attendance, school groups, families, tourists, etc. that it was a pretty cool event.
We left Rome on December 27 on a tour of Napoli, Pompeii and Sorrento. I honestly don't have much to say about Napoli; we weren't there very long and really I'm sure the city is just as you've heard people describe before - kinda dingy. I don't mean to speak ill of the hometown of pizza; but I am saddened that I didn't get to have a slice when we were there. Our tour of Pompeii, this ancient city that was buried in 79 AD in volcanic ash and stones in a nearby eruption, and so well preserved, was so informative and I am really glad we went there. It is a really interesting place to explore. We were shown the casts of bodies that had been excavated centuries later, buried beneath the volcanic ash; a mother with her once-pregnant belly still visible. We walked down ancient streets and stepped under the thresholds of ancient homes and restaurants where their mosaics still lie and their marble counters still stand. Even the bathhouses and brothels with their erotic artwork on the wall is still visible! From there we spent one night in Sorrento and the next day we took a ferry to the island of Capri. This place is beautiful, and I am so happy we were there on a day when the sea water was "calm" so that the rowboatman could risk our lives and take us into the Blue Grotto - pretty cool, sitting in a rowboat in a massive dark cave where the water illuminates from under you this light blue-turqoise colour and your guide is singing to you Italian opera - it's just that, to get in there, you all have to lie on your backs and on one another to fit through an opening in the rock that probably spans two feet in height in the three seconds when the tide ebbs away....a bit scary! But fun. When we got back onto the island, with its white plastered houses and lemon trees everywhere, I took a chairlift ride to the highest point of the island and from there, could see the coast of Napoli, Pompeii and Sorrento and the majestic turqoise water below.
Unfortunately, the rest of our stay in Italy was a write-off. Instead of spending three days in Florence and visiting Pisa, I fell quite sick again and stayed in bed for our remaining days, including New Year's Eve. I know, we lost out. It just means we'll have to go back again! I already miss the pizza, the gelato and the spaghetti....
On New Year's Day, Mum and I parted ways and I landed in London to meet my sweet friend Hannah from university. Hannah, as generous as she is, let me stay with her for my first night in London. I'm glad she helped me pick out a new pair of winter boots and I'm glad I didn't throw them out! Northern India is coldddd!
Two days later I picked Pat up at Heathrow Airport and we spent the next two days wandering around London and getting ready for the next lag of our trip in India and southeast Asia. As many of you know, our connections didn't quite connect on our layover to Mumbai, and so we were put up for a night in Istanbul - a nice and unexpected surprise! Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend any time touring Istanbul (our shuttle schedule didn't quite allow for that) but it was a good rest in the middle of a long journey to India.
PART 2
India. On January 7, we made it to Mumbai. Bombay. Bollywood. I couldn't believe I was finally and actually in this country. We were so blessed to have friends in Mumbai to collect us from the airport at 5am and take us to their family's home to host us for the next few days. We owe the Vesuna's so much for their generosity, hospitality and love over our stay in such an incredible city.
For the next four days, our new friend Varoon took us around Mumbai - he showed us his neighbourhood, Bandra; the waterfront and Marine Drive; Colaba and the Gateway to India; and more. We spent a morning at a nearby national park and visited ancient caves once lived in by hiding Monks, witnessing the carefully and skillfully carved Buddhas into the rock of the walls while laughing and smiling every time locals asked us for pictures with them...You mean you can tell we're not locals?? At the national park we also went on a "safari" (we were stuffed into a tiny bus with locals and drove through a small gated compound) but we spotted a lion and a few tigers!! It was worth the entire $2 for the ticket.
Varoon taught us many things about getting around India, how to haggle at the market, how to communicate with locals, and offered tricks to help us navigate ourselves in this society. He taught us how to cross the street. For all this, especially the latter, we owe him everything.
Mumbai is a city of 23 million people. The streets are full of cars, tuk tuks, motorbikes, people, trucks, garbage, red paan spit, and I must admit it takes some time to get used to the crowdedness, the meyhem, and learning to look up and down and behind you and in front of you and keep both of your ears open all at the same time. Just to walk down the street. It is a learned skill. As I experienced in Sri Lanka, the noise of the traffic in India is something I do not think I can accurately describe. People honk their horns to express every emotion it seems, every move they intend to make, make, and made on the road. As Pat has pointed out, to our ears, it seemingly quickly becomes redundant to hear so much honking at the same time - when does it end?
When we got to Candolim, a town in the province of Goa, although not nearly as populated, now cows, pigs, goats and elephants are thrown into the traffic mix. It's pretty entertaining most of the time, but sometimes scary!
We took a 12 hour train to Goa, in the south along the west coast of India - thank goodness for First Class. We spent the next five days on the Candolim Beach and swam in the Indian Ocean and drank beer and ate egg fried rice. We had excellent weather - it was hot and sunny everyday! One day. we hired a driver named Simon and he took us to see Old Goa, the former capital of the province - not much to see there, really, except the church and relic of St. Francis Xavier, the patron saint of Goa and Pat's favourite, for obvious reasons...In Goa, we met so many nice locals and did some serious tailor shopping for Pat and were spoiled with a traditional Indian dance and drumming performance during dinner one night.
Our way back north included a day stop in Mumbai, where we were once again spoiled by the Vesuna's hospitality - I love that homemade chapati!
From there, we took another overnight train to Ahmedabad, a traditionally Muslim city north of Mumbai. In Ahmedabad, we visited the Sabarmati Ashram, the former home of Gandhi. This was quite a special experience, I think, to see the place where such a person once lived. We spent hours reading through an exhibit dedicated to his biography and the objectives of the ashram; to read so much of his original handwriting and be enlightened by so many profound quotes, and walk on the same earth he walked when he lived and worked there, has created such an inspiring collection of experiences for me.
In Ahmedabad, we felt adventurous and decided to go see a Hindi Bollywood film! It was quite the experience - after ripping our tickets we were shown to a second lobby room decked out like it was 1939, and I have to say we were not expecting the film to last three hours and have its own intermission! ....Although we couldn't understand the language, I appreciated the musical numbers and found we could still follow the plot fairly seamlessly.
From Ahmedabad we made our way to Udaipur, which I think is my favourite city of India we've seen. It has a small population, similar to Halifax, and it sits between a handful of large, manmade lakes. We stayed in a heritage hotel, one of the many converted palaces in the city, that overlooked Lake Pichola and the Taj Lake Palace Hotel (famous from the James Bond movie 'Óctop**** ). Udaipur is an endearing, beautiful, city atop and between surrounding hills. It is connected by narrow, windy streets not unlike some European cities I've visited, and we wouldn't be in India without common traffic jams caused by herds of donkeys, lone cows, horses, camels, motorbikes and tuk tuks. Over our stay in Udaipur, we toured the City Palace - the largest in its home province of Rajasthan, and hiked to the top of a nearby mountain to see the Neemach Mata temple. On our third day, we took a daytrip to Ranakpur driving 95km away through desert-dry countryside, rural villages and steep windy mountainside roads lined with families of monkeys swinging from trees and staring down cars driving past. There we visited a 15th century Jain temple, which is said to be one of the five most holiest places for Jains in India, to see and admire 1,444 carved marble pillars within and be greeted by the high priest of the temple. Udaipur was incredible and we've both come away with some fine, locally made handcrafted leather goods to remember our stay there.
Our next stop was Agra. One lesson learned so far is definitely that we gave ourselves way too much time in Agra; normally, I am happy to spend longer than recommended in certain places because I appreciate traveling more slowly and it gives me more time to explore and learn how locals spend their time and live daily life. I cannot say the same for Agra. Truthfully, we couldn't wait to get out of there. The hassle we had to put up with from two different hotel managers, from locals trying to rip us off at every moment...it was also incredibly dirty and the air was extremely polluted - any struggles we'd had in other places by that point were exaggerated exponentially in Agra. One day is enough, it's true.
To spare you the grimy details I'll skip to the good part - the Taj Mahal. We arrived at the Taj Mahal at an early hour and spent an hour with an uninformative guide, going through the garden and actual mosoleum, before ditching him and spending some quiet time in front of this monumental structure. I can't really begin to tell you how impressive this masterpiece truly is. Even in person, the Taj looks superimposed onto a sky backdrop - perfect and pristine - I couldn't believe I was actually there. Somehow, though it itself is monumental, romantic and majestic, the Taj ironically looks perfectly planted and not at all out of place amongst a rather barren and dirty corner of the unfriendly and unromantic city. In a shop next to our hotel, we watched artisans crafting sophisticated and incritcate marble in-lay work, which Agra is known for, and that certainly helped me appreciate the vast in-lay work decorating all surfaces of the Taj. That afternoon, we walked from the Taj past the decorated camels and rickshaws along the Yamuna River to the Agra Fort, a World Heritage Site, where Mughal emporers once lived. The next day we drove to Fatehpur Sikri, about 35km away, which was the capital of the Mughal Empire from 1571-1585....not long! But it certainly was built well and is well preserved. We were shown this palace and the nearby Mosque which is home to the tomb of Salim Chisti (a holyman who blessed the king of the time and who was successful in wishing him an heir to his throne). My favourite part was the school for girls this king had built inside his palace, at a time when women's education was not even thought of.
Thankfully we got out of Agra, alive, and made it to Varanasi...the holiest city of India. I must say that Varanasi is my second favourite city we've visited and I'll tell you why - the culture there is unlike anything we've seen. Yes, the traffic and noise is still there and the red spit of paan (tabacco) chewers still litters the streets, but there is something so endearing and curious about Varanasi. It is believed that every drop of the Ganges is blessed and holding the power of salvation, and as most of you know, this is where many Indian people come to be cremated and their souls released. There is something in the air in Varanasi - something deep, something unspoken.
The riverbank is lined with colourful ghats (steps) that reach the water and meet either bathing worshippers or boatmen or crematoriums. Walking along the ghats you come across holymen meditating, children flying kites, water buffalo doing their business, people washing their weekly laundry and teenagers playing cricket. Then, suddenly, you come across a burning ghat, one spotted with cages of burning logs of wood and for the first time your eyes follow the line of the cloth inside of each to reveal the feet hanging out over the edge of one and you realize it's a person inside. And the men standing around it are the family of that person. There are no women standing with them, because women are likely to cry at a cremation and crying is believed to prevent a soul from fully reaching enlightenment. You stand to watch the first time, because you're curious, and because it is happening so openly, but then you think about it and it feels so strange that something you might feel is such a private event (to Westerners) is so public in Varanasi and suddenly you feel uncomfortable and you have to respectfully walk away and digest what you just saw. At least that's how I felt. But in that discomfort, I learned to appreciate the happiness in the hearts of the families there and adjust to how this event is so natural for the people of Varanasi.
The bathing worshippers are another sight! We took a boatride at sunrise one morning and watched as hundreds of people - local and nonlocal - strip down to their skinnies and submerge themselves in the filthy, rotten water of the Ganges, I guess cleansing themselves spiritually (certainly not physically!). That day we also visited four temples in the city, one of which is called the Monkey Temple and I had so much fun on the walk to the temple being surrounded by famlies of monkeys peeling back their bananas, wrestling each other, grooming each other, and doing backflips. What entertainment. The temple itself was amazing - lines and lines of devotees waiting their turn (as Indian people know how, I guess) to make their offerings and pray and be blessed, live music of tabla and flute and singing coming from two different rooms, etc. It was a humbling experience to be surrounded by so many people filled with so much devotion and faith. Later that day we had a guide show us around Mughal Town, a Muslim part of the city, in and out of people's homes and workshops to witness artisans hand dyeing, painting, beading, weaving materials like silk, linen and wool to make pashminas, sarees, etc. I really appreciated seeing where and how these items are crafted. With our new American friend named John. we went back to the river at sunset and hopped on another boat to watch a Ganga Arti (prayer) ceremony from the water.
We had a little hiccup getting from Varanasi to our current spot. Rishikesh. No need to go into detail except to say that we missed our first train, which meant we missed our connection train, and two days in a car laterrr with an overnight stop in Delhi....we ended up in Haridwar hiring a tuk tuk to take us into the hills to get to our ashram in Rishikesh.
We made it.
It is so peaceful here, so calming and serene. We are near another, cleaner, part of the Ganges, and are truly appreciating the fresher air and quiet sleeps. We participate in two yoga classes a day, three vegetarian meals with the other ashramites a day. and have lots of free time to explore around. I also indulged in a classical Indian dance class to make my Yorkers proud. I am thinking I would like to come back here again for a longer stay in future. We're meeting lots of Canadians, here, actually! Even some friends of friends. Small world.
I apologize for the lengthy note - hopefully the division between Part 1 and 2 has been helpful. Because I was trying to fit almost everything in, I haven't gone into much detail so I have many more stories to tell - if you have any questions, please let me know! Forgive me for any errors or mistakes.
On Monday we are leaving Rishikesh for Delhi for another overnight stay before flying to Kathmandhu, Nepal, on Tuesday. Exciting! I'll write more as soon as I have time.
Hope all is well - I'm sorry to be missing Mike Savage's big announcement on Monday!
Thinking of you all!
*Namaste*
Sarah
PS: A quote by the wonderful inspiring Mahatma Gandhi:
"My life is my message".
- comments
Cathy Connors Hi Sarah So appreciated reading your wonderful and detailed blog. You have captured what I have imagined India to be like but filled in with so many more details. Thank you for sharing your experiences...wonderful to read. Cathy xo
Bernie Hey Sarah, thanks for posting the link to your blog on FB so I could catch up on your detailed and charming narrative. I love it! Hope you & Pat continue to have a great time. I'll be off to Mike's big thing on Monday, should be interesting.
Katherine Joss Hi Sarah and Pat, So interesting to hear about the simiarities and differences in India - for such a big country, you have seen a lot of it! Do you keep a daily journal - your memory and recitation of detail is terrific. So glad you and your mum were able to spend Christmas together and do touristy things that do not require the level of work that "travelling" does. Continue to have fun, and take care of each other. Love, Katherine