Hello friends…
Writing this in the evening at my guesthouse room. It’s the beginning of the end in Bodhgaya, and thoughts are turning to the next thing: Tiruvannnamalai and the Ramana Maharshi Ashram. It looks like I’ll be traveling alone: my potential traveling companion, Prasad, met a girl, and she’s going to Thailand, and he’s showing a brand new interest in Thailand himself. But I have heard of several others who will be heading to “Tiru” as well, so I’ll have some friends there when I arrive… The distance is about 2000 km, which takes something like two and a half days by train, which I would do if I had more time, but things being as they are, I’m going to fly. Will make the arrangements tomorrow with a local guy who has a reputation for being honest (a pretty unique trait for this town). Am spending mornings doing Phowa practice with other students from the course. For the next two afternoons Dilgo Kyentse Yangtsi Rinpoche will be teaching. He’s the reincarnation of one of the greatest Tibetan masters of the 20th century, now in his late teens and just beginning to teach. As much as I really don’t want to be running around all the time, it makes no sense either to have come all this way and not attend these events. Much of the conversation at mealtimes is about travel plans away from here: everyone is on their way somewhere. I’m very pleased to be heading to the south, which everyone says is more relaxed and cleaner. It will be warmer as well. The nights have been cold here. Wearing layers and with two thick wool blankets on top I’m just barely staying warm overnight. (There’s no heat of any kind in the buildings here, of course.) Even during the day I have one or two sweaters on and am glad to have them. This is as cold as it ever gets here, and is due to warm up again before the week is over. I haven’t taken as many pictures as I intended to and I plan to fix that before I go. It’s still difficult, but not as bad as when I first got here. I know the ropes better, and the locals know me somewhat, so it gets a bit easier. I want to take pictures of the vehicles, more various than it’s possible to describe. Motorcycles, mostly Hero Hondas (an Indian joint venture with Honda), with a very few Royal Enfields around and a local make, Bajaj, and not much else. I’ve seen one Yamaha and one Suzuki and one Kawasaki. I have so far not seen a motorcycle with more than one cylinder. The smaller displacement bikes are 100cc, and most are about from 125 to 175cc. The Royal Enfields are 350cc, which looks and sounds like a monster here. Sort of the Harley Davidson of India. Apparently there is a 500cc Enfield as well, but I haven’t seen one. For all the talk of the Tata Nano (a tiny, very basic car, meant to be one step up from a motorcycle) I haven’t seen one yet. I have seen families of five on a Hero Honda, or four adults, and the bikes seem to handle it okay. The bikes here are all set up for the passenger (the wife) to sit side-saddle, with a foot rest and guard alongside the rear wheel, as all the Indian women here wear saris, never pants. Another observation: I haven’t yet seen a woman driving any kind of vehicle here. Maybe one percent of motorcycle riders here wear helmets. The one saving grace for all of Indian traffic is that with the poor quality of the roads and the volume of traffic, nobody really ever gets going very fast, so accidents tend to be few and minor despite the seeming chaos of the driving. Actually the driving has a pattern, and Indian drivers actually must always be very much more alert than we in North America are used to, which must also serve to limit the frequency of really bad accidents.
(The next afternoon...) The cold is back with a vengance. Had a really rotten night, but got some good Tibetan noodle soup for lunch, and a pot of tea, 4 glasses worth of really strong, sweet, milky stuff, and I seem to be feeling a bit better. Much sneezing and blowing of the nose still though. The air ticket to Chennai is in hand, still working on the details of getting to and from airports, and accommodation in Tiruvannamalai. It's coming together. Traveling is work, and I'm reflecting again as I have many times before that I'm really glad that I have a reason for being here. I keep promising to post pictures, and I will... sometime... Stay tuned... :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment