the girl in the orange has got some moves


One more post before bed. Tomorrow we have a two day train ride. The border closing ceremony was pretty cool. There were about a few thousand Indian people on our side dancing and shouting patriotic things like "Hindustani...", "Namaste!" while waving the flag. The guards were dressed in very flamboyant uniforms meant to make them look tall and imposing. The tourists sit in a seperate VIP section. It was a little weird. The Pakistan side had maybe sixty people. It looked dull in comparison. The gaurds took turns seeing how long they could shout into the loudspeaker, and then they did some stomping and glaring at each other. Then, they lowered their flags, and did some more stomping and it was over. -Ashby

Golden Temple

Okay, so that bus ride was even more hellish than the first one. We were crammed in like sardines. Last night we saw the golden temple. It is very beautiful. It is a gold covered temple surrounded by a holy lake. There were thousands of people making their pilgrimage there. It is so busy that it is open 24-7, and they feed and house people for free. The Sikh people are collectively the nicest people I think i have ever met. A cornerstone of their religion is to be open and helpful to all people, especially of other religions. Since we were foreigners, they let us go around the giant line of people to see the inside. Then we got shown around by another man with missing teeth who did not speak English. We had to take off our shoes, wash our feet and cover our heads. as you leave the temple, you are supposed to take a sip of the water from the sacred lake which is supposed to have healing properties. Cara pretended to drink it, but i took a big gulp. At night they wash the marble floor with milk. Today we are going to see the border ceremony, which is a show they do on the Pakistan border where they stamp their feet and glare at each other or something. I guess we will see what that is all about. We also bought train tickets from a very helpful Sikh man who was from San Fransisco! Small world. We leave tomorrow morning for a two day train ride to Junagadh, which is the launch point to the tiny island of Diu. -ashby

Well...the words of his Holiness the Dalai Lama were indeed beautiful and contained much wisdom. I personally have taken these teachings as a truly fortunate experience. There were many things that he said during these three days that perhaps I already knew, but spending time to listen to knowledge that may merely be common sense, is something we could all use every now and then!
From the teachings of the Essence of the Superfine Gold, I will share these words:

"When looking at a problem, it is best to view the problem from a wide angle-this will lead to a realistic view of the problem."

"Those who are not given compassion from their mothers at birth, do not know how to give compassion to others and they end up suffering mentally and treating others badly."

"All religions have the same basic message-to follow gods message of love and to extend gods message of love to all of gods creations"

"Buddha says, " I give you the means to develop your mind, but whether or not you do it is entirely up to you!"

"The only thing that stands in our way to enlightenment is ignorance."

And lastly, I'll add one more statement that was my favorite statement from the teachings...

"The seed from a flower disappears to become a flower, but its essence carries on to the flower. The same works for the human mind-after death its essence continues on into the next life-maybe the form is different, but its essence is still there."

-Cara

Today, we leave sweet Dharamsala...we take a bus to Amritsar to see the Golden Temple!

Today we start a series of teachings by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
The teachings will run for three days and will cover the teachings of the Shakyamuni Buddha and the stages of the path to enlightenment (of beings of three capacities). We have our transistor radios, our mugs (for tea ceremony), our cushions and our registration badges.
Our hotel manager said to me this morning that we must listen carefully, for he has some "homework" for us after the teachings...
So...until next time....-Cara

yesterday we went to the Tibetan museum which chronicled the history of the Tibetan issue. very depressing, but good to see. I think that it is something everyone should know about. It blows my mind that things like this happen in this day and age, but I guess history repeats itself and there are things like genocide that happen all over the world all of the time. After that we bought a statue and i saw a side of cara that i hadn't seen. she is a very intense haggler. She is very good at it. Then we took a hike to a pretty waterfall and watched the sunset. -Ashby

We are having a great time here in Mclolo. Yesterday we went to the buddhist temple, and cara did some shopping.I did a little too. We had some tea with one of the shop owner's sons. Then later we went to dinner with him at this weird resturaunt that sold pizza and indian food. He spoke very good english and wanted very badly to be american. My favorite thing that he said was "sometimes they be talking on my back very bad things" reffering to bad friends. I thought that was hilarious. Everyone wants to have tea with you here it's kind of cool. In Delhi we had tea with a buddhist and an indian hindu guy, definately the most interesting conversation so far. We started talking about american politics, and then moved on to vegetarianism and other topics. The buddhist guy was a professor and the indian guy was an environmental activist. What struck me as odd was the indian was very republican, he was all about sara palin. Then yesterday we had a conversation with a very funny monk who walked with us. It seems like most of the conversations we have with these people end up to be about spirituality at some point.-Ashby

Dharamsala

We made it to Dharamsala!

It is such a magical place...

It took an eighteen hour bus ride to get here, but it was well worth it in my opinion!

Today we register for the Dalai Lama Teaching...
-Cara

when wandering through the road/alleys of old delhi we semi-deliberately got lost on our way to the red fort. the pathways were lined with all kinds of shops from electronics to medical supplies. we were definately the only westerners in the area. getting blatantly stared at is something we still need to get used to. we did manage to get two chai teas from a vendor who had a big vat of milk just sitting out. refridgeration is obviously still a luxury here. they were delicious and only seven rupees for the both, which works out to about seven cents each! we are having a lot of fun! also cara saw a guy sleeping on the ground with his penis hanging out. the poverty here is really sad. tonight we leave for dharamshala aka new tibet. keep it real-ashby

Digambara Jain Temple/Bird Hospital

In the same vicinity as the Red Fort, was a large Jain Temple, which housed a bird hospital.

The Jain religion is one that believes in compassion to all living creatures.

There were so many injured birds from hawks to parrots to pigeons...

It is nice to know that somebody is looking out for the smaller creatures in this very hectic city!

There was a giant wire bird sculpture on the roof!-Cara

The Red Fort

Yesterday we went to the Red Fort, located in Old Delhi, which was apparently built by the same Mughal emperor that built the Taj Mahal!
There were ceilings and walls that had designs inlaid with precious stones!
I guess the story goes that the emperor had planned on moving his estate from Agra to Delhi when Delhi was expected to be the next Capitol city, but he never finished moving it because his evil son emprisoned him...Interesting history...-Cara

We Have arrived!!!

Hello Everyone! We have arrived in little Majnu-ka-tilla, Delhi India!
The flight was gruelling, but we made it. The car ride to Majnu-ka-tilla was about an hour, and it was a whirl wind of awesome Sikh music and crazy driving...
This morning we woke up and looked out our window at the river Yamuna and Tibetan Prayer flags blowing in the wind.
On Sunday, Sept. 21st Ashby and I are taking a bus up to Dharamsala, as all the trains were booked up for another week. It will be an overnight bus and we are scheduled to arrive in Dharamsala on Mon. morning!
So we are here in this little quiet town for two more days.
We might take a little rikshaw to Old Delhi, but we haven't decided...
I will post more soon...
-Love, Cara

We are staying in a nice tibetan hotel with our own bathroom so that's pretty sweet! the bathroom is also a shower meaning there is a shower head coming right out of the wall and drains in the floor. i thought that was pretty interesting i think we should do that at home too. we would never have to clean the bathroom! i love multi-tasking. drivers here like to honk their horns more than californians. i also don't think they should bother painting lines on the road. they would save a lot on waisted paint. we are having a lot of fun so far. till' next time- ashby