Year in Review

Namaste,

I started my year in India on July 10th 2008, I was not aware of the culture and customs of India at the time. Over the next 11 months I had the opportunity to learn so much about India and myself.

Within a month I had already started yoga and Hindi language classes thanks to the help I received from my host families. I continued yoga every weekday morning for 4 months and attended an extra program for kreas (cleansing techniques) where I was able to put a rubber tube in my nose and out my mouth. I learned a lot about yoga in the 4 months that I took it every weekday morning but I learned even more about yoga when I took, and successfully completed, the one month yoga teachers training course at the Yoga Institute. During which I had to do 6 hours of yoga based classes every weekday. That took up most of my time in March.

I took Hindi classes for about two months at the beginning of the year then for a couple weeks at the beginning of April. I was able to ask questions, give directions, bargain and sometimes I was able to follow what people were talking about if it was basic. People were often impressed by how much I understood. I am also able to read the Devnagari script at a very slow pace.

I have also done a lot of volunteer work, for example I worked for approximately 2 months (once or twice a week) at Akanksha (a NGO for slum children) I was helping them with reading English and understanding maths. I was also a member of the Rotaract Club of Mumbai Shivaji Park, so I attended 4 projects and one meeting, one to aid seniors in a shelter, one to raise transgender awareness, one to play with kids of parents who have HIV and one to celebrate Diwali with mentally challenged kids. I also attended the Rotaract District Conference and maintained some friendships with the Rotaracters of my club. I also volunteered at an orphanage in Bandra East that is affiliated with the Yoga Institute, playing with the kids.

I also did dance training like all the other exchange students in January and Performed at the District Conference.

One of the most revealing things I did this year was Vipassana. Thanks to the help of my host family I was able to do the 10 day Vipassana meditation course. I did the course in the middle of April. I learned a lot about myself (for example my life plan) and how to approach life as well as gaining more self confidence and self awareness. I now approach problems more objectively and with a balanced mind. As I said I learned many lessons that I will now apply throughout my life, I am very glad that I completed the course and hope others follow in my path.

I spoke on two occasions at my Rotary club once for 5 minutes and the other I was the main speaker; I spoke mostly about Canada and myself. I also maintained a very good relationship with Rotarians of my club and was always happy when I saw one walking around Shivaji Park in the evening.

I made a few Indian friends that I have enjoyed spending time with, most of whom were my host brothers friends but one from college I am still in contact with. I have also maintained excellent relationships with all three of my host families, I have not had any problems with them and they have not had any problems with me.

I have attended 2 weddings and funeral rituals for my second host grandmother.

I like all the other students went on all three trips, my favourite parts were the desert near Jaisalmer, the Taj Mahal, river rafting on the Ganges, the tea fields of Munnar, Kanyakumari, the Kerala backwaters and the Himalayas. I think the Himalaya trip was my favourite.

I am sure there are thing which I have forgotten to mention but I think this is just about my year in a nutshell.



I have learned so much about India and myself during these 11 months along with making lifelong friends, learning about a new culture, seeing much of India, and living my dream. I am excited yet depressed to go home but I will surely pass along the message of an emerging India as well as how much I enjoyed my stay here to my Canadian compatriots.

I will be writing to show how Canada has changed for me and how reverse culture shock affects me.

Finally, I would like to thank all my host families (Anil Rao, Girish Karandikar, and Sunil Surkund), my host and sponsor Rotary clubs, you two, and anyone else who made my dreams some true during this year.

Dhanyavaad

-Allen Fowlis

Himalaya

Hello pictures are of a mountain view from near our hotel, the view from our base camp, jumping off the rocks at the highest point we reached, me at the top with the Canadian flag, and finally the point of skiing you can see how people wore skisuits from the 70’s and skied on flat ground with other pushing them.
Ok so now I have officially procrastinated too much. Sorry everyone, mom in particular because I know you are anxious to read this blog.
This blog will be about my trip to the Himalayas, a switch of families (twice) and recent times. First of all let me get started on the Himalaya trip. Starting on April 24th 12 of us exchange students went by train to Delhi then by overnight bus to Manali. Let me tell you about something that happened two days before the trip though. For one month all the exchange students were under the impression that Simon (an exchange student from France) was leaving on the 23rd of April. He told us that he was leaving like a month before the date and we didn’t believe him at that time because sometimes he can be full of BS, if you catch my drift. Anyway he kept the prank going on till April 22nd and everyone believed him at that time so it came as a complete shock that he was to be coming on the trip. To keep the prank believable he even bought gifts for his family and showed them to us. I was so suspicious before the 10 days of silence (Vipassana) but after I believed him. He then told us all on the terrace of his building everyone was so shocked.
So the train and bus journeys were really boring. You think they will be cool because we are all together but everyone is sick of each other after about 5 hours and the train is 15 hours then the bus is 15 hours also. Both were overnight journeys so 2 nights of terrible sleep. We arrived in Delhi in the morning then relaxed in a hotel till we left for Manali in the evening. The bus ride was really terrible, the first 5 hours were ok but then after that the road quality went downhill as the road went uphill, and the road was winding like there is no tomorrow. I slept a grand total of about 2 hours on that bus. The seats were nice but I found myself restlessly flipping through the magazines my mom had sent for almost the entirety of the trip. One slightly funny thing happened on the bus ride; while I was trying to sleep the bus was moving so much so the magazines which were on the ground slid all the way to the front of the bus along with my fake Ray Ban sunglasses, so after the 5am tea break the driver walked down the aisle holding two things that were lost on the bus ride both of which were mine. Also on the bus there was a lady who was very motion sick so she was vomiting from 2am till the end of the ride, I felt bad for her but as for the Brazilians (from our group) who were sitting in front of her I laughed at them. We reached Manali in the morning. Manali is a pretty nice place; although it is commercial we immediately took a bus 10km to a valley where our hotel was. On the first day we did a few acclimatization walks because we just came from sea level to the tallest mountain range in the world. I thought there would be more wildlife around in this area but there were only really horses, cows, birds, and lizards from what I could see.
I thought it would be just us exchange students on the trip but we were sharing the hotel and the trek with Indian families, and Indian teens in total there were probably 30 of us and only 12 IYE students. This was actually very cool because the people were very nice and interested in our exchange. If I was ever tired of spending time with the other exchange students I could always go and talk with the Indian teens or families. I met one Indian guy who supported the same English soccer club and same tennis player as me so I talked with him a bunch. Since the trip even I have met up with him because he also lives in Mumbai, like most of the people who were on the trek.
The next day we still did some more acclimatization but of a different type. First we went for a walk up a valley to see a Shiva temple which was built under a waterfall, so the gods were constantly being bathed by the water. That was really interesting and really cold on the feet. One great thing about the Himalayas was how cool (weather wise) it was up there. Ever since coming to India I have not really experienced cold temperatures but I finally got that in the Himalayas. I was able to think clearly with the cold air in my nose but I wasn’t thinking clearly enough to put on sunscreen during the second day. At such an altitude the sunlight intensifies so although the atmosphere was cool I was being bunt to a crisp. After the temple under the waterfall we did a session of rappelling but we just did it off a very small cliff so it was no biggie. Around the place where we did rappelling there were lots of these really crazy lizards so naturally I tried to catch them very unsuccessfully. We then came back for some lunch and rest. In the afternoon till evening we did a walk to another waterfall and just observed it. On the walk back we went through a village, it was so amazing to see how humble of lives these people lived and their clothing style was so different from anything I have seen.
The next day the trek started. We first walked 8km up a river valley to our base camp. It was really cool what services they could provide for us at such an altitude, I guess with money anything is possible. The walk took from morning till afternoon and then we had time to explore around the campsite and have lunch. In the late afternoon we did another walk to a higher altitude and played some Frisbee up there. There was a military base and avalanche research centre just up the hill from our base camp so we often saw military personal around the place. One of the military guys was a sikh guy and he had an amazing beard, it was so thick and full I had no hope of seeing his chin and furthermore I started to wonder how many families of birds could nest in there. In the night we slept in tents, and many people (especially the Brazilians) were struggling with the cold. I loved the cold weather although next winter I will probably miss the Indian weather. The next morning I woke up early, way too early, and watched the first sunrays hit the enormous, rocky, pointed, surreal, mountains while freezing my body in the process, gotta love life!
On this morning we started the trek up to the highest point. We walked for about 4 km up through the snow to the highest point we would reach. It was about 11,000 feet or something (like 3500m). The greatest thing was finally feeling snow again although it was dirty and hard I still loved the feel of snow on my feet and in my hands, when I was throwing snowballs at people. I am sure next winter I will be cursing the snow and cold but for these 3 hours I loved it. We even found some rocks and jumped off them for some action shots. Also a really cool thing was that there were some dogs that were like street dogs, they had no host family or anything, but they didn’t live on the streets they lived in the mountains, so they were mountain dogs. Anyhow these dogs were incredibly friendly and clean so all the exchange students were naming them and playing with them. There were also two dogs that followed us all the way up to the highest part of the trek they just ran along with the group always within sight of us, they stopped when we did and generally just had a gay old time. They didn’t even beg for food they just enjoyed spending time with us.
We slid down the mountain from the highest point on our butt’s and coming down took less than a third of the time to come up and it was really fun sliding down the Himalayas on my butt. I got really wet and cold but it was so memorable. We had a camp fire that night sans the marshmallows but it was still great. Also when we came down from the trek there was a movie being shot there from south India, it was like Bollywood but not quite the same degree, this was really cool to see.
I think the most amazing aspect of the trip was just the realization of where you are. You just look up and see these rocky peaks towering over you and the humble people who live in the presence of such monsters and you realize how good life really is. Every time I looked up I would be so overwhelmed and speechless I was just relishing every moment. I had to keep telling myself that you are at the base of the tallest and one of the most holy mountain ranges in the world. The whole experience of being there was so surreal in addition to feeling so different from the rest of India. The rest of India is very busy, sometimes smelly, and pretty chaotic but in contrast the Himalayas were very peaceful, clean, and relaxing. You just feel so right walking in this area.
If you want to read the rest tomorrow feel free!
So after we walked down from the trek we relaxed for the day and played some pretty good pranks that I won’t go into unless you are interested, in that case email me. The next day we went to Rothang that is a point of interest because it is the second highest road which you can drive on in the world. At a point up there people did skiing, although I didn’t it was really fun to teach the Indian people I met on this trip how to ski. The reason why I didn’t ski was because it was a terrible location to ski as the ground was flat and there was minimal snow. There was no lift at all and to get up the hill people were pushed by their friends or just struggled their way up, I pushed my fair share of people up the hill. The view from this road was amazing, the deepness of the valley, the cliffs, the peaks and a waterfall. In the afternoon we went to Manali. As I told you we stayed about 15km away from the main town site of Manali and this afternoon we went to the main place and did a bunch of shopping. I bought shawls, a woolen jacket, some yak wool socks, and some posters made of cloth. We were back in the evening for our last night in the Himalayas. The next day we went to Manali in the morning and did more shopping and then caught the bus for Delhi in the late afternoon. After the overnight bus ride and an overnight train ride to Mumbai I got home in the morning and relaxed throughout the day and packed my bags. In the evening it felt so good to finally sleep in my own bed.
The next day I moved to a new host family. My new host family is really very good. They have two kids age 21 and 18 and they are really great. Although they study like 12 hours a day they can still find time to entertain us, meaning Jens and me. Jens is a German guy who is hosted by the same Rotary club and so we both moved into the house at the same time. The family is members at a sports club, so I often went there to swim or jog. I also went there to watch the final of the IPL cricket league. This is like the professional players from every country coming together and playing for Indian city teams like the NHL but for cricket. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see any live IPL matches because the league was moved to South Africa this year for security reasons. The federal election was going on at the same time so the country couldn’t handle to secure both the election and the cricket. The country is relatively stable although there are threats sometimes. For example Delhi and Mumbai were under threat during election time but nothing happened. The one terrorist survivor of the November terrorist attacks on Mumbai is still being charged, I read in the paper the lawyer appointed to defend him was given a 2 week recess to read the 11,000 page charge sheet. Anyway back on track the Deccan Chargers (who play our of Hyderabad) won the IPL. At the sports club they had a promotion on where if you buy two pints of Tiger beer and pick a team then however many boundaries (4’s and 6’s) that team hits you get a free pint of tiger. We came home with 34 pints of tiger for the price of 4. The host family also allows friends to sleep over so I often had friends over. With the kids we went out to Hard Rock café on a Saturday night and for some late night street food another night.
One night I went with a few exchange friends to a music club called ‘Not Just Jazz by the Bay’ and we saw a very good concert there. The bad played a lot of ABBA and other old upbeat tunes.
Oh ya btw, it is Mango season now and you have no idea how choice the mangoes are. I have only really eaten Mexican mangoes I think and not often but thanks to the world famous Alphonso mangoes I now officially have a new favorite fruit, move aside Mr. Apple. At the house we bought a huge crate full of mangoes and I had about 4 mangoes every day. You don’t know how amazing the taste is unless you actually try.
My new host family went to Thailand for 10 days so now I am with the sister of my host mom till June fifth and then I am going back to Canada on June ninth. The family is very nice. They have two kids age 12 and 4, the 4 year old is insane he is really cute but he is loud and feisty. Just the other day at about 8 he came in the room and said WAKE UP, IT IS SUNNY OUTSIDE, I went back to sleep then 2 hours later he yelled in my ear WAKE UP, I smacked him (lightly) with my pillow then got up 10 minutes later. I really like the kids though so it is cool.
You have no idea how fast time goes in the last few days it really just creeps up on you. I have lots of things to do and buy but I am sure it will all get done. I can’t believe my dream bubble will finally be popped 8 days from now when I fly back to Canada. I think, like all exchange students, I am full of conflicting emotions that are really unexplainable to anyone who hasn’t spent a year abroad worked so hard to plant and grow your seeds in another country and then just abandoned everything you have loved.
Please leave comments. I will post once more about my whole years experience before coming back till then hope you are happy wherever you are in the world!

Vipassana

Pictures are of the schedule, the meditation hall, my room (complete with rock hard very uncomfortable bed but it is ok because I thought I would be sleeping on the ground), my bathroom (bucket wash only) and me doing my presentation. 839, 842, 847, 852, 856
Ok so as you may or may not know I went to a very intense but rewarding meditation course from April 5th till 16th. The course was called Vipassana and it is know world wide for being a very good way to eradicate suffering and also it helps you to liberate yourself from misery.
The schedule for the course was incredibly intense, at least 9 hours of meditation in a day. So a normal day would look like this: wake up at 4, meditation between 4:30-6:30, then breakfast and a wash between 6:30 and 8, after that there was meditation between 8-11 with a 10 minute break, then lunch and rest between 11-1, following such there was meditation between 1-5 with two 10 minute breaks, then tea break till 6 and after that there was one hour of meditation followed by the theoretical part of the day where you watched a video of the main teacher (who popularized Vipassana worldwide) speaking about very relevant things, he was very convincing and enlightening. After that there was ½ an hour more of meditation and then bed by 9:30. You will notice that there is no dinner, which was kind of bad because I don’t like going to sleep hungry but it helped me because now I am only 1 kg over my Canada weight.
You will notice that there are sometimes breaks and in-between the sessions you are free to think whatever you want. Yes I said think, break time doesn’t mean you go play x-box, go on the computer, go jogging, or even read because you can’t do any of that. You may sit and think but they recommend you keep meditating during break time; I just sat and did some constructive thinking. So in addition to not being allowed to read, and write you must maintain a strict code of silence for 9 ½ of the 10 days. This means you can not talk at all, this would be enough to drive the normal person crazy, and I guess I am normal because I started to do some weird things. As time pass I would go back to my room and clean it, or I came up with nicknames for some of the people in my class. I know that the point of this class is not to create judgment but some of the nicknames were: new bowling ball head man (who had a head which you could see your reflection in), man with big earlobes (self explanatory), the pregnant man (who was due pretty soon with quintuplets), the talker (who after the 5th day would make small talk with others, spaghetti legs (who I think had polio or something, I really admire him for completing this course and it will be amazing for his mental strength in the future but he still had very noodle like appendages for legs), the turtle (who looked like a turtle), and the hardcore (who was a Buddhist monk but wasn’t one of those cute Tibetan ones he was just a big fat south Indian, he thought he deserved special treatment so when he went into the dining hall he would just sit down then someone would bring the food to him and he never cleaned his own dishes like the rest of us). Ok I know some of these are not nice but I couldn’t do anything but think so naturally I will come up with some sort of judgment. Also the girls and boys were separate for the entirety of the course, they lived on different sides of the compound and the only thing they did together was meditate in the main hall. I still managed to come up with a couple nicknames for them too though; one was the coughing albino (who would have a coughing fit every 10 minutes, and it was a really dry cough like she hadn’t had a glass of water in her life), and lastly there was goliath who was without a doubt the biggest Indian lady I have ever seen, she could eat me if required. One other funny thing I noticed about the centre was the similarity of such to an insane asylum. Where else is the area solitude amidst the chaos of an Indian city and people walk around in their pajamas all day without talking. Another thing is you had to look down when you were walking for one to avoid stepping on any kind of insect then, and for two you were not allowed to make eye contact with anyone. So picture this a bunch of old men walking around a green field, not talking, in their pajamas, looking down when they are walking, living in single occupancy rooms, and they lock you in actually so you can’t run away, please conquer that the only thing that is missing is a straight jacket.
I accidentally broke two rules. The thing was I went on to the grass and I sat down, but I didn’t realize that I had sat near a colony of small red ants so they started biting me and I tried to brush them off but ended up killing a few, I looked around then moved away quickly. Also the speaking twice, but never out of my room, once I was alone and I looked out my window and saw a butterfly and said the German word for butterfly: “Schmetterling”, I think it is funny because it sounds so harsh for such a beautiful insect, but I was very surprised I said the word. Also there was a Hindu temple just out my window and once there was chanting and I joined in one part of the song, I sang “Ganpati bappa moria” which is a common chant for the elephant god, Ganesh. I was surprised at that point too. A little weird that the 2 times I spoke neither of them were in English. Like I said there was a Hindu temple just outside my room and you may or may not know that there are lots of bells at the temple, and bells were also what called us to meditate so for the first few days I was always opening my door to check the clock in the corridor because I wasn’t sure if it was the temple bell or the meditating bell. I was able to differentiate buy the end.
Now for the process, the teaching methods they would have a tape player with a man (who is the main Vipassana guy throughout the world) speaking and he would direct us at the beginning of each meditation session, he would tell us what to do for the next hour or two. At the end of the session he would chant then we would untangle ourselves. How I attained all the interesting concepts was at the end of the day from 7-8:30 there was a session called the teachers discourse where we watched a video of the main teacher who I mentioned earlier. He had very good stories and relevant things were learned from every story. So in short it was the lectures where I learned most of these things but I was able to apply them in the sessions or thinking in the break time. Three times a day for one hour there were these meditation sessions where you were not allowed to move at all for the full hour (in other sessions you were allowed to open your legs or even go for a glass of water) those were incredibly tough but the most rewarding. Your legs would be asleep within half an hour and your back would be ready to collapse by 20 minutes, but with intense self determination and desire you could do it. The first couple times I couldn’t do it but after that I could.
What I gained was amazing, I think now I have more confidence and I can think more objectively. The day I got back to Mumbai I was talking so much but now I feel I have actually been thinking about why someone said what they did and such. I also realize now that I have to know myself more so I will take a year or 2 after university to discover myself, instead of just jumping into another 2 years of studies or a job that I don't want.
So for the course, it was very difficult especially the first 3 days, because you are conditioning your mind to concentrate, so you just observe your breathing for 3 days. The next 6 1/2 days you observe your body and the sensations that you feel. You must remain equanimity towards the sensations though so no positive or negative sensations. This part was a little difficult for me. Some of the things they said were not practical for kids my age like no positive or negative sensations because then you will either develop cravings or aversions which will make you miserable. I thought but I like to eat good tasting food and I like a hot shower in the winter etc... I will not change some things in my life but I will try to apply at least a little of what I learned in my daily life. On the 10th day we worked on the final stages where after experiencing the sensations you just think about how you love everything and how you want everything to be happy. Also some of the things they said were very true but were very blunt and lacked compassion like, why cry when someone dies, all the crying in the world will never bring them back and you should celebrate life, also every family has someone who has died in it at some point. Some of the things that I will apply: know thyself, you alone control the misery in your life the nature or people provide the stimulus it is how you perceive them which matters, always smile, always donate and be humble, smile at the time of you r death, and god does exist but it doesn't need to be a person or form to me truth is god, compassion is god, and goodwill is god, if one has these characteristics in them they have god in them. These things made perfect sense to me and I will apply them somehow in my life if only it is offering advice. I also bought a few books about the process so those should be good.
I think that is all I have to say about the process but if you have any questions please ask. Also I would recommend the course to anyone who has time and the confidence. You may not gain everything from the course because I surely didn’t but you will gain something for sure and even the greatest journey started with a single step, so that’s food for thought. Check out the site at www.dhamma.org , there are various centers throughout the world. You must go into the course with a positive attitude though otherwise I have heard of students running away before the first 3 days are completed.
Just so you know I will be going up to the Himalayas for a trek this Friday for 12 days then will be back by May 4th and after that I will just be enjoying the rest of my time in India. I did my Rotary presentation on Friday I think it went pretty well. I think I will change my host family again and just explore around the city. Oh ya school is over now for me.

Think that’s it for now, as they say at Vipassana BE HAPPY.

Guess who's not a yoga teacher

Pictures from my recent trip to Ajanta, Ellora and Aurangabad include a cave painting in Ajanta (cave 1), some Buddhist monks hanging around the caves at Ellora, me and Buddha sitting together pondering things no one would understand, cave 16 at Ellora the largest monolithic carved object in the world, and the fake smaller Taj Mahal which is also a tomb and is made by the grandson of the guy who made the Taj Mahal in memory of his mother. It is nice but it looks squished from the sides compared to the Taj Mahal, it is located in Aurangabad.
Guess who’s not a yoga teacher, that’s right not me, which means I am a yoga teacher now I guess. This one will be a short one.
So on March 31st I passed my written exam to become a certified yoga teacher. I know a month may seem like a long time but in yoga you just skim the surface of what is to be known about yoga, living, health, etc… I am still not incredibly flexible like some may think but I improved and I will keep practicing yoga daily. I think that the benefits for this are immense not just physically but mentally. I learned a lot about myself and how life is to be lived during this course.
I relaxed for a few days now and I have worked on my Rotary presentation which I will be giving on April 17th. I made some very important changes. As suggested by my Rotary club in Canada, I took out almost all the words so it is mostly pictures now, and I must say it is much better, I also added a slide for my school and Canadian diversity.
On the first I played a few jokes, for one I rearranged the furniture in my living room, hardboiled some eggs and put them back in the fridge, called my friend asking for Yashwant his host dad (because an Indian guy always phones wanting to talk to Yashwant and it makes him angry), and put toilet paper all over a girls room. She wasn’t very happy about that. Not bad for a days work.
On April 5th tomorrow I am going to be starting a very intense meditation course where you have to maintain a strict code of silence for 10 days. In addition to this (if it isn’t hard enough) you can’t read, listen to music, make any gestures, and you have to wake up at 4am. The name, Vipassana, translates to seeing things as they really are so I think I will gain a lot from this course if I can focus my mind properly. I am confident that I can complete the course but am wary about whether or not I will attain the benefits. Oh well, there is a course just like this in Alberta (look it up dhamma.org) so there is always another time. The schedule seems very intense but it will be very rewarding, cleansing, and enlightening.
I get back on April 16th then do my presentation on the 17th; I hope I still have a voice. Then on the 24th of April I am going on the third and final trip to the Himalayas. It takes like 2 days to get there but I hear the whole experience is surreal. We will be trekking to a height of 3540m (11,600ft) and we will be spending like 3 nights in tents, eating food with flashlights and just having a great time relishing every moment.
I forgot to mention the trip that I took with my host parents. They took me on a trip to Aurangabad, Ajanta and Ellora. These places house very famous caves which have been carved or painted. Both Ajanta and Ellora are UNESCO world heritage sites. The caves were amazing. There were two sets one with mostly paintings (which were painted around 2nd century BC till 6th century AD with natural paint) and one with mostly carvings. The one mostly with paintings, Ajanta, was my favorite. It was incredible how the paint still stayed and how detailed the paintings were despite being painted so long ago. These paintings had a reoccurring theme which was the life of Buddha. How he became to be chosen Buddha and the stories which contributed to his enlightenment were all depicted in these caves. The caves also had a purpose in the early years they were used as temporary housing for Buddhist monks on their path across the country spreading the religion. The caves were incredible. Both sets of caves were monolithic and it was insane how big they were. Monolithic means it was carved out of one rock, so noting the primitive tools of the time it is incredible how large and complex the caves were. All the caves in the first set (Ajanta) and 12 of 30 caves in the second set had Buddhist roots so there were many Buddhas. However at Ellora (the second set) there was the largest monolithic carving in the world which was a Hindu temple carved into a mountain. It would have taken many, many years to make such a structure with the tools of the time. The first set of caves started construction in the second century BC and ended in the 6th century AD, the other set was more spread out in terms of construction time and had Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain influences. There were 30 caves and figures from 3 religions depicted in this set of caves so that was very interesting. Both sets of caves were incredible and I will always remember them, but I liked the first set because we had a great guide who told us all the stories on the walls and the paintings were incredible. The second caves had more sculptures and fabulous architecture so was also amazing. Please if you go to this area you have to see both sets of caves, if you don’t it is like you are eating an ice-cream with a waffle cone and once you have finished the ice-cream you throw away the waffle cone. You had the chance to eat the waffle cone (or see the second set of caves) but you missed the opportunity. A day was required to see each set of caves. The caves were absolutely incredible and I am very privileged to have seen them.
I think that is it for now. Please if you have a moment in the next few days spend 2 minutes silent for me to wish me luck and support me in my endeavor. If you do that guaranteed I will be silent at that time too so we will somehow be interconnected.
Take Care and enjoy the ‘warm’ weather, BTW it was 39 C here the other day.

South Trip, Holi and recent

Hello everyone,
Pictures are of tea gardens, Kathakali, Sunrise, temple man and me at Holi. Please check out facebook for more photos.
Sorry I haven’t posted in a while but I have been away and I don’t really have too much time at the moment. This blog will tell you about the South India trip I took at the end of February, what I have been up to recently and also the Indian festival of Holi.
First the South trip, as I said at the end of February I took a Rotary organized trip to South India. The trip was really incredible. With the trip to North India I had the opportunity to see the India we all see in magazines or on the TV but in contrast the south had superior natural beauty and the atmosphere was totally different. It was hard to believe this is all the same country. First we took a 27 hour train journey to Cochin and spent the night there. We did the sightseeing in Cochin and went to Munnar. Munnar is really an incredible place. It is a hill station but has the perfect altitude, rainfall and soil for growing tea so there are tea gardens everywhere. Some places there is tea for as far as you can see. The beauty of this hill station in incredible. We saw other things in the surrounding area like a couple dams with beautiful lakes (where we took a speedboat ride), a place where if you shouted you could hear an echo and also a tea factory/museum. This part of the trip was very tea oriented. The carrots at this place were amazing too. Most of the carrots in India are red in colour and the taste is different than Canada but the carrots here were almost exactly the same as good farmer’s market carrot. I never really knew what tea originally looks like till this trip. It is like leaves from a bush that are cut very finely then dried. There are also many other ways to get different styles or flavors of tea. In Munnar there was also a man who was selling ducks on the street. He had a huge pack of them and was taking them for a walk trying to sell them. It was a hilarious sight seeing all these ducks running around in a pack being scared by the duck keepers stick with a plastic bag attached to it to stay in the pack. The next stop was Thekkady. Here we saw a really cool dance/drama performance called Kathakali. It required the performers to put on like a pound of make up then a costume that probably weighs as much as a Great Dane. They then preformed the dance/drama to music. The performers were able to express themselves amazingly through different hand movements and facial expressions. Originally Kathakali was the way for people of a low caste to experience the Hindu epic stories because they were not allowed to read them. The next day we visited a spice garden. I never knew how all these spices were made and how complex the process is. The garden had pepper, rubber, cardamom, all spice, cloves and many more but I can’t remember them all. In the afternoon this day we went on a trek through a wildlife sanctuary and were able to see a bunch of wild elephants. There were two mother elephants with their babies so that was amazing to see. The next day we drove to Madurai. Madurai is a city famous for the enormous Meenakshi temple. I would say that is only reason we visited this place but unfortunately the temple was under renovation so it was about 5% as spectacular as it would have been if it wasn’t under renovation. I bought some postcards but that just made me angrier that I didn’t get to see the spectacle. There were some really weird vehicles that I will not even try to describe in this city, ok one I will try to describe. It was like a motorbike motor and two wheels under the motor then a couple long metal tubes stretching a couple meters back to a primitive wagon like structure upon which was a man who was ‘under control’ of the vehicle. Overall Madurai wasn’t too great though. Next stop was the southernmost point of India and the subcontinent, Kanyakumari. South of this place is Antarctica. This was one of my favorite stops on the tour. First we arrived and went to a fort and a deserted (but unfortunately rocky) beach then had time to look around and watch the amazing sunset. The sunsets and sunrises in this place were amazing, I don’t think I have ever got up to watch the sunrise two days in a row but I did here. Another cool thing about this place is that it is the meeting place of three major bodies of water, the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. People say you can see the difference in colour of water as these 3 seas meet but I couldn’t see it. Maybe I need to find my specs or at least buy a new pair. Cool thing about India is the use of British terms; my favorite two are rubbish and specs. I prefer them to the Canadian garbage and glasses because the Canadian alternatives sound like a moan kind of but the Indian way sounds sophisticated and proper. Thought you might like to know. The next day we stayed in Kanyakumari but did the sightseeing of a couple small islands with statues and a really amazing temple. The temple was very old, most of the temple was about 1000-2000 years old but one rock with carvings was estimated to be 9,000 years old. There was also really amazing stutues of the gods, pillars in the temple which the main preist guy could play like drums as all the pillars had a different tone, a large magnificent tower and it is the only temple in India which has a female Ganesh( Ganesh is the elephant god and is normally male). Also the men had to go into the temple without a shirt and of course like all temples without shoes so that was cool; I like to use any excuse I can to take off my shirt in India. It is so hot and no doubt the Indian girls like it, so I enjoy making other people happy. The next day we drove to Allepy but stopped at such a great beach on the way there. The waves were pretty big and the sand was clean. Oh ya I forgot to mention in Madurai I bought 4 goldfish and kept them as pets for almost the entirety of the trip. They survived changing tanks on countless occasions and also they survived when the water bottle they were in tipped over spilling all contents on two separate occasions. Three of four of them even survived an overnight train journey. One night we put a fish in a girls glass at dinner time when she went to the buffet line and she didn’t notice until she was about to drink and someone told her not to. It was funny but not really for her. Ok back on topic we drove to Allepy and there we did a sunset cruise of the Kerala backwaters (a system of lagoons and lakes which lies parallel to the Arabian Sea). The cruise really showed the natural beauty of the area and the humble lifestyle the people who live around the area. Although the ride was amazing I made it more fun by climbing all over the boat, and swimming in the water. One thing I found weird about south India was the prevalence of the Communist Party. Although the party is not in power it has a lot of support in South and East India. Therefore there are many red flags with the hammer and sickle lining the roads, and billboards. So after the cruise we came back to the hotel. The next day we took an overnight train journey to Goa. Goa is really like a paradise, when you are sitting on the beach sipping a cold beverage you don’t feel like you are in India. We had almost 4 days in Goa, one for sightseeing (included church which holds St. Francis Xavier’s mortal remains, dolphins in the ocean, a couple viewpoints, and a temple) and the other 3 were just spending time on the beach, shopping, exploring or doing other activities. One day I went paragliding so that was fun but other than that we just spent a lot of time relaxing and swimming. Goa is full of foreigners (especially Russians and Israelis) so you have many people trying to sell you their services, or drugs. To sum up Goa was a great place to relax or party and we all had an amazing time there.
You can take this time to grab a glass of water or use the toilet; I know my blogs are too long.
We arrived in Mumbai at 5:30am on March 2nd and that day I started a one month Yoga teachers training course so that is basically all I’ve been up to these days. Basically I have been doing yoga based classes from 10am till 4pm every weekday. The classes are not what you might think just stretching 6 hours a day it is very different. The first class of the day is the exercises (or asanas), then comes theory. The theory session shows how yoga is a lifestyle rather than just a set of exercises, we talk about things such as the hierarchy of duties (first to yourself, then to your loved ones, then to your work, then to society), how you can attain happiness, how faith is a state of mind, the importance of positive thinking/techniques for such, acceptance, different attitudes we have, the importance of humility and much more. The topics are pretty deep for me but it is always rewarding when you find one sentence which makes perfect sense that you feel the need to share with people. We then have lunch at 12:30, the lunch is pretty brutal but in India I have acquired the ability to eat food regardless of taste you just don’t think and realize your body is still getting the nutrition it needs. Don’t get me wrong Indian food rocks my world but some of the stuff is not so great. After lunch we have relaxation which is a good session where you just (you guessed it) relax, observe your breathing or sounds around you as opposed to thinking. The goal of this session is to make your mind blank except for observing your breathing so when you can focus on one thing you allow your mind to relax. This relaxation is important because your mind gets such a work out everyday traveling to different parts of the world in the blink of an eye, you need to relax it. This relaxation can be more rewarding than even sleeping if you do it properly because when you are sleeping your mind may still be running amuck. Note I said if you do it properly, it is very difficult to not let your mind wander take my word for this. I find as soon as I can concentrate on my breathing my mind starts thinking about something I need to ask or do. After Relaxation we play a game which always has some message, like don’t get to attached, or the mind works better after it has relaxed. We also have started juggling as it uses more than one part of the brain and promotes concentration. Depending on the day of the week we then do methodology (how to teach), anatomy (body systems), or theory and lastly we always have more exercises. The exercises are difficult but I am becoming better, the thing is I can’t do some simple twisting exercise (because the flexibility in my back and hips is comparable to an Iron Festivus pole) but I can do some that require strength. In addition to this there are two Japanese girls, who I swear just came from being contortionists at the circus, who make me look like a noob. The class will end on the last day of March. On the weekend of the 27-29 March I will be going to famous caves in the interior of Maharashtra, called Ajanta and Ellora, with my host family so I am pretty excited for that. Also I have been doing tabla drum classes twice and my counselor lent me a tabla so I can practice at home now, I am better but still not very good. It is a little embarrassing when a 7 year old is far better than you at anything but there is definitely one of those guys in my tabla class. Whatevs I feel like I am learning relatively fast. Not a whole lot other news except I will be going on a Himalayan trek on April 24th for 10 days and I signed up for a crazy meditation course starting April 8th-19th during which you can not speak, read or have any sensory stimulation. You just meditate all day for ten full days, oh ya and you have to wake up at 4 am to meditate and your last meal of the day is at 5:30pm. I really want to do this as a challenge to myself and I am sure there are countless benefits.
Ok now for the answer to the question ‘How did this man become so red?’ the answer, HOLI. Holi is an Indian festival during which everyone regardless of caste, religion, job, or anything gets together to celebrate. The celebration traditionally had something to do with an Indian myth during which a demon was killed by a god because he abused the power given to him ‘and there was much rejoicing’ (Monty Python anyone). The story is part of Hindu mythology but the celebration is now enjoyed by all religions. The day after the full moon people play with colours to signify the rejoicing after the elimination of evil. On this day first I went to a beach where not many people were applying colours to each other then I went to the housing society of one Rotarian so that is where the real party was. They had all the free colours (which come in power form then you can mix them with water or simply throw or apply as power), a DJ, free food, many people (all of whom were rejoicing), and a rain dance. Rain dance means there was set up with 25 shower heads or so in an area about 5m by 5m and people were dancing and cleaning themselves. I wanted to keep the colours on me but realized in the afternoon that the colours are not coming out. That is one contributing factor to how this man became so red. After this party we went to another party at a different housing society, this place was bigger, the rain dance was better, the food was better and there were water balloons so where can you go wrong. The only problem was the colours at this place were the ones that really stuck, and one downer was I got colours in my mouth so they didn’t taste to peachy. I am surprised I didn’t get sick after playing with this material in the sun all day, but that is a good thing. After about 2 hours at this place me along with 8 other exchange students, whom I shared the amazing experience with, were pooped so we sat on the driveway wishing passersby a ‘Happy Holi’ and relaxing. How all the colours are applied are you put the mixture in your hands and apply it to the persons face or body whom you want to wish a happy holi, sometimes it gets out of control and there is a colours fight but it is all in good fun. The colours are also applied to hair so that pretty much destroys your hair, and the water from the rain dance spreads the colours all over your body hence the almost full red body. I have not attempted to wash my holi clothes; I will probably give them away. After exactly a week and many showers, my body is not yet colour free but it is almost colour free. My eyebrows, front of the hair, and nails (toe and finger) are still pink. If you are ever coming to India time your trip with at least one of the many amazing Indian festivals and be prepared to participate if you want to see the real cultural side of India. If you are in the Mumbai area give me a shout and maybe I can hook you up with someone to take you around to see the festival.
I think that is pretty much it. I have written too much but I had a lot to pass on. I hope you enjoyed the post despite my brain going a little haywire about 2/3 of the way through such. Have a great week! My next post will be in a couple weeks once I am done my yoga course. Have a good St. Patty’s day.

Preview

Hey everyone,

I am 2/3 done a blog post but I am going to Pune this weekend so I can't post it instead I give a preview. I am back from the South Trip. I had an amazing time. Recently I have been doing the yoga teachers training course so that is hard but fun. Nothing quite like 6 hours of yoga based classes a day. I have tabla drum classes twice a week. Just yesterday there was an insane festival called Holi. For information on this and to get the answer to the question 'how did this man become so red?' tune in for the next blog.
cheers,
-Allen

Recent

Pictures are of river rafting on the Ganges.
Hey everybody,
I am going on the South India trip today so I can't write. I just want you to know I am keeping busy. I have the tabla drum classes twice a week but I am still terrible, I think I was born without the ability to play music. I also have been doing more of the volunteer work with a NGO which helps educate slum dwelling kids, it is rewarding but sometimes it feels like a chore. The kids don't listen. On Wednesday this week the main teacher phoned me and said she was sick so I along with another volunteer had to take the class, it was frightening but went fairly well. Six hours of yoga a day in March then I want to do some meditation course in April/May, you should expect me to be floating when I get back.
I wish a Happy Valentines day to everyone.
I will be posting again in March!

North India 2 and recent times

Pictures are the Lotus temple in Delhi, Qutb Minar in Delhi, a couple Taj Mahal pictures and a photo at Fatepur Sikri. Check out my Facebook for more.
I left you a little more than half way through the North Trip and will continue with that along with describing what I did for New Years/ Christmas and what I am doing now.
So after Jaipur we went to Sawai Madhopur. That is a place between Jaipur and Agra and is supposed to be one of the few places where you can still see wild tigers. We went on a safari in the afternoon which continued till the early evening but didn’t see any tigers. We did see tiger footprints but we were joking around that they pay people to go out with a tiger footprint making stencil and place fake prints around. We did see lots of deer, monkeys, peacocks, wild boars and other birds. It was interesting how they tried to find the tiger, as they used the alarm calls of the other animals to try and find the tiger. Too bad it didn’t work. The next day we went for a drive to Agra and we stopped along the way at a place called Fatehpur Sikri which is an ancient abandoned city of a king which is carved entirely from red sandstone. It was interesting to see the history of this place but it was not amazing. The king embraced all religions so he had 3 wives, one Hindu, one Muslim and one Christian. Each of his wives had their own palace within the city. There was also a Mosque there and some thing where if you have a wish you tie a red ribbon to a holey holy wall and then your wish will come true. We left there and proceeded to our hotel in Agra. Our hotel had a revolving restaurant so that was cool, we ate there. The next day we did the sightseeing of Agra and drove to Delhi. For the sightseeing first we saw the Agra fort which was similar to what we saw the day before at Fatehpur Sikri but it had more marble with Marble inlay work. It was also a fort which belonged to that same king. One thing that I found interesting was that both the Agra Fort and the Red Fort in Delhi are both still used for military purposes. From the Agra Fort you could see the shadow of the Taj Mahal in the fog. On a clear day you can see the Taj Mahal well from the fort. The Taj Mahal was our next stop. I know what you are thinking, I am going to say something about being one of the wonders of the world, and you would be right. I don’t think I have seen something so wonderful and spectacular in my life. Nothing can prepare you for the sheer size and magnificence of the Taj Mahal. When you get your first glimpse of the Taj Mahal towering over the masses of people you still think that it is a photo. It still looks like a picture until you actually touch the cold clean marble. The Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal who died giving birth to their 14th child. The Taj Mahal took 20,000 workers 22 years to complete. The thing that amazed me about the Taj Mahal was how symmetrical it was. It looks the same no matter where you look at it from; it is exactly symmetrical from all sides. There is, however, only one garden which stretches from the front entry of the Taj Mahal which has a long narrow pool and many plants which have been maintained exquisitely. Another thing that amazed me about the Taj Mahal was the Marble inlay work. Semiprecious stones had been inlayed into much of the marble which the Taj Mahal is made from. The work that this requires is intense, you need to carve a hole in the marble the size of the semiprecious stone you are going to inlay then trim the stones minimally but precisely and then use special glue to inlay the stones. Amazingly this glue has held up for centuries without fail. There is so much more I could write about the Taj Mahal but I don’t want to bore you. After Agra our next stop was Delhi. New Delhi is the Capital of India and had good sights to see. New Delhi was very clean for a big city and the roads were big although there was still an excess of cars. Old Delhi is a different story I’ve heard it is dirtier and not as tourist friendly. The sights to see in Delhi included a cool temple (which was too modern for my liking), a big ancient tower which was erected by a sultanate who built the tower to honor a victory or himself or something I don’t remember. I know the tower was very nice and had carvings in the sandstone all the way up the 70m tower and some other interesting ruins in the surrounding area. The complex was also interesting in the way that it mingled Islamic and Hindu decorative styles. Also we saw the India gate, the Parliament buildings and an interesting temple for the Bhai religion, which I didn’t completely understand. The religion was like they didn’t The temple was the called lotus temple and looked a lot like the Sydney Opera House but more like a flower. In the evening we did some shopping and also saw a sound and lights show at the Red Fort which is in Old Delhi. The sound and lights show gave a history of the area, India in general and the fort. The fort was very similar to the Agra Fort and was built by the same guy who built the Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan. This guy truly shaped the Mughal empire in India. In the evening we did time pass together and went to bed. One of the most confusing things in India to me is time pass, people use this phrase very often and could mean anything. People text others stupid questions and wait for the answer as time pass, argue with others as time pass, look up useless stuff on the internet as time pass, think about stuff as time pass or just hang out together as time pass. Time pass could mean anything to pass the time but it is still confusing why the phrase time pass is used. Instead of trying to justify what you are doing you just deem it time pass as it has no other purpose other than to pass time. Ok that was my rant for the day, I feel better. Spending time with the exchange students is really great they are like the family we miss back home. The next morning we saw a Mahatma Gandhi memorial which has a fire that has been burning since his cremation, his last words, an important quotation and a bunch of trees that have been donated by various world dignitaries. We then drove to Haridwar which is a holy city, one of the seven holiest places to Hindus. It is the place where the Ganges descends to the plains and is holy because according to Hindu mythology, Haridwar is one among the four sites where drops of the elixir of immortality, Amrita, accidentally spilled over from the pitcher, in which it was being carried away by a celestial bird. We arrived after a 6 hour drive and did time pass around the hotel and had dinner. The next day was a better day though. We got up early in the morning and drove an hour and a half into the foothills of some mountains then went river rafting on the Ganges. It was incredible; we went through some pretty good rapids, went swimming at various points on the river and also jumped of a small cliff into the river. The water was pretty cold but I had definitely swum in colder water. We were allowed to swim down one set of rapids which was amazing and at one point we stopped on a small beach to play Frisbee with my Canada Frisbee. The whole experience was so awesome. In the evening when we got back we attended an aarthi of the river Ganges, it was like some prayers and rituals then people would set a candle afloat or bathe in the water. It was really interesting to see. I took some water from the Ganges and will bring it home to Canada. One funny thing was that when I was descending the steps to get the water from the Ganges I slipped and fell in the water. Luckily the steps continued into the water so I only got my right leg and upper body wet. It was pretty terrible but a cool story to tell back home. We went back to the hotel in the evening for a pretty bad dinner and hung out together. The next day we drove back to Delhi and took the train home. The trip was absolutely amazing, it allowed me to see the side of India you read about or see on TV as opposed to experiencing the big city life, which I also love. My next trip starts in 11 days and we are going to South India. I am sure it will also be incredible. So that is it for the North Trip but I could have written much more, now I will talk about New Year’s birthday and recent times.
Ok for New Year’s what happened was a bunch of us exchange students went to a BBQ and sleepover at one of the German girl’s houses. It is very rare to actually have a house in Mumbai but she is out in the Suburbs in a colony so she had one. We hooked up some sweet stereo, on the terrace and had a BBQ up there. That is where the party happened. I know you probably think India BBQ is terrible but the family was Parsee which is a religion and they are originally from Iran so we had beef. The beef was actually really bad because they steamed it before BBQing it but the thought of eating beef in India on New Year’s was priceless. Everyone pitched in and brought something for the party. I made pancakes in the morning which were actually pretty bad, except the syrup which is always good. For my birthday I rented a room in a sports club and it was all you could eat and all you could drink it was awesome. 23 people came and it was good times. In India for your birthday people feed you cake so lots of people fed me cake and it was all over my face after.
In the month of January I, along with the other exchange students, trained for dancing every day for 2 hours. We were training for a presentation we had to make at the Rotary District Conference. The dances we trained for were a folk dance/prayer from South India, a Bollywood remix and dancing to the national song (not the national anthem). The bad thing was I was fooling around and I seriously hurt my toe one day before the dance, I swear it was broken because it was not straight and I went into shock after it happened. In the evening I iced it and taped it up then the next day I taped it up more, sprayed some special athletic spray that numbs the area, and popped 3 advils then I was ready to go. The first dance was good; we spent a lot of time on it as it had very intricate hand movements and such. The Bollywood remix was a blending of 3 one minute clips from 3 different Bollywood movie songs, it was very upbeat and fast but was very fun to dance to. The next dance was to the national song and passed along a very important message of unifying India and putting an end to terror. In the dance there were 4 couples who preformed 4 different dances from different regions of India. I preformed a Bhangra dance which is from North India (Punjab) with a Brazilian girl, and then there were also dances from South India, East India and Western India. Each of the 4 couples dressed differently to match with their region. Overall the dancing went really well I feel and because of the importance of the message we passed along we got a standing ovation. I really want a copy of the video that was taken because I haven’t seen how we actually looked, you can’t tell from up on the stage.
I think that is pretty much it for now. I have started Indian drum classes and will be going on that South trip pretty soon. I can’t believe how fast time is moving. I will have been here 7 months on February 10th. I will be doing a yoga teachers course in the month of March and might post before the South trip but I doubt it.
Anyway take care and enjoy the increasingly “warm” weather wherever you are in the world.

Pictures

A blog will be coming in the next few days Indian time (so about a week) but here are some pictures to wet your appetite.
First is of a snake charmer in Jaipur, next is me with a nice water palace in the background, followed by a good assortment of (not so typical) street animals in Jaipur, next is the biggest sundial in the world in Jaipur it is accurate to within a few seconds, lastly is a palace in Jaipur.

North Trip Photos

Here are some more photos from the North Trip.
First is a typical street in Jaisalmer, next is shadows of the camels and the moon raising in the desert, followed by me jumping off one of the sand dunes, fourth is a cannon at the fort in Jodhpur (note blue city), and lastly is the blue city sprawling beneath the fort in Jodhpur.

North Trip

Pictures are of the Child Beer, an amazing ceiling design at the Jain temple, pillars at the Jain temple, one of a few lakes in Udaipur, and a temple in Udaipur.
Also check out my Facebook photos if you can there are a lot more. I will be adding more to the blog though.
I would like to say making a Facebook group to guilt me into writing my blog didn’t work but it did to a degree although I had already started writing a blog. Here it is anyway.
Ok so I haven’t written for a while but I have been busy. So this blog will tell about what I did before the North trip (briefly), and what the North trip was like (amazing).
Now I will zip through what I did a month prior to the North Trip. I was inaugurated as a guest member of the Rotaract club affiliated with my Rotary club, I went to a MS walk (which was only about 300m and then speeches) then I saw a circus. I have stopped yoga for the time being but I will start doing it in my house as I have learned a lot. On my way to yoga in November I had to walk by like 10 Garbage trucks every morning so that sucked. I saw another Hindi movie but still haven’t seen enough. Went to RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards), which was great. It was a full weekend of activities with groups, and they split up all the exchange students so we were forced to make friends with the Indian youth. My team was very friendly and allowed me to open up more than I would even in Canada. I did a dance on the stage with 2 others in front of like 250 ppl to a Hindi song and I also preformed a Hindi song it was insane. I would never do that stuff in Canada. The activities included teamwork and individual activities, such as valley crossing, a marble game, rappelling, flying fox, water games, yoga, maze games, feet tied together game, rope bridge, imaginary river, milk crates, rifle shooting, jumbering, speaking training, tennis ball, and listening. I never realized how hard listening is, most people don’t actually listen, especially me and the person conducting this session really proved that. I also have been volunteering a couple times a week at a NGO which uplifts slum children through education. Then there was the terrorist attacks mentioned in the last post. I also sent a package and some post card home.

Now the North Trip. First we took an overnight train journey to Udaipur which is in Rajasthan. Rajasthan is a state in the North West part of India. Udaipur was a very nice city it is called the lake city as there are a couple lakes within the city. Part of the James Bond film Octopussy was filmed at the lake palace in Udaipur which is a, you guessed it, palace on a lake. Throughout the trip we did mostly the touristy stuff so there were lots foreigners but you can’t call them noisy foreigners because everywhere here is so noisy that you can’t complain about the tourists. This being said there is a lack of tourism throughout India because of the terrorist attacks so the places we went were not too overwhelming. For the entire trip we took a small bus around, which looked like a van. We spent way too much time in the bus but as others said before I remember mostly the stuff I saw not the bus rides. So in Udaipur we saw a nice Hindu temple, the city palace (which still has a royal family living there), and a garden with over 700 fountains. The next day we drove to Jodhpur which is another city in Rajasthan. The thing that amazes me about India is how every city has so many people, you come to a city expecting a population of maybe 50,000 and it has 500,000 people. I went to a city in Maharashtra that I had never heard of and it had 2 million people. Just something that is a little different from Canada where such a city would be one of the biggest in the country. On the drive to Jodhpur we stopped for a couple hours in Ranakpur to see the most amazing temples around. The temples were Jain temples you may remember the Jain religion which I mentioned in a previous post. The Jain’s can’t kill anything you are normally not allowed to wear your leather belt into the temples but this one was a big tourist hot spot. No words (or even pictures for that matter) could ever do justice to how amazing the temple was. It had 1,444 marble pillars each of which were carved differently. The ceiling also had amazing designs which often used different layers for effect. There were too many amazing things about this temple to start naming a few but I will try. There was a huge basement where they would hide the gods during the Mogul attacks; there are two 108kg bells which were not ringing when we went but can be heard a very long distance away, the temple construction started in 1446 and took more than 50 years to complete, and the temple was nominated as one of the final 77 new wonders of the world. Every time I turned around I was amazed again. Although I could never describe how awesome the temple was I hope you get the idea. We drove to Jodhpur and stayed the night there. In the morning we visited the palace in Jodhpur which again still has the royal family living there but it has also been converted to a hotel. We visited the museum there which was interesting but also boring. It gave us an idea how the royal family actually lives from playing polo to sipping on French wine they have a pretty good life. After visiting the palace we drove to Jaisalmer. Jaisalmer is a really cool place it is right in the desert like 80 km from Pakistan and has some really cool sights, sounds and smells. The sights we saw include a water tank surrounded by important buildings and temples, the Golden Fort which is the only fort in India which still has village people living there, and the city sprawling at the base of the fort. Other notable sights that we saw which were funny were the couple shops that were advertizing ‘CHILD BEER’ not chilled beer, also some little girl who did an insane tightrope act, and all the camels which walked through the streets with ease. The sounds included people trying to get our attention so they could show us crap we don’t need, shrieks after jumping into the ice cold swimming pool at the hotel, and complaints after receiving the sub par meal at the hotel restaurant. Smells were mostly bad but not always from the seemingly endless supply of cow dung to the fresh aroma from the German bakery which we had lunch at. The afternoon we arrived in Jaisalmer we went for a swim and also visited a silversmith and saw how they make the jewelry. The day we visited the Golden fort and Jaisalmer city we also went for a one day camel safari which was incredible. So we left Jaisalmer in the afternoon and took the bus for an hour to the Thar desert in the far western part of India like 50km away from the Pakistan border. We were so close to Pakistan that every couple of hours you would hear and often see an Indian Air Force fighter jet patrolling the border. I think the Air Force patrol was more for show but the relations between India and Pakistan are not the best right now and it was really weird actually seeing the effects of that. So we took the bus to the desert and immediately went on a camel ride for about an hour we rode to some very nice sand dunes and stopped. During the halt we all played in the sand for an hour or more, it was so much fun. Jumping off and running down the sand dunes. We then watched the picture perfect sunset together and rode back. It was an amazing experience. When we got back to the camp we had a surprisingly good meal and watched a cultural dance/music program put on by 5 village people who lived a 5km walk away from the camp. In the evening there was also a campfire. The desert gets pretty cold at night actually and I had to put on my tuque. The next day we woke up early and I had a hot shower then watched the sunrise. The next day we drove much of the day but when we went back to Jodhpur and visited a pretty cool fort known as Menrangarh Fort. It had never been captured and was really interesting in general. Information was given on how the royal people spent time, to the design of the fortress, to the history behind it and finally to how prevalent opium was used with the royal family. Also from the fortress you could see one of the marvels of Indian architecture known as the Blue City where all the houses which were owned by Brahmans (which is a caste of Hindus) were painted blue on the walls which faced the fortress. Also, being modern times, many houses which weren’t owned by Brahmans were painted too so it gave a really amazing effect looking down on this blue city. In the evening we got time for shopping and came back to the hotel for dinner and sleeping. The food throughout the trip was very good generally as it was at hotels for breakfast and dinner. The next day we drove to Jaipur. Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan and was a pretty cool city although it was pretty busy. Like many Indian cities there is a new city and an old city the old Jaipur is known as the pink city as most of the city, including the surrounding walls, are painted a pinkish orange colour. There are many theories for the pink colour some say it goes back to the architect of the city who was devoted to Lord Shiva (a Hindu god) whose favorite colour was the 'terra cotta' colour which is there at present, and another theory is that the city was painted to welcome the British king Edward VII as pink is the traditional colour of hospitality. Jaipur was the first city in India to enjoy rigorous town planning and it shows in the wide straight avenues that divide the city into nine sectors which reflect the nine divisions of the universe according to the Indian horoscope. We stayed two nights in Jaipur at a nice hotel. The first afternoon we arrived and then went to an ethnic theme park called ‘Chokhi Dhani’ for the evening festivities. There were lots of cool things there like what people normally associate with India if they don’t know how advanced the country actually is. For example there was an elephant ride, mendhi (the brown designs on girl’s hands and my bicep), magicians, traditional dance, a contortionist, and a head massage. The head massage was kinda painful, the elephant ride was ok but the guy hurt the elephant and the whole atmosphere was great. We also ate a traditional dinner there which many people didn’t like but I didn’t mind it. The next day we did the sightseeing of Jaipur. We first saw Amber fort which was interesting even after seeing so many forts. It had a few palaces in the fort one of which was covered in mirrors and coloured glass another of which was cooled by the presence of marble walls and channels which water flowed through. Royal people sure knew how to live and it is genius what the people could do so long ago with such little technology to make their lives more comfortable. Also in Jaipur we saw Jantar Mantar a medieval observatory, it was absolutely amazing how the solar and lunar measuring devices were and still are so accurate. One Sundial, which happens to be the largest in the world, was accurate to within 5 seconds. Your watch may be wrong but this sundial isn’t. There were also some other crazy other lunar measuring devices and some devices which apparently measure how hot the summer will be and when the monsoon will arrive. I didn’t understand most of what the guide explained but whatever it was very interesting. We chose not to go to the city palace as we had already been to a few palaces which were apparently very similar. This palace did have the two largest silver objects in the world though and we missed those but whatevs. The silver objects were massive urns (760lbs each) which held water from the Ganges so the king had a constant supply of Ganges water to drink. We went back to the hotel in the afternoon and had some time for shopping. I went with another German exchange student and some guy talked nonsense to us for at least ½ an hour and wasted a bunch of our time by taking us to his overpriced silver shop. It was a terrible time. We came back to the hotel by bicycle rickshaw for an amazing dinner and bed.
I have gone a long time on this post but still have more to cover so I will post this followed by pictures and in the next few days I will continue with the North Trip and beyond. I still have to describe the Taj Mahal, Delhi, and river rafting on the Ganges so stay tuned.
Also Mom, please don’t give me such big guilt trips about not posting so often I am having the time of my life.