Bhagsu - Amritsar - Delhi

Hi all,

As I mentioned last time, I was planning on spending a week in the village of Bhagsu, near Dharamsala, and that is indeed what I did. Bhagsu was great, and it's hard to describe how relaxed a place it is - people stay there for weeks and even months, and I can see why. While I was there, I did some more yoga classes, and also a meditation class which was nice but a bit new-agey for me. I like the psychology behind meditation and mindfulness, but the whole self-love "child of the sun" kind of vibe was a bit much. I had a kind of Indian darbuka lesson, which wasn't particularly instructional, but it was fun to jam (is that the right word?) in a kind of impromptu drum circle in a Hindu temple (the lesson was in a Hindu temple - the Indians seem to have a certain irreverence towards their holy places cf. previous post, Ganges). Mostly though I just took it easy - there are a couple of waterfalls near the village and simply reading and listening to music next to a waterfall whilst drinking tea was sublime. Also worthy of mention is the Bayit Yehudi in Bhagsu, which is a kind of dati-leumi Chabad House, the people were there very chilled and hospitable and it was fun to be there for Shabbat and Chag meals.

On Wednesday, I travelled from Bhagsu to Amritsar, famous for the Sikh Golden Temple and the daily Indian/Pakistan closing of the border ceremony which actually takes place about 30km out of the city. Some people make a daytrip out of visiting Amritsar, leaving Dharamsala in the morning by jeep, and returning late at night, but because I intended on continuing from Amritsar to Delhi, it made more sense to just travel to Amritsar independently, sleep the night there, see the sights during the day and then travel to Delhi over the following night. The only direct bus from Dharamsala to Amritsar leaves at 5am, and I didn't fancy getting up so early, so I opted to take the more lengthy route there later in the day, a route involving an auto-rickshaw from Bhagsu to McLeod Ganj, a local bus from McLeo Ganj to Dharamsal, another local bus to Pathankot, an auto-rickshaw within Pathankot from the place where the bus dropped me off to the main bus station, and finally another local bus from Pathankot to Amritsar. All said I was travelling for about 9-10 hours, and it was a pretty hard-going journey. There should really be a specific word for a multiple of local bus journeys in India, much in the same way as there is a "flock" of birds, a "gaggle" of geese etc. My recommendations are an "uncomfortable" of local buses, a "kill-me-now" of local buses or an "oh-God-when-will-it-end" of local buses, but I am open to other suggestions from the crowd. In any event, I got to Amritsar, found a guesthouse and went to sleep to be able to see the sights with vigour and energy the following day.

The Golden Temple is quite majestic, and it was nice to see a place of worship of a different religion, having previously seen Hindu, Buddhist, and Muslim places of worship. Besides for the temple itself, the entire complex is huge and impressive. Apparently all Sikh temples traditionally have dining rooms open to the public, and the dining room at the Golden Temple feeds 50,000 people a day according to the statistics that I heard. It really is something to see, with massive stacks of silver trays and piles of cutlery, endless mats for people to sit on, and volunteers who glop out the portions onto peoples trays in what must seem to them to be an endless process. In the afternoon I went to the border ceremony which is a Monty-Pythonesque spectacle of Indian and Pakistani soldiers trying to outdo each other in ridiculous marching and high-kicking. There are stands on both sides of the border gate, with both the Indians and the Pakistani crowds chanting nationalistic slogans and attempting to one-up the other side. It was quite a spectacle and it would be nice if we could introduce something similar on the border of Israel and Syria. Shortly after arriving back in Amritsar from the ceremony, I went to get the sleeper bus to Delhi (the train which would have been slightly quicker and more comfortable was fully booked). The journey was long but ok overall, and I managed to get a certain amount of sleep in my assigned berth, finally arriving in Delhi at about 6.30am, Friday.

The plan was mostly to do some last bits of shopping here, and also to see Humayun's Tomb, which I had not managed to see when I was in Delhi at the very beginning of my trip. The tomb which is a kind of precursor to the Taj Mahal both historically and architecturally, was pretty impressive and also peaceful, but somewhat pales in comparison to the actual Taj Mahal in all its glory. Chabad here was pretty nice and definitely the most hardcore Messianic out of all those to which I've been (at least overtly so).

Currently I sit writing this blog post, appropriately in the same internet cafe at which I wrote the first post. The time is 8.45pm, and I have a taxi to the airport booked for about 2am, my flight leaves Delhi for Istanbul at 6.05am. If all goes to plan, I should land in Israel at 12.45pm Sunday, local time.

I've had a great time here - seen some really incredible things, had amazing experiences and met some cool and interesting people. The whole lone-travelling thing worked out ok, and I did not die of food poisoning. To all those who have followed the blog, thank you for gratifying my repressed inner writer and for allowing me to feel a connection with everyone back home. Hopefully I'll post one final conclusion post from Israel speaking about things I've learnt, various thoughts that occurred to me during the trip, and other miscellaneous musings, so stay posted for that.

Look forward to seeing or speaking to you all soon, peace, love and blessing

David  

Rishikesh

Hey all, I hope that Yom Kippur was meaningful and that Sukkot is going well.

After a pleasant but if I'm honest fairly uneventful or stirring Yom Kippur in Pokhara, I slowly made my way to Rishikesh in Northern India, by flying first from Pokhara to Kathmandu, and then from Kathmandu to Delhi. Finally upon arrival at the airport in Delhi, I travelled straight to another area in the city to take a night bus of approximately 7 hours length to Rishikesh. It was quite a shock on Friday to hear of the plane crash at Kathmandu airport, given that less than 24 hours earlier I had been at the same airport, on a similarly dinky 20-passenger plane - my thoughts go out to the families of the victims.

Rishikesh is a great town, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. While Rajasthan has a lot of interesting historical and cultural sites to see, I'm definitely preferring the more laid-back Nepali and Northern Indian vibe, especially as it comes with fantastic mountain scenery. I was there from Friday morning until yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon, when I began the long journey to Dharamshala (more specifically Bhagsu) from where I am now writing, and I managed to get a decent amount done. On both Shabbat and Chag, I ate at the Beit Chabad, conveniently located next to the guesthouse where I was staying. There was a nice atmosphere, with the size of the crowd being slightly smaller than the crowd at the Beit Chabad in Kathmandu on the Shabbat that I was there, although larger than the group in Pokhara for Rosh Hashana. The crowd was exclusively Israeli - In fact both Rishikesh and Bhagsu manage to achieve the difficult task of making it seem that there is a dearth of Israeli backpackers in Nepal.

In terms of more specifically local attractions; I participated in a couple of beginners' yoga classes (cue sore limbs) (Rishikesh is the yoga capital of India and indeed the world), and browsed in the local bookshops which offer both regular books as well as a host of titles on topics such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Yoga and generic spirituality. Somewhat unadventurously, I only purchased mainstream titles. Apropo this point; this trip has been a fantastic opportunity to get some reading done, and has made me realise how much I would read if I didn't watch so much T.V. Will this make any difference when I get back home?.... Doubtful... In any event,  On Sunday, I rented a moped, and rode out to a waterfall just outside town. Although I managed to get a helmet from the place I rented the moped from, thereby gaining the distinction of being the only moped/motorbike rider in the country to wear one, this was still probably by a considerable distance the most dangerous thing I have done on the trip. The moped lacked any form of rearview mirrors - a notable omission when you are being overtaken by cows, motorbikes, cars and large trucks in a crowded center of town street which you entered by accident after having intended to only ride on the country roads! Regardless, riding the moped on the beautiful, winding country roads that led to the waterfall was great fun, and there is a lot to be said for a country that allows you to rent a moped without any verification of a drivers license or even the most minimal prior experience. The waterfall itself is about a half hour walk from the where you park the bike and enter. I hiked up with a couple of Israelis who I met there. It was a hot day and standing under the waterfall when we got up there was very refreshing, and kind of reminded me of Ein Gedi.

Yesterday (Tuesday), I went for a half-day of rafting on the Ganges. The Ganges is a holy river in the Hindu religion, so to my mind rafting on the ganges seems to be somewhat equivalent to abseiling down the Kotel (Western Wall) - I'm surprised they allow it, but hey, I've never (credibly) claimed to be an expert on the finer points of  Hindu theology. Sacrilege notwithstanding, the rafting was awesome, and although it was only for a couple of hours, we got to cross a few good Grade 3/4 rapids, which was more than enough for my fragile, Ashkenazi, disposition. Jumping off the boat and swimming in the Ganges was also preeeety preeety good.

Although there is a 15 hour bus directly from Rishikesh to Dharamshala, I chose to take a train from Rishikesh to Pathankot, which is about 3 hours away from Dharmashala, and then a bus from Pathankot to Dharamshala. The logic behind this was that at least the for the 10 hours of  the train ride there would be air conditioning and a bed as opposed to the bus, which has no air conditioning and reclining seats but not beds. While I did manage to sleep on the train, I ended up having to wait for a couple of hours for at the bus station in Pathankot, until the first bus to Dharamshala left at 5am, so I'm not sure how much I really gained by the whole exercise. I arrived in Dharamshala, and travelled to Bhagsu, a small village nearby which is popular with backpackers. According to my rough plan, I'll be here for roughly a week - there are courses here in all sorts of things like yoga, Indian cooking, and music, and it will be nice to be in a one relaxed place for a slightly longer period of time, as I approach the end of the trip and the recommencement of university.

Anyway, I'll be sure to blog again at some stage, so feel free to stay posted, and enjoy your respective lives. Peace x