We haven't posted in a while because East India offered us little in the way of wi-fi. However, I'm currently on the best train yet and though I haven't had much sleep, we actually get free chai and breakfast so I've decided to write a post.
We're approaching Kolkata, our final destination before Thailand. We have four days so we plan to explore the Sunderbans and, crossed fingers, we hope to see a Tiger. Third time lucky!
Let me talk about our white water rafting trip down the Karnali briefly. To sum up this ten day expedition, we made some amazing friends who I think we'll still be reminiscing about for months. Amy has already discussed these guys with you but I love them so much I want to mention them too. First we have Santosh. I will never forget the mental storm we experienced and the slightly drunk Santosh holding down our tent in the extreme wind while we sat inside the tent needing to pee like there's no tomorrow. "Lona santosh!!! Are you okay? Come inside!!" "It's okay, I'm dancing!" (Please read that with a Nepali accent). Next we have Sagar, the 'Bludman', nicknamed so for being the hunter that caught and prepared our next meaty meal and just for being so damn cool ('blud', get it?). Prashant Next. The 'la' man. 'La' is a Nepali term with no exact English definition. It vaguely means, 'your go/ okay/ let's move on/ cool/ finished' and everyday you could hear Prashant, always calm and content, la-ing as he went about the campsite. He tried to teach me to Eskimo roll in a kayak but I think he was helping me more than I realised. They were essentially the three boys; our guides on the trip but ultimately our good friends who we miss so much. We loved everybody on the trip however, and I think that we were really lucky to land such great people for a long ten days.
Moving on with India.
We have now officially been to India three times. The first on the 16th March, the second on the 22nd April and the third, ten minutes after that because we forgot to get a departure stamp at the Nepal border and had to return. We headed straight to Varanasi after stopping in Gorakpur only briefly to visit the local temple before our train journey. It was a sweet temple, interesting to explore, but Amy and I became a source of entertainment on the pedal boats which were available to hire. They didn't understand that we'd been white water rafting for ten days and were perfectly capable of peddling a boat round a tiny lake!
Varanasi was lovely, although it's surprising to find myself using that term to describe the city where bodies come from all over the world to burn and rest in the dirtiest river there is. But it was very interesting. I learnt a lot, particularly from a friendly Japanese man whom we befriended named Kuni. Varanasi was also a hub of food. With four days left now we are intent on eating, eating, and then when we have finished that, eating a little more. I love Indian food. I love Indian sweets, Indian pudding, Indian chai, Indian thali, Indian curries, Indian chapati and everything else Indian. Thai has always been my favourite food cuisine but I think that the transition in four days will be a difficult one.
One of my favourite places was Rajgir. I feel like I need to return there one day and I feel like I actually will. It's strange, but although we spent only half a day there, I felt a real pull to the place. I loved it. I loved the area, the surrounding mountains, spontaneous temples and shrines, various dotting monuments and ruins and I particularly loved the Japanese Santi Stupa and the caves where Buddha used to meditate. Don't laugh, but I can see myself coming back to Rajgir for maybe a month and meditating by the stupa or in those very caves. It was peaceful, beautiful, and yes, you heard right; I have started trying meditation. My first meditation was in Nepal and I loved it. It's difficult to explain but I felt, in a super cheesy and clichéd way, more spiritual and full of potential. I'll see how difficult this is to continue in the hustle and bustle of my house or university halls (I've accepted Leeds by the way!), but I hope to continue. I even bought some Japa mala beads. These are traditional beads used in meditation to count in time with the mantra. Each set has 108 beads: an ideal number because of its ties with the perfect number 3- a number associated with balance.
Before Rajgir we visited the oldest Buddhist university in Nalanda (Nalam means lotus flower, a symbol of knowledge, and Da means to give) and afterwards we headed to Gaya and Bodh Gaya. Gaya was pretty simple but Bodh Gaya offered dozens of Buddhist temples built by nations around the world and it was here that I had my first encounter with a monk. We actually laughed together. As in, a monk, laughed with me. We shared a moment and I laughed with a monk. I feel like my soul is spiritually blessed just from this moment and okay, you can laugh at my meditation but do not piss on my Monk experience okay? Amy later had her own encounter with two in a phone shop, although that was more like 'what are you doing here? Lona! You're monks why do you need a phone! This is so wrong!' (in her head of course). Anyway, I'm getting drawn closer and closer to the idea of Buddhism. I love the values, the teachings, the concept of Buddha and not a figurative deity, and I feel that Bodh Gaya has intensified my interest even more. We made friends with two locals who proceeded to show us around everywhere and take us to the wonderful non- touristic sites. We tried sky juice, met another in a long line of crazy but great old men, drank chai after chai, and climbed an impressive tree. Interestingly, Naranjan was a Buddhist who converted from Hinduism which I thought was cool.
Saturday 4th May 13:34
I write this final paragraph in retrospect, a week later. So... the mass eating of Indian food didn't really happen as Kolkata hit me with a horrible illness that has continued for several days. I'm now in hospital, waiting for my strength to return so that we can continue our amazing travels.
PS. We're in Bangkok now.
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