Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Bodhgaya

Bodhgaya...we only spent two days there...but I am not quite sure why people rave so much about this chaotic, extremely dusty and noisy place.

This city is the place where supposedly Buddha reached enlightenment under the famous Bodi tree.

The place is filled with monks of all nationalities, and recent monasteries from various countries.

Aside from that, nothing architecturally interesting.

We had assumed before going, that such a holly place would be peaceful, quiet, and filled with positive energy. In other words, the perfect place to meditate and relax.

Unfortunately I believe it has turned victim of its own success, as it is the exact opposite.

Oh well, two days was enough, and good to make a pit stop between Varanasi and Kolkata.

Varanasi, Benares, Khasi..

City of the gods and the heavens...

Way before starting my trip I knew deep inside of me that something special would happen in India. Ha! I was far from imagining that so many fantastic things would happen to me throughout the whole journey!

Ladakh was a paradise of sceneries and showed me in so many ways and similarly like Medan showed me that the new generation of youths can have such a huge heart and good soul.

The hospitality and welcoming I received from Sonja's family in Delhi was beyond anything I had ever experienced before.

And Varanasi, well...yet another experience incomparable to anything else.

I arrived in Varanasi by train from Delhi, after 17 hours of train, and at about 5am...in total darkness. Magical.

I negotiated a bicycle taxi for the 20 minute ride to the main gates of the streets leading to the various guest houses by the Ganga. Crossing the city at this early hour, in the darkness was the most surreal and fascinating scenery. Especially when knowing that Varanasi is an incredibly dirty place filled with crime.

But the most incredible spectacle was by far when arriving on the ghat of the crematorium right as the sun was rising. A bright sanguine red circle rising above the very foggy river while several human bodies are burning on stacks of firewood. I stayed there for a good 15 minutes clueless, speechless, motionless, not knowing what to think nor what to feel as I was numbed by the uniqueness and strangeness of such magical moment and scenery.

No description of the landscape can do justice to such beauty. I only wish my vocabulary were extensive and creative enough to manage to visually transport you through words to the shore of the Ganga in Varanasi. But in all humble honesty, entering those key words in Google images or just waiting for me to upload my photos will give you a much better idea, and I am convinced that you won't believe that such scenery actually exists. But trust me, it does.

So after a couple of hours with my bags on, looking at most of the guesthouses close to the river bank, I finally found one to crash for the first night. I was just dead tired and wanted to take a little nap before venturing in this architectural and cultural wonderland.

I believe that first day I walked about 8 hours non stop. All the way east to the nearest bridge, crossing the supposedly shantytown, and back. The people in the shantytown were so welcoming and smiling. Hard to believe that Varanasi is the source of all the criminals of India.

By 7 pm I still hadn't had any food since lunch the day before and so i was pretty much starving and would have eaten an entire holly cow!

Found a decent place, had my vegy byriani and banana lassi, and went off to the crematorium to sit down and peacefully observe both the fires, the temples, and the Ganga at the same time. The scene is even more impressive by night. It reminded me of those scenes in Les Miserables or any other movie happening during those days in old old Paris, where misery and desperation haunt the streets at night, and all you see along the banks of La Seine are the flames of big fires, flocks of stray dogs, and few groups of people here and there standing at the bottom of gigantic ancient fortresses or castles. Most surreal back from the past kind of moment...

The next day, I woke up early enough to go check out a cheaper place I was recommended by a kid the night before. On my way back to my guesthouse and ready to check out I bumped into this girl from Paraguay (!!!) who had just arrived from Nepal, and convinced her to change place and share a room in the new guest house I had just seen. Very nice and fun girl. And gosh, it felt so good to speak Spanish again!!! So Carmi and I hung out and pretended to be brother and sister since then, sometimes pretending to be from Brazil or Spain, or Argentina...basically just having tons of fun making up new stories as we went.

The evening of the second day, after taking a two-hour row boat trip on the Ganga for sunset, we decided to venture more thoroughly into the crematorium where we learnt that they apparently burn about 200 bodies per day (Hindus believe that a dead body has to be burnt within 24 hours, and the fact of being burnt in Varanasi means that the dead goes directly to Nirvana. Some people actually make the long journey to Varanasi to spend their last breath and get a straight ticket to heaven.). Once there, we were let in to the small little house/temple where the eternal flame is guarded and where the site's guriji resides. For some reasons it seemed that tourists don't dare entering that building, we did, and were invited in. We basically sat down with bunch of men, including the guriji for about two hours, chit chatting, laughing a lot, and taking a few photos. They even got us chai tea. The moment was surreal, especially given all the warnings we had been told regarding the site and how private and anti photos it was.

One of the guys there, a barber shop owner, invited us for lunch to his house the next day. How could we have said no to such special opportunity?! Hehe! And guess what?! (Only my friends in Paraguay will understand why this was so funny and strange) the name of the barber shop is Monalisa!!!!! The same day I meet a girl from Paraguay and get invited to have lunch at a place called Monalisa! Unbelievable! (Mabel, Gecilda, Rosana y Maria Gracia, eso seguro les va a hacer reir).

Day three...well, even more amazing than the previous day. Never thought that would be possible. Anyhow...

...day started at 6:30am by sunrise row boat ride on the Ganga. It felt like a Sherlock Holmes movie: extremely thick fog blanketing the whole city early in the morning, and the old buildings and holy people appearing magically out of nowhere as the row boat moves forward over the water. Surreal!

If I had any doubt about the cleanliness of the Ganga before, I now do not have any more doubt AT ALL!!!!

Let's see...what did we see this morning while cruising on the boat:
- dead dogs floating on the water, but as big as a goat due to so much water and air inhaled.
- tons of fish coming up to the surface of the water, and struggling to keep their head out, the same way dogs or cats would, in order to get some oxygen.
- people taking a poop, people doing their laundry, people brushing their teeth, people showering, all next to each other and all out in the open.
- a dog chewing on the heel of a dead human body half floating on the water and half laying on the staircase of the water. The entire intestines and inside organs of the body were hanging out, but the dog was digging its teeth as deep as possible in the bone.

Aside from that, the boat ride was incontestably magical, and those elements made it even more mysterious and surreal.

After a long morning walk along the river bank (you just can't get enough of walking along those majestic ghats and buildings!) we made it right on time to the Monalisa barbershop.

Gosh, I hadn't been received and hosted like this by total strangers since the last time I came to India with my family 15 years ago. One sometimes or rather often, tends to unfortunately forget the good of which the human heart is capable.  It was so moving and touching how they received us. Their house or rather cement room was no bigger than 3m by 3m. A large wooden board on four legs was the only furniture, serving as bed, dining table, common area, sofa... So we spent most of the day sitting there, trying as creatively as possible to communicate with our hosts. This beautiful couple and their four children. After some traditional chai, the woman started cooking right on the room floor, with the absolute most basic tools and equipment. The chola and rice she cooked for us was delicious. At least this time, we were not the only ones eating. Once we got started, our hosts also got eating. Very soon we were al eating together...with our hands. Gosh it was spicy! But hey, whatever! The sweat on my face and my runny nose made them laugh quite much. Lol

After lunch we all walked up to the roof, the floor above, and even smaller than the main room. All of us sitting there, while all the neighbors from the surrounding building kept on peeking their heads out to see where all the noise and English was coming from. Then the oldest daughter, 12yr old, offered Carmi to do her a mendhi, or henna, since she was studying it at school. It was so moving. She was so focused and so attentive to do her best...while her parents were so proudly watching.

It was hard to leave their house when the night had arrived. They wanted us to stay. :-)

The next day was when we met Om, a 14 yr old local boy. One of the wittiest boys I have ever seen. 14 going 40! Lol

That evening we just briefly met him and just chatted for a bit like we usually did with everyone else in the area. Little did i know that i would spend every following day with him.

A little gastronomical parenthesis though, that same morning we also discovered the absolute best lassi place in the world: Blue Lassi. And for once, the Lonely Planet is entirely right about its recommendation. OMG those lassis are so incredibly good! My favorite is the Mixed Fruit one. A home/hand made liquid sweet yogurt mixed with coconut, and topped with pomegranate, orange, pear, banana, papaya, pineapple, a touch of powered cacao, a touch of strawberry jelly, and crumbled pistachios. Delicious is a huge understatement!

One day walk Carmi and I did before hanging out with Om was to go all the way to the Ramnaga fort, a good 20km away (so we were told). This fort is majestic. A true piece of architectural art. When we got there, we saw that unfortunately the entry fee for foreigners was way to high (Rp150 per person! Vs 20 for locals!), so we decided to walk around the outside wall along the river bank to check out the river view. After crossing a public toilet land (literally, a large piece of land where people just go and relieve themselves, whether it be #1 or #2, shamelessly out in the open, day and night), and a supposedly snake infested bushy area, we made it to the foot of the fort on the water side. It was our adventurous luck that some slightly sketchy young kid incited us to follow him and basically hike and walk along the facade, as if we were breaking in, face and whole body glued to the wall, until reaching the other side or the back entrance of the fort, the one only used by boats. Though we were initially scared to be caught by the fort security, we realized that technically we were still outside the fort's walls anyway, thus legal. Hehe!

Once there, we were surprised to find quite a few fishermen...well, if men from the slums, using a piece of nylon string hanging in the water in the hope of catching some food can be called fishermen. I believe they were as surprised to see us as we were to see them. We even met a Sadhu there. A beautiful Jesus like face of a a guy. He wanted us to take photos of him. And so did his friends. It was funny. But even funnier was that at one point he was making a charas (clay cone filled with marijuana and tobacco), and then urged us to take no more photos of him, and to just go. A bit of hypocrisy there, but oh well...isn't it what religion is all about anyway...

Our first whole day spent with Om, we walked the entire day along the Ganga's banks, crossing the city and also some slums, in order to find the only Krishnamurti center in India.

My mother had always told me about Krishnamurti. She always tried to get me to read some of his work, but I never made the effort. So since I had been told about that center by one of Sonja's aunt, I figured it would be a good opportunity to catch up and enrich my knowledge a bit about such world renown spiritual leader. Hmmm...all I have to say is that it takes more than one trial or read to fully grasp what he is talking about...and today I am still not quite there yet...

In any case, we then returned to our neighborhood via the Muslim district, by far the nicest part of the city. So colorful, relatively peaceful, but filled with vibrant culture and diverse street life.

A day or so later I believe is when the beautiful Angelina arrived to town. (Remember her? We met on the very last day of my Vipasana course in Yangoon. She is half Japanese half Brazilian).

Well, we had stayed in touch since then, and managed to make our journeys coincide in Varanasi. :-)  lucky me!

It was the perfect timing, since Carmi was to depart on Friday, Angelina became my new roommate.

Not only is she beautiful on the outside, but the time we have spent traveling together since then has allowed me to realize how beautiful a person she is inside. She has been traveling for about 20 months already, and has spent each of these months volunteering on some projects, from the Caribbean, to Africa, to eastern Europe to Asia. She is like an unstoppable do-gooder. Her heart is just bottomless. It is just so inspiring and refreshing.

I have now been on the road for about 8 months. Like most backpackers who go on such journey, my overall objective is to "find myself", find what my purpose in life should be and find the appropriate inspiration to drive me in the right direction.

I have always known in a way that helping people is what makes my heart vibrate, but other than when I was working at AED back in my DC days, I never really fully put any of it into action, at least not the way Angelina has been doing it. And as we all know, actions speak louder than words.

Does my passiveness all these years say something about my real intentions or passion? I am not quite sure and am still trying to figure it out. But the one thing I know is that spending time with Angelina and listening to her ideas and the work she has done does inspire me so much and makes me want to turn my passive state into serious actions. Perhaps I have just been a bit afraid to dive in thus far, fearing that I don't have the right tools or preparation to know what to do. But isn't that the main fear of all entrepreneurs and what makes the difference between those who think about it and those who actually do it?!

A question I have been asking myself more and more is whether I should be a social entrepreneur or a social worker. Between Beverly's book and Angelina's stories, I am not at a lack of inspiration at all!

Anyway, back to Varanasi.

Angelina and I pretty much spent the rest of our stay there walking, discovering, chatting, laughing, learning, and eating with Om and Babu every single day, as if they were our two sons. Such a strange yet thrilling experience. Every time we would buy them diner or sweets, watching them eat with their gourmand and happy face was so rewarding. One evening we even took them to the movies. I think we enjoyed the movie just as much as we enjoyed watching them having so much fun. I must confess that during those days I did think a lot that those moments and feeling were perhaps comparable to what part of parenthood could be like...and it did make me look forward to it quite a lot. And what a perfect sequence right after the precious time I had spent with Milan and Surya in Delhi.

Angelina even convinced me to "bade" in the Ganga. Only up to our knees though!!!!! People, don't freak out...no genitals nor any other vital parts of our bodies were ever in contact with the water as like I said it was only up to our knees. But it was nonetheless quite a trip, especially the way passers by were looking at us...both locals and foreigners.

A lot a soap and scrubbing happened in the shower after that in order to remove any potential sticky bacteria from the skin of our legs. So no, my legs are not Ganga infected. Lol

Our last evening in town, we decided to do a sunset boat ride. Though Angelina and I had our own idea of what we wanted the ride to be for such occasion ( more on the romantic side), Om, Babu, and their third friend managed to make the experience something entirely different and absolutely unique. But most definitely, way better than anything we could have wanted or planned.

We rented an old row boat f or an hour, but our boys insisted to be our boatmen. So it was basically just the five of us on the boat. Like a big happy family. All five of us took turns at rowing and trying to make the boat go in a direction or another. The sun was just a gigantic bloody red orange of a sun setting in between the kings palace and the old mosque. We were in the middle of the water, the fog was thickening by the minute, the boys were discovering the fun and excitement of taking photos with our cameras, and we were all having more fun than ever.

What a perfect last sunset in Varanasi.

Our last day, (since our train to Bodhgaya was late at night) we mostly all hung out on the rooftop of our guesthouse, just joking around, playing with the cameras, chit chatting, relaxing. And at night, the boys took our backpacks (which were almost bigger than them) and led us through the streets of the city all the way to find a rickshaw, a cycle rickshaw that would take us all five and our bags all the way to the train station. What a hilarious ride. Mainly because those cycle rickshaw usually barely fit two people tightly sitting next to each other and with no bag. Hahaha! I won't say more!

Bye bye Benares!...

"Walking is good for health, talking is good for mind." Om.
"No worry no hurry, no chicken no curry." Om.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Naina and Fazal tie the knot...

eelhi...what a fabulous 10 days I had...yet, I didn't actually see much of the city at all. But that only reaffirms even more the fact that people matter so much more than places.

Naina, the cousin of Sonja, my sister from another mother, invited me to attend her wedding. Naina being Hindu and Fazal (her husband to be) being Muslim, it promised to be quite an interesting series of events (Indian style).

Naina, despite being about to get married was the most serene and stress less person ever. She not only managed to find a place for me to crash for the duration of my stay in the city but also managed to spare a whole day with me to help me find appropriate clothes for the four days of the wedding.

But what was the absolute most amazing part of my time in Delhi is that the minute I stepped into Naina's house, her, her sister, and her parents, as well as Sonja and her mom made me feel as if I were a member of the family. It was just unbelievable how natural it felt to be there and to behave and act as if I had always been Naina's and Niharika's brother. But it's not it! Also all the uncles, aunts, cousins, friends, great uncles, great aunts on both the bride and the groom side treated me as a member of their families and actually remembered my name and who I was from day one. That really made me vibrate and moved me a lot.

To the very last minute of my stay, I was not once left aside.

The wedding and its four full and busy days were a fantastic experience.

It is funny because while at SECMOL, the youngest volunteer, a 17 yr old Scottish kid, kept on playing some Bollywood movies and singing the main songs day and night...and I never really paid much attention to it as I had not seen those movies and only planned to watch them later on in my trip...but when I arrived in Delhi, Niharika who was managing the wedding entertainment regarding her and her sister's friends involvment got me to commit to join a few guys to perform a couple of dances for the whole crowd of guests (about 300 people!)...and what dances would these be? Ha! Just the ones the volunteer was singing at SECMOL. Made me laugh quite much.

During this wedding I learnt so much about Indian culture and wedding traditions. Though I do find the whole thing extremely complex and not necessarily something I would want to have, it was so beautiful all through out. And wow you should have seen how gorgeous the bride looked in each of her daily and evening attires. That in itself was a spectacle.

Oh, and during the whole time I got to get much much closer to Sonja's "little monkeys", Surya and Milan, and spent so much time with them that i actually miss them quite much now. Gosh, I learnt a ton about babysitting and child control. Lol I was actually proud of myself when they left because of how I managed to take care of them whenever I had to or was asked to. :-)   can't wait to have my own kids...can't wait...

I have chosen not to go on and on about those ten days but rather to dedicate this blog post to thank Madhu massi, Manu mamu, Niharika, Naina, Amma, Fazal, Sanjay, Sonja and Roop for their amazing welcoming and for making me feel so happy amongst their family during those ten days. I miss you all very much.

Here are some photos of the wedding:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52537245@N00/sets/72157638325581443/

Oh, and before closing this post, just a little anecdote that happened to me as I was on my way to the train station to head to Varanasi:

I can't believe I fell for it. When I got to the train station there was a security guard. He told me my train got canceled due to an accident and that I had to go to the government tourist office to review my booking for the next train. So I went around the whole very very long block and sat down with the government officer who tried to sell me plane tickets and tours to other parts of india, telling me that all trains to varanassi were full until Dec 22.

Thank god I told him I would go back to the station counter and see if I could sneak my way into the next train anyway.

When I got to the station, a man outside in the parking lot told me to go directly to platform nbr 8 and not to listen to anyone else.

So I went...and my original train was there...never got canceled nor postponed.

I am still laughing about it and quite impressed by such a smart scheme they pulled on me. Lesson learnt for next time...

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Leh, magical Ladakh!

How many of u have even heard of Leh or Ladakh? Seriously?!

When in Sumatra Ximena mentioned that she had volunteered once in the small org in the mountains of north India, it seemed really cool so I jumped on the opportunity to do the same. But that was it. No prior research to know exactly where it was or what it looked like. Just working with kids in the mountains.

Haaaaa! Whoever knows that region of the world k knows how much of a shock I was in for. I don't think anything at all in my life had ever amazed and surprised me that much before.  From the moment the plane approached the landing strip in the sky to the moment the plane took off again three weeks later to head to Delhi, I was in awe. It's simple. You just open ur eyes, and the surrounding mountain peaks which vary between 4,000m and 7,000m, and create a sort of gigantic nest with a light brown sand desert at its center is just unbelievably magnificent, you don't feel in India, neither in China, nor in Pakistan, but in between. Such a fascinating traditional and cultural mix cohabiting without any appearing tensions.

I am fully aware that none of my descriptions or photos can ever do true justice to this spectacle, but I surely hope it serves to motivate some to explore this unpublicized roof of the world.

So yes, my plan was to stay at SECMOL for about three weeks to help the grade 10 students as much as possible. But when I got there, I got quite frustrated as there didn't seem to be much I could help out with as there were already 5 volunteers for 35 students. Quite a bunch already! So I was pretty much set on shortening my stay to one week/10days instead and then venture around Ladakh.

But very quickly I took a liking to the kids, and though they are probably not so representative of the regional culture given the life they have at SECMOL, they continuously thought me so much about their village culture, and I just enjoyed so much shooting spo many questions at them.

The most interesting thing was that most of them do things and believe in religion without even knowing why, but simply because it is their family tradition. If you know me well, you know that I love questioning everything to try to understand. So that's what I did there. Why Buddhism? Why government jobs are best? Why marry this way? Why stay in Ladakh? Why? Why? Why? It was so interesting seeing the change in them as they were actually thinking about it all and realizing that they didn't have a clue as to why.

Strangely enough, even though 99% of them were Buddhists (only one kid was Muslim) I quickly became their go to person regarding Buddhism. My meditation course thought me so much about it that I then became able to teach myself. Well, actually about the Buddha Dhamma rather than Buddhism. Big difference!

Being the oldest volunteer by a decade gave me quite an edge/advantage regarding education, life experience and knowledge. So the kids enjoyed that and called me Mr Google. Hahahahahaha! I even tought the Muslim kid about Islam.

So strange and sad to see how tradition and family pressure are just blindly followed without ever questioning or even understanding. I can conceive that one might not know about others' religions or cultures, but I cannot understand nor accept that one doesn't know about its own belief or culture. So I made sure to leave some footprint as to male their minds more critical and curious. Hopefully it will sustain...

During the first week a few of us went to town to see the Moharam (Muslim self mutilation procession) celebration. Wow! Never in my life I thought I would witness such thing, and even less so in a place isolated like Leh. It was shockingly interesting, but also very scary at the same time.

Faith and devotion to it can be so powerful! I got a full glance of this during that day. Thousands of devoted Muslim males walking together as one while the Buddhists are watching. No women took part to the procession, at least not publicly.

Each surrounding village or main government organization had its own subgroup led by a speaker who was screaming the chants as they walked. Based on the rhythm of those chants the men would raise their fist to the sky and then bring out back to hit their chest very hard. So as the chants went faster, the noise of the fists hitting the chests got louder and louder. It almost felt that the whole city and its building were moving in sync with the fists. Such a strange feeling. The scary part was when I was walking amongst them...me the white looking foreigner taking photos and not doing the chanting and fist pounding thing. Everyone's look was so serious and profound of devotion that when some looks happened to cross mine, it felt I was at the wrong place and that something bad was going to happen. But no, they sent no harm. They were just very focused.

In each group there were 3 or 4 men who went a step further and who would, in sync with the chants rhythm, hit their forehead or scalp hard with a rock or slap their back hard with a chain whip made of multiple blades. Both backs and scalps were dripping blood like o had never seen before. Some were so focused and into the change and mutilation that they would get into a trans to the point that several other men had to jump on them to stop them from hitting themselves beyond serious injury. Some even required to be carried away to the first aid locations to be treated and end their trans state. That was probably the saddest and scariest part. Why? Why mutilate yourself like that? What does one gain from that? Some volunteer said that these were how terrorists and suicide bombers were found. Not sure if it is true, but it could make sense indeed. Such high level of devotion.

It was such an interesting experience. Seeing the Buddhists on the side of the road peacefully watching the processions was just as interesting. I kept on wondering what was going through their mind as they were watching. They must have thought that these people were crazy.

A few days after, a small group of us decided to go for a day hike in the Phiang valley to follow the thing river stream and make it up to at least 5,000 meters. We started the hike at 4,000m after taking a delicious breakfast at Stanzin's mother's house. One of the most beautiful and insolite breakfast ever. Just us, sitting in this little house, on carpets, surrounded by windows, allowing us to see the whole chain of mountains as the sun is awaking and stretching all its rays after a long and cold night of sleep. Magical!

We were quickly surrounded by snow and ice, and thus forced to continue the trek in such conditions. (Ha! My hiking shoes were for tropical climates and so were my socks!)

Growing up in the Alps and trekking so many volcanoes in Indonesia, I thought I had seen it all and that nothing could really impress me that much. Gosh was I wrong!!!!!! For the trekkers out there, it see!s that Ladakh is a much much less touristy and promoted version of Nepal. And during the off season, it is jus a pure spectacle to be all alone in such grandeur...

Each step was a challenge...at least for us then foreigners. The kids who were with us were just trying to slow down to stick with us. But if it weren't for us they would have completed the hike round trip before noon. Agggrrrrr!!! I nicknamed them the robots after that trek.

We made it to 5,037m in 5 hours! 1,037m in 5 hours! Given that I hiked from 2,600m to 3,700m on Mt Rinjani in 3 hours, I think it is not so bad a performance.

I was so happy to have passed the 5,000 m that I did a little "show" at the top. Our group had split up in 3, so by then it was just Wanchuk, Kim, and I. While Wanchuk was filming I stripped down to my boxers and socks, and went in the snow to do some push ups. Thank God it was so sunny. Would have frozen to death otherwise!

The hike back down to Stanzin's house was hell. Not only was the sun setting and our hike was in the shade of the mountain, but my feet were frozen, and my legs were killing me of fatigue. But I made it!!!!! Next challenge will be 6,000m...in Nepal perhaps...

The third event we went to as a group was the Thiksey festival. Thiksey monastery is one of the largest in the region and is known for being a replica of the main monastery in Lassa. Perched atop a rocky peak it stands impressively and dominates the whole valley and Indus river. The monastery is just gigantic and all white. I was lucky enough to be in the area to attend this annual festival of dances and blessings. Lots of children wearing beautiful masks perform dances all day long, while the famous yellow hat monks ordinate the ceremony. The monastery is filled with locals who have come from all over the region. It is a spectacle of traditional cloth and ancient faces all over the place. Only wish I had had a better camera with me that day!

The rest of my stay at SECMOL was not as eventful, yet still interesting.

We revamped the whole biogas structure. I learned a lot in the process.

I was taught how to milk a cow.

My fitness program became more popular and refined. Even Wanchuk, the founder, would attend it from 6:45am to 7:15am.

I gave a talk on self confidence and tried to boost that of the kids who despite their incredible potential don't really think highly of themselves.

Since the students were studying for their incoming exams, there was not much we could do to help them during their self study or free time. So the volunteers would just hang out together. But the students would allow themselves a little dance party every Wednesday evening for a couple of hours before going back to study. Incredible discipline to start the party and end it at 10pm on the dot. No drinks nor food. Just music, smiles and laughs. A beautiful spectacle of happiness and joy to watch. And even better to take part of it. I was amazed to see how much dancing and singing is part of their culture.

There is just so much to talk and think about regarding SECMOL's days and organization, but I will keep that for other conversations. Especially the toilets system with such cold and starry sky, as well as the pee-pee breaks at night with dzos walking around. Surreal experiences...   ;-)

One funny thing though is that the youngest volunteer, Cameron, a 17yr old Scottish boy, was addicted to Bollywood movies and kept on playing the same songs and movies every evening after dinner for us to hear. Two songs he would sing all the time: "battameez dil" and "diwali girlfriend"...and when I arrived in Delhi, as part of the wedding celebration, I was asked to perform (with a few other guys) dances on these exact two songs. Hahaha! If only I had paid more attention in Leh, I would have known them perfectly well for the wedding.

Leh was and is so magical that I decided to leave SECMOL 2 days before my flight in order to spend more time in the town and see it more.

Ha! I thought the nights were cold on the campus...but gosh was I surprised by the way colder nights in the city. Te guesthouses have absolutely no insulation. Glass is just fixed on wooden frames with a few nails and that's it, windows. Freeeeeeezing cold!

It being low season now, after the sun has set, there is absolutely no light in town, nor anything to do at all. The few people outside wander around with a head lamp, from house to house. Quite a difference from SECMOL. Not worse, nor better. Just different.

On my last day I walked for a few hours, crossed the city and passed all the military camps to make it to Spituk Monastery, perched atop a hill and dominating the whole valley. Splendid spectacle!

I spent a few hours there, catching my breath and resting from the long walk and hike.

On my way back, as I was hitchhiking for a ride, or looking for a mi I taxi, I got picked up by a van filled with passenger. It so happened that they were people from Rajasthan who I had seen at the monastery. They were so happy to pick me up in their taxi van.

We chatted the whole way. They are shoe shiners who work on the street. Here for the season and also because of the good school for their kids.

They refused to let me pay for my taxi fare and paid for me. Then they invited me to their street corner where their stall is and bought me chai and pastries. I sat there on the curb and chatted with them for a good hour. Got weird looks from the locals, but who cares.

I met their daughters, cousins, friends...it was so nice.

I promised to go see them in Jaipur next year, and I will do so. :-)

After that I was so starving I went to the yummy Punjabi restaurant up the road. Their I ended up sharing a small table with a couple (him an Indian soldier passionate about photography and living in Delhi, her an Indian bank associate living in Australia.) It was their first visit to Ladakh just like me. We had such an interesting chat about their living situation as well as politics and both our trips. They ended up buying me desert. :-)

Departing from Leh the next morning was not easy at all. I really fell in love with the place and its people. There is such a magical energy that exudes from the air you breath up there. I was sad to leave.

But once the plane took off and stared hovering at the whole chain of the Himalayas it was one of the most incredible and breathtaking thing I had ever seen. All we could see miles around was the highest peaks of the planet. Where is Everest? Is that K2? How high is this one? 6,000m? 8,000m? It was just insanely beautiful and grand. When we say the sky is the limit, it felt we were flirting with that limit.

I am dying to go back...soon.