More Dharam-masala

I have spent quite some time in Bhagsu and Dharamsala area, over a month, and one can righteously wonder what I have been up to there, half-way up the mountain! Quite a lot, and not so much at the same time, really! I have had some activities, and relaxed a good bit too.

For a few weeks I was volunteering for the Tibetan organization Lha which serves the exile community. I helped out with some graphic design work and it felt good to contribute my skills for a good cause and their gratitude was very rewarding. It was nice too to get in to the office in the late morning for a few hours work to get a structure for the day. On the way there, I often grabbed a newly baked full wheat croissant form amazing Lhamo’s Croissant, leaving me feeling very French as I munched on it along the busy street! When I had the time, it was also the nicest café to sit down. Earthy photographs from Tibet covering the walls, tiger-striped wooly mats on the floor to sit on, and every evening films about wizard Tibetan yogis or the Tibetan freedom struggle.

On a sad note; just at the beginning of my stay, there was a protest in Delhi in connection to the visit of Chinese leader Hu Jintao to India. Tibetans marked that ‘Tibet is not a part of China’ and in the cause of events a young man, Jamphel Yeshi, put himself to fire. He died after a couple of days from 98 % burns. Most of McLeod was solemnly shut down due to the sorrowful event and thousands of Tibetan prayers were sent to accompany his journey onwards. These kinds of protests happens continuously in Tibet, but this time the news seem at last to have reached the world media at a larger scale.



Six days of the week, Tibetan meditation centre Tushita offeres beautiful morning meditation sessions, altering between shamatha practice (one-pointed concentration) and meditations of inquiry. After I found it, I went to almost every session, only a few cold Himalayan morning rains keeping me in bed. The center is in the nearby village Dharamkot, which required a refreshing uphill morning walk through green barley fields, over rocky pathways, through a serene garden and past a couple of curious Indian cows and an indifferent goat.

Those Tibetans certainly know what they are doing! The instructions were very precise and useful – even if I have been working with meditation alongside my yoga practice for many years, I had quite a few details to adjust.

Afternoons could easily be spent reading in the hammock, but the mountain rains got more frequent an thus indoor places were of course preferred. In Bhagsu there was a sweet little book café called the Melting Pote (presumably intending Pot) with wonderful saffron Kashmiri tea and a background of Bollywood hits from long forgotten times..

If in McLeod (later to be renamed McCloud), the Common ground café was an amazing chill out place. With an excellent menu, nice music and a library covering the Tibetan cause, it was easy to pass hours of rainfall outside with reading or with mind-stretching games of chess. I even beat my dear chess master once!

In the rain it was also good to go for a cup of butter tea, a Tibetan speciality. Most people do not like even the idea of tea with butter and a salty taste, but I have loved it right from the start when first trying it a few years ago in Auroville. For the original, yak-butter is used, but since it is not readily available some use ordinary butter, while the yummiest version is made with almond butter. Very nourishing and good when up in the mountains! Only available in McLeod.

Some short treks to overly romanticized waterfalls and a few day-trips to a monastery nearby were also part of my Dharamsala tapestry, and all along I had blessings and amazing angels by my side. I had intended to stay until the end of my journey, only heading back to Delhi a few days before flying out, but when each day someone new from the old Arambol crowd would turn up anew it started to feel like it was time to escape and I sensed I should do something else with my remaining time in India.. So when my friend came up with the wild idea of going to Kashmir, I did not hesitate to join.

Spring feelings

After a memorable train journey (and that is not meant in the positive sense), I arrived in Dharamsala just in time for late spring.

Dharamsala is the town at the foothills of the southern Himalayas, Mcleod Ganj the hamlet further up the mountain that is home for the Dalai Lama and exile Tibetan community. Even further up, there is a small village embedded in trees, forest and small fields. This is Bhagsu where I stay, at about 1850 meter’s height.

The first few days here I just had to rest and regain my energy, but soon enough I started to settle in. I found a room on a wonderfully peaceful trail, finally with the hammock I longed for already when planning this journey in the wintertime.

Here I can lie down and read, sleep or just rock while watching the soothing view: cherry trees blessing the mountain-slopes with white cream puffs, yellowish butterflies chasing the trails of the wind and eagles roaming the sky for prey. As many as three small white temples also fit into the panorama.

The flora and fauna is absolutely stunning. I have seen some, for my eyes, unusual birds, a long-tailed purple one and another in the brightest green feathers. Red-blossomed rhododendron trees are also to be found, apparently they only grow at this height. One day I went horse-trekking with my friends Sara and Anders. It was a bit like pony-riding when you were a child, but still it was special to get up the mountain and through the forest on horseback. Inside the forest was one place only with those rhododendrons, and further up, and just as magical, an area totally wrapped in Tibetan prayer flags, where stones were piled on top of each other on the ground creating small sanctuaries for the spirits.

The snow-capped tops of the Dhauladhars can be seen from some points here, and it is about a four-hour trek to get there by foot. A possible future adventure! It is said a bit further up there are snow leopards, but I guess they are hiding well. Would be awesome to see one, and probably quite scary too.

A  few days ago, after a dramatic thunderstorm with huge Himalayan-size hails suddenly all the cherry blossoms vanished, and summer arrived.

Rishikesh

Rihikesh is the given place for gurus, sadhus, pilgrims and seekers from the east and west alike. There is a myriad of ashrams, temples, yoga and meditation places all posing the apparent risk of ‘spiritual shopping’. It is situated at the foothills of the Himalayas, on the side banks of the holy Ganges where the water is still fairly clean, and very scenic with the turquoise blue water coming down from between the forest-clad hills and clusters of various pastel-coloured buildings nested at the sides of the river. Between the river-banks there is a walking bridge where you also encounter motorbikes, cows and climbing monkeys with no sense of heights. It is a place I long wished to see, and it has been good to be here for a few days.

Mostly I have taken it very easy, and I have met some nice fellow travelers from England, Portugal and the U.S. A couple of days I went for satsang at the ashram of Prem Baba. He is the spiritual teacher of some of my Norwegian friends, so I wished to go there and listen to his talks. So much light, love and compassion flowing there along with the most beautiful music and singing. Truly a place for the heart to open!

I did bump into a couple of friends there, always a good feeling while away, and had lunch with one of them at Ramana‘s garden, a well hidden gem of a restaurant with excellent food where all the profit goes to an orphanage next door.



A couple of evenings I witnessed a fire and mantra chanting ceremony at the riverside. It started at sunset and the drama went on building up for an hour or so. At the end little lights are sent off down the stream with good wishes and prayers.

The last day I made an effort to go and see the legendary Maharishi Mahesh Yogi ashram, where the Beatles started their spiritual endeavors in 1968, and where many of the songs that later found their way into the White Album were created. However, the ashram was abandoned in 1997 and the jungle is taking it back bit by bit so now you have to have one of the forest guards open the gate for you for 50 rupees. Then they refused to let me in unless I payed another ‘local guide’ to take me, because they claimed it was unsafe for lone women to be there. I was a bit short of time and was not up for negotiating this common paying-extra-game, so I turned at the gate. Close enough.

I do understand why people stay long time in beautiful Rishikesh, but for me it is time to move up to Dharamsala.

First glimpses of Delhi

Staying back in Delhi at this point was bit unplanned but I am really happy it happened. I had a couple of days to reconnect with my Australian friend Phaedra that I met in Tel Aviv which was absolutely awesome. From my first few impressions I like Delhi very much, bearing in mind I have mainly been exposed to the privileged areas of the southern parts of the city. Delhi feels like the gateway to the north, which I have been longing so much to see. So forgive me for trembling a few moments at the doorstep..!

The first day I spent park and garden-grazing my way up to the Bahá'í House of Worship, commonly known as the Lotus temple. Since its inauguration in 1986 the building and its architect, Fariborz Sahba, have won many awards for its extraordinary construction.



There seem to be a lot of green areas mingled into the urban landscape. At this time lots of flowers are blossoming, and the temperature is also summer perfect. In one park I found a new acquaintance, a tree without leaves but with massive red flowers. Never seen anything like it before. This world is full of astonishing beauty!



Saturday I spent with Phaedra at the Hauz Khas village and Deer park, with its bambi deer who keep their white spots even as they grow up. Cute ones! The greenery is interspersed with old Mughal temples which makes the place quite enchanting. We looped around the ruins of the Madrasa of Feroz Shah, and I just love feeling the wings of history sweeping over me at these old pale pink monuments…




We caught the sunset from a rooftop restaurant overlooking the very-green lake and the very-green trees surrounding it. How to get onto the pathway encircling the lake from the park remains unsolved, it is just there seemingly without connections. Have to look into that next time around!



Hauz Khas with all its trendy little designer boutiques, antique shops and creative rooftop restaurants gives you sort of a London Greenwich or Camden market feeling. It has a very nice vibe and I do hope to have a budget for some shopping here once it is time to fly out from Delhi!

The afternoon before leaving, thanks to a Fjällräven backpack, I started speaking to a friendly Swedish/ Danish couple. The place where we found each other was a bit off the track so we decided to jointly go for a coffee at the new Bazaar instead. They too were designers and we had a very good time together before it was time to catch the night bus up to Rishikesh.

Bangalore revisited

I had two missions in Bangalore; the first one being to visit my host family from the time I was there doing fieldwork for my master dissertation, the second one to do the Art of Living level two course.

Madan, my guest teacher from university, is like a brother, so it was very good to see him again. He is always at least one step ahead of himself! I cannot keep up his enthusiastic pace even for one day, but I did my best to accompany him on a tour around town visiting a few people. Then he went off for work in Singapore. The family has two adjacent apartments, Madan has the one, where my room also is (yes he insists it is mine!) and next door are his sweet parents. They too are like family, I even call them Amma and Appa. Happy to see they were both in good spirit.

Ever since my first Art of Living course, which I did here six years ago, I promised myself if I ever do the advanced level course I do it at the main ashram outside the city. It is situated in a beautiful place on top of a hill and down a valley with lots of trees and flowers everywhere. The Art of Living organization is represented worldwide (even in Malmö!) and besides yoga and meditation ‘adjusted for the 21st century’, they have life style changing programs for drug and alcohol addicts and do a lot of good social and educational work. But it has turned into a big business too, and do I feel awkward about that. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the course and it felt like well invested time. When we arrived the teachers told us that there we had nothing to do during the whole course, which was true. Basically only sitting for meditation and being quiet. It was very good indeed, silence is very powerful. My main problem with it is that I do not want to speak even after! ‘Guruji’ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (no, not the Beatles one) was not at home but his smiling presence was still around.

My retreat at the ashram ended with the beautiful Monday morning puja (ceremonial offering and chanting). The mantras that were chanted created intricate webs of sound, serving as keys to different levels of consciousness. You can travel with trance music for sure, but you can travel longer indeed with mantras!

Back in town I revisited a few of my old hangout places and went for walks, checking my inner Bangalore map. I also acquainted myself with a cold, so I was not on top of my energy. Anyway, one of my best places is the informal café in the back yard of the Fabindia store in Koramangala. The store itself is highly inspirational with good quality fabrics, interior design and clothes, all mixing tradition with the modern. Not wishing for anything more than inspiration, I sat down with a mango lassi and a magazine like I used to do. Perfect on a warm afternoon when the streets feel too busy and dusty.

The traffic situation in town has really gone from bad to worse since I last visited three years ago, infrastructure has not been able to keep up with the rapid population growth. Already in this short time I had enough of air pollution and traffic that does not even move. Anyway, missions were completed.

The land that time forgot

I never intended to go to Hampi, but in India a journey always directs itself. Since I was going from Goa to Karnataka and the inner resistance to an 18 hour train ride was not transcendable, I decided to take the night bus to Hampi, get a night of good sleep there and then continue on another night bus to Bangalore. With the ‘little’ added bonus of seeing the enchanting sites of ancient Hampi. Well. Sometimes one should just go places! I am so glad I did.



Life had a few nice things in store for me. It started already on the night bus where I shared the seat with Melanie, the loveliest lass from Scotland. We had the same amount of time to spend and similar ideas of where to stay and what to see, so we decided to share the experience. We took the little boat over the small river to ‘the other side’ in Hampi, a bit off the hustle and bustle of the more touristic areas, which proved a very good decision.



Volcanic eruptions have created a vast landscape of giant boulders, and it feels totally like being on another planet, maybe like Planet of the Apes! Well it is at least said to be the birthplace of Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god. Do bear in mind that the pictures really do not make the place any justice. It is an absolutely breathtaking place.





Hampi is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site at the banks of the Tungabhadra river, and used to be the very heart of the Vijayanagara Empire from the 14th to 16th century. Most well-known is probably the Vittala temple with its stone-chariot and musical stone pillars. Lonely Planet and other guidebooks say that it may be dangerous to stay at the sites after sunset due to risk of robbery and the like, but I believe that is when the dinosaurs come out, and they just don’t want us to see.



At the Virupaksha temple I had little baby temple monkeys swinging in my shawl – they are totally mischievous fellows!! They would have robbed me of any food if I had some. Lakshmi, the temple elephant, did not say much but was happy being stroked on her rough elephant skin.

Everything makes your eyes widen, and along with the Vittala temple I found elephant stables, the Lotus Mahal and the Queen’s Bath to be the highlights. Oh yes indeed I would like to have a bath like that, with a soothing swimming pool size bath embellished with pretty pink ornaments! It is intriguing to imagine Hampi at the height of its day with elephants, horses and all the paraphernalia of a wealthy culture.





The second day we rented bicycles to get a little further away. I liked my pink Miss India bike even if I could not get my Scandinavian legs straight. After climbing the many hundred stairs up to the Hanuman temple we met the Hanuman guardian (and collector of money for keeping an eye on the shoes that you have to remove). The temple is in use and while we were up there the devotees were chanting so loud as to be sure they really awakened the monkey gods. The view over the landscape from up there is stunning.




You could explore Hampi for days on end but I feel very content with what I have seen in this short time. The stay ended at the Mango tree restaurant overlooking the little river at sunset. Best thali so far! On a banana leaf as it should be!

Bye Arambol

Arambol kept me longer than I had planned, but prolonged stays always happen for a reason, or maybe two. It is just a feeling inside and you know if it is time to stay or leave. All you have to do is to listen and follow.

Well, I had one practical reason to stay around for a while, since I happened to put myself in a not-so-convenient situation. Ahead of this journey I had super-check on everything – I even started packing a month in advance which has probably never happened before in world history. There was one thing I missed though – that my visa-card expired in February… Thanks to wonderful Carlos & Christina from Ängelholm who brought the new card here, I can happily continue my travels. It must have been the longest mission ever for a postman, respect for that!



The last week I found a very good Kundalini yoga teacher and that gave me lots of inspiration for practice and chanting. It worked really well to set the inner peaceful alarm and get up in time in the mornings. Well, the cockerel in the back yard helped too.



I left Goa with the sweet taste of a last adventure that took me around to some places in the north of the state. To Panjim, the main northern city, and the tranquil sites of Old Goa with their magnificent Portuguese cathedrals near the Mandovi river. To the vibrant intensity of the Saturday night market at Arpora with its laid-back hippies, Kashmiri traders and pulsating trance music. Outside the market a Go-cart-track that had to be tried out, and somewhat to my own surprise, I absolutely loved it! Now I cannot wait to do it again.

Arambol gave me good space for reconnecting and healing, time to get the cold winter out of my body. Thank you for a restful vacation on your beautiful beaches that were my home for five weeks! I already miss the ocean…