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Published: August 8th 2007
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we took a bus to manali. it was about 12 hours, i think. can't be sure. we've been here for a a week now.
i keep telling myself to get here and update but life has been full. of emotions, of adventures, of all sorts of beauty.
as i write this, the man that works here is saying hello to a traveler's father on the video phone through the computer.
the guy that works here likes to ask me to take photos of him and he puts them in photoshop to add fancy manali scenery to the background, as if he's as big as the valley.
this is another reason i can never update. also the sudden loss of signal likes to test my patience.
i've been pretty ill twice now. first time i had a fever, and i felt like i was dying. like the flu. then i got sick again when we first got to manali on the 15th of july.
so then, we got wise.
we realized we both have grapefruit seed extract. we take it daily now. it's a miracle. we're brand new.
we're staying in my favorite guest house. you walk up narrow stairs
that are ourdoors, to the top floor where we live, it has so much character. the doors are barely taller than me, and the owner puts his artwork in the rooms. on the bottom floor there is a movie room, with the best dvd collection. i've watched four incredible films.
*learning from ladakh
*yogis of tibet
*baraka
*shamanic healing
the last three are favorites of mine. and the first deals with issues very dear to me, simply, the loss of traditional ways of life because of economic development.
i've had life altering moments after these films, i do not kid you. kiddies.
after yogis of tibet, i felt this huge space inside me open up that scared me. i realized parts of myself that are developing that i haven't quite stepped into but that i can somehow observe. i recognize it from past moments, a distinct seeing of your inner vision expanding. a blow to the consciousness. the former self seems to fear stepping into the new territory. this means the old paradigm of my mind will have to abandon attachments, how strange to be aware of a fear of growth.
i can't explain this because
as i continue to learn, the experiential isn't linear.
holiness as a path inspires me. a new integration of thoughtfulness and loving kindness are emerging. it takes some of the hardest, most painful lessons and a meeting with a path out of it, that awaken this state.
i am happy to have found natalie, as it was so perfectly put in a comment. our paths are so much the same. after we watched shamanic healing we couldn't stop talking in awe.
i said "i feel like i'm coming back into myself" with raised brows natalie opens her journal and shows me, she had written the same words while watching the film.
for an idea of where we are, physically. there's new manali, old manali, and vishisht. we are staying in the latter, where there are hot spring baths. natalie went and stripped down with the locals this morning, water almost too hot to touch, i groaned when she tried to wake me at 5am because i had been up late. instead i took a bucket shower in our room.
the other day natalie was having money issues again. we found ourselves in a western union, me
watching the scene alive outside the windows. an elephant strolls by, bell hanging from its neck, people riding, me sighing. a groups of children follow with curious footsteps as a man drinks from one of the many faucets sprouting from the roadside. a young boy carries a tray with three masala teas to unknown receivers. a western mother has her two small children in front of an italian restaurant, in india. a motorcycle named pulsar flies by. all in one frame, i get anxious about how full our lives are.
natalie spent the today with our two indian friends.
ready for this story?
yesterday proved interesting. not that any day isn't. after we had the best chocolate chip cookie on the planet, a place that makes western cookies, always hot fresh and oh so good, we decided to make our way to a temple.
as we were walking a young man says hello to me. immediately followed by "why are travelers so rude to indians?" perfect way to get me to stay, no?
i quickly get into a conversation with him about wanting to learn from each other and the respective social systems of our countries.
all this, and natalie turns around realizing i've been caught up. we stand there for a while until we're offered to sit and for some reason we agreed, giving into these inquires, taking a chance to learn.
it turned into over six hours of insight. i could write for days about what we were exposed to.
shortly after we sat down, a friend of his came to join us. he has traveled the world, he's 22, he works for a jewelry company that supposedly supplies tiffany's with jewels from various questionable sources. hm. ram is a talker. philosophical in the way that was entertaining but also forced. contradictions abound in the enigma of his being. we end up going next door to their apt for the toilet. after talking for a while more, we decide to make dinner. showing us how to cook a curry and chapati.
when we decided to leave, it was dark, we had broken a vow we made the night before not to travel at night, we asked one of them to come with us in the rickshaw. here's something that's not in the lonely planet, rickshaw drivers get drunk at night. up and
down mountains just to get home, natalie holding her breath and singing the tara mantra in her head.
safety first!
i truly could write for hours, with all the details, all the laughing, all the crazy bizarre realizations and mysteries of india.
i'm feeling feverish.
we're heading to prashar lake tomorrow. i saw this beautiful photo of it and said "let's go there" and so we go.
after that we will search for the valley of flowers.
birds in the mountains aren't afraid. crows are everywhere and today a bird plotted to take my bread, only managing to peck at it before my laugh sent it away.
i got my nose pierced one month from the day i arrived in india, our last day in mcleod ganj, the new moon, on the side of the road.
tip for those who might get attacked by a dog in the presence of natalie. don't! a dog came towards me barking, looking angry, and natalie screamed, put her hands over her face and turned her back. she didn't want to see me getting eaten alive, so she shut her eyes.
yay! oh. natalie is also obsessed with
tibetan guy's pancakes. that's where we had the encounter. get this. when we came in, he told us not to worry about the dogs because he has trained the dogs only to bite indian cops! i love this guy.
goodnight!
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thanks
I love your journals. You're so positive and open to new experiences and people -- I'm learning about how to travel from you. Thanks.