Day 8 - Monday/Somwar - Lucky Tosser

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Keith and I woke up at 6:30 to go to the Swami-ji's kuti (hut) for morning prayers/chanting. It was quite a spiritual experience, with the Swami and his not-so-glamorous assistant (a grey German lady in her late 50's) chanting in Hindi while she laid flowers on an altar with incense and a relief picture of the god Krishna. We were each then given the equivalent of "communion" - a palmful of buttermilk, drank and the hands then passed over the head, and a piece of spiced fudge-like sweet.

After the cerimony, we chatted to the Swami about life in the Ashram and ours back home, and were given a banana each, before heading off for our second Yoga session, which was again very relaxing. I then missed breakfast - no great loss, more veg and rice - to have a massage and sauna. Both were my first times, and although I have no basis for comparisons, thought they were very good! At the price, (150R + 100R, about 3 quid total) I don't think anyone could complain!

After my treatments we went to the Karla Caves. Located near the top of a mountain, to get to which you need to climb dozens of stone steps, these are large caves, carved by hand from the rock face by Buddhist devotees in the 2nd to 3rd Centuries BC. They are in two distinct parts, the original caves being expanded in later decades.

The largest cave is the latest, and we went here first. It is a long hall, flanked by pillars adorned with carvings of figures, and with a large carved dome at the far end. This has a small square funnel at the top, in all about 20 feet tall, into which people toss coins for luck (a little research trying to remember the name has led me to discover that in this dome are the ash remains of the Buddha and some of the buddhist saints. And by now probably millions of coins . . .). I managed to get my coin in on the first toss - very good luck for me, I was told by Krishan and Dipu, and I was suitably smug as a result (so unlike me, I know!)

The older set of caves are up a very steep hand carved spiral staircase and are far more basic. They are simply a central room, about 20 by 40 feet, with small open windows and smaller rooms directly off them. The views from here were just amazing, across a large amount of the nearby plains, with a few different towns visible on a clear day such as today.

A couple of us took a walk on a treachorous path around the side of the mountain for a different view while others took photos or just sat around, and then began our long, tiresome descent back to our minibus. On return to the ashram, we had another yoga session and a meditation class, which caused a few of us to fall asleep albeit briefly, before heading into town for pizza again! I had another margerita, this time a large for 2 quid, and back again for 9. Had a chat with Krishan, Dipu and Keith before hitting the hard matress about 10.

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