I came to Dharmasala

I heard this story when I was in Goa and it has haunted me in every way since. This girl had what is affectionately called "Delhi Belly," everyone gets sick in Delhi and if not Delhi than at some point in India. Diarrhea, Constipation, vomiting, amoebas, and other such glorious things. Sadly, it is common enough for travelers to literally poo their pants at some point in their journey ( I watched this happen to a friend who shall remain nameless). So, this girl that the story is about, she was on the bus and in such a state that she was about to lose all bowel control. She asked for them to stop the bus, she begged and said that she REALLY needed the bathroom. They simply pointed to the back of the bus where the girl saw a bucket. Nobody wants to have diarrhea in a bucket in front of a bus load of people, but the great teacher that India is says you can't always get what you want, and when you gotta go, you gotta go. So, the girl poos in the bucket and when she finally is willing to make eye contact with the rest of the bus they are all staring at her as if to say, "what the hell are you doing???" at which point she turned around to see that behind the bucket there was a bathroom door.

After getting sick in Delhi I prayed to the gods that this would not be my fate and after a full night on the bus I gladly arrived in Dharmasala without any traumatic episodes. Rob and I checked in to some guesthouse up some mountain in the dark before dawn and slept in the kind of quiet that can only be found in the woods. It was amazing. Freezing, but amazing. Rob immediately made friends with some Indian travelers; I think he was very happy to spend some time with the men folk as well as people who were from the country that we've been trying to understand for 2 months now. He changed guesthouses and I quickly followed suit and found my own; it was nice to sleep in the woods for one morning but I was not interested in going for a hike every time I wanted to use the bathroom. I found a lovely place that resembled more of a swiss cottage than anything else and set up shop, happy to finally be staying somewhere longer than a couple of days.

Technically, we were staying in Bhagsu, the quieter suburb of McLeod Gang, home to the Dalai Lama. It was our great luck that the Dalai Lama was also in town leading teachings for the two weeks that we planned to stay and so these beautiful snow capped himalayan towns have been filled to the brim with Tibetan monks and Buddhists from all over the world, painting such a lovely picture of red cloaks, shaved heads and sneakers. You just gotta love a monk in addidas.

I quickly got myself situated, sussing out reiki teachers, meditation courses, yoga classes and the like. On my way to go interview another teacher about their course, I got a little lost and found myself talking to an incredibly good looking Indian fellow named Karan. This town is one of the first non holy places I've been to where Indians also travel for holiday. It was the first time that I was able to have a conversation with Indians who weren't part of the toursit industry. Karrie and I were talking for awhile about spirituality and life and then his friend Shiv came along and he and I also hit it off, talking about politics and history and all sorts of things. We were all fast friends and as the boys were only in town for a couple more hours, I decided to spend the rest of my day with them and their other 2 friends Harry and Maki. It was AWESOME. They had a car. I know this doesn't sound like a big deal, but after traveling for three months, its a HUGE deal. The freedom of being able to drive where ever you want, when ever you want, to be able to stop for the toilet, its a big deal. So they helped me run some errands and played crazy trance music really loudly and in general were just damn good company. 5pm quickly became 10pm which even faster became 3am. Karan had to leave at 2 am to make it back home in time to catch a train so that he could get a boat to ship out because he is a merchant marine, or the Indian equivalent. This clearly did not happen. Too much fun was had and before we knew it we had all passed out in my little room and woke up at 10 in the morning. The boys took me for an Indian breakfast and then some more driving around with the trance music, again I don't know why, but it was some of the most fun I've had during this entire trip. We said goodbye, despite my wishes that they could stay and they were off to Chandigar and I to my first crystal healing class (please ignore the new age connotations).

The class was interesting and I loved my teacher Usha. She was just so darn shiny. But I spent the rest of the day gutted that the boys were gone, especially cause Karan and I had a nice little junior high school relationship of holding hands and making eyes. Absolutely exhausted because I had not really slept for three nights, I was getting ready for bed when there was a knock on my door. It was Karan. There had been a landslide on the road and they waited and waited but eventually just decided to come back. I was very happy and we all had another night of hanging out, giggling and getting to know each other.

I didn't have much time to hang out the next morning because I had a 4 hour meditation course to go to, so I said another goodbye this time with a promise to come to their city and visit them on my way back to Delhi. Gutted again, because Karan wouldn't be there and he had been so sweet, giving me gifts and writing me cute little notes, but still excited about seeing my other new friends and getting to have a more genuine Indian experience.

Class was weird. Lots of jumping around and screaming, laughing and dancing as meditation (its called Osho to be specific) and finally when I went back to my room, guess who was still there: the whole Punjabi gang. Apparently, my guesthouse owner was not so happy to find 4 Indian guys in my tiny room that was only supposed to be for one. He had threatened to call the police and forced them to stay till I returned to sort things out. It was interesting because as weird as the mediation course had been, I had made some interesting connections in the class about maintaining serenity and openness while in direct conflict, you know trying to respond to anger with love and all that hype. And there it was, a perfect opportunity to give it a go. My guesthouse owner was nothing but anger, he wanted a fight and there was no part of me that was willing to give it to him. He yelled and I apologized, just trying to listen, he got frustrated and I got calm. Like water off a duck's back, I was in my zen. So in the end, I decided to leave because I didn't need to stay somewhere where I wasn't;t welcome, but I bought him a gift to make sure that the communication was done with kindness. The boys were finally allowed to leave and the police were not involved. So I said goodbye to them again because I had to run off to my crystals class. I was so impressed by how helpful and understanding and kind my new friends were and even more sad to say goodbye.

When I returned to the guesthouse that night to move my stuff I found a very apologetic guesthouse owner who had been very touched by my present, (perhaps a little too touched because I have had to turn down his advances and invitations to dinner ever since) but still there was no anger left, so I decided to stay.

Since then there have been more classes with new friends, Hannah from England and Marcelle and Daniella from Australia. Old friends from Rishikesh showed up and introduced me to more new friends and I;ve just been hopping from reiki class to crystals to the dalai lama teachings to just spending time with good people. There have also been some dramas that I've been watching play out among me and other people I've been traveling with, but mostly I"ve just been watching them instead of jumping in, as per usual.

Daniella read my palm over dinner one night and told me a lot of the same stuff that the astrologer said. My palms talked about this rite of passage that I know I've been going through over the past 5 months. I'm still full on in it, not sure how to respond to the world, because my old ways don't ring true anymore and my new ways are still in the making. Most of you know I'm not a terribly passive person, but lately it seems most of what I do is watch. To watch what others do, to watch how I respond, to suss out where those responses come from and whether or not they are necessary, way before I even act out because of them. Needless to say, I've been learning a lot. This trip may have been the best decision I have made of yet and its wonderfully far from finished.

much love to you all,

I wish you could see the snow capped Himalayas from where you are sitting,

Maya