B is for Babji and D is for Diwali in Dwarhut

My most recent adventure occurred at Dwarahut. Actually, I wouldn't call it an adventure. Adventure is the wrong word. I would call it a peaceful experience. Yes, that suits Dwarahut much better. The only time it wasn't peaceful there was when we were lighting fireworks for Diwali. That was far from peaceful, but I'll talk about that later. Right now I would like to start at the beginning of this story, which starts at 5:30 AM on a train platform in Kathgodam. Yep it was early and I was tired. I was ready to just lay down and fall asleep right there in the train station, but I couldn't because we had to get into a car and drive up to Dwarahut. So instead of falling asleep in the train station, I fell asleep in the car. My sleep was quite short, though. I think that it only lasted around thirty minutes because the car got a flat tire right after we began. So, at that point, we were told to get out of the car and wait for our driver to change the tire. Unfortunately, when our driver was ready to put the spare on he realized that it was also flat so we had to wait around for another driver to show up. This took another thirty minutes, but whatever, stuff like this is expected to happen in India. I mean, what type of cultural experience would you have if stuff like this didn't happen. Ok, moving on. We got into the car and I promptly fell asleep again. When I awoke we were in Ranikhet and we had lunch. Nothing special happened there so I'm just going to skip ahead to getting back in the car again. As you can probably guess, I fell asleep in the car once again and I didn't wake up until we were in Dwarahut. Now Dwarahut is just a small hill station. There isn't much there and most people wouldn't go there if they came to India. For us though, the place was a must. It has a very nice YSS ashram and it is also the closest town to Babaji's cave. So I awoke in the car and we were practically right in front of the YSS ashram there. As it so happens, on the day we arrived there was a five hour meditation scheduled for that evening. Now, let me remind you, I was running on very little sleep at that time so a five hour meditation was one of the last things I wanted to do. But, surprisingly, with a little help from some masala chai I was able to make it through the whole meditation. I think this miraculous meditation also had something to do with the vibrations at the ashram itself. That place was hopping. I don't think I could have stayed awake anywhere else. So, after the meditation the ashram served us a light dinner. Then we went to sleep. It had been a long day and also a long meditation.

The following day we were scheduled to go to Babaji's cave. Now for all of you who do not know the significance of this cave, let me give you the quick one sentence rundown. This cave is where Mahavatar Babaji first appeared to Lahiri Mahasaya and gave him diksa. (That may not have answered all of your questions, but at least you have some background, right)? We started out for the cave right after breakfast. For the first leg of the journey we traveled by car. It was a nice ride, a little bit windy, but overall quite nice. The hills are mainly covered in pines and terraced farmland. Quite the sight, if I have to say so myself. After a while though, we had to get out of the car and walk because there wasn't a road up to the cave. This was the second leg of the journey and I found it quite refreshing. The hike was very scenic and we even crossed the river (it looked more like a stream to me) taht Babaji instructed Lahiri Mahasaya to lay beside in order to cleanse himself. After around an hour of walking we reached the mandir that YSS built right below the cave. For a temple in the hills it was rather large and spacious and on the wall in the front of the temple there was a gigantic picture of Babaji. The cave was around a two minutes away from the mandir and we went up there one by one. While I was waiting for my turn in the cave, I got to chant and play the harmonium for quite a while. It was very nice. After around an hour in the temple it was my turn to go up to the cave. Our guide gave me an hour there and for the first half I was able to meditate with my mom. It was an excellent place to meditate, even though I have trouble sitting cross-legged on stone floors. After an hour, the next person came up to meditate so I had to leave the cave. Once that person was finished in the cave we headed back to the ashram. But, before we got back to the ashram, we stopped off at Joshi's Tea House and had some chai and Maggi noodles. I would suggest everyone to stop off at Joshi's Tea House after Babaji's cave if they have the chance. After the chai and noodles we hopped in the car and headed back to the ashram, just in time for the evening meditation. I know that some of you are thinking, "How much meditation do you do at Dwarahut?" Well I think I can answer that question for you, not enough. Even though it seems like you fill your day with short meditations, long meditations, and a lot of silence, it is not enough. Something about that place just makes you want to stop, sit down, close your eyes and go within. Normally, I wouldn't be as comfortable with putting in so much meditation in one day, but Dwarahut kind of pulls your spiritual side out of you and makes you meditate. So following the evening meditation, we had a light dinner and then went to sleep. That was the end of day two at Dwarahut.

Day three at Dwarahut was very special because it just happened to be Diwali. I'm not goign to explain the history behind Diwali for all of you because I will probably get some facts mixed up about it, so just wiki it if you're really curious. However, I will tell you that it is important enough to the Indian people that Barack Obama felt inclined to celebrate it as well. During Diwali, people normally light candles and put put up light around their house. It is a festival of light. Well there is one more thing that people do, they light a lot of fireworks (when I say a lot, I mean a lot). At the ashram we were invited to help place the candles everywhere. It was a fun task. After our little task I took a look at all the candles we placed and I realized that we placed a whole lot of them. I'm pretty sure that the United States would have some law against doing this due to fire hazard or something. Thankfully India had no such law because the candle lit ashram looked absolutely magical. There is something unique about candles and having a lot of them placed around and on top of a building is a very special special. Diwali is a special time in India and it is a very beautiful time. Following the candle lighting, we were invited to the school yard next to the ashram in order to light fireworks. We lit sparklers, bottle rockets, whirly-firework-things, bombs, and we even had a few of the actual fireworks. I think the whole process of lighting fireworks took an hour or so. Among the people lighting fireworks was one YSS Bramachari. I have never seen a Bramachari have so much fun lighting fireworks before. (Actually, I've never seen a Bramachari light fireworks before in my life so this was probably the reason for my previous statement). In any case, our firework lighting ended with a bang (haha, with a bang). It was a sad time. I mean, who wants to ever stop lighting fireworks. They're so entertaining and you never get to use them in the States. After fireworks we had dinner again (yes, yes I know you probably don't need to know that I ate dinner, but humor me) and then went to sleep. This was the end of day three at Dwarahut. I would give you another paragraph about day four at Dwarahut, but it just involved meditations, silence, and a drive down the same road we came up. One thing I can tell you it that I stayed awake during our drive down the mountain and I can tell you it was very scenic. It was not quite as nice as Badrinath, but I'm don't think anything can match that drive. So, with that, I think I will end this post. The only other thing I could say is that we had dinner once again, this time it was at a South Indian restaurant, and that we boarded a train headed for Delhi. Yep, that ends it. My experience at Dwarahut was done. So, until next time, this is Max saying goodbye.

In Search of the Mythical Curd: A Short Anecdote about Food

Many of the people I'm traveling with are lightweights when it comes to spiciness. Therefore, when they eat Indian food they like to eat it with lots of curd (Indian yogurt). Actually, that's not true, they just like to eat lots of curd whether or not it's with Indian food. Me, I'm not that much of a fan. It's normally too sour for me and I don't like the consistency that much. However, like all things, there are exceptions and I during my travels I actually happened upon an exceptionally good curd. I like to call this curd the mythical curd because it trumps all other curd by a long shot. Now I don't want to spoil anyone's love for curd so I won't tell you what it tastes like, just know that it was excellent. Unfortunately for me, it was also the first curd that I tried and I think it ruined me. It may actually be the reason I don't like any other curd. None other can compare. Sometimes I think that it's too bad that I had to experience such a thing. Curd, even yogurt, will never taste the same again.

The Colonel and his Guru's Lotus Feet

In Agra we were privelged to meet a group of devotees. We went to their Sunday service, which began at 7:00 AM and ended at 9:00 AM. It was the earliest Sunday service that I ever went to. When we arrived the YSS devotees were very excited to see us, much like the Amritsar devotees were. The leader of the group, the Colonel, went ahead and greeted all of us. He was a very nice, strong-willed man. After greeting us he invited us to join them for Sunday service, which we did since that was the main purpose of coming in the first place. The service began with EE's and a meditation. Following the meditation, the Colonel formally introduced us to the other Agra devotees. This introduction involved calling us up to the altar in the front of the room and bow to our gurus. (This is common in India and occurs at almost any temple you visit). After we bowed down, he gave us a handful of flower petals. Now I thought the flower petals were something he was giving me, a gift you might say, and I was about to thank him for them when he said, "Now place them at our Guru's lotus feet." So I placed them on a little figurine that had a picture of our Guru and two very small feet. On this figurine there was a few words that said "Guru's lotus feet" or something very close to that. This experience was one of those moments that really catch you by surprise. I think it was just the way the Colonel commanded me to put the flowers at my Guru's lotus feet. One of my travellng companions kept repeating him later, I think she found it quite hilarious. So after giving the flower petals I stood up and was then given a mala (the Colonel later instructed us to keep it under our pillows for twenty-four hours, I don't know why) and a specially made Agra YSS center picture of our Guru. Well there you go, that was the introduction. He also gave a little background on where we came from, how old we were, how long we had been in SRF/YSS, and also told everyone our name. Now for most of the people in the party this is where the inroduction stopped and they were allowed to take their seats. However, when the Colonel heard I had been a member of SRF/YSS since I was born, he decided that I should say a few words to everyone in the congregation. So I stopped, collected my thoughts (not that I really had any), stood there for around thirty seconds, then literally said a few words, and promptly took my seat. I can't say I enjoyed that experience. After our introductions, the service continued with a short reading which was folloed by another meditation. It was all very nice. After the service ended we were introduced one by one to everyone who was at the service. Then we were invited into the Colonel's house to have tea. The tea was good and the Colonel and his wife were very hospitable. The only strange thing about this whole occasion was that the Colonel and his wife insisted on standing up next to the table while we drank our tea. They wouldn't take anything. All they did was watch us. They also made some conversation, but I really didn't understand this custom. We ate, they watched. I'm sure it was just their way of being polite, but it still just boggles my mind. It may be one of those things I never actually understand. It took us a while to finish our tea and as soon as we were done we left the Colonel's house in order to explore a little more of Agra.

Just now, while I was looking back on my post, I realized I forgot to mention that we were invited to have dinner later with the Colonel and another well-to-do Agra devotee, the Doctor. Dinner was nice. I got to know the Colonel and the Doctor better. I think I'll leave it at that. This post has been long enough and if any of you want to know the details of dinner you can ask. I can't say it was anywhere as memorable as the Sunday service though.

Well, that ends this post and concludes my experiences in Agra. Hope all is going well.

A Tale of Two Coolies

This tale begins after a train ride from Amritsar to Delhi. We arrived at Delhi and promptly had our bags unloaded by two coolies. One was old and one was young. After getting off the train we went on to argue about the price of carrying our bags to our car. Coolies are mandated by law to follow a fixed price for carrying luggage, but most of them don't follow it and just make their own price. So after much debate we finally settled on the price of Rs. 250. They went ahead and carried our bags to our car and then demanded a different price because they wouldn't take the 50 rupee note. Well lets just say that they ended up with Rs. 200 instead of Rs. 250 because if it. It was the first time, and will probably be the only time, that I see Coolies refuse money for their services.

The Taj Mahal, the Red Fort, and More

Our latest journey has been to the city of Agra. Agra is home to the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort, and a very interesting group of YSS devotees. This trip was mainly for tourism purposes. We wanted to see the Taj, which was Shah Jahan's gift for his dead wife. We had a new driver for this leg of our journey, his name was Mukesh. He was very nice, a smooth talker, and spoke English very well. Before we visited Agra, we stopped off at Mathura and Brindaban. These cities are suppose to be pretty holy, especially Brindaban. Brindaban is where Krishna was supposedly born. However, all the mythology and religious tradition aside, I found both of these cities kind of nasty. They felt unsafe and cluttered. In Mathura we visited Keshabananda's ashram. It was a very nice place and I enjoyed visiting it. This is the same Keshabananda I wrote about in a previous post. He had a couple ashrams and he also has a small following. We arrived at the ashram after dark so I didn't get a great look at it. All I can tell you it that it has large black pillars (just like the AY shows) and it also has a life-size figure of Keshabananda. The Indian people seem to build a lot of statues of both gods and saints. I actually find it quite nice that they spend so much time caring for their religion. In any case, we spent some time at the ashram, had a short meditation, and then headed out to the hotel we were staying at. The rest of the night was pretty uneventful, except for this one strange dish I ordered at a restaurant. I ordered Navratan Korma and it came decorated with a lot of different fruits. I've had the dish before, but this looked suspect and I'm pretty sure it was indeed a little more then my stomach could handle. I had to take a little bit of Imodium the next day. From that day on I have decided to stay away from Navratan Korma. Ok, moving on...

The next day we headed to Krishna's birthplace in Brindaban. This was actually a pretty nice place. It had a beautiful temple that was newly constructed along with this cell-like room where Krishna was "born." The reason I put the word born in quotations is because there is a mosque that is built over the place where Krishna was actually born. So this cell-like room was actually the place near to where Krishna was born. Even though it wasn't the exact location of Krishna's birth the little room was still a nice place and we all sat down for a short meditation. After the meditation we left Brindaban and headed off to Agra where we would spend the next three nights. Agra was a pretty large city and it wasn't as bad as my friends told me it would be. I didn't see any more poverty there than I had seen in the rest of India. Over all, it didn't seem like a bad place and I was looking forward to seeing that Taj.

We were able to see the Taj on the day after we arrived in Agra. A guide took us there and began overloading us about information about the Taj and Shah Jahan. After around five minutes I decided to stop listening and just looked around as he educated everyone else in our party. The Taj Mahal is a very beautiful building and there is a reason why so many people come and visit it. It is amazing that the Taj survived the British. They destroyed pretty much everything else, but couldn't destroy the Taj. Kind of crazy if you ask me. The guide had his explanations for why this occurred (e.g. the glue holding the precious and semi-precious stones in the wall was so strong that you couldn't get the stones out without breaking them), but there had to be other reasons as well. At least, that is what I believe. So I would describe the Taj Mahal to you, but I think everyone knows basically what it looks like and why it was built. Therefore, I will just say one thing, it is a great architectural feat and you should try to go see it if you are ever in India.

Alright, so we saw the Taj and then we moved on to the Red Fort where Shah Jahan was put under house arrest by his son. There is a lot of history at this fort. It housed Babur, Akbar, Shah Jahan, and more. I found the fort to be old. I mean it is an old place, but there was this feeling of fatigue that overwhelmed the place. It was a feeling that was absent from the Taj. Now, mind you, this feeling may have just been me projecting my fatigue onto an old building. I was pretty tired and my assessment may not be the greatest. So if you visit the fort you may not have the same opinion. The highlight of the fort for me was this black stone slab where the Shah sat. It was pretty cool. We also took a meditation in a women's mosque. This was another nice meditation and I enjoyed myself. After the meditation we left the Red Fort and went to a place where they showed us how the gems were shape and the marble was carved for the Taj Mahal. It was a neat demonstration, but it was followed by the shop owners trying to sell us some stuff. I never like how people tend to tell you half-truths in India. Our guide had told us it was a place where we could see a demonstration of how the stones were put in the Taj. He did not tell us that it was also a shop where we would be pestered until we bought something. I think this was one of those places that guides take you in order to get a kick back. There was one more place we visited like this while in Agra. Our driver told us it was a museum. Well this museum turned out to be a larger Kohinoor Jeweler shop. Now don't get me wrong, there were amazing works of art in this shop and some amazing pieces of jewelry. In fact, I don't know how they got a hold of some of this stuff. I mean some of the things there were absolutely exquisite. I will even add to my commentary that this place is another one of the sites you should see in Agra. Just be sure not to buy anything there, it is all overpriced and seems to be only for those with a lot of money. Hmm, well it seems that I have reached a point where I should end this post. I have some more to say about Agra, but I'll leave that for another post. Hope all of you are doing well. Bye.

The Golden Temple, Served with an Excess of Hospitality

I have been wanting to write this post for quite a while. It involves the Amritsar YSS devotees and their overwhelming hospitality. It was my first true taste of India hospitality and involves the realization that it is sometimes over the top.

So let me begin this story from the point that we met the YSS devotees. The drive there was inconsequential and nothing interesting really happened before we met the devotees. However, when we did finally meet them, things just kept get more and more interesting. They met us outside the Golden Temple at Amritsar. (For all of you who don't know the Golden Temple is a very holy pilgrimage site for Sikhs). The first thing they do is introduce themselves and then buy us all Fantas. It was a nice gesture and the Fantas were quite refreshing. After we finished the Fantas we talked for a while longer and then headed into the Golden Temple grounds. In order to enter the temple we had to removed our socks and shows and then walk through a small pool of water. The temple grounds themselves were very beautiful. In the middle of the marble structure was a large pool of water. And in the middle of the pool of water was the golden temple. The Golden Temple was magnificent. As the name describes, it was covered in gold. We were still pretty far away from the entrance to the temple so the devotees slowly walked us around and talked to us. While we were walking the devotees had us go to the pool of water and put our hands in it to scoop out the water We then proceeded to "drink" it and then put a little bit on our heads. After our interaction with the holy water they proceeded to take us around the temple grounds where we once again were offered to drink some of the water. This time it was served to us in little bowls though. Each of us had to decline the offer because we didn't want to end up with a bad case of dysentery later. So from the second offer of holy water we kept moving. Ever so slowly we ended up in line for the Golden Temple. Now in order to be in line you had to have diksah, in this case it was halwa, for your entire group. When you got up to the entrance of the temple you gave the halwa to someone and then proceeded to enter. The inside of the temple was more magnificent than the outside. You will have to go there if you want to know what it looks like. I can't give a proper description and I feel that it would not live up to the actual beauty found in this temple. To tell the truth, any place of pilgrimage is indescribable in a way. There is more there than just what your eyes see and just describing the sights you see tarnish the actual image it portrays. Just go to one of these holy spots and you will understand. After seeing the inside of the Golden Temple we were given halwa (which was now blessed halwa) and proceeded towards the exit. However, before we could leave the devotees offered us one more bowl of holy water and we had to decline one more time. As much as I wanted to be gracious and accept their offer, I just couldn't get past the knowledge of what would happen later if I drank that water. It would have been especially bad because I was catching a train later (you can put it together). Once we exited, we headed off to a restaurant for lunch. Nothing out of the ordinary happened here, except that I got to ride on the back of a moto in India traffic (another awesome experience that you must have). Well, never mind that, I did experience something that I deemed unusual. Apparently, the young girl who was among our devotee escort would not talk to me directly. She kept saying stuff and then the men would tell me what she said. Quite strange if you ask me. Ok, that ends my commentary on lunch. Now we headed towards one of the devotee's homes for a little get together and a meditation. This is where that excess of hospitality really begins.

An Excess of Hospitality: For all of you who skipped to this point, I am somewhat disappointed. You can make it through the whole post, I believe in you. Alright, now back to my story. I left off where we were heading to one of the devotee's homes. So we arrived without anything out of the ordinary happening, it was just a short auto-rickshaw ride away. The house we arrived at was rather small, but the feeling there was very sweet. It was one of Guruji's places. Myself and my two companions go inside pranam to the people in there and then take a seat. After we are seated, a man comes in a puts a mala on each one of us. A mala is just a garland of flowers. This is already too much for me. I just another guy who came to visit India. I don't deserve a mala from anyone, especially brother disciples. So after getting the malas we begin talking and learn a little bit more about the devotees. As it turns out, one of the devotees had had ear surgery that morning because it was the only way he could get time off work to see us. Let me repeat that he had ear surgery and then rushed out of the hospital in order to meet us. How crazy is that. I felt completely undeserving of everything they were doing for us. Then, after we talked a bit we had a short meditation. They brought a harmonium for us to chant on but it didn't work. This was ironic because they had raved about how well Amritsar is known for its harmoniums. The meditation was nice and after we ended it they brought us sweets and drinks. The drinks they brought us looked like they contained water so we promptly declined them. The girl who had made them (the same one who wouldn't talk to me directly) looked hurt, but she went ahead and took the drinks away. Then she quickly came back with some different drinks of the same sort and once again offered the to us. Once again we had to decline and once again she had that hurt look on her face. We finally settled on letting them give us tea. However even this was a stretch because we wanted to leave in order to catch our train to Dehli. So I drank my tea as quickly as a I could and ate the sweets just as quickly. Then signalled my companions to leave. It took them a few minutes longer, but they finished their tea and graciously asked permission to leave, which was given to us only after the Amritsar devotees told us they wished we could stay a week. So we got up to leave and were surprised with a man giving each of us a bouquet of flowers. I couldn't believe it. They gave us all a mala, bought us lunch, gave us sweets, made us chai, and bought us a bouquet of flowers because we showed up in Amritsar, contacted them, and then accepted their invitation to give us a tour of the Golden Temple. It was incredible. This was true hospitality and I felt totally undeserving. Then, to top it all off, on man gave each of us incense (this man is currently unemployed) and another gave us chocolates. By the way, never buy Indian chocolate. It tastes like a sweet meat trying its hardest to be chocolate and ultimately failing to be either a sweet meat or chocolate. It was nasty, but a nice thought by the devotee. Yep, this was an excess of hospitality that did not end until they escorted us to our train and made sure we were situated in our seats ready to leave. I didn't know if I could take something like that again. It was just too much for me. The only thing that kind of helped me get over their generosity was one of my companions telling me that they were doing it for the Guru and that we should take it that way. Everything they did was not necessarily for us, it was just their way of giving something to our Guru and showing their appreciation. It still felt strange to me, but whatever, it was for the Guru. Well I think that ends my trip to Amritsar. I hope it was entertaining and that you all enjoyed it.

Oh, wait a sec... I forgot one thing. While on the train I ended up talking to an older Sikh gentleman and his wife. They were very nice. Alright, this is really the end of this post. Max out.

Butter Tea with Momos and More

This post is about the places we went to on the second part of our north leg journey. During this part of our journey we made a stop at Chandigarh, Dharamsala, and Amritsar. Each portion of the journey was unique and each drive in between each city was frightening. So I will begin telling all of you about Chandigarh.

Chandigarh (I can't think of a witty title for this one): Chandigarh is not your usual Indian city. It is clean and looks very western. We stayed there for one night. Upon our arrival to the hotel we were surprised to be treated with exceptionally nice service. As it turns out, one of the YSS devotees that was expecting us had called the hotel five times to see if we had arrived because we were so late. She is married to the former chief of police for the state of Punjab and let us just say that they respect former chiefs of police.
The next day we went to the Chandigarh YSS center for Sunday service. The service was different than an SRF service, but it was still enjoyable. The devotees were very sweet and I could tell that they loved the Guru a lot. After the service they took us around the temple grounds and showed us their school. It was pretty sweet, I especially liked the playground the children had. Once we had finished our tour of the temple we went to one of the devotee's house for lunch (it was the same women who had checked on us at the hotel). This was my first glimpse of Indian hospitality. It was nothing too bad, we were just served drinks and food. In fact it was rather nice. I was not very talkative, but nonetheless, I tried my best to be a good guest. After an hour or so we left our new found friends (well new found for me at least) and headed off to Dharamsala.


The next part of my post is the part that includes my experience with butter tea and momos. Now, it is not the most memorable part of my time at Dharamsala, far from it, but I thought that it would be a fun title.


Butter Tea and Momos: The road to Dharamsala was eventful. During the trip we ended up on a one lane road that was supporting bidirectional traffic. It was a bit stressful, but we made it through ok. I think I will never worry about Indian driving again after that journey. After our seven hour trip we arrived at our hotel. All of us were tired and ready to go to sleep. It had been a long journey and things hadn't played out exactly as expected during this leg of the journey. Well, as it turns out, the hotel was another one of those things that didn't play out quite as we expected. When we arrived at the hotel we were greeted by a whopping ninety step staircase. Now this did not bother me, but one my traveling companions is a bit older and she does not like climbing stairs. In fact, she is the only reason I know that we climbed 90 steps. Her disdain for them led her to count them. After the steps we were led to our rooms. I didn't think they were too bad, but apparently they were according to my friends. They were actually bad enough for us to consider switching hotels, but we later decided against that. So after this eventful day and night we finally did get to sleep and awoke refreshed for a fun and exciting day in Dharamsala.
We began our tour through Dharamsala with a glimpse of the mountains nearby. On our way to the lookout point we happened upon an accident that had occurred the night before. The accident was in the middle of the road we were traveling on so we had to wait for it to be cleared. I must say that the Indian people have a very interesting way of clearing an accident when it is in a small town. It seems to involve 20-30 men, all of whom were taxi drivers, who were trying to lift the vehicle into the back of a jeep. For the time I was there, it took around 15-20f minutes of discussing and 5 minutes of lifting to get this taxi into the car. I, personally, found it quite entertaining. Once the men had lifted the vehicle into the back of the jeep, which was actually too short to fit the entire vehicls, they went ahead and "secured" it with a couple of pieces of rope. We had to drive behind this poorly secured vehicle in order to get to the look out point. Let me just say that I was relieved to find that it was a short drive. The view that we received at the lookout point was actually a little less than a glimpse because the fog had rolled in just as we got there. We couldn't see the Himalayas, but I was fine by that because I didn't come to Dharamsala to see the Himalayas. I had already seen them at Badrinath. After our short glimpse at the fog shrouded mountains we headed off to McLeodGanj, which is where the Tibetan monks stay in exile. While we were there we saw quite a few monks and nuns walking around the city it was a sight. During out visit to McLeodGanj we saw the Tibetan temple and the Tibetan library. At the temple we say a few monks having the debate. I don't exactly know what that is, but I do know it involves a slapping of the hands together. Then we walked inside the temple and got to see all the statues they had and the tankas for their deities and the different Buddhas. It was interesting, but also some what foreign feeling. I didn't know what to think about the gigantic statues and paintings they had made for their gods. To tell the truth, the Tibetan temple didn't really stike my fancy too much. I felt no connection. Even when I turned the prayer wheels that' were filled with the mantra "Om mani padme hum" I didn't really feel anything. So I left the temple with more of a feeling of wonder before all those gigantic statues. After the temple we went to the library. The library was spectacular. They had all these old writings on tomes, palm leaves, and other documents stored in a room. It was amazing that they collected and kept safe all these writings for so long. For some reason this connected with me and I left the library feeling uplifted. We went to a museum after the library and were able to see smaller figures of all the different Buddhas and other deities. It was rather interesting, however I didn't really know how to process it. Following the library and the museum I was feeling rather joyous and this is when we stopped to get some butter tea and momos. For all of you who don't know what butter tea is let me explain it a bit. Butter tea involves the mixing of boiled water with butter to the point where they are pretty much homogenized. It sounds pretty disgusting, but it also peaked my interest and I decided I needed to try some while I could. So we sat down in a restaurant and ordered to butter tea. It came in a very large mug, the largest I've seen in India, and looked nasty. In fact, it was pretty nasty. It was watery and buttery at the same time. It seemed that a little sugar helped make it taste better, while a little sugar and a little salt helped it taste a lot better. In any case it was an experience. Not as nice as the library, but an experience nonetheless. That pretty much ended my trip at Dharamsala. After the butter tea and momos we headed back to the hotel, had a group meditation, and went to sleep. The next day we had to wake up early and head to Amritsar.

Well it looks like I wrote a lot again. I think I'm going to leave my tales about Amritsar and Agra for another time. Max out.