Halftime

I have been thinking what might be exciting enough to share, but its not much I can come up with. Every day is really almost the same, the only thing that is changing daily is the base-ingredient for the curries. :)

Apart from that, well... I am no longer falling asleep during classes and became almost 100% certain that meditation is just not the way for me. It went really well for the first week, but then my mind became so pre-occupied with stuff, that it seems I need more than this month to develop a meditation routine, where I manage to spend more than 10 minutes without having the greatest or worst ideas screaming through my head, making me dizzy. But its all good. I got some great tips from the teachers here on asana sequences and "tricks" on some poses, which already worth this whole trip.

Of course there is more than that to it. I met some incredible people; apart from the initial 5 of guests; a group of 4 from Ecuador who I really hope to visit next year - Gustavo led the best class I have had here so far -, the teachers and students of the ashram - together make this place amazing. The daily 2 yoga sessions along with the healthy diet and overall peace of mind resulted in me losing a few kilos (not that it was planned or wanted, but its allright I guess.. ;)) and got me back in a reasonably good shape, somewhere where I was during summer last year. I am sure it will be all past tense after the first 3 weeks back in Europe.

I still haven't figured anything new about life but it has never been part of the plans. The rather simple life with hardly any conversations (apart from the mails) helped to put some long-overdue feelings to rest and clear up some new ones, which is a great result on its own. And in 2 days I will be in the Himalayas and I guess that will be life-changing on its own too.

I never made it to the kitchen so there will hardly be any recipes for those of you at home; the kitchen and main chef - though latter seems to be a kind man - are not convincing enough for me to have a closer look at food-preparation, and I rather not find out what have I been eating for the past 2 weeks... :)

DHL just managed to deliver my netbook after over 2 weeks - and they made me pay 70 EUR as income duty - about which neither me nor Allan, who sent it over, was informed of in advance. Take my advise and use Fedex or UPS instead, I promise you its only trouble with DHL!

Rishikesh in practice

I thought to share some practical bits which i found/would have found useful for the trip-preparation.

Keeping in mind that I am only here for a month (October) and I will spend most of my time in the ashram, it will be very specific info – but you know, if only one person finds it useful.......

Money matters – I would not worry about exchanging money before flying in, get cash out at the first ATM, right at the airport and save the commission fee. There are indeed quite a few ATMs available around here in town too, only challenge is, that they many times are out of money. I was going to come to Rishikesh by taxi straight away and knew that it costs 2600 INR, so 3500 kept me going for quite a while. The first breakfast cost me 55 INR, which is about 1 EUR, in general a meal starts (in touristy Rishikesh) at about a 100 INR (curry, naan and drink). A t-shirt or a pair of easy trousers for yoga practice or running around are about 100-150 INR each, if i was to come again i wouldnt bring any of these with me; what you get here is the same you get in a shopping mall at home, its just the price that is missing a 0 from the end...

Weather – October at the bottom of the Himalayas is the best month weather-wise, they say. When I arrived to Delhi, it was midnight, humid (though not as bad as KL for instance) and 28C. The morning was pretty much the same, maybe a little cooler, around 24-25C. In Rishikesh the humidity is a little less, days are – towards the middle of the month still – hot, around 30C with rather strong sunshine (every day I wish I was in another country for an hour and could put my bikini on), the evenings are perfect temperature, around 22C lets say, but the mornings are getting a bit cooler. At the beginning of the month it was like the eve, but now, 2 weeks later, i have 2 longsleeves on when i get up in the morning – keep in mind thats 5am though! In the ashram they have airconditioning and ventillators too everywhere – how convenient; but you should not forget that the electricity is sometimes off for half a day when some light clothes come really handy. During the past 2 weeks it rained once for about half an hour, but that was it. I have heard that in the mountains it already goes below 0 – I tell you more when I am back from the track next week (HA!) :)

Clothes - considering the weather and the prices, apart from underware and a pair of flipflops, I wouldnt bring anything else with me. I am already sorry that I cant stuff my bag with all the beautiful clothes they are selling here. On the other hand I am glad I bought winter clothes for the hike and the going back to ice-land, I dont think I would be happy having to look for a rainproof jacket or a good pair of hikingboots here.

Cosmetics and co – well, i appreciate my own toothbrush and floss but the rest was really not necessary to be carried all the way. Shampoo, conditioner, a few tiny bags of washing powder and soap, toothpaste cost about 50 INR – so, I felt like an idiot carrying that all across from home.

Mosquitos – yes there are some but nothing more than in the city in Budapest for instance. Malaria is not a problem around here, people I talked to, who’d lived here for many years said they never had or heard of any issues so far. Mosquito repellent – buy it here, cheaper and works wonders with the local mozzies.

Food – something everyone seems to be so concerned about, but to be honest I still dont understand why. The rule everyone should keep in mind: eat simple food, and not too much of anything thats new, and you will be okay! Now, of course I was the first one breaking this and stuffed my face the first time I was downtown with a whole plate of some verysalty and yuck looking curry, buttermilk, and a curdy dessert – I would never go for either of these at home! – and of course I spent the next few days drawing circles around my loo in misery. Forget the palinka dear Hungarian friends, at least dont bring it for the sake of better digestion. Just be smart! Fruits and veggies you find everywhere, even restaurants/cafes serve fresh fruit salads with papaya, pineapple, banana, apple, grains and the optional curd of course. You can easily live on that and naan/rice for a few weeks, trust me on that. In the ashram there is one thing missing very much from the meals, the variety of fresh fruits and veggies. The fresh part of the story is a banana in the morning (no, not red...) salad of cucumber, radish and a slice of tomato for lunch, and in the evening its an apple. The curry – I just figured, almost always tastes the same; when I saw a few days ago that lunch was cucumber curry – I was horrified – but after tasting it, it really wasnt any different from the meal we had the day before. :D and yes I had to admit, when I saw boiled potatoes 2 days ago, I waited an hour until everyone finished and used all the tricks it took to get some.

Accommodation – not much experience there as I am staying in the ashram (which is honestly paradise on its own), but, if you want to come to this part of India to do yoga or spend a few days wondering around; there are hundreds of ashrams here, all categories and prices, and it takes about 2 seconds to find accommodation around Ramjhula and Laxmanjhula, the nicer parts of the area (I wouldnt recommend the Rishikesh market area, it doesnt seem to be anything appealing to me – for accomodation, that is).

Internet and phones – there is internet cafes around, and though the connection is not the fastest at most places, it doesnt take much to find a place where you can write an email or two. At smaller shops the challenge is, that the computers are so old that for instance skype doesnt run on them, or it takes an hour to boot, but hey, dont expect the best service ever. The other challenge is when the power is out, it happens daily that it goes, sometimes there is no electricity for hours. Practice patience, thats what i can say. Nevertheless, my vodafone mobile works perfectly, one thing I cant do is start calls (thankfully). On the other hand there are long distance phone boots (STD, hahahahha) on every 3 meters, so phone-issues can be solved pretty easily too.

Transportation – I seriously would recommend to stay in Delhi overnight if you arrive late; the roads are so bad that it is a suicide to drive a long flight anyway. You can also take the train, which they say is perfectly fine provided you buy a 2^nd or 1^st class ticket, no experience there so, cant say yes or no. Local way of going is by riksas, if you share with others (once I did with 12 other passengers + driver + me!!!! J ), and it cost me 10 INR which if i had the riksa on my own would have cost 100. Makes sense, no?

And at last, locals and safety – honestly, I have no idea. Everyone tells me never to go out of the ashram at night – which I wouldnt do anyway; and I have heard of some missing female tourists etc, but, thank god, no bad experience with this. Amazing is the mix of foreigners you find in Ramjhula/Laxmanjhula; the one time when I was downtown, in a little cafe called Office (VERY highly recommended!!!! The guys working there are friendly and smiling, the atmosphere is great and the fruit salads are something to die for, plus they have the best chai in the region too...), there were Americans, Germans, Israelis, me, a Korean girl, Brits, French, an Italian guy, a Japanese, and 3 Russian ladies - go figure. I guess you could spend a lifetime sitting in the same spot talking to the weirdest people you have ever seen. The locals are usually veryfriendly, the only thing I just hate is when young guys, driving riksas are adjusting the rearview mirror and watch you instead of the road, all the way, up the hill, down the hill, around the cow, into the puddle. Aaaaaa! And of course there are the million cows, and begging old fellas (yogis? Not sure in most cases...), I think there must be dozens of them on every squaremeter.

And, AND my friends, the Ganges, is not a running shitflow! It doesnt smell nor look like it, not at this part of India though, at the bottom of the mountains.

So, come to India! It definitely worth the experience – and I havent even seen any of it yet.

Labjegyzetek az India mail-ekhez

...A sokkhatas a szegenyseg miatt volt baromi meglepo, hogy itt ugy elnek gyakorlatilag szarkupacok tetejen emberek, hogy vigyorognak hozza, eleg sokat raadasul.

Itt az ashramban rend van es tisztasag - mar amennyire ez lehetseges - de a varosban peldaul valami fantasztikus a kupleraj. Minden jarmu dudal vagy ha negylabu akkor mekeg/beget/stb, bevett szokas hogy a hasznalt cuccokat - barmi legyen is - csak ugy kiejtik a kezukbol az emberkek. Kepzelheted, ez a 30 fokban eleg erdekes egyveleget eredmenyez.

Itt eszakon mondjuk az a jo, hogy tenyleg kozel a Himalaja az eszmeletlen mennyisegu zoldterulettel, es az a kimondott buz ami mondjuk Kuala Lumpurban van, az itt nem erezheto. De azert van kosz rendesen.

Nem beszelos nap vegulis nem volt, kerdeztem hogy hogy van ez, es azt mondtak hogy hat, semmi sem tokeletes es ittsem mukodik minden ugy ahogy az el van kepzelve.... Probalkoztunk aztan Leah-val egy nap magancsenddel, de a reggeli 10oras eszmecseren olyan gondolatok meg kerdesek merultek fel, hogy nyilvanvalo volt, tobbet er a kerdes a hallgatasnal. :)

Jovo het kedd-pentekre tervezes alatt van a hegymaszas! Az utolso hetre terveztem ezt - valahogy ereztem meg a mult vasarnap esti varosnezes elott hogy meglehetosen bekavar beleszagolni az eletbe az ashramon kivul (sok ember, zaj, kavalkad, minden inger amitol itt el van zarva az ember), de, baromi sokat hultek az ejszakak par nap alatt, meg pont meglesz ket het mulva es 4 nap aram meg folyoviz nelkul annyira nem vicces ugy, ugyhogy maradtunk John-nal (o az ausztral ujbaratom) a jovo hetben. Nagyon jo lesz ez!

Aztan, pont egy hetem lesz meg hogy ismet belecsucsuljek az idill-be meg a contentment/focus/inside - mix-be, aztan irany Delhi, a Taj Mahal mert hogy azt latni kell, aztan meg hazafele. Rohan az ido, meg akkor is ha itt ugy tunik orakig all neha..

Rishikesh

Believe it or not, 220 km took us (me and Sandi Prawat, the driver) 6.5 hours to make. Needless to say I was so exhausted after the nearly 36 hours of travelling, that I looked closer to a zombie than any human being by the time I arrived to the ashram. The two ladies, Silvia and Maryon welcomed me at the reception area of the ashram, where they take care of all the practical stuff like mailing, administration, bookings etc, and have 2 computers with internet access – there you go, try to get away from cyberspace! J

So, to cut this rather short, I got keys to my apartment (which later I had to leave due to a herd of yellow bees that were there earlier than me), and when started walking towards the house I realized how beautiful this place was: the mountains in the back, you can hear the Ganges in the distance, breathtaking gardens with butterflies, flowers and trees and green grass, my new favourite pets the cows – and the 2 calves, Fules and Barni, well fed and beautiful, unlike the ones you see on the side of the roads outside the ashram. A pitch of paradise in the middle of absolute chaos.

Later I learnt that there are approx. 80 residents here, students from all around the globe, some of the Indians are with their families, people from South Korea, UK, the States, Italy, Holland etc. - and the 6 guests: apart from myself, Leah from Israel, John from Australia, Ale from Mexico, Magda from Poland and Master Happy (not kidding, that is his name), a Buddhist monk from Malaysia. J

Due to the bees I ended up sharing a house with Leah, this beautiful Jewish girl with such a deep voice that would make you fall asleep even if you were in the middle of a rave party I think. She is very interested in everything you have to say, has some interesting thoughts on world peace and of course thorough insights on every day life in Israel, and she is particularly funny when it comes to conversations on different nationalities and countries: she admittedly doesn’t have a clue about geography – but she doesn’t need to, she is great!

After the first half a day which I spent in half-coma, I honestly was not quite ready to start the routine on Tuesday morning, at 4.30.. yes, AM! Let me share how a day looks like, and with that I think I won’t have to write a single word for the next 3 weeks. Every day is almost the same, the 2 lectures after breakfast and at 8pm are the ones that are changing daily, today for instance there is a 2 hour self-study which I decided to use to put down the promised mails. Other than this weekly 1 self study day - which is supposedly the silent day but I figured no one is silent - there is not much time during the day to quickly check mails and reply to anything urgent and read the notes I get from you. So, apologies if I don’t reply to all, just keep sending me news from your sides of the oceans.. J

So, 4.30 wake-up bell rings; 5am: morning prayers. This is – sorry to say – but rather a hassle for me, the prayers don’t mean anything to me and as my heart is not there, I just struggle and ask myself in every minute, what exactly am I doing here at 5am in the morning, instead of being in bed, curled up.... Then 5.15 is the first yoga class with Geeta, who sings with a voice I could never describe. If you think of hindi songs you heard, now she is the one singing them. By the class finishes it is around 7am, and the sun is up – the Himalayas in the background, mist over the grounds, crisp clean air, and the one thing you hear is the mantras from the close-by temples. At 7 there is a pranayama (breathing practice) session, then 7.30-8.30 meditation. At 8.30 is breakfast – and let me tell you about the meals. You can help to serve food –which, for some weird reason I really like doing, but the one thing I haven’t managed yet, to get into the kitchen.. It is somewhere between 10 and 30 people having meal, sitting on the ground, in complete silence, the rest of the residents are having their own food in their homes (I guess). Breakfast is toast, for lunch and dinner you get chapati. There is banana for breaky, cucumber-tomato-raddish mix for lunch and an apple for dinner, as dessert. There is always soup, a veggie curry and rice/pasta as the mains, lunch, breakfast, dinner. You can get hot milk (which is close to yoghurt but not quite, not even a lassi so closest to milk) or water, chai in the morning. VERY simple, and VERY tasty!!! You also find clear water dispensers on every 10 meters, so no worries, there is water to drink around, not only the Ganges.

Oh by the way, most confusing of all: the 3.5 hour time difference to Europe.... And the ‘yes’ that in most cases mean a ‘rather not’ and definitely seem to be an ‘absolute no’..

After breakfast you have about an hour to rest, shower, get yourself together – for the first few days I literally fell asleep in every possible 2 minutes, being that the meditation, breathing practice or a yoga-pose on the ground, I was out by the 4^th breath... 10-11.30am is the first lecture, then comes another pranayama session at 12.20, 1pm lunch, 2pm digestive breathing class (which is again a great spot to fall asleep immediately), 2.30-4pm another lecture, 4pm tea time (or internet for me), and then comes the very best part of the day, 4.15 hatha yoga class, finally. The yogis leading these classes are simply brilliant! 5.30pm is guided relaxation (where again I tend to fall asleep), 6.30 pranayama, 7pm dinner, 8pm lecture or special program which the first night was singing – hehe, and the day closes with 9pm prayers. So, loads of food, sleep, meditation and exercises – absolutely no complains at all!

And, my favorite pet just poked his head in through the door. These two are so peaceful, and make me laugh like an idiot every time I see them.

India

India

So, Dhanyawad was the first word I learnt in hindi, from Ranjana, at her apartment in Delhi right after I set foot in India, meaning thank you.

I met Ranjana on the plane right after take-off from Schiphol. She was sitting next to me reading a book on Reiki so there was no doubt we had to have a conversation sooner than later. She was born and raised in India but has been living in Amsterdam for over 22 years with her family: also Indian husband and 2 kids. I heard so many great things about them that I am really looking forward to meet them next time I am in Holland, must be an amazing 4.. well, if they are anywhere close in kindness to the mother, it must be a therapy to spend time around that family.

After the flight-long conversation this angel convinced me not to take off for Rishikesh right after arrival to Delhi at midnight, but wait for the morning instead, to avoid any “problems” that might arise in the middle of the night during the 7 hour ride. She offered me to stay at her apartment in the centre of Delhi, a gated community that was something similar to the apartment I lived in KL. Actually, I had some weird flashbacks feeling the 30C, crazy humidity and pollution, ghekkos running up and down the walls, and with the horns of trucks and cars and rikshas, it seemed to be a louder and dirtier version of Kuala Lumpur. And the first curry, orka with chapati – yumm it was tasty.

A few (3) hours later I was on my way – and the mix of the lack of sleep, the travel-stress and the long journey put my head into a different universe - riding through the outskirts of Delhi it really felt like I was watching Slumdog Millionaire, the live version. The suburb definitely took over the 1^st place from Manila as the poorest spot I have seen so far, super-pollution, gazillion cars, roads so bad that sometimes they just dissolve: when you see a truck coming straight in your lane towards you on a 2x3lane road, you know that there is no pavement on the other side of the fence, for a few hundred meters at least. An hour into the trip, looking towards east I finally saw the sun, so surreal like a dream, the only thing that was good to look at, such a colour that I made my driver stop the car and tried to take a photo. Later when it got light I saw cows hanging out EVERYWHERE, horrible dirt and filth, a dentistry that looked so disgusting that all your teeth probably would have fallen out by the time you made it to the dentist’s chair, stray dogs, fat monkeys, kids in their best (probably only) set of clothes waiting for a ride to school, food stalls on the side of road – metal containers, to be more specific in the middle of piles of rubbish – their owners sweeping round, like it made any difference.

And you could see those wide and honest smiles and a lot of kind faces; love I guess, that keeps everyone going.

:)

Preparations

After project apartment finally reaching its end today, I guess it is really high time I start packing for India, rather sooner than end of next week. Needless to say, its the mental packing that will have to be thoroughly done, the sleepingbag and socks and Teva are easy to be put in a bag. Its the preparation for the change in weather, food, water, physical and mental excercises, the different bed, smells, colors and scariest of all, thoughts are whats going to make these 4 weeks special.

One thing I am certain about: I am on the right way. I decided to go for this trip back in April, and tough my life took so many turns since that would even make a 1000year-old stone castle dizzy, the India plans are still the same, have been all the way through. More and the pics will be online soon.. :)

Cat-ness

My cat-virginity has just been taken...... second puss i ever got along with, is now sleeping in my lap...... HA! Dont you ever even try to tell me that people cant change! :)

News

Its been a while... :)

Since the return to Europe in 2008 - 2 and a half years ago - the journey took a completely different direction than what i ever counted with. I spent 10 months in Holland doing a project for DHL, weekly trips to Belgia, learnt to live life the Dutch way, had some (rather interesting and exciting) experiences like never before, almost died in the middle of it but hey.. whatever doesnt kill you........

Then in March 2009, with a new project paying the bills, i moved back to Budapest, in with Andi, had about a hundred flights within Europe and Asia/Oceania throughout the year - yeeey, finally managed to make my way to NZ!!!! - and, AND, in November i bought the apartment in the middle of Budapest i had been working for! :) I decided that the place where i would like to have the family one day and grow old is Hungary - not that this absolutely stands right now, but people who know me are aware, in my books its not really the place or circumstances that make it HOME..

....i was reading some of the old posts and i have to say, i was very tempted just to delete the whole thing... But then i thought, even if the feelings and thoughts not always relevant today, these bits are all part of the me, bricks of the me, pretty solid ones too. So the archive stays - among my docs.. -; its all part of the current picture in the end.

So, kedves Weisz Peti particularly, let me tell you where i am now in my world, what are the plans and dreams and thoughts; for the English-only speaker friends: posts written in Hungarian = you probably dont want to know or read it anyway.. ;)