How To Stay Warm In Delhi

Delhi India, January 6,2007

This is a story from my recent Journey in India
It's great to have a place to stay here in the Tibetan Settlement. Lonely Planet says wongdhen house is one of the best for the price; 450 rupees ($13 CAD) per night. The only problem is that the temperature here in Delhi is around freezing at night and there are no heaters in this hotel. I'm from Canada so I figure that doesn't matter cause I'm used to the cold right? The difference is that where I'm from, it's only cold outside. If you're cold in my country, you just go inside and warm up. Here in Delhi if you're cold, you just try not to think about it. You don't really appreciate heat until you try living without it. We realize we have to just suck it up and deal with the situation, so Joan Marie, our Buddhist Nun friend, gives us a pomegranate as a welcome gift and we settle into our room. This guesthouse was probably built around 1900 and the plumbing is pretty basic but at least the water in the shower is hot. We have TV. We have a remote control, and we do have a few warm clothes. If it wasn't for the little sleeping bag I got at the last minute before leaving Canada (thanks mom) we would be having a much rougher night tonight. So we put on all our clothes and we huddle under the blankets. Aw sends me a conspiratorial glance and asks the question: "Stevie, how come you never check weather in Day-lee before come?"
Now let me tell you something in my defence, about the video you're about to see; I am very cold at this moment, and there is an Indian program on TV that has dance music on it with a very catchy rhythm. Think of this as an instructional video on how to stay warm in Delhi.

Ayako Comes To Delhi

Delhi, India, January 7, 2007

This story is from my recent Journey in India

We're walking down the narrow street of the Tibetan settlement when we suddenly spot a young Japanese woman, huddled in a blanket, looking from side to side at the store windows around her. I shout "Ayako san!". Her head comes up and we see a beaming smile on her face. Finally we meet again. Some people really know how to get around. I first met Ayako san in Thailand. Then she visited me in Canada. So when I told Ayako I was coming to India she said 'okay Stevie, I go too'. She was in Bangkok and met Aw. Then she flew to Sri Lanka, on to Delhi, up to Nepal and back here to meet with us. Ayako looks pretty good for a woman who has just spent the last seventy-two hours sick as a dog from food poisoning in Varanasi. We go to a Tibetan restaurant and order a celebration dinner. It's a surreal experience for me to have two of my favorite people in the World, from two different countries (Thailand and Japan) in the same place at the same time. I think of Ayako as a daughter and since Aw is my girlfriend, we all laugh as we discussed whether Ayako should call her 'mom'. It's all I can do to keep up with the accents of the two languages. We have a great meal and even meet up with Joanmarie. Now as we eat our feast, we make a plan to fulfill our common dream to see the Taj Mahal.

Amazing Delhi Warzone

Delhi, India, January 5, 2007

This is a story from my recent trip to India

Delhi is the capital of India. This is where we start our trip. I was warned that we would be overwhelmed by the City but I don't really feel that way. Yes, there are many beggars, pushing at us and showing their mutilated body parts like strange puppet shows, to extract money. And urine and feces can be smelled in many parts of the city. And we have to stay constantly alert to thieves, Cons and Schemes. It's a War zone for sure. But then there are the most amazing people and sights all around too. As long as you remember there's a War on; everything is Okay. This is Stephanie. She was sitting on the plane next to us as we flew from Bangkok to Delhi. Stephanie's from Germany but has been traveling in India for several years. She gave us some great tips on how to start our explorations; markets to shop at and some good places to stay in Delhi. She is on her way back to Dharamsala; where the Dalai Lama is living. The woman smiling with the Fed-Ex package is Joanmarie. She's a Buddhist Nun and good friend of my Doll maker friend; Emily, from British Columbia Canada. Emily helped me contact her before leaving Canada and Joanmarie was gracious enough to get us connected in Delhi as we started our travels. She had her debit card stolen and just received her replacement this minute as I take this photo. She's been waiting a tense two weeks for it to arrive. Now with her help, we are getting sorted out so we can get on with the adventure of our first day in India.

My Dalai Lama Prophecy 2

Continued From Dalai Lama Prophecy Part 1

Traveling to Dharamsala is the culmination of a dream from five years ago. A psychic told me I will meet the Dalai Lama on my travels. Now I have a chance to see that prophecy come true.

It’s a beautiful fresh cool morning in Dharamsala, and I keep remembering that day as we walk down the small Village of McLeod Gang toward the residence of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The Polish couple told us that he is away on a speaking tour but I am excited to just be in the place where he lives.

Aw and I walk up to the open courtyard and then up the stairs to the Temple itself. This is such a thrill for me as I look into the Temple and say more to myself than Aw: “This is the Spiritual Seat of Power of Tibetan Buddhism.” We are walking around the outside of the Temple when we run into our Polish friends again. “He’s here.” They say. “He just arrived a couple of hours ago. We heard a commotion on the street and then a string of cars arrived here. No one knew. He just suddenly arrived.” We continued our walk around the Temple and then we went to the entrance to the residence and I took this photo of Aw. It’s so exciting to me to think that the Dalai Lama is just on the other side of those gates.

If you look closely you will see the armed guard standing there. We saw a number of soldiers around the complex but none of them actually on the Temple site itself. Now I wonder if the prophecy will be fulfilled in the next few days while we’re here.

My Dalai Lama Prophecy Part 1

Traveling to Dharamsala is the culmination of a dream from five years ago. A psychic told me I was meant to travel the world. Just as I was leaving her house she handed me a string of cloth birds and said: “A friend who met the Dalai Lama gave me these birds. Now I am to give them to you for you will meet the Dalai Lama on your travels.” Now I have a chance to see that prophecy come true.

We travel by bus from Amritsar on our way to Dharamsala. After several hours we come to the border of the State of Himachel Pradesh and everything changes drastically. The architecture is much better and there is a lot of new construction going on. The country starts to get a lot hillier and there are many more trees.

I love this country It seems so familiar to me. As if to accentuate my feelings, we pass an estate named ‘Canada Palace’. We travel up winding roads through reddy brown dirt hills with cinder block barriers to hold back the soil from falling into our path. We drive slowly around narrow roads who's banks drop off hundreds of feet to the valley below. Many times we have to stop for another bus to squeeze past us as it heads the other way. As we come to a clearing between the steep hills, I suddenly catch me first glimpse of the Himalayan Mountains. They are very far away to the North and appear as a misty vision in the distance. They are magnificent to see. They remind me very much of the Rocky Mountains near Banff Alberta except they are twice as high. Here's a photo I got of them the next day. Do you see them in the distance behind Aw?

How about now? This photo doesn't do them justice of course.
I am surprised to go through several large towns before we finally arrive in the dark in Dharamsala. Lonely Planet says we really want to go the extra four kilometers to McLeod Gang. We find a Polish couple to share a jeep with and the four of us pay the 120 rupees between us, to make the final assent. When we arrive I feel an increasing sense of peace and tranquility. This place really feels like home. We walk a short distance to the ‘OM’ Hotel and get a room for 250 rupees.

Our window looks out to a view of the wooded hillside below and the view makes me feel energized. I love the town for as much as we can see in our quick stroll to find some dinner. We walk across the street to the MLCD Restaurant, which is touted as the place Pierce Bronson likes to eat.
It has a photo of him with his hand on his heart; sitting at the same table Aw is eating her Thai chicken (not really Thai).

I have a extra strength King Fisher Beer and we are feeling very good. Aw is very cuddly and I can feel that we are both starting to relax after the last two days of hard travel. We come back to our room and both fall immediately into a deep sleep. We wake up refreshed and my heart feels more at peace than it has been in a long time.

Continued in Dalai Lama Prophecy Part 2

Jude's Tibet

Jude is a lovely woman I met while travelling in Thailand in February. She is a teacher from Britain who is on an 18 month assignment, teaching English in China.

She sent me some pictures from her recent trip to Tibet. I told her how much this place means to me so she sent these pictures to inspire (tease) me. I know I have to go there (again). This is her at a carpet factory.

She is posing here next to the Yarlung Valley.

Jude has an infectious smile which must have made it very easy for these children to respond to.

When I see this picture of the Potala Palace, I get the strongest sense of deja' vu.

Jude loves China and the people of China, but she told me a poinient story about the political climate as it effects the Tibetan culture. She wrote:
"It is a fabulous place, so beautiful - in fact I think it is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. That is just in terms of scenery, although the culture and people are fascinating too. The sad thing is how the Chinese government is trying to kill the Tibetan culture off - the Chinese street names, Beijing time although it's 3 time zones out, building horrendous communist style monuments outside key Tibetan monuments, imposing the language and education... awful. I am interested in the Free Tibet campaign now, although of course all the websites are blocked so I may have to wait. "China" is great in China, but not when it is imposed on another country like that."
Jude is not able to see my blog in China. I have to send it as a word file to her email address.

Chiang Mai Trek: Karan Tribe

The Karan Tribe are a primitive band who migrated from Tibet, two hundred years ago and have maintained their language and customs, for the most part totally cut off from the rest of Thailand. "Karan" means "People of the Land" or "Dirty People" because they tend not to wash very often and the world they live in is very dusty.

This is a little guy who hung around our camp fires at night. In fact, we had to fish him out of the fire a few times. He had no fear.

Kam showed us one of the banana trees the villagers grew. They use absolutely every part of the tree.

The Karen villagers live by growing rice and soybeans. We hiked through this breath taking landscape for three days.

Corey (shown on the right)is a student from Santa Cruz. We had a very interesting discussion on the last night of our Trek, about politics and his concern that California is being lost to the extremist Republicans. He said he is searching for a place that will make him happy. Once he finds that place he will settle down there. He's 21. I wish I had his insights at that age.

We put money together and begged the villagers to let us buy this rooster and eat him so that we didn't have to hear him crow at 1 am again...

The third village we stayed in actually had budgies. I took this picture for my favorite budgie fancier, Diana Rainbow.

And a kitty cat that Kirsten befriended. Kirsten and her husband Chris are from Sydney Australia.

Dennis negotiated the purchase of one of the handmade pieces the villagers made on their looms.

And these two children came out to wave good bye as we travelled through their village.

The children were a joy to see.

When I saw this scene in the village I thought of you Mom. I don't know why...

We passed through some wonderful waterfalls between the villages.

We had a campfire every night and sang songs. These are some girls from Sweden who were on our trek (in the front)

This is one of the Thai guides. He only knew Beatles songs but he really rocked.
This little girl was thrilled to have her picture taken as she fished in the stream we passed.

Here is a proper picture of Kirsten and Chris from Sydney, having breakfast.

Kam told us about this village. It was a hot spot for Cocaine. Then four years ago, when the new Prime Minister was elected, he cracked down on Drugs. Twelve hundred people were shot in the first month. Kam says there are no more drugs here now.

The beauty of this land and it's people can't really be expressed. I just hope I'm able to give you a glimpse of what I see. Perhaps you will want to see it for yourself. And I hope you enjoyed my cute animal pics Sarah. I always think of you when I take them.

The Voice Of The Silence

Twenty years ago, When I lived in Medicine Hat, Alberta, I was eating escargot at a restaurant, when I suddenly started looking at one of the shells and I had a powerful sense of Deja Vu. I knew the shell was important but I didn’t know why. I only knew that I was supposed to find something and that the shell was the key. After several days of carrying the shell in my pocket, I decided to visit a dear friend of mine, Averil. She and I both studied a Spiritual path at that time, called Eckankar. Averil had a great library of esoteric books so she let me look around to see if one would solve the mystery for me. I found a couple of books that I was interested in reading, but none seemed to be what I was after. Then just as I was leaving I happened to peer into her bedroom, and there on her bedside table was a little red book called 'The Voice Of The Silence'. I walked right in and placed my escargot shell over the sketch on the cover. It fit perfectly. Averil said it was her favorite book and that she always kept it there, in her room. It was a book so familiar to her that it never occurred to her to mention it.
The Voice Of The Silence is a book that was translated by Madame Blavatsky a hundred years ago. She translated it from stone tablets at a remote Buddhist Monastery in Tibet. The book explains the mechanics of Soul as it travels through the different Planes of existence. I found that the secret to the book was to read it aloud. When I did, it took me into a very deep contemplative state.

But there’s another part to this story.
Five years ago, I stumbled upon a woman on the Internet named Vivyan. She and I began a very unusual dialogue right out of the blue. We got talking about synchronicity and the strange things that Spirit does to lead us in new directions. I was just beginning to tell her this story of the Voice Of The Silence when she stopped me and said: “Wait. Let me send you something. Vivyan is a Fractal artist. She sent me this fractal without knowing anything about my vision of the escargot shell. I was wowed when I saw her fractal. Just as I'm writing this article Vivyan has phoned me. I'm telling her about the article. Just as I'm speaking to her, I'm looking at the website for the movie, 'What The Bleep Do We Know' , and I'm seeing the picture of William Tiller (Uncle Bill to her) who is the renowned physicist featured in the film. And while I look at his picture, She says: “What’s so great about the Internet is that we send something out there, into the unknown, and it sends us back exactly what we need.” And that day, five years ago, when she sent that fractal to me, she was proving exactly what she’s talking about now.” My trip to Thailand is tied into this as well. It’s a land of Buddhist Monasteries that somehow hold the next key to the spiral of the Snail shell. As I talk to Vivyan we are getting ready to meet for the first time. She and her partner, Dorian have invited me to visit them in Etobicoke for the weekend. I look forward to seeing what piece of the puzzle I will find when I meet them.