Oct 13, 2003-Monkey Antics, Anil's Confession, Norbulinka

Well, I am going on an unexpected outing today which I will write about when I get back...As usual, in the morning, I woke up to monkey antics,- today they managed to get into the trash and were they having a ball!! The little white guy is always around and he is so cute...yesterday, two young ones, teenagers I guess, pulled down one of the wires used as a clothesline between the trees and were swinging on it when one of them fell off and landed directly in the water barrel...He came up sputtering, and then decided it was fun I guess and did it on purpose...then the other one caught on, and just like people who swing over open bodies of water and jump in, they started taking turns taking jumping leaps into the water barrel.....this is one time it would have been fun to have a video camera!.

Anyway, back to yesterday evening... What an evening it was!...I just got back from eating a very late lunch after my fabulous walk up the mountain (and my encounter with Anil, the Indian guy who owns the tea shop in Dharamkot and has been trying to convince me for weeks to move up to Dharamkot...it wasn't until yesterday that I realized why he wanted me up there...I finally agreed to check out the room he wanted to show me...it was actually quite beautiful, didn't know they had such nice guesthouses up in Dharamkot...but the room wasn't all he wanted to show me....he says he's been in love with me since he first met me 2 years ago and has been dreaming about me since then, and was so pleased when I came to visit him this tirp...I thought he was just being nice all along...but this time he said since he knows I am leaving soon he cannot keep his feelings secret any longer and blurted out that he is in love with me!!!...The guy is 31 years old!...OK...he's cute, a little short for me...comes about up to my chest (!)...claims he knows we were together in a previous incarnation and has always loved me...I know him and his reputation...he is considered a very honest and reputable person in this town...he was born in Dhramakot and has been running the tea house for ages...and many people know him and know he is a good person and not one given to flirting with all the young Israeli girls up there...he is proabably one of the few guys around here who is well respected by all the tourist...so I was quite taken aback by his announcement....anyway...I promised to come back today and give him an answer about my moving up only because after seeing the look of anticipation and longing in his eyes, I was unable to give him a flat out "no"...but now I am going on this excursion today, and will not be back until late...I really must see him though and tell him it is (most obviously) impossible...

well...back to my evening yesterday. I got back to my room at 5:30 after buying an apple crumble at the health food shop on the way up...made msyelf some mint tead (Ashish says "make your own" these days and I dont' mind at all)...was sitting in my room looking out at the woods when there was a knock on the door. Miriam from Dharamkot, the reflexology lady I met at the Kabbalah course came to visit. She had just come back from amristar!. So she orderd tea also and after we visited for awhile, Shaun, the Irish guy witht the Enfield came over to say he had a great day and another knock-Shachar (the Isreali girl I didn't like but now found out she's OK)...came to tell me about her day. so she ordered a Chai to my room and also told Ashish we would eat thali together in my room later. Then while we were talking, (miriam had already left) Abdellah came in. he had been out today and remembered how much I liked Pachouli insense and couldn't find any myself since I got here...He had been looking around everywhere he went and found some which he bought for me. He apologized for only bringing one...he asked for 10! but they didn't have... So we all talked for awhile...then Ashish brought our Thali's and everyone left me and Shachar to eat and we spoke for a long time. She's OK...Then Ashish came to tell me that I got a phone call last night at (meaning the night before) at 12:30 midnight!!!...(let me know if it was any of you guys and PLEASE do not call at weird hours...it wakes ashish and everyone else in the guesthouse)...thankfully he didn't wake me but I felt so bad. He wrote down the name but didn't get it right but I think it may be my friend Edna...but not sure...so I am a little worrried and would like to know who it was that called me. Well, I don't think I EVER have this much company at home...and it was a long lovely fun day.

I also met yesterday a new lady in the guesthouse from Switzerland...Jackie, who in the past year lost a son, husband and had cancer !..She has been coming to India for 18 years for a month each year but this time will be here for about 6 months just to get away. She is the one I am going on the outing with today and will get to know her better. Very fancy lady with real fancy clothing and luggage etc but seems very sweet... Well...gotta go...am sitting here with the wrong glasses and my eyes are really straining...so will leave the rest for tomorrow.

Comment:
September 2006
I just realized when posting the above that I never got around to writing about the outing with Jackie...too many other things happened as you will see in the next few posts, and apparently, the journal entry for this day was in the journals that were stolen and never got written....but I remember enough of that lovely day to quicly fill in here. She, Jackie, invited me to go on an outing with her, ordered ad taxe and we went to Norbulinka, a lovely place an hour or so outside of Dharamsala which has a replica of a Tibetan Temple destroyed by the Chinese and also a lovely Tibetan Garden (very similar to Japanese Garden), with waterfalls, large variety of foliage and just perfectly designed to create peace and harmony. There are also workshops for all kinds of Tibetan art and crafts which are run here to keep up the culture of tibet and its particular forms of art and culture. Also, a lovely restaurant and, for anyone who can afford it, a fabulous hotel. We had a truly wonderful day here...I have great pics but as with all my pics from these trips, they have to be scanned etc., Perhaps one day. I had a really lovely day with her and hopefully will meet up with her on one of my future trips to India. I've been to Norbulinka twice since then and it is a lovely place to "get away" for the day

Love you all...Jane