October 30, 2003 Nice-Interesting Thoughts, Richard Geer , Tibetan Tragedy, Indians and More
After preparing really good pancakes this morning...abdellah wanted to learn as did Ashish so we had a cooking class in Abdellah's kitchen...delicious apple pancakes (without cinnamon or vanilla since abdellah doesn't like them....and then set out on my way with no goal in mind.
did some quick internet and then decided to check out the coffee shop Violet told me about a couple of weeks ago.
Now, if you remember my mentioning the sorry state of the roads when I got here during monsoon and also that Richard Geer had donated big money to fix them...well, they are almost done but walking around town these days is really difficult . At home, they'd probabaly have the streets closed off as being hazardous...but not here...there are bulldozers (I think...they are big things with rounded drum that roll over the street to pack it), and tar makers for asphalting the streets and the stench is terrible in addition to the dust. ...but the laying of rocks and spreading of asphalt (most of the heavy work is done by women...same as I saw 2 years ago going up to Leh) is done by hand and the roller thing goes over it and on the middle of all this frezied activity people are walking...
Anyway...tried out the new place - fabulous BIG mug of coffee and good muffins, donuts and lite meals... nice to find a new place...getting tired of restaurants anyway....
Then decided to do the corra around the temple again and then the temple grounds for their tranqulity and then to my surpirse the Tibetan Museum was opened...so went in...terrible tragedy but it happens all over the world...people doing horrible atrocities to other people in the name of I don't know what. Just 2 statistics I recall...1.2 million killed and innumerable maimed and left less than human after imprisonment and torture by the chinese...and over 6,000 temples destroyed-some dating from the 2nd and 3rd centuries (meaning 200-300)...I know it may sound terrible, but this last statistic hit home even harder than the atrocities perpetrated against human beings!...Next just roamed around the streets and met Russel who is planning to get to Sinai and have a Bedouin smuggle him across the border!!!...
I am now drinking freshly made apple juice and waiting for pasta. and then will read and rest back at the guesthouse. Weather is still beautiful and am taking in every moment. I think 80% of my time is spent out of doors here...will be quite difficult to get used to being inside again.
Abdellah and I are going to the movies at 6 to see chicago again(note: it was even better the second time...really got i into the dancing...fantastic....and we had a long talk about Israeli folk dancing afterwards at dinner which was quite fun....when I was explaining about the changes in "folk" dancing these days...abdellah started to sing "yerushalaim shel zahav"...said it is one of his favorite songs!- funny guy he is for sure!)....and then for Japanese and Abdellah insisted on paying for everything since it was all his idea in the first place!...and I had given him a cooking lesson in the morning...We are going to miss each other...we have become really good friends and it is so easy talking to each other...and we laugh alot...nice having him around these days....but he'll be here when I get back next year...
The days are going by too quickly-I will never get to do all I still want to. But also hoping my arrival home will be uneventful and no stike will cause airport problems...
PS...The Tibetans don't like the Indians any more than the Indians like the Tibetans...i.e. when my stuff was taken, the Tibetans reaction was "must have been an Indian"...bet you cant' guess what the Indian reaction was!!....Walking arond the corra or any other sacred place-even rocks up on the mountain trails-is always done clockwise...if someone is walking the "wrong" way, it is for sure an Indian doing it just for spite and you can feel the tension between the people in the air energy. Why can't people ever accept each other and respect differences rather than grasp at them as excuses for dislike and worse?
Some thoughts today....which is actually Friday!
someone in one of my e-mails asked what the cellphone situation is here...well, it is not as bad as in Israel, but EVERYONE seems to have one here....today walking in the woods was a monk talking on his cellphone! Juxtaposition? Or the real world today?
The butterflies are everywhere and in such profusion of color it is amazing...I just sometimes sit on a rock and look at them....
checked out a restaurant in Bhagsu for during my 5 day stay...looks like lots of pasta and good cake again!
2 new people at the guesthouse:
One, Sasha, from Moscow, comes every year, 2x a year for 2 weeks each time to be treated for some serious ailment (he did not say what) by a Tibetan doctor here after all attempts at curing him failed at home. He is a building developer in Moscow and we spoke about the russians who come to Israel and about how many of them are finding their way back "home".
Yesterday, while eating at the Japanese restaurant, I haven't the slightest idea how the conversation got around to it...we were talking about Shlomo Carlebach (!) and his music and records etc. Today, while walking past a really isolated guesthouse in upper bhagsu (on my way across the mountain from Dharamkot) I heard coming from one of the rooms, Shlomo Carlebach singing!!! Strange huh?
The other people at the guesthouse are an Australian Couple from Byron Bay...they are in their mid-40's...met up 10 years ago, both gave up their respective children from previous marriages, swore not to have any more and work just enough to be able to travel as often as possible...they both have MA's...his in education, hers in social work and special ed...and the truth is they are always fighting...not pleaseant being around them...and they love to talk and interrupt each other etc....but I am out most of the day so it's not bad...just pull out my book and read and that means "don't feel like talking right now"
Well, I'll end this entry now....I keep thinking the days will be too boring to write about, but there is always something to tell....I imagine my last 5 days in Bhagsu will be quiet...
bye for now...
did some quick internet and then decided to check out the coffee shop Violet told me about a couple of weeks ago.
Now, if you remember my mentioning the sorry state of the roads when I got here during monsoon and also that Richard Geer had donated big money to fix them...well, they are almost done but walking around town these days is really difficult . At home, they'd probabaly have the streets closed off as being hazardous...but not here...there are bulldozers (I think...they are big things with rounded drum that roll over the street to pack it), and tar makers for asphalting the streets and the stench is terrible in addition to the dust. ...but the laying of rocks and spreading of asphalt (most of the heavy work is done by women...same as I saw 2 years ago going up to Leh) is done by hand and the roller thing goes over it and on the middle of all this frezied activity people are walking...
Anyway...tried out the new place - fabulous BIG mug of coffee and good muffins, donuts and lite meals... nice to find a new place...getting tired of restaurants anyway....
Then decided to do the corra around the temple again and then the temple grounds for their tranqulity and then to my surpirse the Tibetan Museum was opened...so went in...terrible tragedy but it happens all over the world...people doing horrible atrocities to other people in the name of I don't know what. Just 2 statistics I recall...1.2 million killed and innumerable maimed and left less than human after imprisonment and torture by the chinese...and over 6,000 temples destroyed-some dating from the 2nd and 3rd centuries (meaning 200-300)...I know it may sound terrible, but this last statistic hit home even harder than the atrocities perpetrated against human beings!...Next just roamed around the streets and met Russel who is planning to get to Sinai and have a Bedouin smuggle him across the border!!!...
I am now drinking freshly made apple juice and waiting for pasta. and then will read and rest back at the guesthouse. Weather is still beautiful and am taking in every moment. I think 80% of my time is spent out of doors here...will be quite difficult to get used to being inside again.
Abdellah and I are going to the movies at 6 to see chicago again(note: it was even better the second time...really got i into the dancing...fantastic....and we had a long talk about Israeli folk dancing afterwards at dinner which was quite fun....when I was explaining about the changes in "folk" dancing these days...abdellah started to sing "yerushalaim shel zahav"...said it is one of his favorite songs!- funny guy he is for sure!)....and then for Japanese and Abdellah insisted on paying for everything since it was all his idea in the first place!...and I had given him a cooking lesson in the morning...We are going to miss each other...we have become really good friends and it is so easy talking to each other...and we laugh alot...nice having him around these days....but he'll be here when I get back next year...
The days are going by too quickly-I will never get to do all I still want to. But also hoping my arrival home will be uneventful and no stike will cause airport problems...
PS...The Tibetans don't like the Indians any more than the Indians like the Tibetans...i.e. when my stuff was taken, the Tibetans reaction was "must have been an Indian"...bet you cant' guess what the Indian reaction was!!....Walking arond the corra or any other sacred place-even rocks up on the mountain trails-is always done clockwise...if someone is walking the "wrong" way, it is for sure an Indian doing it just for spite and you can feel the tension between the people in the air energy. Why can't people ever accept each other and respect differences rather than grasp at them as excuses for dislike and worse?
Some thoughts today....which is actually Friday!
someone in one of my e-mails asked what the cellphone situation is here...well, it is not as bad as in Israel, but EVERYONE seems to have one here....today walking in the woods was a monk talking on his cellphone! Juxtaposition? Or the real world today?
The butterflies are everywhere and in such profusion of color it is amazing...I just sometimes sit on a rock and look at them....
checked out a restaurant in Bhagsu for during my 5 day stay...looks like lots of pasta and good cake again!
2 new people at the guesthouse:
One, Sasha, from Moscow, comes every year, 2x a year for 2 weeks each time to be treated for some serious ailment (he did not say what) by a Tibetan doctor here after all attempts at curing him failed at home. He is a building developer in Moscow and we spoke about the russians who come to Israel and about how many of them are finding their way back "home".
Yesterday, while eating at the Japanese restaurant, I haven't the slightest idea how the conversation got around to it...we were talking about Shlomo Carlebach (!) and his music and records etc. Today, while walking past a really isolated guesthouse in upper bhagsu (on my way across the mountain from Dharamkot) I heard coming from one of the rooms, Shlomo Carlebach singing!!! Strange huh?
The other people at the guesthouse are an Australian Couple from Byron Bay...they are in their mid-40's...met up 10 years ago, both gave up their respective children from previous marriages, swore not to have any more and work just enough to be able to travel as often as possible...they both have MA's...his in education, hers in social work and special ed...and the truth is they are always fighting...not pleaseant being around them...and they love to talk and interrupt each other etc....but I am out most of the day so it's not bad...just pull out my book and read and that means "don't feel like talking right now"
Well, I'll end this entry now....I keep thinking the days will be too boring to write about, but there is always something to tell....I imagine my last 5 days in Bhagsu will be quiet...
bye for now...
posted by Jane @ 4:07 PM
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