Amristar to Dharamshala was a simple 6 hour bus ride. Usually a duration which I fill with audiobooks and breathing in the sights. This ride, however, was made a lot more interesting by my companion for the ride, Rami from Israel, a photographer who films for The Great Race. Among many of his cameras he had an S100 as I do and was surprised that I hadn't hacked mine. Hacked my camera? This guy uses drones to make movies. I’m proud of my 5 euro tripod and unhacked camera but was humbled looking at Rami’s photos. This is a photo he took with an iPhone 4. You can only imagine what he can do with a professional kit...
If you've read previous posts you’ll know my favourite spot in India is Rishikesh. I had always been curious by my mates who headed to Dharamshala when it got too hot in Rishikesh. I had high expectations for a little bubble of bliss even further up in the Himalayas. I was not ready for the Las Vegas bright lights and groups of tourists drinking when I arrived. To demonstrate my shock I made a table (cool eh?):
Rishikesh
Dharamshala
My form
On crutches. Discovered Tantra
A bit sick. I get no lovin'
Religion (local culture)
Hindu (and reputed to be the Yoga capital of the world)
Buddhist (home of the Dalai Lama)
Booze/Drogas
No, Maybe
Yes, Yes
Cars
No (apart from jeeps in LJ)
Yes
Gangs of Israelis
A lovely bunch
OD
Mountains
Baby Ones
Grown up ones
Yoga/Meditation
Too much
Not enough
Ganga (Ganges River)
Yes
No
Tourist type
All in white
Anything goes/North Face head to toe
Gestures
Palms in front of chest
Any
So my subjective opinion is that Rishikesh wins hands down. I will go back to Dharamshala but next time I’ll take it for what it is; a cheeky little party town in the mountains with a few options for meditation.
On arrival I headed past the Vegas lights of McleodGanj and up to Bagsu where I found a gorgeous hotel. The only issue was that I was the only non-Israeli there. Remi (the Israeli from the bus) had suggested best to stay away as despite Israelis being lovely on their own like most nationalities they become very insular when in groups. Well it resulted in me nearly being racist on my tripadvisor review (click here). I did later move down to the quiet Chaawani but it still didn't feel the love.
My main issue with Dharmshala was not the place but the fact that I couldn't even walk up stairs without getting out of breath. This was not altitude and only a year before I’d been running up mountains so I finally went to see a doctor. A GP who had also studied ayuveda (and is so well loved that he is now on tripadvisor as an attraction!). As David (the dude) had told me on the boat in Dal Lake my lungs were wrecked so I was advised to stay in bed and rest. I was due to fly to altitude and trek within one week. Ouch.
As opposed to resting I got attracted by the bright lights of McleodGaj and ended up going clubbing. Yes, clubbing in Dharamshala. I was in a club necking shots with a gay friend from Brighton and he turned to me and claimed it was the gayest club he’d been to in a while. I looked over and saw a pished fat middle aged English guy dancing with hit top off whilst parents danced with babies in slings swaying infront of them. For a brief moment I thought I was on the Koh San road.
This was the little gang I hung out with in Dharmshala before I listened to my doctors orders.
A friend of a friend had setup a dance school in town and needed performers so as she was a lindyhop dancer I volunteered. It was an amazing setup with big windows looking out onto the Himalayas and after we’d danced (and I was covered in sweat with a fever as should have been in bed, resting) I spoke to some of the audience. To my shock (aswell as them talking to me when I was such a mess) some of them were Tibetan Politicians in exile and some Tibetan celebrities. Not quite sure quite how you can be a celebrity in exile, quite the oxymoron.
Here’s a pic of me and Dolker dancing. Yes I know, aren't trekking shoes quite dainty!
The dance performance reminded me how much I miss swing dancing. I’d done a little bit over the last year but this was my first in a studio and it felt GOOD. The backdrop of the Himalayas and a great follower helped. Funnily enough that same week a TEDx talk on Lindy Hop by was given – check this out..
I then retired to spend two days in my room being good and resting to get fixed before I flew to altitude. I had decided to fly but not to trek. It was to be simple trip. 6 hour bus to Jammu, then flight to Leh. Simple mi hole…..
Punjabi food is my favourite in India. For some odd reason, however, I made a big
mistake when I arrived in Amritsar, Punjab.
I saw porridge on the menu and I quite fancied a change from curry for
breakfast. The porridge was made with
olive oil. Dear Indian Cuisine, I will
never cheat on you again.
The Golden Temple, the Sikh’s most important shrine is
renowned for being the most lavish temple in India. Only 5 hours by train from Delhi for some
reason it had eluded my weekends whilst I was based there. So I felt I had to make an effort to go to
this temple and see if it could push Akshardham off my ‘best temple in India spot’ (click here to read post). So what do
you think?
Quite pretty ehFor me there was no comparison. The energy of the Golden Temple surpasses any
other temple I've come across in India.
The Sikh religion was founded primarily due to a need for
equality at a time that the caste system (driven by Hinduism) was prominent in
the country. The main thing I’ve seen
from Sikhs in India is their value on hard work. It’s a generalization but you very rarely see
a Sikh not doing something productive. I've also been turbanated and danced at a Sikh
wedding so I’m slightly biased. However,
the amount of people and energy at sunrise was spectacular (and this was an
average day).
Here's me when I got turbanated back in Jan...
A good example of the
energy of the place is Guru Ka Langar, the free kitchen they have that serves
up to 80,000 meals every day. It’s a
clockwork operation from lines of volunteers handing you a plate to the
turbanated cleaner coming round every 15 minutes to get the room squeaky clear
for the next c1,000 hungry punters. The
food is unbelievable, no olive oil porridge in sight. Just Dharba quality Punjabi food.
Among the other sites in Amritsar is the Hindu Durga temple
which oddly is a replica of the Sikh Golden Temple. On a smaller scale and kept up in true Hindu
style ie. in bad need of maintenance. Although to be fair the trout in the water looked a lot happier!
The most important site in Amritsar is one that changed the
course of Indian Independence. In 1919 a
peaceful protests was taking place in Jallainwala Bagh gardens. A British Brigadier ordered to fire
continuously on the crowd for ten minutes.
The majority of bullet holes still remaining are all around the exit
gates which are where the army had been told to aim when the protesters tried
to escape.
c375 people were
killed and all of a sudden the world took
notice that the British India relationship was not working. It was key driver in Gandhi’s ‘non-violence’
position. The Richard Attenborough film depicts the event well; it’s one of the
greatest films from the last century and if you are visiting or even just
interested in India I highly recommend a watch:
One of the outputs of Independence was Pakistan and friction
with India hasn't stopped since. So it’s
odd that despite continuous militant attacks and nuclear ego tricks on both
sides that once a day they have a little dance off. The border crossing at Wagah just outside
Amritsar is home to one of the most bizarre shows I have ever seen. Either side of the
border are grandstands packed full of people.
The only visible difference on the Pakistan side is the separation of
men and women. Both groups spend about
30 minutes showing off that they can put on the biggest party (luckily without
a bomb in site).
The Indian crowd...
It’s weird, really weird.
Despite the heavy presence of the army on each side they wear special
uniforms which just add to the humour.
Although, despite the funny hat you wouldn't mess with this fella.
To lead the madness there is an MC (yes an MC) in a
tracksuit with a microphone shouting at the crowd whilst bollywood music pumps
out of massive speakers to encourage them.
Indians then run towards the border crossing at quite a pace in a line
dancing to tunes such as Jai Ho whilst the crowd goes wild. Imagine a cross between a soccer game and a
circus. The army then get involved in
the dancing in the more formal section of the show by marching up to the border
with and kicking up in the air. The lads kick their own face infront of the
opposing army. Considering the splintering noise from the speakers it's a very weird way to look at 'peacetalks' but for one hour every day it works. Shame it's all for show.
Here's a video of the ceremony from Michael Palin's BBC show. He makes it look pretty formal but trust me, behind the cameras the place is a circus!
I float on a boat with a drug dealer and a spiritual teacher for a
week
What the muslims say about JC (or Jesus to you and me)
Tension on the streets of Kashmir
Underpant lads 1 Mister Kris 0
My life in
September was a bit like the TV show the Amazing Race (oddly I even hung out
with one of their camera crew) .I
travelled through 6 Indian states in the first two weeks of September.Once upon a time, all these provinces and
territories were their own kingdoms and countries which meant huge contrasts in
culture, religion, diet, language, customs and historyThe one part that struck me was climate.I’d taken 5 night trains and about 30 hours
of buses in 2 weeks and AC, junk food on the go and lack of sleep in cheap
hotels had got to me.I should have
respected the underpants boys on my AC2 experience for they knew that
in 35 degree heat when you get on an AC compartment you should change clothes.So when I went from 35 degrees in Delhi to 15
degrees in North Kashmir all of us a sudden I felt a little crappy.
However, I was soon on a boat on Dal Lake. And this is the only song in my head…
Arriving in Kashmir
is odd. I flew into Srinigar and it felt
like we were arriving at a military airport as opposed to a civilian one. The streets were pretty similar, lined with soldiers and tanks but luckily most had a smile when they saw a white person in a taxi.
My
Srinigar experience was a funny one.
Before I went everyone told me about the beauty of Dal lake resting
below the mountains and the peace and tranquility of staying on a
houseboat. Since I left all I've met are people who had been ripped off, had issues with the army curfews and described the
lake as smelly, dirty and noisy. So my
opinion? Well upon my arrival I met Eddie an ex drug dealer from Plymouth who
travels the world following marijuana harvests and writes articles for Weed
magazines/blogs and David a hippy from California who’s well know in the spiritual healing circles. The two were
some of the most intelligent people I've met on my whole trip. Eddie spent most of his time smoking then
passing out on the floor and David spent most of his time doing Yoga and
talking wisely whilst stroking his beard.
The setup on the
houseboat was surprisingly formal, especially considering it was 9 euros/day including 3 meals. We all ate
together at a very grand dining room table and David would sit at the head
always coming up with classic phrases after any silence “Well this is us, isn’t
is amazing we are on planet earth speeding through the universe. Life is sweet”. The food on the boat was very good and the
rooms surprisingly kitted out.
Me, David and Eddie at dinner:
My issue, and having had a few chavaran holidays
as a kid I should have realized this.On
a houseboat you all need to follow the same patterns; the butterfly effect is
more like the fart effect on a boat. David and I being yogis would go to bed early
and rise early.Eddie would stay up late
playing trance and pass out in the lounge.We also had an Indian family staying on the boat who went to bed really
early (9 pm) and wake just after the call to prayer at 5.30am, and they weren't quiet.
As a result the
maximum sleep you could get was 5-6 hours.
It was a peaceful lake but late trance music and early guttural clearing noises from the Indians (a family of 8 means that can last up to ½ hour). It was, however, the perfect place to
meditate. Out on the terrace facing the
peaceful lake away from the noisy auntie shouting at her family at 6am.
The view meditating on
the lake in the morning:
One problem with that
though, the sellers. I had a few
occasions in which I was sunk into the terrace in a quiet state with my eyes
closed and a seller on a passing boat would shout ‘hello, hello, you want
flowers’. I would duly ignore this yet
it would be repeated until I opened my eyes and was asked again. At this point I would mention I was
meditating and that I had no need for flowers and would like some peace. This didn't work as I’d engaged a
conversation. This was a problem in
Kashmir. The rip offs were nearly as bad
as Varanassi. I heard of one German guy
who was on a boat and the owner tried to sell him a 10 day trek for 1000 euros
(cost was probably 100 euros), he refused and the owner said unless he took one
of his trips he would keep his passport.
He was 18 years old so mature enough to travel in North India but not
experienced enough to get out of a shitty situation like that. You cannot just get off a boat.
Getting the police
involved in Kashmir is messy as it’s a political state. There was nothing calming about these
Kashmiri men all with their default moustache, brown leather jacket and hooker
sucker. It is a gorgeous location, and
my boat came on a friend’s recommendation and yet even though I wasn't ripped
off I wouldn't go back.
I was humbled hanging
out with David (to see him in action click here). He reminded me of Jeff Bridges aka Kevin Flynn in Tron:
He was
one of the first people to take Kundalini Yoga to the USA in the 1960s which he
practiced every morning on the terrace.In this pic influencing the local kids!
Eddie, however, was
not such a calm character. His years of marijuana had him crawling up the walls with paranoia and as such he was always
looking for an argument and would not accept defeat. He was like a skinny Vinny Jones and very
well read to boot so you just let him have his moment.
Kashmir is known to be a bit of a
tinderbox with continuous attacks from Pakistani militant groups resulting in
civil unrest. The streets of Srinigar are safe to tourists but lined with
military ready for action. The day
before arrived there had been a few fatalities during a strike that turned into
a riot close to Jesus’s tomb. Yes, JC is
in Srinigar. There’s a theory that Jesus
spent his ‘lost years’ (before he started preaching) in India where Buddhism
influenced his teachings. The most
famous book on the subject is ‘Jesus lived in India’ and even the Koran suggest
the same. Below is a photo of the tomb, it’s closed and no photos are
allowed. When I visited following the
previous days’ riot I daren't even put my hand in my pocket as the stares from
the locals were seriously scary.
After a few days I decided to move on. Unlike the
rest of India, the punjabis and kashmiris love dried fruits and
nuts so the travelling diet was no longer fried street food. I wanted to head to either Amritsar or
Dharamshala so I took a jeep to Jammu.
Shared jeeps are the only way to travel in Kashmir as the mountain
terrain and turbulent history means it’s one of the few parts of India not well
served by train. I found a jeep for an
OK price but was dubious over the springs sticking in my arse and lack of
headroom (I didn't fancy 5 hours of head banging). I got out and left much to the protest of my
fellow passengers (jeeps only leave when full so someone changing vehicle is
not good). I said ‘come on lads we can
do better than this’ and hilariously two Kashmiri guys and a family followed me
to another jeep which didn't have springs sticking out of the seats. I was lucky with the upgrade, it wasn't a 5 hour trip it
turned out to be 9.
The drive through
rural Kashmir was stunning, enchanted forests in rolling mountains, similar to
Nepal. You are soon, however, reminded
you are in Kashmir. Soldiers clutter the
forest paths sitting in the mist with their guns and, as I discovered when going
to the toilet at a refreshment you are faced with a fixed machine gunner behind
sandbags everwhere.
I was wrecked on the
trip and even when feeling tired and a beet sick you soon feel alive and full
of wanderlust again when you stretch your jaw muscles and feel your lips move
over your teeth to shine a smile at a random group of bearded shepherds on the
back of a truck and they smile back with such great energy. Breath it in :) I am one of the luckiest people in the world.
A Happy Boy :)
The driving skills in
the mountain were on par with most of India.
Stupid. We had two drivers and the first one was racing against a rival
jeep for the first 5 hours which involved a number of cliff edge passes. The second driver was the opposite. I’m not sure if he had ever driven before. When overtaking he would change ‘up’ gear and
when we came out of a hairpin turn he would let go of the steering wheel and
look possessed as it spun back round.
Bless.
We saw a few crashes
along the way but one really annoyed me. The driver stopped to look at dead
motorcyclist to argue whose fault it was; instead of calling for help or simply
paying his respects he simply encouraged a discussion which nearly ended up in
another fatality. Five minutes later he wouldn't stop to help push truck out of the road instead just shouted at them
to get out of the road as he was late.
When we arrived in
Jammu the bus to Dharamshala had left so I waited for the next bus to Amritsar. I actually wrote a blog at the
time (this one is being written on 0515 commuter train going through lush Sri Lanka …I’ll
catch up soon!) as I was so shocked by the level of begging. No-where in India had I seen a queue of
people begging outside the bus window.
The bus ride was an
easy 6 hours. My only annoyance was guy
insisting on sitting next to me when the bus had empty seats at the back. His claim was ‘but you’ll be lonely’. Cock.
I didn't want to move to the back as it despite no big bumps/potholes or
severe overtaking moves the ride was a real boneshaker which meant lucky for me
I drifted off to sleep for most of the trip.
Next stop Amritsar – The Golden Temple, Pakistan border and Jallainwala Bagh (the site of the Amritsar massacre).
Here’s a clip from one of the most
beautiful films of 2013. Funnily enough
it stars Terrance Stamp who was the Sex Therapist in Bliss, one of the few
films ‘about’ Tantra (and apart from Mr Stamp’s acting a pretty damn poor movie).
I’ve been looking forward to this
post….....:)
Yoga of the
purpose
The Tantra
conversation - The bad boy of Yoga
How to do
yoga without doing yoga
Yoga of the
purpose is a retreat I did earlier this year. It takes the
power of yoga and shows you how to use it to set life goals. After a bumpy start I ended up getting a lot
from the course. My purpose was to settle down, avoiding bright
lights including random sex. The fact that the following week was a Tantra
course was a test to me. And it worked. I’m focused on settling with less
distraction. So if you are just thinking
of using yoga to be able to touch your toes or lift up the remote with your
feet think again. Although if you do want to touch your toes here's a little taster of what really bendy yoga looks like:
So, Tantra. Just
like The Beatles bought Yoga to the western world, Sting bought Tantra to the
western world by claiming to ‘go all night’ .
Tantra is all about the energy connecting us to each other and to the
universe (Kundalini energy), and a very small part is about sex (although in
today’s world that is what’s most relevant – Neo Tantra). And you’ll be
delighted to hear that that is the part I’d like to talk about.
The ice breaker at
the Tantra course I went to this year was a group exercise (….easy tiger). 3
truths and 1 lie and the group had to guess the lie. To give you an idea of how much of an ice
breaker it was, my group included a porn actress and her 3 truths and 1 lie
were the most innocent. Thought I’d just throw that in incase you get bored of
Charades and need a new game at your office Christmas party this year ;)
So how does
sexual tantra work? Well sexual desire
is a bad thing; at least according to most of the major religions ie. where
western society has drawn a lot of our ethical codes from. Firstly it encourages attraction which ends
in suffering and secondly you lose vitality.
As a result many religions have their top ranks practice an ascetic
lifestyle ie celibacy.But we all like this
desire right?
The scriptures
tell us that desire is blindness which explains what where the scary lesson most teenage boys are told originates.
Just to highlight
one point I made earlier, the second reason that sexual desire is deemed a bad
thing ‘as we lose our vitality’. So, for
the ladies that is menopause and for the gents that is andropause. It’s down to the fact that we’ve knocked out
too much sexual juice over the years and that, my friends is important energy. For us lads if we evacuate (a favourite
phrase I took from my yoga leader Krish, who in his monk ways could never say ejaculate), we lose our energy and the same for
the girls with one of their 7 types of orgasm, their evacuation one, the clit
orgasm. It’s not just the lads who go
all lethargic ie. are more attracted to the pillow than our partner, or PCT (Post-coital tristesse). That explains Sting’s claim to go all
night. He manages to orgasm without
evacuation and then deepens the experience by working on his energy centres. And don't worry lads, it you won't have to sacrifice your orgasm, you go from 30 seconds of cross-eyed delusion to a lot longer.
If we look at an
orgasm as an expansion of consciousness in which we surrender then it’s the
perfect time to meditate and I don’t mean get up light a candle and sit on your
own.Making Love is meditation. All
your focus is on your desire which is not just pleasure (selfish) but loving
(sharing).And what’s the difference
with Tantra? Techniques to deepen the
experience.Despite most people thinking
they are legends in the sack, sexology guides help us to have better sex and
Tantra encourages that ie. Foreplay that lasts an hour instead of just
switching the lights out.Thenfocusing on non-evacuation and the rest is
all about surrendering.
So how is this
yoga? Well, the part about sexual desire
was in the Vedas so instead of looking for inner peace by losing yourself
Tantra teaches that liberation is possible in the world by using yourself. It’s kinda like a shortcut. However, why do you think celibate Buddhist
monks devote their entire lives to living in monasteries under vows of poverty,
living off of alms, trying to achieve enlightenment? Because it’s excruciatingly hard
work—and it takes a lot more than a weekend retreat or two and some coconut oil
to get there.
My experience at the
Tantra retreat I went to was that sex is an easy sell to get people to
‘believe’ they are on the way to inner peace. If you're going
to spend months on a beach with beautiful bendy people relaxing, having good
food and easy sex of course life is going to be amazing. In the case of Agama, oddly the deeper you go the
more I disliked what I was seeing. The more the apparent hypocrisy and
inconsistency appeared with polygamy encouraging not compassion but
anxiety. However, much as I like lots of
sex, apart from a few multitasking nights I’m a one girl guy as can I cannot
split my compassion. Tantra will deepen your love and spiritual life, but don't expect a short cut to enlightenment.
We can apply this
to any of our strong desires. Let’s look
at a wine, it can be drunk addictively, but if someone offers it to you at the
right time, it's a divine experience invoked with meaning. The same idea can
also be applied to sex: When it's done with the right intention—the intention
of uniting opposite energies—it can be used to express joy and unity.
So this was a
taster, I’m no expert. If you want to
know more here’s some tips:
Find your Shiva, Shakti, or whatever floats your boat and surrender to love. Enjoy :)
So back to yoga 1.0. It's pretty obvious that yoga in the west is losing it's heritage. Yoga is branching out into new types such as laughing yoga, chocolate yoga and trace dance yoga. I think the word 'yoga' is getting diluted but so long as they are all doing good who cares?
The oddest class
I’ve ever done was a simple asana class taught by a Korean girl with not so
good English. She got left/right and
hands/feet muddled up throughout the class.
Twister Yoga…..if only we’d have had some coconut oil ;) So choosing the right teacher is important
and that’s down to what feels right with you.
I recommended teachers in Dublin in my first yoga post . I can also recommend a very good yoga
retreat. I’ve been to +20 at this stage but back home offers the world’s
finest.Clare Island Yoga retreat. Simply
amazing.
I practice yoga
asanas daily and as I’m lucky enough to be travelling get to roll out my mat in
exotic places like tropical beaches, ashrams and by stunning lakes. They might sound perfect but I remember dogs
licking my face on the beach, mosquitoes feasting on me in ashrams and a local
fan of drum and bass testing his speakers on the lake. So that place is up to you. Right now I’m on the perfect beach and it is idyllic but I’m equally as excited about practicing in my house back in Dublin.
Thanks to MacDalena Mitter for this shot of me in Koh Phangang:
So doing yoga
without doing yoga? I've read lots of books on yoga but am only scratching the surface. Two booked which stand out are 1) The Yoga Tradition and 2) The Power of Now. The first is a good overview of Yoga 1.0 and the other is how to live yoga in today's world ie. life is what happens whilst you're busy making plans. Mindfulness. If you practice mindfulness you are on the path to finding a greater sense of calm and focus. The rest, whether it's rolling out a mat, doing breathing exercises, meditation, devotional singing or tantric sex is up to you. We all like different things.
And what’s my
next step with yoga? I’ve taught classes
in Delhi, a few on the beach in Thailand and even in a studio looking at the Himalayas in Dharmshala. However, for now I
am less concerned with teaching and more concerned with just living my
practice. As such, as I enjoying sharing my teaching to small groups I’ve setup a yoga co. Suited yogi. I have the website and
social media all in progress but with limited wifi I won’t get them up and
running until early next year. A big THANK YOU to Katya Karneychik for this logo design
My conclusion. Is yoga a fashionable antidode? I've missed out alot of parts of yoga which don't reach the pages of the tabloids but the fact that it is fashionable right now can only be a good thing. And can you only discover real yoga in India? Not necessarily, it helps as India has a lot of people doing the same but as Kumare says - it's already inside you.
As for my last
words? One part of yoga I didn't cover is attachment. It's hard not to get attached when we are sharing love but bear in mind this quote from Osho (another guru with a grey beard). Love yea all xx
