Arrival to Nepal.

So now I am in Nepal. There was some mild relief upon arrival as I was in India with a visa extension that I grew more and more dubious about, especially when I heard the lawyer that helped me obtain it had been arrested for making false visa extensions. On the border though they didn’t bat an eyelid, they took my forms and stamped me out of India no problem. I think the actual extension was legal, but the methods to obtain it contained a certain about of bribery and really extensions shouldn’t be handed out so easily and a 6 month extension is not just for your average tourist like me. Still, it all worked out and im happy for it.

(These following pictures are all from my little camera, which explains the quality difference from my usual pictures.)

So yeah, im in Nepal now, in a town called Lumbini, which is the birthplace of Buddha. I have come here to go and live in a monastery for 10 days or so. To do a meditation technique called Vipasanna, which is about watching the mind and being aware throughout the whole day. So you limit your stimulation’s and just watch, watching whilst walking, watching whilst meditating and watching whilst eating. Since I have done something similar in Thailand I know what im getting myself into and this time I feel more prepared and I’m very interested to see and feel what happens this time. I’m expecting powers of levitation and the power to read people’s minds after this, oh yeah, and Dhalsim style fireballs from Street Fighter 2 . So when I come out I will then start plans for world domination with my newly obtained powers.

Before I was here I sped from Leh to Manali, then from there to Delhi, then from there to beloved Varanasi, then from there to here! It was a great trip and on each stop I met some great people. My dad asked me why don’t I fly from Leh, but I really enjoy these big overland burns, it gives me a sense of the distance I am traveling.

In Leh for my last days I met up with some friends, new and old. Here they are as taken by a local girl (explains the lack of focus), Sarah the girl with the green shawl I met in Goa 7 months ago, so it was great to meet up with her again, and the other two, the guy on the left is from Portugal and the guy on the right is from Brazil. The children are local children. And thats my eye.

When I got to Delhi something strange was going on with the main bazar area I normally stay. It seems that the local people when they had their respective buildings built didn’t follow proper planning permisions, none of them! They all stole 1 meter or so extra land from the public pathway. Now the government realised this (or knew anyway) after some time and decided to make the people give the land back, so all the buildings were currently having a meter or so lopped off the front. Yep, that’s right, they just smashed a meter off the front of every building, very Indian thing to do to a building, structural integrity? Load bearing pillars? I’m sure they know what they were doing (a brick fell from the ragged edge of a building as I was walking past at one point, hit the ground less then a meter away from me). And to fill the gap I put in a picture I have been working on lately, its not finished yet.

This shop has all the latest electronic devices. And Mansion Polish! Indians can be so stupidly proud at times, so much so that they would buy something called mansion polish over normal polish even though im sure they don’t have a mansion. This guy was using it to clean his market stall, but of course its not meant for that so it didn’t do a very good job.

Some wildlife shots.

These haircuts are from barber shop in Varanasi, one of them is called “waved haircut” most of them are chocked full of wave though, the German cut is very Hitler, but then so is the French cut. I think they are all great haircuts. And this skull! I found it on the banks of the river in Varanasi. Since they just throw some bodies into the river sights like this arn’t uncommon. They throw children and babies in unburnt, and pregnant women. I think they do tie rocks to them so they sink and the fish get to eat them first. Some kids came around looking at this skull, one of them asked me what it was. I saw another kid walk near it, he didn’t see it at first, but then he looked down and leaped back, stared at it in confusion for a moment and then spat on it!

These grim looking pictures are from my toe. Whilst juggling I kind of pirouetted on my big toe and it dislodged this huge thick layer of skin! Luckily it didn’t break the surface, so for a few days I hobbled around on it careful not to bust it, as it was quite deep, as you can tell from the blood that filled it, not just clear liquid. It wasn’t that painful at all really, after a few days it went completely down and there was no pain at all. So with surgeons precision I sliced it off and cleaned it up. It looks terrible, but it wasn’t painful at all when I removed the skin.

For those that are interested this is all about the Vipassana im starting. Mostly its not so interesting, but some of it tells you information about the actual practice, and there at the top is the schedule I will be following. They recommend a minimum of 7 days, but then its up to you after that. I plan on staying in for 10 days.

So, tomorrow morning I will go to the monastery and I will be out in no less than 10 days. I could stay longer and I might so i’ll get to read all your comments when I get back.