More Pictures

Enjoy-- from Sadhana to the Himalaya:




A typical scene in the Main Hut of Sadhana Forest


Cup of late-night chai with the crew (L-R: Seb, Stacy, Josh)


An hour into our northern train ride. Freja, Josh, Lovisa, Seb and Lynden


Josh and Lovisa sharing an iPod


Lohali, the mountain village an hour away from the Rainbow Gathering


Travelers

A closer look


Our modest camp in the valley, Josh and Lawrence of Arabia behind


The Welcome Tent at the Gathering


All of us after just hiking out of the Rainbow Gathering...stopping for a cup of chai (Left to right: Seb, me, Josh, some girl, Lovisa, Betty (friend of Seb's--from the same town), Freja)


Beautiful.


Good friend Seb and I after a hike up the ridge


Lynden enjoying a nude sunset; I had no choice but to join him...


A nice sunset up above the Gathering


The brilliant full moon coming off the eastern ridge


Sharing some chai at a roadside stall

My first Himalayan sunset, from a hilltop inn in Kasar Devi

Gathering in the North, I've come back South

Well, it's been over a month since my last post...sorry about that--

As you know Josh and I have been holed up in Sadhana Forest for the past month and a half. The past two weeks were up in Uttarakhand, in the foothills of the Himalayas, at what's called a "Rainbow Gathering." And about an hour ago we had a nasty fall on our motorbike. I've had a milkshake and a piece of cake...I feel fine.

I'll start from March. Sadhana, as Josh described, is a magical place. We have grown very close to a lot of the people there and the land itself and fell right into the rhythm of Sadhana life. We spent a month learning all about how Sadhana works and picked up many skills: cooking on woodfires, irrigating for water conservation, solar energy usage, landscaping, planting and gardening, eating vegan, composting all types of waste, recycling, reusing, growing a miracle food (algae) called spirulina...etc. etc. etc. Then in late March 6 of us who became really good friends took off north, Sebastian, a British guy who would have a tea and smoke break about 6 times a day (often times we'd all hop on motorbikes and ride a kilometer down the road to have a midnight cup of chai at the 24 hour chai stall), Lynden, a bearded and braided bear of a man from B.C. who spoke in a feathersoft voice, and two Swedish girls, Freja and Lovisa, who just screamed Scandanavia. We were heading to a "Rainbow Gathering" where a bunch (150) of western hippies gather out in the forests and drum and dance and cook and sing and share for a couple weeks around the full moon. We left on April 1st. It was a long haul up to Delhi, 36 hours on a hot train, but it was fun. Lots of cards, chai, laughing, napping, and staring at the rolling countryside. We made it in to Delhi and loaded up on supplies. We set all our stuff down in a little cafe (where we all remained for about 10 hours) and streamed in and out eating, shopping, resting and reading. I bought a bowl, mug and spoon, a blanket, a sweater and some scarves, peanuts and raisins, and a pair of cheaply made boat shoes (for the hike, haha). We took an over night general class (where you cram into cars with only wooden benches and little english) train to a mountain town called Haldwani, which reminded me a lot of Bellingham, the town I went to school in. En route Josh and Lyndentree (our affectionate nickname for him) went to try to sneak into A.C. First Class for a nice snooze...it never ended up working for them, as apparently the curtains around the beds were ripped open and they were forcibly made to leave the car or pay. Anyway, the train cars, at about 2:30 in the morning, separated and half went on to Haldwani-the destination- and the other half went...elsewhere. The core group were told about this event by a nice man named Amar, but Josh and Lyndentree were out sneaking into upperclass cars, so when the time for the train to split came, Seb and I went to go find them, while the girls moved onto the half of the train that went on the Haldwani. It ended up that Josh's bag was left on the wrong end of the train and I was having a hell of a time finding the two lost boys. As I was searching, and Seb was running back at the last minute to get Josh's bag, Amar and the two Swedish girls were frantically yelling down the platform telling us they had found Josh and Lynden and to hurry up because the train cars were splitting. I stepped out of the wrong end of the train after my last-ditch effort to find the boys and I look up to see Seb hauling ass, with Josh's backpack (which is never quite closed properly) falling out all over the place, running after our train which is slowly lumbering down the platform. I run past Seb in a mad dash to make it, and he yells at me, "Help me!" and I look back and realize the horrible mess he's trying to carry and run with. The train pulled away too fast and we both collapsed at quarter to three in the morning in the middle of nowhere laughing hysterically. "This wouldn't be half as funny if I was alone!" We had a chai and a smoke and boarded the next train to Haldwani, which came a half hour later and we spent the rest of our ride munching bananas, drinking chai, and playing chess, as the Indians stared on. We arrived in Haldwani an hour after the rest, some had gotten a room in a local hotel and Lynden was wandering through the train station with a sloppy grin on his face waiting for us and the rising sun...I've never been so happy to see a goofy Canadian (save Uncle Charlie). In fact, as I laid down in our filthy little hotel for a rest at 8:30 that morning, I composed a little something to give you a feel for what turned out to be a really great night:

Arms linked,
embraced in Gratitude,
staring at the long awaited Sun.
Drifting back through the steam of roadside stalls,
us three,
aimless and free,
heading back to bed.

We spent a day in Haldwani and headed even farther into the foothills. A mountside bus ride, which was as dangerous as one imagines, then a jeep drive up and up and up to a little mountain village called Lohali. We had another rest, then hiked up through terraced garden plots and little houses tucked away on the sides of narrow cobbled pathways that led up and through the mountain slope. Goats here, women harvesting grain there, children flying kites, old men sipping chai and puffing Indian beaties (cigarettes) from verandas overlooking huge gaping valleys...absolutely stunning. That small walk alone would have been worth the whole trip.

It was an hour's hike into the forest to reach the Gathering. And when we arrived we were greeted with "Welcome Home!!!" by a young Italian girl in puffy pants boiling tea and lying on a sleeping bag. We found a spot to set up camp (with a borrowed tarp and an old pad found in the "lost and found" area--we lost our tarp and canvas on a bus earlier that day...) and tried to orient ourselves to this very foreign place and situation. The next couple days were spent wandering around, reading, listening to people play their drums and guitars, making fires and cooking rice or making tea. You could hike up about 15 minutes and be overlooking the whole valley and the surrounding hillside villages, small and rustic with terraced gardens and impossibly steep pathways winding through them. We were camped at about 4,500 ft and hiking up the ridges (which proved to be warmer at night--50's [this empirical system is beginning to drain me...]) added another 1,000 or 2,000 feet, depending on the ridge. Sometimes you'd look waaay up at a little house on the hillside, or you'd hike for a half hour and you'd look waaay down at a little house on the hillside. There were two meals a day, and they weren't very big, but were greatly appreciated. Seb and I would often sneak away to a little tent called "The Chai Shop" where there was always a kettle on and we'd sip different teas, light a cigarette, and chat idly while watching the stream roll past.

Wednesday night it rained long and hard and by morning everyone in our group had decided to pack up and leave (even though Thursday was the full moon and the event we had come to the gathering for). But by lunch time the clouds had cleared and the sun had come out and began to dry things out. We stayed that afternoon and watched the mists drift off the mountain slopes and layed in the sun, then about two hours before sunset a small group of us hiked up the ridge to a plateau and sat in the high grass letting the beauty just soak in. We walked a little higher up the peak, and from there it was a 360 degree view of all of the foothills, the valleys below with dotted villages and terraced hillsides and the beginning of the Himalayan range. Everyone was just loving it. We sat on rocks under a big gnarled tree and watched everything turn a beautiful golden hue, the clouds all lit up and the trees changed color and we bundled up in our scarves and sweaters and prepared for the moon rise off the cliff face behind us. We turned around and about 15 minutes after the sun went down, the colors changed to blue and with it the cold came in from the north and the eastern sky began to light up with the rising moon. And just off the horizon came the huge white moon just blazing. Full and shimmering and we all looked at it and each other and the changing sky to the west and the mountains and it was all so beautiful and gorgeous and I remember thinking that this is one of those nights I'll never forget. I remember feeling so Together, as in everyone that I love, everyone that I carry inside of me was there sitting and shining inside of my heart and it was All One Big Movement. Sun, Moon, Mountain, Valley, Us little observers taking part in it all, with the pastures below and the local farmers gathering in the small mountain temple on the opposite peak starting their full-moon-chants...whew. We hiked down by stunning moonlight, the stars were all pulsing and dancing and sending off waves and spirals of light and the whole valley was bathed in silver and you couldn't help but just sit on your haunches and stare wide eyed at that spectacular white orb trailing across the sky. We made it down to the cold valley and walked through the misty moonlight coming through branches, made a pot of rice and potatoes and headed to the main fire where everyone was gathered. People were sitting under blankets with sandals and plates of half eaten rice and instruments that were all laid out and there was a group of guys singing and drumming and one beared western sadhu just wailing on the harmonium a Hare Krishna mantra. We had some tea and danced and clapped and left the group at about 2:30 in the morning. I took a blanket back up on the ridge and sat bathed in moonlight in zazen till about 4 am. Then I had a cold cold sleep, until I was awoken by Lynden and we started a little fire, I massaged his feet because he had a cold sleep in a hammock and we had green tea and white rice with cashews under the warm rising sun at about quarter to six in the morning....I can't think of a better way to dance with the full moon than that.

After the gathering the group headed farther north for a better view of the Himalayas and a quiet, clean stay at a litte hilltop inn. We got both. Because of the rains, the air had cleared considerably and I saw the Himalayas in clear stunning beauty for my first time this last weekend. We spent two days reading and eating and looking at the mountains. Soaking up our time together. We cleaned ourselves and our clothes, bought some supplies for the train ride south and then Josh and I parted ways with our little traveling band.

Now, just as quickly as we jetted north, we're back down south. And it feels about three times hotter than when we left. A lot of our close friends have left Sadhana and Aviram is taking a much needed rest in a local ashram, so the place feels a bit empty. There are about four of us who have been there a while and know how the place runs (which is strange because we haven't been there long at all) and so we're helping each other to organize a group of American students who just arrived. On our ride into town today to get our usual ice cream, tea and internet fix, we took a turn on some sand and the bike fell out from under us. Josh sort of landed half on top of me, and suffered no scrapes, but a very sore lower back. My foot and knee got pretty bad gashes but when we fell about 15 old Indian men came running and hoisted us up, washed us off and wrapped the wounds, then we drove to the local health center and got it all dressed. I'll go back to see a doctor in about 20 minutes. Stings a bunch, annoying that it happened, but really nothing serious. Thanks tetanus shot!

We have another two weeks here, then up to Hyderabad for a Nandula reunion, a Vipassana retreat, and then finally back to the northwest. I'll try to post some pictures soon, there are a lot of good ones. Anyway, I hope things are thawing out and starting to bud back home. I hear life is ticking along as usual :)

Holding you in my heart for sure-- see you soon!