Stop. Pause.
Close your eyes and take it all in.
Breath with your heart.

In many ways I don't remember who I was just three months ago.
Maybe I was different from who I am now, maybe not.
All I know is that this is the best thing I have ever done in my entire
life. Sure there is a sense of accomplishment that despite many warnings
not to travel through India as a solo woman I did and I flourished in it.
But there has been one reminder after the next to remain humble and keenly
aware of everything going on, inside and out. There is no way to describe
the edges that have been pushed other than I would do it all over in a heartbeat.
I left Indian soil only 2 days ago, and putting myself on that plane was just as
painful as wonderful. In all honesty, if I could have stayed longer I would have
gone right back up into the Himalayas and parked myself there for 3 more months.

When a was wee little infant my crazy parents took me to India to live in an ashram.
From now witnessing India first hand as a cognitive adult it is now confirmed that they were absolutely insane. However, thanks to you (my wonderful parents) I have been given the gift of a
gypsy heart and a spirit that thrives with adventure, risk, and magic.
Immense Gratitude is one emotion rolling through me, and overwhelming fulfillment is another. I Love this land, in all of it's absurd chaos, filth, blessings, lack of reason, potency of spirit, and it's many beautiful people.
Thank you all for joining me along this ride, it has been a pleasure to share it with you.
In just a few days some of my last pictures will be up.
Namaste~
Mia

Varanasi till you dropsi

In order to find our way out of nowhere and onto Varanasi, India swept us into her chaotic and bureaucratic reasoning of doing things. I'll cut the story short and just say that it took 3 days when it should have taken 13 hours. Yet it was amazing, fun, and the truest test of patience and a positive attitude. My fellow American traveler and I were some of the few foreigners who have ever passed through these towns. While waiting in a steamy garbage filled bus stop a local government official asked us if we were from Japan. Yeah, Japan.

Now is the low tourist season to be in Varanasi because the heat is so intense that pretty much between 12 and 5pm you become a pancake blob and slowly get cooked until you can peel yourself off the skillet and blob around for the rest of the night. It was about 108 degrees every day, yet we had the place to ourselves, meaning hardly any other foreign tourists.

For a Hindu Indian coming to Varanasi is like a Jewish person's pilgrimage to Jerusalem, it must be done. It is also the hot spot (quite literally) to leave the body behind. Indians come from everywhere to die here, and there are many old Sadhus (holy men) who are just ambling around in constant prayer waiting for that moment. It is thought that if you are cremated in Varanasi at the holy sites situated right on the river than you are guaranteed instant Nirvana and freedom from Samsara, the karmic cycle of suffering. If you ask me it seems like an easy way out, but hey if it gives them peace of heart and mind then I'm all about it.
The Ganga River is the pulse of spirituality here as in so many other places of northern India. It's the life blood, the place where everything happens. Dying, bathing, doing laundry, brushing teeth, fishing, transportation, and praying. One of the countless ironies of India is that this river is more holy than any temple they have built, yet they dump their sewage in it. Hmmmm...
I didn't quite have it in me to even dip my toes in.
While the sights were fascinating the heat was exhausting, and after 4 days I was happy to get on my last overnight train back to New Delhi and feel the night air rushing in through the windows.

12 days, 12 lifetimes

Four wild tigers, 10 Thali's, 32 hours on trains, 13 hours on local government buses, spaces of expansive Indian country side, spaces where space is a foreign reality and there are hundreds of very pushy bodies, 30 hours without seeing another white person, temperatures of 107 degrees, sunrise boat rides on the Ganges, watching a corpse roll by on top of a rickshaw, taking 523 photos, and knowing that it's all just an illusion. Since leaving Agra it's virtually impossible to believe that it's only been 12 days. What has just occurred is one of the many reasons that I have not only come to love India, but have fallen in love with the mystery of travel. I made a wonderful travel friend named Anthony when I was up north in Mcleod Ganj. He is the reason why I have now been only 15 feet from a wild tiger, and have seen more of rural India than I ever imagined I would.
On the train to the tiger reserve which was in the middle of nowhere-land, even our fellow Indian passengers didn't recognize the name of the town we were going to. It was full immersion, and the kind of nowhere that feels like the farthest place I've been from anywhere. We took two safari trips out into the stunning national park, and saw 3 tigers on our first trip out. That was pretty much all there was to do in nowhereland, and yet it was one of the highlights of this trip for me. Despite the horrible reality of tiger poaching that is still present, after seeing the preserved beauty of this park I feel that there is still hope for India to remain wild. To see India's National treasure, the royal tiger, was a sight I will never forget.
I'll upload some really special photos soon!

From living like a Queen to the Taj!

The Taj Mahal is every bit as beautiful as they say it is. Another morning up before the sun to greet it with new light dancing on this 350 year old marble marvel. Seeing this at dawn was not only for the lighting, but to beat the crowds as well. By 8 am Indian Tour buses were pouring in by the droves all wearing matching white baseball hats so they don't lose eachother. One of the seven wonders, and the greatest momument to Love ever to be built. A somewhat crazy Moghul King built it for his beloved wife who died while giving birth to her 14th child. It's another one of these Indian bubbles. To arrive you walk through streets lined with undescribable rotton smells, trash, VERY persistant and annoying rickshaw drivers, begging children putting on the saddest faces despite their nice shoes, and then it is pristine, peaceful, and something so magestic and sublime that you forget all that just happened. Poof.
The city of Agra here is not a place I want to spend more than 24 hours. So onward I go to catch an overnight train to see some wild Tigers! To one of India's most remote Tiger reserves that has the highest chances of Tiger sightings. The next time you hear from me I should be in Varanasi to witness the burning Ghats for my last days before catching the plane back to the States!
Love to everyone.

Delhi is Divine

The only thing I've ever heard about Delhi is that it's hell on earth.
I have so gratefully had a different experience and it's all because a dear friend of mine
made a phone call his friend who is from this "hell hole". This friend has never
even met me, but he welcomed to stay in his family's house fully equipped with
maids who served me chai and delicious meals in my beautiful bedroom, and a private driver who took me all over Delhi for two days to shop for the plethora of Indian goods that I now have.
I don't mean to brag really, but this just goes to show the sense of hospitality that I have experienced again and again throughout this whole country. Spending 4 nights here was a rejuvenation that I really needed to get rested for the last stretch of this adventure. I may be one of the few who can say that I love Delhi!

Moving on...headed south

Leaving the sweetness of Dharamsala was the hardest departure yet. I was incredibly torn about whether or not to stay... forever, or move on and fill my remaining 2 weeks India with other sights, and eventually head back to the reality of the states, and maybe even working, yikes! Where I was living for 2 weeks in Mcleod Gang there are so many opportunities to really get immersed into the culture and have a positive impact with the refugees who really need support.

I went to a few English conversation classes for Tibetan refugees and just hung out and talked for hours. Each one was so open about their deepest feelings and experiences about the Chinese occupation and about their culture and family lifestyle back in Tibet. It's quite common for the rural villagers to have between 9-14 children, and for 3 brothers to share the same wife and to all live together. Busy wife. They do this ultimately as a result of poverty and lack of resources, as having more wives would mean more houses, food, etc. Sonam showed me a picture of him and his family of siblings and his 3 fathers, he doesn't know which one is really his dad or his uncle. Some things just aren't that important I suppose.

Over the last week His Holiness the Dalai Lama was holding the Mind and Life conference at his main temple. The focus was on how modern psychology and science can be supported by Buddhism. The public were not allowed into the conference itself, but I watched a live video feed of H.H. talking with a bunch of western scientists. The coolest thing he said was that even if we are Buddhist we should not be biased from that perspective. The only way to understand someone else is to forget who we are and try to look from their perspective. I just wanted to hug him.

I left this gem in the mountains at dusk in a thick rainstorm. The overnight bus was as uncomfortable as to be expected, and I tried not to notice the driver smoking spliffs all the way to New Delhi. Winding dirt roads, mostly downhill, and then a random 3am stop for chai. Hey, really just another opportunity for chanting. I arrived in one piece, and with the peace of mind that Delhi would be taking good care of me.

After the silence

Re-entering the world felt like what I imagine birth to be like.
It's all a little bit insensitive, and yet I now know that it seems
that way only because I perceive it to be, and only because
of labels that the mind gives EVERYTHING. Okay, enough
philosophy. But really, the second day of being back I stayed
in bed and had not an inkling to go outside to the world of rough stuff. By day 3 I'm back in the groove, and inspired to witness it all through a fresh perspective, slowly slowly, shanti shanti.

This photo of the prayer flags and stupa (temple) is on a mountain slope
where 20-30 monks are in lifetime retreat. They are all Tibetan
refugees who have walked for over 2 months through brutal weather
conditions without any food to cross the border in flight
from China's oppression. Many do not make it either from being shot point
blank by Chinese soldiers, or simply don't survive the treck. These monks
have committed their lives to mastering their own minds for the benefit of
all sentient beings (still trying to wrap my head around that one).
The reality of the situation in Tibet is unavoidable here.
This area is the by far the most ideal place in India for Tibetans to find
refuge and work, but there is still much struggle and hope that one day
they will be able to return. From talking to both Tibetans and foreigners
who are trying to do anything to alleviate the situation in Tibet, the efforts that are
made don't seem to make a dent on the unimaginable torture and murdering
that is occurring every single day just over the border. None the less,
with the help of His Holiness and others, there may be hope.
Please, for Tibet's sake, do not buy crap made in China!