It's been an adventure-filled few days! Three days ago we decided that we wanted to check out Mundagod, one of the Tibetan settlement towns in southern India. We jumped on a bus from Hubli, and an hour later, we were told to get off at what looked nothing like a Tibetan settlement. Everything was still in Hindi and we saw no monks! Luckily, one the food stall guys at the bus station told us we needed to take a jeep to the settlement, that Mundagod was just the town outside of the settlement.
We wandered around for a bit, looking for the jeep stand, when we came upon a monk who could tell we were lost. With hand gestures and broken English we communicated that we wanted to see the settlements, and he led us to another group of monks, who in turn took us to the jeep stand. We all piled into one jeep and drove about 20 minutes past gorgeous monastaries and little towns. One of the monks who spoke English explained that there were a few different camps that we could see. We decided to get out at camp 2, since that's where most of the monks got out. Then we thanked the monk who led us here, exchanged addresses, and looked around for a place to eat. Managed to find a vegan Tibetan restaurant (which is strange, acoording to Jake, since Tibetans eat a lot of meat), and we ordered some momos (dumplings) and soup. Shortly after we sat down we were joined by an older Tibetan man who we found out later was a lama. This man spoke very little English but he spent the day and evening with us as our guide to this incredible place. Using hand gestures, and stopping people on the street who could translate for us, the lama took us all around town. First we stopped at a health clinic which we found out had just been completed this past month. Allopathic, ayurvedic, and Tibetan doctors were there, and monks got free treatment. We also found out that the Dalai Lama himself had just been to the settlement a few weeks back for opening of the monastary and the health clinic! From the clinic we walked to the monstary, which is one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen. Here is a picture taken from inside the monastary of the meditation hall. (Our lama's reflection is in the window). Inside the monastary, the lama took us all the way to the top, into a room where we found monks making Yak butter sculptures (it's kind of like Play-doh, and it's dyed different colors. Jake told me that the sculptures are made as a lesson in impermanence, since they eventually melt in the heat and sun). We sat and watched for awhile, and then Jake sat on the floor and joined them, and at the very end I joined in as well. It was like arts and crafts time with the monks! Everyone was so happy and laughing the whole time. We could hear insane chanting in the room next door, the breeze was coming in through the window, and the sun was setting outside. It was a pretty beautiful hour.Afterwards, our lama took us on a walk around the roof (as the sun set), and for a walk around the monastary grounds. Then we walked back to his room (the monks live in cooperative facilities, it seems) where he gave us sampa (roasted barley that Jake says is delicious), white cloths that teachers give to their students, a beautiful old book (all in Tibetan), and he tried to give us cloth he had received from the Dalai Lama, but we couldn't take the final gift. He wouldn't take any money from us, and we wanted to badly to do something for him, so we gave him a string bracelet that I had made for Jake a few weeks ago. It was amazing that we were barely able to communicate, but we had spent the whole day with this amazing man. The energy of the settlement was so calm and happy- it was truly a beautiful place to be. We weren't sure what to expect, but that trip definitely exceeded mine. It makes me really excited to visit more settlements up north, if we can!
The next day we woke up with a pretty awful heat rash (ie: red splotches that were incredibly itchy and hot) that we're thinking might have come from eating too much spicy food at one time (we didn't eat too much spice in Goa). Don't worry mom's- right now it's much much better after getting calamine lotion and taking cold showers and antihistamines. Even though we weren't feeling perfect, we decided to jump on a bus to Badami, a town that we had heard was close to a dance festival. Six hours later (and a very bumpy bus ride), we were in the most bustling Indian town I've ever seen. Cows, warthogs, and monkeys were EVERYWHERE, people were running around back and forth, food stalls, cars, buses, beggers, children, this place was the most chaotic non-city we've seen yet. We managed to find a really nice room at Hotel Anand, and we found out that the festival was happening in Badami (great news!)
We decided to settle in our room, and restup before the all night fest. We were both lying down and reading, when the door swung open. It was pretty breezy out, so I figured that the wind had pushed it open. About a minute later I got up to close the door and saw a MONKEY standing in our doorway staring at us! Now you all know that our last experience (or Jake's last experience) with monkeys was not very pleasant, so I was a bit freaked out. However, we were told that the best way to deal with monkeys is to NOT freak out, not look them in the eye, and remain calm. So for a minute or two, we both lay down, tried to control our breathing, and hoped it would go away. Thinking it had left, Jake looked up to see if it was gone, only to find that it was now IN OUR ROOM looking through some plastic bags on the floor! Yes, this is very funny in retrospect, but ahh! We watched it abandon the plastic bag and head over to my toiletries bag which was very close to the bed. I got a little freaked out and said "let's go!", so we got up to leave the monkey in the room. However when we got up to go, the monkey scampered out, so we shut the door and locked it well. Lesson learned, THANK YOU very much! Always be sure to double lock your door from the inside when there are monkeys around...
After the monkey scare, we rested for a little longer and then headed off to the festival. (on the bus ride there, btw, when we told the man in front of us that we were from the US, the first thing he said was "oh, Obama beat Hilary in the Florida primary!". Strange way to get the news, but hey, go Obama) The festival was a celebration for a goddess, so it was all based around this one beautiful temple. It's difficult to describe the craziness of the festival in words (and in photos)... There were dramas, movies, music, cars driving by with blaring megaphones, food stalls selling sweets and fried foods, vendors selling bangles, toys, blankets, clothes, and other goods. Jake took the photo at the bottom of the post of the vendor selling tikka powder. The stalls were so gorgeous, with piles of brightly colored powder covering the table. Whenever we tried to take a photo (after asking permission first), the vendor would always ask us to take a photo of him/her as well, so we have a lot of photos of random vendors. They were really excited to see their photo in the camera! Something tells me that very few foreigners come through this area.
That said, we were the only foreigners we saw the entire night. So being two blonde kids, we stood out quite a bit. Over the course of the night we developed a bit of an entourage. Any time we stopped in one spot for more than 5 seconds, a crowd of 10-20 people gathered around. It was kind of insane. We also had our two bodyguards (the two boys to my right in the photo above) who followed us around for about 1/2 hour. All in all, it was a crazy night. We gave puja at the temple (and when we received water as blessing to put on our foreheads, I spilled mine on the floor. Whoops), and walked around for a while longer before heading home.
The next morning we decided to head back to Hubli and when we got to the bus station, we found ourselves in the center of a large group of school boys and men. They surrounded us for over an hour while we waited for the bus, staring, laughing, and asking questions. The Vassar girl in me came out when one of the men approached us and started asking Jake questions about me. I told the man that he could look me in the eye and ask me the questions himself. This threw him off guard, but we managed to have a conversation with him only looking towards Jake a few times. Though it was really intense to be stared at and questioned for so long, I think I'm adjusting to it, or I'm feeling stronger with it because I was able to laugh and not be bothered by the intensity of the situation.
We're now in Hubli, waiting for a train to go to Mysore where we'll spend the next few days (the dance festival in Bangalore was cancelled). Then off to Kerala to meet up with Vassar folk, and then from there who knows! These past few days have been a trip- never know what to expect here!!
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