Travel Update: Getting Out of Here!

"Drink it! Just drink it!" the young American with dreadlocks exclaims with great enthusiasm. He is sharing his wisdom with a young European woman over breakfast at the Ganga View Cafe, Rishikesh. What's he talking about? Urine, of course!

"Shiva gave a discourse to OUR BODIES," he continues. "Shiva... GOD... is talking to OUR BODIES... telling us that this is very secret knowledge... it's like a magical elixir... our bodies make a MAGICAL ELIXIR!" The discussion continues for a good ten minutes as he expounds on all the wonderful benefits of drinking your own urine and how secret and magical this knowledge is, until finally the honest question is posed to him: "Do you do it?"
"No... 'cause I smoke."
"Why is that?" the innocent European woman responds...
"Smoking's got all sorts of poisons. Otherwise, I'd drink it everyday!" He answers.

Welcome to Rishikesh. I won't even try to argue the logical insanity of his discourse, but I'll leave it for you all to muse over.

I leave the cafe, and while passing by the numerous cows who graze in the streets and alleyways, I come to the jeep station. Here, jeeps cram full of Hindu families to take them up into the mountains to visit some holy Hindu sight (forgive me for not knowing which one.) As the jeeps speed off, there is often one or two older women in the back vomiting or preparing to vomit from motion sickness - the price paid for a trip for God. No one seems to care.

I keep walking, and I see a woman in tears, blood running from her nose, holding a baby in her left arm. The blood is gushing too, not just a couple drops. Her husband holds the other baby in his arm and makes weak attempts to cheer her up - so weak that I suspect perhaps he has played some role in causing this bloody nose. But, that's just speculation. Whatever is going on... again, no one seems to care.

Welcome, again, to Rishikesh. And, this is one of the nicer towns in India! It's actually quite pretty to look out over the Ganges, through the swarms of flies, or walk across the pedestrian bridges. It's probably about 100 degrees in the daytime here, which adds to the pungent rotting fumes in the alleyways.

The good news - I'm getting out of here! Not to say that Rishikesh doesn't have some charm. The Beatles Ashram is pretty cool, and there are some nice tourist conveniences like Italian restaurants and German bakeries. And, it's not to say that the challenge of India really confronts one's concepts of the way things "should" be. But, I'm gladly accepting that it's time to move on.

I was planning to stay in India until the end of my visa in June, but given the circumstances with my grandfather, I will be heading back to the US in a few days.

Ghandi has this to say:

I have found by experience that man makes his plans to be often upset by God, but, at the same time, where the ultimate goal is the search of truth, no matter how a man's plans are frustrated, the issue is never injurious and often better than expected.
- M.K. Ghandi

So, here are my tentative travel plans:
- Rishikesh to Delhi May 16th
- Delhi to Bangkok overnight May 16-17
- Bangkok for two days (oh, curry and mangoes!)
- Bangkok to San Francisco May 19
- San Francisco to Berlin, Massachusetts (And return to SF) May 28 - May 31

After that, the door is open for God to frustrate me further, though of course, my plan is to continue to pursue my meditation practice as priority number one.