Ok, for some reason the Beatles are playing heavily at this stage in my song titles... Ladies and gentlemen, I am officially in love with India! Meet my group on Sunday, and am sharing a room with another chickie by the name of Lisa Williams. So its such a shame my intention wasn't to come to India to find myself.. hehehe... She is great and comes from Sydney. 4 ofus in total, all girls and a fabulous guide by the name of Chetan. We did some market time on sunday arvo, was so nice to have some back up, and Chowpatty beach for dinner where we got completly caught in a massive downpour. We arrived back at the hotel drenched. Was heaps of fun. Much squealing and laughter was heard.
Very early start on monday, as we took a6am 7 hour train trip (which became 8.5 hours india time) wich I totally loved. The country is really beautiful, and the food was fab. Toilet was scary though, everything straight on the tracks. Arrived in Aurangabad and headed straight for the Ellora caves. These were amazing! The monks carved these incredible series of 32 caves and meditation halls straight out of the side of a mountain! Won't bore you all with the details except to say it is the most amazing thing I have ever seen! The energy is incredible. I was teary eyed many times by the sacredness of the energy and the beauty of the Gods, Goddesses and various scenes depicted in the rock. I left an offering at the base of an incredibly old Shiva Lingum withing the main temple and made a prayer from my heart. Then we visited the last pilgrim site of 12 sacred Hindu temples dedicated again to Shiva. It is believed that anyone who finds themselves at this temple are destined in this lifetime to be here. I was struck by that, and it resonated somewhere deep in my heart that this was indeed my purpose for this journey. Again, I bought a beautiful plate of flowers, sweets, coconut, fruit and leaves and joined the frenzied Hindu crowds to enter the very small, hot and pumping temple to lay he offering at the base of yet another old lingum. Wow... was quite a day. By the time I had yet another cold shower, hit the pillow I was out like a light.
Today we visited the Fort which was also really interesting. I had forgotten what a rich history India has as far as royalty and different kingdoms. Facinating stories and the strategy that went into the design of this particular fort was very clever. As our guide was explaining to me, along time ago the men took time for contemplation and meditation, and it as then that these brilliant ideas would have come to them. Today, he told me, everyone is to busy to hear the voice of God. I liked that, and will bring that home with me.
So, I am taking a moment out of the crazyness of the streets to fill you all in on these last couple of days. I am loving it and feel like this will be quite a journey. So, I hope you all are well, and if anyone wants to email me to say hi, please use my gmail. Nice to see them when I go in...
Love you all
xxx
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