Well hello everyone! Been a few days since I have written anything and we have spent 10 hours travelling today so I am writing this with red sore eyes, an empty belly and the taste of dirt and petrol embedded in my tongue. Lots happening since my last entry. We spent 2 days and nights in the amazing town of Omkashwar, where the whole area was going mad on the festival of the goddess Durga. This is a sacred island that is shaped like the symbol Om. Our jeep was stopped for 20 mins on the way in because some men were so enraptured with gratitude to Durga that they jumped off their overloaded tractor and began dancing with ecstacy in the middle of the road! Never seen anything like it and a sign of things to come... I awoke and went to sleep both days and nights to the sounds of singing and drumming floating up the hill and in our window. Took a beautiful boat ride too. Our room had strange looking marks outside the door, which on closer inspection were monkey paw marks!!! I kid you not! They were everywhere (the monkeys that is!). We were told not to make eye contact with them, which we all thought was really cute until one tried to pinch something out of Madelines hand! This place....
Luckily, we have a divine Guide by the name of Chetan who is a hindu, so again blessed we were ushered in a side door in the middle of all the festivities by a priest, and were blessed as we left more offerings for Shiva in yet another very important temple on this island. It was a huge night. We are such a sight here, 4 western women and one Indian man. It is a very strange experience, and a woman nearly lost it with excitement talking to me that evening through Chetan interpreting. I have become quite practised at imagining a white light around me that has me blend in better. It seems to really work most of the time. I am also now pretending to know loads about cricket, as everyone that asks me where I am from imediately says "Ricky Ponting!" to which I talk very quickly in english about how great cricket is blah blah blah... ok Darren, you were right ;-)
The food here is quite another whole subject in itself. I would love to film some of the experiences I am having with food. We all got dinner the other night at the festival, and Lisa said "if my mother saw that woman stiring the rice with her hands like that and knew I was eating it, she would freak!" and I agreeded. It is amazing how quickly you adjust to these things when you are in a different country. We have tried heaps of yummy food as we are all letting Chetan order for us most of the time. I am sure we are all coming back fatter than before... so much for coming home skinny!
Next stop was Mandu, a beautiful place on top of a mountain range that has the most incredible fort and old temple structures. I will have to fill you in on the Mandu leg soon, need to go for dinner. Love to you all, and keep me posted on whats going on with all you. Nice to get the emails!
Your intrepid, smelly traveller signing off!!!!!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment