Notes about India

India - the country of colorful women, impudent monkeys, crowded trains,international eye centers and bollywood movies- finally i visited you. Actually it really makes no sence to write about India, i truly believe that one should just visit this country at least couple of times to get the feel of it and to make his/hers own conclusion what India is all about.

Here i'll just post some random notes taken during my trip, cuz these memories are too precious to let them be forgotten :) No offence to any Indian people, in fact people there are great(It is just soooo different! that is why all the observations)

Well, to start:

Animals that i saw:  mice, cows, monkeys, goat puppies, skinny dogs, donkeys, horses,squirrels, lizards, rats, elephant, cats

Some picularities: head move, "only"(used in so many different occasions- "Are you going there only?", "We came to school today only"), information coming in pieces and asking for directions usually works from 3-4th attempt
-Is it a train to Borivili station?(train is almost leaving)
-Where do you want to go?
-We want to go to Borivili
-Oh,yes, this is the train. Where are you from?

Not knowing what when where how(seems that at any work place) , solving small things before big ones(oh, the lesson is starting, you have to go! You didn't have your chai?0_o . Ok, go have chai), rarely thinking outside the box, people walking barefoot just because :)

Funny signs: international eye center, urgent rubber stamp maker

First days:
coming back with manuel to his place and passing through slums, appartments without windows
fight with rat till 2 am in Greater Noida hostel room, meerut and my b day in indian family with cake in the face, going to the worship place at late night dressed indian, little girl teaching us indian dance

Rishikesh

Crazy mountain road,camping and indian dances till late night, rafting in Ganga, Lady putting bracelet on my hand in the street, tibetian shop and getting treated with chai and chapati, local food place and dinner for 25 rupees with trying the best sweets ever - that's how i got to know delicious Gulab Jamun, weird guys on the street wanting to "teach" me  tantra and yoga and probably to open all my chakras, local food place and 3 indian government man incisting on chai with them, made to swim in ganga by the whole women part of the family, staying in ashram and visiting super sincere and sunny old guy from meditation classes, self - madecooking classes in the ashram,  rikshaw with 12 people and indian music

Back to Delhi

I have never seen such a fancy mall in my whole life, Phrases from Blazhe: "give india a chance and if u can do it in india u can do it anywhere", train with  all meals included

Mumbai adventures

3 guys meeting us in mumbai, yeei, we are dance teachers, learning how to cross the road with a magic hand, fine arts school with express  flute lesson, chowpatty beach with rollercoasters and bhelpuri, marine drive - nice colonial houses, getting lost at 12 at night the first day,long indian gate and colaba walk - shops with purfumes and oils, blessed stones, beer in the small street and smelly docks, juhu beach

Matheran trip  - not being able to push into the train, artificially blond vanilla guy, monkeys in matteran stealing food, ride on toy train, horseman and pan makers- the main professions,

Navratti festival - yards with lights, shiny materials, dancing people young and old, a little girl taking us to the temple, food, making chapati, granfather with swastika, huge parrot, temple with food on the leaves after the school

Playing drums and singing worship songs at school, invasion of little 3-4 year old kids with alien faces on the stage while dancing class, weird night - rich people, nice terrace, brazilian diva, bolliwood stars afterparty, bachata dancing, liscence for drinking, red light district - kamathipura, guy trying to "show us around", exposure beds and ladies with  a "look", hanging gardens, seller chaging a religious book to kama sutra when he saw us, " nice baaaanganga tank, traveling in time - small colonial streets and old houses, psycodelic temple with Finding nemo pictures, physicial playing Om mantra, market in Borivili west with moving people and steady flowers, "student of the year movie"  - national anthem before the movie, got the sari blowse, passed by the temple before leaving to Goa and found temple grandmom  worried that we didnt come for so many (2!)days already, little girl taking us to the station on the rikshaw and getting us bunch of flowers, sleeping bus that looks like train inside the bus, going through mumbai for many many hours

Goa

Different air, buses decorated with flowers, Anjuna shopping: "come to see my shop" in the morning, "want some good hashish?" in the afternoon, great malai kofta, sunset and striped sky,
Long road to baga beach, many indian man , walk to Calangute, bus to Candolim, Uncle Tony bargaining,
making chai and showing us around, whistling man in the fort trying to get everyone out of there, Tiger restaurant with ugly toy tiger, supermarket with russian tourists,uncle Tony conversations, Chai with bread, bus to Panaji that broke, free ferry boat, small colonial streets and Park lane  hotel with many many rules, princess room with stairs, Vihar restaurant, bus to Dona Paula, photo session with a group of men, meeting portuguese Robin singing O sole mio, pescador bar, thank you many times, "roman valenca" - is a new Polish national heroe, " i will love you with permission only", cifa bar and caju fenny, "u dont know anything  about russia",

Chai with cookies ("why you left one? eat it. Now go" - you can't argue with indian housewives), Old goa,jesus movie, hitch hike to the temple, cucumber and watermelon on the leaf, bus to ponda, zombie people(taxi driver, longhaired dracula, little guy), icecream parlour(having fun ordering), udupi coffee shop with mitchi, trying to go to film festival, fenny in the cifa bar, hard times finding breakfast, miramar beach and amphitheatre of guys talking to us and trying to take a pic, stinky market and gujarati sweet place, bangladesh "art house" movie and movie about garden, special thali with many flavours, silent Joseph bar, bus to mumbai with last seats and bed bugs

Back to Mumbai

Straight to school after the bus, worried taxi driver, meeting nice library lady, offer to have Knor for dinner
Going to Chor Bazar,longest shop and bollywood star, green chili and ginger ice cream, No classes,noone cares, went to Colaba- synagogue,  vibrators on the street, art gallery with fingers sculptures, taj adventures, cafe paris, searching for a gay bar, no classes, nice Maxi sir, Chaia lady and probably biscuit guy, no movies - allowed men only , searching for ICCR, Chris on the bike, policemen offering chai, found Tata theather, 14th tale and hip hop shakespear, ride around marine drive singing, running from the cop, Maxalaxmi temple and the mosque,"dont break coconuts" sign, trying to have cadburry "job interview", cooking class with Shipra,

Village Mardes- Traveling brother of Savio, biology and farming lesson, floor from cow shit, marriage preparation, swings in every house, nicely renewed house of the "broom", smiling little girl,

Riding back and forth to buytickets, Gasia in Tata Literature live, wedding and being served first because of being foreigners, man jumping out of the train with the bucket of belhpuri on his head, looong walk for salary,
andheri, accidental walk in the slums, tribal route and oub shops and the things from ele poop and tetrapak boxes, fishermen village, long way back -waiting for buses, veg cutlet on the station, "dont ask,dont tell " show, chowpaty beach and the crowd of ppl - pictures, chai, massage, samosa, mats, little wise girl, color powders,bus ride to Pune with the bollywood movie, Russian clan + Ozzys clan,long ceremony,table tennis, kicker, lady pilot, karaoke bus with Ozzys, long talks about australia, old monk, ride to the bus stop from a nice neighbour, fined in Mumbai for riding local train without ticket(i had a gut feeling), taking shower in public bathroom, train station gradually filling up with people, playing with 2 kids X0 and drawing animals, train ride with 3 nigerian and 1 afgani men

Ride across Delhi for 1000 rupees of salary, random party, walk in CP and Diwali dinner, hiding in
the trainees flat from firecrackers -felt like war.

Adventure starts again

Bus to Karnal, 30year old virgin guy and interesting conversations, missed the bus stop, two ladies  without ticekts running across the road to tell the ticekt control guys about my situation to get me  a free ride to my stop. Trying to find rickshaw, 10 people walking after me offering me one. Finally there - Vipassana is starting. "Welcome my daughter, the food is ready", fun people,silence starts, wanting to escape, 10th day - we can speak- want silence again.

Night conversation with girls, helpful indian ladies and stop in Chandigarh in Veenas house, paneer masala, crazy bus to Shimla, people helping to find the hotel, evening tea with veg sticks, coooold, Morning walk to Monkey temple(yeeei! just 30 min up the hill -i am fit!),monkey trying to steal my camera, indian coffee house, bus to Mandi, little girl(or boy?) making faces and playing with me, weird guest house found by a boy from the bus, temples carved in rocks, wide river valley, seeing Himalayas closer

MC Leod Ganj

Tibet noodles and political prisoner talks, breakfast with supercoolview, butoh festival(not for  me:)), tibet library and canteen, very polite people, evening walk in honor of self-immolated people, english conversation class, Dalai Lama temple, and little buddhist temple where a nun gave me small Dalai Lama book, talks with shop owners, Huge porrige for breakfast and hike to a waterfall, we are stuck in the rain for half an hour near waterfall, hail,  peace cafe and yak cheese cake, movie about tibetian monks ("all this fuss about the endings, all this fuss"."football is 2 civilized countries fighting over a ball", "when is the fight?" at 23 p.m. - what a strange time to have a fight") Tea at indian place and uno cards till midnight

Breakfast at Peace cafe and long ride to Chandi - bus chaning tire on the way, Suchetas husband with  wise kind eyes, supercool wooden couch, dinner with Veena, rock garden and meeting the founder Nek Chand, coconut water, exibition of Indian goods and cooking aloo puri and Suchetas place. "Love is when passion is gone but you still can stay 24 h together without annoying each other"

Sancocho at Dominican consulate, skyfall, crazy shopping last minute and rickshaw to the airport


Wow, that's about it. All 2,5 months right here on this page. I'll be back. I know ;)

Yogafest

Well, i knew i had to go there. I knew it was gonna be amazing, and it was.
Yogafest is something that one involved in yoga, breathing tecniques, and  this kind of spiritual thinking must try. It's an incredible feeling when after 2 hours by train and 1,5 hour walking through the forest you finally see the colored scarfs, tents, yoga mats and face this awesome community of people of different ages, but all young in heart.
Nina mentioned that "all of them have kind eyes", also they treat you as you are, there are no society rules, there is no conventionalism, just honesty and immense love to everything around. They don't need alcohol or any other drugs to feel good, they are just happy because they are.

We've tried amazing food, we've visited new sessions, and had mind opening dialogues, we hugged people that we didn't know and said "i love you" to the word, we've eaten blueberries from the forest and sang mantras all together. I am happy i was there, at least for one day.

And wish i could live in the place like that and maybe one day i will come to that. The video will follow later.

Om

moments of life

Since i left Dominican Republic, i've been in a more high state of conciousness, that's an interesting feeling. Feeling that you actually do exactly what you need to at the moment. I've been missing the moments of solitude that i have here, the moments that help you to discover yourself better, the moments when you grow and understand things about the world around you, your relationship, yourself. I've been meeting friends that i haven't met in 2 years, and with some of them it was an incredible vibe- after so many months finally sharing time with the people who are dear to your heart. Funny that some of them i've met only couple of times before i left the country. It feels great to discover St Petersburg again. We had some rainy days, but mostly it's been sunny and nice, but not too hot - the most amazing weather to explore this city. I love going to the new cute places and meeting people that i see for the first time, but we both have a feeling that we've known each other from long ago.

Now that i am by myself and peole that i love and usually hang out with are either not in Russia at the moment or don't believe that "this online thing" works, i take it as it is, and devote this time to personal development and new interesting spiritual growth practices. I walk to my work place every day for 45 minutes(a good workout), and i spend working hours reading books and surfing internet for more new opportunities. Secretary is a pretty good job as a part time thing - you don't need to think much and you can have a computer access - meaning the ability to catch up with friends from around the world that you haven't talked to for a while :)

I visit my parents from time to time and it makes them happy and i am happy to see them too. I do miss a very important thing in my life, to be more precise, someone that is very close to my heart. But i feel i am on the right track, wherever it takes, me that's how it is supposed to be and it's gonna be good.

Good or bad

The flow of information now became tremendous, stunning, better then ever before and still rapidly growing. But the more i think about it the more i doubt if it is actually good or bad.

To begin with, now that i am in Russia for a month or so searching for my internship and dealing with some bureaucracy, i've decided to work for a bit in the Coffeeshop. For now it is even better then i expected(we'll see how it is when i start working for real),and i got a unique chance to be around our new growing generaton - it's not that I consider myself old, but i have to admit that i have at least 4 years difference with almost all the others in the new recruitment ;)  I was actually amazed by that group of people i've met on the training - almost all of them are girls and have started working at ! 15 0_o . But, not about this now.

In our schools and universities on certain subjects in the end of the semester or in the middle you need to make a written work on a certain topic and then present it to the teacher. Internet is a great thing -yes, and when i was in the university we also were downloading everything from there, but at least changing some aspects, reading it, adding smth new, and then it totally worked. But now this 18 year old girl is telling me how two of them dowloaded the same work, didn't even read it at home and started to read it for the teacher one after another. The teacher got a bit confused kind of noticing that they are similar, but put both of them excellent marks. And the girl is saying "he is a good teacher".

I don't want to complain, i did similar things, but it is quite sad to watch how the technology instead of enchancing learning and making us smarter actually makes things so accessible that you don't have to try so hard. To write a work like that Our parents would go to the library and spend there at least couple of days, digest all the information and put it together with their own words, and sure enough it would stay in their heads and make it easier to remember things further. And now? We can get to know anything we want in one second through the Iphone (and that's amazing!) but unfortunately one hour later most of us don't even remember what we've just learned, because we know that this information is always available.
It kind of makes you think less, cuz all the answers can be found online easily.

But of course that is only one of the side effects, there are good things to that too: education became more available, sometimes you just need to have a computer with internet and you can learn anything; you can virtually travel the world and see any place without having millions; you can get inspired so easily going through different things people created and then make smth on your own. I jut really wish people look at this gift that we have, as a tool to grow and develop, not just an easy source of entertainment and a way to handle your semester university work in 5 minutes.

Back to basics

Now i realised what i've been missing so much recently - my personal space. I needed to be alone for some time, to have some self reflexion moments, to have time and space for my own thoughts to be able to appreciate even more being with someone. It is not that i am completely alone right now, my online life is even more active then usual and my parents are around. But right now for a moment i don't have any responsibility and i feel a bit of relief, i know that soon i will want everything back, so it is good to enjoy this state at least for a couple of weeks.

I even like in a way these moments of uncertainty, not knowing what i will do tomorrow and what country i will be heading to in a month. I like those white nights and going to bed at 4 a.m. , even though it through me off my normal schedule completely and waking up at 12 in the afternoon seems like a huge waste of time. I like that i started to listen to new music, to read and write again, and finally talked to people that i havent talked to for ages.

It is amazing to meet old friends, and to feel like only 2 days have passed since the last time you saw each other. It is great to be in Russia for a bit again, but quite sad that just for a bit. It just doesnt feel that i belong to here anymore. Surpsisingly i feel more safe even in Dominican Republic then here, new generation of people in small towns like Pskov scares me - how it is possible to become developed coutry if most of the girls just care about their high hills and lipsticks and most of the guys wear sports costume all day long and beer boottle seems to be already part of their body. Of course not all the people are like that, and there are those who travel and study and think big, but... they mostly  leave the coutry too... And what will happen to all the culture, literature, arts, architecture? Russia is so reach in it, but it seems like now people are forgetting to appreciate it. Probably in St Petersburg it will feel different, we will see.

Also i have a feeling that in DR i closed my eyes on bad stuff, because in the beginning it is not good or bad, it is just different, and as the saying is "when in Rome do like Romans do". You wouldn't come to another country and start imposing your own rules and beliefs, you take it or leave it. And now coming back to Russia i understand that i can't just close my eyes on some of the things going on here and say "i will stay here because it is my country, and if i don't like something i do my best to change it". Now as i can evaluate the mentality from the side, i don't think it fits me anymore and there is not much i can do about that. Patriotism is not a bad thing, but i don't think that the place where you were born defines you completely as a personality, and doing smth good needs to be necessarily for the good of a particular country.

I still admire Russia and some things that only Russian people can understand, our numerous achievements and the way some people are that only russians can be. I miss some things when i am not here, but i feel that i can take it only in small portions now, a months or so every once in a while.

I want to consider myself cosmopolitan and eventually find a way how to do smth that i really like and improve the world doing it. That would be a perfect scenario and i guess it will take quite a while to organize. Anyway, the process has been fun so far, i'll keep it up :)

Wish/to do list :)

I love these early mornings, when I can slowly open my eyes, crawl out of bed, finally wake up in the shower and walk to the hostel through the morning mist saturated with flower smell.  Then follows usual morning exercise: climbing up 6 staircases and getting to the hostel before everybody is there. Smell  of coffee and 5 min e-mail check start my day and I know that I have at least one hour just with myself before people start waking up, leave or arrive, one hour when the best thoughts occur, some sort of meditative time.

It is 2,5 months left till our planned trip to India, time to start getting tickets and plan those 2,5 months to make sure that the time doesn’t just fly, but is used with purpose and in the best way possible.

Let’s see if I can make a list of things that I want to do before we actually go:

•           Stay one night in Hard Rock hotel
•           Go to Santo Domingo( visit friends, make connections with universities for the hostel, show Annette Zona Colonial)
•           Start making funky jewelry and sell it in the hostel
•           Go to Arte de Vivir Course
•           Visit Samana
•           Go to Pico Duarte (that’s under question, I’ve heard you need to be in a really good shape to do it)
•           So as follows  - start doing 20 push ups and  50 sit ups per day
•           Get certified as an open water diver and for emergency response
•           Go to Russia for a while and travel and work a bit there with Lida
•           Go to the short internship?
•           Try skydiving in Russia
•           Renew my passport

That’s a short list, but still quite many things for 2,5 months ;) 

let’s get it started!

Notes from the airport

"K lo k tu taba haciendo?" - typical dominican phrases reach my ears and that makes me smile, i missed those people and the weird spanish they speak. One month has passed very fast though - when you have a lot of new impressions and you are busy time flies. Deep inside i was hoping so much to have this "i want to come back" feeling", then it would be way easier to make the desicion. Not that strong, but i finally felt it,  in a way i am happy to come back(home). After you start traveling the word "home" becomes something abstract, like we talked with Patricia yesterday - to some extend we are homeless. Not that we don't have a roof and a place to sleep, but that it is hard to define where we belong.

It was weird to be in Russia again, so many changes, so different from what i saw 1,5 years ago. Someone got married, Someone lost the loved ones, Someone gave a start to the new life, Someone is making career, Someone is struggling with changes, Someone got to jail... different stories, different attitudes to the same life situations, same people, inside they've never changed.

I needed this trip to refresh my life, like you refresh the web browser when the page doesn't show you all the info and pictures. Now i see the picture more clear, i have more life in me, i have my eyes shining again. I am ready to come back and take the challange( bavarohostel.com ), i am ready to wait for a little while, cuz now when i plan anything it starts with "we", not with "i". I have seen now how my friends live, we are more or less at the same "searching for something" stage. Sometimes it is difficult, you might be lost because you don't know what you really want from life, but all in all it is pretty interesting, you keep trying new things and learn a lot. Now i know a bit more what to look for - i still don't know what exactly i would like to do, but i know that i would love to live in the place where i will go to the street and every day say "omg, it is so fucking beautiful!".

We'll figure it out, right?