Last days in Delhi; arriving in Kathmandu

With Zorba Publications hosts

It has not been possible to find time to write anything for the last few days.  We are now in Kathmandu.

On Sunday I taught two workshops in Gurgaon near Delhi.  Unfortunately because of the delay with the issuing of our Indian visas we were not able to confirm with Zorba Publishers that we would definitely be in Delhi until the day before we flew.  This meant that they were not able to advertise the events to any great extent.  Still there was a reasonable turn out and it was delightful teaching the two groups.

Answering question after teaching

The organisers from the publishers seemed pleased that I offered a professional and practical presentation and were most complimentary.  I have the good fortune of not only having trained as a school teacher, but having also received excellent teacher training within the Aro Lineage.  All the Aro teachers present the teachings skillfully.

Taj Mahal

Monday was our last free day in India and we decided to take the long trip to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal.  We set out early at 5:20 and it took us about 3 hours to get there.  It was worth the journey however, the Taj Mahal is breathtakingly beautiful.  I am so happy to have seen it.  We had a guide which was 'free' and included in the cost of the ticket, but we guess we paid for our 'free' guide in the shop he guided us to at the end of the tour.  I don't know if it is a British thing but we find it so difficult to extricate ourselves from these situations without feeling compelled to buy something.  We know we paid too much for a plate but it is beautiful work and we will appreciate it for always, so we are just regarding it as our contribution to the Indian economy!  It took us 5 hours to get back because of the traffic so it was a long day.

Delhi BnB hosts

For the last two evenings in Delhi we ate dinner at the bed and breakfast, and shared wonderful food with other guests.  We met an Australian man and his daughter, and a young woman from Wisconsin who had been living in India for 3 months and spoke Hindi.  Together with our hosts with had a most pleasant evening of enjoyable conversation.

So on Tuesday we left India and arrived in Kathmandu.  Kathmandu feels a lttle less chaotic and less of a hassle than India but this may well be because this is my third visit staying in the same hotel in Boudanath.  We know the restaurants that we like and about how much we should be paying for things.  Also because we always come as a group certain things are prearranged for us, such as transport to and from the airport.  If we were to visit India again we would happily use the same driver and the same bed and breakfast establishment, so perhaps that familiarity would also make India feel easier. 

Swayambhunath

Yesterday we visited the monkey temple at Swayambhunath.  The stupa there is very nice at the top of the hill with many steps to climb up to it.  It is surrounded by wooded land.  It is also surrounded by many little shops however, which does detract somewhat from the atmosphere of it being a holy place.

It is quite slow and laborious to upload photos to my blog on the intermittent internet connection at Valley Guest House in Boudha in Kathmandu, so I will only post a few pictures every couple of days while we are here.  'ö-Dzin has taken many wonderful photos of the Taj Mahal and other sights in India and Nepal.  I will post a selection of these when I get back to the UK.