DELHI TO KATHMANDU

FULMAYA OUTSIDE MINDROLLING MONASTRY

From out of the chaos of Delhi and into the chaos of Kathmandu.

September13 in Dehra Dun and we attend the Dalai Lama’s teaching at the aptly named Mindrolling monastery.  I was told it was a Chenrezig empowerment and therefore a very special affair.  Thousands of Tibetans attended but unfortunately, the whole of the teaching was in Tibetan and the discourse lasted 3-hours.  I hope some merit rubbed off for just being there.  Oh, and I did see the Dalai Lama for about three seconds as he passed by about 30 metres away.

From the monastery we returned to our hotel, Pearl Inn, a reasonable place to rest ourselves, collected our bags and made it to the train station to connect with our overnight sleeper, third class that we had booked at the station earlier in the day.  We also had the foresight to book a plane from Delhi to Kathmandu for the following day on Spice Jet on the Make My Trip website, highly recommended. 

AN OLD STEAM ENGINE AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE STATION

On one counter at the railway station was a long line of jostling people but we stood in a queue for foreign passengers and after showing our passports which were photocopied we managed to get a couple of berths from the quota. 

Knowing the hassle with Indian trains, we arrived early but had no trouble finding our carriage.  The beds are three-tier which sounds a bit uncomfortable but actually I had a great sleep on the middle bunk, rocking away to rhythm of the carriage.  Fulmaya told me in the morning that there had been a loud thunder and lightning storm but I didn’t hear a thing.

Fortunately, a lovely lady, Upasana Pokhriyal, had the berth across from us and we got into a conversation.  Upasana works for Madison World and is guilty of being instrumental as part of a team for placing adverts on Indian television.  Now, if you’ve never seen the programmes that are put out, then you won’t know that every five minutes of actual programme is interrupted by 10 minutes of stupid adverts.  Anyhow, all is forgiven because in the morning she got us off the train, into an auto rickshaw and on to the amazing Indian metro to Green Park station where she then put us into another auto rickshaw after bartering for us and where we left her, then all the way to our hotel, Nyamgel House in the prestigious Defence Colony.  We pottered away the time there until it was time to leave for our flight.  So Upasana, all is forgiven for subliminally filling poor Indian’s heads with nonsense.  When she comes to Scotland for her honeymoon about which she seems to have some romantic vision, we hope we can repay her kindness in some way.

UPASANA

Now we’re in Kathmandu, away from the dust and the chaos in the centre of the city in a quiet suburb with my sister-in-law Renu while her husband is visiting family in New York.  Time now to relax and gather energy for the rest of our trip.

AND SO IT IS!

LOHSAR

Celebrated Tibetan New Year at Samye monastry in Eskdalemuir. Managed one nyungne pair: that is, one full day of prayers to Chenrezig, the symbol of compassion of whom the Dalai Lama is said to be a reincarnation. Last drink at 8pm then silence and nothing to eat or drink for 42 hours when the fast is broken with a thin gruel and glasses of water, soya milk and tea. A full meal is then eaten before midday and the whole thing begins again. The text is gone through three-times each day with 108 full prostrations over the pair.

I managed one-pair. Fulmaya is attempting 8-pairs over 16-days.