been busy

So I have been on the move recently. About 10 days ago I was in the very south of India, now I am close to Nepal. It started with a 44 hour train ride to Mumbai, in normal sleeper class, which is dirty how and crowded. During the day, people get on and invade all your space, and its not until 9pm that you get to lay down on your bed. The train went all the way to the east coast and then back to Mumbai, this is what happens when you do thing last minute in India. Most of the time, trains are booked months in advance, so getting tickets is an exercise in luck and timing. The day before the train goes, a bunch of cancellations occur and you have to hope you can get into the train station early enough to grab a ticket...

I went straight for Mumbai in order to catch a 4 day paragliding class. This was really fun, although bad weather rolled in which cut my class short, I was able to learn how to handle the wing on the ground and do some short "bunny hop" flights. The third day was too dangerous for beginners so I got a tandem flight, including some stomach churning acrobatics.

I booked a ticket for Dehradun which is the state Uttarakhand, from Pune. The early ending of my class allowed me enough time to visit my fried Aparna in Panchgani, which is a couple hours from Pune. We had been having a tough time scheduling a time to meet up, I ended up just showing up and saying suprise. This worked out great, I got a tour of where she works and we went and spent a day doing some sight seeing. I stayed in cool place called "eco-camp" which was basically a setup of army style tents right on the edge of cliff. It was a lucky find, most of the hotels were really expensive (well, in terms of normal prices here in India). After a few enquires at the expensive places I was finally directed to eco camp and spent about a fifth of what I would have. I learned that many people come to stay for months just to go paragliding, as it is right on the cliff, there is a nice little launch area.

I was lucky enough to be leaving back to Pune at the same time as one of Aparna's co-workers, so I had some good company for the trip. My flight wasn't until 6am the next morning and I was planning on spending 10 hours in the airport. He ended up inviting me to his house for dinner, which was Amazing. His whole family was there and they welcomed me and kept heaping food onto my plate until I couldn't eat anymore. I was planning on taking a rickshaw to the airport after dinner, but they wouldn't hear of it and set me up a place to sleep and drove me to the airport in the morning.

Yesterday I got into Dehradun, and will be attending a Vipassana, which is a 10-day meditation retreat. Basically it's this: No talking, no reading, no phones, no exercise, no nothing exept what you and your brain and guided meditation, 10 hours a day, starting at 4am. I read about it in a book at some point and got fixed to the idea, still unsure why, but I decided I must try it. I have talked to a handful of people who have done it.  I am more than a little scared, as it is supposed to be extremely challanging, and many people dont make it through. It is supposed to be an amazing experience and enlightening experience and every person I talked has said it was one of the best things they have ever done. Hope I can last.

Silence for 10 days starting now. Later.