Well, I made it through most of the Vipassana. I say most because on the second to last day I came down with an extreme case of food poisoning. I had a horrible fever for an evening, and the next day began purging all the liquid in my body. I could not drink anything as it would immediately come back up, and I became so dehydrated I nearly passed out in the bathroom, although out of necessity, in order to maintain consciousness,  I was sprawled out on the floor. Lucky for me, a very nice guy from New Zealand dragged me to the hospital at 11 at night via an hour long bumpy rick-shaw tour, and stayed with me until I was better. Barely coherent I was put on an IV and drugged up for two days in the hospital. After that each of us had some time to kill, so we went over to a Tibetan monastery area and hung out in one of the most peaceful areas that I have ever been, while in India.

Unfortunately this was a horrific ending to my vipassana experience, and I cant yet think about the vipassana without connecting it with the sickness. Although the meditation retreat was very, very challenging, both physically and mentally, I believe it was a good experience. Although I can't quite say that I am ready to go back for another round yet. My knees felt ten years older, but I assume that had I made it through the entire ten days I would have come out in an extremely peaceful state and with a knew look at myself and that around me. 

After all I regained most of my strength I took a bus to Delhi and stayed for two whole days, despite what people say about the city. I actually found it a very interesting place, I think what ruins it for a lot of people is that it is the first place many people see on they're trip to India, and they have not become desensitized to all the crazyness. By now I have learned to ignore or see past much of the shit and noise, and I quite enjoyed my time in Delhi. They have an amazing metro system by the way, which at times can be very crowded, but works with amazing efficiency.

On the 10th of may I took a flight to Kathmandu, and after meeting up with a friend I met at the ashram, have been getting all the gear together to make a couple of treks. The plan is to trek for the next 5 weeks or so. We will start with the the Annapurna circuit trek tomorrow, which will take something like 17 days, and hit a high altitude of 18,00 feet. After this we will go for the Everest base camp trek, which may be a little faster due to our being acclimatized.

Below is a picture of street widening measures, basically they just come by and scrap off the entire front part of peoples buildings.

Me with my huge basket of drugs.

Pictures for a Tibetan monastery that I stayed at while I was recuperating.