The Next chapter - SEA

My flight from Delhi to Singapore was great, it felt like such luxury in comparison to my usual mode of transport in India. I caught up on some of the movies i had missed, but there are only so many one can watch in one hour... Arriving into Singapore was like, wow! From the dust and chaos of India to go to the sterile order of Singapore is quite a change – a kind of pleasant one... ;-) A part of me felt a bit of relief to be out of the chaos. I decided to check if i could get the overnight train to Kuala Lampur in Malaysia, and if i couldn’t, then i was going to head back to the airport and spend the night there...
I managed to get myself a seat on the train, and decided to not get a sleeper, so i just had a normal seat... so that resulted in very little –if any – sleep. I had no intention of spending time in Kuala Lampur, but the only train from there to Thailand is an overnighter, so i got to spend the day there. Near the train station is a recreation park – and when i first saw the sign to it, i imagined that it was like Hyde Park in London, where there are foot paths in between patches of grass. I envisioned myself falling asleep under a tree for some time. That was not to be, as the recreation park had things to entertain, like an exotic bird enclosure, a butterfly park, an orchid garden, an observatory and that is as far as i got. I spent some time in the orchid garden, admiring some of the beautiful flowers – and due to exhaustion, tripping over my own feet a couple of times. I didn’t go into the bird enclosure, as the entry fee was way too high, but decided to spend the rest of my day in the butterfly enclosure. It was pretty cool! I loved just spending ages taking pics of the butterflies. My only photos of my time in Malaysia are of butterflies and orchids!

The journey to Thailand on the train was a dream as i had booked a sleeper this time – not wanting to repeat the previous nights experience. So i slept like a babe until we arrived at the border checkpost the following morning. Arriving in Hat Yay in Thailand was interesting... as the train was pulling into the station a group of young men came running across the tracks and jumped into the carriage asking us where we were going. They were touting for business. As i was getting off the train, i told them that i wanted to go to Phuket, so the one guy said to follow him, so i did. He led me to a travel agency across from the station and tried to get me to buy a bus ticket there. I remember reading in the Lonely planet that the bus station is 2km from the train station and this guy was trying to tell me that this was the bus station. He was also trying to tell me that the bus ticket was 600Bhat, when i had just read i should pay about 300Bhat, so i mentioned that – and they were trying to remind me how long the journey was – trying to justify their costs. I walked out without buying the ticket. I went back across the road to try get a shared tuk tuk to the bus station. Again they were trying to overcharge me. So i waited until the other tourists came out of the station and there was a group of five of us going to the same place so we decided to share a tuk tuk. They were all still trying to overcharge us though, and so we decided to walk away from this area, as we were getting nowhere. As we started walking, one of the Thai guys walked towards me and kicked me on my shin. It wasn’t too hard, but it was very unnecessary. I whipped around and asked him why he had done that... there was an ‘I’m sorry’ – but he certainly did not mean it as he had intentionally kicked me. What was happening is that these guys were so hungry for business (ripping tourists off), and i had taken their business away...

We managed to find a driver that was prepared to give us the local price to go to the bus station, and it was only when we were already on our way there that i discovered that i did not have any of the local currency. I had been given a 1000 note from Laos, which i thought was from Thailand, so was penniless in the local sense. One of the other foreigners kindly paid my fair while i rushed off to the ATM to make a withdrawal to repay them. I then hopped on the next bus to Phuket and arrived there at about 8pm.
My first day i decided not to rest, but to go straight to the beach, so i boarded the bus to Patong beach and after a hearty brunch went to find my place in the sun... And yes, i forgot to use sun cream, so yes, i got sunburnt... i always do that... The result was that i spent the remainder 5 days in doors doing nothing much at all. I really needed to do that though, as i needed to do some nurturing of the self by restoring myself back to health. So i spent my time lazing about, watching dvd’s from the hostel library, cooking for myself (as opposed to trying to eat the local chilli dishes), and spending endless hours on the internet as there was free wi-fi!
After my recouperation period, i headed north to Bangkok in order to begin my meditation retreat.

last week in India...

From the adventures of my Ladakh travels, it was good to enjoy some time doing not much at all in Dharamshala, catching up on internet stuff and visiting with friends who i had met there previously and who are currently living there. One of my main reasons for going back to Dharamshala was to see the Karmapa again for my second private interview. I had one in April when i was in the area, and i arranged to see him again after my Ladakh trip. I had a few questions for him, one of which was on how to cultivate a view on emptiness – which is one of the main things the Dalai Lama spoke about in Ladakh – as i was unsure if this path was more on the meditation side or study... his answer was to study philosophy and to receive teachings on the texts. So i will be looking out for philosophy teachings on emptiness along my travels... It is interesting, i feel such a connection to him from a distance, but when i am in the same room as him I head straight to my mind and the heart is locked away in some distant room... mmm... still working on the open heart issue! LOL!
During my whole stay in India and Nepal i have been really careful about the food i eat and drink, and that did not change when i got to Dharamshala, but what had changed was the weather and the water pollution – so filtered water was no longer a good thing to drink... or so i discovered!! I ended up getting some bug – not of the Delhi-belly kind, but of episodic cramping and loss of appetite. It was interesting because i had gone to the famous Tibetan Dr on Friday morn for a ‘check-up’. He does his diagnosis based on checking your pulse, and looking at a urine sample (if brought). He picked up that i was feeling lethargic, and gave advice on what type of foods to eat more of. It was that evening that i fell prone to the bug though – so he was not able to help with that. So when i arrived in Delhi a few days later i decided to take no chances and only ate boiled eggs, bananas, pomegranates and bottled water. That was also when i stuck my fingers in the path of the ceiling fan while trying to erect my South Korean room mates washing line... I was trying to just be calm and stay with the pain, but it was so intense that i nearly fainted twice, until i managed to find some cold water to put them into. I thought there might be some serious damage to the tip of my one finger, but after a day of being strapped up, it is looking and feeling a lot better!
Leaving Dharamshala, i once again found myself in tears, but leaving Delhi i was filled to the brim with irritation and could not leave quick enough!! LOL! I spent my last IR100 on a slab of dark chocolate – something i have missed a lot!!
Good Bye India!