Tashi!

This is us sitting in the garden at Varanasi Univeristy where Geshela used to teach Buddhist philosophy. With us is our friend Ven. Tashi. He gradutaed with a PhD from this university and now teaches Buddhist philosophy near Melbourne at a beautiful centre a walk from famous Bells Beach. The other pic is of Allie and myself in South India at the little town near Sera monastery.

At the Ganges River

India's most sacred river. Millions of Hindu pilgrims come to bathe for spiritual purification. At the moment the Kumbha Mela is being celebrated. It is said to be the largest gathering of humans in the world, occuring only once every 12 years. Amongst the millions are many yogis, fakirs, sadhus and devotees.

When Animals Attack!!!

We made friends with this wild monkey in Sarnath who wanted a drink of our water but when it came to sharing his food with Allie he was not as generous. Allie picked up some of his food to feed him but as soon as she touched it, there was an ear piercing screech as the wild beast flew through the air with laser like precision gashing Allie's right breast! .... realy it was just a scratch, most of her wounds being emotional.

Safe House

We arrived at the Tibetan settlements without the correct passes, which are just about impossible to get. We decided to go to the police station to see if we could talk our way in. I learned very quickly not to argue with an Indian seargent who was quite rude and kicked us out. We hid at a safe house (Geshela's dad's house) while deciding what to do. Pics above are of Geshela's dad and nephews.

The teachings were the next day. The seargent had explained that if he caught us he would prosecute us. The signs up at the moasteries said 5 years jail if caught. Anyway we decided to risk it. The next day on the way to teachings we got caught and kicked out again. According to the rumours around camp we were arrested handcuffed and thrown in the back of the police van ... but I don't remember that actually happening!!!



Like Lleyton Hewitt, two sets down with the home crowd behind him, we didn't give up. We waited 'til sun down and organised a local Indian to drive us back into the Tibetan settlement.

When we arrived back at the safe house Geshela met us and said good news - he had the papers we needed. When asked how he got them he responded with his newly acquired and now favourite English saying, "Money Talks!" He had managed to get some high officials in Delhi to process our papers and with quite a few thousand rupi bribe we got the 3 month processing time reduced to a few hours. Above is Ven. Theresa, Geshe Wangchen (both from New Zealand), Geshe Samten and Allie out the front Dzongsar Choedak Monastery where HH Dalai Lama gave teachings.

Trains, Planes and Auto-rikshaw-mobiles

We travelled from Varanasi to Delhi by train. The train rolls along very slowly which is great as it was a wonderful way to see the country side of India. We are both quite adventurous, and although the cheaper tickets had great views we decide the train roof was not comfortable enough to sleep on!



We then took a flight from Delhi to Bangalore followed by a five hour taxi ride to the Tibetan refugee settlement. We stopped on the way for a beautiful South Indian lunch. We love South India- the weather and feel is much like Queensland, tropical and sunny.