You never forget your first

Its true. You don’t. And my first was at a Buddhist Monastery. 

Before your mind gets any dirtier, I’d like to remind you that this is a travel blog. And ofcourse I am talking about my first trip. I was awake for days thinking about where to go to. Over the years, I have discovered that planning trips is more exhausting than even being on one, especially when going on it depends on someone else (you know who you are). 

I will deliberately try to talk less about the actual places I have visited since I feel that you should really experience them for your own. Ofcourse I will talk about some things about them that make each place special.

I had 10 days around the time of Diwali and being the religious nut that I am (read: sarcasm), I thought it is the perfect moment to start. I spoke to some friends which was absolutely useless. I kept telling them I want to go to 2-3 places and they kept telling me to go to places which would take all of 10 days. Finally, I decided that my friends could not be relied upon for this important milestone in my life. Afterall, they still have not found a way to get out of having to work for a living, so how smart could they really be. 

I went straight to work on the one source we all rely on, a source even closer to our secrets than our best friends or our parents, a source that knows everything we want to know- Google. I carefully typed “places near bangalore” and boom! I discovered a site that is now my bible for travel in India- www.mustseeindia.com. Also it helped that the name of the website caters to my very basic needs of travelling. So this very important site that I just promoted on this blog led me to a list of a number of places that I could go to. I always thought asking the internet is better than asking actual human beings and this was the last confirmation I needed.

Now before you think that I am one of those people who travels with everything ready to restart civilization in case of Armageddon, let me assure you that I have lost count of the number of times I have had to buy things because I thought something would be available at the guest house or hotel I was staying at and since it was one I found to be the cheapest and sorta reliable, it ofcourse did not have any such amenities (I am amazed at not being corrected by Mr. Bill Gates aka Microsoft Word for that long sentence). 

So I narrowed down on 3 places and decided to begin with Kushalnagar.

Kushalnagar is about 4 hours 45 minutes away from Bangalore and can be reached by bus directly. I took the KSRTC bus through online booking. And I must say that all KSRTC buses are the best ones I have ever taken. I actively go out of my way to promote them to anyone and everyone who comes in my travel path or is subjected to conversations about them. 

The journey began early morning 8am. I packed all clothes that I felt would make me less attractive to potential or in-the-making rapists. I also felt that there must be some statistic somewhere which said that women who wear glasses are less prone to being raped so I packed my no-power glasses which I only use occasionally on trips alone to escape earlier mentioned great men who’d make lovely husbands one day I am sure.

I took the local Bangalore bus to travel to the Majestic bus stand in Bangalore and went about searching frantically for my bus asking onlookers which platform it comes on and if its ever late and any other question they could understand and answer. With time, I have gotten really good at finding buses on bus stands anywhere. I now believe in the golden rule of ‘Avoid Eye Contact’. India is not the best country to travel alone especially if you are a girl but it can be if you take the right precautions and I ensure I do.

At the Majestic bus stand. Taken from my Nokia E63.

 

I slept through half the journey and discovered my reason to not sleep during day travel or as far as possible during even night travel- the journey to most destinations is amazing if not more amazing than the destination itself, in the other half of the journey. When the bus stopped at a Kamat food joint on the way, I decided to risk eating some local food but I was surprised at how clean the place was and how tasty the pongal was. As usual, the quantity proved to be too much for me but I smiled meekly as the waiter looked at me in disbelief of food being left in the plate.

Before reaching Kushalnagar, I had a clear agenda and itinerary in my mind. My only reason to visit Kushalnagar was to go to Bylakuppe, a town nearby which is home to 2 Buddhist settlements and the Golden Temple of Buddhist culture.  I had booked a guest house opposite to the Golden Temple which is run by the monks from the temple. Its a small and comfortable place with basic cleanliness in place. 

On the way to Kushalnagar. Taken from my Nokia E63.

Before moving on to Bylakuppe, I thought of quickly grabbing my lunch since this was a bigger town and would have better food joints. Oh how wrong I was. The tourist places have the best joints, always. I made my way to a restaurant almost next to the bus stand and ordered for their egg curry and rotis. Well the curry felt like water with salt and the rotis were half cooked only. Thereafter, I caught an auto and after the obligatory 10 mins of bargaining, I gave in and took it. The way to the guest house was a little strange but only since I had never travelled alone and hence kept hoping I don’t get kidnapped. Thankfully, I didn’t. 

On reaching the guest house, I was pleasantly surprised to see the guest house complex very lively and full of monks. Monks here, monks there, monks everywhere. Monks on foot, monks on Royal Enfield’s, monks hopped onto trucks. I made my way to my room and decided to not waste any time before heading to the monastery. It was a sight for sore eyes that never realized how sore they were until now. Everything was new, everything was alien and I couldn’t love it more. The entrance to the Golden Temple is huge and always crowded with smiling monks of all shapes and sizes. 

Monks exiting temple post prayers. Taken from my Nokia E63

I made my way to the corridor that is surrounded on both sides by monk’s living quarters and I could see so many of them just going about their daily chores unfazed by the hordes of visitors watching them. It made me think of a zoo and suddenly I wasn’t sure who was the one outside the cage and who the monkey getting peanuts. 

On entering the main temple, I was at a complete loss of words. I had never seen such huge statues basking in their colour of gold. It was absolutely beautiful without compaision. I noticed that there were small pillows on the side to sit on. I took one and meditated for as long as I felt like and then made my way back to my room. I had been carrying a Haruki Murakami book with me and took it to the juice shop next door to the guest house within the complex itself. The shop was filled with monks joking around with the shop boy and he seemed very sweet and not bothered to disturb me even as I sipped my juice ever so slowly while reading my book quietly. My speed could have given competition to any old blind lady crossing the road at night. I watched the night draw closer while I lazed around and watched the cloud turn into tiny drops of rain before retiring to my room for a night of tv and more reading.

One of my best evenings. Taken from my Nokia E63.

I woke up early the next day to go straight to the main Golden temple for the morning prayers. The music instruments they use during the chants are simply amazing. The sound is something that needs to be experienced. It is soothing to the ears and makes you think of nothing. Absolutely blank and absolutely brilliant. After the morning prayers ended, I spent some time meditating in the other temples as well and then made my way to the monastery’s cafeteria. I had read about the Buddhist breakfast and wanted to experience it. To this day, I have not tasted anything worse. But do try it out for fun. 

The Golden Temple monastery is also called the Namdroling Monastery and is one of the largest. There is another Buddhist monastery close to the Golden Temple called the Sera Monastery which has a lot of students studying there as well. Apparently, being a monk is a tough job. Its not all about being round and looking cute in a very airy robe.

Prayer Flag at the Sera Monastery. Taken from my Nokia E63

I took an auto to the Sera Monastery which is different from how Golden Temple is since it has several temples, library and school of the monastery spread over a village and not all in one place. I walked on the streets while asking locals for directions to the different temples and other buildings I could visit. While on my way to one of the temples, I met a monk named Sonam. Sonam was a monk who did not teach but did other odd jobs like plumbing etc in this village. He said he would be happy to show me around and so he did. He also explained some of the traditions monks follow while in school like active debating, praying everyday and how difficult it is to be a monk. But he added in how much fun they have with the simpler joys of life. 

There was a protest happening by the local students against the traditional Tibetan books being translated in Chinese. There were hundreds of students on the roads with banners and slogans for this. I was told that a special meeting is happening between the protesting students and the main head monks to discuss how to best resolve the unrest. I have to say that I have never seen a more peaceful debate in my life. Both sides seemed so sweet to each other that I didn’t understand how either is supposed to win. Unfortunately, I had to leave as it started to get cloudier. Sonam was nice enough to give me his number in case I needed some help. Sadly, I deleted it after his 5th message asking me how I am doing in 3 days.  

Evening coffee with a lovely book.

Within each of the temples, the architecture is absolutely beautiful. Every carving, every draped and embroidered cloth and every sculpture is absolutely beautiful. While on my way back, I stopped by Olive Kitchen where they serve some amazing Chinese and Tibetan dishes. Thereafter, I made my way back to the guest house on foot and went to my room and read my book at the juice shop again. This was my evening ritual there. By the end of my trip, the juice shop boy was a friend. While reading the book, my ears caught a song playing in the shop which I had not heard before but seemed to really like. The song is “How to save a Life” by “The Fray”. If you have not heard the song, do hear it. Lovely lyrics that I totally related to.

Walking all over for hours. Taken from my Nokia E63.

On my 3^rd day there, I decided to spend more time in Golden Temple and spent the whole day lazying around and walking in the gardens and the temples of the complex. In the late afternoon post lunch, I decided to check out the library and made my way across the side of the main temple to enter the library. Upon entered, I was greeted by a monk who bowed down to say hello, I presume. As I bowed down and came back up, I noticed he had a packet in his hand. He smiled and handed it to me. He could see me confused and told me in broken English “Because you come to library”. Now this was an innovative way to get people to stay in the library longer. It had mango juice, biscuits, chips and noodles. I finished almost all of it there while reading poetry books I have already read in school and had forgotten over the years.  It was definitely one of the quietest days of my life and I loved it.

All day long prayer ceremony. Taken from my Nokia E63

On my way out, another monk stopped me and told me that it is the 1^st day of the month according to their calendar and they have a day-long prayer ceremony every 1^st day of a month and that if I can, then I should come. I smiled and thanked him for the invite. I woke up early the next day as I also had to leave for my 2^nd destination late morning after breakfast. I made my way to the main temple and was saw that the prayers already in progress. I also saw few younger monks playing around while chanting and being reprimanded and asked to do few push-ups as punishment by one of the head monks. There were also few monks distributing some water and food to the monks and audience alike. I took some and thanked them for the kindness. For the next few hours, the monks only stopped for short breaks in the middle of chanting and I meditated with them.

It was peaceful. It was quiet. It was different than anything I had experienced before. This is not a place where time stops… this is a place where time is irrelevant.