BACK IN LONDON.
After two+ months being in India during lockdown. I had three weeks where I manage to do some travelling – with great friends from Spain and the UK. Then the lockdown happened and we were all stuck at ESI, a retreat centre in Ahmedabad.
Not a bad place to be locked down at all. But I never got to visit the Himalayas and Guru Rinpoche’s caves in Sikkim, which was the main purpose of the trip.
India is crazy. In a good way, I think. My first day I was meant to be picked up at the airport by Jose. But I couldn’t get Wifi or mobile data on my phone. I waited 25minutes. The taxi drivers haggling me eventually won my business. I got into a taxi and the driver said he was sure he knew where it was. We drove around in circles for a while. At one point he bombed down a highway. Stopped. Asked for directions. Then went back on the highway – but on the same side we came from. Four lanes of oncoming traffic and us driving right towards them.
I’ve also never felt like a king before. In India, you get treated like one. “Guest is God!” is the mantra. And boy do they really mean it. We were greeted at a village that knew we were visiting with a camel ride and lines of hundreds of people cheering us as we entered the village pulled by a camel.
When we got to the village, swarms of people wanted to shake our hands and say hello. We were then greeted with a bindu put on our foreheads and a garland of flowers draped over us. Crazy! The Indians know the art of hospitality.
Leave a Reply