Hey!

The Deer Park Institute. A place built up in our minds as the home to five days of bone-chilling buddhist-style silence. Five days with few, if any interactions with the other carpe diem group members we have grown to love and hold dear. Five days of mindful nothingness.

Upon arriving at the institute, all these intimidating perceptions were thrown out the window. The atmosphere was far less strict than that at Phool Chatti and the expectations set out by Deer Park for our group's participation in the program were met by the mere act of us showing up. Deer Park is situated in the quaint mountain village of Bir (pronounced like the beverage we have contractually guaranteed Jeff and Amanda we would not drink). Any plans we had to keep silence were lost, with the exception of meal times and during meditation.

The meditation program taking place during our time there was rather rigorous even though we were not expected to follow it religiously. The program involved seven, hour long sitting meditations per day with walking, tea, and chanting meditations and lectures sprinkled in throughout. It was not apparent to me how exhausting it is to sit in the same position for sixty minutes until I tried it seven times a day. The monk teaching the course (whose name I can't remember, everyone just called him "Venerable") was trying to get us to live in the moment. He said that our thinking mind can only exist in the past and the future. In order to escape suffering, we must be mindful of what we are doing, while we are doing it. It's a concept that we all struggled to fully comprehend.

The food at Deer Park was some of the best I've tasted in India. This made it hard to eat slowly and mindfully, like we were asked to do. The institute was very environmentally responsible. The food was locally grown, the hot water came from solar panels, and the that trash could be, was recycled.

On the fourth day of our stay, most of the group made its way to a hot spring about an hour away from Bir despite warnings of torrential rain. After an hour hike through mountains and a wild cannabis field, we arrived at some jacuzzie-style hot springs. They were really hot. While the group was boiling in the natural baths, it began to hail and eventually the rain we were promised began. We took this as our cue to head home.

It is strange to think that the end of our stay at the Deer Park Institute meant that there is less than a month left of trip. See you all soon!

Eli

Home of the Golden Temple

Hi Everyone,

Tiana here, ready to give you all the 411 on our time in Amritsar; which wasn't much... and note that most of our time spent in Amritsar was mostly free wandering on our own, but I will do my best to include everyone. Lets’ see... We were there for a total of 3 days and were lucky enough to find a decent hotel right around the corner from The Golden Temple. After pretty much starving for some hours on the train ride (who ever keeps track anymore), we all decided to try and find a bite to eat even though it was around 10:30 pm. All the restaurants were closed, so our options were street foods or a shop that might be open. It's difficult to navigate around an area you haven't been in before and it's dark, but Nelle and I decided we would go around the block and see if we could at least find something to drink. We found a shop called "Lucky Refreshments"... lucky us. Before coming across this place we were telling each other how we felt Amritsar was a lot calmer compared to other places; peaceful and how it seemed a little safer... Then when we walked up to the shop, this guy kept harassing me asking where I was from, my name, and how he was single. We were ready to pay and leave, but on the way out; I tried to pass another man who was in front of me staring me down. He put his hand up to not let me pass in front of him and stepped forward. So I decided I would try to walk behind him, and as I did he rubbed his hand up my backside. I felt so violated and angry, but was so exhausted I didn't know how to deal with the situation. Another man on the walk back was shouting inappropriate remarks at us and we just couldn't believe all this was happening in the 20 mins we had been in Amritsar. Just when we were saying how we thought this place had such a calm and nice vibe to it. We spoke way too soon.

Besides that incident on first arrival, we had a pretty early morning the next day moving from the hotel to accommodations at the Temple. The place was full of backpackers, and pretty much a room made to burn people alive. It was poorly ventilated so it was always ridiculously hot inside. However, it was doable for the next couple days and it gave us the opportunity to meet and chat with other travelers. That day we all decided to wander around and see the city. Some went to see the temple or eat there; they served free food all day! How awesome is that. Others went shopping, to see other temples, and I went for coffee and to find some Chicken. Amritsar happened to be one of the few cities we have come across where people actually eat meat! Jeff, Trevor, Dylan and I were crazy excited. Or at least I was.

All day I had gone on a long search to find this place that served chicken, but no luck. It wasn't until later that night that Andi and I finally got our hands on the Lonely Planet to look up a restaurant. We found this place called Aurah which was supposed to be pretty far, but we were determined. It ended up being a girl’s night out to dinner because we had convinced Nelle and Amanda to go as well. So we hopped in a rickshaw and it took us a good 30 mins to get to our destination. It was worth the drive because besides the time it took, taking a rickshaw always is a nice way to see parts of the city you may not see otherwise on foot. Also the food was amazing! We were so stoked, not only because this place was so nice and had great food (and dessert; warm and gooey fudge brownies), but there was a subway right next door! Who would have ever thought you would find a subway here, I know we didn't. We told the boys our secret place the next day and had no choice but to go (Eli loves subway; we have photo documentation). The subs were definitely still an Indian version just like any other food not originated from India, but it fills the void.

That day some of us decided to see another temple called Mata Temple, which is a Hindu temple. It was interesting... think of at first walking into a colorful and beautiful hall and then you are directed to go up a staircase on the side to find that this temple has a fun house of mirrors, murals, and gods. You walk through caves and ankle deep water to get to the main shrine, which I believe was the huge head or mouth of Shiva..? Not sure. There was a lot of confusion on my part, but it was still an interesting experience. Later that day we also had plans to go to the Pakistan border to watch the showdown that goes on there. Or at least we thought it was... Basically it was a fancy way of closing the border gates. Both sides have members of their military marching for a good 20 or so minutes. The marches are cool I will give them that and when they all have marched their happy high kicking selves to the gates, they do a synchronized bringing down of the flag, the end. It was interesting because they do this every day and it is amazing really the volume of people that come to see this event. There were waving flags, chanting, loud music and dancing which most of the group joined in on. In the end I personally was mostly impressed by the hype and enthusiasm the people have from both sides. I think that is what made the experience.

Another cool opportunity we had was the chance to stay overnight in the temple which has been said to be a spectacular experience. The downside is that the chances you will actually get sleep is not likely. Amanda (leader), Andi, and Nelle had already done this the second night and they said it was great even without getting much sleep. I suppose we had similar experiences except... before hand they forgot to mention how the temple is never really closed. There was constantly people walking around and worshiping, all night and all morning. Then at 3 in the morning you get woken up by the people cleaning the floors of the temple. So you are forced to move to the outer areas if you want to continue sleep. The up side is they do offer you chai all night/morning as well, really good chai too. The view of the Golden Temple at all hours of the day is amazing because the way the light hits the temple every hour changes the golden gleam dramatically. However, at 3 in the morning the view is even more magical with the moonlight. The Golden temple is definitely magnificent. It makes lying on that cold marble floor and getting soaked with freezing water early in the morning the experience of a life time.
Well I think I will stop here since this covers most of the key events (besides the old school shades shopping rampage we all went on), but I hope this gives you some insight into our adventure in Amritsar. Stay Well!

T. Woods

P.S

Sorry it took so long to post, but the Internet here is always disconnecting