The Long Walk

 

The next morning I rode my bike up to breakfast but I left it at the top of the road because the side street is dirt and really rough with lots of pot holes and mud. I thought I would be able to ride it on our expedition that day. But everyone else was walking, so I had to walk.

We walked so far! We walked around the mountain and back for two and a half hours. Oh, my poor painful feet!

The first part along the busy road was horrible, noisy and smelly. Then we got to the nice bit that was blocked off to traffic. It was cool under the giant trees with bright temples along the way. It wasn't very crowded because the festival hadn't officially started yet. 

All the Indian people wore their best clothes and bare feet. A lady gestured at my feet to say I shouldn't be wearing shoes. There was no way I would walk on that dirty road in bare feet, besides my feet were so sore. I wondered what they would do if they cut their foot, they would be sure to get an infection. There is so much rubbish in India, laying around everywhere, it is so dirty.

The lady, her husband and daughter sort of became my walking companions, we would fall behind each other, then catch up and smile at each other again. We got to a blue temple. I wasn't quite sure what to do. I was standing near the exit watching and the lady came up and gave me a blessing, dabbing sacred ash on my forehead. So I took my shoes off and went in. A couple in my group were there. We all put some money in the offering tray and the Brahmin priest gave us a blessing of a necklace made from string with a nut on it, a small packet of sacred ash and dabbed my forehead with ash again. 

We were very popular on our walk. There weren't many white foreigners there. Everyone wanted photographs with us. They were very polite about it, and I suppose when you think about it, I was taking lots of photographs of them too. They loved that.

The orange men are called Sadu, holy men (beggars realy) but they are given rice, fuit and milk by the ashrams

When we eventually got back to the corner, Fran and myself decided to stop walking and get a rickshaw into town. I was so grateful.

I went shopping for some presents and clothes I needed to wear. I eventually found what I wanted, some embroidered tops and Indian pants in a shop where I was served by a lovely (and handsome) young man from Kashmir. We had chai tea had a chat. He was talking about opening his own shop. I told him I was sure he would. And since then he has! He gave me a Ganesha statue as a gift. Pujan thought he must have wanted to marry me. But it was just a kind gesture. (N.B. Actually we are still friends years later, I helped him as best I could to get through Covid and he managed to keep his new shop open.)

Our group met up again at a restaurant called the Dreaming Tree for dinner.