India

My India trip has been a trying yet fulfilling one. It started off with me getting a fever the night before my flight. Surprisingly by the time I arrived India, my fever was gone and I didn't get quarantined in some Indian hospital.

It was then an 8 hour drive to Chaitanyajothi, the ashram of Swami Atma Chaitanya who was kind enough to host us. High in the mountains, the ashram had fruit trees of every kind and our daily meals were all from the ashram grounds - organic food! The water which we drink and bath was all from the well, natural spring water. And breakfast milk was from the ashram cow - Nandi! Really fresh....

Swami Atma is a great cook! Everyday he'd cook the daily meals for us. Really tasty, but everything is curry in some form or another. Really spicy and not that helpful to my recovery... My cough and sore throat got worst, and my stomach got bigger... Lolz. Other than eating, we had our daily meditation sessions and chat sessions. Pretty fun.

Stayed there for about 3 days before embarking on another 8 hour journey to Mookambika Temple - the 1200 year temple of three goddesses. The story behind this temple is pretty amazing as well. I'll reserve it for another time else my post will be too long. We arrived just in time before the temple gates shut for the final ceremony of the day. It was almost as if the goddess had waited for our arrival and the moment the last person of our group stepped in, the gates closed to all others. At that temple, the dinner, you have to receive 3 rounds of servings of rice and curry to represent each goddess giving you food. That's 3 rounds of dinner for u... extremely filling.

We stayed a night at Mookambika before heading on to Puttarparthi, a 13 hour bus ride through mountain roads. We even had to cross the Indian Muslim border and at that point Swami was telling us how some vehicles are stoned or bombed along this road. That explains why all other roads in India are crowded but that particular one was deserted. He told me to prepare my camera just in case anything happens and told the group to have faith in God that everything will be fine! Really a test of your faith this time...

Finally arrived at Puttarparthi in the wee hours of the morning - the Ashram of Sathya Sai Baba. Been 10 years since I've visited this place. Much have changed. We were fortunate to bump into another Singapore group there who were organizing a short play for the silver jubilee of the Schools and thus got special sitting. There were about 400 Singaporeans there altogether, and thousands of other people from all around the world. I even got to make a very good friend who was from East Africa. We would help out at the dining hall together, serving food, washing dishes, and go for morning prayers together. Really fun. This trip, I also managed to get into the inner meditation chambers twice, which is really rare coz among the thousands of people, only about 100 is able to get in to do their meditation in that room per day.

We spend 5 days in Puttarparthi before finally heading back to Singapore. On the last day, we got caught in the Andral Pradash riots while having breakfast in the city and the store owners were rushing to shut their gates as the mob came through the streets. We were trapped inbetween. Exciting. Lolz. After the streets were cleared, then were we released and we packed our luggages and headed to the airport. We got to take a propeller plane during our domestic flight from Bengalaru to Cochin! How fun! Then finally it was back to Singapore.

Had lots of amazing experiences this trip. Too much to write here... but I'd say despite my cough and fever... Its been a great trip.