Hitch-Hiker’s Travel Blog of India

I left Badrinath in the morning, as the Lord gave me some special mercy and arranged for a ride all the way to Rishikesh. Going from Bardinath to Rishikesh would take two or three full days of hitchhiking on the average rate of travel I usually go with, but now I crossed the entire way in 9 intense hours of non-stop driving. The Lord’s mercy came in the form of some devotees who had come to my ashram for darshan of the Mouni Baba running the place. They had their own car and were heading back to Dehra Dun afterwards, and Rishikesh is on the way.

On the road I saw loads and loads of pilgrims going the other way - buses full of Hindus heading for Badrinath and long convoys of Sikhs on motorbikes. I don’t know why, but it appears to be very popular among Sikhs to ride a bike on the trip to Hemkund Sahib. The turban biker gang, heh - everyone having a turban and a long beard (not unlike the biker gangs in the west :D) and these small orange flags with Sikh symbols on the bike. I’m SO happy I went up to Hemkund and Badrinath before the biggest crowds of pilgrims come - it was very nice and shanti (=peaceful), and remembering how Vrindavan was during Holi festival I can imagine it won’t be so shanti soon..

Leaving Badrinath gave me a bit of a shock - kind of same way as leaving the Rainbow. A sudden change in the energies & vibes around me is definately not good for my head. Luckily the Lord took care of me on the other end of the way in Rishikesh also. I got out of the car, totally exhausted from the long drive and past days of trekking in the mountains, having a bit of flu and maybe slight fever, wondering where to go and how to find a nice, reasonably priced place to stay for the night. The sun was soon setting so there wouldn’t be much time to look around, the backpack felt super heavy because I’d been carrying it up and down the mountains plus the added weight of all my electronic toys (wich I left at my ashram in Badrinath for the treks) and there was a few ‘rooms, rooms!’ hustlers around me trying to push for expensive hotels at 500 rupees per night. I took a walk in a random direction away from the main road, wondering where I’ll end up and how to solve the situation, when I saw a small kid run past me screaming “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna!” - he reminded me not to worry too much and to chant the names of the Lord. After this I walked on for another 100 meters and another kid came to me asking if I need a room - I said yes, if the price is right and he told me to talk to a girl a bit further down the street. The girl took me to her home, wich has an extra room upstairs wich her family is renting for a bit of extra income - perfect for me, as I think I’d be annoyed by the company of backpacker tourists and the money-centered mindset of guesthouse owners right now. The mother of the family told me 100 rupees per night and showed me the room, wich was WAY better than anything I  had so far, with a few nice and practical pieces of furniture (usually you get a bed and if lucky, a table) and also much cleaner than any place I’ve been to so far (for some parts even cleaner than the ashram!). I was happy to take what the Lord arranged for me and went out to get some vegetables for Prasadam - and on the way saw that He’s also staying just around the corner, there’s a Narayan temple maybe a hundred meters down the street.

We didn’t end up going to the lake after all, as the tent was a bit sketchy and the weather on the route to the lake can change unexpectedly. Instead we decided to head for Hemkund (literally ‘the snow lake’) Sahib and Valley of Flowers, both of wich are around 20km trek from Govind Ghat, one hours’ drive from Badrinath. In the end we didn’t exactly do the trek together, since I wanted to move to Govind Ghat by the mercy of the Lord and he preferred a commercial transport. I got frustrated after 15 minutes of trying to find a shared jeep or bus going there and the jeep drivers trying to rip us off (telling us double to triple rates for the trip), so I just took a walk along the queue of cars waiting to leave Badrinath and ended up in the car of one of the richer pilgrims, an advocate from Uttar Pradesh. Hitching from Badrinath is easy since the last stretch of the road from Hanuman Chatti to Badrinath is one lane only and the traffic in each direction is timed - meaning the convoy of cars will be waiting on the road going out of Badrinath even before they’re allowed to go.

I got out of the car 1km before Govind Ghat since the convoy stopped there for some reason. After getting out I met a Vaishnava operating an ashram in this village and had a long talk with him - and he also gave me delicious prasad =). Later I took a walk for the remaining 1km to Govind Ghat and met some Sikhs on the way (Hemkund Sahib is a Sikh pilgrimage site, a lake surrounded by seven mountains where Guru Gobind Singh did meditation and tapas) and they showed me the way to the Gurudwara (Sikh temple) at Govind Ghat. All of the Sikh temples have Langar, a community kitchen distributing prasadam and most of them also offer lodging free of charge to pilgrims. The one at Govind Ghat is a very big one, since Hemkund Sahib is one of the main Sikh pilgrimage sites - they would tell me during the yatra season (when the temple at Hemkund Sahib is open) thousands of pilgrims come every day.

I stayed for the night at the Gurudwara and the next day trekked up to Govind Dham, wich is around 15kms from Govind Ghat, climbing from 1920m above sea level to 3049m. At Govind Dham there’s another Gurudwara so I stayed there for the night and the next morning went up to Hemkund, 4329m above sea level and around 6 km trek from Govind Dham. It’s possible to have darshan at the temple at Hemkund, but the temple wasn’t ‘open’ yet since the holy book is kept at Govind Dham over the winter season and brought to Hemkund only on 1st of June.

I learned a bit of the Sikh religion on the way as well. Sikhs have long hair, long beard (both of wich the most devout never cut) and long underwear. And a knife or a sword and a steel bracelet, wich they always wear. They also cover their heads as a sign of respect for God. If you see people with big beards and turbans, they’re most likely Sikhs :). Many of the regulative principles in Sikh religion are same as in Hinduism, no intoxication and vegetarianism are there. They seem to be quite strict about the no intoxication, there’s big signs on the gates of every Gurudwara prohibiting possession and use of any and all intoxicants inside. There’s some significant differences with Hinduism also, for example Sikhs are all expected to live a life of a householder and generally renunciation of the material world is not a part of their religion. If you happen to be Sikh, please give me a comment or two about the philosophy behind the Sikh religion.

Returning from Hemkund I stayed for one more night at Govind Dham, then trekked back down to Govind Ghat and hitchhiked back to Badrinath. On the way back getting a ride I ended up on the back of a pick-up with a couple of babas who had apparently been walking all the way from Rishikesh - they seemed a bit surprised with my mode of transport but definately happy with it :). On the way to Badrinath we picked up one more baba from the gate where the last one-lane section to Badrinath begins. The ride didn’t take us all the way to Badrinath so I ended up walking together with one of the babas for the last 3km.

Walking felt more like a pilgrimage than sitting in a car. I would especially notice this going to Hemkund and back, since there’s no route for cars beyond Govind Ghat and for me it was a tough climb to go up. Instead of motor vehicles the richer and not-so-devout pilgrims rent ponies for the 20km trek. The Gurudwara at Govind Dham and the couple of villages (and dozens of chai shops!) on the way are also supplied by convoys of donkeys and ponies - something wich you can notice on the way by the trail of animal dung :D.

Now I’m back at Badrinath for one more day, after wich I’ll probably head for Rishikesh. Today in the morning I went bathing in Tapta Kund one more time and Lord Krishna did one of his famous lilas on me - my pants went missing while I was bathing. I didn’t see the blue flute player himself, but maybe it was one of his more mischievous and less honest parts and parcels who did the trick. I’m not very sad about losing the pants, anyway I was going to dump or recycle them in Rishikesh and buy some new ones. The thief will be rather disappointed with the contents of the pockets too - a pair of dirty underpants and even dirtier hankie (I caught a bit of a flu lately) and to top it off the pants are broken in more than one spot. The only thing wich I really miss is my Japa Mala and the bead bag. Oh well, maybe the thief will become a great devotee of the Lord, having participated in one of his lilas and thus gained Japa beads :).

Today I went up to the footprint of God and way beyond, almost to the base camp of the Neelkanth peak, one of the really really big mountains around Badrinath. I took another yogi shower at a waterfall on the way and went off the beaten track to enjoy the beauty of the valley slowly climbing towards the base camp. I went with Jeevan until the footprint, but he was pressed for time (a busy guy, only stayed in Badrinath for 3 days and left today) so he turned back after the footprint and I went further alone. Way up the hill I saw something you rarely see in India - or much anywhere - the leftovers of a cow. It seems a cow died or was eaten there, but most of the bones were still intact. I’ll post some crazy photos of the skull with Himalayas as background later.

Later the same day I met a canadian guy and tipped him of the ashram, as he seemed a nice guy and apparently also travelling on a tight budget like me. He came for a visit, but later decided to stay at the tent accomodation he found earlier. Maybe we’ll be heading for a longer trek together, going for a lake wich should be around 20km beyond the Vasudhara falls. It was nice to have some western company for a change - and also it’s nice to have someone else also interested in doing some more trekking. I wouldn’t want to go for the 25km trek alone, as all sorts of things can happen on the mountains. Also it’s cool to go with him, since he has a tent.

I met one of my Rainbow brothers, Jeevan, whom I first met at the Rainbow, then at Kasardevi, turned up here at Badrinath. We decided to take a trek to Vasudhara falls, a waterfall some 5 km further from Mana. 5 km doesn’t sound like much but starting at around 3500m above sea level and climbing almost all the way it gets heavy - going upwards and having less and less oxygen made it a good full day trek to go to the falls and back. Of course we spent some time at the falls also - and at a chai shop in Mana. The falls are really high and the stream not so big so below the falls you’d only get sort of a rain, not a proper waterfall. The legend is the water only falls on a yogi - I went directly under the waterfall and had a few sprinkles on me :).

On the way to the falls I met some devotees from Iskcon - it was so sweet to get some prasadam, as the previous day had been Ekadasi (day for fasting and all sorts of spiritual activities) and before I set off on the trek I had only taken a cup of milk. My lunch consisted of a handful of nuts and raisins the Iskcon devotees gave me - but to take even one morsel of prasadam is enough and I had the most enjoyable lunch break before reaching the falls. I also had a short discussion with a young devotee who had been going to the Iskcon gurukul at Vrindavan. It was interesting to see how my perspectives of God have been broadened since I first had contact with Iskcon - and also to see his “they taught me at gurukul so _now_I_know_how_it_is_”-attitude. I probably had the same just a short while ago :D. One of the most important things i’ve learned since is that maybe I don’t know so much after all, in spite of all the Iskcon lectures and chanting japa. I guess you could cal that humility. We had a talk about the so-called ‘mayavadis’, the followers of Advaita(monistic)-vedanta and Shankaracarya. He looked down on these people, saying they think they are God themselves. I, on the other hand, respect both views, the monistic and vaishnava philosophy. I think the problem isn’t really someone thinking he’s God, but more the holier-than-thou-attitude, wich I’ve seen among both schools - and among every religion and atheists too! My idea is that the real problem is the false pride, often called ego, wich one needs to overcome in order to really have any idea of God. My view is you can overcome this false pride and false sense of ‘me’ and ‘mine’ following either school of hinduism - or any religion for that matter. For an atheist it might be a bit harder, but I’ve met genuinely unselfish atheists too.

Later, after I returned to the ashram and took prasadam I read some Gita - and this would give a topic for another discussion with the same guy. I met him later in the evening and we had a talk about some verses in the Gita and Bhagavatam, wich Srila Prabhupada translated completely differently from any and all other commentators and translators of Gita. Mostly the discussion was around one verse, found in either third or fourth canto of Bhagavatam (I’ll dig up the reference eventually.. sorry for not putting it here right now, but I’ve got more important things in my mind :), there’s a long list of incarnations of the Lord and after that a verse saying (word for word, Iskcon translation) pretty much that all of these incarnations are material forms of something immaterial wich has no form. Of course, Prabhupad’s translation doesn’t exactly go like that, he talks about the Virat-rupa, the universal form of the Lord. The thing is, that the Virat-rupa is not mentioned in the verse at all, neither is it mentioned in the previous verse(s) or the next one(s). I’ll still have to email this guy with the reference - maybe it’ll turn into a fruitful (or fiery discussion about the scriptures and their meanings.

The bottom line is, God is bigger than you think. The muslims keep repeating God is big, but I’m sure the Lord is WAY bigger than any of us can understand - and also bigger than what it says in the scriptures. A definition for God fit even for atheists is that, wich escapes comprehension and explanation.

Today I finally went to the Badri Narayan temple, the main pilgrimage site in Badrinath. I didn’t want to enter the temple right away after getting off the truck wich brought me here, I wanted to get familiar with the town and atmosphere of the place and get settled first. Also I didn’t want to go to the  temple before getting my clothes washed and bathing thoroughly - as they say, cleanliness is next to godliness :).

Lord Vishnu - or Narayan - who is actually the same person as Krishna - came to Badrinath for meditation and tapas (=self-discipline). He chose the place because of the beautiful and peaceful nature, Badrinath is in a small valley between the tall mountains of Himalayas, with two rivers, Alakhananda and Rishi Ganga converging in the valley. Vishnu wasn’t the only  remarkable person to meditate and do Tapas here, Lord Shiva used to stay here, but left for Kedarnath on the arrival of Vishnu. Also Vyasadeva, the author of many scriptures and an incarnation of Vishnu used to live in a cave nearby for some time. The temple has a form of Narayan sitting in a meditation posture (Padmasana), recovered from a nearby hot spring and re-enshrined by Sankaracarya about a thousand years ago, when buddhism was declining and hinduism reviving in India.

I woke up at around 3 AM - the best time for spiritual activities according to the scriptures is early in the morning - and took a bath in the sacred hot spring. After that I came back to the ashram for some meditation and around 4 AM I went to the temple - wich already had a queue of more than a hundred people wishing to see the Lord. After shopping for some things to offer to the Lord (God really seems to have a sweet tooth - the offerings are ALWAYS sweets :D) and his wife, Lakshmi, I went in, just about in time for the morning ceremonies.

The temple was beautiful and had one of the strongest energies I’ve experienced in a temple - maybe it’s just me but I found it difficult to ‘tune in’ in the temples of Vrindavan because of the busy city, big crowds (yep, way bigger than the hundred people in here) in the temple and the heat. From the temple courtyard you couldn’t see the ugliness of the town nor hear the noises, just the music from the ceremony, the bell on the door of the temple (every hindu temple has got one, you ring when you come in) and the wind. Looking around beyond the temple complex you could only see the Himalayas surrounding Badrinath. I could well understand why the Lord chose this place for tapas.

The next day I took a walk to Mana, the last village in India, with Ram Das, one of the devotees from the ashram. He showed me around the places in Mana, we saw the caves of Vyasadev and Ganesh and the Saraswati river, converging with Alakhananda after some spectacular rapids near Mana. From Mana it’s about 40km to the Tibetian border and beyond Mana is restricted access border zone. I also saw the last chai shop in India at Mana and bought a pure wool shawl to keep me warm in the mountains.

I had some technical problems with my camera’s memory card so I bought a new one and also heard there’s an internet cafe in Badrinath, so probably in the next few days I’ll be uploading all of this. I also sorted out my photos and made smaller copies for the web so I’ll upload some more photos also (some photos from Kasardevi, Binsar, Bhageshwar and of course Badrinath).

The next day I finally arrived at Badrinath, after a short stop at Josinath to visit the Nrsimha temple. This day I would see many babajis heading for Badrinath, going on foot - a bit more hardcore pilgrims than me, heh. One of the babajis outside the temple at Josinath would give me a crystal bead - crystal beads and Rudraksha beads are worn by many of the Shiva devotees around here, especially the babas. I heard the crystals store a lot of energy, sometimes shooting sparks in the dark and the Rudraksha connect people to each others somehow. I’ll surely find out about this, since now I’ve got one bead of each, I got the Rudraksha from a baba in Jaipur.

The first impression of Badrinath was amazing, the valley is beautiful and surrounded by the biggest mountains I’ve seen so far (Badrinath is about 3000m from sea level, some of the peaks around are over 7000m. The town itself isn’t that wonderful, the usual indian crowd and noise is there, even if not as bad as in some more densely populated places. I didn’t visit the temple on the day I arrived, I would spend most of my time trying to find a reasonably priced place to stay - most of the guesthouses charge between 300 and 600 rupees (5 to 10 EUR), whereas usually I stay for 100 rupees (around 1,5EUR) per night. Badrinath is clearly a pilgrim destination, not a tourist one. I only saw two foreigners in here so far. I ended up staying at a 500 bed government run dormitory-only place for 90 rupees.

The stay at the 500 beds (yep, thats the name of the place) was surprisingly nice - I expected ending up in a dorm crammed full of Indians and being given the attention usuallly reserved for space aliens by the other pilgrims. Instead I ended up in a completely empty dorm except of this one american-indian guy and we ended up having a long talk about vedanta. He knew what he was talking about and it was a learning experience for me.

The second day in Badrinath I decided to take a walk up the hill to see the footprint of God. The trip up and down the hill was amazing, beautiful scenery and I went through a wide variety of thoughts and feelings on the walk. Up near the footprint I met yet another corrupt ‘baba’, a guy who started making advances towards me in a way most inappropiate to a sadhu - for me it was hard not to just burst out laughing at his face. I took a walk a bit further up to a nice spot near the snow line and did some japa. While doing it and admiring the view something stuck to my eye - a plastic bag lying near the pathway. I decided it’s a good moment for some seva (seva=service to God) so I picked up the bag and on my way I picked up all the garbage near the path. Doing this and concretely seeing and feeling how little respect some ‘pilgrims’ have for the holy dham, I burst out in tears and kept crying and picking up pieces of plastic all the way down. The emotions I went through are hard to describe, but at least now I know how Lord Nityananda felt, pleading people to surrender to God with tears in his eyes. In it’s entirety the experience felt deeply cleansing and in a way ecstatic - sometimes I wasn’t sure if I’m laughing or crying. I went looking for the footprint of God, but instead found the footprint of man and that is not a pretty sight.

The Lord was also happy with my effort - just by ‘chance’ I ended up visiting an ashram a bit up from the town next to the pathway. The devotees at the ashram gave me prasadam and I had darshan of the swamiji in charge of the ashram. The swamiji was a nice, but very silent man - he hasn’t spoken a word for the last decade or two, having made a vow of silence. He invited me to stay in the ashram and I was more than happy to move out of the busy town to a more peaceful place overlooking the town - and being around with Krishna devotees (almost the entire ashram is covered with pictures of Krishna) is also very nice. Add to that prasadam twice a day and I got exactly everything I wanted and needed. God sure is great!

The first try to leave Kasardevi didn’t exactly work out - it turned out the very day I decided to leave was the election day and there was absolutely no traffic. I ended up chatting with some Rainbow brothers and sisters and spending one more night at Kasardevi, at another guest house near to the road going to Binsar. Road directly from Kasardevi to Binsar was very nice, I didn’t have to go through the crowd-and-noise-inferno of Almora, but could go on a small road with amazing, beautiful scenery towards Binsar, a small place with a nature reserve and some pricey resorts for Indians. On the way to Binsar I ended up stopping at a small shrine and taking prasadam there, since one of my rides turned away from my route at a crossing near the shrine. After the shrine I took a walk along the quiet road for a few kilometers, seeing some beautiful mountains, forest and wildlife on the way.

After Binsar I went on until Bhageshwar and looking for a road heading on towards Karnapryag and Badrinath I ended up at the temple - Bhageswar has a very old, beautiful Shiva temple with some really powerful energy on the inside. After spending an hour or two for a photo session at the temple I saw a cyber cafe wich had a DVD burner, so I decided to make backups of all the material I’ve shot on this trip - it would  totally suck to lose all the photos and videos just because of the laptop breaking or getting stolen. After spending an hour or two trying to get things done (the dharma of computers seems to be that they always have problems :D) and eventually finishing I decided to take a climb to a nearby hilltop with a Durga temple. The temple wasn’t anything special, but the walk and getting out of the noise of the town was definately worth it. After I came back from the hill it was getting late so I decided to stay at Bhageshwar for the night.

The next day I headed on to Karnapryag and further on the road to Badrinath. I got a bit of rain in Karnapryag and spent a few moments at an old Umadevi temple in there feeling the atmosphere of the temple and the thundering and lightnings outside. After the rain stopped I went on hitchhiking and got to a village about 80km from Badrinath and spent the night there.

Finally, I’m heading out of Kasar Devi. We had an amazing fullmoon celebration a couple of days ago with some friends I made here. We took a trip to the Kasar Devi temple, a tall hill on top of wich you could find a Durga temple and a bit higher a Shiva temple. It was amazing, seeing the moon go down and sun rising, hearing the morning puja from the temple, gazing at distant mountaintops floating amongst clouds, seeing the town hundreds of meters below us in a valley. I could really feel the meaninglessness of the material life of the town, it all seemed SO small in the valley - and I could feel the peace on the mountaintop. Om Shanti!

Now I’ll be heading towards Badrinath, Kedarnath Yamunotri and Gangotri, the pilgrimage places near sources of Ganges and Yamuna. After that I think I’ll either head further north to Ladakh, the buddhist area of Kashmir, or maybe find a nice ashram to settle down and thoroughly think of everything I experienced on this trip.

I read the Gita and Krishna said ‘I am transcendence’ and ‘I am Vaikuntha’. So I’m a bit puzzled about what’s the difference between monistic idea of merging to God and Vaishnava idea of going to Vaikuntha, wich is not different of Krishna. I guess this is the acintya-bhedabheda-tattva, the doctrine of incomprehensible simultaneous difference and non-difference. If you are Vaishnava and have a good answer for this one, please comment and answer. And even if you’re not Vaishnava, comments and ideas are always welcome :).

btw, Krishna saying ‘I am transcendence’ sounds very much the same as Jesus saying ‘I am the way’..

oh, and I’ve got some amazing photos from the trip. Will post them later, when I get to a proper ‘net connection.

Hari Om!

As the Gathering was ending, I left a few days before the official end date. It was more peaceful towards the end of the Gathering, as many people would only come for a short time around the full moon (we had a great fullmoon party, singing bhajans and playing drums and other instruments by a huge bonfire we built for the party) and then leave shortly afterwards.

I left the Gathering and came to Kasardevi, a tourist area near Almora a few days ago. After spending 3 weeks in the forest it’s nice to have some of the luxuries and comforts of the tourist areas - it’s SO nice staying at a guesthouse, sleeping in a bed and ordering anything you please from the delicious menus of the restaurants. Also this is the first time after the Gathering I can spend some time on the ‘net, update the blog and contact my friends and relatives.

Kasardevi is a nice place to ‘come down’ after the gathering - after you spend some time in a small tribe of around 100 people in the mountains, it’s a bit harsh to come back to the noise and crowd of India. In here it’s not so many people and there’s at least some sort of communality amongst the travellers. Yesterday I made my first visit to Almora, and spent about 1000 rupees in a day (the guest house I stay in charges 100 rupees or 1,5 EUR for a night). I decided I’ve had enough trying to fight the germs in my guts, trying to nail them eating plenty of ginger, papaya seeds and some other natural ‘medicines’, so I went down to buy some antibiotics. After that I took a walk in the bazaar and found some really nice silverware for making food offerings to Krishna. I bought some cups for Krishna already in Vrindavan, assuming the cups would be made of brass, but after just a few uses the cups started rusting. Oh well, they didn’t cost more than a few rupees anyway and now I have proper table ware, fit for God :).

I think I’ll stay here for a few more days, wait until the antibiotics take effect and fix me up properly. After that I’ll be heading for Badrinath, Kedarnath, Yamunotri and Gangotri, four sites of pilgrimage founded by Sri Sankaracarya. The sites are located at the mountains of Himalaya, marking the sources of the holy Ganges and Yamuna.

I don’t have any pictures of the Gathering, neither did I write anything for the blog during the Gathering as electronic devices (such as laptop and digital camera) are not allowed. I really loved the spirituality and the do-it-yourself spirit in the Gathering, and the nature surrounding us was simply amazing, we camped in the mountains near a river so clean you could drink straight from it.

I met some other Krishna devotees at the Gathering. It was interesting to meet Krishna loving people from outside the religious organisations of Gaudya Math and Iskcon, and it made me realise you don’t have to follow the organisations’ lead in every way - Krishna loves you anyway :). Especially one german devotee, now living in the forests near Vrindavan for the past few years, made a deep impression on me. He had come with a harmonium and he was a great kirtan leader also =).

For the most time I camped with Michel, an italian guy who had come on the first day of the gathering. In the beginning I made a camp with the israeli girls as we had shared the cost for the tarp, but they left after only a few days - maybe they were too accustomed to the comforts of guest houses and restaurants. After that I was left with materials to build a camp for 4 people, but without anyone to build it with. I ended up building a new camp together with my neighbor, Michel. We both stayed for a very long time as we didn’t mind the minor discomforts of outdoor life. After a couple of weeks he went to Almora for a couple of days to regain his strength - and he made me extra happy coming back with backpack full of all kinds of foodstuffs you couldn’t get in the village nearby the Gathering.

Living in the nature for a while makes you realise how complicated people’s life is in the so-called ‘civilisation’. In the forest you never had too much time to worry about things - and there was not much to worry about. Collect the firewood, cook the food, build camps, shower and toilet sites and that’s just about it.

I got a bit sick in the Gathering - not everyone would be careful enough about hygiene, people would share cups and plates without washing and some people maybe didn’t follow the guidelines about where to go to the toilet and how to do it in the nature so you keep clean both yourself and the environment. Mostly it was stomach problems being passed around - I’m not sure if I caught mine in the Gathering or before, as my stomach was a bit upset also before I left Vrindavan. I was lucky not to have anything very serious, some people couldn’t really enjoy the Gathering being sick and not having energy because of their digestion not working properly.