day 11...

So the universe provides exactly what we need right? Well i was dreading day 11. We wake up at 4am, have meditation, chanting, and discourse until 630am, and then we are released out to the real world. In this case that meant going to the train station, jumping on a local train to Bombay with our luggage, once in Bombay taking another train to the station where we would need to find the illusive foreign tourist quota counter, get 2 train tickets for the same day hopefully (on the already sold out over-night train heading to Delhi), and get to the right train station in time to board the train. And all that after 10-days of seclusion and inner reflection. Painful!

Apparently that is not what we needed though! I randomly arranged a ride into Bombay with Anu, a meditator who was driving back early morning. While the road would not necessarily be quicker then the train, it would certainly be more pleasant and less of a shock to the system. While we were in the car she mentioned the Global Pagoda and it turned out she wanted to check it out. I had wanted to check it out as well but it seemed too complicated to get there and manage our luggage and our return trip and all. So i dropped the idea just the day before. Anu didnt want to go alone but she was willing to drive and i quickly jumped on the idea; we were half way to Bombay at this point. Nisarga and I decided to postpone our departure for the next day, and left our day open to going with the flow but certainly checking out the Global Pagoda.

Harris’s apartment was not very guest friendly at that moment but Omaar came to the rescue and offered us his guest room as refuge. No AC? Not a problem, it couldn’t be worse then the rash days! So Anu drove and we chatted and it was actually lovely!!! We finally made it to our destination, and were awe struck at the massiveness of the Pagoda. We took our time looking around and then continued on towards Bombay. Anu dropped us at a rickshaw which took us directly to Omaar’s. We dropped off our stuff there and went for a scrumptous fish and decadent desert lunch! According to the universe THIS is what we needed and deserved... yeah! Right on!!!