Incredible !ndia Part 1

"What have you seen in India that has changed your mind about what you thought India would be like?" asked Mr. Pradeep Saxena as we stood outside the bus waiting for all the other passengers to answer Nature's call on the road somewhere between the Lucknow and Sravasti. "Uh . . . I don't think I can really answer that question since I've only been here three days, but I can say that it is a really amazing place." Pradeep smiled and cocked his head to the side and turned out towards the portable blue screens he had set up to give the ladies some privacy in the flat rice fields. "Yes it is really incredible. Incredible India is the country's motto you know." Well, yes I actually did know. Along with "Malaysia, Truly Asia" and "Seoul, Soul of Asia," I see ads for "Incredible !ndia" at least 4 or 5 times a day on the T.V. However, this trip to India did not look anything like the commercials I see so frequently. No Taj Mahal, no tigers, no elephant rides, no cricket, or exotic costumed dancers. This was not the 5 star tour of India with immaculate hotels with crisply saluting luggage porters, modern hi rises, wonderful restaurants with carefully prepared gourmet meals, and beautiful postcard locals. Nor was it the backpacker's hardcore slog through the "real" India. Endless hours on non air-conditioned buses packed with locals, no star guesthouses, days without showers, and a diet of rice and naan, carrying everything you need for your epic trek in a very large and expensive back pack. No, this was something altogether different. This was a Pilgrimage.

"What are you going to India for?" asked everybody I told about our trip. Even I never expected to be traveling to India in the way that I did. I always thought it would be a lot more like the T.V. commercials, just with a lot more food. Instead we would spend the seven days in India on a bus and a train with a group of Vietnamese Kieu (overseas Vietnamese,) a handful of Westerners, 4 Vietnamese Buddhist nuns, an abbot from a new monastery in Colorado, and a Venerable who splits his time between temples in Southern California and Hawaii. We were making a whirlwind tour, traveling hundreds of kilometers every day over Northern India's very rough and crowded roads to see as many of the important sites in the life of Buddha as possible. Thay Hai, a monk with soft and round shape that matched his very friendly and quick to laugh personality would be our teacher and leader on this journey. Thay Hai had had a lot of experience in India, first visiting over 25 years early and having returned on his own spiritual and healing pilgrimage when he was diagnosed a brain tumor. After two years of meditation his brain tumor disappeared and he started to take groups of pilgrims to the places where he had found the peace and inner spirituality that helped him heal himself without the help of modern medicine. Aside from the spiritual journey this trip would also provide, Huyen and I a chance to spend valuable time with my mother who had invited us on the trip and had been working closely with the Abbot from the Vietnamese monastery in Colorado. It would also be the first chance for Huyen to be spend time with and get to know the Vietnamese American community. With hopes that Huyen can join me in the States sometime next year it will be so important to stay a part of this community that will keep her connected to her home and roots. So, even though we weren't going to see India's most popular and famous sites we boarded our Jet Airways flight to New Delhi with a lot of excitement for what we knew would be the difficult but rewarding journey that lay ahead of us.