The Westerners at the Ashram

It's been about 10 years or so that Shaking has been known and growing throughout Europe. It has barely reached the states yet, and at the Ashram in this winter of 2011, most of the people there were experienced shakers from Germany, Italy, England, Scotland, France, Australia, Holland, Belgium, India, Spain, and Turkey.

There were personal stories of those who had healed themselves from every imaginable disease and others who just experienced a strong, general benefit to their lives through shaking. Slowly and without effort, I got to know and feel close to many people in a short time so that by the time I left the ashram I felt I had a lot of new, dear friends. It's very bonding to share those strong hours of shaking together. Knowing what it takes brings automatic respect and, following Ratu's indefatigable lead, a lot of humor. We had 4 hour breaks between shakes to dine, do projects, swim, and sneak in a nap or two, though there was a very clear message

to stay 'positive, active and creative.' That was a big emphasis.

There was my lovely roommate Sue from Scotland who has been shaking for 10 years. She taught me by example to welcome our 'processes' as she coughed many nights in happy faith that it was clearing her arthritis. Her own healing experiences since shaking, and that of so many others, make that faith not apocryphal. She kept saying, over my doubts, that I too might come home with a cough as a sign of my own healing and clearing. Now, three tissue boxes later, I am so grateful for her insistence. It has helped me to say thank you when I otherwise might have had other words and thoughts about this 'process!'. "No pain, no gain," I guess.

There was Reiner, top center, from Germany whose story of healing is well-known and who also has been shaking and knowing Ratu for quite awhile. Reiner had been suffering from Spondilytis Ankylosans. (I think the may be German for Spinal Stenosis) Anyway, he was apparently completely bent over before he started shaking. Here in his words, "My view was directed to the ground and fixed. To see the eyes of a person standing in front of me, I had to bow my knees and lean back. To see the sun, I had to lie on my back. Stomach and digestive tract were inflamed all the time. For years normal stool was impossible. The daily dose of pain killers was between 1600 - 2400 mg of Ibuprofen. In spite of different therapies and all fights, the disease didn’t stop. The consulting physician told me I was in the terminal stage of the disease and that there was no way back to bring the spine to any flexibility. My body height had reduced from 182 cm to 173 cm. In this condition I met Ratu Bagus in November 2003 at a five-day retreat in Germany. At this time I was 43 years old. Sceptically but curious, I started with shaking. Watching other shakers gave me the idea: maybe you are not right, these people seem to be crazy. It took me 3 days of watching Ratu Bagus before I spoke the first time with him. First I needed to recognize that he had no ego. This was important for me to open myself. After the evening meditation of the third day I introduced myself and spoke about my health problem to Ratu Bagus. He asked me to lie on my back. For a short while he held his hand above my chest. I got the sensation that the chest started to soften. Then he gave me a small photo of himself and the advice to keep it overnight on the chest. For years I hadn’t slept as relaxed as I did that night. The dreams were intensive. During the next morning session, Ratu Bagus gave a talk while I was shaking in front of the people. When I was completely wet from shaking he started to touch me at several points in the back. There was no pressure in his touches, but I heard and felt my back cracking and felt straighter. At that very moment I figured out that the path of Ratu Bagus was the way I had looked for. In February 2004, I spent 4 weeks in his ashram in Bali. Since then, I stopped taking painkillers, and I don't need them anymore. " (Reiner's picture, top center, kneeling shows a happy and healthy guy who was delightful to meet.)

There was Sue from Holland, (In the picture below, sweeping the dining room and smiling) who upon hearing me say I wish I had a headband to catch my sweat, made me one out of a sock she had and embroidered it with the initials of the mantra. That was even before I really got to know her.

There were to two young guys, adorable both, whose high energy my first day showed me my frailty by comparison. When I first saw Marco and Darren shake and then jump around and fly through the air and land unscathed in paroxysms of laughter, I felt like the oldest person on the planet. But soon, I could shake hard and bounce around pretty good myself. Marco is in his early thirties and was originally from Florence. He manages a pizza parlor in Ibiza in the summers to bankroll his passion for shaking which he calls, 'Freedom!' Shaking and Ratu have completely redirected his life away from drugs and partying to a place where he leads and inspires, at least that's what he did for me. ( Top Left: Marco in the Taman with Richard and others in the background.)

Darren, at 19, is here with his mother Tilda who is building a house that will give them both a permanent place at the ashram. I got to know these and so many other lovely people when the word got out that I could do astrological charts. It was so much fun and rewarding as one after another asked me so sweetly if I would do their charts. My last week at the ashram was a busy one as I read charts for 25 people and learned that, after more than 3 decade of knowing and studying astrology, I actually have some stuff I can say that people found helpful.

Noone wanted to leave the ashram or miss a shake, but I wanted to see something more of Beautiful Bali and was able to convince two others, Savannah and Dick, both from Holland, to join me on a one-day adventure. We first went to Besakih Temple which is the mother temple in Bali. We climbed the many levels to the very top, which is at the foot of Mt. Agung, the very day some of our other friends were actually making the arduous climb to the volcano opening itself. That climb, which Ratu says is equivalent to 200 hours of shaking, takes about 6 hours up and the same amount down and takes a full body effort to pull oneself up one rock at a time. Our smaller climb was strenuous enough and apparently very few tourists go to the highest part of the temple. We walked a narrow uphill path through the jungle following our able and kindly guide who said he had climbed Mt. Agung 43 times! Finally, huffing and puffing we got to the last part of the many-leveled temple where we meditated, thought of our friends on the mountain and truly felt the energy of that sacred volcano.

Then, our driver took us to lovely White Sands beach where we enjoyed a lunch of baracuda, caught that morning, and swam in the beautiful ocean. That little trip satisfied my wanderlust and I was happy we got back to the ashram in time for the last shake of the day.

The Balinese at the Ashram

Pictures: Top right: Ratu's mother who shakes at age 98; A baby I enjoyed;

& "Electric Ketut, on right, with another wonderful Balinese shaker.

The Ratu Bagus Ashram is a community comprising permanent, resident Balinese people and, on average, around 50 to 60 Western visitors who come to stay for shorter or longer periods of time for spiritual training and/or healing. Many of the Balinese residents are long-term Ratu students who came to the ashram because they were very sick and as they got better, they decided to stay on to help with running the ashram. They look after the cooking, cleaning and building maintenance, and they also help new students with their training and assist them in any crisis they might experience. Foremost among them are Ketut and Sukri, who are Ratu’s most senior students. They have devoted their lives to serving Ratu and they are the first line of defence in any energy- induced crisis. Their energy body is apparently very clear and Ratu trusts them fully and often uses them as mediums. Then there are Nyoman Alit and Ayu, who give excellent, if painful, energy massages; Mbok Jaya who cooks for the Balinese community and goes to the market every morning to ensure there are enough supplies in the kitchen. And there are the women making the offerings – little decorations woven from palm leaves and filled with multi-coloured flowers. 300 of these offering baskets are woven each day and carried three times a day to the four corners of the ashram, and to the many smaller temples and sacred sites within, in thanks for the protection of the sacred energy that reigns within the ashram, and in prayer that the space may keep its integrity. It all seems to work without anyone bossing anyone else around. All the Balinese seem happily devoted to being here and doing what they do.

Here's Sukri's Story: Mystery of life.

Before I met Ratu, my father was very ill. I went to a traditional healer, asking him to help with different kinds of medicine, but nothing worked. I don’t exactly know what my father was suffering from because we had no money to take him to hospital for a diagnosis. He became more and more sick and nobody could help him. He lost more and more weight because he couldn’t eat or drink anything. At that time my niece told us about Ratu. She had had a severe attack of psychosis, but was healed after seeing Ratu. There was no more hope for my father, and someone said he had only one more day to live. We were desperate and so, trusting what my niece had told us, we prepared to take my father to the ashram the same day. My father couldn’t walk any more, so we had to carry him all the way. When we arrived we just put him down on the floor. An hour later, Ratu came to see him, but I did not know that this was him. Ratu just looked at my father, touched his head and gave him a glass of blessed water to drink. My father, although he had not been able to swallow anything for a month, drank the water. I was very surprised to see this. I immediately believed in Ratu’s healing powers. Without Ratu, my father would have died. Instead, he gained strength again and is well and alive today, 18 years later.

From this experience I wanted to learn about Ratu. I came to live at the ashram permanently. Before then, I had never learned anything about spiritual matters. I soon started to feel energy vibrating in my body and as a result, many complications started to wake up. I had been very ill during my childhood. At one point, my father thought I would die, but he just accepted that if I was meant to live, I was going to live; If I was meant to die, I would die. I eventually recovered but during my healing process in the ashram, my old sickness returned. When I started to feel the energy, I noticed my blocks being removed one by one. After I became better, my 2 year-old brother became very sick. We took him to the local cottage hospital but they refused to accept him, because his illness was too contagious. I then brought him to the ashram and Ratu also helped him. He recovered completely and stayed on in the ashram until he was 6 years old. One by one, all my family suffered severe illness. With Ratu’s help, all of them recovered and are very well to this day. I became more and more interested in what was happening to my family. I kept a positive frame of mind about all their illnesses. I came to realise that my family’s problems were a trigger for me to understand myself and to show me the way for my life. Slowly my life and that of my family changed. We became more happy and peaceful together.

Many sick people came to the ashram, asking for Ratu’s help and I learned more and more about different kinds of illness, and where the energy blocks causing their sickness were. I helped looking after them and motivate them to get better – not to think about their illness, but to concentrate on getting better. Ratu’s healing was always done by purely natural means. He never used any kind of medicine. Everything he used for healing came from nature – water, pieces of wood, stones, leaves – and he asked people to feel the energy from these objects. I felt then, and now I can see, that Ratu works with the divine. Everything Ratu gives to the people makes them better. I could see this happening in front of my eyes and I was wondering about who he is. Why can he do this? I still would like to understand more about how he can work these miracles. I look forward to learning more and more about his mystery and the mystery of life. Sukri (Bali)

I saw Sukri literally turn into the Monkey God, Hanuman, one day when Ratu brought her up to demonstrate in the Taman and later, when I told her how amazing she was, she said, "That wasn't me. It was the energy.

And then there are the children. They are the offspring of the Balinese residents, but some of them are also brought to the ashram because they come from afflicted families where there may be a history of sudden infant death, or other risks to their well being, and the parents ask Ratu to look after them. Thus the ashram is impossible to imagine without the sounds of children playing together, of their laughter and their crying, though in all the time I was at the ashram I only saw a child cry twice. It seems like such a great, safe way to grow up and the parenting seems shared by the whole community.

Most of the Balinese are married but they live kind of collectively at the ashram and go home to their families when they want to be together and make babies. They apparently manage to do that as the children are many and part of everything. The kids go to school from 7 am til noon and then are delightfully around and part of things, riding their bikes around the pathways, swimming in the pool with us, helping out with little projects and often joining their parents in the evenings in the Taman to shake along with everyone. At the first sigh of Ratu, they all run to the front of the Taman to receive a sweet cracker from him and a blessing on their heads. Sometimes they would stay for the talks and nod out in groups or in the laps of their parents.

Balinese children are named for their birth order in the family. The first child is Putu, or Iluh, or Gede or Wayan; the second is Made, or Kadek, or Nengah; the third is Adi, or Komang or Nyoman or Koming; and the forth is Ketut. One of my roommates, Kishuri from Paris, who will be at the ashram all year, looks after Kitchen Ketut's third and youngest boy, Adi, during the days and it's been sweet for all of us to have him playing and napping in our room. There are one or two very small babies and I have enjoyed watching their mothers preening and caring for them in some of the nooks in the Taman. They seem to take such calm pleasure in nursing and massaging and tending to their babies. It was a beauty to behold. Kishori was saying that couples are not very demonstrative here. They don't seem to hold hands or cuddle and we were thinking that it's because they truly get all the babying they need when they are little.

The Three Births

Ratu usually talks after the shakes. He puts his hands together signaling 'time out' and we're all grateful to bow with him and rest for a minute before he greets us all with "Om Swastiyastu" and begins his entertaining talk. He usually has everyone laughing in short order, brings various people up to demonstrate and fits in some pretty serious ideas. One feels that Ratu has no secrets and doesn't allow anyone else too many either. He'll speak of his wife, of his family, of his mission of happiness; he'll acknowledge this as an 'international' event and also address certain parts of his talks to the Balinese who also shake with us. Sukri usually translates for him and sometimes can't stop laughing herself when she gets his gyst. Most of the time, the rational mind can't remember much of what he says, but I was able to hold onto a couple of ideas:

In Ratu’s talk after one mid-day shake he said there are 3 births:

1^st – from our mother (we are born crying)

2^nd -from knowledge

3^rd -from nature, energy, vibration

Ratu got the message that he must do this work when meditating on Mt. Agung. Deva said Ratu is the door, the shaking is the boat/vehicle.

Reading from the book about Ratu and bioenergy: When water droplets fall into the sea, their individual identity merges in the ocean. When we become aware of our soul, we find ourselves in the ocean of happiness of the supreme God. There’s a unity between God and mankind. The philosophy behind Ratu Bagus bio-energy meditation is in line with non-dual philosophical concept of advaita.

Tat Tuam ASI – everything that exists is a reflection of myself. There is consciousness in sub-atomic particles; we can communicate with sub-atomic matter. The free movement (of shaking) supports our aspiration for liberation from the bondages of false conditioning and delusions.

After feeling great for two days, I was back into a process this morning. My whole body was vibrating after the morning shake and I had to lie down before breakfast. I had a feeling my kundalini was waking up.

Last night we listened and danced to the gamelon players, who rehearse each night in the 'parking lot.' I had a nice talk with Nikki, Ratu's wife, who has a strong connection with the Huichol Indians, as I do. She was a fire-keeper for them and told me about a group in NY State. She said some people there may remember her, though she's been gone for about 8 years, and am excited to make that connection.

She then told me how she and Ratu got together. Sue, my lovely roommate has been filling me in on some of the stories but Nikki told me a great story about how he recognized that they had been together in many lives and gave her a kiss that at first shocked her. She apparently came around to the idea and now seems like such a good support and balance for Ratu.

I had shown her my lesion earlier in the day and she had Ratu give me a wad of tobacco from his mouth. She said the tobacco is the great medicine. I want to learn more about that.

Full Moon breakthrough: Ratu gave us each a cracker imbued with 'alpha' and once I took it in my hands it was hot and my hands in prayer position could not stop shaking, then I laughed and suddenly I was weeping from deep inside. He said something about loving the mother and my love for my mother welled up so strongly inside me that I cried without shame for the rest of the time, laughing and then crying more, with big tears and great grief. It was so healing to feel the love I truly had/have for my mother and to see any longstanding unforgiveness give way. I wept even has I left the taman and went to my room. It was only when I got to dinner that it subsided.

Last night Ratu spoke of himself, implying all of us, that he had both male and female inside of himself.

My shaking is getting so much stronger. I am able to get into and maintain the electricity and found the link to the laughter tonight. The last shake was my strongest so far. I was able to keep a steady shake longer without changing position as much, not in imply there's any right way. In a room full of people, everyone seems to shake in their own unique way.

I wove baskets with the Balinese women and later swept the car park with Electric Katut and others. Ratu was in the parking lot watching over all the projects taking place in preparation for the Governor of Bali coming later this month. He asked me to shake with another girl who was having a very strong clearing.

There was a big celebration for the leaving of one of the ashram's longtime European residents named Florian. He's going back to Germany at Ratu's suggestion that he needs to find his life. He's lived at the ashram for three and a half years and does a lot of work around the place. There was a big circle of hugs and his former Balinese girlfriend sang him a song. It was very moving. I shook and cried through the whole thing.

Three days before I was to leave, Ratu called me up to the front of the Taman after the morning shake 3 times in a row. He held my wrist while I shook, and I saw white light and laughed from deep inside myself. He said many things which I could not follow with my mind but some that I have gleaned included that I will be an example when I get home; people will see the change in me and I will see the changes more when I get home; also when you shake when you are older all the cells are renewed and if I keep it up for 2 or 3 years I will really see the changes.

This laughing is serious business, and expensive, but people young and old flock here from all over Europe to shake and laugh at the endless antics of Ratu Bagus, the Balinese Brahmin. He came from a low birth to earn and achieve a rank where he is respected and looked up to by the many birthright Brahmins and visiting Balinese who fill the ashram to overflowing on the weekends. The Brahmins are distinguished by, among other things, the tight knot of hair on their crowns.

The story goes that Ratu, who was a Ketut, the fourth born in a poor family of 10 kids, was spiritually gifted from an early age, with healing and visionary powers. He could heal people but realized that for healing to last, people had to take it into their own hands. He used to go up to Mount Agung to meditate. That's where he had a vision from Shiva directing him to build the ashram on its present location and spread the shaking practice to help people heal and enjoy happiness. He was told (to his disbelief) that the practice would spread around the world.

The Practice

The practice, which is well-established in Europe and Australia, has barely made it to the states yet. There are four of us here from New York and one couple from Virginia and there seems to be great interest in our being here. I begin to hear stories about the life-changing, healing effects the shaking has had on so many but feeling quite weak following my first few shaking sessions, I don't have much appetite for conversation or even food yet. I enjoy the wonderful fresh fruit that accompanies each meal and sometimes that is all I can manage after the strong workout. (Here are some pictures of Dragon Fruit, before and after cutting.)

Ratu came by me where I was shaking in the Taman and told me to go 'maximal, maximal' and I did. I am sill not laughing, which is apparently a significator of a real turning point and opening, but my shaking is getting stronger and so am I. I find that working with the mantra “Om swastiastu Ratu Bagus” really does help keep the focus and interrupt the compulsion to think and plan and distract oneself. The image I have for the mantra is sort of a welcome to my soul. I am glad to be here but it is hard work. I start wondering how I will be able to explain this when I get home and am relieved when Ratu says this is irrational. I like that. So nice to say that pejorative with pride. It can't be explained. Just do it!

Tonight, the last shake of the day, was my easiest yet. I actually walked out with a spring in my step instead of that delicate, frail feeling I had all day. I was able to focus on the core root chakra which is a way to begin to open the kundalini and that helped me focus more on the mantra. Though I do keep planning a bit and still wondering how to tell my friends about this amazing, irrational, experience.

I came from the sixties generation which first made the courtship between East and West a wholesale endeavor. Others had carved out the pathways, starting in the early 20th Century, but it was the Pluto in Leo 'sixties' generation' that so enveloped these ideas that by the 2nd decade of the 21st Century, there's nary a soul left in the West that doesn't have the words Karma, meditation, enlightenment, yoga, astrology, the I Ching and Buddhism on the tips of their tongues whether they espouse these practices and goals or not. Shaking meditation may be one of the most accessible and strongest modalities I have yet found, but it is only in the doing of it over time that its value and meaning truly shine through.

It’s now my 5^th day here and for the last two or so I have been in what’s euphemistically called a ‘process’ for which everyone congratulates you. A 'process' from what I can glean can be anything from being really sick or in some way upset. I had a fever all day yesterday and today I feel better. The good news is that through the shaking one seems to move through things much more quickly than usual, though today I still have all the signs of a cold. I’ve had no real appetite since I got here, which is completely out of character, but I have eaten on instruction and also because the food looks and tastes so good. Every meal includes a big tray of fresh papaya, watermelon, cantaloupe and sometimes pineapple. The salads are fresh and seem homegrown and there is a wonderful dressing I hope to be able to reproduce for my friends at home. I don’t have the proportions yet but I know it includes tons of parsley, chopped up, garlic, lemon and oil.

Tonight I had a good conversation with Deva. He’s a retired man from Germany who said many Americans have come by, here and in Rome, where there is already a Ratu center, shown great enthusiasm and commitment and then sooner or later stopped shaking. I hope I won’t be like that but it wouldn’t be uncharacteristic. Apparently the green movement and other modalities have taken stronger root in Germany than almost anywhere else. It seems that it may be something in the American disposition that is so used to using and disposing, that makes it hard to take hold and besides, as Deva rightly said, this is not an easy practice.

I had the idea to do a cookbook of the food here and suggested it to Ratu and his wife Nikki. So as not to make more of a goal than a process out of it, I have gingerly asked Sukri, who is apparently an energy master in charge of the kitchen, for 2 at a time. Here’s what I have so far.

PARSLEY SALAD DRESSING (Proportions to be recalculated for smaller groups) I kilo of parsley, chopped; 4 TBL garlic, chopped; Juice of 10 limes; 1 bottle of olive oil;1-2 TBL salt

PINK RICE (Served on the side with eggs for breakfast): Ist steam the rice; Then fry garlic and onion; Then sauté cabbage, carrots, spring onions, other green vegetables (Optional meat, fish, eggs); Use concentrated Chile (non hot) here called Lombok, or tomato puree, cooked down; Then pieces of hot, red Chile, Vegetable or meat stock; Salt and pepper. This can apparently be varied many ways.

The Ratu Bagus Ashram

We've come all this way not just to see the exotic Island of Bali but expressly for a 'shaking' mediation retreat at the Ratu Bagus Ashram. Richard was there last year and came home completely cured from a chronic sinus headache he'd had for years and committed to opening the practice to others. I had been shaking with him once a week since last September and felt like 10 years dropped off me from the very first day. Richard said he'd be going back in February and I said I wanted to come too.

I wavered in the interim months wondering if truly had the money, then in early January an experienced young shaker from Israel joined us. The radiant look of clarity in her eyes and her boldness in telling me to"make the decision and the money will come," did the trick and I booked my flight that very day.

So here we were, a day and a half in Ubud, and on our way on the narrow and rutted highway up, up, up from all the cities and villages into the foot of Mt Agung, the largest volcano in Bali and apparently one of the sacred sites of the world. The weather was cooler, though just as changeable as below, and the entrance to the ashram looked both majestic and ancient.

The place is like a temple compound that has been here for centuries though it’s actually only been built piece by piece in less than 20 years. The damp hot climate and the altitude make the perfect conditions for moss, which has served to age all the buildings, and structures, which are built of volcanic rock, cement, marble and ornamental, carved wood.

We've arrived in time for the second of three 2-hour shakes a day. Quickly settling in to our assigned rooms, the three of us from New York follow the others into the Taman, a large square sanctuary with hard tile floors and a grand and ornate altar. The edges of the room and the open second floor balcony are filled with beautiful painted statues and orate wooden sculptures of the Hindu dieties from Ganech to Hanuman and some Buddhist ones too. It is said the Balinese uniquely combine Hinduism and Buddhism.

And so I began my first long shake with about 50 others from all over Europe, some here for days and some for many months, and the Balinese men, women and children who I later come to know as the backbone of the place. My first roommate, Kati from Belgium, will be here till the end of the year. Being here almost a month as I plan to, is still a goodly amount. I begin rather lamely and soon realize this practice is surely not for the weak at heart. I'm amazed by the energy in the room and the full body intensity of the shaking going on to the blasting rhythmic music. Some people seem to literally fly through the air before landing on the hard floor in paroxysms of laughter and never get hurt. Ratu, the energy master who is the vision and reason for all of this, enters unbenounced and touches me lightly on the back just below my lowest rib and suddenly I get realigned and begin to find my stride. Then "Electric Ketut," as she is aptly called, comes by and stands right next to me with such high intensity shaking and arm waving saying words I don't quite understand but the gyst is unmistakeable: "Electric, electric, yes, yes, more, more!" I am completely wet with sweat in a few minutes and soon hope she will leave me for another victim so I can faint. I don't faint, but I am relieved to resume an easier rhythm to my nascent shaking as I survive the first long shake of my life.

First Day in Ubud

The contrasts hit the minute you land. The constancy of heat and moisture this close to the equator – only 6 degrees south of it – also has wrought a singularity of culture and way of life that seems less disturbed by the vicissitudes of change than in our so-called temperate zone. The people appear to be more of one and there’s a noticeable ease in their demeanor and ready smiles. Bali is the only remaining Hindu Island in Indonesia and the religion is alive and palpable. Edifice-sized statues of Hanuman and Ganesh and Shiva rise up all along the narrow and traffic-filled route from the airport to Ubud, the cultural center. Entrances to family compounds are flanked by grand and distinctive deities and fresh tiny offerings of flowers and sweet stuff on banana leaves are placed everywhere making every step a reverential one- though beware the streams of motor bikes and cars that make it a challenge, worthy of prayer, to cross the street.

The singularity of culture in Bali seems to give the people an equanimity that cuts through the ‘them and us’ implicit in the cultural stew of New York City. Here I feel a simple and benign ‘we’ and am immediately put at ease. Thanks to our friend Richard, who’s been here before, we are staying in one of those beautiful family compounds where each of our little rooms and front sitting porches open upon a typical central garden of casual and effortless magnificence. There are orchids in colors I never imagined, spindly flowering trees and even a miner bird that talks.

The first day, to acclimate and adjust, we venture out to do what any good tourist does – shop and eat. In neither case are we disappointed. The daily market is full and clamorous and reminds me of many others. In some ways, it could be right in the Bronx, except that women sit inches from the narrow walkways amid flowers, unusual fruits – some not available anywhere else on earth- and sticky foodstuffs placed in leaves to eat or sell. It seems there are many more sellers than buyers on this day, and I am waylaid more than once by those imploring me to buy for their good luck. It is hard to resist the look in their eyes. I give in only once and end up with a cotton off the shoulder dress for the equivalent of 10 dollars and spend the rest of the day looking for an under blouse to make it something I would actually wear.

We make our way to the palace where giant painted statues of holy cows are disproportionate to anything else around. (That's Richard, a taurus, with the bulls) Preparations are underway for an important cremation, which will be taking place right after we leave. Long bamboo poles are tied together and look like the underpinnings of a raft that could hold 50 people. Apparently it’s an important person who will be honored in this way and the event is spoken of as something to see, not necessarily evoking sadness.

We are to meet a friend of a friend of Richards for lunch at Sari Organic. I am the first to see the sign and we make our way up a short incline from the main street and then continue on a path through the rice paddies for at least a kilometer, maybe more. I am amazed that anyone finds their way to this restaurant and even more amazed to find myself, one day out of NYC, to be walking through terraced rice fields all at varying levels of maturity as far as the eye can see. The contrasts hit me again. The noise of the clamorous street, though not the heat, has thoroughly abated.