So, I have been living in SF for almost 16 years. I work for a biotech medical device company teaching surgeons how to use equipment in the OR. I also teach yoga on the side one day a week. Anyone who comes across this and happens to live in the city is welcome to a free class with me where I teach. I am currently teaching at Aha Yoga. Located at Union @ Laguna. As of now, I am only teaching Monday nights at 6:15pm. You can check out the classes and times at www.ahayogasf.com. My name is Howard. I would so much love to bring people from the community into my class.

Hope you are all smiling,

h

The last two posts were from a trip that I took this past summer. Thought someone might enjoy reading.

Darjeeling

so, i am beginning to enjoy sending out these messages. slowly, my fear of writing is deminishing. if anyone who is reading this knows how to set up a blog, i would love your help. well, where to begin. first of all, i am no longer in puri. my last couple of days their were amazing. i so far have been adopted by a few families, all of whom wanted me to join them at their home. respectfully i declined. i have just so much been enjoying my freedom and cruzing whenever i feel.on the 16th, i went to the train station to by my ticket to go to darjeeling. still have been cruzing on the bike. bought my ticket and left the building to come across a little Shiva temple. the temple was only about 8ft high and maybe 20ft wide. there were all kinds of super old sadhu's hanging around with dreadlocks and huge beards. in the middle of the temple was a tree that went straight through the roof. the part of the tree that was in the temple was painted a super cool blue color. so, i am standing outside the temple just watching the sadhu's chant and play music when one of them notices me and invites me in. i enter and proceed to hang out and smoke ganja with these sadhu's. like i said earlier, you never know where you will end up. all i was planning to do was get a ticket.so, the following day, i boarded the train to new jailpaiguri. the train left at 1:45 pm. again, another sleeper car. this time, i made sure i was in the correct seat. i also asked the people around me who was going to be getting off at my stop, as the train was still going further. the train ride lasted about 22 hours. now thats a train ride. from the train station, i had to get a tuk tuk to the bus station where i found a jeep that was heading to darjeeling. what a crazy jeep ride. we pretty much just went straight up. the jeep ride started with some great music until about a half hour into it whe the driver who was very young put on some cheesey love songs which lasted for the rest of the trip, about two hours. it was actually very funny. i was sitting in the front of the jeep with four guys listening to this music which just made me laugh. i felt like i was in a movie.finally we reached darjeeling. the climate is drastically different as darjeeling sits at 2134m. you will have to convert that to feet yourself. it was late and a bit cold when i arrived. pretty much had dinner and went to bed. which brings me to today. my room has an amazing balcony which looks out onto the Himalayan mountain range. i can't even begin to tell you how beautiful it is. in darjeeling's panarama, lie four of the worlds highest peaks. the hills are covered with tea plantations. darjeeling is a bit fogged in and today i was only able to seem Khangchendzonga which rises to 8598m. it is still early today so i am not sure how my day will unfold. you can all be sure that you will get an update.hope you are all smiling, i am,h

Varanasi

This is going to be a tough one. I had just finished this one yesterday and lost it pretty much as soon as I was done. It also seems to be a bit difficult to write about a place once you have moved on. So with that said, this is not being written in Varanasi, but Rishikesh.

Even when I was composing the first one, I found my experience in Varanasi very hard to put into words, but I will try once again. My journey to Varanasi like most you will see started with a wonderfuly long train ride. My ride started around 5:00am from a place called New Jalpaiguri. Once again I made sure that I went to the correct seat. To my surprise, I booked myself on an AC car. Of course, this was definately a treat. Such a difference between the AC and the fan. I do have to say that it was a little too cold, but that was ok. The AC cars seem to be not as social as the others. Each compartment is closed off by curtains so as not to lose the precious AC. I settled myself in and immeadietly went back to sleep. Woke up a few hours later to the bustle of the train. In my cabin were three Indian men. Only one who could speak english. He turned out to be a proffesor at the university in Varanasi. We had some pretty good conversations. One in particular stands out. He is a Geology proffesor and has traveled all over India. I asked him where was his most favorite place to visit. His response still makes me smile. He said that his home was Varanasi and that was his favotite place. He said the best place is where your friends are and that are other places are wonderful to visit and spend some time, but there is nothing like the place where your friends and family are. This made me smile so much. I have had so much time to think as I have been traveling and the one thing that keeps comming up is all of you. I just keep thinking that I might be the luckiest person ever to have such wonderful friends and family in my life. Each and every one of you is so amazing. I just want to say that I am so honored to have you all in my life. You all rule.

Still on the train. After all, it was about a twenty hour ride. The trains are pretty amazing regarding the view and the country side that you pass by. So many little villages. It seems like these vilages have stood still in time. So primitive, but so increadibly beautiful. Clay and straw huts, Ox tilling the soil, and such cool irrigation systems. The woman in India seem to work the hardest and it was the woman that I mostly saw working the land. It is so beautiful to see the woman out in the fields with their brightly colored sari's. I left my compartment for a bit to stand at the door and watch the land as the train went along. As I stood, we passed by the most beautiful village that I had seen. The huts were all so beautiful, it just looked like the most put together village that I had seen. I have to say that there were a few moments where I thought about jumping off and and just disapearing into this little farming community. Of course I did't. After all, don't you think it might hurt just a bit to jump from a moving train. So with that, I went back to my seat and waited for my arrival to Varanasi.

I arrived at the train station in Varanasi sometime around 11:30pm and thought it best to stay somewhere close to the train station. I ended up staying at a pretty nice hotel that actually had a pool. Woke up the next morning to a scorching day decided that there was no hurry whatsoever to get into the city. So I sat at the pool for most of the day. You see, I don't think there are many pools in India. I just had to take advantage. I spent most of the day at the pool and left sometime around 4:00. I took an auto rickshaw to the old city where I got dropped off at Assi Ghat. Varanasi is lined with ghats that run the lenght of the city along the Ganga river. Assi Ghat is the last ghat and the most mellow of all the ghats. Maybe I should start with a little history of Varanasi and the Ghats.

Varanasi is the city of Shiva. Shiva is known as the destroyer as well as the creator and he is worshiped in the form of the lingam. Varanasi is one of the holiest cities in India. Hindu pilgrams come wash away all their sins in the Ganges. The city is the heart of the Hindu universe, a crossing place between the physical and spiritual worlds, amd the Ganges is viewed as the river of salvation. Like I said earlier, the main attraction to Varanasi is the ghats which line the Ganges. Most of the ghats are used for bathing but thare are a couple that are used as burning ghats where they creamate the dead in open view. Assi Ghat where I stayed is in the middle of construction. It seems like they are making it longer. To watch them work on it was amazing. All of the stone is hand carved. The whole thing is built as they did hundreds of years ago.

Now, a little about life in Varanasi. First of all, it is so hot, can't really describe the heat, just constant sweating. The power goes out all the time. Pretty scary when you find yourself in an alley way with no light. There are cows everywhere. Well, there are just cows everywhere in India. Again, not too many tourists around so it was mostly me and Varanasi. So far on my trip in India, Varanasi was the hardest place that I have been. Most likely why I find it hard to write about. Unfortunitly, my white skin makes me a walking dollor. I really couldn't go anywhere without someone trying to sell me something. I couldn't even have a friendly conversation with someone where at the end they didn't try and wisk me off to there silk shop. It was definately a challange. At the end, I just had to pretty much ignore everyone that crossed my path. It just got to be very tiring. So with that said, it was time for me to move on. With that said, the beginning of another journey and yet another train ride.

Just wanted to say again, that you are all truly amazing. I wish I could give everyone of you the biggest hug ever. Maybe you could all close your eyes and inagine the biggest hug ever.

Again, I hope you are all smiling, I definately am.

I love you all so much.

Thanks for reading,

h