Dear Ones,
Many thanks for your emails. It was also really nice to receive letters when I arrived in Pondicherry.
My niece, Barbie Dailey, has made a beautiful place for an Archives Lab and her home in the Sri
Aurobindo Ashram. Yesterday I went to the famous Auroville community… My room here overlooks the
Bay of Bengal in the Ashram’s Park Guest House. I am not often there. We are often running around on
Barbie’s moped on the crowded market streets.
From Sept 19 – 29 I was in Thikse. Oct 1-6 I lived in Kullu. I was with subsistence families. That is,
they grew their vegetables and used their milk daily, but very little. We ate so well and had lots of milk
tea. Steve Katton in Arcata made the original contact for me. I relaxed and enjoyed, knowing these
people, and they “spolied me rotten”…Between Leh (Thikse) and Manali (Kullu) I had a nightmare
journey on the treacherous Himalya road. Indian driver, very good, (had to be). Taxi-Jeep, 3 Indian
passengers and four of us foreigners. We were supposed to take 13 hours. It took 23. Five hours were
waiting for a stuck bus across the narrow road, rock cliff behind, 1000 metres down. There we waited in
the snow as people, including our Aussi, chipped away at the rock cliff. The army came to look. A truck
with a winch finally arrived. The truck got out. Then the army vehicle wouldn’t start. Meanwhile,
vehicles are double-parked on the south side and many of us were waiting on the north side to finally,
hopefully, get through. I was curled up in the back of the Jeep with altitude sickness… We finally arrived
in Manali, “Dragons Nest” Guesthouse with lush green views and mountains in the distance. We
laughed and joked about “the journey from Hadas”… Can also say Delhi is a nightmare. Sort of funny
too. As my three-wheeler to the train station in the traffic jam was slowed down for an enormous water-
buffalo pulling a flat-bed of lumber… Second class berth (A/c) was comfortable. No other foreigners
were on board.
So, here is the delux part of the trip. We’ll have a driver for visiting temples on the 15 and 16, then
goodbye in Chennai after shopping.
Goodbye India, happy to have met you. On to Australia Oct 19-Nov 7.
Mark and Nicole in Australia have email. So don’t stop please.
Love, j
Mongolia Entry 3
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