travelupdate from gokarna India

Birthday Update I am now 51 years old and have travelled in 53 countries. I spent my 51st birthday in India, my 50th in Mexico, my 49th in Argentina, my 48th in Fiji, and my 47th in USA. Since my last birthday, in Mexico , I have been in USA, Ireland, Austria,Bulgaria,Romania,Egypt, Jordan, Israel,and India. Ten Countries. Today I am wearing sandals from Nicaragua, trekking shorts from Mexico (thank-you Mike and John the good boys from Minnesota who gave me the shorts!!!),boxershorts from USA, shirt from Panama, bracelet from Thailand, Hat from Bulgaria, belt from Israel I have gotten wet in a lot of seas. The red sea the black sea the Yellow sea, mediteranean,carribean,Dead sea,North sea, Andaman Sea, Baltic, Adriatic,Dead Sea, Sea of Cortez,South China Sea,Arabian Sea and others I am not recalling at the moment... I have learned and mastered the art and science of crossing the street. Crossing the street is the single most dangerous thing a traveller can do. Yet it must be done and cant be avoided. I have learned the true meaning of the "Star of David" and the "Swastika". I now know there are three worlds.I know that humans must stay in this the middle world, the world of "now", in order to be. I know that for humans in this world, there are two points of enlightened embarcation. The spirtiual starting place is called "Nirvana" and the physical starting point is called "Enough".
"Yesterday is historyTomorrow is a mysteryToday is a giftThats why it is calledThe Present"- Kamal Qaod
I am here in the present and I have enough.I am seeking the road to Nirvana. I believe it is just around the next curve...The path is guarded by the three demons of fear lust and anger. I must get past these demons to enter the path and follow the way. I feel like the man singing the Frank Sinatra song "My Way"...I have had a great life and times no matter what happens next. I have been blessed by the Gods with great friends, tender lovers and a caring family. I have been endowed with a free spirit and I am still wild at heart after 5 decades. I am older than I ever was and younger than I will ever be. And I am feeling fine fine fine.I age like Bordeaux's finest red wines, and yesterday morning an Irish girl on an overnight bus guessed my age to be 35. It was 3 AM and we had stopped to witness the total eclips of the moon. What a fine birthday gift from the Goddess Chandra to myself. I have lost back all the weight I gained in the USA and I need to go to a tailor to have the button on my new pants that Peta moved over to the left moved back to the right. I am fitting loosely into a size 32 waist (American) and was wearing a size 40 when i became an unemployed homeless traveller on October 1 2003!! I have just left Hampi and arrived in Gokarna India. I will stay here for tonight and have found a littel bamboo hut to rent on kudle (pronounced Kood-lee)beach here in the state of Karnataka. costs $1.10 per night USdollars or 50 rupees. Hampi (thank you Rosa from Jordan for recommending it) was absolutely LSD. Too psychedelic for words. Easily rivals Ankor Wat in Cambodia as my favorite Archeological sight in Asia. Gigantic boulders strewn around the ruins of a once mighty city which 500 years ago housed half a million people. It was abandoned when the locals had to flee from the Muslim conquest. Basically they could convert voluntarily or be tortured till they converted or died or run away.So they did what any sensible person would do, and took the overnight bus to who knows where!!! I have been meditating a lot and not smoking any drugs or drinking any alcohol and I feel great! I have been doing lots of walking meditation and chanting:Om Rama KrishnaOm Rama KrishnaOm...Om...Om Rama KrishnaOm Rama Krishna Om....Om...for about one hour every afternoon. Seems to make me feel full of love and joy and I recommend it to all of you.Have not eaten the flesh of any dead animals for about 7 months now, since I was in Wein (Vienna), last July. I feel really good about that too! Reading lots of good stuff. Read Bhagavad Gita twice now and I have just started a book by J.Krishnamurti and co-authored by a theoretical Physicist who teaches at U of London named David Bohm. I just finished Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdi and next up is the Kitchen Gods wife by Amy Tan. I really enjoyed the last book I read by her the 100 Secretr senses and I always love Salman Rushdi. My visa here in India explires on May 15 and I am thinkking I would like to go to Sri Lanka for a month and come back on a new visa but the civil war between the LTTE (Tamil Tigers)and the Government seems to be getting out of control agaain in spite of all the great effor by the Norwegians. Why doesnt my country EVER TRY TO STOP A WAR????!!!! All the same, I will go to Nepal if I dont want to get my ass shot off in Sri Lanka as the muslims and the buddhists try their best to annihilate one another and get a new visa in Katmandu, unless the wackos in SL get their fill of blood before the middle of May. Sri Lanka (Ceylon) would be my first choice however and then go to Nepal later this year.So here are a couple of Quotes from men wiser than I to think about until my next update..."Why cant we all just get along?"-Rodney King
"My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right?" Charles Schulz
"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." Theodor Seuss Geisel
Peace and love to all who read these words!!Robert the travelling man