Friday, February 11th 2005, 12:42pm

Just a quick update...

Yesterday I was just getting ready to walk out the door and head for the 10 day meditation retreat when I got a phone call saying it'd been cancelled due to the teacher falling ill. So, a cup of tea later I'd switched to: going to Amritsar, home of the famous Golden Temple, the headquarters of Sikhism in the world.

I arrived in the early evening, rain coming down. Made my way to the temple and got settled in a free accomodation - a room with three beds. Only foreigners are allowed in the room(s) I'm staying in, so it's interesting. Last night my companions were a fellow from Switzerland who'd traveled overland through Europe, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, and yesterday into India. He spent two months in Pakistan and looks forward to going back. Our North American media sure pumps us full of fear eh? The other fellow was from Japan, and he left this morning bound for Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey. :) A funny coincidence. The next room over had four female students from Norway who have been in India for a little over two months as part of a group of 15 students (university). The third room ...I'm not sure, an NRI (non resident Indian) young woman born and raised in Australia, a young fellow from... Germany? And an older guy I'm guessing is from China or Taiwan.

So, I'm gonna spend maybe a week here deciding what to do next. I think it'll be nice just to chill a little bit. (Is that what I'm doing?)

dharma