I've just gotten back from Germany where I went to a screening of pleasure marriage - a film that I play the main character in. Anyhow, while there I made a little video for my sister... I place it here for her to randomly find at some point. There is another posted on My Potato and friends here!

posted by Sanjay Shelat at 4:05 PM - (0) comments

 

posted by Sanjay Shelat at 2:00 PM - (0) comments

 
Having finished a sucsessful tour of life of pi (Yann Martel) I'm now back in London doing some computer work till my next tour.

posted by Sanjay Shelat at 9:35 AM - (0) comments

 
I'm Alive...!

After such a long radio silence you all thought I was a gonner... right?!
Well I'm alive and kicking! I'm living in a house with my sister in south London, and I'm about to go on Tour Nationally with Life Of Pi! Come and check out the show when you have a chance - it is going to be quite special.
I've also started up a I've also started up a Potato
thing!

posted by Sanjay Shelat at 1:50 PM - (0) comments

 

posted by Sanjay Shelat at 9:18 AM - (3) comments

 
**************** I'M BACK ****************


While on the Andaman Islands a good friend I made offered me a 5 month dive season at his school/resort. It would have meant waking up everyday to white sandy beachs backed by palm trees, all the warmth and ease that living on a tropical paradise island brings, and of course diving everyday twice a day for free in one of the best dive areas in the world. The season began on the 15th December... and I decided for a variety of reasons not to take it. Instead I performed a 10 day silent meditation, visited my family in the north before returning back to England - just before the underground Earthquake transformed that part of the world. I am now living in London again - and my prayers continue to go out to those people in difficulty as they always have.
I hope to see or hear from some of you over the coming months as I have lost all my telephone numbers and am relying on my fading memory to provide those it can - which is about 3! So give me a call, and we'll do coffie and photo's!

All my love to all of you.

Sanjay Shelat, London, England.

posted by Sanjay Shelat at 6:59 PM - (0) comments

 
Sanjay has sent us a song from India. http://www.geocities.com/sanjayshelattheactor/mp3.html

There are also now comments activated on this blog. Enjoy!

posted by ADMINISTRATOR at 6:12 PM - (0) comments

 
****The Andaman Islands****

After a 5 day boat journey across the bay of Bengal from Calcutta I reached Port Blair, the centeral 'city' of the Islands. From there I took transport to Havelock Island where I spent 2 weeks in the peace and quiet. What a place! The island still holds an unspoilt natual beauty that is difficult to find while remaining somewhere quiet. Well the lack of tourists on the white sandy beach's backed by palm trees was really nice. I've never been a beach person, but I found out why people like it so much. Its the stopping that makes it. Just taking time to Be, beacause there is little you can do and absolutely nothing that you Have to do.
The Dive season starts on the 15th December and runs for 5 months. I would stongly recomend any divers to come out here for the sea, and warmly encourage anyone wanting a quiet break with a beach to find their way here.

posted by Sanjay Shelat at 6:09 AM - (0) comments

 
**********Treking in Tibet**********

We took a bus to a Monastery called Ganden, (east of Lhasa for those of you with a map) and from there pplanned to trek to a monastery called Samye. The Ganden monastery was really beautiful. As with nearly all the Buddists institutions here in Tibet it was obviously lacking in the Monk contingent it would have been occupied with in the past. The facilities could easily have supported A few hundered monks, we saw maybe 10 in total there. However the religious Kora (circumbiulation) was also real fun. Buddism like Hinduism is an 'interactive' religion where you do much more than just listen to a sermon as a devotee. The Kora saw me rubbing my handson certain rocks, peering through my rolled up fists like they were make believe binoculars at points, rubbing my entire body on boulders, walking through a crevice in the stone to prove my faith as well as the usual burning of large ammounts of leaves and twigs as an insence offering to the powers that be! It was huge fun, like a religious theme park almost.

***********Sky Burial**********

On the more serious front Joe was lucky enough to see a sky burial on his walk. The Tibetains believe that once soomeone has died, the body holds no more association to that person as a house that they once lived in. They perform 4 types of funeral; earth burials, fire burials, water burials and sky burials. The sky burial involves taking the body, cutting it into small pieces, breaking then grinding the bones down to a smaller form and then leaving it for the vultures to eat. As the burials all happen at the same sites, when ever one takes place the vultures understand what is happenning and gather in force ready to decend on the stripped-from-bone human flesh. When the Llama conducting signals and the feast of flesh is prepared, the Vultures as one swoop down and consume the body in its entirety. Thus it is that the Tibetans deal with their dead.

**********Treking**********

We were going to hire a Yak for the first 2 days, partly because the 2nd day saw us climb to a pass at 5,200meters - not an easy climb at all, and partly because we wanted to have our own Yak!
However, the Yak turned out to be a horse! We were unhappy, but it after much explanation they agreed to change the horse for a Yak at the first town 3 hours away. We met 3 other travelers who were heading out that day, and happily told them obout our horse and how much we were paying. They then brutally stabbed us in the back! They offered the guy more money and stole our horse! Well, we were not happy and at that point thought -sod you lot and decided to just walk the lot.
This turned out to be the best decsion of the trek. Being without a guide or a Yak meant not only could we start when WE wanted, camp where WE wanted, and trek with just the company of the two of us in what was a very remote and unpopulated region, but also we became truely hard core in the obstacles we had to overcome to complete our journey.
On the first night the Nomad kids from all the way across the river blasted a hole in our tent using a sling shot to propell a stone at extreemly high velocity.
On the second day we had to make the 5,200 meter pass. On the final climb up to it through the snow, the rain turned to hail which quickly turned to snow! The view from the from the top was amazing, and surounded by the snow caapped mountains I offered my prayer flags to the powers that be.
The third day saw a 2nd pass at a similair hight, and from there it was down hill. Problems over I thought? No way! From there we encountered the serious monsoon fed rivers!The height and strength of the rushing waters made it impossible to cross at points, and mearly difficult at others. At those times we took our shoes and socks of, and bare feet over the rocks through the freezing rushing waters trying to pull you away while your feet go numb, we made it through.
We finally made it to Samye and there the issue changed from a physical one to a a legal one. Samye requires a permit, and to get a permit you have to pay $400 us dollars to do the trek as an organised tour. We had no such permit. We kept a low profile to ovoid the PSB, and then tried to get back to Llasa. At first we couldn't find the bus. Then when we did, they wouldn't let us ON the bus! Eventually we offered to pay extra and they did.
Everything was going smoothly till the bus tried to cross a river. I say tried, because we failed spectacularly! The driver drove us straight into a deep bit and the front of the bus plunged into the river leaving us stranded. The irony came when all the other vehicals on the road drove through with no problems at all by simply using the shallower part about 4-5 meters to our right.
After much pulling and attempts for all the men to heave the bus out, me and Joe grabbed our bags and headed down the road alone. In the far distance we could see a town so we headed for it. We had no permit, no paperwork for the area - to be honest we didn't even know where we were! We just walked.
Then it all turned great. We managed to hitch a lift in the back of a 4x4. The next thing we knew we were zooming along very quickly towards the town with no effort or cost at all! Even better, as we were in the back of this chineeze driven Land Crusier, we drove straight through the check points with all the armed guards and military without even a second glance! If we had been walked we almost certainly would have been stopped - as it latter transpired we had arrived in Tsetang, the town which reputabley has the worst police in the entirety of Tibet!
Once in the Town we quickly realised this was not a tourist place. There was not a single other whiite person that we saw, and non of the types of shops that come with a place that has even a few tourists passing through. We thought it best to leave soon.
We made our way to the bus park, avoiding the poice by turing whenever we saw them. We got very lucky then, we found a mini bus about to leave with a few seats left. We jumped in, and just as the driver was about to pull away a police officer waved and made him stop. The next thing we knew the PSB had the driver out the car and walking around to the door to open the door. At that point I thought the game was up.... the officer took a glance around the inside of the vehical, then pulled out a chineeze guy and let us go! I couldn't believe it!!
Eventully we made it back to Lhasa that evening and I was one relieved traveler. All the hostels were full, so we ended up staying in an expensive 3 star hotel for the night - but oh that shower was good!

And so I made it back from an amazing trek in one piece.
Next stop - Mount Kalaish!!

Sanjay Shelat - Lhasa, Tibetian Autonomous Region, China.

posted by Sanjay Shelat at 1:09 PM - (0) comments

 
******The Gosaikund Lakes******

With the Situation in Tibet susses out as much as I can from this end of things, I have booked a 4x4 leaving Nepal on the 17th July - the day before my visa runs out. With that done, we decided to get a bus to the Langtang Valley and do a treck from there that would lead us to the Gosainkund lakes. However due to another Moist strike nothing was moving for at least 4 days... so in defiance of this me and Joe decided that the one form of transport that the strikes could not touch were our feet! So we got a taxi out of the main Katmandu area and just walked from there to the Gosainkund lakes instead!

Legend has it that after drinking the poisen from the sea, Lord Shiva the Destroyer pierced a glacier with his trident in order to quench his inconcievable thirst. It was then that the lake was formed.

We walked there in less than a week, and arrived in time for my birthday. The journey took us through cloud forest - which ment walking in a near perpetual mist that dropped visibility at points to 3 metres. This meant we didn't have the views that 'on-season' alows, however this also meant that we were the ONLY people on the trail. With a brief exception we didn't spend time with any English speakers for the entire time - and when the mists finally did clear what a view! The lakes, at 14,250 ft, were quite something. When the altitude sickness had passed from the medically dangerous jump of 3,000 ft in one day necessasry to reach the lakes from our direction, I had my Darshan.
Alone in the morning of the 2nd July - Punum (full moon) - I went to the Shiva Mandir (temple) at the edge of the lake. There with no one to witness but the stillness of the lake itself I offered up the 108 names of Shiva in traditional Sanscrit, took a bath in the high altitude freezing cold waters fully emmersing myself three times, then I changed my Janoi. I emerged from the waters felling both exilarated and calm simultaniously. It really was quite something.
On the last day of the journey I found a beautiful Gompa/Budist Temple. The place just had a good vibe to it, and so after several days of thinking about it but waiting for the correct time and place I also performed a very simple Agni Puja. My Pilgrimage complete, we put some real speed on and made Katmandu by the end of the next day.
People go on Pilgrimages to all sorts of places for all sorts of reasons, some not even religious. Most of these places tend to be high up difficult places to get to. I now believe the reason that they go to these places isn't only for the place itself - for these days modern transport makes it easy, there was even a helicopter pad at the lakes. Instead I think it is not just the place, but the journey there that makes it. It was not just the lakes, but the difficulty and experiences that led us to our goal that makes, for me, the lake experience so special.

Sanjay Shelat, Langtand and Helambu Region, Nepal.

posted by Sanjay Shelat at 5:49 AM - (0) comments