Pieter de Vries and I got up very early this morning to shoot some footage at the giant Buddha at sunrise. When we got there there was no sunrise, only drizzle…

But luckily the Buddha was lit with some floodlights and so we got a bit of golden shine… And some beautiful footage.

After brekkie we checked out of our hotel and hit the bus for a long and torturous three and a half hour bus trip up vast mountains, and down vast valleys.

The road was a shocker. We averaged 20kms per hour.

It was horrible. I kept my sanity by chanting –
Om mani padme hum –

A rough translation is:
Get me off this bloody bus, and fast. 

Punakha is famous for its dzong. And here’s why…

We were going to camp out tonight but after that shocker of a road trip I nixed that. Instead we checked into a hotel.

This beats a sleeping bag and a tent any day, he says, being the consummate true pilgrim…

I’ll finish this blog with my shot of the day – taken at a nearby store, of the shop assistant…

Today we waited for confirmation of an interview with a Buddhist Master –

Waiting for Buddot…

(Obscure reference, I know…)

While waiting we did several things:

• We saw an archery tournament.
• We went to the Central Markets.
• We had coffee, proper coffee, and I watched the AFL Grand Final.
• We scouted a location for filming tomorrow – one of the world’s largest Buddhas
• We shot at the country’s National Stupa.

Archery – 
Archery is Bhutan’s national sport. We were astonished that these archers could hit the target with such accuracy from 150m.

After an archer hits the target his team members do a little war dance. It’s very cute.

Central Markets –
Have you ever seen markets this clean? Not one piece of trash on the ground. Immaculate.

And the thing about this market, all the produce is organic.
Yes, organic.
Real fruit and veggies, without chemicals. Like in the old days…

Organic fruit and veggies is one of Bhutan’s chief exports.

At the Thimphu Central Markets you can even buy wild orchids to eat!

And they had a tin of ANZAC bikkies which was used as a cash tin.

As I say, they are very fussy about cleanliness…

Karma Cafe – 

We had coffee at Karma Cafe, and I watched the Aussie Rules Grand Final via streaming. Saw the Hawks trounce the Eagles.

I barracked for the Hawks, seeing as how my team – the Sydney Swans – bowed out early.

Giant Buddha –
We drove out of town for about 16 minutes until we reached a hilltop where a giant statue of the Buddha is being built.

I wanted to scout the location for when we return tomorrow to film at first light.

It’s one of the largest Buddhas in the world.

The wind blew Jennifer’s dupatta –

And Pieter’s hat –

You can walk inside the giant Buddha – I took a shot of our guide, Kezung, and our driver, Dorji.

National Stupa –
This evening we shot at the National Memorial Stupa – the Stupa Chorten – which is right opposite our hotel.

This is a very low budget production and so our lighting kit for shots of me looking at the Stupa consisted of an iPhone torch…

Tomorrow we head out of Thimphu on a three hour drive to a city that was once the ancient capital of Bhutan. We’re camping overnight, and so there may not be any internet, and hence no blog…

Here’s a shot to finish this blog…

We were walking around the markets and I’d lined up to shoot the curtain over the doorway, and suddenly this bloke popped out and I took this picture…

It’s one of my favourites…

Today was all about the interview with the Prince.

We had been advised that it was royal protocol to wear traditional dress in the presence of the Prince, and so we went down to a local clothing store and got kitted up.

Jennifer looked tres elegante…

Pieter and I decided to go classic black, Ninja-style –

We had all the gear, but no boots. So Piet wore his black RMs and I wore my old Scarpas.

The Royal Palace was not one big building, like Buckingham Palace or The White House, which is probably the closest thing America has to a palace, if you exclude the New York Stock Exchange or Trump Towers. The Palace was a series of beautiful buildings surrounded by their own gardens.

We were given a small building just down from the Queen’s Palace, which had a stream of water flowing through. It was perfect for the interview, and Pieter and I quickly began to set up.

We then got word that His Royal Highness was approaching, so we were ushered out to meet him. We waited on a path near the Palace, and as he walked towards us he struck me as looking like a Bhutanese Johnny Depp – small and delicate in features, cultured face, beautiful smile. A handsome young man aged thirty one.

When he introduced himself, surrounded by bodyguards and entourage, he came across as humble, caring, and just a really nice young man.

He thanked us for taking the trouble to wear the country’s national costume. All the frocking up had been worth it!

I’m sorry that I can’t show you pictures of HRH (His Royal Highness) at the moment – we have to get Royal Approval from the Palace Media Office before we can do that.

Here though is a rearview of our interview set-up…

We then walked back into the garden outbuilding and began the interview.

It was a cracker.

His Royal Highness was wise beyond his years, and it wasn’t an interview so much as a very engaging conversation with an exceedingly smart young man. And again, his humility came across very powerfully.

Without even reviewing the footage I know that this interview will feature prominently in the film. It was worth coming to Bhutan just for this –

The Prince, Oxford educated, spoke about intuition both from a scientific / Jungian perspective, but also he spoke eloquently about the Buddhists’ beliefs in intuition.

As I say, it was a beauty…

As soon as we get Royal Approval, we’ll post some shots of this handsome young man. In the meantime, you’ll just have to put up with a shot of two ugly old men…

We’ve barely shaken off the masala from the magnificent Mother Ganga tour, and now we’re in Bhutan filming for my PGS intuition film.

My head’s spinning from the swiftness of it all – but our timing has been dictated by the availability of the Prince of Bhutan, whom I’m due to interview tomorrow.

Bhutan is preparing for a series of big royal ceremonies for the King’s 60th birthday, and the Prince only has limited time.

This introduction to the Prince was set up by LA based financier Devin Rose, who met His Royal Highness at a gala function in Beverly Hills a while back.

Devin – thank you mate!
Wish you could be here with us.

Bhutan is said to be the happiest country on the planet –

– and from the moment we stepped off the plane yesterday and walked into the most beautiful airport I’ve ever seen – and were waved through customs and immigration effortlessly even though I’d only half filled out my forms, I thought to myself –

I like this place!

We were greeted by our wonderful travel agent, Karma, and our guide and driver. The guide and driver will accompany us for the six days we’re in Bhutan. Both are gracious, humble, and almost embarrassingly attentive.

Today – our first day – was huge.

Watchtower, under renovation, opposite Museum

We started at 9am and finished at 9pm. First off we had a quick tour of the National Museum, before heading to the nearby Rinpung Dzong, a massive Buddhist  monastery and fortress.

It presented some wonderful filming opportunities.
And piccies –

After a quick lunch, we headed to the base of the cliffs that house the famed Tiger’s Nest Monastery – perched like a nest high up on the edge of a mountain of rock.

We were told the climb up would take between 2-3 hrs, and it took all of that. The climb was as hard as the Pyrenees, although not quite as high – the elevation climb was about 1,000m.

At one stage we were passed by a convoy of ponies carrying supplies up to the monastery –

Tough as it was, it was worth it.

I had structured the day so that we got to the Tigers Nest at best afternoon light – and we filmed there for quite some time.

The problem was, it was a good one and a half hour walk down.

We reluctantly pulled up tripods at 5pm – and it gets dark in Bhutan this time of year at 6pm. That meant we had about 30-40 minutes climb down this treacherous mountain in the dark, aided only by our wonderful guide’s torch on his iPhone!

I looked at my Fitbit Surge at the end of the day –

28,459 steps
20.91kms
4119 calories expended
372 floors climbed.

Ha! It was all of that and more – but worth every step.

We then drove one and a half hours to Thimphu, the capital, which is where we are now. Because we have the interview with the Prince at the Royal Palace tomorrow.

That should be an experience!

Before we drove back, we asked the guide to stop in Paro so we could get some cold beers for the long drive to Thimphu. This perplexed him a bit – but he got the driver to stop and we walked down a street then up a stairwell at the side of an alley.

This is where you get beers? I wondered…

The stairwell led to a small family styled restaurant, and the guide asked the lady who owned the restaurant if we could buy some beers. She had two coldies in the fridge, and so that’s what we bought.

It occurred to me later that perhaps that’s why this country has such a high Happiness Quotient – there’s very little drinking. There are no pubs or bottle shops to buy booze. You can only buy it at a restaurant, for drinking with a meal.

Tomorrow is the interview with His Royal Highness – that will be a trip! – and later we’re hoping to secure an interview with a Buddhist Master – one of the spiritual leaders of the country.

I’m finding this to be a fascinating country – and this is only the first day!

Source: Day 14 cont & 15 in Dharmasala and Days 16 & 17 traveling to Rishikesh with overnight in Chandigargh

Today has been rest & recuperation after the tour.

Because tomorrow we head off to Bhutan for further filming for the PGS intuition documentary.

Cameraman Extraordinaire Pieter de Vries ( CE ) has joined us, and will be filming in Bhutan.

When we come back from Bhutan we go to Varanasi – formerly called Benares – a very holy town on the Ganges. And then we go back to Bombay for more filming.

So there’s still a lot to do before we return to Australia.

We hope to complete filming by the end of the year, but it’s subject to funding. We still have a lot more to shoot in the US, and some in Hawaii.

We are being intuitively guided in the making of this film.
Everything is working out as it should.
The film is going to have a big impact.

Jennifer and I today are in post tour post partum depression. We miss all those crazy beautiful people we shared the last two weeks with.

But now we’re starting to think of our tours next year. We will definitely do the same tour – the Mother Ganga tour – at the same time again next year, so that we conclude with Ganpati.

And we’ll do another tour in April / May – which we’ll announce shortly. I’m not sure where that will be yet – whether it’s the Celtic Camino will depend on level of interest. I’ll post a blog shortly to ask who’s interested.

And now I’m going to have a nap.
I’m bushed!

It’s been a big year, and it ain’t over yet!

The tour is over.

It was an exhilarating and truly memorable two weeks – and when I go back over the photos I shot during that time, I can’t quite believe that we did all that we did.

In many ways the tour was like a Camino.

There were times when it was challenging, and there were times when it was overwhelmingly beautiful –

Other times it moved some to tears of profound joy and bliss,

Other times it was confronting and it forced some to really examine the way they looked at the world.

I have no doubt that those who came on this tour will be changed in some way by what they experienced in these past two weeks.

For some, I know that major changes are now in process.

Like I say, it was like a Camino.

It was a tour unlike any other, because it was a personal tour – it was a tour of our India; the India that Jennifer and I know and love.

Jennifer and I in no way profess to be India experts. It would take us a lifetime to learn all there is to learn about India. And even then, not being Indians, we would still be merely observers of an ancient / modern culture.

But we’ve been coming here regularly now for more than eight years, and we designed the tour around things we like to do – places we like to visit – experiences we’ve enjoyed in the past.

We ate well. Very well. The food was divine. You don’t get Indian food like this outside of India. A couple got Delhi Belly for a short while, but it passed. So to speak.

For the majority, there were no problems.

Jennifer and I took the group to the out-of-the-way restaurants and dhabas we’ve discovered and enjoyed over the years.

Places where you see no tourists, only locals. Places you’d be scared to eat at, normally – where you wouldn’t eat at, normally. These were the places where we had our best meals – meals that were unforgettable.

Like the sweet shop outside Dehradun –

And of course on any spiritual tour there has to be shopping!

Jennifer is a deeply spiritual person. I told one person on the group that if Jennifer sees a temple she’s like a rat up a drainpipe.

She’s the same with shoe shops.

She can’t walk past without rushing inside to take a look…

There was also the beautiful Indian clothing, the jewellery, the genuine pashmina shawls and scarves from Kashmir that are so finely woven they’re almost transparent. You never see this stuff outside of Northern India. Or if you do, the prices are astronomical.

Here they are very affordable.

The ladies loved shopping with Jennifer – because she knows the best places to go to get the best quality, but invariably I was brought in to do the final negotiations on prices!

But food and shopping aside, this was a spiritual tour first and foremost – and it was on that level that most of our group were deeply affected.

Some were moved to tears at the Dalai Lama temple at Dharamsala, others had memorable experiences at the Sikh Golden Temple at Amritsar, and for some, the aarti ceremonies at the ashram at Rishikesh by the Ganges were the highlight.

No-one though will ever forget Ganpati. It’s hard to describe the scale and the magnificence of that evening.

Interestingly, one of our group later pointed out that amongst the millions of people on that beach that night, we were the only foreigners. There were no tourists where we went…

It was my third Ganpati, and so I knew where to go, and how to safely take the group into the heart of it, to experience up close and personal the incredible energy and exuberance of that ceremony.

Everyone on the tour came away loving India, and loving the people. The Indian people at all times greeted us with smiles and warmth and generosity. Everywhere we went – someone would ask us if we could have our photo taken with them…

And they were honest.

There were several occasions when one of our party would leave something valuable behind, at a restaurant or in a shop or on one occasion in a taxi, only to be chased by someone and have it returned.

I inadvertently dropped some money on the floor of a café, and a young Indian lad tapped me on the shoulder and handed me the cash. He could have easily nicked it – it was not a small amount of money and I had no idea I’d dropped it – but he chose to return it to me. I tried to give him a tip to thank him, and he refused, but I insisted.

Like the slum-dweller who wouldn’t take payment for guiding us through the slums for an hour. Again we had to insist before he would take some money.

The tour dispelled many fears, many prejudices, many misguided beliefs about India. That’s not to say that the country doesn’t have thieves and criminals and major societal issues, particularly involving the treatment of women – but our experience was a good one.

One of the reasons we had such a good time was because of our assistant, Rachit.

Everyone loved him.

He not only worked very hard behind the scenes to keep everything running smoothly and meet all the group’s needs, but more importantly Rachit is a highly political and very ethical young man with deeply held beliefs about his country and its social mores. He was able to provide a context and a deeper insight into the country, its people, and its complexities.

It was very sad to say goodbye to everyone yesterday. Over the two weeks we’d all become very close. Like the Camino, the full impact of this tour probably won’t hit for weeks or months later.

The chance encounter with a couple of Buddhist nuns, laughing as they walked up from the Dalai Lama Temple –

The rousing music at aarti by the Ganges –

The early morning light on the Golden Temple –

The transcendence of doing yoga at the Taj Mahal –

Cramming into the back of a tuk tuk –

Donning head scarves –

The ashram hut where George Harrison stayed at Rishikesh –

The rush of a gigantic Ganesh on its way to the Arabian Sea –

The dignity of a slum-dweller, so proud of his work –

The wisdom and mirth in the eyes of an old man –

The innocence in the eyes of a boy –

Everyone has their own gallery of memories from the tour.
No-one will leave India unaffected in some profound way.

It was a pleasure and a delight to have shared our India with such a beautiful bunch of people….

Marie –

Jill –

Janet –

Britta –

Lynda –

Dale –

Today was our last day – and talk about finishing with a bang!

Ganpati was huge – even bigger than last year, it seemed.
More on that later.

But first –

Our day started with a trip to the Dharavi slums near the airport – made famous in the film Slumdog Millionaire, as well as the best selling novel Shantaram. An extraordinary book.

I’d driven past these slums dozens of times, but never ventured to stop, much less walk in. But we picked up a guide outside the slums, and he showed us around.

By “guide,” I mean he was just a bloke who was hanging around outside the slums, who said he could take us through. Later when we came to pay him he refused payment – he said it was his pleasure to be able to show us where he lived and worked.

We insisted – but it was a shock to us that someone living in the slums wouldn’t want payment. But as we wandered around the inside of the slums, it became apparent to us that what you see from the outside is not what it’s actually like inside.

Inside, the slum is a thriving commercial hub. It’s perhaps one of the most efficient reccyling plants imaginable. Every conceivable kind of junk is turned into something useful, something that can be resold.

We wandered through, at first feeling a little uncomfortable at our intrusion – we were after all affluent Westerners walking through their territory taking photographs. But we were welcomed with smiles and grace, and invited into their homes and mini factories.

At no time did any of them ever ask us for anything.

There was no begging, no asking for money if we took a photo, and we felt no sense of threat or hostility. On the contrary, we were warmly welcomed.

It was an eye opener for some of us – to see the dignity with which these slum dwellers lived their lives. They seemed happy, content, friendly, and they were certainly industrious.

One of our group also noticed that unlike American or some European slums, there was no sign of drugs, or alcohol abuse, none of these slum dwellers was stoned or drunk – there was no sense that our lives were in any danger whatsoever.

Walk into a slum in East LA taking photos and chances are you’ll be stretchered out with multiple gunshot wounds.

We then got into our bus and headed for the JW Marriott Hotel, at Juhu Beach. It’s the hangout of the major Bollywood stars, and Jennifer and I often stay there when we’re working in Bombay.

They have an amazing Sunday brunch buffet – voted the top buffet in all of India – and we proceeded to feast on an amazing array of foods – from caviar to sashimi to roast duck to the best selection of sweets I’ve ever seen.

After lunch we came back to the hotel and rested before heading out for Ganpati.

We walked 2kms from our hotel to the beach, and by the time we got there there must have been half a million people already watching as the Ganeshas trundled their way down to the water.

Ganpati is a celebration of the elephant God Ganesha – which Hindus believe clears obstacles from their path in life.

The statues are made from plaster-of-paris or paper mache, and once immersed in the sea off Bombay, they begin to disintegrate in the water. Some of the statues are two stories high.

As the light began to fall the bigger statues made their way down the beach, and more people flooded in. There must have been at least a million people there – and possibly more. For our group, it was the experience of a lifetime – and a fitting end to an extraordinary tour.

Later, over dinner, we all marvelled at how much we’ve seen, and experienced, in these past two weeks. From the Red Fort in Delhi, to the Taj Mahal, to the Golden Temple and Amritsar, to the Dalai Lama temple and all the Buddhist temples in Dharamsala, to the ashram at Rishikesh and the very moving aarti ceremonies – and now Ganpati; it really has been jam packed with amazing experiences.

For Jennifer and me, the highlight has been having the opportunity to share the India we are getting to know with some truly wonderful people.

Tomorrow when we all go our separate ways, we’ll all be sad – because it has been a very special time we’ve spent together.

Those in this city still devoutly call it Bombay.

Those elsewhere call it Mumbai.

Call it what you will, it’s the rock’n’roll capital of India – the centre of Bollywood – the glam city – with enormous wealth, enormous poverty, enormous charisma.

A whole different energy to all the other places we’ve been to.

We’re here for a huge festival tomorrow – Ganpati – when literally millions of people will take gigantic paper mâché statues of the Hindu elephant God Ganesh down to the Arabian Sea and immerse them in the waters off Bombay.

Some of these statues will be two or three stories high, and will take a dozen men or more to carry them.

This will be my third Ganpati. And I will be taking our group into the madness and hurly burly of it all.

Today Marie left us early to return home to France, for pressing work reasons. It was very sad to see her go.

After breakfast, we did some sightseeing of Bombay – the famous Gateway of India / the Colonial Victoria Railway Station / the massive, and fascinating, Crawford Markets /

We had lunch at one of Jennifer and my favourite haunts – The Tea Centre. We could have been back in the time of the British Raj!

In the late afternoon we headed off on foot to visit the famous Haji Ali mosque, situated on a tiny island about 300m off the beach, accessed by a raised concrete walkway.

On the way we found a small community that were preparing their Ganesh for the ceremony tomorrow –

Possibly because of Ganpati, there were hundreds of thousands of people there, everyone pushing and shoving to get to the mosque by sundown.

Even though it was at times uncomfortably crowded, it was beautiful nonetheless- and those of us that went inside the mosque were moved by its energy.

Today was a free day – nothing structured.
But it turned out to be extraordinary.

For most of our group, the morning was spent having Ayurvedic treatments of various kinds – massages, oil treatments, diagnostic session, and someone even had an Ayurvedic enema!

Afterwards, over lunch, she told us all about it…

A lot of us simply had the ashram’s Ayurvedic doctor determine what our “dosha” was – our Ayurvedic body type: Vata, Pitta or Kapha.

Here is a link to the various Ayurvedic doshas, and what they mean…
Ayurvedic doshas – 

Once you know your dosha, then according to Ayurvedic medicine, you should eat certain types of food, stay away from other types, same with drinks, and so forth.

Evidently I’m a Pitta dosha.
According to Deepak Chopra, that means I have these characteristics:

Pittas are usually of medium size and weight. They have excellent digestion, which sometimes leads them to believe they can eat anything. They have a warm body temperature. They sleep soundly for short periods of time and have a strong sex drive. When in balance, Pittas have a lustrous complexion, perfect digestion, abundant energy, and a strong appetite. 

Pittas have a powerful intellect and a strong ability to concentrate. When they’re in balance, they are good decision makers, teachers, and speakers. They are precise, sharp-witted, direct, and often outspoken. Out-of-balance pittas can be short-tempered and argumentative. When pittas are overstressed their typical response is, “What did you do wrong?”

Tick, tick, and more ticks.
Except for the short-tempered / argumentative bit.

Most of us on this tour spent some time in the Ayurvedic clinic, and all would say it was money and time well spent.

After lunch – which was spent in our regular cafe that is on the banks of the Ganges – we then split off to do various things. Some of the women had their hands henna-ed. Lynda though wanted to find the original ashram where the Beatles hung out in the late 60s.

Remember their Indian phase, when they all went off to meet their guru, Maharishi Mahesh? And the world was introduced to the sitar, and Transcendental Meditation? Well they went to Rishikesh, and to an ashram not far from where we’re currently staying.

So Dale, Lynda, Marie, Jill, Rachit and I headed off to find this ashram – now overgrown and abandoned. I took my iPad and played Magical Mystery Tour as we walked!

It was so cool.

Dale and I walked together for a while, and he recalled that he was in the armed services in Vietnam when all this happened, and the Beatles music was so important to the servicemen. He said they knew all the lyrics by heart.

After about 2kms walk we got to the ashram, and it was freaky.

It was overgrown and abandoned. It looked like Hobbit-town. We found the hut where George stayed – Hut Number 9. Remember that song on the White Album – Number 9? That’s where it comes from…

I had to leave early because I’d been seconded by the ashram to be their official photographer for the night’s aarti – a special occasion to celebrate the signing of an accord on pollution at the UN, in part instigated by the big boss of the ashram – Puja Swamiji Chidanand.

After I left with Jill, with Lynda following, Dale and Marie evidently went further into the ashram and discovered rooms where they painted, posted graffiti, wrote some of their lyrics on the walls etc.

Before I left though I took a photo of us all sitting on a bench outside the Number 9 hut – where the Beatles must have sat and played guitar and dreamt of the songs they were later to compose.

Incredible.

I then had to race back to begin photographing the aarti. Here are some shots as Official Parmarth Niketan Ashram Photographer!

I’ll have to put that on my CV!
Here are some shots…

And here are some shots I took after the ceremony was over –