So a little about the atmosphere in Bagsu.........
A typical day starts at about six to six thirty when Didi (the aunty) rings her bell to purify the air. The family have just built a  shrine to Shiva and made puja the other day chanting mantras and burning incense and er, much to my dislike they slaughtered a poor goat. Then the sweeping and the chatting and setting up tables and chairs while all us backpackers stirr from a heavy nights sleep. Then the coughing and ablutions followed by the early morning coffee addicts getting their first fix of the day.
Some time around nine or ten most people are up and chatting over breakfast. The big question weather or not to go to Sansu's place about five minutes down the hill or stay at Evergreen is on everyone's mind. (His breakfast's are better).
This morning as I was at Sansu's a friend I met last year (an Italian) suddenly popped an acid tab into his mouth with a sip of coffee as we were chatting. I decided to stay and watch him come up on his trip. He is a funny chap and lets just say I left and went back to Evergreen laughing all the way. Hope I see him later to find out what he's been up to. My tripping days are over but I like to be around fun people. It's like free tickets to a show.
Bagsu Is pretty full now and when going up and down the hill from one restaurant to another one is hit by the pockets of Israelis and Russians. The rest of us seem evenly mixed. A few people sit on the sides of the hill and sell their Jewelry or play various instruments or just sit and chat and drink chai.The smell of charras wafting by fairly often and people lying about quietly stoned with anything from Bob Marley to psy trance calling you to one tribe or another.
There is a good group of people staying at Evergren but a lot of inevitable comings and goings.
My reiki teacher and his girlfriend handed me the top floor room with a super view and passed the reiki mantle on to me. I was sad to see them go and hope to reconnect with them both next year. I got off my arse and now I am doing regular treatments and about to take my second class this weekend. It's exciting to watch it grow in front of me. The clients all seem to leave more than happy.
I plan to hang around until the end of the month.
I never saw the tripping Italian again that day but the next morning he appeared as usual for his morning coffee seemingly unenlightened by his experience.

Bagsu

Bagsu is really where I consider my holiday starts. I arrived as the weather had began improving. Still cold at night but warm days are now pretty common.
So I was with Kris and we had now met up with Chris and Katya good friends from last year. Matt the sitar player was there and I met Michael a very chilled German. I met up with my Reiki teacher Jason and his girlfriend Allegra who was in the same rooftop room as last year.Good for taking classes.
Things looked good and I could see the future taking shape.
After a few days of settling in I was invited up the mountain to Triund. A beautiful look out spot. I was eager to go up and was ready at six AM. Off we went with Swami Ji leaping off into the distance, after about five minutes I felt I was going to faint. I sat down, Katya took one look at me and suggested I returned to Evergreen. I had absolutely no energy and could not breath
I realized my lungs were bubbling and I had a lung infection. I made an appointment with an Ayurvedic doctor who gave me some pills, powders and potions and told me to avoid certain foods and come back in a week. After a week I was still pretty ill so I took the Amoxicillin antibiotics I brought with me and after another week I got better. My energy returned and at last I could venture out. This enabled me to go to a few concerts and other nice restaurants.THE DUDE GOT OFF THE COUCH!
My computer screen decided to stop working so this entailed a trip to Dharamasala. I'd never been there before but I managed to get a new screen and two hundred business cards made. I had to return to collect them the next day. The cards were perfect, well at least all the spelling is correct even if they were cut with the bluntest guillotine available.  but the screen was no good. After an apology the technician agreed to come to upper Bagsu to replace the screen. He arrived with a new screen with the right specs fixed it in five minutes and left. I have to say I am happy with the result.
Too soon Kris and Katya were making plans to leave and they were off to Nepal.
A couple of days later Chris came to my room and mentioned an earthquake saying that a couple of hundred people had been killed in Nepal. As he was telling me I was trying to grasp the magnitude as As yet I had not seen any TV and only heard snippets of information. Very quickly as reports trickled in we realized the death toll was rising rapidly and the situation was really serious.
Chris looked at me and asked weather he should go to Nepal. After all the reports started coming in over the traveler telegraph I said well If it were me I'd try and change it. They did thankfully and off they went to Thailand.
Sad to see them go I knew the next wave was close behind and lo and behold a couple of days later English Tim  and then Gil arrived just in time for my birthday.
By now we had a nice little group. We fit together well and hang out around the restaurants and occasionally move en masse to a concert somewhere or the promise of a better pizza.
Although Bagsu is full it is pretty quiet and after ten there is not a lot going on but On my birthday I managed to stay up until about twelve. I had Happy Birthday sung to me and played by Matt on his sitar and a little birthday cake with a candle appeared. I felt happy.
It was a fun day.
Now feeling better I started hanging out with Jason and Allegra and their mate Rob and getting into some meditation and then assisting with a couple of Reiki level 1's I feel quite confident to teach myself when I move around India. It is so great to be able to have deep meaningful conversations with people on the same wavelength. I am so at home in India.
Last night we all heard the news that there had been another 7.3 earthquake in Nepal. Dinesh (the manager) had quietly disappeared to return to Nepal to help rebuild his family's homes. I think its at least three homes completely destroyed. Can't help but feel really sorry for all the people now without homes and the monsoon not too far away.
Well that brings me more or less up to date. I will probably hang around Bagsu for another couple of weeks before wandering off into new and old haunts.

From the end to the beginning

What a mission! reorganizing my visa, air ticket and hotel dates I waited the extra nine days and spent my time with some good friends (you know who you are) both in and out of London and then promptly became sick with a twenty four hour virus and just as I recovered from that I had my first ever real hay fever attack, I felt like Mr. Snot head.
The day finally arrived and I was completely well again and fit to travel (or so I thought). I had made a speedy recovery just in time for the flight.
Saying goodbye to my mates in London who had put me up and put up with my diseases (long suffering lovely people) I strapped on my new backpack and day pack and felt the first twinge of excitement and adrenalin giving me a positive energy boost.
I have to say Virgin airways is a good airline to fly with especially when the plane is half empty and I had three seats all to myself. I watched the film' Fury'. Absolute crap! In my opinion but it passed the time well enough. I was then able to get about four hours unbroken sleep waking up just in time for breakfast. I was met at the airport, this time effortlessly as opposed to my previous trip by the driver organised to take me to my hotel, Smyle Inn.It was good to arrive in daylight for once and the drive was pleasant going passed all the well manicured lawns and smart embassy buildings on the way into the hustle and bustle of Pahar Ganj.
Arrival, check in and shower. I felt surprisingly fresh and went straight to look for some opticians which I found within five minutes. Eyes tested and frames chosen I was told I could collect them in three days at a cost of R's 24000 or about £250. They are 'number one quality' so I was happy.I spent the rest of the day wandering about and orientating myself and then got bored and went back to my air conditioned room and had a rest.
I met up with Polish Kris the next day who was a little worse for ware from his escapades the day before and we/I had breakfast, agreed to meet later and I went back into the main bazaar and found a little place to sit and watch the madness pass by. The usual, cycle rickshaws jostling with motor rickshaws. The smells of incense mixing with cow shit and exhaust fumes and people hurriedly pushing themselves through this tangled mass of movement. I sat calmly swatting the flies off my chai.
In the evening we met up and went to Sams bar for a few drinks and a catch up. Kris had recovered sufficiently to be good company. A lively air conditioned bar/restaurant with loud cheesy pop for good measure. We ate, drank and chatted, had a good time and left somewhere around mid night.
The next day Kris and I met and went on the metro to Connaught Place. The metro is very modern' cheap and efficient. Very impressed! We wandered around and sat in a park being harassed every five minutes by salesmen of almost every description and when we'd had enough we went back to the main bazaar area.
I booked a ticket to Dharamsala and the next day I collected my glasses. Fantastic to have new glasses, everything was in focus again.
When it came time to get on the bus we were collected then put on a cycle rickshaw and taken to some roadside where we waited without tickets and unable to communicate waited with only relative certainty that our bus would come. Eventually it did and we boarded a bus half full of monks so we knew it was the right one to Dharamsala, Oh.of course this was only taking us to a Tibetan settlement where we boarded a second bus. I took a sleeping pill and miraculously woke up as we were driving into Mcleod Ganj. Brilliant! A whole nights sleep. Kris was not impressed as he had only had a couple of hours sleep. Catching a rickshaw we went to upper Bagsu and then the stair climb which was pretty exhausting with all our gear and then Evergreen. We'd arrived.
Next chapter began when I met Katerina and Chris, also friends from last year. They had reserved me a room, a nice pink one with en suite bathroom with hot showers.

First the vitriol then the love.

As I sit here with days to go before I leave for India and plenty of time to think, I can't help but ask myself why India again? A fourth visit? Why? There is so much of the rest of the world to see. What about Thailand, Vietnam, South America? The rest of the world? The answer is simple, because my heart is not telling me to be there......Yet anyway.
India as a wise French woman once said to me "Will take you in or SPIT you out!" I love that as I have seen India do that to many people. She has taken me in and every time I go she takes me deeper into her rich culture of heady spirituality, Incredible food, vibrant music, beautiful diverse landscape and the chance to meet truly amazing people both Indian and others from all over the world. I love it even more because it is NOT Ibiza or Torremolinos or any other two week package tourist destination (unfortunately with the exception of Goa, a place I am beginning to avoid).
I grew up for the first twelve years of my life in Nigeria. Unfortunately (with hindsight) I was sent off to Boarding school in England from the age of eight and so I experienced my first violent clash of cultures. One minute free to run around naked in the bush the next being beaten for rebelling against Victorian methods of discipline and education.
While I am in the U.K. I suffer. I'm on antidepressant pills for the rest of my life (as are about a third of the population). I find the general attitude in this country appalling. Capitalist, consumerist. badly educated, selfish, shallow and morally bankrupt. The politicians revolt me from all parties. They support terrorism while pretending to fight it. Everything here has been sold. Every idea is monitored, political correctness rules the day whereas the truth has been so distorted hardly anyone can recognise it any more. The police work for the corporations. The NHS is being destroyed. Fracking is happening despite massive protest. The poor are getting poorer and the rich don't give a fuck. There is no sense of community any more. Of course to question this immediately gets you marginalised and ostracized and if you get too good at it you just disappear.
It is a crime to think outside the "accepted social narrative" What kind of a world are they trying to create for us in the west? It's a dictatorship and all the pieces are slotting nicely into place. It will soon be too late to speak out or fight back and we have walked stupefied by our own selfish desires right into this matrix.
Deep breath, Aah. Now When in India I am a small fish in a big ocean and I can grow. It is so different there that to survive you have to be naked leaving all preconceived ideas behind as they just don't work here and only then can the magic begin.
So I am excited and a bit nervous as Mother India has my respect. What will you teach me this time I wonder? I am ready.

In just over three weeks I will be on my way for my fourth visit to India. The anticipation and the excitement are both beginning to rise. New backpack and bits and pieces already bought. Passport in safe at agency already. I am paying for this visa to be done for me as the stress level is too much otherwise. I only have a three day window as I booked my flight with 177 days on 180 day visa. Total cost £200 so not cheap, plus they may bring in fingerprinting any day now which is another hassle, will have to wait and see.
Flying into Delhi and will probably spend a week there getting stuff done. Dentist and glasses for a start. Have to say I'm not much of a fan of Delhi. Vivid memories of scuffles in shady shops and dimly lit streets still haunt. I usually fly into Mumbai but it's a different time of year so will move up north quite quickly this time.
I know I will meet up with mates from previous trips which makes going better and better each time. It is like a travelling family of which  I am NOT the responsible adult and I like it that way. I am a reiki master and that is good enough for me. Speaking of reiki that is something I want to do so getting some sort of business card and flyer set up will be a priority.  This is the website (still under construction) of my reiki teacher and I hope to hook up and work with them again. Can't recommend Jason and Allegra highly enough. http://www.purelandreiki.com/ Oh god, work commitment in India. Please!
So now it's three more weeks of work with a super client who I enjoy working with and then 6 months of wonderful freedom. Freedom to explore new places and ideas and meet old and new friends. Woohoo! Come on 4TH April.