Meditation

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Today our next door neighbours had invited us for breakfast.  We were treated to delicious pumpkin paratha with raita and poha.  We chatted with everyone and had selfies.


We then jumped in the car and picked up our friend's dad.  They were taking us on tour to some Buddhist meditation centres.

First stop was a new centre currently under construction.  There was a huge Buddhist statue which  unfortunately had been hit by lightening in a recent storm and now required a lot of repair.  We were also taken to the onsite temple by a monk.


Next stop was a pretty little temple up on a hillside.  It was all locked up when we arrived. The caretaker kindly opened up so we could go inside and then we all had selfies outside



Onwards to the main event of the day.  A beautiful retreat set in the hills and surrounded by nature.  There was a huge meditation hall, temple, lots of accommodation, a beautiful fountain and a lovely family who live there.  There was also the cutest little puppy who Christine soon made friends with.


The family invited us for tea and we had some lovely lemon and ginger tea.  They then kindly offered us lunch and whilst we looked around the ground the wife cooked up some really tasty veg upma.


After expressing our thanks for the delicious food we were on the road again.   Next stop was a beautiful gurudwara on the banks of the river.  We had various selfies with people and a tour of the building by a very tall, elderly Sikh.


There are a few gurudwara along the river and we stopped to look at 2 more but did not go in.  We had a walk along the river bank and saw the sikh cremation area and could also see the flames from a Hindu cremation further up the river.


After our busy day of sight seeing we headed back for a short rest before our final dinner with the family.  We had a very entertaining time playing with our friend's nephew followed by another delicious home cooked meal.


We then said our goodbyes, loaded up the car, picked up a friend and headed for the train station.  We had a lovely surprise when we got there, our policeman friend, his wife and daughter had also come to wave us off.


We took our final selfies, said our sad farewells and boarded the overnight train to Hyderabad.

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