Traveling alone has its advantages. For instance, you can go wherever you want and however you want.
In my case, I went to one of the most sacred places in the world for devotees of Guru Padmasambhava, the founder of Tibetan Buddhism: the cave where he attained immortality (by unifying with the Buddha of Infinite Life according to legend). My journey to this amazing place included traveling by plane, bus, foot, dump truck, hand-made bamboo suspension bridges, and hundreds of miles of single lane mountain roads.
Another big advantage is the opportunity to bask in the kindness of strangers, and thus make new friends.
There was no guidebook available for the area I went to, known as Maratika to Tibetans and Haleshi to Nepalis. All I knew was I had to fly to a place called Lamidanda and then try to find some other pilgrims to tag along with. I arrived around lunch time at the tiny, rural airport (the only one I’ve ever seen with zero buildings on the premises) and as I was waiting, spotted a group of Tibetan monks and nuns. I struck up a conversation and when they heard the words coming out of my mouth, they remarking to each other, “he speaks just like a Tibetan!... But he’s white!” They soon became my friends and my guides to the holy cave. I treated the group to lunch and they took me along on their chartered bus along the exceedingly bumpy and cliff clinging single lane mountain road to the sacred caves of Maratika.
We arrived after three hours and it soon became clear that this was no ordinary place. Every hill and rock feature in the area had many layers of spiritual significance for Tibetan Buddhists. The three main mountains there were thought to be sacred abodes for the Buddhist deities of Wisdom (Manjushri), Compassion (Avalokiteshvara) and Power (Vajrapani), respectively. Each of these mountains have sacred caves where many great masters have meditated over the past 2,000 years. The central mountain, and the focal point for pilgrimage, belongs to Avalokiteshvara. Guru Padmasamvhava meditated here for three months with his wife, the Indian Princess Mandarava, and together they were blessed by Amitayus, the Buddha of Infinite Life, with immortality. There are many foot, head, and body prints of Padmasambhava in two of the caves and a large stone thought to be the vase that Buddha Amitayus used to bless them.
The caves are enormous and can host large groups of worshipers. They are also home to thousands of bats, who are believed to be constantly reciting the mantra of long life. These bats must themselves be immortal, as they are equally active at all hours of the day and night. There are four crevices in the main cave that are used to test one’s level of merit versus sin and whether one will be reborn in higher or lower realms. In addition to gaging one’s karma, they have the dual effect of purifying sins at the same time. Despite my 6’ 4” frame and round belly from eating lots of rice at the monastery, I managed to make it through all four (though not without accumulating a lot of ancient dust on my clothes while I cleaned away my bad karma).
I spent the first night there at a crummy over-priced guest house with a mouse squeaking a lullaby to me throughout the night from across the thin whicker wall. The next two nights were positively blissful in a tent at the camp ground I helped my friends to set up by a river. Conversing with like-minded Tibetan Buddhists over delicious campfire food was a highlight of my trip.
The second day there, I took a long stroll with my new friend Khenpo-la, a prominent disciple of Penor Rinpoche, the former (late) head of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism. There was a great master staying at the monastery by the cave that we were told was not possible to meet because he was in a closed meditation retreat. His name is Taklung Tesetrul Rinpoche and he is an octogenarian living Buddha whose tractor beam of compassion cannot help but inspire and amaze you. I first met him in 2005 at Shyalpa Monastery. Khenpo-la had a hunch as we walked by the monastery that Rinpoche would be in the courtyard and that we could meet him. Sure enough, as we entered the monastery, there sat the great master taking a break from his meditation. We bowed to him and made offerings and enjoyed 15 minutes of conversation followed by a blessing. He had presided over a ceremony in 2008/2009 called the Rinchen Terdzod, which is a four month series of empowerments from Guru Padmasambhava’s treasure teachings cycle. I asked him if he would do it again in a few years, and he laughed heartily, saying that if he were to do it just for me (as opposed to the countless thousands that attended the last one), it wouldn’t be so bad, as he could do it in just one month instead of four.
On the third day, Khenpo-la and I went to one of the main caves and enjoyed a rare treat—“nectar” magically emanating from the cave wall. This is believed by the faithful to be a miraculous blessing from Guru Padmasambhava/Buddha Amitayus which grants great blessings of longevity and protection from premature death when consumed.
I collected some in a bottle to share with any others who may have faith in this “fountain of youth” type of water. We then were guided by some local 8-year-olds to a Manjushri cave, which can only be accessed by climbing a rickety bamboo ladder. We both had very profound meditation/prayer sessions there and later in the main cave. At places like this, one’s experience while meditating is amplified by 1,000,000 fold in poignancy and profundity.
Some great masters, Tsoknyi Rinpoche and Khamtrul Rinpoche, flew in by helicopter on my last day there and I enjoyed meeting them and receiving blessings before my long trip to India. Maratika is a place like no other. If you have faith in Guru Padmasambhava, please make sure to visit there at some point in your life.
I then set out on foot along a winding mountain road to the towns beyond that would eventually take me to India. I walked ten kilometers before encountering my first town, where I had some lunch. A group of 35 youth from the town came in to the small store that made me ramen noodles to watch this strange, tall creature with white skin. I then hitched a ride in the back of a dump truck with a group of about 20 other travelers. I felt quite a bit like a piece of corn on a hot frying pan, banging around from one wall of the truck to the next as we rumbled along the mountain road. I had found a great walking stick that I carried along with me, but it lost a lot of its charm after one of the fellow passengers inadvertently vomited all over it.
On this crazy ride, I met a wonderful man named Raj who was a mechanic in the Indian Airforce. It turns out that he and his family were going along the same route as I and invited me to tag along. After the dump truck ride, we walked along a rickety bamboo bridge, clearly made by amateurs without consulting with an engineer. We managed to make it across the 200 foot wide river without falling into it, however. We hopped on a bus, which precariously navigated the windy mountain roads and managed to avoid any head on collisions with the dump trucks that crept along the opposite way. We spent the night at an open-air hostel and took two more buses totaling 12 hours to the town he lives in near the Indian border. There, I was treated to a spectacular home-cooked meal and had the opportunity to clean literally two pounds of dust and dirt off of my clothes and body.
I am now in Silliguri, on my way to Sikkim. There was a hullabaloo after initially receiving news about my visa to Bhutan (it turns out the person who told me was misinformed). I have some high profile people trying to help me get in, and it is a 50/50 chance at this point. Either way, I greatly look forward to my next Himalayan adventure and will report back to you in a few weeks.
The vase was given to people in the area in the 8th century by Guru Padmasambhava, founder of Tibetan Buddhism, and it has the magical property of filling each year on its own with nectar-like water despite being emptied the year before. At midnight on the first full moon of the Tibetan New Year, the vase is brought out from its secure location within a monastery called Tashiding in West Sikkim and the water level is checked. If there is very little water in the vase, it is believed that the year will be filled with drought and poverty. If it is more than half full, it is believed there will be natural disasters such as floods and bad storms. If it is in the middle, it is believed the year will go smoothly. 
After the level is announced, the vase is emptied into a large tank and mixed with water from a nearby sacred river. A crowd of 7,000 to 10,000 people then lines up patiently for the next 10 hours to receive some of the water, which is believed to be powerful nectar created magically by Guru Padamsambhava. 
