Leaving my car again at Monterey Airport the Esalen shuttle picked me up and drove me to another magic place, another powerful acupuncture point on Mother Earth's meridian, the Esalen institute in the Big Sur district. Situated on a pacific cliff you are just taken aback by the beauty of this awesome place, with its lovely gardens, a wonderful lawn to lie on like in a feathered bed, small little houses all over for guests, students and permanent residents, the hot springs that pour into a magnificently built bathhouse on the lower cliff, where I would have my first shower in the morning and a late evening bath after the courses, admiring the Moon, Jupiter and Venus while listening to the waves breaking, there were logfires & music and beautiful people everywhere radiating happy energy - it was incredible.
Oh and besides just being in awe in this paradise place I also attended a Qi Gong Workshop held by Roger Jahnke and enjoyed his essential & humorous teachings while practicing Qi Gong and sharing experiences with my fellow class mates. Roger's message is simple, we all have the ability to create medicine within ourselves, if we invest in some practices every day there's a lot we can do for our health prevention and for healing ourselves. If we practice a few easy to learn Qi Gong movements to engage our Qi every day, with focus, good heart and intent, use some simple massage on our ears, hands and feet, we gain a lot for our personal well being.
On top of my stay in Esalen there was this gorgeous food that was served, tasty, healthy and abundant. So the week passed by in light speed and by the time I had to leave I just felt ready to skip everything else and stay for another two months. But yes, maybe not this time, but some other time soon :-)
The Esalen Shuttle then brought me back again to the other real life and threw me into the melting pot of San Francisco. I have to say that this was maybe a little too much after the peace in Esalen, surrounded by tons of action and noise, never ending gay prides, financial district skytowers, villas & luxury, and then most of all the poverty among black people and mentally disordered people lying on the pavement or screaming out conspiracy theories... I felt reminded of Mumbai, where you find the rich people just beside the slums and everyone just takes it as it is, as fate. Sure, that was just my first impression, but I also learned from my host lady, that since the Reagan presidency decent institutions for the poor and the mentally ill were just shut down and people sent to the streets. Somewhat like the Platzspitz scene in Zurich in the nineties. And another 'funny' law has apparently just passed in some US states, making it illegal to help the homeless by giving them food, causing a priest to be sent to jail for breaching this law. They hope that the homeless problem will just disappear by these measures. In what kind of world are we living in? Well in a country that is being ruled by the rich and their money, what else can you expect... and I'm just citing my hosts words here. Of course I have also seen the nice side of San Francisco, some lovely & cozy little suburbs, the stunning Golden Gate Bridge, parks and lots of other places that I've visited, not least to do my former boss a favor who has lived in this city for more than two years in his earlier life ;-)
After SFO I took the plane to Seattle which to me had a completely different vibe... I just loved it. Sure summer was also giving its best too when I was there, but I found the city just to be a great one, with lots of water surrounding the place and with the awesome & snowy Mount Rainier that towers the city in the distance. And on my first night out I met a funny guy at the pizza place in the great Ballard disctrict and together we went to the local concert place and enjoyed a couple of INXS cover bands and a great party on stage.
Then the next day I went up the Space Needle, went on a Duck ride (city tour on wheels and to the water), and then took the ferry to lovely Bainbridge island. Going for a beer in the city thereafter one very friendly waitress would refuse to serve me a beer since she would not accept my Swiss ID despite everything's being written in English and despite me being probably double the age of the waitress. Ha! Quite a novelty after 10 months of traveling. Anyway, one bar further down the road I got my beer without questions or ID. On my last day in Seattle I bumped into another funny concert at Ballards, apparently someone was celebrating his 40th birthday and organized a punkband for this :-)
After Seattle I took the Greyhound to Vancouver to meet again with the Tai Chi teacher from Kauai, he was also traveling around over here and one of his friends invited him to do a workshop. It was a great workshop too, however it seems I won't be able to follow him and his teachings any more for the moment since our travel plans are somehow different. So it was great to get message from my friend Lucia who is just visiting the States and going to Las Vegas next Thursday. So that's were I'm gonna be too then... vivaaaaa Las Vegas! :-)
