I caught the 6:55 am train to Goa. The most exciting part about this whole trip is my bag! I don't have it! I left it in Mumbai at the guest house and am traveling with my day pack! It is wonderful and it makes me want to send my big bag home!
The train ride was exciting in two ways. First I read a lot of Biology, and second I blew my nose more than I ever have in any other 10 hour period! I am most definitely allergic to either Indian cities or their musty hotel rooms... After wheezing asthmatically through the night (same as in Ooty) my nose didn't stop running....it was trying to keep up with the train and it did...
The Snot Rocket
One of my favourite things about India is the acceptance of the snot rocket as a means of nasal clearing. Pinch your nostril and blow! This wonderful means of cleansing the sinuses is not looked down on here by the enlightened folk as it is at home.... And lucky for me.... My nose would have been redder than a rabbi caught in a bakery on passover.... The doors of all the train cars are always open, and this along with a sink was to be my relief.
There is an art not only to the snot rocket, which for your sake I will not go into, but also to sticking your head out of the door of a moving train... Apparently there is some large number of people who annually fall out of trains, but the enjoyment of having the open door is too much to keep them closed! Can you imagine via rail allowing you to hang outside the train....
Thinking about it the art might just be common sense....hold on very tight to the handles, and then slowly stick out your head...be prepared for a passing train to scare you half to death and then open your eyes! If you are successful, and you will know this as you are still alive, then you can slowly remove one hand from the handle and place it on your nose... the rest you can guess....
So the people near me must have thought i was the owner of the worlds smallest bladder, I got up and went for a walk every 10 minutes for the whole ride... I felt like an old man who just seems to always have water dripping out of his nose and I am not looking forward to returning to any city soon! I hope to ask an Ayurvedic doctor about these allergies.... The only thing my western doctor ever did was tell me I had asthma and give me a puffer... (long story short, as soon as I moved out of my parents' shag carpeted home my 'asthma' was gone) So we will see if eastern ideas can help.
I arrived in Goa, cabbed with some Italians to the beach and went to find the Seaview guesthouse and Babu....
About Me
- mike in motion
- I'm currently on a bit of a world tour to learn about other cultures and ecosystems... Feel free to leave a comment or recommendation or say hello
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Bombay, Mumbai, and a fool
Once upon a time there was a city known as Bombay. Once upon a later time it became known as Mumbai. In this time no one knows what to call it the city hasn't noticed at all.
In Goa local people call it Bombay, usually, in Mumbai many people call it Mumbai, and I have not figured out what is up. Iti s possible it has to do with different factions of the people, those in power like names that reflect them, not the last dynasty, but after that I am just guessing...
Here is the story.... At the Arombol beach I had heard there was a lake of fresh water, just around the cliffs at the end of the beach. I had a train ticket for the night train but still time to go to the lake. I headed there and it was beautiful! The best part of Goa that I had seen! And there were trails heading to the mountains... There is also the ocean 100m from the lake and this beach was even quieter than Arombol's... i immediately wanted to stay but I had my train ticket so after a dip in the ocean and the lake I headed back to gather my bags... On the way I stopped at an internet cafe to get some money as I was down to my last rupees!
The trip from the beach to the city is a 10 hour train ride which I elected to do at night... I had met a French couple on the platform who suggested a guesthouse in the city and that is where I decided to go when I arrived. So I entrained for the 10 hour journey and found my bed. (Have you ever heard of the word entrain? I like it, it is in books written in English by Indian authors but I had never heard it before) Here is a funny thing I had heard about trains... There are gay Indian men in saris, the wraparound body sarongs that women wear... and what they do on the train is a great business model... Almost zero output and they get paid not to perform. Rumor has it that they come up to you and if you don't pay them then they lift up their skirt and show you that third leg of man, the hindu Lingam, the snake on the train!!
Well one of these men came up to the compartment I was sharing with a family and the father jsut stood up and let him have it for a bit until he walked away, keeping all epidermis that was covered still covered.
While detraining I met a group of Germans, who asked me if I had an idea for a guest house and then we went off together to find the one the french coupe spoke of....
Two of the four Germans were acting as guinea pigs for a company making a patch to keep away that dreadful de-solidifier.... the muddy backwaters of the underpants, diarrhea. For trying a new preventative drug they received something over $2000 Canadian each for their trip, and a little red dot on the arm...
While getting our rooms I realized that my passport had not made the trip to Mumbai with me! The last time I remembered using it was when I took out money in Arombol and I hadn't needed it since. I had given it to the guy to take my info and then used a computer and then left...
My first instinct was to be excited as I really wanted some more time at the beach! I settled into Mumbai with the Germans and tried to figure out a way to make sure my passport was still at the cafe....
I remembered I had run into a girl I knew form Montreal at the beach and found her on Facebook, but she was already gone. My next idea was to call random guest houses on the beach until I found an English speaker which I did on my second try. His name is Babu, and I gave him rough directions to the internet cafe and he told me to call him back in 10 minutes...
I did and he sad that he didn't have it, then he said "just kidding, I got it"...not only did he have my passport but also my sense of humor! So I was able to rest easy, enjoy 2 days in Mumbai and plan my return to the beach!
One of the Germans, Aga, they all have names but it is easier to refer to them collectively, had a local friend and they invited me to join them for the day....We went to an animal market, not my favorite place it was like a mini zoo. As all the cages were mini and filled with cats or dogs or birds... It was sad but there were some neat species.... we walked and cabbed around and ended at the beach were on Sundays (and it was Sunday) thousands of people turn out for the sunset... it was crowded with a fun festive atmosphere, and we made friends with some kids who wouldn't leave us alone... never give a kid some popcorn when you have a full bag of it that he can see!!!
As it was the first night of passover I tried to get to a seder, and called the chabbad Rabbi... He asked me to e-mail him and he would send me the details... This he failed to do and I didn't get to go to a seder. I did get to have time to say goodbye to the friends form the train I had been rooming with and planned to take the 10 hour ride back to Goa the next morning...
In Goa local people call it Bombay, usually, in Mumbai many people call it Mumbai, and I have not figured out what is up. Iti s possible it has to do with different factions of the people, those in power like names that reflect them, not the last dynasty, but after that I am just guessing...
Here is the story.... At the Arombol beach I had heard there was a lake of fresh water, just around the cliffs at the end of the beach. I had a train ticket for the night train but still time to go to the lake. I headed there and it was beautiful! The best part of Goa that I had seen! And there were trails heading to the mountains... There is also the ocean 100m from the lake and this beach was even quieter than Arombol's... i immediately wanted to stay but I had my train ticket so after a dip in the ocean and the lake I headed back to gather my bags... On the way I stopped at an internet cafe to get some money as I was down to my last rupees!
The trip from the beach to the city is a 10 hour train ride which I elected to do at night... I had met a French couple on the platform who suggested a guesthouse in the city and that is where I decided to go when I arrived. So I entrained for the 10 hour journey and found my bed. (Have you ever heard of the word entrain? I like it, it is in books written in English by Indian authors but I had never heard it before) Here is a funny thing I had heard about trains... There are gay Indian men in saris, the wraparound body sarongs that women wear... and what they do on the train is a great business model... Almost zero output and they get paid not to perform. Rumor has it that they come up to you and if you don't pay them then they lift up their skirt and show you that third leg of man, the hindu Lingam, the snake on the train!!
Well one of these men came up to the compartment I was sharing with a family and the father jsut stood up and let him have it for a bit until he walked away, keeping all epidermis that was covered still covered.
While detraining I met a group of Germans, who asked me if I had an idea for a guest house and then we went off together to find the one the french coupe spoke of....
Two of the four Germans were acting as guinea pigs for a company making a patch to keep away that dreadful de-solidifier.... the muddy backwaters of the underpants, diarrhea. For trying a new preventative drug they received something over $2000 Canadian each for their trip, and a little red dot on the arm...
My first instinct was to be excited as I really wanted some more time at the beach! I settled into Mumbai with the Germans and tried to figure out a way to make sure my passport was still at the cafe....
I remembered I had run into a girl I knew form Montreal at the beach and found her on Facebook, but she was already gone. My next idea was to call random guest houses on the beach until I found an English speaker which I did on my second try. His name is Babu, and I gave him rough directions to the internet cafe and he told me to call him back in 10 minutes...
I did and he sad that he didn't have it, then he said "just kidding, I got it"...not only did he have my passport but also my sense of humor! So I was able to rest easy, enjoy 2 days in Mumbai and plan my return to the beach!
One of the Germans, Aga, they all have names but it is easier to refer to them collectively, had a local friend and they invited me to join them for the day....We went to an animal market, not my favorite place it was like a mini zoo. As all the cages were mini and filled with cats or dogs or birds... It was sad but there were some neat species.... we walked and cabbed around and ended at the beach were on Sundays (and it was Sunday) thousands of people turn out for the sunset... it was crowded with a fun festive atmosphere, and we made friends with some kids who wouldn't leave us alone... never give a kid some popcorn when you have a full bag of it that he can see!!!
Beaches
For the last 3 weeks or so I have been living on various beaches, sleeping in huts that are made of paper and enjoying the ocean...
The beach, or rather the waves have been more fun than I can remember and I keep diving into them, getting knocked over and floating on my back when it is a little calmer. One of the neatest things I have seen, or maybe noticed for the first time, is how the water comes at you. It might be due to the very gradual slope of the beach, but after you stand knee deep for a while, a wave will come and after it you are waist or chest deep. It is like a wall of water (not tsunami size, just under a meter) coming at you. It is a neat effect to look at, very similar to canoeing up to a beaver dam, you can see the higher level of water just behind the dam, sitting there....
Hopefully your imagination can make that as neat for you as it is for me... If not imagine something else really cool and dwell on that for a bit... Ill give you a sec!
Ok, so this whole area is something of a little Italy... there are pizza and pasta restaurants everywhere and the 'western' food is better quality than the Indian... One has to work hard for a tasty Indian meal here.
The first beach area was Gokarna, where there are 4 beaches, one more remote than the next, lots of guest houses, restuarants, hippies, and Indian men there too look at all the female white skin they can take in. It is a little gross and I am happy to not have to worry about it...I may never be able to give birth but I can rest on the beach without some dirty man sneaking pictures of me.
From Gokarna I (along with Sarah my pretend wife in public to help her with these men) went to Goa. This is a Portuguese colony, and the architecture sure proved it! We started in one of the main cities whose name I forget and it was beautiful. It was like colonial Mexico, and it was clean! People were friendly and not staring and a good time was had.
*Tangent
I was reminded that on the way to Goa we had a few hour stop over in Bangalore, and a funny thing happened... I was walking on a pedestrian overpass, and an Indian guy was walking towards me and he touched my chest and then my face! It was a little weird, but apparently not too rare, I just wish I had been quicker to touch his face too.... I think that is the best way to deal with it, although normally it is just stares and it is fun to stare back...
*end tangent
We headed to Anjuna beach, which had some party music...got to dance to the trance which was lots of fun...This was where the 'Goa Trance' scene started and fluo-dreaded hippies dance-stomped across the planet! It was my own personal haj that is now comlete... (sorry no glo sticks)
After Anjuna we went to Arombol, a quieter beach but quite similar, and I got divorced! My pretend wife headed on her way and I stayed to enjoy some more Tom Robbins books and the sea....
The beach, or rather the waves have been more fun than I can remember and I keep diving into them, getting knocked over and floating on my back when it is a little calmer. One of the neatest things I have seen, or maybe noticed for the first time, is how the water comes at you. It might be due to the very gradual slope of the beach, but after you stand knee deep for a while, a wave will come and after it you are waist or chest deep. It is like a wall of water (not tsunami size, just under a meter) coming at you. It is a neat effect to look at, very similar to canoeing up to a beaver dam, you can see the higher level of water just behind the dam, sitting there....
Hopefully your imagination can make that as neat for you as it is for me... If not imagine something else really cool and dwell on that for a bit... Ill give you a sec!
Ok, so this whole area is something of a little Italy... there are pizza and pasta restaurants everywhere and the 'western' food is better quality than the Indian... One has to work hard for a tasty Indian meal here.
The first beach area was Gokarna, where there are 4 beaches, one more remote than the next, lots of guest houses, restuarants, hippies, and Indian men there too look at all the female white skin they can take in. It is a little gross and I am happy to not have to worry about it...I may never be able to give birth but I can rest on the beach without some dirty man sneaking pictures of me.
From Gokarna I (along with Sarah my pretend wife in public to help her with these men) went to Goa. This is a Portuguese colony, and the architecture sure proved it! We started in one of the main cities whose name I forget and it was beautiful. It was like colonial Mexico, and it was clean! People were friendly and not staring and a good time was had.
*Tangent
I was reminded that on the way to Goa we had a few hour stop over in Bangalore, and a funny thing happened... I was walking on a pedestrian overpass, and an Indian guy was walking towards me and he touched my chest and then my face! It was a little weird, but apparently not too rare, I just wish I had been quicker to touch his face too.... I think that is the best way to deal with it, although normally it is just stares and it is fun to stare back...
*end tangent
We headed to Anjuna beach, which had some party music...got to dance to the trance which was lots of fun...This was where the 'Goa Trance' scene started and fluo-dreaded hippies dance-stomped across the planet! It was my own personal haj that is now comlete... (sorry no glo sticks)
After Anjuna we went to Arombol, a quieter beach but quite similar, and I got divorced! My pretend wife headed on her way and I stayed to enjoy some more Tom Robbins books and the sea....
Sunday, March 14, 2010
The Crazy Barber of Hampi
Out for a walk in town I noticed a barbershop, or rather a man cutting hair in a square hut. I decided to ask how much for a head shave as the heat was incredible and I had not shaved my head or face in over a month...Goodbye jewfro...
He said for 300rps he would do it... After that I was kind of committed and I submitted to it. There were a couple people sitting around and the place was a little dank. I hopped on the chair and the barber got out his tools... First he shaved a bit with the electric razor to make sure it wasn't too short for me, then he got out the scissors and went mad on my head...in less than a minute he clearcut as much as he could, mad like a logger on the day before the Green party officially takes power... Then he grabbed the buzzer and is mad efficiency shaved my head in what seemed like 12 passes. The last time this was done it took the lady in Thailand 40 minutes to shave my head... she went over it and over it in different sizes, pulling and yanking and tearing at my scalp. While the mad barber of Hampi was as gentle as say the grill on a MAC truck, he only needed less than five minutes to complete the job.
Next up was my face. He took a new blade and inserted it into the razor. He brushed some cream across my beard, and began. In no time it was over. Each masterful stroke precise and methodical. If I could shave that fast with a blade I would probably attempt it from time to time.
The barber offered me a head massage. Just an extra 50 rupees. Why not? I thought Thai massages rearranged the body in a wholly painful and inhuman manner, but have you ever had your ears cracked? The massage mostly consisted of him beating down and slapping my head in all manners possible. He composed 2 symphonies and at least 3 Ragas on my scalp, intermittently squeezing my cheeks,m ears and anything else protruding from my head! It was painfully almost kind of good. But only almost. He did two of the craziest things at the end.
Number one: He cracked my neck. First he put his arms around my neck like he wanted to kill me, then he rocked me gently once or twice than...WHAM!!! snap! I thought I might have died! Knowing what was coming next and that it was useless to complain I tried to loosen up for side two. It was just as scary! Even more as I knew it was coming!
Number two: He 'cracked' my ears! He put one hand on my head and held the top of my ear with the other. Then I didn't know why but it quickly became apparent he leaned in real close. (This was also the time I smelled the alcohol on his breath and thanked some nonexistent omnipotent deity that he hadn't sliced my throat!) So he suddenly yanked down very hard on my ear and I hear this sound almost like a crack! That is what he was waiting to hear too! While this was painful it had immediate blissful effects. I was still scared for the other side but in a slightly anticipatory way. When that was done and he slapped my scalp a few more times I actually felt like I was floating. It was a super massage!
Sarah, who I have been traveling with, was sitting in the room talking the whole time...I wanted some sympathy for the horror my head endured and noticed that she had missed the whole thing... not one to want to let a weird and painful experience escape a friend I suggested that she get one too... It was fun to watch!!
After it was done the barber and his friends who slowly poured in were ready to eat. They put a mat on the floor (after wiping away my hair) and set out food, and beer. They were quite adamant that we eat and drink with them, offering beer every 30 seconds...They had also closed the door before this party started... After a long enough sit I wanted some fresh air, and walking out it seemed like all the locals sitting across the dirt road at a small store were looking at us with sad looks in their faces...like they looked down on what goes on in the little barbershop and anyone who partakes in it...Another traveler had been 'stuck' inside drinking since he had his shave much earlier in the day...
So that is the story of how I had my head and face shaved by a drunken Indian...tune in next time for the story of my full body wax!
He said for 300rps he would do it... After that I was kind of committed and I submitted to it. There were a couple people sitting around and the place was a little dank. I hopped on the chair and the barber got out his tools... First he shaved a bit with the electric razor to make sure it wasn't too short for me, then he got out the scissors and went mad on my head...in less than a minute he clearcut as much as he could, mad like a logger on the day before the Green party officially takes power... Then he grabbed the buzzer and is mad efficiency shaved my head in what seemed like 12 passes. The last time this was done it took the lady in Thailand 40 minutes to shave my head... she went over it and over it in different sizes, pulling and yanking and tearing at my scalp. While the mad barber of Hampi was as gentle as say the grill on a MAC truck, he only needed less than five minutes to complete the job.
Next up was my face. He took a new blade and inserted it into the razor. He brushed some cream across my beard, and began. In no time it was over. Each masterful stroke precise and methodical. If I could shave that fast with a blade I would probably attempt it from time to time.
The barber offered me a head massage. Just an extra 50 rupees. Why not? I thought Thai massages rearranged the body in a wholly painful and inhuman manner, but have you ever had your ears cracked? The massage mostly consisted of him beating down and slapping my head in all manners possible. He composed 2 symphonies and at least 3 Ragas on my scalp, intermittently squeezing my cheeks,m ears and anything else protruding from my head! It was painfully almost kind of good. But only almost. He did two of the craziest things at the end.
Number one: He cracked my neck. First he put his arms around my neck like he wanted to kill me, then he rocked me gently once or twice than...WHAM!!! snap! I thought I might have died! Knowing what was coming next and that it was useless to complain I tried to loosen up for side two. It was just as scary! Even more as I knew it was coming!
Number two: He 'cracked' my ears! He put one hand on my head and held the top of my ear with the other. Then I didn't know why but it quickly became apparent he leaned in real close. (This was also the time I smelled the alcohol on his breath and thanked some nonexistent omnipotent deity that he hadn't sliced my throat!) So he suddenly yanked down very hard on my ear and I hear this sound almost like a crack! That is what he was waiting to hear too! While this was painful it had immediate blissful effects. I was still scared for the other side but in a slightly anticipatory way. When that was done and he slapped my scalp a few more times I actually felt like I was floating. It was a super massage!
Sarah, who I have been traveling with, was sitting in the room talking the whole time...I wanted some sympathy for the horror my head endured and noticed that she had missed the whole thing... not one to want to let a weird and painful experience escape a friend I suggested that she get one too... It was fun to watch!!
After it was done the barber and his friends who slowly poured in were ready to eat. They put a mat on the floor (after wiping away my hair) and set out food, and beer. They were quite adamant that we eat and drink with them, offering beer every 30 seconds...They had also closed the door before this party started... After a long enough sit I wanted some fresh air, and walking out it seemed like all the locals sitting across the dirt road at a small store were looking at us with sad looks in their faces...like they looked down on what goes on in the little barbershop and anyone who partakes in it...Another traveler had been 'stuck' inside drinking since he had his shave much earlier in the day...
So that is the story of how I had my head and face shaved by a drunken Indian...tune in next time for the story of my full body wax!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Hampi
A friend of a friend mentioned to my friend who mentioned to me that Hampi looks like where the Flintstones live. The friend of my friend who relayed this to my friend who told me was quite correct! Minus the dinosaurs the landscape was all there. It even seemed to repeat the same 4 scenes as you walked by just like when they are off for a run or drive powered by Fred's feet!
The place is boulder heaven, or rather boulder earth, in boulder heaven all the boulders would probably get leighed as they arrived. Although some might look like they are wearing Leighs as the Hindu festival of Holi just passed I am pretty sure the rocks don't know up from down and are vibrating at another level than us.
So picture mountains made of boulders and heat so hot the eggs fry inside the shell. It is even reported that a gecko dropped 3 eggs 2 of which were cooked inside! The ideal time to be awake in Hampi is between 5am and 10am as well as 6pm to 10pm although I was rarely up that late!
To get to Hampi we took a bus at around 10am leaving Ooty for Bangalore, which we reached around 7pm. We found a night bus to Hampi laving a few hours later and had some grub and an internet break. The night bus had beds like a sleeper train and was quite comfy! Of course the bus couldn't go to Hampi, it stopped in Hampi's bastard brother town Hospet, controlled by the Tuk Tuk Mafia so you could pay another 100 rupees to go to Hampi. Then when you reach Hampi you need to hire a boat to cross the river to get to the guesthouses! Yup, another Mafia...apparently someone tried to build a bridge that mysteriously collapsed!
So we crossed the river and settled in at some incredibly early hour. The first day was appointed a do nothing day in the hammocks and it was fine!
Hampi was a one day on one day off schedule, fully necessary. We stayed at Goan corner, as suggested by Ido, a friend from Thailand and he couldn't have been more right! The food was great, the atmosphere relaxed and ample room for hammocks outside every room which all seemed to be quite clean!
Our first trip was to explore all the ruins, which is the main attraction of Indians to Hampi. There used to be a huge civilization, kings and all...temples, bathhouses, markets and more temples, even giant elephant stables!
Vishnu (I think) withthe head of a lion:
Lotus building:
Underwater Shiva temple...right out of the legend of Zelda!
We saw more than enough of it in the heat and headed back across the river and home. Home also had a wood burning oven where they made delicious pizzas! I should have told them about bagels too!
(Hey Lumer how am I doing with shpeleeng??)
Seeing a sunset on the rocks was another fun adventure, and a beautiful moment. We also headed to a giant resevoir blocked by a huge dam... this was fun but what a shvitz we had! Days started in Hampi with early morning yoga followed by a rest, food and another rest, then time to do something... By this time it was toohot and this led to great difficulty in peeling the hammocks off ourselves, creaming u and heading into the sun...It actually felt like heading into the sun. Talking to my dad who asked the temperature I said it was somewhere just over 30C. Then I found out it is closer to 40 than 30! That explained a lot!
So to go to the reservoir we decided to rent bikes, not the ones with motors! Sarah and I were both a little unsure about safely returning to the starting point in one piece on a motorized vehicle...
So in above 30 temp we headed out for a 40 minute ride uphill, except for one drop towards a river that we had to bike up the other side! What a trip! And when the dam was insight there was one final uphill challenge to get to it! At this point we found some shade beside a building and lay down for over an hour! After much focus we mustered the willpower to get up and head towards a spot where we could hop in the water... The area was full of boulders and flooded so you need to find one protruding from the water at a shallow enough angle to climb back out. One of us made it in and the other was a bit of a princess, and since I left my tiara at home I was the lucky one to go swimming! (This moment actually helped inspire my next destination...the ocean!)
Heading back was easier as it was all downhill minus the climb up the river bank, only a couple hundred meters of difficulty. If you ask me what I did that night I would tell yo I have no recollection, but I bet the sleep was real good!
The main focus in Hampi for westerners is rock climbing, or more specific here, bouldering, something I wanted to but never got around to doing. In the morning yoga always won out and in the afternoon I was too tired to learn a new sport... so that is still on the to do list...
The last thing we had to do was see a sunset at the Hanuman temple... he is a monkey god and of course after climbing 600 steps to the temple it was covered in monkeys! The temple was small but beautiful and the view was the best I had seen in Hampi... I was trying to decide where to go next, to some caves north of Mumbai or first to the beach... I am typing now 200 meters from the ocean...it wasn't really a choice!
The place is boulder heaven, or rather boulder earth, in boulder heaven all the boulders would probably get leighed as they arrived. Although some might look like they are wearing Leighs as the Hindu festival of Holi just passed I am pretty sure the rocks don't know up from down and are vibrating at another level than us.
So picture mountains made of boulders and heat so hot the eggs fry inside the shell. It is even reported that a gecko dropped 3 eggs 2 of which were cooked inside! The ideal time to be awake in Hampi is between 5am and 10am as well as 6pm to 10pm although I was rarely up that late!
To get to Hampi we took a bus at around 10am leaving Ooty for Bangalore, which we reached around 7pm. We found a night bus to Hampi laving a few hours later and had some grub and an internet break. The night bus had beds like a sleeper train and was quite comfy! Of course the bus couldn't go to Hampi, it stopped in Hampi's bastard brother town Hospet, controlled by the Tuk Tuk Mafia so you could pay another 100 rupees to go to Hampi. Then when you reach Hampi you need to hire a boat to cross the river to get to the guesthouses! Yup, another Mafia...apparently someone tried to build a bridge that mysteriously collapsed!
Hampi was a one day on one day off schedule, fully necessary. We stayed at Goan corner, as suggested by Ido, a friend from Thailand and he couldn't have been more right! The food was great, the atmosphere relaxed and ample room for hammocks outside every room which all seemed to be quite clean!
Our first trip was to explore all the ruins, which is the main attraction of Indians to Hampi. There used to be a huge civilization, kings and all...temples, bathhouses, markets and more temples, even giant elephant stables!
Vishnu (I think) withthe head of a lion:
Lotus building:
Underwater Shiva temple...right out of the legend of Zelda!
We saw more than enough of it in the heat and headed back across the river and home. Home also had a wood burning oven where they made delicious pizzas! I should have told them about bagels too!
(Hey Lumer how am I doing with shpeleeng??)
Seeing a sunset on the rocks was another fun adventure, and a beautiful moment. We also headed to a giant resevoir blocked by a huge dam... this was fun but what a shvitz we had! Days started in Hampi with early morning yoga followed by a rest, food and another rest, then time to do something... By this time it was toohot and this led to great difficulty in peeling the hammocks off ourselves, creaming u and heading into the sun...It actually felt like heading into the sun. Talking to my dad who asked the temperature I said it was somewhere just over 30C. Then I found out it is closer to 40 than 30! That explained a lot!
So to go to the reservoir we decided to rent bikes, not the ones with motors! Sarah and I were both a little unsure about safely returning to the starting point in one piece on a motorized vehicle...
So in above 30 temp we headed out for a 40 minute ride uphill, except for one drop towards a river that we had to bike up the other side! What a trip! And when the dam was insight there was one final uphill challenge to get to it! At this point we found some shade beside a building and lay down for over an hour! After much focus we mustered the willpower to get up and head towards a spot where we could hop in the water... The area was full of boulders and flooded so you need to find one protruding from the water at a shallow enough angle to climb back out. One of us made it in and the other was a bit of a princess, and since I left my tiara at home I was the lucky one to go swimming! (This moment actually helped inspire my next destination...the ocean!)
Heading back was easier as it was all downhill minus the climb up the river bank, only a couple hundred meters of difficulty. If you ask me what I did that night I would tell yo I have no recollection, but I bet the sleep was real good!
The main focus in Hampi for westerners is rock climbing, or more specific here, bouldering, something I wanted to but never got around to doing. In the morning yoga always won out and in the afternoon I was too tired to learn a new sport... so that is still on the to do list...
The last thing we had to do was see a sunset at the Hanuman temple... he is a monkey god and of course after climbing 600 steps to the temple it was covered in monkeys! The temple was small but beautiful and the view was the best I had seen in Hampi... I was trying to decide where to go next, to some caves north of Mumbai or first to the beach... I am typing now 200 meters from the ocean...it wasn't really a choice!
Ooty, or Udhagamandalam if you prefer
We arrived in Ooty and began the hunt for a guesthouse... after a pricey one we found the green view (or green valley) guest house. As soon as we took a room an Italian, David, asked if we wanted to do a hiking trip the next morning... I was quite game, as that is what we came to do. Then a guy I had met at the ashram came walking down the hall with his yoga mat and we had a funny reunion...what are the odds that we would be in the same hotel on the same floor right across fro each other 1 week after last meeting?! He let me know that the roof was great for yoga (the asanas part...there are many other parts of yoga other than the moving of the body! There is also a big part involving not moving the body or mind for that matter and also on how to conduct yourself... if you are bored or interested look up yamas and niyamas)
That night the German from the ashram (Yan) and his friend, the Italian and his friend (Sarah) and Sam and I all went out for a feast that couldn't be beat and didn't get up until the very next morning to start our hike!
Actaully we started with some yoga and breakfast and then met our guide.
Rajiv was/is a super interesting fellow. He knows lots about the local flora and fauna and even more about everything. It was hard to find a topic he couldn't converse about and he took a real pleasure in showing us around. We were so excited about the cooler temperatures that we didn't realize the sun was equally strong as in the rest of India! We all got great burns but it was worth it! The scenery was completely unexpected, beautiful mountains and grasslands and we walked through a tea plantation, picking some for ourselves...
There were many people working with giant baskets hanging on their backs strapped to their foreheads, and they were moving a little faster than us... All tea comes form the same plant, white, green and black that is, obviously mint is something else! It depends what part of the leaves you use and how it dries...if you take just the one new budding leaf that will be for white tea which is what we did and it was really yummy!
After that day we were quite tired but agreed to go for another hike the next day! That night was dinner and bed again! Somehow I was quite allergic to my room and couldn't stop sneezing all night... During the days it took a couple hours for my nose to stop running too...it was pleasant and unpleasant for me in Ooty!
The second hike was even more incredible than the first...we walked through rolling hills of grassland, something I have always wanted to do! Not to need a trail but not being in a flat field, it was just beautiful...
Both days we stopped to visit hill tribes who served us chai and we relaxed and saw where they lived... On the first day we got carrots picked right out of the ground, they were incredible! The best part was how juicy they were, almost like a fruit!
It was hard to decide if I should head back south into Kerala where there are beaches and the other Sivananda ashram in the south or head north towards Hampi, but in the end Hampi won and I set off with Sarah, a British lass who had been sharing the guest house with us in Ooty...
Ooty was really beautiful and there was much more to explore in the city that I didn't get too. Lots of Indian tourists go there as well, so there are shopping districts and restaurants on the mountainsides. If there weren't cows roaming the streets and rivers of poop and sewage lining the roads it could almost have been a city not quite entirely unlike something you would find in BC... That might have made it sound a little smelly, which it was, but no worse than anywhere else...what I was really trying to say is that if you are in India got to OOTY!
That night the German from the ashram (Yan) and his friend, the Italian and his friend (Sarah) and Sam and I all went out for a feast that couldn't be beat and didn't get up until the very next morning to start our hike!
Actaully we started with some yoga and breakfast and then met our guide.
Rajiv was/is a super interesting fellow. He knows lots about the local flora and fauna and even more about everything. It was hard to find a topic he couldn't converse about and he took a real pleasure in showing us around. We were so excited about the cooler temperatures that we didn't realize the sun was equally strong as in the rest of India! We all got great burns but it was worth it! The scenery was completely unexpected, beautiful mountains and grasslands and we walked through a tea plantation, picking some for ourselves...
There were many people working with giant baskets hanging on their backs strapped to their foreheads, and they were moving a little faster than us... All tea comes form the same plant, white, green and black that is, obviously mint is something else! It depends what part of the leaves you use and how it dries...if you take just the one new budding leaf that will be for white tea which is what we did and it was really yummy!
After that day we were quite tired but agreed to go for another hike the next day! That night was dinner and bed again! Somehow I was quite allergic to my room and couldn't stop sneezing all night... During the days it took a couple hours for my nose to stop running too...it was pleasant and unpleasant for me in Ooty!
The second hike was even more incredible than the first...we walked through rolling hills of grassland, something I have always wanted to do! Not to need a trail but not being in a flat field, it was just beautiful...
Both days we stopped to visit hill tribes who served us chai and we relaxed and saw where they lived... On the first day we got carrots picked right out of the ground, they were incredible! The best part was how juicy they were, almost like a fruit!
It was hard to decide if I should head back south into Kerala where there are beaches and the other Sivananda ashram in the south or head north towards Hampi, but in the end Hampi won and I set off with Sarah, a British lass who had been sharing the guest house with us in Ooty...
Ooty was really beautiful and there was much more to explore in the city that I didn't get too. Lots of Indian tourists go there as well, so there are shopping districts and restaurants on the mountainsides. If there weren't cows roaming the streets and rivers of poop and sewage lining the roads it could almost have been a city not quite entirely unlike something you would find in BC... That might have made it sound a little smelly, which it was, but no worse than anywhere else...what I was really trying to say is that if you are in India got to OOTY!
Friday, March 5, 2010
Sivananda Ashram, Madurai
I was looking forward to gettign to the ashram and it did not disappoint! What a great place to deepen a yoga practice and have great food at the same time! It had been a while since I woke up daily at 5:30 for meditation and followed it with a full 2 hours of yoga...not to mention 2 more hours in the afternoon and often another meditation. I arrived right at the end of a Teacher Training Course and got to join in on some of their classes which was a challenge...
I had classes with a wide variety of teachers, learning much each time... It is great to see how different people can change the emphasis of a class and make something different in the same format...
After 13 days I decided to head out as the heat was unbearable... The whole day, pretty much the time between the Asana classes it was too hot to be outside or inside... I would try to find some shade for reading but it was quite crazy! I met someone who said he was going somewhere cold with mountains and hiking so I headed off with him...
The day we met we had headed into Madurai to use the net and see the temple which was quite impressive.
We took off the day the new TTC started, after seeing the morning Puja, where the newbies were initiated...it was a neat Hindu purification ceremony led by the priest...
The trip to Ooty required a long train ride, a night at a hotel and then a special train ride up into the mountains...
It so worked out that the Gold Medal Olympic hockey game was to be played at 1:30am the night we were in the hotel! I looked through all the channels and found it on ESPN very blurry but visible! I actually felt like an American as I couldn't see the puck! So I had 1 hour of sleep that night and then woke up and watched 3 periods of hockey...It looked like the game would finish just in time for my train but alas it was tied up right at the end! For a while I was worried but we scored 5 minutes before I had to leave for my 5:15am train! How perfect!The only imperfect part was the announcer for the game! He was British and had no idea about anything to do with hockey...It was a laugh and my roommate was British but he slept through the game...otherwise I would have been shitting on the announcer to him non stop...After the first period he said how they had played a great half! Man oh man!
Pics and more to come soon!
I had classes with a wide variety of teachers, learning much each time... It is great to see how different people can change the emphasis of a class and make something different in the same format...
After 13 days I decided to head out as the heat was unbearable... The whole day, pretty much the time between the Asana classes it was too hot to be outside or inside... I would try to find some shade for reading but it was quite crazy! I met someone who said he was going somewhere cold with mountains and hiking so I headed off with him...
The day we met we had headed into Madurai to use the net and see the temple which was quite impressive.
We took off the day the new TTC started, after seeing the morning Puja, where the newbies were initiated...it was a neat Hindu purification ceremony led by the priest...
The trip to Ooty required a long train ride, a night at a hotel and then a special train ride up into the mountains...
It so worked out that the Gold Medal Olympic hockey game was to be played at 1:30am the night we were in the hotel! I looked through all the channels and found it on ESPN very blurry but visible! I actually felt like an American as I couldn't see the puck! So I had 1 hour of sleep that night and then woke up and watched 3 periods of hockey...It looked like the game would finish just in time for my train but alas it was tied up right at the end! For a while I was worried but we scored 5 minutes before I had to leave for my 5:15am train! How perfect!The only imperfect part was the announcer for the game! He was British and had no idea about anything to do with hockey...It was a laugh and my roommate was British but he slept through the game...otherwise I would have been shitting on the announcer to him non stop...After the first period he said how they had played a great half! Man oh man!
Pics and more to come soon!
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