Magical Rajasthan

I am finding that India is exciting, but extremely overwhelming. I've had several frustrating days where I had no idea what I was thinking when I decided to come to India, and I just wanted to be done - but then I think about the incredible places I've seen and I realize that the frustrations are worth it. I am now in the Golden Triangle area, visiting famous sites in Delhi, Jaipur, and Agra. It's very different than southern India, and I am enjoying the change of scenery.

Some random things I've seen here:
-A man with a bamboo cane and his evil-psycho monkey of doom attacking our car window.
-16 people riding in one tiny auto-rickshaw, three of which were on the roof. Note: auto-rickshaws typically only seat three plus the driver. They are basically glorified riding lawn-mowers that can go fast and weave through roads congested with people, busses and cows.
-Highway traffic was super slow at one point, so people in tractors, motorcycles, rickshaws, and even carts pulled by donkeys crossed the raised median and drove up the wrong side of the road, weaving through fast, oncoming traffic!
-Everyone here does have a water-buffalo. I passed ponds full of water-buffalo, with just the horns and heads above water. And camels, donkeys, and water-buffalo (with or without their owners) share the road with modern traffic.
-I saw a wild peacock sitting atop a bush in the middle of a field, green parrots flying around the countryside, and monkeys running across the road. Exotic animals everywhere :)
-Newspaper is used as tissues and napkins, and to serve food.

Mathew and I spent one day in Agra. We were lucky enough to be there on World Heritage Day, so we got into each of the World Heritage Sites for free! We went to Akbar's Tomb, where there were huge sandstone buildings and vast lawns (with wild gazelles grazing on the property). The tomb had incredible acoustics! A man working in the tomb sang a short melody that echoed through the otherwise silent room and sent chills down my spine. In all the other open-air rooms surrounding the inner tomb, the architecture (pillars and domed ceilings) allows sounds to travel from one corner of a wall to another. When one person faces one corner of the room, and another faces the diagonal corner, you can whisper and hear each other from across the room!

I've seen several world wonders, like the Great Wall of China and the Colosseum, but the Taj Mahal is the most beautiful architectural masterpiece I've ever seen! Built with white marble, it stands out drastically from the sandstone landscape all around. The first site of the Taj Mahal through the main gate is the most stunning, since the gate is built in such a way the opening of it frames the whole Taj Mahal as you walk through - creating an optical illusion that it's even bigger than it is. The marble surfaces are decorated with floral patterns made from inlaid semi-precious stones. When you shine a light into the marble, the stone lights up and the gemstones glow brilliantly. Adding to the exotic atmosphere, there are also monkeys climbing around and parrots flying between flowering trees.

We went to Fatipur Sikri, and ancient palace and mosque. The swirls of color in the sandstone structures are lovely, but even more impressive are the huge carved doors made from solid ebony, and windows made from one solid slab of marble with intricate lace-like patterns cut through them. When you look out the window, it looks a little like stained glass. You can look outside, but you can't seen inside through the cut-marble windows very easily.

In Jaipur we saw the famous Amer Fort and Amber Palace, set on a hillside overlooking the ancient city. There were elephants carrying tourists up to the palace, and people playing drums and flutes. But the best part was the snake charmer!!! An old man with an instrument and a small basket was crouching in the shade on the stairway to the palace. He gestured me over and as he played, a cobra rose up from his basket and opened it's hood! The cobra stood up tall and swayed back and forth for several minutes. And the best part? The charmer let me touch his cobra!!! After he stopped playing, the cobra hissed and moved around, then laid down in the basket again.

As one last activity before he heads home tonight, Mathew and I are going to ride some elephants! I'm off to play, so Namaste!!!

Changes are good :)

I am learning that the only way to travel through India is by being completely flexible with my plans and accepting the inevitable changes. Even if you have every detail planned out, things will change, and plans will not go as expected. For example, distances that are super short to drive in the USA take hours (or days) to drive here, because of heavy traffic, super low speed limits, and cows in the road (or elephants, as I have found out). The government even forces people to slow down on the highways by putting up multiple speed bumps and baricades, so that vehicles are required to carefully go over and around them. I've had several plans fall through or change because it takes too long to get from one place to another. However, something else I've learned is that if you accept the changes and enjoy the journey, sometimes you will even up with something even better than you planned.

Matt and I had a few plans fall through so we ended up coming to Mysore (a completely different state than we were going to visit). But the journey to get here was full of incredible sites and surprises! We took a long-distance bus through the Western Ghats - a steep and dramatic mountain range, covered in dense jungles and tea plantations. We had the best seats on the bus, so we had a perfect view and it felt like we were on a jungle safari. The road was very steep and windy, with huge vehicles flying past each other around hairpin switchbacks. We saw groups of monkeys hanging out on the side of the road, playing and eating bananas! A few hours later the road went through a wildlife reserve, and we saw wild elephants walking around!

Here in Mysore the people are more pushy and less friendly, but there is a huge palace that lights up at night, so it's very beautiful. Walking around the palace and gardens, it's easy to imagine the great sultan that once lived there, parading around in long robes and with caravans of elephants. I wish I could have seen India as it was three hundred years ago!

I'm off to explore the city, so namaste!

Tropical paradise!

My time at the ashram is over, and my best friend, Mathew, met me in Mumbai a few days ago so that we can travel together for two weeks. On my way to meet him in Mumbai, the taxi I was in got pulled over three times, and one of those times we were escorted to the police station! During my hour-long wait while the driver tried to work things out with the police, I was busy thinking of ideas for breaking out of prison, since things weren't looking too good. The walls of the police station seemed to be made of a mud/cement mix (sorta crumbly) and I had a spoon in my backpack, so I figured I could just dig my way out if necessary. The police seemed to be looking for a bribe from the driver, and eventually we were sent on our way.

Now Mathew and I are in the southern state of Kerala! It's gorgeous here, with palm tree forests, bright topical flowers, beaches and backwater canals. I've seen green oranges, orange coconuts, and red bananas - fruit here is amazing. We took an 8 hour ferry from one city to another one day, and yesterday we took a small canoe-like indian fishing boat on a tour of the backwaters. The backwaters are like canals that link many cities and lakes with each other. The waters are completely smooth and peaceful, and there are villages and tiny houses all along the banks. The villagers do everything in the water - playing, bathing, cleaning dishes and laundry, and working. In the evening we saw everyone head to the banks with sticks and string - to go fishing for dinner. Banana, mango, and coconut trees line the banks and hang over the water, and cows, goats, chickens, and bicycles all share the path along the water. The rice fields are below sea-level, and there are many places you can stand on the banks and see that the backwaters and rice fields next to each other are at different levels.

Something interesting about Kerala is that they have elected a communist government, and it truly seems to be working well for the people. The people here are also very religious (they are primarily Hindu, Christian, and Muslim). Since Russian and Chinese communists were primarily atheists, I always thought that communism and religion didn't mix, but apparently they do. They call it God's Country here in Kerala, so who knows, maybe that's their secret.

A few random things from this week:

-My life flashed before my eyes when a huge truck with 5000 watt, concert-grade loudspeakers on top came up behind me and suddenly BLASTED some music. Mathew thinks I jumped 6 feet.

-All the little children wave and say hi when we pass, they're so cute!

-We were served lunch on banana leaves and ate with our hands!

-The one time Matt went barefoot his feet got chewed up by killer bugs.

-Experienced our first monsoon rains (it was so warm and amazing feeling!).

-CRAZY monkeys tried to steal Matt's soda.

-Some tuk tuk drivers literally fought each other for our business.

-Some crazy guy gave us a personal, midnight tour of a hindu temple.

-I got some Indian clothes (but I still stick out from a mile away with my neon-white skin).

Here's a link to just a few of the pictures we took this week http://www.flickr.com/photos/mathewrose/sets/72157626473162176/

I have lots of funny things to write about, but no time because we're headed up to Kochi! This is all for now! Sending love from India!

I woke up this morning seriously craving a bacon cheeseburger. Sigh...

Highlight of the week - I went back to Trimbak, where I saw a beautiful temple last week. This time, just walking down the main street, I looked up and unexpectedly saw another gorgeous temple, with totally different architecture. It was made from dark stone, pyramid shaped, with gorgeous carvings. I had no idea this tiny city has two ancient temples! It was the Indian New Years yesterday, so there were lots of people around. Some ladies outside the temple pushed some bundles of grass into my hands to feed the cows outside the temple, which was a fun experience... except that then we had to pry ourselves loose from them and all the other people begging for money. An eccentric looking monk-type old man then sang us a song with his one-stringed instrument, so we shared some food with him. It was a fun jaunt into the city, and it was nice to escape the ashram for a few hours. As it turns out, ashram life is too mellow for me.

Good news! I completed my course last night and have officially become a certified yoga instructor!!! The exams we had to pass were a little intense: 3 written tests, a 5 page essay, 2 yoga asana exams, 11 micro-lessons, and teaching 2 full lessons. It's not that much, except for the fact that it was crammed into only 3 weeks. I'm definitely going to do more yoga courses and continue my training... this is just the beginning.

Yoga has some very strange practices... we had to drink 7 glasses of salt water (on an empty stomach) and vomit it back out, all together (they say it's a cleansing process that removes toxins from your stomach, and releases negative emotions stored in your body). We also had to pour salt water in one nostril and out the other (to clear the nasal passages), and the examiner had to make sure the stream of water was flowing out of my nose smoothly... I've never had someone look up my nose and grade me on it before, haha.

I went to an Ayurvedic doctor, just because it sounded interesting. After determining my body/personality type, he gave me recommendations for healthy living. He told me to eat lots of honey, pumpkin, figs, bananas, nuts, butter, and yams (yams -> my favorite food in the world). He said that my personality type should eat lots of sweet things (hell, yeah). He also told me to get a massage and a sauna every week - the best prescription a doctor has ever given me!

I have really enjoyed some of the mantras that they have here (they're in Sanskrit, but the translations are nice). Mantras are to help us keep positive thoughts in our minds, and my favorite is the Prayer for Universal Peace:
Let the truth destroy untruth
Let the light destroy darkness
Let immortality destroy death
May all attain peace
May all attain joy
May all become complete
Let everyone be happy
I am not the creator
God is doing everything

I hope this mantra be positive for you as well! Namaste!

Now THIS is India

I'm finally getting to see the types of things I came to see!

I walked through a tiny village last week, with small dirt paths between houses made from mud and stones. Immediately I was approached by a little girl smiling and asking for a photo. Then she took me home and the whole family came out to say hi. Then I came to a group of boys playing cricket in a dirt field with homemade cricket gear, they were very excited for me to take their photos, and after a few minutes I ended up with about 30 little kids following me around and giggling at everything I did. An old woman invited me into her house to show me a baby cow that she was obviously very proud of. She asked for a photo, but first she ran to get a huge, silver bangle. She put it on her arm and very carefully adjusted it - she wanted to look her best for the picture. Her tree outside was full of chickens, and the village was so picturesque.

Today I went hiking to the top of a mountain across the valley from the ashram. On the way I passed a small hut. There were several children and a puppy sleeping right outside it, in the street - and a cow sleeping inside the house! Something seems strange with that picture...

The mountain was very steep, so there were stairs carved from stone most of the way up. At the top of the first mountain there was a lovely lake, and about a hundred cows and several herders. At the top of the second mountain, there was a small temple, dedicated to the monkey god. It was a tough hike but completely worth every sweaty step!

The HUGE event of the month was that the Guru of the Bihar School of Yoga came to visit. Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati is the guru of our school and many other places, and he is very famous in India. His guru's guru (like a lineage passed down) was the main person who brought yoga to the western world, so he's a big deal. We went and listened to him speak and got to chant mantras with him (well, me and like 300 other people). And he gave us all prayer beads and a special blessing. This was also a huge event because he rarely does public events anymore, since he's getting ready to go into seclusion (basically retire) and to focus on reaching enlightenment. Even though I didn't understand a word he said, I was thrilled that I knew several of the mantras and that I could sing along.

This week I am going to teach two full classes, so wish me luck!
Namaste!

Lotus Pose? Maybe in my next life...

Today went to a nearby city, Trimbak. It took an hour of briskly walking on small paths, through huge fields, to get there (didn't see any cobras along the way). There were several tiny houses along the path, and the people were very surprised to see a foreigner walking in such a rural area. I went to a beautiful temple and walked around the grounds for a while - it was made from bright white stone, with beautiful artwork and architecture! This week was also the festival of colors, and there is still powder all over the streets. We didn't throw colors at the ashram, but we did have a bonfire and singing :)

Here are some of the other things that are exciting to me, though they're small and fairly inconsequential: Watching the stars at night (I see them both when I start yoga practice in the morning and when I eat dinner). Drinking cold guava juice when it's a billion degrees outside. Seeing toads, mice, lizards, bats, and owls around the ashram (the mosquitoes are truly evil).Washing up (from a bucket) and putting delicious-smelling coconut oil on my feet after walking around the dusty ashram barefoot all day. Best of all, the fact that I finally stayed awake during one of our meditation-type sessions yesterday (we wake up at 5am, workout, eat, and then they make us lay down in a dim room with our eyes closed, listening to a soft voice... what do you expect?!).


So, I'm halfway through my yoga course, and I wish it was longer because I'm not sure how I'll be ready to teach a full lesson in two weeks! We teach mini-lessons everyday, and so far I have led several prayers and mantras and "Om" chanting (all in Sankrit) and I have taught several poses to my peers. Doing yoga is easy... teaching yoga is surprisingly hard. Every day we have two yoga asana (pose) classes, and we do chanting, breathing techniques, and attend several lectures. It is all interesting, but I have a hard time focusing during chanting and breathing. I love all the asanas, except for Lotus Pose... it's the bane of my existence (see picture below). Luckily, it's not required that I master it here, otherwise I'd be doomed!

Oh, so I injured my wrist and can't put any weight on it... luckily it doesn't hurt at all when I'm not using it, and I have a brace, so it will be ok! At first I was devastated, but we are never supposed to push our bodies too much when we do the asanas, so my teacher is fine with me not practicing the few poses that would make my wrist worse. In fact, she said to use this experience as a learning opportunity, so I'm doing my best!

I have enjoyed learning about yogic philosophy during my time here. Yoga is not a religion - rather, yoga is a philosophy and a way of life that works in harmony with any religion. Practicing the poses (which is the only thing most of us really know about) is a small part of yogic life. The basic aim of yoga is to create balance between our mind, spirit, and body, and they do this through healthful eating, peaceful living, and trying to become connected with God or The Universe through prayer, mantras, meditation, etc. It's an admirable lifestyle, and I am glad to be in this environment! Sending love from India!

First week in India!

Hari Om!

This has been an awesome week! My first morning in Mumbai, I walked outside and the first thing I saw was a cow in the middle of the street :) I went to Elephanta Caves, which is an island off the coast of Mumbai with lots of stone carvings in the caves. There were lots of monkeys on the island, and they were very cute, but kind of crazy. One of them ran up to a lady, jumped towards her, and grabbed a bottle of soda out of her hands. The monkey ran off a little ways, opened the lid, used his foot to prop up the bottle, and drank the soda! It was a strange sight.

It was a 5 hour bus ride to the city where I am doing my yoga teacher program. On the bus on the way to Nashik I saw lots of random things, like houses made completely from straw, and more houses made from sticks (and yes, there are brick houses too, hehe). I saw guys peeing in the streets, little kids staring at me from other cars passing by, and lots of animals everywhere!

In Nashik I am staying at Yoga Vidya Dham, which is an Ashram in the countryside. It's very peaceful there, and it's a nice break from my normal life and from the hectic Indian cities. I get to see the sunrise and sunset every day, and the stars are out in the sky when I wake up and when I eat dinner! The landscape reminds me a little bit of Utah, with mountains that are rounded instead of jagged, like in Central and Southern Utah.

There are lots of snakes here, and I was so excited to find out that there are cobras here! (If we see one we just tell the teachers and they will catch them and release them far away). I saw one snake the second day here, but it was just a non-poisonous one. I also saw a scorpion, toads, ants that are so big they're scary, and a tree full of lizards! Yesterday during class, someone ran into the room, telling the teacher "snake!!!" So our teacher sprinted out of class and went to catch it. When he came back to class he was carrying a jar with a COBRA in it!!! I was so excited that I got to see a cobra!!! It didn't have it's hood raised because it had calmed down, but it was cool. He released it that night, 30 miles away.

We completed our first yoga exam yesterday as well. I think it went great, and I am so happy I'm here. I'm having a little bit of a hard time because I got a hairline fracture in my wrist about 3 days before coming to India... It's hurting pretty badly. But I've got ointment for it and I'm going to find a splint for it today :D

Tomorrow is the Festival of Colors (Holi, the biggest festival in India) so I'm excited for that!
So, today was just a quick post... I wanted to let everyone know that things are going well! I'm sending my love from India!