Gaia

I'm in India, but i must strat this by writing about my excitement in London.

While packing for my journey, i packed a bag for india and one for london. i flew into london on Bristish Airways and we arrived on time. i waited for my bags and only one came, the london bag. i thought to myself, this sucks, but it is definitely no the end of the world. it's happened before and i'm sure it will happen again. so, i went to the BA desk and there was a line of about 20 people.there were 3 people working, 2 hours later i made it to the front of the line. 2 hours....they gave me a slip with a reference number and a phone number and told me my bag was probably there. i was thinking, well then why can't we find it??? it has a scan number on it and they should know where it is. this whole time i am a bit worried because my friend was out side waiting for me and i couldn't tell her what was going on. she knew my plane landed, but why wasn't i out yet??? by the time i left the line there were about 50 to 100 people waiting and i couldn't believe it. what is BA doing losing so much luggage. there were HUGE piles of luggage everywhere and so many people upset... etc..

i went through customs and my friend was not there. i started to slightly freak. i only had her home phone number and she wasn't anywhere. i changed some money and couldn't figure out the pay phones. so, i thought, oh i'll ask someone if i can use their cell phone. guy #1, i gave him my sob story and he looks at me and says. "no you can't use it, it's not mine." so, i found another guy and asked the same question. he said the same thing. i was like, what the heck is this??? so far my experience in london is not so great. then there was this group of young men heckling me and i asked them. they said sure... so i called my friend and there was no answer. i started pacing and looking and then went to info. and they said she had been looking for me and they thought she left. i was like, "shit" but then i turned around and saw her. we were both totally relieved...

we took the hour and a half train journey to her home and started to call BA to give them her address. I only had her phone number. we could not get through to anyone for 4 hours and then it was time to sleep. i began to get worried. so she said we have to go to heathrow in the morning to check things out.

we got up early the next day took the hour and a half train ride to the airport and it took much persuasion to get in to the luggage area. everyone kept telling me that my luggage was probably on the next flight in from seattle, but the thing is there was a flight after mine yesterday and no one seemed to remember that and that it could have been on that one. they would look up my ref. number and tell me they had no info on it. i was like, this is BA how could they be sooooooo totally disorganized. i waited in that line again for 30 minutes and the guy at the front told me the same thing, no info on my ref number that it is probably coming in on the next flight from seattle. i told him i wanted to look in there piled high luggage room, he resisted and i insisted and i walked in and there it was.... if i wouldn't have been so pro-active, there is no way i would have gotten my bag for my flight to india the next day early in the morning. so, then i told them, i'd like to be compensated for my train ticket here and back. that was a total waste of breath. they wouldn't budge, not even and inch.... ugh... so my only day in london was spent getting my bag. thank god i did. i was a lucky one. there were people there that had been waiting for two weeks. with no compensation.... DON'T FLY BA IF YOU CAN HELP IT!!!

i had a great tiem with my friend and the next morning we got up at 2am and talked for 2 hours before my cab came to take me to the airport for my flight to india. i met my friend J in Frankfurt and we flew to Bangalore together..... another story altogether, i'll save it for later...

i'm going to take off where i left off....

we arrived in bangalore at 1 am and my friends name was written on a board at the bottom of the stairs right before we entered the baggage claim. it said," go the luftansa desk." she waited in line there while i waited for our luggage. mine arrived, hers didn't make our flight, but they were so totally organized. the total opposite of BA (it's those Germans, so organized). they gave her a toiletry bag full of stuff and a bunch of money (yes, cash). then we left, we were handed roses and there was another sign with her name on it. she said to me," i'm already famous in bangalore." we hadn't left the airport and there were two signs with her name on.

the driver took us to our guesthouse. we arrived at 3 am. we slept, got up, had breakfast, booked train tickets for that day to mysore.

we arrive in mysore that evening, had dinner at Anu's (i'd been dreaming about her food all year). we stayed at a friends house. then, we went to visit kumar, the goldsmith and then went to sleep that night. it was a very very full first day in india.

I have a bad cold so it keeps waking me up in the night. i start coughing and coughing and coughing.... ugh...finally our friend, the one we are staying with got me some cough syrup with codiene and i've been able to sleep ever since.

we had a very busy few days in mysore. first j's bags were to arrive and they did, but a little later than they said. but they did call us 2 times to tell us they were on the way. we kind of just hung out the first day waiting for the bags.

then the next day, i spent with kumar talking about jewelry designs. we worked for a few hours. it was great. i met with him for 3 days and we got a lot done. he is going to work on thing while i am away during this month and then when i get back to mysore we will start the second installement of the project. i am really really excited about all of this.

we left mysore after a few days of work and socializing. we took care of a bunch of things and it was really nice to stay with our friend...

we are now in chennai. we took the night sleeper train here last night and spent the day at the krishnamacharya yoga mandiram. we each had individual consultations with a doctor and then we had a one on one class with a teacher. it was so great. we did a little asana to help with my ever worsening hip problem and some pranayama, which almost put me to sleep. tomorrow j and i have a pranayama class togehter and i am excited about it. it's a very cool place that caters to everyone and their needs. soooooooooo opposite of mysore.......

we are on a yoga journey to explore and discover what is out there. i have been doing ashtanga for so long that i feel almost blind to the rest of the yoga world and there is soo much to see and learn and do. this journey is exciting and i can't wait for the rest to come.

india is all that she is. i am very happy about being here. it is my 4th trip and is different for me in so many ways. first, i am travelling with a friend. i have never done this before. second, i feel older and more mature, 3rd i feel an almost comfort. it's exciting in such a different way.

india is the inefficient, efficient country..... there are many people for one job so things get done sometimes really fast and sometimes really slow because of this inefficient efficiency. more about that another time.... overall, everything is great besides my cold. i feel like i have been sick sooooo much this year...ugh...

woke up after a very very long nights sleep. my cold is really needing a lot of sleep. i felt soooo much better today. and that was good because we had a very full day.

i got up and did my new prescribed yoga practice which included asana (good for my hip) and breathing along with some mudra chanting. it took a little more than one hour and it was sooooo wonderful. again. it is strange for me to be doing something different from my usual ashtanga practice, but ashtanga isn't working with my body right now and i need something a little different for a while (well at least til we get back to mysore). we went to breakfast, i read the morning paper and j read about our next location.

from there we found a rickshaw. it's so weird here .we are staying a "nice" hotel and the rickshaw drivers stay outside the hotel and want to stay with us all day and take us all over and if they take us to certain places they get coupons for 50rs (a little over a dollar) for gas, which costs 50rs a liter (more than in the US). anyway, we found this driver, he took us to the train station, we were going to get a train to pondicherry for tomorrow night, but everyone told us to take the bus, which neither of us want to do, but will b/c it seems to be the way to get to pondicherry from here. we did get reserved train seats for our journey a week from now which is good and we don't have to worry about it anymore. from the railway station we went to the marina beach, which is the longest city beach in the world. it really did go on forever. from there we went to the theosophical society. it was soooooo great. it has wonderful streets and gardens and one of the oldest banyan trees in the world. it also has an extensive library of very old and very rare religous texts. it was great.

we then went to the yoga center and had a pranayam philosophy class. it was amazing..... i am getting a one on one pranayama, asana, meditation class tomorrow to put it to a little use.

this is only a taste, but we are really enjoying the krishnamacharya yoga mandiram. india is wonderful and we are really exhausted after long day of wandering and learning. it's time for some sweets....

we ahve been in pondicherry for the last couple of days. i have been pretty sick so i've been in bed a lot and not done much since we've been here. this is unfortunate for lots of reasons, but it's not the first time i've been sick in india and i'm sure it's not the last.

just to go on about the sickness..... i arrived with a bad cold which has pretty much passed and now everything is passing through me at a rapid pace. so, i'm going to see a doctor because my meds have done absolutely nothing.

Pondicherry is this super chill town on the Bay of Bengal. it was colonized by the french for a super long time and it has all this french influence. i even had this drunk shoe repair guy do a little repair on my day pack and he was speaking french (it seemed as his first language).

it's beautiful here, and j is having a wonderful time wandering around. the city is sort of run by the aurobindo ashram and it 's really intriguing. they have a ton of followers throughout the world and offer everything at afordable prices. they have this community near here called auroville and it's this sort of utopian idea of living. everyone who lives there is involved in it's survival. we are going to try to go this afternoon after i get back from the dr.

j did some yoga yesterday at one of the many ashram run guesthouses. she had a really great time. i was in bed running back and forth to the toilet.... ugh.... it to shall pass.

we move on from here tomorrow night and go to madurai and then to trivandrum for our stint at the sivananda ashram.

still in pondicherry. still sick.

here is our plan.... it makes me cringe when i think about it... first of all we were going to check out of our room today (this morning), but since i was up in the night AGAIN, i couldn't stand the thought of losing a secure toilet for the next 48 hours. so, i asked our guesthouse man if i could stay in the room until we left tonight at 9... the next 48 hours you ask????

we leave here on the night train to madurai. there is a HUGE festival goiing on so we can't find a room. marathon plan is to... get off this night train, find a hotel that will hold our luggage for the day and then wander the streets for the day, get our bags that evening and get on another night train to trivandrum which will arrive in the morning. as you can see this is two nights without a secure toilet and no shower. it's very warm here and ughh..... i have never really felt this way in india (maybe that is a lie) usually i'm so excited about everything, but this trip is turning out to be quite challenging for me..

we went to auroville yesterday and it was nice. we took a tour and it was a bit rushed and really didn't see much of auroville, but it seems super cool. i want to retire there :)

got up this morning after having a night of getting up a few times and did yoga including my new pranayama exercises. it was so nice. i really like doing the breathing work and have been trying to do it daily, although i missed a few days during this stupid bug in my tummy....

Pongal is the huge festival going on. it is a festival that celebrates the harvest and people gather together and celebrate in a big way. one of the things they do here, that i totally love love love is the rangoli work (like on the back of my gold jewelry www.karazidesign.com click on gold) every house has a beautiful rangoli sometimes colored and it is so amazing. i have been taking lots of photos and will post when i can. they are designs sprinkled on the ground in front of peoples homes and it is make with rice flour so birds and other creatures can come and eat it. it is also an auspicious welcoming for anyone coming into your home. they are really beautiful and very mindful as well.

i guess that's it for now... i'm going to try to eat something..

before i start with that. i just wrote this really long entry and the stupid computer shut down and i lost everything i wrote and it was the computer guys fault and he wants me to pay for it. i don't think so ugh.....

so, for the first time in 10 days i feel totally normal and we had such a fun and exciting day. we left pondicherry last night on the overnight train to madurai. we didn't have a room booked because we were told we wouldn't be able to find one because of this huge festival... so we were ready to leave our bags somewhere for the day and wander.. but no this was not the case, we got off the train at 6am and the first hotel we went to had a room for us. thank god... we rested for a couple of hours, had some food and took off for a full and fun day of adventure.

last night at the train station, some indian men told us of a huge bull fight festival taking place in a village near madurai. so, we decided to go. we hopped on the very very crowded bus and arrived in the very very crowded (with men only) village and wandered to find the arena. we (the foreigners) got to sit in the box covered seats (best view point too) to watch the very decorated bulls let loose for the young men to try to hold on to. the festival is a fertility thing, the strongest man wins. if they can catch the bull and hold on, they win a tee shirt, gold coin and a radio... it was so thrilling. there were over 100,000 people there and i was so energized by the whole thing. it was cool. if someone got injured, they first of course received their prize and then were carried off by many men to the medical area, which we did not see..

we left to go back to the bus, which entailed walking through huge crowds of men. my favorite sight was the man sitting on the dirt ground getting a tattoo.... omg... can you imagine??? it was soooo dirty. i even tried some sugar cane for the first time. it was ok...

we made our way back to the bus and had to totally push our way on to the bus that definitely had more than 100 people on it... it was so crowded.

we got back to madurai to rest and eat and then do what we came here for. to see the most amazing amazing amazing temple ever. there are several temples in this complex, and each has intricately carved and painted statues. we walked through the corridors and it was so beautiful and breath taking. the energy was so high because of this festival and there were so many people...the temple complex has over 33 million statues. can you believe that???

we wandered around there for a long time and took it all in, there is a nice market area and small streets with vendors all over the place. we took a bicycle rickshaw back which is so pleasant...

so now i am going to the hotel room to shower and get ready for our overnight train to trivandrum...madurai was a stop over we did it american style, super fast. i could stay for days and days though. it's very cool... and the bull fight was soooooooooo cool. photos will be coming soon.

i am so glad i feel normal again. i feel like a person who has energy and can start enjoying this journey...yah...i hate trying to replicate my last entry, it was so much better, but that is how it is..oh well

we've landed. for a little while anyway. we are on the beach in varkala, kerala. if you have been reading my blog since my last trip, it is where the fire was. it's so beautiful and nice here and i will catch up on everything during our time here.. there is so much to talk about..

just wanted to touch base and let everyone (who cares) know that i am alright and having fun.. oh and i am all better too.. no more tummy problems. antibiotics do the trick.

let's see where did i leave off. i think it was when we had our total crazy day in madurai.. but i forgot to write about my experience at the aurobindo paper factory in pondicherry. it's this really cool place where they make paper and paper things, like books and boxes and they export mainly to europe.. anyway, i saw these super cool little boxes with little windows on the top. they are covered in beautiful silk and i am having them put velvet inside and i will use them to put my gold pieces in. i had a different idea that was logistically hard for me to figure out, in terms of getting boxes for the jewelry, but now it is all taken care of. i made the order and they are shipping them out so they will be at home when i get there. i am very happy about this. they are soooooooo cool.

ok, so we had our crazy day in madurai and hopped on the train to trivandrum the capital of kerala, spent the night on the train, our second night in a row on the train.. and we got off the train and walked to this super cool restaurant called the india coffee house. it was a cylindrical building and the inside was so cool, it spiraled up there were no stairs and the booths were along the side, the servers were dressed in white with these crazy hats.. our meal was super good and cost us total less than one dollar (definitely our cheapest meal). we then were going to take the bus to the sivananda ashram, but after looking at them decided to take a rickshaw for the one hour ride. we were a bit buzzed from our tea and had a totally engaging conversation on the way up.. it was a beautiful ride and we had so much fun.. and when we were about a mile away, i looked down and my chacos were gone.. that is my shoes were gone. my chappals were gone. shoes... my shoes... i love shoes.. and now my precious chacos were missing. i told the driver to stop and i said, "no chappal, where are chappal?" and he looked and me and said, "madam, no chappal." i instantly made him turn back to look for them and he said to me, "madam, no only 2 kilometer." we had been riding for one hour and i freaked out and made him turn around. we found one and the other one is missing and i don't know why i was such a freak about it and just couldn't let my shoes go, especially here in india where there are a half a billion people without any "chappal" at all. all is gone and i have let go.

we arrived at the ashram and checked in to our dorm. it was a great place, we were a bit confused for most of the time we were there, but that was fine.. it's this unbelievably beautiful place up in the hills and there is a lake and you can hear lions roaring on the other side of the lake at the reserve.. so, our schedule for the next three days was like this.. wake up 5:20 meditate for 30 min. chant/sing for 45min. teachings for 15 min.. 7:30 tea, 8:00 yoga until 10, then eating on the floor really yummy indian food. 11 teachings, 12:30 karma yoga (we were very privileged to clean the toilets) 1:30 tea, 2 coaching class (yoga questions), 3:30 yoga until 5:30 yoga, 6pm eating again our yummy healthy indian meal. 8pm chanting until 9:30 and then sleep. so, we did this for 3 days and it was so much fun. the yoga was fantastic... i have never done sivananda yoga before and i really really like it.

so, we arrived in the middle of a two week "yoga vacation" and a month long teacher training. so we sort of just tagged along, thus being a bit confused.. it was pretty great. our last morning we all (200 of us) got up at 5 and hiked a mountain (in my flip flops) and then even had to do part of it with bare feet ( the sacred, sharp granite part) and it was soooooooooo beautiful to be up there during the sunrise, chanting. we climbed down and made it back for our 2 hour yoga class all before breakfast at 10...we checked out at 11 and took a rickshaw back to trivandrum to take a train to varkala where we are now...

when we got here, babu, my friend who owns the guest house we are staying at, told us about an elephant parade going on. so, we had to go.. we got in another rickshaw and saw 50 elephants all decorated and marching down the street. it was sooooooo cool. there were a ton of people there, but it was so different from our last experience with the bulls. this was much more family oriented and all the little kids and women were all dressed up and it was really a special and beautiful experience.

so, here we are...on the beach... some time to reflect and maybe write a little more than just what we are doing...many thoughts are going through my head, but i will wait until next time.

so busy doing je ne sais quoi.... we found this really great sivananda instructor here on the beach (well a rooftop with palm tree shade overlooking the sea). we've been going two times a day that takes up over 4 hours of the day and today i am really wiped out because, the rest of the time, i've been laying on the beach. i know it sounds really tough, and it's not, but i'm still really tired from the sun and heat and i love it...

tomorrow is our last full day here. and i'm sad about that. this year the trip here is totally different from my trip last year. last year i worked my ass off trying to raise money for the families that suffered in the fire and this year. it's totally about yoga and the sun. both are great, just really different.

one thing that i always love and notice about india, but always forget between trips, is the moon. it lays on it's back so it's like a smile and i love it when it is the new sliver moon and it's tips reach up into the sky. it is never like that where i live it is always a crescent on it's side.

j and i are having tons of fun. but i have to say traveling with someone, especially a good friend really changes a trip. i feel like i've really had a lot less perspective taking happening on this journey, internal thoughts about the country and my travels are less. we talk a lot about our feelings and what we observe, but i have to say it is very different, different and good.

yoga is so much fun. today and everyday the class is a little different and we keep learning new postures and it's really really cool. i've tried doing ashtanga a few times on this trip, but my hip is really bad and can't even get through the standing sequence without irritating it. so, i'm having all these thoughts and confusions about what to do when we get back to mysore and ugh... it's just been a really frustrating injury and i feel like i've tried a lot and still nothing is making is better..

and unfortunately, i lost my good shoes so now i am walking around in flip flops and at the end of the day my hip is in so much pain, from those stupid shoes...

i am really really really really excited H is coming here on sunday. j and i are meeting him in kochi and we will rest there for a few days while he acclimates and then we will do a backwater boat trip, which i totally can't wait for...

we leave varkala saturday morning and are going to take a boat to allepy and then a bus to kochi. the boat is a ferry, and it's 8 hours, but i think it will be really great. it's supposed to be beautiful.

all is well. i finally finished the stupid book i've been reading for way too long and am on to such a fantastic book called "scribbling the cat" by alexandra fuller. it's so good. i read her other book and loved it too.

we started our day at 6:45 with a papaya juice and then took a rickshaw to the railway station. we got on the train and said goodbye to varkala, rode the train to kollam, took a rickshaw to the boat jetty and departed on our day long backwater trip. it was beautiful and long, hours on a passenger ferry, a nice passenger ferry, but it was a passenger ferry. we arrived in alleppy at 7 and we tried to get some food and all the places were with meat and i really don't like going places where they have meat. so, we decided to take the bus to fort cochin. it was an hour and fifteen minutes..

i decided, one of the things besides and indian dog, that i absolutely would not want to be reborn as is an indian bus driver, ugh. j took some valium and read a book, i sat and watched my breath. it's so hard and it was only a little over an hour.. we arrived in topumpary and took a rickshaw to our guesthouse, but he did not know where it was... so, i thought, we will be driving around for a while trying to find it. but then, out of nowhere, this guy comes up on a scooter and talks to the rickshaw driver and then asks me (all as we are still driving) "where you stay" i said the name of the guesthouse and he said to the driver "follow me" so, we followed the man on the scooter and he took us right to our guesthouse... it was late, much later than we had told him we would arrive and we were a bit freaked out he might have given the room to someone else. we had tried to call from allepy to tell him, but the phone, was busy...

anyway, we arrived, the scooter guy said it was his uncles guesthouse.. we just laughed. it's so india...then, we walk inside and the man is soooooooooooooo excited to see us. he was very very enthusiastic. j and i just laughed, then we had to go upstairs to check in and right a million pieces on info on a piece of paper. it's so funny. they have to know our date of arrival in india, date of arrival in kerala, date of passport, passport number, where we came from, how long we will stay, how long we stayed in our last location, etc. etc... it goes on and on.. everyplace you stay in india, it's like this....

now it is late, i wanted to blog before bed... H is arriving tomorrow evening and i can't wait. He is actually arriving in india in the wee hours of the morning, he will rest and then fly to kochi, where we are now...

ps it rained last night and today... so weird, it's super hot and super super humid even at10:30.. i will find and ac room for H and I tomorrow night... did i mention i can't wait....

H made is safely last night. i went to the airport to meet him. it was so exciting. we have been waiting 8 years to be in India together..

we had a nice day.. but it's so unbelievably hot and humid and lots of mosquitoes here. so, we are wanting to leave soon. well, i guess i have more an opinion on it.. and i want to leave soon... usually i like hot, but it's over 90 and trying to do stuff in this heat and humidity is really hard.

today, we bought a cell phone. H wants to be able to get a hold of his work if need be. he left a big project and they may need him. we also went to yoga. it was our least favorite class to date (j and i thought this). it was super hot, so many mosquitoes and the teacher didn't stop pacing (really quickly) the entire class, it made me really unsettled... and her too..

the three of us are trying to figure out wha to do next. H and I might go on a backwater trip and then go back to varkala for a few days and maybe we can study again with that awesome teacher and go to his village and have his body work (ayurvedic) instructor work on my very very sore hip...

the heat is making me pessimistic... ugh... i know a lot of you reading this are in the thros of winter. so, sorry for complaining.

i am excited about this next leg of the journey. J and I remenesced yesterday and sort of acknowledged that the trip was changing... and now we are here on the new path.

India is so fascinating....i love her she is invigorating and somehow soothing to my soul. Life is here in your face and it is such a wonderful change of pace to not be in the middle of american fear. i always find my travels a nice refresher to my daily life. j asked me the other day if when i travel i ever think about how i want to do things differently when i get home.. and it was so funny because a lot of times that is what i do when i am traveling. how i will be more relaxed at home and how i want to be more balanced and i will cook more and take more time for myself and try to slow down and not take work so seriously etc..... of course it's so easy to think of how i will chill out when i get home, when i am chilling out somewhere else. sometimes it lasts a week when i get home and sometimes it lasts a month, but at least i will try and i will continue to try....and maybe someday it will all come together and i will do all of those things.

life is wonderful and india is exciting... off to eat with my buddy and my hubby....