The RMS Queen Mary 2
Here are some fun facts about the QM2, most of which can be seen along with great pictures at the web site www.cunard.com
The QM2 is the grandest, most magnificent ocean liner ever built. She's a true heir to the timeless elegance, legacy and inspiration of the great Cunard liners of legend. Facts:
Length: 1,132 feet (a football field is 300 feet, that’s almost four football fields!)
Beam: 135 feet
Height (Keel to Funnel): 236.2 feet (a 23 story building!)
Gross Tonnage: Approximately 151,400 gross tones
Guest Capacity: 2,592 lower berths
3,056 maximum capacity
Crew: 1,253
Strength: Extra thick steel hull for strength and stability for Transatlantic Crossings
QM2 is more than twice as long as the Washington Monument is tall (550 ft.)
QM2 is 147 feet longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall (984 ft.)
QM2 is more than 3½ times as long as Westminster Tower (Big Ben) is high (310 ft.)
Canyon Ranch SpaClub®
Queen Mary 2's 20,000-square foot health club, offers a wide array of pampering possibilities, as the sensational AquaTherapy Centre and well-equipped Fitness Centre.
Empire Casino
The Monte Carlo-inspired Empire Casino offers a full variety of opportunities to tempt Lady Luck - 13 Gaming Tables, over 120 slot machines, even video poker. Also, there is the convenient Casino Bar.
Swimming Pools
There are a total of five swimming pools onboard Queen Mary 2, including the Terrace Pool on Deck 8, The Minnows Pool especially for children on Deck 9, the Sun Deck Splash Pool on the top of the ship, and our most popular Pavilion Pool on Deck 12, which features a retractable dome for any weather!
So here’s the questions everyone always asks:
How many life boats are there and is that enough – after all, we do transatlantic crossings.
There are 22 life boats each able to hold 150 passengers. That’s 3,300 people on the life boats. There are then 60 inflatable life rafts. 30 of them are specifically for the crew, and the other 30 are extra, just in case. So yes, we have plenty of life boats/rafts on board.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
The RMS Queen Mary 2
Just a quick welcome back to the blog. Its Thursday night, and I'm ready to head to the airport in the morning. My flight will take me to London via Chicago, and once in London, transfer to train to Southampton where I board the RMS Queen Mary 2 for my six weeks voyage with Canyon Ranch. I'll update soon about the trip.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
India - Goodbye
I'm now back home, have found a new place to live, and begin work next week! Coming back to the US was anticlimactic. I was thankful for being back home, but because it was home, not because it was the US or something along those lines. My time spent in India was incredible, I had a great time and the friends I met and the things I learned about the different cultures was inspiring. There are parts of India I already miss, however there are parts that I would prefer never to see or hear again. The most notable was the noise (honking) of the cars in the cities - never ending. The cab ride from the airport here in the US was amazing because it was completely quiet! I could handle the dirt, and spending that much time in a 3rd World country, poverty is in the eye of the beholder. The people in India are in poverty if you compare them to us. However, they live full, complete, happy lives, and don't feel the need to go in debt to get the latest fashions or to put the pool in their yard because the neighbours did. They don't feel the need to compete with their friends and don't need the latest of whatever it may be. They are content with what they have.
While there I was reading a fiction book that was based around India and there was a paragraph in the book that I felt was perfect to explain India. It seemed like the right way to sum up my trip to India, and at the same time compare the two different worlds; ours and theirs.
"The US embodies for me what I have come to call the Western mindset, restless, driven, pushing toward some unknown future which is always assumed to be better than anything that has gone before. No one pauses even a moment to reflect on the usefulness of this ceaseless striving. India's cities are timeless, self-absorbed, rooted in a glorious past, long faded, that is presumed lost forever. Indian society paused to reflect on the process of striving and never got around to striving again. India engages in ceaseless introspection without effective action. Western society is linear, goal-oriented. Indian society is circular, inward-oriented. The West values the new, the young, the innovative. India treasures the very old, the traditional, the way things have been for millennia. Both perspectives have value. Neither in isolation adequately reflects the full potential of humanity."
This was the third time I have read this book and after being in India that paragraph couldn't have said it better - the differences between the two worlds. It took me being in India to really get what that paragraph was trying to say!
Two last adventures I would like to share. They say you always remember the first and last things you do either on a trip, or a meeting, etc. I will never forget the last few moments I was on the ground in India. We left Bangalore on schedule, Feb 20th. The airport in Bangalore is not very big, in fact is has 3 domestic gates and 1 international gate! For the most part, turbo props and planes the size of a 727 are normal there in Bangalore. We left as we arrived, on a 747-400. As the plane rolled town the taxi way I was watching outside thinking to myself, good bye for now. As the plane pulled out onto the runway, it didn't turn to face the length of the runway, but continued maybe another 100 feet to the very end of the runway, and then the pilot made a U turn! From my window, as I was on the outside of the U turn, we were at the very end, meaning dirt was under the wing as he turned that plane around. Image for a second, a 747 making a U turn. I'm almost sure if he could have put the plane in reverse he would have backed up to the edge of the pavement!
Once the plan was lined up with the runway again, with the brakes fully applied, he opened the engines up completely. This went on for about 10 seconds. So stop and count to ten. That is actually a long time to sit still and listen to the engines increase to full power. The the brakes were released. If you have ever been on a roller coaster that uses propulsion to get the train moving you know the feeling. We were all pressed back into our seats like we were headed for space. A 747 needs to be traveling about 170 mph to get off the ground. We were seated over the wing, therefore right over the back landing gear. Just as we felt the wheels lift off the ground I looked out the window and the runway ended! I am not a nervous flyer, but that was one take off I will never forget.
When I got home the last thing I wanted to do was eat at a restaurant. I didn't care what I was eating as long as it was at home and I cooked it. I would say that must have been the one thing I really longed for, was my own cooking. To just be able to eat something that was siting around and not having to go to a restaurant or order room service and wait for the food. I found it interesting during my stay in India the things that you think about most. How you compare things from the country you are in to the way it is done at home. If you have read the entire blog my comparisons seemed to follow a specific thought. I compared the taxi ride to one in New York vs Its A Small World. The rickshaws reminded me of the Doom Buggies at the Haunted Mansion, and the lights at the Mysore Palace of course reminded me of Main Street U.S.A. Once you get back from a trip of this size you want to tell the world everything, and at the same time you feel like you have nothing to say. The number one question I got from friends, family and even coworkers once I returned was; "Lance, you just spent two months in India, what are you going to do next?" ... and so I did! :)
"The Happiest Place On Earth!" is only a 3 1/2 hour drive from here, so maybe I did need a taste of good old America! Mickey says "Hi!"
While there I was reading a fiction book that was based around India and there was a paragraph in the book that I felt was perfect to explain India. It seemed like the right way to sum up my trip to India, and at the same time compare the two different worlds; ours and theirs.
"The US embodies for me what I have come to call the Western mindset, restless, driven, pushing toward some unknown future which is always assumed to be better than anything that has gone before. No one pauses even a moment to reflect on the usefulness of this ceaseless striving. India's cities are timeless, self-absorbed, rooted in a glorious past, long faded, that is presumed lost forever. Indian society paused to reflect on the process of striving and never got around to striving again. India engages in ceaseless introspection without effective action. Western society is linear, goal-oriented. Indian society is circular, inward-oriented. The West values the new, the young, the innovative. India treasures the very old, the traditional, the way things have been for millennia. Both perspectives have value. Neither in isolation adequately reflects the full potential of humanity."
This was the third time I have read this book and after being in India that paragraph couldn't have said it better - the differences between the two worlds. It took me being in India to really get what that paragraph was trying to say!
Two last adventures I would like to share. They say you always remember the first and last things you do either on a trip, or a meeting, etc. I will never forget the last few moments I was on the ground in India. We left Bangalore on schedule, Feb 20th. The airport in Bangalore is not very big, in fact is has 3 domestic gates and 1 international gate! For the most part, turbo props and planes the size of a 727 are normal there in Bangalore. We left as we arrived, on a 747-400. As the plane rolled town the taxi way I was watching outside thinking to myself, good bye for now. As the plane pulled out onto the runway, it didn't turn to face the length of the runway, but continued maybe another 100 feet to the very end of the runway, and then the pilot made a U turn! From my window, as I was on the outside of the U turn, we were at the very end, meaning dirt was under the wing as he turned that plane around. Image for a second, a 747 making a U turn. I'm almost sure if he could have put the plane in reverse he would have backed up to the edge of the pavement!
Once the plan was lined up with the runway again, with the brakes fully applied, he opened the engines up completely. This went on for about 10 seconds. So stop and count to ten. That is actually a long time to sit still and listen to the engines increase to full power. The the brakes were released. If you have ever been on a roller coaster that uses propulsion to get the train moving you know the feeling. We were all pressed back into our seats like we were headed for space. A 747 needs to be traveling about 170 mph to get off the ground. We were seated over the wing, therefore right over the back landing gear. Just as we felt the wheels lift off the ground I looked out the window and the runway ended! I am not a nervous flyer, but that was one take off I will never forget.
When I got home the last thing I wanted to do was eat at a restaurant. I didn't care what I was eating as long as it was at home and I cooked it. I would say that must have been the one thing I really longed for, was my own cooking. To just be able to eat something that was siting around and not having to go to a restaurant or order room service and wait for the food. I found it interesting during my stay in India the things that you think about most. How you compare things from the country you are in to the way it is done at home. If you have read the entire blog my comparisons seemed to follow a specific thought. I compared the taxi ride to one in New York vs Its A Small World. The rickshaws reminded me of the Doom Buggies at the Haunted Mansion, and the lights at the Mysore Palace of course reminded me of Main Street U.S.A. Once you get back from a trip of this size you want to tell the world everything, and at the same time you feel like you have nothing to say. The number one question I got from friends, family and even coworkers once I returned was; "Lance, you just spent two months in India, what are you going to do next?" ... and so I did! :)
"The Happiest Place On Earth!" is only a 3 1/2 hour drive from here, so maybe I did need a taste of good old America! Mickey says "Hi!"
Saturday, February 23, 2008
McDonalds - India
When I went to Australia I know that there would be much American influence including watching the ABC nightly news with Peter Jennings, but I didn’t expect so much influence here in India, at least not yet. If you turn the TV on, they do have their own stations, and usually they will have a Hindu station, a Muslim station, and a Christian station, however they also have CNN India, and the most common channels are Discovery, Travel, and National Geographic.
Looking out the window of the hotel, and we can’t see very far in either direction, but I can see Music World, Van Heusen, Domino’s Pizza, Subway, and those famous golden arches that seem to be everywhere but the moon! Of course the bottled water I’m drinking is called Kinley – a product of The Coca-Cola Company, and I can see advertisements from ING, MetLife, and Merrill Lynch. This main intersection reminds me of a very small Times Square.
So those of you that know me well, make sure you are sitting down before you go on reading this…are you down? Take a wild guess where I ate for lunch? It would be the last place you would ever see me!!! Okay, so I just had to try a McVeggie! Of course I got the meal with fries and a drink, but I didn’t get a soft drink, instead I got an iced coffee. The McVeggie actually tasted really good. Of course it did, I don’t think we can count high enough to list all the chemicals that were in it, so it goes without saying it better taste good. The fries were, well, what can I say – McDonald’s. And the coffee was incredible which leads me to believe that there wasn’t even real coffee in it!
The menu was extremely limited. They had four sandwiches to choose from. Remember, we are in India where cows are considered Holy, so they had the McChicken Big Mac, which was two all chicken patties (Yeah, right!), special sauces, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun – are you singing yet? They also had the regular McChicken Sandwich, a McSalad Sandwich, which was literally just lettuce, tomato, and mayo on a bun, and the one I had which was the McVeggie. Not really sure what they thought was in the veggie, but it did taste good. They did have a large selection of ice cream. Indians love ice cream, not only because it’s sweet but also because it comes from a cow.
We had thought about going to a Subway as well, but we have ran out of time, so McDonalds was the only American restaurant we went to. We are only in the city of Bangalore for a day and a half, so not much time, plus our dinners were at restaurants that had been time tested, local and very good. One is the Taj hotel which is an Indian chain of up scale hotels, and the restaurants are upscale as well, and the other one called Olive Beach is a local art deco type restaurant that is completely western. When I refer to upscale, in the US the food would be about 20-30 dollars a plate, here 8-10 dollars a plate. Both of these restaurants had great food, but by this time because I know I’ll be home in a day or two I can’t help but think about food back home, and so I’m getting tired of this food and being careful about what I can eat and what I should think about before eating! I have been sick 4 times now on this entire trip which isn’t that bad considering how sick some people get. I have no complaints and all four times it was very minor, and lasted only a day or less. Airline food at this time is starting to sound good!
PS – you should try to write something about McDonald’s, using all the words that begin with Mc, and then have spell check try and fix it! That was a project in itself!
Looking out the window of the hotel, and we can’t see very far in either direction, but I can see Music World, Van Heusen, Domino’s Pizza, Subway, and those famous golden arches that seem to be everywhere but the moon! Of course the bottled water I’m drinking is called Kinley – a product of The Coca-Cola Company, and I can see advertisements from ING, MetLife, and Merrill Lynch. This main intersection reminds me of a very small Times Square.
So those of you that know me well, make sure you are sitting down before you go on reading this…are you down? Take a wild guess where I ate for lunch? It would be the last place you would ever see me!!! Okay, so I just had to try a McVeggie! Of course I got the meal with fries and a drink, but I didn’t get a soft drink, instead I got an iced coffee. The McVeggie actually tasted really good. Of course it did, I don’t think we can count high enough to list all the chemicals that were in it, so it goes without saying it better taste good. The fries were, well, what can I say – McDonald’s. And the coffee was incredible which leads me to believe that there wasn’t even real coffee in it!
The menu was extremely limited. They had four sandwiches to choose from. Remember, we are in India where cows are considered Holy, so they had the McChicken Big Mac, which was two all chicken patties (Yeah, right!), special sauces, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun – are you singing yet? They also had the regular McChicken Sandwich, a McSalad Sandwich, which was literally just lettuce, tomato, and mayo on a bun, and the one I had which was the McVeggie. Not really sure what they thought was in the veggie, but it did taste good. They did have a large selection of ice cream. Indians love ice cream, not only because it’s sweet but also because it comes from a cow.
We had thought about going to a Subway as well, but we have ran out of time, so McDonalds was the only American restaurant we went to. We are only in the city of Bangalore for a day and a half, so not much time, plus our dinners were at restaurants that had been time tested, local and very good. One is the Taj hotel which is an Indian chain of up scale hotels, and the restaurants are upscale as well, and the other one called Olive Beach is a local art deco type restaurant that is completely western. When I refer to upscale, in the US the food would be about 20-30 dollars a plate, here 8-10 dollars a plate. Both of these restaurants had great food, but by this time because I know I’ll be home in a day or two I can’t help but think about food back home, and so I’m getting tired of this food and being careful about what I can eat and what I should think about before eating! I have been sick 4 times now on this entire trip which isn’t that bad considering how sick some people get. I have no complaints and all four times it was very minor, and lasted only a day or less. Airline food at this time is starting to sound good!
PS – you should try to write something about McDonald’s, using all the words that begin with Mc, and then have spell check try and fix it! That was a project in itself!
Friday, February 22, 2008
The Mall
We are spending our last day and a half in the city of Bangalore, or Bangaluru by traditional name. This is our port city so we decided to come one day early so that we could tour this city, one of the largest in India, and be ready for our 7 am flight back to London then home.
We are staying at a hotel called The Monarch which is not a bad hotel at all and it is located right in the heart of the city. The two main roads here in Bangalore are Brigade and M.G. road. It seems that every city/town in India has an M.G. road, which stands for Mahatma Gandhi. This area is where most of the shopping is both for local middle class and the tourists. Here in the city of Bangalore they have at least two malls that we know of. They are very western in thought, and are similar to what we would call a mall, however their size for the whole mall is what we would think of as just one department store, say Macy*s.
The one we visited yesterday afternoon actually had 5 floors and half of the top floor was a movie theatre, very new, and appeared to be very clean. They had the electronic signs telling you the movies, show times, and even if the movie was selling fast, or sold out. There were 6 theatres and they were showing 2 American movies, Rambo 4 (please!), and Enchanted. The other side of the 5th floor was Staples. What else would you put next to a movie theatre but an office supply store? On the directories for the mall, they only put down the stores located on the floor you were on. So if you don’t know which floor the store you want is on, good luck, and head for each floor!
Here in India they number things a little different than we do in the states. This goes for hotels, office buildings, etc. The ground floor is just that, the ground floor. The next floor up, which we would consider the 2nd floor is the 1st floor. In the elevators the ground floor is 0, not ground or Lobby, but 0. Plus, our hotel has a parking garage underneath so our elevator has the buttons for -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4. No parking level or Lobby here, just -1 and 0. This means that if you are staying in room 103, you are on the second floor, room 3. We are in room 312, on the 4th floor.
In the middle of this mall we were in was an atrium that went all the way up to a glass ceiling. Right above the ground floor was a huge net across the whole atrium. Daren and I joked that it was to catch people who are trying to commit suicide, but then came to the conclusion that because there are no doors at the entrances to the mall that it was to keep birds from coming in and flying up to the upper levels. For kicks and giggles we asked a security guard what the net was for. His answer, and I quote, “to catch children falling from the upper floors.” My questions is how many times did that happen before they thought of putting up the net? We won’t even go into where the parents are.
As you entered the mall we were required to go through metal detectors. If the system went off you were asked to step aside and they would then wand you. They were not set very high as I got through with my camera, belt, etc and it didn’t go off. Not sure of the reason, other than fundamentalists don’t like the western ideas coming to India so these places could be targets.
While we were in the mall the power went out several times. The first thing that came to mind was, “Oh, the palace lights must have been turned on!” This makes sense if you read the blog; Mysore. However, business went on as if nothing had happened. The employees continued to work and not even miss a beat, and so did most of the customers, they didn’t even stop to look around. This happens often here in India, and even in Kovalam Beach the power was actually scheduled to go off once a day for an hour (not because of the palace, that is in a different state), so they don’t even think about it.
The last thing that was fun to watch was the people, especially the mid to older ones. I’m talking about 40 and up. The main source of attraction for me was the escalator! When we were in the airport in Trivundrum heading to the Maldives, we needed to take an escalator down to the ground floor, sorry, the Zero floor, and many of the locals, especially women stopped, looked at the escalators, and would walk over to the stairs to walk down. This mall didn’t have stairs so they needed to use the escalators! I really hate to say this, but to watch them, watch the steps go by and try to calculate stepping onto the stairs was funny, and just think what went through their heads when getting off, because they can’t stop and think about it! I know this is mean, but I guess if they want to be more like westerners then they must ride escalators!
Some places are very western in thought and practice and others try to be, but just don’t quite make it! There were a few places that if you were just placed there, it would be difficult to say you were in another country, and others would take long at all. My favorite example is a coffee shop called Coffee Day. This would be our version of Starbucks. It truly is a knock off of Starbucks, right down to selling whole bean coffee. However, they don’t open until 9 a.m.! Explain that to me please? Plus, we were one of the first customers of the day and both ordered drinks. We only had a 500 Rupee bill, that is what the ATMs give out, and our bill was over 200 Rupees, but they didn’t have change. This would be like us spending about $12 at Starbucks and trying to use a $20. No change - They sent one of the workers out somewhere to find change! This happened several times in the mom & pop stores, which I can understand, but this should be a western thinking place, with change!
By this time in the trip we stopped asking the questions why or how come, and just smiled, bobbled our head and laughed! The head bobble is something Indians so to each other while they are talking. A waiter will bobble his head when you place an order, or you are asking for directions, etc. However, this head bobble does not mean anything! It doesn’t mean yes, no, maybe, okay, anything. It’s just a head bobble. There were several times I would be somewhere watching two guys talking and bobbling, and I would just break out laughing!
We are staying at a hotel called The Monarch which is not a bad hotel at all and it is located right in the heart of the city. The two main roads here in Bangalore are Brigade and M.G. road. It seems that every city/town in India has an M.G. road, which stands for Mahatma Gandhi. This area is where most of the shopping is both for local middle class and the tourists. Here in the city of Bangalore they have at least two malls that we know of. They are very western in thought, and are similar to what we would call a mall, however their size for the whole mall is what we would think of as just one department store, say Macy*s.
The one we visited yesterday afternoon actually had 5 floors and half of the top floor was a movie theatre, very new, and appeared to be very clean. They had the electronic signs telling you the movies, show times, and even if the movie was selling fast, or sold out. There were 6 theatres and they were showing 2 American movies, Rambo 4 (please!), and Enchanted. The other side of the 5th floor was Staples. What else would you put next to a movie theatre but an office supply store? On the directories for the mall, they only put down the stores located on the floor you were on. So if you don’t know which floor the store you want is on, good luck, and head for each floor!
Here in India they number things a little different than we do in the states. This goes for hotels, office buildings, etc. The ground floor is just that, the ground floor. The next floor up, which we would consider the 2nd floor is the 1st floor. In the elevators the ground floor is 0, not ground or Lobby, but 0. Plus, our hotel has a parking garage underneath so our elevator has the buttons for -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4. No parking level or Lobby here, just -1 and 0. This means that if you are staying in room 103, you are on the second floor, room 3. We are in room 312, on the 4th floor.
In the middle of this mall we were in was an atrium that went all the way up to a glass ceiling. Right above the ground floor was a huge net across the whole atrium. Daren and I joked that it was to catch people who are trying to commit suicide, but then came to the conclusion that because there are no doors at the entrances to the mall that it was to keep birds from coming in and flying up to the upper levels. For kicks and giggles we asked a security guard what the net was for. His answer, and I quote, “to catch children falling from the upper floors.” My questions is how many times did that happen before they thought of putting up the net? We won’t even go into where the parents are.
As you entered the mall we were required to go through metal detectors. If the system went off you were asked to step aside and they would then wand you. They were not set very high as I got through with my camera, belt, etc and it didn’t go off. Not sure of the reason, other than fundamentalists don’t like the western ideas coming to India so these places could be targets.
While we were in the mall the power went out several times. The first thing that came to mind was, “Oh, the palace lights must have been turned on!” This makes sense if you read the blog; Mysore. However, business went on as if nothing had happened. The employees continued to work and not even miss a beat, and so did most of the customers, they didn’t even stop to look around. This happens often here in India, and even in Kovalam Beach the power was actually scheduled to go off once a day for an hour (not because of the palace, that is in a different state), so they don’t even think about it.
The last thing that was fun to watch was the people, especially the mid to older ones. I’m talking about 40 and up. The main source of attraction for me was the escalator! When we were in the airport in Trivundrum heading to the Maldives, we needed to take an escalator down to the ground floor, sorry, the Zero floor, and many of the locals, especially women stopped, looked at the escalators, and would walk over to the stairs to walk down. This mall didn’t have stairs so they needed to use the escalators! I really hate to say this, but to watch them, watch the steps go by and try to calculate stepping onto the stairs was funny, and just think what went through their heads when getting off, because they can’t stop and think about it! I know this is mean, but I guess if they want to be more like westerners then they must ride escalators!
Some places are very western in thought and practice and others try to be, but just don’t quite make it! There were a few places that if you were just placed there, it would be difficult to say you were in another country, and others would take long at all. My favorite example is a coffee shop called Coffee Day. This would be our version of Starbucks. It truly is a knock off of Starbucks, right down to selling whole bean coffee. However, they don’t open until 9 a.m.! Explain that to me please? Plus, we were one of the first customers of the day and both ordered drinks. We only had a 500 Rupee bill, that is what the ATMs give out, and our bill was over 200 Rupees, but they didn’t have change. This would be like us spending about $12 at Starbucks and trying to use a $20. No change - They sent one of the workers out somewhere to find change! This happened several times in the mom & pop stores, which I can understand, but this should be a western thinking place, with change!
By this time in the trip we stopped asking the questions why or how come, and just smiled, bobbled our head and laughed! The head bobble is something Indians so to each other while they are talking. A waiter will bobble his head when you place an order, or you are asking for directions, etc. However, this head bobble does not mean anything! It doesn’t mean yes, no, maybe, okay, anything. It’s just a head bobble. There were several times I would be somewhere watching two guys talking and bobbling, and I would just break out laughing!
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Pictures
Just a quick FYI, pictures are being organized on Flickr, and will be ready soon to view. I'm putting about 100 of the 500+ pictures I took while on the trip. I'll let you know as soon as it is ready!
Mysore
The town of Mysore is about a 3-hour car ride from Bangalore which is the city with the closest airport, and also our port city to leave India. The car ride from the airport to Mysore was not as bad as all the other rides because once we were out of the city, the new highway is actually a divided highway with two lanes in each direction. I didn’t think this was possible. This however didn’t stop all the honking, as I found out that it’s a law that you honk your horn when you pass someone. Plus they don’t have drive on the right; pass on the left or any kind or organization like that. And you still need to deal with everything including carts being pulled by ox.
When you pass through the small towns, in the states we always lower the speed limit on the highways to something like 30 while you drive through town and then pick speed back up. Even though they have limits posted on the road I’m not sure the people know what those mean, so slowing down to go through a village is not something they would normally do. The way they get the cars to slow down is they put up barricades in the road. They use three barricades, two placed in one lane, and one in the other lane between the other two so it forces all the traffic down to one lane and you must zigzag through the barricades. They put these up right before the crosswalks, usually only one per village. Crosswalks by the way are called Zebra’s because of the white strips. They also like to use speed bumps, and these speed bumps are more like mountains than bumps and if you hit one very fast, not only would your car or rickshaw be wiped out completely, it could kill you, as we read in the paper about a guy on a motor bike that hit a speed bump going to fast!
Mysore is considered the birthplace of Ashtanga Yoga, the place where Sri K. Pattabhi Jois started his studio. He is the one that taught our teacher, Lino Miele. The town itself has about 80,000 people and is growing fast as people are moving there to get away from the city of Bangalore. There is not much to do in Mysore; it’s not really a place you would visit as a tourist unless you were there for yoga or passing through. We had a teacher named Ajay (AH-jay) while we were in Mysore who I felt was an incredible teacher and I would like to come back to Mysore and study with him over going to Kovalam with Lino. Both are great teachers, but Ajay I felt had a better connection to his students. In support for Lino however, Ajay had 24 students, Lino, 150. Lino has been doing this for almost 2 decades, where Ajay only several years, however I can say that he will go far.
We did travel to several temples while in Mysore, including one on tip of Chamundi Hill, which is one of the 8 sacred hills in India. On the way up the hill they have large signs that say “No plastic Zone” meaning they are trying to reduce the amount of trash being thrown around on the hill. Indians don’t understand the concept of trash cans – partly because disposable products/packaging is relatively new to them, and they don’t have the money to pay for someone to go around and empty the garbage cans. When we got to the top of the hill, almost ALL the vendors that were there selling product were selling at least one type of plastic toy! Some vendors that is all they had was plastic! Of course not only was the item plastic, but of course it came in a plastic bag of some kind as well.
The market was another place we went to while in Mysore. This would be similar to what we would call a farmers market, only this place went on for blocks and was the main course of food for the entire city, weather for families, restaurants or hotels. It was truly something to see. All the fruit and vegetables all of course in season and nothing is out of season. They don’t ship fruits and veggies around the country like we do. You eat what is grown locally or you don’t eat it! Flowers are very big here, and not for vases in your living room, but flower necklaces and the likes for the temple gods. The flowers at the market were incredible, and since they string them, they don’t have stems, so there would be piles of just flowers. They use a lot of Marigolds and I seen 50-gallon burlap bags full of just marigold flowers. Jasmine was the only other flower that I could name, but the displays were incredible.
The main tourist attraction for Mysore is the Mysore Palace, which is actually famous, and often it is pictured books about India. The Palace was built for the Maharajh of Mysore back at the turn of the century. (I guess now we need to be more specific about which century. The 19th century.) The building is huge, and does fit in with what we would consider a palace. It’s a cross of Indian and English architecture, and sits on about 40 acres. On the grounds are three Hindu Temples, which we visited and they still have elephants and camels on the grounds for festivals. I have some great pictures of the grounds and outside of the Palace, but of course no cameras allowed inside the palace or temples, sorry!
The Palace, on Sunday evenings for one-hour only turn on lights, which outline the palace, three main gates, and temples. This is the type of picture one would usually find of the palace in books. Think Christmas lights, or Main Street USA at a Disney park, but about 10 fold. Not really sure how many lights they use, but it is completely breath taking to see it all lit up. It brings thousands to the palace every Sunday night. Families come and just sit on the ground, no grass, just dirt, and look at the lights for the one-hour they are turned on. To get onto the grounds you need to go through a metal detector, and they have only one at each of the three gates. That means three detectors for thousands of people! Lets just say it takes awhile to get in.
We are in India, so get this. There is a local village near by, who for whatever reason they were chosen, lose their power for one hour, every Sunday night while the palace lights are on! There is not enough power to go around as it is, so that is the reason they only turn the lights on once a week for an hour, so these small villages nearby don’t lose theirs. Those of you who live in Salt Lake, imagine loosing your power once per week so that Temple Square could light up! That is just what they do.
We board a train tomorrow back to Bangalore for a day and a half before returning home. I might blog about the train ride, we shall see what its like. We do have first class tickets because that way we actually have a seat assignment, and the coach is air-conditioned. The tickets were only 600 Rupees each ($15 US). The train ride will be 3 hours just like the car but hoping the trip will be less stressful, and quite. Lets cross our fingers!
When you pass through the small towns, in the states we always lower the speed limit on the highways to something like 30 while you drive through town and then pick speed back up. Even though they have limits posted on the road I’m not sure the people know what those mean, so slowing down to go through a village is not something they would normally do. The way they get the cars to slow down is they put up barricades in the road. They use three barricades, two placed in one lane, and one in the other lane between the other two so it forces all the traffic down to one lane and you must zigzag through the barricades. They put these up right before the crosswalks, usually only one per village. Crosswalks by the way are called Zebra’s because of the white strips. They also like to use speed bumps, and these speed bumps are more like mountains than bumps and if you hit one very fast, not only would your car or rickshaw be wiped out completely, it could kill you, as we read in the paper about a guy on a motor bike that hit a speed bump going to fast!
Mysore is considered the birthplace of Ashtanga Yoga, the place where Sri K. Pattabhi Jois started his studio. He is the one that taught our teacher, Lino Miele. The town itself has about 80,000 people and is growing fast as people are moving there to get away from the city of Bangalore. There is not much to do in Mysore; it’s not really a place you would visit as a tourist unless you were there for yoga or passing through. We had a teacher named Ajay (AH-jay) while we were in Mysore who I felt was an incredible teacher and I would like to come back to Mysore and study with him over going to Kovalam with Lino. Both are great teachers, but Ajay I felt had a better connection to his students. In support for Lino however, Ajay had 24 students, Lino, 150. Lino has been doing this for almost 2 decades, where Ajay only several years, however I can say that he will go far.
We did travel to several temples while in Mysore, including one on tip of Chamundi Hill, which is one of the 8 sacred hills in India. On the way up the hill they have large signs that say “No plastic Zone” meaning they are trying to reduce the amount of trash being thrown around on the hill. Indians don’t understand the concept of trash cans – partly because disposable products/packaging is relatively new to them, and they don’t have the money to pay for someone to go around and empty the garbage cans. When we got to the top of the hill, almost ALL the vendors that were there selling product were selling at least one type of plastic toy! Some vendors that is all they had was plastic! Of course not only was the item plastic, but of course it came in a plastic bag of some kind as well.
The market was another place we went to while in Mysore. This would be similar to what we would call a farmers market, only this place went on for blocks and was the main course of food for the entire city, weather for families, restaurants or hotels. It was truly something to see. All the fruit and vegetables all of course in season and nothing is out of season. They don’t ship fruits and veggies around the country like we do. You eat what is grown locally or you don’t eat it! Flowers are very big here, and not for vases in your living room, but flower necklaces and the likes for the temple gods. The flowers at the market were incredible, and since they string them, they don’t have stems, so there would be piles of just flowers. They use a lot of Marigolds and I seen 50-gallon burlap bags full of just marigold flowers. Jasmine was the only other flower that I could name, but the displays were incredible.
The main tourist attraction for Mysore is the Mysore Palace, which is actually famous, and often it is pictured books about India. The Palace was built for the Maharajh of Mysore back at the turn of the century. (I guess now we need to be more specific about which century. The 19th century.) The building is huge, and does fit in with what we would consider a palace. It’s a cross of Indian and English architecture, and sits on about 40 acres. On the grounds are three Hindu Temples, which we visited and they still have elephants and camels on the grounds for festivals. I have some great pictures of the grounds and outside of the Palace, but of course no cameras allowed inside the palace or temples, sorry!
The Palace, on Sunday evenings for one-hour only turn on lights, which outline the palace, three main gates, and temples. This is the type of picture one would usually find of the palace in books. Think Christmas lights, or Main Street USA at a Disney park, but about 10 fold. Not really sure how many lights they use, but it is completely breath taking to see it all lit up. It brings thousands to the palace every Sunday night. Families come and just sit on the ground, no grass, just dirt, and look at the lights for the one-hour they are turned on. To get onto the grounds you need to go through a metal detector, and they have only one at each of the three gates. That means three detectors for thousands of people! Lets just say it takes awhile to get in.
We are in India, so get this. There is a local village near by, who for whatever reason they were chosen, lose their power for one hour, every Sunday night while the palace lights are on! There is not enough power to go around as it is, so that is the reason they only turn the lights on once a week for an hour, so these small villages nearby don’t lose theirs. Those of you who live in Salt Lake, imagine loosing your power once per week so that Temple Square could light up! That is just what they do.
We board a train tomorrow back to Bangalore for a day and a half before returning home. I might blog about the train ride, we shall see what its like. We do have first class tickets because that way we actually have a seat assignment, and the coach is air-conditioned. The tickets were only 600 Rupees each ($15 US). The train ride will be 3 hours just like the car but hoping the trip will be less stressful, and quite. Lets cross our fingers!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Scuba Diving
Diving is something you really need to experience to get the full effect, kind of like jumping from an airplane. The feeling of weightlessness, being able to breath under water and moving with the schools of fish is things that just really can’t be described.
I started with a course called “Discover Scuba Diving” This is the first thing they put you through for you to decide after that weather you want to continue with the training or not. We spent about an hour learning the basics as to how water and air behave together, which is completely different that what I thought, and how your scuba gear works. By the way scuba stands for self contained underwater breathing apparatus.
So we lean how the scuba equipment works and head over to the beach. Sounds easy, but the scuba equipment on land weights at least 30 pounds, very awkward, and we had to walk through sand. The walk from the school to the beach was about 100 yards, and the whole time I felt like I was going to fall backwards with all that stuff attached to my back.
Getting into the water was fun in that the area we entered there were small sharks swimming around looking for food. These guys were tan and brown in color and about a foot to 18 inches long. They are completely harmless but stepping into the water having 6 or 7 of these guys swimming near by was interesting. They looked just like a great white, only smaller and we would laugh and either make the Jaws music, or scream shark every time we saw them! They would swim so close to the shore and to the surface that their dorsal fin would stick out of the water.
Once in the water up to about our chest the scuba equipment became very buoyant and we would start to float. Because of the equipment, we actually have to wear weight belts that allow us to descend under water. So here we are, water up to our chests and the instructor tells us to put our masks on, place the regulator in our mouth and look under water and here’s the important part – breathe! As easy as that sounds, getting your mind and your lungs to actually want to attempt to breathe under water is actually hard. It took some self-control and will power to inhale knowing your face is under water.
Once that excitement was over, knowing we could now breathe down there, we needed to go through some simple exercises in the event something happened. First we needed to flood our mask half way and clear it by breathing out the nose, then we needed to remove our regulator from our mouth and replace it, and third we needed to remove our regulator and take our buddies extra regulator and breathe from it. You always have two regulators attached to you. One for you and one for your buddy in case he/she runs out of air or something.
Then we got to swim around for a few minutes looking at the fish and other life at the bottom of the lagoon. This first dive we were only in water about 3 meters (9 feet) deep, so it wasn’t extra ordinary, but there was life down there. After the dive they then ask you if you are interested in going on with the course, or you can say you took part in Discover Scuba Diving and leave it from there. Now, I will say, that if you did this, say in Las Vegas, of course 90% of the time this course is offered in a swimming pool with no sea life, then you would think do I really want to go on with the training? Flooding your own mask and removing the regulator takes will power and its just more training that you need to do. However, there’s a catch when you learn to do this in an actual lagoon, with fish and sharks and tides and salt water and the list goes on, how in the world can you say No Thanks, I’m done! Of course you say, “Yes!” So the instructor hands you a very large textbook and says your next dive is tomorrow afternoon at 2, read chapters 1-3 before then! They always seem to forget to tell you this part in the beginning. So, off for a cappuccino I go, and forget about the rest of the days activities, as I need to study.
The next afternoon was great. I had finished reading the 3 chapters like a good boy, and because at the time I was the only person going through the course that spoke English, there were mostly Germans here on vacation at the time, I had my very own instructor for the next dive. Also, because I had been a good boy and read all three chapters like I was instructed to, the instructor decided that we would do dive 2 and 3 together. Usually you do three dives for the training, but the instructor needs to get to several people, up to 8, for each exercise and we can only stay under water for so long, so they limit the number of exercises per dive. Since it was only he and I and I had read the chapters and knew what was expected of me we went through both dives two and three. The main exercises were completely flooding my mask and clearing it. Removing my regulator and letting it go, then finding it again and replacing it. Taking my mask off and swimming around for one minute then replacing and clearing the mask. Completely removing the scuba gear both on the ground, about 3 meters down and at the surface, and putting it back on again. Learning how to release your weight belt and replacing it on the ground and at the surface. There were many more but you get the idea. All of the training is for “in case”. Diving itself is really very simple, pressurize your sinus cavity (ears), and breathe! The hard part is learning the “what ifs.”
Dive three was the next morning and it took me out into open water with the instructor on a boat with other more experienced divers. We were of course placed in groups, but I kept thinking we are in open water! One thing you learn in a swimming pool is how to get into the water with your gear on by jumping into the pool. You can’t learn that on a beach and just have to go for in from the boat! Very easy actually – hang on to your mask and regulator and breathe! Have you caught on to something yet? The number one and most important rule in diving is breathe. I know this makes sense, but when you go through the course and understand what can happen if you don’t breath, injuries may result including death, and it has nothing to do with drowning.
So, once we were all in the water, the dive master made sure we were all okay, and then gave the signal to descend. Panic would be a very correct word that I think most of us went through that first time, as you begin to go down, and realize that the bottom isn’t 3 meters below you, but you can’t see the bottom. Two of the students couldn’t get past that part and went back up to the boat. I hung out at about 4 meters for quite some time before the panic subsided and I was able to descend lower. I also had trouble pressurizing my ears so for that dive I stayed at about 10 meters (33 feet).
This dive, three, and dive five were very similar in experience as far as aquatic life with the exception that in dive five I was able to clear my ears and actually went to a depth of 29 meters (96 feet) under water. To actually see Sea Turtles and more than one, getting within a couple of feet of them while they are eating, and swimming through schools of fish that when you look around you in any direction all you see is fish is something words just can’t describe. Several differences that I noticed with each dive comparing to aquariums is that; first, light is absorbed by the water so actually in aquariums the colors are more vivid because the water is not as deep and many aquariums use black lights to help improve the color of the coral, so that part was disappointing, second however, in aquariums the schools of fish are in the hundreds, in the open water, thousands is an under statement. You can get lost in the schools! To see eels, and stingrays, and of course Nemo (clown fish), and even a Dory or two, is simply incredible.
Dive 5 took place the following morning after dive three. Dive 4 that was the afternoon of dive 3 however was by far the most incredible and the one I will be talking about for years to come. With this time I was able to clear my ears for the first time with comfort and we only went to a depth of 20 meters (66 feet), but the location we went to was spectacular! The descend and first portion of the dive was very similar to dive 3 and 5, lots of fish and breath taking coral even without the vivid colors. However, near the end of the dive we entered into a channel between the Atolls (Islands), and lets just say it was feeding time. There was a small coral reef that crossed the channel and the current was strong enough that our dive master had us go below the reef so the current wouldn’t take us out to sea and swim over to the other side. We needed to get to the other side because there were about 30 other divers in the same place as us. Once we found a spot with no other divers with came up to the reef top and held onto the reef facing the current so we looked like flags blowing in the wind. Imagine 30 divers or so holding on to this reef blowing in the current, like a string of flags at a stadium. The reason we held on to the reef is so we could relax and use less oxygen so we could stay and watch the show longer. The show – feeding time. In front of us was countless forms of aquatic life far to many to tell you about here, but schools of fish and sharks were the main attraction. The sharks would swim within feet of us, only to turn and swim another direction, the schools of fish would swim around us, and then away, and so on and so forth.
Because of the current flowing through this channel it was the perfect place for the food chain to be. Algae were floating through the channel that attracted small fish, which attracted bigger fish, etc. We stayed in this one location for about 20 minutes and just watch in awe of what was going on. We would have staying longer but air was running low so we needed to finish the dive and head back to the boat. After we had surfaced, the first person of our group was getting back onto the boat and our dive instructor yelled “mask on and dive!” so like good students we did what she said and down in the water were at least 6 Manta Rays, about 10 meters down (33 feet), just hanging out on the bottom. Only 5 of us were still in a position to dive, so down we went, and I came within about 5 feet of one of the Manta Rays. These are such incredible creatures and the best way to describe them is to think of UFO’s that just hover above the bottom, very calm and graceful. They didn’t seem very alarmed that we were heading form them, but once we got with the 5 feet or so, they just slowly moved forward, not far, just enough to stay away from us. The sad part was we could only stay about 2 minutes, because our air was by this time running very low so we needed to surface again.
Once back on the boat we realized many of the divers that were already on the boat had grabbed their mask and snorkel and had jumped into the water just to see down below to get a look at the manta rays! Of course that was the subject of conversation on the ride back to the island, and all of the sudden our instructor yelled “starboard!” and off the side of the boat were three dolphins swimming along side!
We had dinner with the instructor the following night and she said it took her over 800 dives to get that close to a manta ray, and to see the feeding show like we did with sharks that close, the manta rays, and the dolphins in one dive was almost impossible – so of course it happened on only my 4th dive. It will be hard to live up to, but I’m sure going to try and out do that one sometime in the near future!
I started with a course called “Discover Scuba Diving” This is the first thing they put you through for you to decide after that weather you want to continue with the training or not. We spent about an hour learning the basics as to how water and air behave together, which is completely different that what I thought, and how your scuba gear works. By the way scuba stands for self contained underwater breathing apparatus.
So we lean how the scuba equipment works and head over to the beach. Sounds easy, but the scuba equipment on land weights at least 30 pounds, very awkward, and we had to walk through sand. The walk from the school to the beach was about 100 yards, and the whole time I felt like I was going to fall backwards with all that stuff attached to my back.
Getting into the water was fun in that the area we entered there were small sharks swimming around looking for food. These guys were tan and brown in color and about a foot to 18 inches long. They are completely harmless but stepping into the water having 6 or 7 of these guys swimming near by was interesting. They looked just like a great white, only smaller and we would laugh and either make the Jaws music, or scream shark every time we saw them! They would swim so close to the shore and to the surface that their dorsal fin would stick out of the water.
Once in the water up to about our chest the scuba equipment became very buoyant and we would start to float. Because of the equipment, we actually have to wear weight belts that allow us to descend under water. So here we are, water up to our chests and the instructor tells us to put our masks on, place the regulator in our mouth and look under water and here’s the important part – breathe! As easy as that sounds, getting your mind and your lungs to actually want to attempt to breathe under water is actually hard. It took some self-control and will power to inhale knowing your face is under water.
Once that excitement was over, knowing we could now breathe down there, we needed to go through some simple exercises in the event something happened. First we needed to flood our mask half way and clear it by breathing out the nose, then we needed to remove our regulator from our mouth and replace it, and third we needed to remove our regulator and take our buddies extra regulator and breathe from it. You always have two regulators attached to you. One for you and one for your buddy in case he/she runs out of air or something.
Then we got to swim around for a few minutes looking at the fish and other life at the bottom of the lagoon. This first dive we were only in water about 3 meters (9 feet) deep, so it wasn’t extra ordinary, but there was life down there. After the dive they then ask you if you are interested in going on with the course, or you can say you took part in Discover Scuba Diving and leave it from there. Now, I will say, that if you did this, say in Las Vegas, of course 90% of the time this course is offered in a swimming pool with no sea life, then you would think do I really want to go on with the training? Flooding your own mask and removing the regulator takes will power and its just more training that you need to do. However, there’s a catch when you learn to do this in an actual lagoon, with fish and sharks and tides and salt water and the list goes on, how in the world can you say No Thanks, I’m done! Of course you say, “Yes!” So the instructor hands you a very large textbook and says your next dive is tomorrow afternoon at 2, read chapters 1-3 before then! They always seem to forget to tell you this part in the beginning. So, off for a cappuccino I go, and forget about the rest of the days activities, as I need to study.
The next afternoon was great. I had finished reading the 3 chapters like a good boy, and because at the time I was the only person going through the course that spoke English, there were mostly Germans here on vacation at the time, I had my very own instructor for the next dive. Also, because I had been a good boy and read all three chapters like I was instructed to, the instructor decided that we would do dive 2 and 3 together. Usually you do three dives for the training, but the instructor needs to get to several people, up to 8, for each exercise and we can only stay under water for so long, so they limit the number of exercises per dive. Since it was only he and I and I had read the chapters and knew what was expected of me we went through both dives two and three. The main exercises were completely flooding my mask and clearing it. Removing my regulator and letting it go, then finding it again and replacing it. Taking my mask off and swimming around for one minute then replacing and clearing the mask. Completely removing the scuba gear both on the ground, about 3 meters down and at the surface, and putting it back on again. Learning how to release your weight belt and replacing it on the ground and at the surface. There were many more but you get the idea. All of the training is for “in case”. Diving itself is really very simple, pressurize your sinus cavity (ears), and breathe! The hard part is learning the “what ifs.”
Dive three was the next morning and it took me out into open water with the instructor on a boat with other more experienced divers. We were of course placed in groups, but I kept thinking we are in open water! One thing you learn in a swimming pool is how to get into the water with your gear on by jumping into the pool. You can’t learn that on a beach and just have to go for in from the boat! Very easy actually – hang on to your mask and regulator and breathe! Have you caught on to something yet? The number one and most important rule in diving is breathe. I know this makes sense, but when you go through the course and understand what can happen if you don’t breath, injuries may result including death, and it has nothing to do with drowning.
So, once we were all in the water, the dive master made sure we were all okay, and then gave the signal to descend. Panic would be a very correct word that I think most of us went through that first time, as you begin to go down, and realize that the bottom isn’t 3 meters below you, but you can’t see the bottom. Two of the students couldn’t get past that part and went back up to the boat. I hung out at about 4 meters for quite some time before the panic subsided and I was able to descend lower. I also had trouble pressurizing my ears so for that dive I stayed at about 10 meters (33 feet).
This dive, three, and dive five were very similar in experience as far as aquatic life with the exception that in dive five I was able to clear my ears and actually went to a depth of 29 meters (96 feet) under water. To actually see Sea Turtles and more than one, getting within a couple of feet of them while they are eating, and swimming through schools of fish that when you look around you in any direction all you see is fish is something words just can’t describe. Several differences that I noticed with each dive comparing to aquariums is that; first, light is absorbed by the water so actually in aquariums the colors are more vivid because the water is not as deep and many aquariums use black lights to help improve the color of the coral, so that part was disappointing, second however, in aquariums the schools of fish are in the hundreds, in the open water, thousands is an under statement. You can get lost in the schools! To see eels, and stingrays, and of course Nemo (clown fish), and even a Dory or two, is simply incredible.
Dive 5 took place the following morning after dive three. Dive 4 that was the afternoon of dive 3 however was by far the most incredible and the one I will be talking about for years to come. With this time I was able to clear my ears for the first time with comfort and we only went to a depth of 20 meters (66 feet), but the location we went to was spectacular! The descend and first portion of the dive was very similar to dive 3 and 5, lots of fish and breath taking coral even without the vivid colors. However, near the end of the dive we entered into a channel between the Atolls (Islands), and lets just say it was feeding time. There was a small coral reef that crossed the channel and the current was strong enough that our dive master had us go below the reef so the current wouldn’t take us out to sea and swim over to the other side. We needed to get to the other side because there were about 30 other divers in the same place as us. Once we found a spot with no other divers with came up to the reef top and held onto the reef facing the current so we looked like flags blowing in the wind. Imagine 30 divers or so holding on to this reef blowing in the current, like a string of flags at a stadium. The reason we held on to the reef is so we could relax and use less oxygen so we could stay and watch the show longer. The show – feeding time. In front of us was countless forms of aquatic life far to many to tell you about here, but schools of fish and sharks were the main attraction. The sharks would swim within feet of us, only to turn and swim another direction, the schools of fish would swim around us, and then away, and so on and so forth.
Because of the current flowing through this channel it was the perfect place for the food chain to be. Algae were floating through the channel that attracted small fish, which attracted bigger fish, etc. We stayed in this one location for about 20 minutes and just watch in awe of what was going on. We would have staying longer but air was running low so we needed to finish the dive and head back to the boat. After we had surfaced, the first person of our group was getting back onto the boat and our dive instructor yelled “mask on and dive!” so like good students we did what she said and down in the water were at least 6 Manta Rays, about 10 meters down (33 feet), just hanging out on the bottom. Only 5 of us were still in a position to dive, so down we went, and I came within about 5 feet of one of the Manta Rays. These are such incredible creatures and the best way to describe them is to think of UFO’s that just hover above the bottom, very calm and graceful. They didn’t seem very alarmed that we were heading form them, but once we got with the 5 feet or so, they just slowly moved forward, not far, just enough to stay away from us. The sad part was we could only stay about 2 minutes, because our air was by this time running very low so we needed to surface again.
Once back on the boat we realized many of the divers that were already on the boat had grabbed their mask and snorkel and had jumped into the water just to see down below to get a look at the manta rays! Of course that was the subject of conversation on the ride back to the island, and all of the sudden our instructor yelled “starboard!” and off the side of the boat were three dolphins swimming along side!
We had dinner with the instructor the following night and she said it took her over 800 dives to get that close to a manta ray, and to see the feeding show like we did with sharks that close, the manta rays, and the dolphins in one dive was almost impossible – so of course it happened on only my 4th dive. It will be hard to live up to, but I’m sure going to try and out do that one sometime in the near future!
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
The Maldives
So the last week in Kovalam we decided to go to the Maldives for about a week. Daren has been certified a scuba diver for years and wanted me to get certified as well. We had purchased our airline tickets during our last trip up to Trivundrum. Then the internet went down and we had no way of confirming reservations with a hotel in the Maldives so we just went and found a place when we got there.
So, trying to get airline tickets to the Maldives. The only airline to fly from Trivundrum to the Maldives is Indian Air. This is actually a government run company, and for years there were two different companies. There was Indian Air which was the domestic company and then Air India which was the international company. About a year ago the government decided to merge the two so there would only be one company to make it easier to travel. The new company is called Indian Air – creative, don’t you think? So we have the taxi driver take us to the Air Indian office (which had a sign next to the building advertising the new Indian Air company, but the signs on the door still said Air Indian. Of course we got there at lunch so the office was closed (remember where we are.) We wanted to visit a local Ashram so we went there while the office was at lunch. Once we returned to the Air Indian office, we were told that they don’t fly to the Maldives, we would need to go to the Indian Air office. Are you following? The international division doesn’t fly to the Maldives, which is another country, the domestic division flies to that country, and even though it’s the same company we couldn’t make an international flight reservation at the international flight division because we needed the domestic division!?! India!!! Don’t worry if this doesn’t make sense because I’m still not sure how we did it. And just for icing, the domestic division only issues e tickets for flights – we were at the domestic office, but received paper tickets!
It was a 50 min flight from Trivundrum to Male (Mal Lay), the capital city of the Maldives. We were served a beverage before takeoff and a complete hot meal during the flight, plus tea or coffee after the mean before landing. The flight attendant was very nice, but when it came time to serve us we had a choice of vegetarian or chicken, and she looked at us, knowing we are westerners and said “chicken” and we both said “no” vegetarian. I think we confused her for the rest of the flight!
Once at the airport we talked to two different travel agents about hotels here in the Maldives and finally picked one called the Blue Lagoon. You can visit the web site at www.kuramathi.com There are three hotels on this island, and the island is smaller in space that the space the Bellagio, Ceasars and Mirage sit on. The highest point of the island is 6 feet! Pray for no tsunamis! We took a boat ride from the international airport to the island. It was about 60 kilometers away, and took about an hour and 15 min to reach. Everything here is on an island. The airport is an island by itself, etc Most of the islands only have one hotel on it, but because ours is so big they have three. They are however owned by the same company so its really like one big resort. We plan to take an air taxi back to the airport so it will only take 15 min. If your idea of paradise is a tropical island with perfectly blue water, palm trees, cocktails, and white sand then this without any doubt what so ever, paradise!
When we arrived at the island, there were about 16 of us on the boat, they were waiting for us with fresh fruit juices. They then shuttled us to our hotel, which was on the other side of the island. Being here is very similar to a cruise ship as there are coffee shops at each hotel, then there are four very fancy restaurants on the island as well. You have your choice to have bed and breakfast, room and half board, or room and full board. We choose the bed and breakfast because the majority of the meals are served buffet style and they tack on $70 per person per day for full board. This does not include drinking water as you must buy bottled. The water for the showers, etc is desalinated seawater and not suitable for drinking. Plus you eat when they tell you with full board, this way we eat in the coffee shops when we want to.
There are mostly Germans here at this resort. We are not sure why, but we think it’s a large group that all came together. The Maldives does have their own currency, but all the resorts only take US currency, so for the Europeans right now this is great for them. Just like on a ship, they don’t take actual cash except for tips, anything and everything you do is charged to your room.
The majority of our time has been spent diving which will be the next blog, but one of the neatest things for me here on the island is the nighttime bug control. It would be correct to say they have bats on the island. However, bats are small flying rodents, something similar to a mouse or maybe a small rat. (Just in case you didn’t know, they actually are mammals and are related to rodents.) What we have flying around here at sunset and during the night fit more closely to something along the lines of a tyradactle. I have been able to get some good pictures both of them hanging in the trees and of them in mid air!
The next blog will tell you about diving! That entire world that exists just below the surface. Pictures, TV, and aquariums don’t even come close to the experience you have when you are down there in the middle of a school of fish – not 40 or 50 fish, but thousands! I was very excited because they offer underwater cameras here, but the limit was 10 meters and most of my dives were between 20-30m meters (60-100 feet). So sorry to say I have not pictures of the sharks, manta rays, eels, etc that I seen while I was underwater.
So, trying to get airline tickets to the Maldives. The only airline to fly from Trivundrum to the Maldives is Indian Air. This is actually a government run company, and for years there were two different companies. There was Indian Air which was the domestic company and then Air India which was the international company. About a year ago the government decided to merge the two so there would only be one company to make it easier to travel. The new company is called Indian Air – creative, don’t you think? So we have the taxi driver take us to the Air Indian office (which had a sign next to the building advertising the new Indian Air company, but the signs on the door still said Air Indian. Of course we got there at lunch so the office was closed (remember where we are.) We wanted to visit a local Ashram so we went there while the office was at lunch. Once we returned to the Air Indian office, we were told that they don’t fly to the Maldives, we would need to go to the Indian Air office. Are you following? The international division doesn’t fly to the Maldives, which is another country, the domestic division flies to that country, and even though it’s the same company we couldn’t make an international flight reservation at the international flight division because we needed the domestic division!?! India!!! Don’t worry if this doesn’t make sense because I’m still not sure how we did it. And just for icing, the domestic division only issues e tickets for flights – we were at the domestic office, but received paper tickets!
It was a 50 min flight from Trivundrum to Male (Mal Lay), the capital city of the Maldives. We were served a beverage before takeoff and a complete hot meal during the flight, plus tea or coffee after the mean before landing. The flight attendant was very nice, but when it came time to serve us we had a choice of vegetarian or chicken, and she looked at us, knowing we are westerners and said “chicken” and we both said “no” vegetarian. I think we confused her for the rest of the flight!
Once at the airport we talked to two different travel agents about hotels here in the Maldives and finally picked one called the Blue Lagoon. You can visit the web site at www.kuramathi.com There are three hotels on this island, and the island is smaller in space that the space the Bellagio, Ceasars and Mirage sit on. The highest point of the island is 6 feet! Pray for no tsunamis! We took a boat ride from the international airport to the island. It was about 60 kilometers away, and took about an hour and 15 min to reach. Everything here is on an island. The airport is an island by itself, etc Most of the islands only have one hotel on it, but because ours is so big they have three. They are however owned by the same company so its really like one big resort. We plan to take an air taxi back to the airport so it will only take 15 min. If your idea of paradise is a tropical island with perfectly blue water, palm trees, cocktails, and white sand then this without any doubt what so ever, paradise!
When we arrived at the island, there were about 16 of us on the boat, they were waiting for us with fresh fruit juices. They then shuttled us to our hotel, which was on the other side of the island. Being here is very similar to a cruise ship as there are coffee shops at each hotel, then there are four very fancy restaurants on the island as well. You have your choice to have bed and breakfast, room and half board, or room and full board. We choose the bed and breakfast because the majority of the meals are served buffet style and they tack on $70 per person per day for full board. This does not include drinking water as you must buy bottled. The water for the showers, etc is desalinated seawater and not suitable for drinking. Plus you eat when they tell you with full board, this way we eat in the coffee shops when we want to.
There are mostly Germans here at this resort. We are not sure why, but we think it’s a large group that all came together. The Maldives does have their own currency, but all the resorts only take US currency, so for the Europeans right now this is great for them. Just like on a ship, they don’t take actual cash except for tips, anything and everything you do is charged to your room.
The majority of our time has been spent diving which will be the next blog, but one of the neatest things for me here on the island is the nighttime bug control. It would be correct to say they have bats on the island. However, bats are small flying rodents, something similar to a mouse or maybe a small rat. (Just in case you didn’t know, they actually are mammals and are related to rodents.) What we have flying around here at sunset and during the night fit more closely to something along the lines of a tyradactle. I have been able to get some good pictures both of them hanging in the trees and of them in mid air!
The next blog will tell you about diving! That entire world that exists just below the surface. Pictures, TV, and aquariums don’t even come close to the experience you have when you are down there in the middle of a school of fish – not 40 or 50 fish, but thousands! I was very excited because they offer underwater cameras here, but the limit was 10 meters and most of my dives were between 20-30m meters (60-100 feet). So sorry to say I have not pictures of the sharks, manta rays, eels, etc that I seen while I was underwater.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Homework!
Hello all, Sorry for the delay in putting a new message up. India's internet went down for almost a week and we didn't have the chance to do anything. We are taking a vacation from our vacation and are spending 7 days here in the Maldives. The reason for the title is we have been here three days and I have had my face in a book almost the whole time reading and taking tests... However, tomorrow I take my final test and my final open water dive and I will be certified as a scuba diver!
We head back to India up to Mysore on Monday and continue with the yoga. Mysore is where Ashtanga Yoga was started. Our instructor there is named Ajay. (AH-jay). Not sure what the internet will be like once back in india, however, at the very least I will update this as often as I can, and will finish it up when I get back to the states.
I hope all is well with all of you, and look forward to seeing everyone when I get home.
We head back to India up to Mysore on Monday and continue with the yoga. Mysore is where Ashtanga Yoga was started. Our instructor there is named Ajay. (AH-jay). Not sure what the internet will be like once back in india, however, at the very least I will update this as often as I can, and will finish it up when I get back to the states.
I hope all is well with all of you, and look forward to seeing everyone when I get home.
The Practice
I'm now in my fourth week of the practice, and sad to say this is the last week for the practice with Lino. The type of practice that we have been doing does not come easy and even as an instructor I find myself doing the same things that students do all the time. That is think I can do it all and push myself sometimes harder than I should. In my classes I'm always saying "Its all about the journey, not the destination." So I keep telling myself to practice what I preach!
For the first several weeks one day I would feel really good, warm and loose so I could go very deep into the poses, then of course I would be sore from that practice so the next day I'm tight and hurt, so that practice wouldn't be as good. Week three I learned to take advantage of the journey, and not worry about the destination. Getting to that thought process has helped me move farther into the practice sometimes without thinking about it.
In Ahstanga Yoga practice, there are four parts to the practice. Surya Namaskara A & B (Sun Salutations) In the west we consider these the warm up for many of the yoga classes. We preform A five times, then B from 3 - 10 times depending on how you feel and how cold/warm it is. Because of the temperature 3 or 4 is usually enough. Next come the standing asanas (poses). There are several of these asanas that are coming along great. The hardest one for me is reversed side angle. (Utthita Parsvakonasana B)
After the standing asanas, you move into the seated asanas - I am practicing the primary series. There are actually 6 different series in Ashtanga yoga. Getting through the second series takes years and actually getting to 6 is a lifetime. The seated asanas is what changes as you progress through Ashtanga Yoga. It wasn't until the third week that I was able to go all the way through the seated asanas. The way Ashtanga is taught is you go to the point where you can no longer do the asanas, then you move onto the finishing asanas. I was so happy the day I went through the entire series by myself I felt like I was walking on water. My personal greatest accomplishment in the asanas is Marichyasana C, (seated, bound spinal twist). I just never thought that pose would come as fast as it did. Now, I still need help getting into it, but once there I am comfortable. I'll continue to work on that one so I can get into it by my self, hopefully before I return home.
The finishing sequence is designed to restore you. Shoulder stand, head stand, and several other inverted asanas. The finishing sequence is just as hard as the seated because you do about 60% of the asanas upside down! The majority of these asanas are not taught often in western classes because of risk of injury if not done correctly. However, they are very beneficial once you learn how to do them.
The last pose of the seated sequence is Urdva Dhanurasana (wheel pose, or full backbend) In the perfect series you go into the back bend from a standing position and return to a standing position. As you are learning this pose you go in and out of it from laying on your back on the floor. After taking my third back bend, as you do the asana three times, 5 breaths each, Lino came over and told me I was ready to try the standing portion, assisted by him. So I was able to do Urdva Dhanursana with the help of Lino, but from standing and back to standing!
Friday's are a led class by Lino, very western in thought as we all go through the asanas as Lino leads us. During the whole practice we have been doing half vinyasas between the poses. Basically going through up-dog down-dog asanas. This Friday is a full vinyasa class, which means between every pose we do a full vinyasa or Surya Namaskara. The practice will take about 2 1/2 hours to go through and I think we will all head back to bed after that!
I have learned much from this practice that I can't wait to bring back to the states not only for myself, but for my classes! It seems like its been a very long time since I was the student, and being assisted into asanas, and not having to think about what everyone is doing in each pose has been very beneficial to me. I am however, looking forward to teaching once again!
For the first several weeks one day I would feel really good, warm and loose so I could go very deep into the poses, then of course I would be sore from that practice so the next day I'm tight and hurt, so that practice wouldn't be as good. Week three I learned to take advantage of the journey, and not worry about the destination. Getting to that thought process has helped me move farther into the practice sometimes without thinking about it.
In Ahstanga Yoga practice, there are four parts to the practice. Surya Namaskara A & B (Sun Salutations) In the west we consider these the warm up for many of the yoga classes. We preform A five times, then B from 3 - 10 times depending on how you feel and how cold/warm it is. Because of the temperature 3 or 4 is usually enough. Next come the standing asanas (poses). There are several of these asanas that are coming along great. The hardest one for me is reversed side angle. (Utthita Parsvakonasana B)
After the standing asanas, you move into the seated asanas - I am practicing the primary series. There are actually 6 different series in Ashtanga yoga. Getting through the second series takes years and actually getting to 6 is a lifetime. The seated asanas is what changes as you progress through Ashtanga Yoga. It wasn't until the third week that I was able to go all the way through the seated asanas. The way Ashtanga is taught is you go to the point where you can no longer do the asanas, then you move onto the finishing asanas. I was so happy the day I went through the entire series by myself I felt like I was walking on water. My personal greatest accomplishment in the asanas is Marichyasana C, (seated, bound spinal twist). I just never thought that pose would come as fast as it did. Now, I still need help getting into it, but once there I am comfortable. I'll continue to work on that one so I can get into it by my self, hopefully before I return home.
The finishing sequence is designed to restore you. Shoulder stand, head stand, and several other inverted asanas. The finishing sequence is just as hard as the seated because you do about 60% of the asanas upside down! The majority of these asanas are not taught often in western classes because of risk of injury if not done correctly. However, they are very beneficial once you learn how to do them.
The last pose of the seated sequence is Urdva Dhanurasana (wheel pose, or full backbend) In the perfect series you go into the back bend from a standing position and return to a standing position. As you are learning this pose you go in and out of it from laying on your back on the floor. After taking my third back bend, as you do the asana three times, 5 breaths each, Lino came over and told me I was ready to try the standing portion, assisted by him. So I was able to do Urdva Dhanursana with the help of Lino, but from standing and back to standing!
Friday's are a led class by Lino, very western in thought as we all go through the asanas as Lino leads us. During the whole practice we have been doing half vinyasas between the poses. Basically going through up-dog down-dog asanas. This Friday is a full vinyasa class, which means between every pose we do a full vinyasa or Surya Namaskara. The practice will take about 2 1/2 hours to go through and I think we will all head back to bed after that!
I have learned much from this practice that I can't wait to bring back to the states not only for myself, but for my classes! It seems like its been a very long time since I was the student, and being assisted into asanas, and not having to think about what everyone is doing in each pose has been very beneficial to me. I am however, looking forward to teaching once again!
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Symphony!
Okay, so this entry has nothing to do with India, but those of you who know me well, will understand completely. Tuesday is the release of Sarah Brightman's new album "Symphony". I find this funny, only because the last album she released, "Harem", I was in Australia at the time. I was very lucky in that she releases things usually one continent at a time, and that time, Australia was the first continent to get Harem, so I had the album before all my friends back home did. In fact I was home before it was released to North America. This time however, North America gets it first! Thank god for itunes! So for me, around noon my time, midnight Eastern Standard Time I will be downloading the new album, and will probably hold up in my room for the next few days listening to the album. There is a great promo video at her web site; www.sarah-brightman.com then click on new releases.
So Susan, let me know what you think as soon as you listen to it!!!
So Susan, let me know what you think as soon as you listen to it!!!
The Jungle
If you have not read Ponmudi first, I suggest you read that blog before this one. The trip through the jungle to get to the mountain top was a drive that for many reasons, I will not forget! It really began with the hike up to the water fall as that was the last time we drove through any kind of village. We did pass small areas where people lived, especially near the tea plantations, but for the most part we left civilization.
As we went up the read and climbed higher and higher, the road continued to get narrower and narrower. Long before we reached the top it was only one lane wide at best, and of course this is a two lane road. Passing other cars, and tour buses for that matter were sometimes a little hairy! One side is a dirt wall, the other side, nothing except maybe a 300 foot drop. They don't know what guard rails are and at places the hill/road was slowly washing away. When ever I get into these situations I always think to myself - Discovery Channel! I'm here with a camera and by God I'm going to make it! Seems to work so far. The road has 22 hairpin curves on the ascent, and we know this for a fact because they actually number them. 1/22, 2/22, etc. with signs so you know how many more to go. This would be something we would call a switchback, and yes there were 22 of them! There were places that the pavement was no longer pavement and other places they looked like it was brand new.
From here on out, nothing will go in order, because it was so overwhelming that I can't remember what was when - so here it goes. On our way up there were trees that first off looked like they have been planted because they were all in perfect rows, then the other thing that stood out was they didn't have any leaves on them. I'm going to look up what the tress do, like if they have a winter cycle even here in the tropics, because technically it is winter here. We soon realized that they were rubber tree plantations. When the road got closer to the trees you could see the little buckets on each of the trees to collect the sap so they can transport it somewhere to make rubber. (Once again, now I'm interested in this so I'm going to google it later.) The trees don't look very pretty, but being mixed within the jungle gave them a unique contrast. I figure this is what a maple tree farm looks like as well, only the maple trees are so much more beautiful.
The main industry for this part of India is tea, and that is what we ran into next. As we wound our way up the mountain side, the tea plantations were everywhere. The bushes are kept very small and not allowed to grow very tall at all. I would say that they were cut at a maximum of about 3 feet high and maybe four feet in diameter. This makes it very simple for the works to reach the entire bush and get all the leaves from it. Keeping the plant pruned also promotes growth in the leaves to keep the plant alive instead of wanting to grow higher, so the leaves are bigger and I would assume full of more flavor. The same reason they keep orchard trees pruned small, and even grape vineyards for the making of wine.
As we climbed higher, the tea plants continued for most of the trip as that is the perfect growing conditions for the tea. As we climbed however, other harvested plants started to show up within the tea, and along the road. The first thing I noticed was coffee trees! Of course these really are not trees either, but large bushes that like the shade of a type of palm that was growing in the area, but not sure what kind. It was fun to see the coffee trees like this, only because I've only seen pictures of this. It was not the right time of year for there to be flowers on the trees or beans for that matter, but we did manage to buy some coffee beans that had been grown in that area, harvested, and roasted! Can't wait to get home and try it out. Coffee is not a strong industry in this part of the world. The climate is perfect for the trees, but the soil is not the best as coffee enjoys very acidic soil like the sides of volcanos. Tea also likes the acidic soil, but is not as fussy about it like coffee.
After rounding one of those hairpin turns, somewhere in the teens, the driver started pointing out the different plants in the area, mentioning tea, coffee, cinnamon, cardamom and pepper. Just was went went around yet another hairpin turn Daren and I both looked at each other and yelled cloves! The air was literally scented with cloves! Have you ever put some cloves into a tea kettle and just let it slowly simmer on the stove, especially during the holidays, and your entire house has that wonderful warm smelling feeling? Imagine an entire mountain side smelling like this! We couldn't get over what we were smelling, and here on the mountain side. The driver then stopped, got out, walked over to a plant and picked several leaves and the seed pod and brought it over to us, which was of course the reason for this incredible smell - an actual clove plant. I thought they grew in small glass jars and just showed up at the grocery store all packaged and ready to buy! Incidentally, the four main spices used to flavor chai tea is pepper, cinnamon, cardamom and clove. The combination of these spices together are called Masala spices. If you are in a restaurant and it mentions masala, like masala curry, or masala tea, etc then this is the flavor you are going to get. Heaven on Earth!
Often, the road would wind into a small canyon like area that could not be planted for harvest as the ground was so steep. These are the areas where the jungle came out in full force. The size of the plants where something to behold. There was ferns, that looked similar to palm tree leaves, but were ground plants and the leaves would easily by 20 feet long! Some the the single fern plants would be the size of small houses. (Single lever houses in the states, not here in India.) The trees were so thick that to say you were in the shade was an understatement. It was very dark in some parts and I even took some pictures that didn't turn out very well because of how dark it was, in the middle of the day, with no clouds. The flowers came in every color of the rainbow and then some. Most of the flowering plants were in the area not affected by the heavy growth of the trees, so the sun would shine on them and they would almost glow they were so vibrant. The type of flowers growing this time of year, remember winter, were usually small, but there would be stalks of them, so even though the flower itself was small the overall impression they gave was of grandeur. The whole time was thinking to myself, this is something you would read about in one of J R R Tolkien's books, perhaps Rivendale or something. Then the cab driver said one thing and Daren and I both completely agreed the minute he said it - "Jurassic Park" At any moment a T Rex could come right out of the jungle! Okay, maybe not a T Rex, but the driver said that there were a few tigers in the area, and they actually had problems with wild elephants in the area. He showed us the type of plant that is their favorite to eat and then he showed us areas where they would walk through the jungle and mash down all the growth. It certainly looked like a T Rex had gone through there. We stopped several times to take pictures, and the sounds coming from the jungle were incredible. Insects that I'm sure we have never seen before, making sounds that gave the jungle a musical life all its own. There were birds of all kinds, including ones that we only see in cages like parakeets. This truly was God's country, and Mother Nature at her very best.
The last surprise for the trip, which we seen both going up and coming back was real live, uncaged, wild and happy monkeys! Now I've seen monkeys before, in Costa Rica, and if the truth be know these were not cute, but because they were small an in the wild, they were so cute! They were on the side of the road just hanging around, so Daren threw some crackers out the window to see what they would do and of course we got the response we wanted. They came over in droves. Grabbing the crackers and eating them and wanting more. We didn't hang out for long, but enough to get some good pictures of them very close up. There were even young ones in the trees watching us. On the way back down, we think the same group, but in a different place were once again hanging out, and we of course gave them more crackers and they were happy! They were kind of grey in color and perhaps just a little small than a Chimp. They didn't make much noise while we were there, but was happy to play in the trees for us.
I'm having so many challenges with uploading pictures, that I'm going to put a slide show together on flickr. When I get that going, I will post the web address and you will be able to see some of the great pictures in slide show format. We are entering out last week of practice here in Kovalam, and are not sure what we plan to do next weekend. We wanted to spend about 4 days in an ashram, but the one near by is full until the middle of March. I'll let you know when we figure it out!
As we went up the read and climbed higher and higher, the road continued to get narrower and narrower. Long before we reached the top it was only one lane wide at best, and of course this is a two lane road. Passing other cars, and tour buses for that matter were sometimes a little hairy! One side is a dirt wall, the other side, nothing except maybe a 300 foot drop. They don't know what guard rails are and at places the hill/road was slowly washing away. When ever I get into these situations I always think to myself - Discovery Channel! I'm here with a camera and by God I'm going to make it! Seems to work so far. The road has 22 hairpin curves on the ascent, and we know this for a fact because they actually number them. 1/22, 2/22, etc. with signs so you know how many more to go. This would be something we would call a switchback, and yes there were 22 of them! There were places that the pavement was no longer pavement and other places they looked like it was brand new.
From here on out, nothing will go in order, because it was so overwhelming that I can't remember what was when - so here it goes. On our way up there were trees that first off looked like they have been planted because they were all in perfect rows, then the other thing that stood out was they didn't have any leaves on them. I'm going to look up what the tress do, like if they have a winter cycle even here in the tropics, because technically it is winter here. We soon realized that they were rubber tree plantations. When the road got closer to the trees you could see the little buckets on each of the trees to collect the sap so they can transport it somewhere to make rubber. (Once again, now I'm interested in this so I'm going to google it later.) The trees don't look very pretty, but being mixed within the jungle gave them a unique contrast. I figure this is what a maple tree farm looks like as well, only the maple trees are so much more beautiful.
The main industry for this part of India is tea, and that is what we ran into next. As we wound our way up the mountain side, the tea plantations were everywhere. The bushes are kept very small and not allowed to grow very tall at all. I would say that they were cut at a maximum of about 3 feet high and maybe four feet in diameter. This makes it very simple for the works to reach the entire bush and get all the leaves from it. Keeping the plant pruned also promotes growth in the leaves to keep the plant alive instead of wanting to grow higher, so the leaves are bigger and I would assume full of more flavor. The same reason they keep orchard trees pruned small, and even grape vineyards for the making of wine.
As we climbed higher, the tea plants continued for most of the trip as that is the perfect growing conditions for the tea. As we climbed however, other harvested plants started to show up within the tea, and along the road. The first thing I noticed was coffee trees! Of course these really are not trees either, but large bushes that like the shade of a type of palm that was growing in the area, but not sure what kind. It was fun to see the coffee trees like this, only because I've only seen pictures of this. It was not the right time of year for there to be flowers on the trees or beans for that matter, but we did manage to buy some coffee beans that had been grown in that area, harvested, and roasted! Can't wait to get home and try it out. Coffee is not a strong industry in this part of the world. The climate is perfect for the trees, but the soil is not the best as coffee enjoys very acidic soil like the sides of volcanos. Tea also likes the acidic soil, but is not as fussy about it like coffee.
After rounding one of those hairpin turns, somewhere in the teens, the driver started pointing out the different plants in the area, mentioning tea, coffee, cinnamon, cardamom and pepper. Just was went went around yet another hairpin turn Daren and I both looked at each other and yelled cloves! The air was literally scented with cloves! Have you ever put some cloves into a tea kettle and just let it slowly simmer on the stove, especially during the holidays, and your entire house has that wonderful warm smelling feeling? Imagine an entire mountain side smelling like this! We couldn't get over what we were smelling, and here on the mountain side. The driver then stopped, got out, walked over to a plant and picked several leaves and the seed pod and brought it over to us, which was of course the reason for this incredible smell - an actual clove plant. I thought they grew in small glass jars and just showed up at the grocery store all packaged and ready to buy! Incidentally, the four main spices used to flavor chai tea is pepper, cinnamon, cardamom and clove. The combination of these spices together are called Masala spices. If you are in a restaurant and it mentions masala, like masala curry, or masala tea, etc then this is the flavor you are going to get. Heaven on Earth!
Often, the road would wind into a small canyon like area that could not be planted for harvest as the ground was so steep. These are the areas where the jungle came out in full force. The size of the plants where something to behold. There was ferns, that looked similar to palm tree leaves, but were ground plants and the leaves would easily by 20 feet long! Some the the single fern plants would be the size of small houses. (Single lever houses in the states, not here in India.) The trees were so thick that to say you were in the shade was an understatement. It was very dark in some parts and I even took some pictures that didn't turn out very well because of how dark it was, in the middle of the day, with no clouds. The flowers came in every color of the rainbow and then some. Most of the flowering plants were in the area not affected by the heavy growth of the trees, so the sun would shine on them and they would almost glow they were so vibrant. The type of flowers growing this time of year, remember winter, were usually small, but there would be stalks of them, so even though the flower itself was small the overall impression they gave was of grandeur. The whole time was thinking to myself, this is something you would read about in one of J R R Tolkien's books, perhaps Rivendale or something. Then the cab driver said one thing and Daren and I both completely agreed the minute he said it - "Jurassic Park" At any moment a T Rex could come right out of the jungle! Okay, maybe not a T Rex, but the driver said that there were a few tigers in the area, and they actually had problems with wild elephants in the area. He showed us the type of plant that is their favorite to eat and then he showed us areas where they would walk through the jungle and mash down all the growth. It certainly looked like a T Rex had gone through there. We stopped several times to take pictures, and the sounds coming from the jungle were incredible. Insects that I'm sure we have never seen before, making sounds that gave the jungle a musical life all its own. There were birds of all kinds, including ones that we only see in cages like parakeets. This truly was God's country, and Mother Nature at her very best.
The last surprise for the trip, which we seen both going up and coming back was real live, uncaged, wild and happy monkeys! Now I've seen monkeys before, in Costa Rica, and if the truth be know these were not cute, but because they were small an in the wild, they were so cute! They were on the side of the road just hanging around, so Daren threw some crackers out the window to see what they would do and of course we got the response we wanted. They came over in droves. Grabbing the crackers and eating them and wanting more. We didn't hang out for long, but enough to get some good pictures of them very close up. There were even young ones in the trees watching us. On the way back down, we think the same group, but in a different place were once again hanging out, and we of course gave them more crackers and they were happy! They were kind of grey in color and perhaps just a little small than a Chimp. They didn't make much noise while we were there, but was happy to play in the trees for us.
I'm having so many challenges with uploading pictures, that I'm going to put a slide show together on flickr. When I get that going, I will post the web address and you will be able to see some of the great pictures in slide show format. We are entering out last week of practice here in Kovalam, and are not sure what we plan to do next weekend. We wanted to spend about 4 days in an ashram, but the one near by is full until the middle of March. I'll let you know when we figure it out!
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Ponmudi
It seems like every weekend we go somewhere and somehow the experience seems like its simply out of this world, and I just can't imagine anything getting better or at least living up to the last weekend, but every weekend seems to do just that. Yesterday we traveled to Ponmudi, which the destination itself is nice, but the journey there and back is what made this trip so memorable.
The journey of course begins in a taxi and on these roads! Its actually getting hard for me to want to get into the taxi. At the same time however when a bus is only 6 inches from our car moving towards us and what seems like break neck speeds I no longer flinch or tense up or even gasp for that matter. We drove through Trivundrum on our way to Ponmudi and we stopped at a super market. The local super market was going to be a blog entry, and still will be, but now I will be able to compare the difference between here in Kovalam, and one in the city. Very big difference.
Ponmudi is basically a mountain top at about 4500 feet in elevation. Its about 60 km from Kovalam, but takes over two hours to get there because of, well, the road! After leaving the city, going through the smaller towns, what we would call suburbs, life is so different in each and every one of the little towns. You can always see what their main industry is, by what is on the street. Weather they are farmers, or mechanics, or masons - everything of course being done by hand. Just outside of the city, the main highway to Ponmudi they were in the process of widening the road. They were tearing down brick fences and wall of homes. Now if you lived in one of these homes, this doesn't mean you are going to move or even need to. It simply means that if your main room in the house was 10 feet long, its now only going to be say 6 feet long! We widen streets, not force people to move. Now there were some housed that were coming down completely because they were so small, and we were afraid to ask what happens to those families.
On our way, as we were traveling through one of these small villages, there was a motor bike heading our direction and the sight caught me off guard, as I could see the driver, and sticking out from both sides of him I could see hooves! As the bike passes us, sure enough, there was the driver up front, then not one, but two goats side by side facing opposite directions on the bike, then another man in the back holding onto the goats. The very strange thing was that the goats did not seem at all upset, and were just sitting there like this is an everyday occurrence. Had we been going the same direction I would have taken a picture, but it was over before I realized how strange it was. After that, only several minuets later, a rickshaw was driving by with a baby cow riding along in the rickshaw. Once again, just like this was the everyday think and enjoying the ride since it didn't need to walk anywhere. Now, just to move forward to the trip home, near the same place as these two scenes occurred, we were riding along and in front of us this time was a small truck with an adult cow in the back. This really in itself was not unusual or strange, but as the drive began to pass the truck the cow decided it was time to use the restroom and since the driver and I were on the other side of the vehicle, Daren go a full view of what the cow was up to, and both the river and I found this to be funny and laughed!
We stopped at some waterfalls on the way up. This required a short hike on our part off the main road. We started into the jungle in search for this water fall - of course following a well designated path. The hike itself was beautiful. By this time, I'm not sure what the elevation was, but the coconut trees were gone, and in their place was another kind of palm, one of which I haven't seen before. Plus there were a variety of other trees, huge vines that grew up into the trees and the vines themselves in some places were wider than the trees themselves, and of course the underbrush with large leaves to catch what little sun they could get. On our way, there was a school field trip up to the water falls, and the student were in high school. One of the teachers came over to us and started talking to us, and we instantly became his best friend. At first all the students were shy to talk to us and just smiled, but over time they did warm up to us. There are three main questions that Indians like to ask westerners, and there are the same three no matter where you go. 1-whats your name? 2-Where are you from? 3-What do you do? Then depending on how good their English is and how well the conversation goes they want to know what religion you are.
Right after meeting this large group of students the path came to the river which required us to cross using a rope to hold on to while you cross over the rocks. So, off the shoes went and across the river we go! It was quite simple, and we then go ahead of the group and there were about 30 or so of them, and of course the teachers needed to make sure the students got across okay. This is a trip that would never have happened in the states, because of this part of the trip alone! Even the girls where crossing, dressed up! The falls were beautiful, and must have cascaded about 80 or so feet from up above into a crystal clear pool of water before going down the river. The Jungle was so thick in this part that you couldn't see more than about 10 feet into it. There were a few of the guys in the water wadding, and we went in to wade as well. Soon the school group caught up with us, and since the teachers, two by now had talked to us, were talking to us, the students that could speak English started coming over that talking as well. Already at the pool was another large group of people, not sure if they were school or family or what, because there were varying ages.
Of course they all asked us the same three questions, and then I got out the camera and you would think I had just struck gold! At that point everyone that could get around us did, and we started taking pictures of them and us and the groups, then the teachers started taking pictures with us and them and it was a good old photo shoot! We even had this really young boy who wanted to say Hi to us, but was very shy and every time we looked at time he would hide behind his mother and we would all laugh. However, once I pointed the camera at him, he came out from behind her and posed! We all started laughing at that one. Shortly after that it was time for the group to leave so they all came over and shook our hands and said goodbye, and even the ladies came over to shake our hands - and they would all laugh every time we finished shaking their hands. Once it quieted down again, Daren wanted to go for a swim. So he went into the pool, and there were four other guys there that were not part of the group and three of them followed Daren in, while myself and one other guy stayed just up to our knees in the water. It was very cold water.
Soon after, we headed back towards the main road to pick up our taxi and continue on to Ponmudi. Of course passing the group on more time as a party that large tends to move slowly. This of course meant shaking hands again, and talking again, but it was very enjoyable to talk to these students. The teachers invited us to have lunch with them at the restaurant on the way up there, but we missed it, and didn't see this group again.
I will talk about the rest of the car ride up and down in my next blog; the Jungle, because it is worth its own entry. We made it to this government hotel very near the to of Ponmudi, and was excited to get there because by this time we were really hungry and really needed to get out of the car, as you will understand in the next blog - just remember we go to 4500 feet starting from sea lever! Of course we are in India and this place was run by the government, so lunch was from 12 - 2, and we were there about 2:30 - so that meant no lunch! Lucky for us there was what we would call a convenience store in the area and so we raided it for some food. Crackers, mango juice (in a box like we have in the states for lunches), and a candy bar. Doesn't that sound like a great lunch?
We ate our crackers on the way to the top of the mountain. Once we got to the end of the road there was about another 40 feet or so we needed to hike to get to the top. There were lots of people around looking out in the various directions, of course being smarter than us, having picnics that they had packed, laughing and enjoying the day. At the top, even with the elevation it was still very comfortable temperature wise, but because of the humidity there is not much to see. The mountain tops in the distance were covered by mist (fog). The sky was not cloudy, but that high up is air was very moist. It was a different type of humidity that happens down here on the cost. Even though there was water in the air, it didn't feel heavy as it does here down by the ocean. It also didn't feel muggy - like just standing there you would sweat. It was rather comfortable, but I'm sure the nights can get very cold there.
Once again, several young guys, about high school age, came over and started talking to us, and slowly but surely we had a very large crowd of people around us. All wanting the shake our hands, ask us the three standard questions and practice their English on people who actually speak English. The group that was talking to us was a Christian Church group up there on a little outing. All of the sudden one of the Fathers came over with some biscuits, that were similar to corn, but they don't have corn here so we are not sure what it was, then they brought over my favorite desert here, payasam. The best way to describe this desert which is offered in almost every restaurant is imagine combining warm rice pudding and the spices of chai tea! Its truly incredible and I can guarantee you that I will be working on making this when I get home! Payasam can be made several different ways. Some places use rice, you can also use rice noodles/pasta or tapioca. Most restaurants use rice, but this was homemade and was made of both rice noodles and tapioca. It was incredible and every time I finished mine they would bring me more! I had three helpings! We talked to everyone including the Father of the group, and of course I got the camera out and the excitement of the crowd went crazy. After taking several pictures of them, us, us and them it was time to go. We must have spent at least 10 minutes trying to leave as once again they all wanted to shake our hands, give us hugs, say good bye, over and over. At last we got away and headed towards our taxi. The feeling you get when this happens is that you are some huge Hollywood star and the crowds just want to be next to you and talk to you and take your picture. That truly is how it feels when you are in these groups - they are just so excited to be near you... A very strange feeling, and even though I enjoyed talking to everyone, it can get old quickly and I truly feel sorry for celebrities who deal with this everyday.
So the next entry will be of the Jungle. The state we are in is called Kerala, and their slogan for tourists is "God's own country" and after the trip through the jungle I can honestly say that I have to agree with them.
The journey of course begins in a taxi and on these roads! Its actually getting hard for me to want to get into the taxi. At the same time however when a bus is only 6 inches from our car moving towards us and what seems like break neck speeds I no longer flinch or tense up or even gasp for that matter. We drove through Trivundrum on our way to Ponmudi and we stopped at a super market. The local super market was going to be a blog entry, and still will be, but now I will be able to compare the difference between here in Kovalam, and one in the city. Very big difference.
Ponmudi is basically a mountain top at about 4500 feet in elevation. Its about 60 km from Kovalam, but takes over two hours to get there because of, well, the road! After leaving the city, going through the smaller towns, what we would call suburbs, life is so different in each and every one of the little towns. You can always see what their main industry is, by what is on the street. Weather they are farmers, or mechanics, or masons - everything of course being done by hand. Just outside of the city, the main highway to Ponmudi they were in the process of widening the road. They were tearing down brick fences and wall of homes. Now if you lived in one of these homes, this doesn't mean you are going to move or even need to. It simply means that if your main room in the house was 10 feet long, its now only going to be say 6 feet long! We widen streets, not force people to move. Now there were some housed that were coming down completely because they were so small, and we were afraid to ask what happens to those families.
On our way, as we were traveling through one of these small villages, there was a motor bike heading our direction and the sight caught me off guard, as I could see the driver, and sticking out from both sides of him I could see hooves! As the bike passes us, sure enough, there was the driver up front, then not one, but two goats side by side facing opposite directions on the bike, then another man in the back holding onto the goats. The very strange thing was that the goats did not seem at all upset, and were just sitting there like this is an everyday occurrence. Had we been going the same direction I would have taken a picture, but it was over before I realized how strange it was. After that, only several minuets later, a rickshaw was driving by with a baby cow riding along in the rickshaw. Once again, just like this was the everyday think and enjoying the ride since it didn't need to walk anywhere. Now, just to move forward to the trip home, near the same place as these two scenes occurred, we were riding along and in front of us this time was a small truck with an adult cow in the back. This really in itself was not unusual or strange, but as the drive began to pass the truck the cow decided it was time to use the restroom and since the driver and I were on the other side of the vehicle, Daren go a full view of what the cow was up to, and both the river and I found this to be funny and laughed!
We stopped at some waterfalls on the way up. This required a short hike on our part off the main road. We started into the jungle in search for this water fall - of course following a well designated path. The hike itself was beautiful. By this time, I'm not sure what the elevation was, but the coconut trees were gone, and in their place was another kind of palm, one of which I haven't seen before. Plus there were a variety of other trees, huge vines that grew up into the trees and the vines themselves in some places were wider than the trees themselves, and of course the underbrush with large leaves to catch what little sun they could get. On our way, there was a school field trip up to the water falls, and the student were in high school. One of the teachers came over to us and started talking to us, and we instantly became his best friend. At first all the students were shy to talk to us and just smiled, but over time they did warm up to us. There are three main questions that Indians like to ask westerners, and there are the same three no matter where you go. 1-whats your name? 2-Where are you from? 3-What do you do? Then depending on how good their English is and how well the conversation goes they want to know what religion you are.
Right after meeting this large group of students the path came to the river which required us to cross using a rope to hold on to while you cross over the rocks. So, off the shoes went and across the river we go! It was quite simple, and we then go ahead of the group and there were about 30 or so of them, and of course the teachers needed to make sure the students got across okay. This is a trip that would never have happened in the states, because of this part of the trip alone! Even the girls where crossing, dressed up! The falls were beautiful, and must have cascaded about 80 or so feet from up above into a crystal clear pool of water before going down the river. The Jungle was so thick in this part that you couldn't see more than about 10 feet into it. There were a few of the guys in the water wadding, and we went in to wade as well. Soon the school group caught up with us, and since the teachers, two by now had talked to us, were talking to us, the students that could speak English started coming over that talking as well. Already at the pool was another large group of people, not sure if they were school or family or what, because there were varying ages.
Of course they all asked us the same three questions, and then I got out the camera and you would think I had just struck gold! At that point everyone that could get around us did, and we started taking pictures of them and us and the groups, then the teachers started taking pictures with us and them and it was a good old photo shoot! We even had this really young boy who wanted to say Hi to us, but was very shy and every time we looked at time he would hide behind his mother and we would all laugh. However, once I pointed the camera at him, he came out from behind her and posed! We all started laughing at that one. Shortly after that it was time for the group to leave so they all came over and shook our hands and said goodbye, and even the ladies came over to shake our hands - and they would all laugh every time we finished shaking their hands. Once it quieted down again, Daren wanted to go for a swim. So he went into the pool, and there were four other guys there that were not part of the group and three of them followed Daren in, while myself and one other guy stayed just up to our knees in the water. It was very cold water.
Soon after, we headed back towards the main road to pick up our taxi and continue on to Ponmudi. Of course passing the group on more time as a party that large tends to move slowly. This of course meant shaking hands again, and talking again, but it was very enjoyable to talk to these students. The teachers invited us to have lunch with them at the restaurant on the way up there, but we missed it, and didn't see this group again.
I will talk about the rest of the car ride up and down in my next blog; the Jungle, because it is worth its own entry. We made it to this government hotel very near the to of Ponmudi, and was excited to get there because by this time we were really hungry and really needed to get out of the car, as you will understand in the next blog - just remember we go to 4500 feet starting from sea lever! Of course we are in India and this place was run by the government, so lunch was from 12 - 2, and we were there about 2:30 - so that meant no lunch! Lucky for us there was what we would call a convenience store in the area and so we raided it for some food. Crackers, mango juice (in a box like we have in the states for lunches), and a candy bar. Doesn't that sound like a great lunch?
We ate our crackers on the way to the top of the mountain. Once we got to the end of the road there was about another 40 feet or so we needed to hike to get to the top. There were lots of people around looking out in the various directions, of course being smarter than us, having picnics that they had packed, laughing and enjoying the day. At the top, even with the elevation it was still very comfortable temperature wise, but because of the humidity there is not much to see. The mountain tops in the distance were covered by mist (fog). The sky was not cloudy, but that high up is air was very moist. It was a different type of humidity that happens down here on the cost. Even though there was water in the air, it didn't feel heavy as it does here down by the ocean. It also didn't feel muggy - like just standing there you would sweat. It was rather comfortable, but I'm sure the nights can get very cold there.
Once again, several young guys, about high school age, came over and started talking to us, and slowly but surely we had a very large crowd of people around us. All wanting the shake our hands, ask us the three standard questions and practice their English on people who actually speak English. The group that was talking to us was a Christian Church group up there on a little outing. All of the sudden one of the Fathers came over with some biscuits, that were similar to corn, but they don't have corn here so we are not sure what it was, then they brought over my favorite desert here, payasam. The best way to describe this desert which is offered in almost every restaurant is imagine combining warm rice pudding and the spices of chai tea! Its truly incredible and I can guarantee you that I will be working on making this when I get home! Payasam can be made several different ways. Some places use rice, you can also use rice noodles/pasta or tapioca. Most restaurants use rice, but this was homemade and was made of both rice noodles and tapioca. It was incredible and every time I finished mine they would bring me more! I had three helpings! We talked to everyone including the Father of the group, and of course I got the camera out and the excitement of the crowd went crazy. After taking several pictures of them, us, us and them it was time to go. We must have spent at least 10 minutes trying to leave as once again they all wanted to shake our hands, give us hugs, say good bye, over and over. At last we got away and headed towards our taxi. The feeling you get when this happens is that you are some huge Hollywood star and the crowds just want to be next to you and talk to you and take your picture. That truly is how it feels when you are in these groups - they are just so excited to be near you... A very strange feeling, and even though I enjoyed talking to everyone, it can get old quickly and I truly feel sorry for celebrities who deal with this everyday.
So the next entry will be of the Jungle. The state we are in is called Kerala, and their slogan for tourists is "God's own country" and after the trip through the jungle I can honestly say that I have to agree with them.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Practice
I'm now in my fourth week of the practice, and sad to say this is the last week for the practice with Lino. The type of practice that we have been doing does not come easy and even as an instructor I find myself doing the same things that students do all the time. That is think I can do it all and push myself sometimes harder than I should. In my classes I'm always saying "Its all about the journey, not the destination." So I keep telling myself to practice what I preach!
For the first several weeks one day I would feel really good, warm and loose so I could go very deep into the poses, then of course I would be sore from that practice so the next day I'm tight and hurt, so that practice wouldn't be as good. Week three I learned to take advantage of the journey, and not worry about the destination. Getting to that thought process has helped me move farther into the practice sometimes without thinking about it.
In Ahstanga Yoga practice, there are four parts to the practice. Surya Namaskara A & B (Sun Salutations) In the west we consider these the warm up for many of the yoga classes. We preform A five times, then B from 3 - 10 times depending on how you feel and how cold/warm it is. Because of the temperature 3 or 4 is usually enough. Next come the standing asanas (poses). There are several of these asanas that are coming along great. The hardest one for me is reversed side angle. (Utthita Parsvakonasana B)
After the standing asanas, you move into the seated asanas - I am practicing the primary series. There are actually 6 different series in Ashtanga yoga. Getting through the second series takes years and actually getting to 6 is a lifetime. The seated asanas is what changes as you progress through Ashtanga Yoga. It wasn't until the third week that I was able to go all the way through the seated asanas. The way Ashtanga is taught is you go to the point where you can no longer do the asanas, then you move onto the finishing asanas. I was so happy the day I went through the entire series by myself I felt like I was walking on water. My personal greatest accomplishment in the asanas is Marichyasana C, (seated, bound spinal twist). I just never thought that pose would come as fast as it did. Now, I still need help getting into it, but once there I am comfortable. I'll continue to work on that one so I can get into it by my self, hopefully before I return home.
The finishing sequence is designed to restore you. Shoulder stand, head stand, and several other inverted asanas. The finishing sequence is just as hard as the seated because you do about 60% of the asanas upside down! The majority of these asanas are not taught often in western classes because of risk of injury if not done correctly. However, they are very beneficial once you learn how to do them.
The last pose of the seated sequence is Urdva Dhanurasana (wheel pose, or full backbend) In the perfect series you go into the back bend from a standing position and return to a standing position. As you are learning this pose you go in and out of it from laying on your back on the floor. After taking my third back bend, as you do the asana three times, 5 breaths each, Lino came over and told me I was ready to try the standing portion, assisted by him. So I was able to do Urdva Dhanursana with the help of Lino, but from standing and back to standing!
Friday's are a led class by Lino, very western in thought as we all go through the asanas as Lino leads us. During the whole practice we have been doing half vinyasas between the poses. Basically going through up-dog down-dog asanas. This Friday is a full vinyasa class, which means between every pose we do a full vinyasa or Surya Namaskara. The practice will take about 2 1/2 hours to go through and I think we will all head back to bed after that!
I have learned much from this practice that I can't wait to bring back to the states not only for myself, but for my classes! It seems like its been a very long time since I was the student, and being assisted into asanas, and not having to think about what everyone is doing in each pose has been very beneficial to me. I am however, looking forward to teaching once again!
For the first several weeks one day I would feel really good, warm and loose so I could go very deep into the poses, then of course I would be sore from that practice so the next day I'm tight and hurt, so that practice wouldn't be as good. Week three I learned to take advantage of the journey, and not worry about the destination. Getting to that thought process has helped me move farther into the practice sometimes without thinking about it.
In Ahstanga Yoga practice, there are four parts to the practice. Surya Namaskara A & B (Sun Salutations) In the west we consider these the warm up for many of the yoga classes. We preform A five times, then B from 3 - 10 times depending on how you feel and how cold/warm it is. Because of the temperature 3 or 4 is usually enough. Next come the standing asanas (poses). There are several of these asanas that are coming along great. The hardest one for me is reversed side angle. (Utthita Parsvakonasana B)
After the standing asanas, you move into the seated asanas - I am practicing the primary series. There are actually 6 different series in Ashtanga yoga. Getting through the second series takes years and actually getting to 6 is a lifetime. The seated asanas is what changes as you progress through Ashtanga Yoga. It wasn't until the third week that I was able to go all the way through the seated asanas. The way Ashtanga is taught is you go to the point where you can no longer do the asanas, then you move onto the finishing asanas. I was so happy the day I went through the entire series by myself I felt like I was walking on water. My personal greatest accomplishment in the asanas is Marichyasana C, (seated, bound spinal twist). I just never thought that pose would come as fast as it did. Now, I still need help getting into it, but once there I am comfortable. I'll continue to work on that one so I can get into it by my self, hopefully before I return home.
The finishing sequence is designed to restore you. Shoulder stand, head stand, and several other inverted asanas. The finishing sequence is just as hard as the seated because you do about 60% of the asanas upside down! The majority of these asanas are not taught often in western classes because of risk of injury if not done correctly. However, they are very beneficial once you learn how to do them.
The last pose of the seated sequence is Urdva Dhanurasana (wheel pose, or full backbend) In the perfect series you go into the back bend from a standing position and return to a standing position. As you are learning this pose you go in and out of it from laying on your back on the floor. After taking my third back bend, as you do the asana three times, 5 breaths each, Lino came over and told me I was ready to try the standing portion, assisted by him. So I was able to do Urdva Dhanursana with the help of Lino, but from standing and back to standing!
Friday's are a led class by Lino, very western in thought as we all go through the asanas as Lino leads us. During the whole practice we have been doing half vinyasas between the poses. Basically going through up-dog down-dog asanas. This Friday is a full vinyasa class, which means between every pose we do a full vinyasa or Surya Namaskara. The practice will take about 2 1/2 hours to go through and I think we will all head back to bed after that!
I have learned much from this practice that I can't wait to bring back to the states not only for myself, but for my classes! It seems like its been a very long time since I was the student, and being assisted into asanas, and not having to think about what everyone is doing in each pose has been very beneficial to me. I am however, looking forward to teaching once again!
The City
I suggest you read "Trivundrum" before reading this post. After leaving the museum is was time for lunch. We went to a location named "Casa Bianca" or "The White House". The lady who owns this restaurant is a friend of the lady who owns "The German Bakery" and "Fusion" both of which we frequent in Kovalam. The main reason for visiting these two all the time is because they are run by westerners and the kitchens are always clean and their level of food expectations are higher than that of the locals.
Casa Bianca is literally a white house that was turned into a restaurant. On the main floor the kitchen is where the kitchen was, and the living room is a large sitting area. Upstairs there are two bedrooms which have also been turned into sitting areas. There are probably only ten tables in the whole place. We sat upstairs overlooking some neighbors garden, which was actually taken care of. The kitchen was closed from 3-6 and the only thing they could offer us, was the salads, sandwiches and pizza. Kitchen's closed between lunch and dinner, but they can make pizza? So I had pizza! Pineapple, and a mild chili pepper. I actually enjoyed the sweet and hot flavor the pizza had. We also had ice cream for dessert!
After a late lunch we headed down to the Central Train Station. (Of course we did!) The people coming and going from this place and the number and length of trains arriving here made Grand Central Station look deserted. It was packed with people. The majority of people here in India do not commute to or from work so these people for what ever reason were traveling. We read in the paper, just this morning, that India wants to have 20 new airports by the end of next year. The only airports this country has, for the most part are international airports into the cities. For a country the size of the United States, or most of Europe, thats not many. The people here in India for the most part can't afford to fly. For those of you that remember, When I bought my ticket from Bangalore to Trivundrum the ticket itself was $35.00. Taxes on that ticket were $42.50. Everyone travels here by train or bus. I could have spent hours at the train station, but was only there about 20 min. I did get some good photos of the place, and some of the unusual practices they have. They are allowed to cross the tracks, even though there is the sky bridge that will get them safely to each platform, and they stand in between trains while boarding! Just amazing.
We then headed to the main Hindu Temple of Trivundrum. This temple stands about 60-70 feet high, and is about 1000 years old so not only is it made of stone, but is also shaped like a pyramid, with Hindu carvings covering the outside instead of step-like. This is the temple that is closed to the general public because of the fundamentalist Muslims. They have had threats on the temple in the past. So here is their thinking; We will close the temple to anyone who is not Hindu. Now, they don't have cards or ID's that say "Hindu in good standing" so they literally take everyones word that they are Hindu. The catch is, because you cannot by tradition, convert to Hinduism, you must be born into it, they do not allow any westerners into the Temple. If you have white skin basically you're out. So, people like us can't go into the temple, people who would completely appreciate the place. This does not however stop a fundamentalist Muslim from acting like he is Hindu and walking in with bombs around their legs. Remember from our last temple visit, men can't wear shirts in the temples. Now, my thinking is that if a fundamentalist Muslim is going to high-jack a plane and ram it into the side of a building, then he would most likely walk into a Hindu temple with a bomb and blow it up. Indians however, don't think this way. (okay, off my soapbox now.) So we walked around the outside and sat on the steps for sometime and talked to a few of the natives. They truly are incredible people.
On our way back we stopped at another smaller temple and they were just starting some chanting for one of the gods - sorry not sure which one is was. I stepped back and watched while Daren, knowing what was going on, took part in the process. They would go up to different shrines, that had the doors closed and would begin to chant something in Sanskrit. After a time the doors would open to reveal the god inside, and then a man would take a lantern (with fire), and move it around the god, so the god could bless the fire, then would walk out into the crowd and the people would reach over and figuratively pull the fire into them as to cleanse their spirits. They did this with about 5 gods inside the temple. The temple walls were covered in ceramic tiles with mantras written on them in what I could tell was at least 5 different languages. This was a modern temple with steal beams for the ceiling so not very old, and didn't have the feel like the older temples do, but was non the less, Holy. After that was over several of the men talked to Daren for a moment and gave him some blessed food (several banana slices) and then waved me over and gave me some as well, just for being there. This truly amazes me, for they know that I'm not Hindu because I can't be, and even Daren, but yet they welcomed us with open arms, had no problems with us being in their temple, and evening wishing us well for the evening. The last man we saw as we were leaving the temple said "Namaste!"
Each temple is a little different on how it is run. We stopped at one more, and could have gone in, but we were not wearing the right clothes. Men are only allowed to wear a lungi, basically a piece of cloth about the size of a towel wrapped around their wast, like a dress. Women wear something similar, but of course, covers the top of their body as well. Had we been able to go into the main temple we would have needed a lungi as well. The temple we had just come from where we were treated so warmly, they didn't care! I'm trying to post the pictures still, but remember that cameras are not allowed into any of the temples - thats the one thing that is consistent, so sorry about that.
By this time is was almost 7:30 and we wanted to get back to the hotel as Friday mornings are the led class which means Lino instructs us through the whole series, and you are not be be late for this practice which starts at 7. Not early, but when you have been in the city for the whole day, especially one like this, its easy to sleep in. Needless to say we were at class on time, but did also get 10 hours of sleep that night. If you are reading this Bruce I thought about you several times and remembering our first trip to NY. The comment you kept making about how dirty the city was. After spending a day here in Trivundrum, I would eat scrambled eggs on the side walk in NY, compared to this place! Dirt was an understatement.
Casa Bianca is literally a white house that was turned into a restaurant. On the main floor the kitchen is where the kitchen was, and the living room is a large sitting area. Upstairs there are two bedrooms which have also been turned into sitting areas. There are probably only ten tables in the whole place. We sat upstairs overlooking some neighbors garden, which was actually taken care of. The kitchen was closed from 3-6 and the only thing they could offer us, was the salads, sandwiches and pizza. Kitchen's closed between lunch and dinner, but they can make pizza? So I had pizza! Pineapple, and a mild chili pepper. I actually enjoyed the sweet and hot flavor the pizza had. We also had ice cream for dessert!
After a late lunch we headed down to the Central Train Station. (Of course we did!) The people coming and going from this place and the number and length of trains arriving here made Grand Central Station look deserted. It was packed with people. The majority of people here in India do not commute to or from work so these people for what ever reason were traveling. We read in the paper, just this morning, that India wants to have 20 new airports by the end of next year. The only airports this country has, for the most part are international airports into the cities. For a country the size of the United States, or most of Europe, thats not many. The people here in India for the most part can't afford to fly. For those of you that remember, When I bought my ticket from Bangalore to Trivundrum the ticket itself was $35.00. Taxes on that ticket were $42.50. Everyone travels here by train or bus. I could have spent hours at the train station, but was only there about 20 min. I did get some good photos of the place, and some of the unusual practices they have. They are allowed to cross the tracks, even though there is the sky bridge that will get them safely to each platform, and they stand in between trains while boarding! Just amazing.
We then headed to the main Hindu Temple of Trivundrum. This temple stands about 60-70 feet high, and is about 1000 years old so not only is it made of stone, but is also shaped like a pyramid, with Hindu carvings covering the outside instead of step-like. This is the temple that is closed to the general public because of the fundamentalist Muslims. They have had threats on the temple in the past. So here is their thinking; We will close the temple to anyone who is not Hindu. Now, they don't have cards or ID's that say "Hindu in good standing" so they literally take everyones word that they are Hindu. The catch is, because you cannot by tradition, convert to Hinduism, you must be born into it, they do not allow any westerners into the Temple. If you have white skin basically you're out. So, people like us can't go into the temple, people who would completely appreciate the place. This does not however stop a fundamentalist Muslim from acting like he is Hindu and walking in with bombs around their legs. Remember from our last temple visit, men can't wear shirts in the temples. Now, my thinking is that if a fundamentalist Muslim is going to high-jack a plane and ram it into the side of a building, then he would most likely walk into a Hindu temple with a bomb and blow it up. Indians however, don't think this way. (okay, off my soapbox now.) So we walked around the outside and sat on the steps for sometime and talked to a few of the natives. They truly are incredible people.
On our way back we stopped at another smaller temple and they were just starting some chanting for one of the gods - sorry not sure which one is was. I stepped back and watched while Daren, knowing what was going on, took part in the process. They would go up to different shrines, that had the doors closed and would begin to chant something in Sanskrit. After a time the doors would open to reveal the god inside, and then a man would take a lantern (with fire), and move it around the god, so the god could bless the fire, then would walk out into the crowd and the people would reach over and figuratively pull the fire into them as to cleanse their spirits. They did this with about 5 gods inside the temple. The temple walls were covered in ceramic tiles with mantras written on them in what I could tell was at least 5 different languages. This was a modern temple with steal beams for the ceiling so not very old, and didn't have the feel like the older temples do, but was non the less, Holy. After that was over several of the men talked to Daren for a moment and gave him some blessed food (several banana slices) and then waved me over and gave me some as well, just for being there. This truly amazes me, for they know that I'm not Hindu because I can't be, and even Daren, but yet they welcomed us with open arms, had no problems with us being in their temple, and evening wishing us well for the evening. The last man we saw as we were leaving the temple said "Namaste!"
Each temple is a little different on how it is run. We stopped at one more, and could have gone in, but we were not wearing the right clothes. Men are only allowed to wear a lungi, basically a piece of cloth about the size of a towel wrapped around their wast, like a dress. Women wear something similar, but of course, covers the top of their body as well. Had we been able to go into the main temple we would have needed a lungi as well. The temple we had just come from where we were treated so warmly, they didn't care! I'm trying to post the pictures still, but remember that cameras are not allowed into any of the temples - thats the one thing that is consistent, so sorry about that.
By this time is was almost 7:30 and we wanted to get back to the hotel as Friday mornings are the led class which means Lino instructs us through the whole series, and you are not be be late for this practice which starts at 7. Not early, but when you have been in the city for the whole day, especially one like this, its easy to sleep in. Needless to say we were at class on time, but did also get 10 hours of sleep that night. If you are reading this Bruce I thought about you several times and remembering our first trip to NY. The comment you kept making about how dirty the city was. After spending a day here in Trivundrum, I would eat scrambled eggs on the side walk in NY, compared to this place! Dirt was an understatement.
Trivundrum
Yesterday we went into the city of Trivundrum. This is about 20 miles from Kovalam Beach and is the city that we fly into to get here to Kovalam. This was the first time after being here three weeks that we went into the city. Trivumdrum has the population of about 1 million people, and the best way to describe this city, is the same way that I described the roads - organized chaos! We decided to take the bus to get into the city. First off, I wanted to experience the bus here in India, and second much cheaper. The cab fare into the city is 300 Rupees, the bus, 17. And that is for both of us! Riding the bus isn't as bad as I thought. However, because it was in the middle of the day, the bus was not busy. If you travel at peak times - we would call it rush hour- the buses look more like cans of sardines than buses. So we got a seat and everything. In fact, nobody was standing on our bus into the city. Riding the bus is very similar to riding in a taxi on the roads, however the advantage is that the bus is usually the biggest thing on the road so other vehicles tend to move out of your way...nice.
In the states, because we are such a lawsuit happy country, and god forbid that we take responsibility for our own actions, buses are only allowed to drop you off and pick you up at the designated bus stops, and no other place. You know, in case you fall or something and you are not at the bus stop then you will own the buses! Anyway, here, the bus is cruising down the road at a good pace and you decide you want on that bus - just wave your hand! If you have seen the movie Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix, the bus ride he takes in the begining of the book, yeah, thats what its like. The driver will just slam on the brakes to stop for you, and hope there is not a taxi, or better yet, a rickshaw right behind the bus, because then the rickshaw would be up the exhaust pipe. Same goes for if you are in the bus and just ring the little bell, and its a real bell, not some bell like sound from a speaker. On go the brakes! And lets just talk about those brakes - they do work really well, however they need to work on the sound of them. Daren's comment would be "I would rather here nails running down a chalk board than the brakes!" and I couldn't agree more.
Arriving in Trivundrum, we get off the bus at the main bus terminal for the city. Our first stop is to be the main city market - where if we want, we can do some shopping. The nice thing, is the market is simply across the street from the bus stop. The challenging part is the market is simply on the other side of this very big, very busy, chaotic, unorganized street! Now, I think to myself, I've been in New York City, and I can cross a very busy street! No traffic lights (unless you count the traffic cop who only about 10% of the drivers actually see him. Remembering there are no lanes per say, and we are at at intersection! So the best thing that comes to mind is the very old video game "Frogger". Across the street we go and for some reason, I think a bus, teh intersection became congested for a moment at traffic came to a stand still. There were about 40 people who took advantage of that pause in the traffic and went for it. We made it with no problems. Of course we were in the big city so we didn't need to watch out for ox, cows, elephants, or other forms of wild life.
The market really wasn't anything spectacular, or funny to write home about. It was a very long street, and someone at some point in time had the brilliant idea to make the road only one way, so you only needed to watch traffic coming from one direction. A good example of what the marked was like is think "China town" in San Francisco. Very busy with tons of people moving everywhere, and some cars but mostly motor bikes and rickshaws moving through the street. Shop after shop after shop of stuff. Sometimes I wonder what some of these shops are thinking, and if they really do sell anything, but I guess they do or they wouldn't be there. The majority of the locals are buying their fruits, vegetables, and flowers for the day. The Indians like gold, considering it the best investment, so there were lots of jewelry stores, and lots of shoe stores as well.
We went into a hotel to get some bottled water, (hotel here in India can be used for restaurant as well. There is a sign here in Kovalam that says Hotel and Accomidations.) and really confused the man because he wanted to get us a soft drink of some kind. Coke, sprite, etc. It took him a moment to realize we wanted water. Daren made a very good observation about the Indians, at least here in this part of the country. They don't drink soft drinks. Now, there are everywhere you go, but the only people you see drinking them are the westerners. Indians drink tea and coffee most of the time. While we were looking around, a place that sold items for school children, pens, bags, etc was selling a poster about healthy food. It wasn't simple as there were about 18 different things, or pictures, on the poster. They did include things like meat (for non Hindu's), milk, rice, wheat, fruit, vegetables, sweets, I really can't remember everything. This was given to school children, similar to when we had the four basic food groups, now the food pyramid. One of the items listed was PEPSI!!!!!! Soft drinks were apart of that list! Daren and I started to laugh really hard and pointing to the picture. The man asked was was so funny in broken English, and we told him in America we are working at getting soft drinks banned from schools because they are not good for you. You could tell he thought we were crazy, because this poster said Pepsi, it must be okay! I wonder who paid for those posters to be made?!?
After the market, our next trip was to the Trivundrum museum. This meant riding in a rickshaw for the first time! Several things come to mind when seeing/riding in a rickshaw. First off, the sound they make. For those of you from Utah, or have even been to an amusement park (Lagoon) that has those little cars that you drive around on a track, well that is what they sound like. Enhanced lawn mower engines with bad mufflers! They don't go much faster, and when going up hills I'm ready to put my feet on the ground and help out, kind of like in the Flintstones! The way the rickshaws are designed, one wheel up front and the two in the back, they so remind me of "Doom Buggys" (These are the vehicles you get into at the Haunted Mansion at the Disney parks to go through the attraction.) Of course the Doom Buggys are not as scary to ride in - no pun intended! The trip to the museum wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and our driver could speak English so he was good at pointing out things.
The museum was an incredible looking building that was built for the purpose of being a museum, unfortunatly the government can't keep up these kind of places so it is a bit run down. The cost per person into the museum was 6 Rupees (12.5 cents). Most of the items within were of statues of Hindu and Buddist figures and such dating back up to several thousand years. They even had a replica of some stone stamps showing people in specific yoga poses that date to 2500 B.C. Thats 4500 years ago. Everything was metal, wood or stone, and there were several pieces of cloth the Bali, and a few other odd things. It only took about 25 min to go through the whole place.
Time for lunch, I will continue with another post this afternoon! Hope you are all well.
In the states, because we are such a lawsuit happy country, and god forbid that we take responsibility for our own actions, buses are only allowed to drop you off and pick you up at the designated bus stops, and no other place. You know, in case you fall or something and you are not at the bus stop then you will own the buses! Anyway, here, the bus is cruising down the road at a good pace and you decide you want on that bus - just wave your hand! If you have seen the movie Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix, the bus ride he takes in the begining of the book, yeah, thats what its like. The driver will just slam on the brakes to stop for you, and hope there is not a taxi, or better yet, a rickshaw right behind the bus, because then the rickshaw would be up the exhaust pipe. Same goes for if you are in the bus and just ring the little bell, and its a real bell, not some bell like sound from a speaker. On go the brakes! And lets just talk about those brakes - they do work really well, however they need to work on the sound of them. Daren's comment would be "I would rather here nails running down a chalk board than the brakes!" and I couldn't agree more.
Arriving in Trivundrum, we get off the bus at the main bus terminal for the city. Our first stop is to be the main city market - where if we want, we can do some shopping. The nice thing, is the market is simply across the street from the bus stop. The challenging part is the market is simply on the other side of this very big, very busy, chaotic, unorganized street! Now, I think to myself, I've been in New York City, and I can cross a very busy street! No traffic lights (unless you count the traffic cop who only about 10% of the drivers actually see him. Remembering there are no lanes per say, and we are at at intersection! So the best thing that comes to mind is the very old video game "Frogger". Across the street we go and for some reason, I think a bus, teh intersection became congested for a moment at traffic came to a stand still. There were about 40 people who took advantage of that pause in the traffic and went for it. We made it with no problems. Of course we were in the big city so we didn't need to watch out for ox, cows, elephants, or other forms of wild life.
The market really wasn't anything spectacular, or funny to write home about. It was a very long street, and someone at some point in time had the brilliant idea to make the road only one way, so you only needed to watch traffic coming from one direction. A good example of what the marked was like is think "China town" in San Francisco. Very busy with tons of people moving everywhere, and some cars but mostly motor bikes and rickshaws moving through the street. Shop after shop after shop of stuff. Sometimes I wonder what some of these shops are thinking, and if they really do sell anything, but I guess they do or they wouldn't be there. The majority of the locals are buying their fruits, vegetables, and flowers for the day. The Indians like gold, considering it the best investment, so there were lots of jewelry stores, and lots of shoe stores as well.
We went into a hotel to get some bottled water, (hotel here in India can be used for restaurant as well. There is a sign here in Kovalam that says Hotel and Accomidations.) and really confused the man because he wanted to get us a soft drink of some kind. Coke, sprite, etc. It took him a moment to realize we wanted water. Daren made a very good observation about the Indians, at least here in this part of the country. They don't drink soft drinks. Now, there are everywhere you go, but the only people you see drinking them are the westerners. Indians drink tea and coffee most of the time. While we were looking around, a place that sold items for school children, pens, bags, etc was selling a poster about healthy food. It wasn't simple as there were about 18 different things, or pictures, on the poster. They did include things like meat (for non Hindu's), milk, rice, wheat, fruit, vegetables, sweets, I really can't remember everything. This was given to school children, similar to when we had the four basic food groups, now the food pyramid. One of the items listed was PEPSI!!!!!! Soft drinks were apart of that list! Daren and I started to laugh really hard and pointing to the picture. The man asked was was so funny in broken English, and we told him in America we are working at getting soft drinks banned from schools because they are not good for you. You could tell he thought we were crazy, because this poster said Pepsi, it must be okay! I wonder who paid for those posters to be made?!?
After the market, our next trip was to the Trivundrum museum. This meant riding in a rickshaw for the first time! Several things come to mind when seeing/riding in a rickshaw. First off, the sound they make. For those of you from Utah, or have even been to an amusement park (Lagoon) that has those little cars that you drive around on a track, well that is what they sound like. Enhanced lawn mower engines with bad mufflers! They don't go much faster, and when going up hills I'm ready to put my feet on the ground and help out, kind of like in the Flintstones! The way the rickshaws are designed, one wheel up front and the two in the back, they so remind me of "Doom Buggys" (These are the vehicles you get into at the Haunted Mansion at the Disney parks to go through the attraction.) Of course the Doom Buggys are not as scary to ride in - no pun intended! The trip to the museum wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and our driver could speak English so he was good at pointing out things.
The museum was an incredible looking building that was built for the purpose of being a museum, unfortunatly the government can't keep up these kind of places so it is a bit run down. The cost per person into the museum was 6 Rupees (12.5 cents). Most of the items within were of statues of Hindu and Buddist figures and such dating back up to several thousand years. They even had a replica of some stone stamps showing people in specific yoga poses that date to 2500 B.C. Thats 4500 years ago. Everything was metal, wood or stone, and there were several pieces of cloth the Bali, and a few other odd things. It only took about 25 min to go through the whole place.
Time for lunch, I will continue with another post this afternoon! Hope you are all well.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
massage
Its been over a week now, but I had a foot massage at one of the ayurvedic centers here in Kovalam. I scheduled it on a day that I thought I was just really sore from the practice and just needed a good massage to relax the muscles for the next day. I ended up being sore because my immune system was going into hyperdrive as later that day I realized that it was from something I had eaten. I slept the rest of the afternoon, and was very happy to realize I was hungry for dinner that night. I slept through the whole night, and I did miss practice that morning - the only one I have missed so far. By that afternoon I was feeling myself again, so my body took care of it very fast, which I was grateful for.
So the foot massage is not what you are thinking of. I didn't sit in a chair and someone massaged by feet for an hour - which I would not complain about at all, but this is how it went;
After signing in, the therapist comes and greets you. Then we went up to the third floor into the massage room. This building, as most in Kovalam, is made on concrete. There are no trees in this area that are suitable to use for lumber, so everything is either built out of cement, brick or tin. The roofs of many places are palm leaves however. The leaves for the palm tress are the only thing usable for construction material. Each floor of this place is divided into small rooms by bamboo. The bamboo is woven together somehow, to it makes a good partition, but that would be the best way to describe it Once in the room there was a table off to the side, a large mattress on the floor, a small bamboo stool, and a diffuser on a table gently heating the oil. In ayurvedic medicine they use lots of oils and herbs, so the table and mattress on the floor were both made of vinyl so that the oil would not be absorbed by the mattress, and could easily be cleaned.
Once in the room, you remove your clothes and sit on the stool and the therapist asks you several questions about your health. Then he begins by giving you a scalp massage with some kind of oil that is infused heavily with herbs. The massage is not rough, but definitely not gentle. It works the oils into your hair, scalp, and neck. It really felt good even though the pressure was quit hard. This lasted 5 or so minutes. Then you lay down on the mattress on the floor, face down. He then pours, and I mean pours, warm oil all over your body. Legs, arms, and core. Then he holds onto ropes hanging from the ceiling and begins to massage you using his feet. The main reason they do it this way, instead of on a table with their hands, is they work at balancing your energy throughout your entire body, and they are able to run their foot starting from your foot all the way up your leg, body, and arm overhead to your hand, and back down again. So instead of massaging your core (back), leg, then arm, they get everything at once and this helps move the energy all the way through your body.
Its amazing at how well the therapist can feel where your tight spots are just like a therapist using his hands. He will often stop and work the places that you need it the most. I would not consider this massage similar to a Swedish massage, but closer to a very deep tissue massage, as they can use their entire body weight to work the muscles. If you are looking for something simple and relaxing, this is not the massage for you. He also changes the direction of your hands half way through. You start with palms down, and then he changes them to palms up, and it completely changes the way the massage feels.
When he is completed with the back he has you turn over and starts over on the front side. Pours the warm oil all over you and begins the massage. Unlike a Swedish massage, he also massages the abdomen really well. The intention is to keep everything moving, and to help to body flush out the toxins. It is always advisable not to eat at the very least two hours before this kind of massage, and even no liquids, and make sure you make a toilet break before having this done. He does the same thing with your hands, and also with your feet this time. They face out half the time and in the other half. Once the massage is done, he hands you a towel so you can wipe off the excess oil, but you still are very oily as you should be, and allow the oil to absorb into the body, and you smell like a great tasting stir fry! They use sesame oil and herbs for this massage!
I do plan on getting one more massage before I go. Not sure if I'm going to get a foot massage or something else as they do offer several different kinds, we shall see!
So the foot massage is not what you are thinking of. I didn't sit in a chair and someone massaged by feet for an hour - which I would not complain about at all, but this is how it went;
After signing in, the therapist comes and greets you. Then we went up to the third floor into the massage room. This building, as most in Kovalam, is made on concrete. There are no trees in this area that are suitable to use for lumber, so everything is either built out of cement, brick or tin. The roofs of many places are palm leaves however. The leaves for the palm tress are the only thing usable for construction material. Each floor of this place is divided into small rooms by bamboo. The bamboo is woven together somehow, to it makes a good partition, but that would be the best way to describe it Once in the room there was a table off to the side, a large mattress on the floor, a small bamboo stool, and a diffuser on a table gently heating the oil. In ayurvedic medicine they use lots of oils and herbs, so the table and mattress on the floor were both made of vinyl so that the oil would not be absorbed by the mattress, and could easily be cleaned.
Once in the room, you remove your clothes and sit on the stool and the therapist asks you several questions about your health. Then he begins by giving you a scalp massage with some kind of oil that is infused heavily with herbs. The massage is not rough, but definitely not gentle. It works the oils into your hair, scalp, and neck. It really felt good even though the pressure was quit hard. This lasted 5 or so minutes. Then you lay down on the mattress on the floor, face down. He then pours, and I mean pours, warm oil all over your body. Legs, arms, and core. Then he holds onto ropes hanging from the ceiling and begins to massage you using his feet. The main reason they do it this way, instead of on a table with their hands, is they work at balancing your energy throughout your entire body, and they are able to run their foot starting from your foot all the way up your leg, body, and arm overhead to your hand, and back down again. So instead of massaging your core (back), leg, then arm, they get everything at once and this helps move the energy all the way through your body.
Its amazing at how well the therapist can feel where your tight spots are just like a therapist using his hands. He will often stop and work the places that you need it the most. I would not consider this massage similar to a Swedish massage, but closer to a very deep tissue massage, as they can use their entire body weight to work the muscles. If you are looking for something simple and relaxing, this is not the massage for you. He also changes the direction of your hands half way through. You start with palms down, and then he changes them to palms up, and it completely changes the way the massage feels.
When he is completed with the back he has you turn over and starts over on the front side. Pours the warm oil all over you and begins the massage. Unlike a Swedish massage, he also massages the abdomen really well. The intention is to keep everything moving, and to help to body flush out the toxins. It is always advisable not to eat at the very least two hours before this kind of massage, and even no liquids, and make sure you make a toilet break before having this done. He does the same thing with your hands, and also with your feet this time. They face out half the time and in the other half. Once the massage is done, he hands you a towel so you can wipe off the excess oil, but you still are very oily as you should be, and allow the oil to absorb into the body, and you smell like a great tasting stir fry! They use sesame oil and herbs for this massage!
I do plan on getting one more massage before I go. Not sure if I'm going to get a foot massage or something else as they do offer several different kinds, we shall see!
Daily Life
Okay, so now lets talk about daily life! Nothing is really that hard around here, and as you can see the culture is very laid back with no stress about whats going to happen next. The locals will sit in front of their shops for hours and sometimes days before they will get a sale and this is all part of their world. The hotel sits at the end of the paved highway into Kovalam Beach, so there are lots of taxi's just sitting around here waiting for someone who needs a ride someplace. Most of the drivers now recognize us so they have stopped asking if we need to taxi or rickshaw - now they just say HI or Good Morning!
Practice is at 6:45 in the morning so we are up about 6:30. Just about the time that the sun is coming up. Practice runs about 2 hours give or take and then its off to breakfast. We almost always go to a place called "The Lonely Planet." The main reason we started going there is because the kitchen is clean! However, over the weeks the people know us very well now, even to the point that we no longer need to order, because they know what we want. Me - Chai Masala Tea and Banana Pancake. Daren - Lemon Ginger Tea and Vegetable Ottapham. The main server is a young guy that doesn't speak English, but can understand some. One day the "manager" was no where to be found when we were ready to leave so the server just said "tomorrow". Meaning we can pay for breakfast tomorrow when we come. That is how laid back it is. Just try to imagine that happening in the states! Its also very quite at the restaurant in the mornings which is another reason we like going there. Its off the beaten path so there are not many people. Often we will go with some other students from class, or we meet there. It comes and goes not everything the same day. They also have a great view of the jungle from the seating area, including a small pond with fish in it. Living around the pond are some geese, heron and something else that no one can name except it really looks like a cross between a duck and a goose!
Our days are spent doing various activities. Checking email, writing in the blog and making sure bills are paid are the next main focus, after a shower that is. Then, sometimes I head down to the beach, if I'm in the mood for some sun and if the waves are good. I have found I don't like the ocean unless I can play in the waves so if its calm I don't want to go down there. The one thing I completely dislike about the beach is the sand! I don't mind laying on it, or running in it, or anything while I'm there, but when I get back I'm covered in it, and for some reason that just drives my crazy. So now I only go when I know I'm going to have tons of fun in the ocean. You can rent boogie boards for 50 Rupees an hour ($1.00), and so I'm getting pretty good at that as well.
I have also been doing quite a bit of reading, and have several books going at the same time. I've have finished 3 books already and almost done with the fourth. The one I'm almost finished with was one that many of you had recommended I take along with me on the trip; Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I can't thank you guys enough, and for mom for letting me borrow it before you had the chance to read it! It is a book that I think everyone should read. I think there is a little of everybody in that book.
Every so many days I do laundry. Now that means putting my clothes in the sink with a little shampoo and washing them by hand. I'm sure this sounds just awful when you are on "vacation", but I'm only wearing a pair of shorts and sometimes a shirt, so I don't have baskets full of laundry. Besides, the alternative is this... take your laundry down to someone to do it for you! Simple enough. They beat the hell out of your clothes in water that we are not sure where it came from, and on rocks! Yeap, no wash board here, just the good old rocks. Now, I hang my clothes to dry over the railing of the porch as we are on the third floor. They lay your clothes out to dry on the very rocks they washed them on! Yeap, on the ground. If you are lucky the entire article of clothing will be on a large rock, otherwise parts of the article will be in the dirt.....you decide. Oh, and you pay them to do this! (the picture is of towels being laid out to dry on the rocks! If I can get it to load.) Yes, just in case you are wondering, this does include our towels and sheets. However we think that our hotel hangs them to dry on the roof of the hotel, but are not sure!
We have decided that eating dinner early is best for us all the way around. First, because in the restaurants the food is prepared per order, if you go with the regular dinner crown about 7 or so, the wait can be up to 2 hours for your food. If you go at say 5:30 you almost have the place to yourself, and the food is out in 20-30 min. Plus you get the table of choice and here in Kovalam most of the views are of the sunset! That is an interesting spectacle in itself. Because of the humidity in the air, the sun turns an incredible color of burnt orange, and then actually disappears BEFORE it gets below the horizon. It is swallowed by the atmosphere itself before the horizon can get to it... simply amazing! Last but not least, at least for me, I have found its much better to eat than to be eaten, and be back in the hotel before it begins to cool off because that is when the mosquitoes come out, They just treat me like a buffet at Circus Circus! Those little beer bellied, back woods mosquitoes just look at me and say check that feast out! I even think they wear little t'shirts that say "Westerners taste best!" At night, when everything is quiet you can even hear them flying around when they pass close to your head almost as if they are teasing you saying "You are trying to sleep and I'm going to have dinner with you as the main course!" So of course you swat and thrash in bed and they are up by the ceiling watching you act like a lunatic before you calm down again, then they strike! I think they do that on purpose because all that movement gets your heart going and blood pumping so there's more for them. They go to school to learnt his kind of stuff I'm quite certain. I do use spray, even with "deet" in it and I'm sure it works but there are the few out there that could really care less. My body however is getting used to them and I'm not swelling up like I did on the first week I was here. After about the third night, just for kicks and giggles, if we could have found a pen, Daren and I were going to play connect the dots on my body! Okay so really not that bad, much better than I thought, but when you come from someplace where they don't live, they sure can mess you up.
A tidbit I forgot to mention in the last post. This is about the town we were in with the temples over last weekend. The town itself is a small fishing town, its really not a tourist place at all, so only locals head there. Because the town itself is actually located on the Eastern side of the continent, the year of the tsunami the locals were amazed that day when all of the sudden the water started receding out into the ocean, only to come back moments later with vengeance. Many locals headed out onto the sandy base because lots of fish could be had all of the sudden and that is what they were thinking... fish! The village lost about 1000 people that day.
One last thing for this entry, and I've been meaning to put it in since the first entry when I got here to Kovalam, but I have forgotten with each post until just now. It was very funny to me at the time because first off I had just spent the last 22 hours in the air, but also because you realized you are no longer in the US. Below is the actual statement made on the boarding pass after arriving in Bangalore and getting ready for the last leg to Trivundrum:
Boarding gate closes 15 minutes prior to departure. Frisking of persons and checking of hand baggage is mandatory for all passengers. Please co-operate with security. After I finished laughing I said to myself, "Welcome to India!"
Practice is at 6:45 in the morning so we are up about 6:30. Just about the time that the sun is coming up. Practice runs about 2 hours give or take and then its off to breakfast. We almost always go to a place called "The Lonely Planet." The main reason we started going there is because the kitchen is clean! However, over the weeks the people know us very well now, even to the point that we no longer need to order, because they know what we want. Me - Chai Masala Tea and Banana Pancake. Daren - Lemon Ginger Tea and Vegetable Ottapham. The main server is a young guy that doesn't speak English, but can understand some. One day the "manager" was no where to be found when we were ready to leave so the server just said "tomorrow". Meaning we can pay for breakfast tomorrow when we come. That is how laid back it is. Just try to imagine that happening in the states! Its also very quite at the restaurant in the mornings which is another reason we like going there. Its off the beaten path so there are not many people. Often we will go with some other students from class, or we meet there. It comes and goes not everything the same day. They also have a great view of the jungle from the seating area, including a small pond with fish in it. Living around the pond are some geese, heron and something else that no one can name except it really looks like a cross between a duck and a goose!
Our days are spent doing various activities. Checking email, writing in the blog and making sure bills are paid are the next main focus, after a shower that is. Then, sometimes I head down to the beach, if I'm in the mood for some sun and if the waves are good. I have found I don't like the ocean unless I can play in the waves so if its calm I don't want to go down there. The one thing I completely dislike about the beach is the sand! I don't mind laying on it, or running in it, or anything while I'm there, but when I get back I'm covered in it, and for some reason that just drives my crazy. So now I only go when I know I'm going to have tons of fun in the ocean. You can rent boogie boards for 50 Rupees an hour ($1.00), and so I'm getting pretty good at that as well.
I have also been doing quite a bit of reading, and have several books going at the same time. I've have finished 3 books already and almost done with the fourth. The one I'm almost finished with was one that many of you had recommended I take along with me on the trip; Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I can't thank you guys enough, and for mom for letting me borrow it before you had the chance to read it! It is a book that I think everyone should read. I think there is a little of everybody in that book.
Every so many days I do laundry. Now that means putting my clothes in the sink with a little shampoo and washing them by hand. I'm sure this sounds just awful when you are on "vacation", but I'm only wearing a pair of shorts and sometimes a shirt, so I don't have baskets full of laundry. Besides, the alternative is this... take your laundry down to someone to do it for you! Simple enough. They beat the hell out of your clothes in water that we are not sure where it came from, and on rocks! Yeap, no wash board here, just the good old rocks. Now, I hang my clothes to dry over the railing of the porch as we are on the third floor. They lay your clothes out to dry on the very rocks they washed them on! Yeap, on the ground. If you are lucky the entire article of clothing will be on a large rock, otherwise parts of the article will be in the dirt.....you decide. Oh, and you pay them to do this! (the picture is of towels being laid out to dry on the rocks! If I can get it to load.) Yes, just in case you are wondering, this does include our towels and sheets. However we think that our hotel hangs them to dry on the roof of the hotel, but are not sure!
We have decided that eating dinner early is best for us all the way around. First, because in the restaurants the food is prepared per order, if you go with the regular dinner crown about 7 or so, the wait can be up to 2 hours for your food. If you go at say 5:30 you almost have the place to yourself, and the food is out in 20-30 min. Plus you get the table of choice and here in Kovalam most of the views are of the sunset! That is an interesting spectacle in itself. Because of the humidity in the air, the sun turns an incredible color of burnt orange, and then actually disappears BEFORE it gets below the horizon. It is swallowed by the atmosphere itself before the horizon can get to it... simply amazing! Last but not least, at least for me, I have found its much better to eat than to be eaten, and be back in the hotel before it begins to cool off because that is when the mosquitoes come out, They just treat me like a buffet at Circus Circus! Those little beer bellied, back woods mosquitoes just look at me and say check that feast out! I even think they wear little t'shirts that say "Westerners taste best!" At night, when everything is quiet you can even hear them flying around when they pass close to your head almost as if they are teasing you saying "You are trying to sleep and I'm going to have dinner with you as the main course!" So of course you swat and thrash in bed and they are up by the ceiling watching you act like a lunatic before you calm down again, then they strike! I think they do that on purpose because all that movement gets your heart going and blood pumping so there's more for them. They go to school to learnt his kind of stuff I'm quite certain. I do use spray, even with "deet" in it and I'm sure it works but there are the few out there that could really care less. My body however is getting used to them and I'm not swelling up like I did on the first week I was here. After about the third night, just for kicks and giggles, if we could have found a pen, Daren and I were going to play connect the dots on my body! Okay so really not that bad, much better than I thought, but when you come from someplace where they don't live, they sure can mess you up.
A tidbit I forgot to mention in the last post. This is about the town we were in with the temples over last weekend. The town itself is a small fishing town, its really not a tourist place at all, so only locals head there. Because the town itself is actually located on the Eastern side of the continent, the year of the tsunami the locals were amazed that day when all of the sudden the water started receding out into the ocean, only to come back moments later with vengeance. Many locals headed out onto the sandy base because lots of fish could be had all of the sudden and that is what they were thinking... fish! The village lost about 1000 people that day.
One last thing for this entry, and I've been meaning to put it in since the first entry when I got here to Kovalam, but I have forgotten with each post until just now. It was very funny to me at the time because first off I had just spent the last 22 hours in the air, but also because you realized you are no longer in the US. Below is the actual statement made on the boarding pass after arriving in Bangalore and getting ready for the last leg to Trivundrum:
Boarding gate closes 15 minutes prior to departure. Frisking of persons and checking of hand baggage is mandatory for all passengers. Please co-operate with security. After I finished laughing I said to myself, "Welcome to India!"
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