New Years Eve in Dubai

Greetings from the UAE, where the buildings are tall, the streets are clean, the people are missing, and the government won't allow you to access your flickr page (the entire site is blocked). Fascinating. But for a couple of days, we are willing to trade censorship for the ability to brush our teeth with tap water again instead of bottled water.
Our flight finally took off around 3:30 which was annoying but somewhat made up for because the plane was awesome. We had our own little movie screens in the back of the seat in front of us, but each one had a list of over 100 movies you could choose from, and start, pause and stop at will. We had seats together but mine was a middle seat and the Indian guy next to me was incredibly sniffly so I ended up moving to an open aisle seat across the way from Matt, rather than listening to him through the whole flight.

We landed in the evening in the Dubai airport - the baggage claim hall has cathedral ceilings and while pillars. We caught a cab to our hotel, a sheraton right on the creek with a giant Christmas tree in the foyer - Mom, you would love Dubai, there are giant Christmas trees everywhere! Our room has a fantastic view out over the creek which is nice - last night we ate falafel and hummus and really good chicken shwarma and chips and I drank fresh pomogranate juice.

Today we actually got up at a decent hour and got moving - we walked down the creek to the spot where little wooden boats will ferry you across to the other side for 1 durham per person (about 30 cents). Guess what the little wooden boats are called?!?!? Abras! So all over the creek there are signs for Abra stations or cafes names something Abra something... very fun for me. We caught the boat across and walked through the Old Souk and textile market which was interesting but nothing to write home about.

Then we went in search of some of the other souks I have been reading about in the guidebooks etc... turns out in Dubai, all of the souks are actually very upscale malls that happen to carry middle eastern stuff, as opposed to the regular malls that carry western stuff and are just called malls. Sort of like the Disney World version of a souk. It was a bit of a disappointment to realise there were no real markets to be had, but then we settled into the fun of the crazy huge buildings. We saw the Burj Dubai which is not finished yet but when it is will be the tallest building in the world, and then went to a mall called the Wafi Mall that is built in the shape of a pyramid and has an arabian souk (read fancy mall with arabian stuff, including Palestinian pottery) underneath, and even more exciting - a Marks and Spencers (no sandwiches though)!

We came back to the hotel in time for me to have my spa treatments which we were able to reschedule for today.... it was lovely, if a bit bizarre. Tonight we are headed out for another lebanese style dinner, and then maybe to the street that runs along the public beach to find a place to have a drink and ring in the new year...

Dubai is the anti-India for sure - clean, modern, and devoid of people. Everywhere we go, we wonder where everyone else is. It also reminds us a bit of Berlin, in the sense that you get the impression that rather than visiting a city, you are touring the construction site of a city that will be really impressive in about 15 years. The buildings are not necessarily aesthetically pleasing but breathtaking none the less for their size and modernity...

Happy New Year to everyone and we'll see you soon!

Delayed in Delhi

Sounds like the title of a singles ad in the newspaper, doesn't it? Driving to the airport this morning the city was just one big white cloud - we couldn't see more than 10 feet out through the car windows. We were delighted to make it in one piece (3 hours early for our flight, as instructed), checked in, went through security, sat down, and... nothing. No announcements, no signage, and no flight listed on the monitors because they were still listing all the flights from last night that had been delayed to this morning. When it came time for our flight to board we finally approached the information desk where a harried indian guy informed us it had been delayed until 2:00 pm (from 10:45 am). Awesome. Since we are in India and not the US, the airline attendants tracked us down in our seats in the waiting area to let us know that we would be provided with breakfast at 11 am at one of the cafes by the gates, which is kind of cool. But also since its India, people crowded around in a huge clump around the cafe kiosk and we decided it was too much of a zoo to try and navigate, so we are keeping half an eye on things from our seats, although the little flight attendant girls keep coming over to see why we don't want our free breakfast. Oh, and they gave us a form we can fill out listing people for them to contact on our behalf to alert them we are delayed, and any connecting flights or hotel reservations they can either cancel or confirm for us because of the delay. In America, they would stick us on a plane, pull away from the gate, and then sit on the tarmac for 6 hours while they refuse to give us water or let us use the toilet. So despite the delay, I am feeling pampered. The only sad bit is Matt had to email the hotel in Dubai to cancel my spa appointment for this afternoon since we won't get there in time, although we plan to try and reschedule for tomorrow instead.

I'll keep you posted... since I have nothing else to do.

Last day in India

It's finally here... tomorrow morning we leave - Matt and I to Dubai and Mom to London. I can't believe it.

First the good news is that yesterday Hector got a little brother... you'll have to wait until we get home to see what he looks like because of course he is wrapped heavily in bubble wrap, etc, but the story of his purchase is very entertaining. We were driving out of Jaipur and passed a guy with wooden statues outside - particularly the ones we have been looking at this whole time which are wooden Ganeshas (although Matt has been very picky and hadn't seen one yet that really appealed to him). We stopped to have a look and the guy had some of the best ones we had seen but they were extraordinarily overpriced. The guy was asking 15,000 rupees for the one we were interested in (Matt lined them all up on the counter and then gradually eliminated one at a time until he was down to the one he wanted - that process in itself took 20 minutes at least!) and we weren't interested in paying that much at all. So we bargained the guy down to about 8,000 rupees, and then decided to get in the car and leave. We start driving out of Jaipur, and then the driver's cell phone rings - he answers it and its the guy from the store offering us the Ganesha for 6000 rs. Apparently, while the one guy was bargaining in the store with us, the other guy went out and got Manu's phone number - its a scheme they pull all the time with tourists who have drivers. Matt countered with 5,750 and the guys hopped on their motorcycle and drove out to the side of the road where we had pulled over to make the exchange. Definitely the craziest bargaining story we have ever been a part of.

We spent our last day in Delhi racing around trying to see/buy all the things we hadn't been able to see/buy yet - fortanetly the price we paid for a driver at the beginning of our trip included these last couple of days so we had a car to get everywhere we wanted to (although not our driver Manu from our trip, he was sadly reassigned).

We started this morning with breakfast at our hotel - fried indian bread and a potato curry sauce to dip it in - delicious delicious. We are staying in the same hotel we stayed in at the beginning of the trip but with much more appreciation this time around, after having experienced alternate accomodations that weren't quite as nice.

Afterwards we hit a couple of shops for some errands and then hopped in the car and headed out to the Lotus temple. Sadly it was closed (many things are closed on Mondays here) so we could only see it from the outside, but its quite an interesting building. Then we headed back to Dilli Haat, the cute closed off indoor market we enjoyed so much the last time we were there. Matt finally got his rug from India... Afterwards we had one final trip to my favourite department store, Fab India - this time we went to the location that someone had told us was the largest one in Delhi and it was fantastic... rack after rack, and even Matt found some shirts he liked.

After we finished we headed to Mom's friend Arun's house where we had dinner with him, his wife Gita, and their son Himanchu. In an attempt to make us feel comfortable they ordered Dominoes Pizza for dinner and we didn't have the heart to tell them that the last thing we wanted to eat for our last dinner in India was Dominoes. Fortanetly, it was a different, spicey kind of pizza which they served with some homemade vegetable biriyani and some delicious chutney sauce so it ended up being a pretty delicious meal.

While we were waiting for the pizza to arrive we looked at Himanchu's wedding album and in the process heard all about his match with his wife - it was fascinating. He's quite short, which apparently was an impediment to his marriage. Arun explained to us that these days, love marriages are acceptable as options, but since Himanchu couldn't find himself a woman on his own his parents stepped in. To find him a wife they put the word out with their relatives, and they also took out on ad in the newspaper (in the marital section) listing his occupation, salary, height, complexion (Himanchu is fair for an Indian, which is a plus), and his astrological sign. They ended up finding his wife through relatives in Varanasi, but we were astounded by the newspaper ad - Arun said there were many responses but many of them didn't work out. Himanchu and his wife were engaged for a year but never met in person before the wedding, although they spoke on the phone regularly throughout the year.

Now we are back in our hotel room packing for tomorrow - we had to buy an extra bag to fit everything we bought, so Matt found a cricket bag (designed to hold bats and wickets - read HUGE) and its pretty full... most of it is presents... I hope!

I'll try to write from Dubai too... all for now.

Last day in Jaipur

Breakfast on the lawn of our hotel...

Today was our last day in Jaipur. Tomorrow we head back to Delhi where we have one full day before we all fly out our seperate ways. It's hard to believe this is all coming to an end.

Yesterday morning we headed out of the city to the Amber Fort, a big old fort on the top of a hill. Pretty scenery, some good pictures, but mostly we decided we are done with forts. Then we did some shopping. One notable purchase - when Mom was in India in 1970 she bought 2 silver bangles, one for each wrist, and has worn then ever since (well, to be fair one had to come off when she broke her arm in 1980. But the other has been on since 1970, and even the one that came off hasn't been off since). Yesterday at a small jewelry store off of MI road I bought my own silver bangles. I can't promise they'll stay on eternally - I don't know how doing the Locust asana is going to feel with bracelets on - but I do feel like I have achieved some small right of passage - the journey to India, marked by the silver bracelets.

Today we wandered some of the bazaars in the old city - first some of the tourist shops, and then the Johari Bazaar section (traditional indian jewelry) and then we went back to the Hawa Mahal to go inside - the last time we just took photos from the outside. In the afternoon we enjoyed a traditional indian snack - lassi, a yogurt drink, from the very popular Lassiwala on MI Road. This evening our driver drove us about a half an hour out of the city to a place called Chokhi Dhani... quite an experience. It was like a county fair for Indian people... medival times meets six flags meets Epcot Center meets India. We stood in line for at least 20 minutes to get in and then wandered around in dust past little huts and buildings featuring a variety of different indian dancers, fortune tellers, magicians, shops, games, etc... there were camel and elephant rides (long lines for both) and Mom and I got our palms hennaed. The highlight was dinner - traditional rajhistani

food - we were given a silver tray and walked down a buffet line getting little leaf bowls of different traditional rajasthan foods. We had pretty much no idea what we were eating but most of it was totally delicious.

Christmas Day

Christmas Eve Dinner:

Christmas Day in Jaipur was a lot of fun! Its funny, I was thinking I would feel sad missing out on the the whole holiday season and presents and shopping and everything, but honestly it has barely even registered - I don't really feel like I have missed out on anything. It's sort of refreshing to know that while I totally enjoy the crazy materialistic madness that descends every November, I also do just fine without it.

But despite being far from home, we had a great day today! We woke up and exchanged some small gifts in the morning - I gave mom a silk scarf I bought her in Kovalam and gave Matt a t-shirt from the ashram. Mom gave us some Cadbury's Roses from the UK (our fave). Matt gave mom an armadillo wearing a santa hat christmas tree ornament that we bought in Texas earlier this year, and he gave me the best present of all - spa treatments at our hotel in Dubai - I have been so dirty and buggy and gross for the past 5 weeks that to be cleaned and pampered for a couple of hours is going to be absolutly amazing.

After gifts we ate breakfast on the lawn of our hotel, which is a sweet little oasis of calm and pretty in the middle of crazy, dusty, noisy Jaipur. Then we headed to the old city in the middle of Jaipur for some shopping and siteseeing - we saw the Hawa Mahal - part of the palace where the muslim wives could sit behind screens and watch festivities without appearing in public, bought lots of beautiful things which I won't list because they are mostly Christmas presents for other people, and then went to another astrological park thing (very hard to explain, you'll have to see the pictures) and another palace. Then we walked around the old part of Jaipur for a while which was quite an experience and then we headed back to the hotel to clean up for our fancy Christmas Dinner.

We made a booking for dinner at a hotel that used to be a maharaja palace - it was stunning... dinner was good, and we felt totally fancy. Plus I had my first glass (or two) of wine in the past 6 weeks so that was fun too... all in all a wonderful holiday.

Hope you all had a great Christmas as well. We'll see you soon!

Merry Christmas from Jaipur

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day with friends and family. Margo, Sawyer, Danny, Paul, Dad, we miss you! We will spend the day exploring Jaipur, seeing some sights and doing some shopping, maybe take in a Bollywood movie this afternoon, and then possibly a fancy dinner at an old Maharaja palace that has been converted to a hotel. Don't worry, we'll take pictures!

Gwalior

So for a place that we picked to visit because I was flipping through the guidebook and came to a cool photo, Gwalior was pretty awesome. We almost didn't go - first Kalpana told us it was too far from Agra, then the driver said no one ever goes there, and then the guidebook said very few tourists ever make it to Gwalior... but fortanetly we decided to do it anyway, and it was a very worthwhile trip.

Gwalior is about 119 km south of Agra - about a 3 hour car trip because the road is pretty bad in parts, so we had to go slowly so as to not damage the car on the bumps, and as you pass from state to state you have to stop and pay tolls which slows down the process as well - no toll booths here, just trash cans and guys with guns standing in the street flagging you down to the side of the road where you can hop out of your car and go over to a window on the side of the road to pay.

Some things you will commonly see on an Indian Highway, for future reference:

• Cars - only tata brand
• Motorbikes/scooters - our record at the moment is 5 people on a motorbike - four adults and one child. We did see four people and a suitcase which was equally impressive, but now we are on the lookout for 6 people on one motorbike before we leave India.
• Trucks - overloaded, tilted to one side, with BLOW HORN written on the back indicating you should honk at them when you pull up behind them to get them to move over.Tuk Tuks or auto rickshaws - usually wildly overloaded with people
• Bicycles - also carrying several people, most often going against the flow of traffic on the wrong side of the road
• Cows. Wild cows wandering free, cows that are owned by people being herded, or pulling wagons, sometimes wearing jewelry, with their horns painted. Sometimes wild cows taking a nap in the middle of the road.
• Dogs - all wild, all dashing in front of your car.
• Tractors - seem to be an appropriate substitute for vehicles, can be a transport for many people, or pull a load behind you
• Buses - usually with windshields decorated with tinsel and several people sitting on the roof of the bus and/or hanging off the back.
• Trees - literally growing in the center of the road
• Small children - usually bundled to the nines in ski jackets from the waist up (they take their "winter" very seriously here even tho it hasn't dropped below 55 degrees and today was closer to 80) but as a rule, naked from the waist down. Mostly under 3 or 4 years.
• Pigs
• Monkeys
• Camels - usually pulling something.
• Vegetable cart guys - these are men pulling huge wooden carts of vegetables behind them and walking down the center of the road.

Any and all of these can be spotted in your lane, coming directly at you, which isn't so unnerving when its a dog or a child, but when its a bus or a truck, can be a little intimidating.

Anyway, when we got to Gwalior we drove around asking for directions to the Fort for a while until we were finally able to find it... apparently people in India don't give very good directions, and often after we stopped and our Driver Mannu asked for directions he would get back in the car after a long animated conversations with someone and lots of directional hand pointing, roll his eyes, and find someone else to ask.

The fort was on the top of a cliff and pretty impressive - it will come across better in the photos than I can describe it. After walking through the restored part we wandered to the other side which had unmaintained ruins of old buildings and amazing views out over the city and surrounding countryside.

We ran around trying to find the stairs up to different little crumbling pavillions and Matt explained how he could easily kill me and mom and pass it off as an accident and then take all our money (how this last part would happen was a little unclear - also, what money?!?).

On the way back down the hill from the fort we stopped to see some Jain statues carved into the side of the cliff. They were pretty impressive but mostly headless as the Moghuls has defaced them - literally (that made matt giggle) when they took over.

After the Fort we stopped for lunch at the Indian Coffee House, and then headed to see the Jai Vilas, a palace built for the Maharaja. Mom was drawn to it by the guidebooks description of the crystal chandaliers and glass staircase but in fact it was the Maharajas collection of erotic art that will stay will us as a lasting memory. That and the family photographs lining every wall - the Maharaja and his family playing tennis, swimming in the pool, etc...

After the palace we headed back to Agra for dinner, and then back to the hotel - tomorrow morning we leave for Fatehpur Sikra, an old capitol of a moghul empire, and then on to Jaipur.

Taj Mahal (and Baby Taj too!)

I'll warn you now... this is going to be a photo heavy entry... especially since I haven't been able to upload anything to Flickr the past couple of days.

So today was a great day. A GREAT day. And a good reminder of why we came to the North of India in the first place. The Taj Mahal was absolutly breathtaking.

We woke up this morning bright and early when the electricity went off at 7:30 am and the generator kicked in... helicopter landing on the roof of our hotel room. Breakfast was not quite as charming as at our delhi hotel - three pieces of white bread, 2 bananas and boiled eggs. But there was some yummy chai which was really all I needed. Right away we noticed that the sun was out and the fog/smog was way better than the day before - we had been hearing horror stories about how bad it had been in the morning the past couple of days so we were delighted to see that it was clear.

Our driver took us over to the Taj and dropped us off a few blocks away because the area is blocaded off to reduce pollution. Security was tight and took a while to get through, but then we walked through a courtyard area up to the gate to go in to the Taj... walking through the gate and getting my first glimpse of the Taj was breathtaking... it is absolutely the most gorgeous building I have ever seen in my entire life. It took us 5 or 10 minutes just to absorb it, and then we started walking around. I don't even know how to describe it to you but it is just amazingly impressive and beautiful and totally worth seeing if you ever, ever get the chance.

We walked around the building and then went in to see the tomb - in case you aren't familiar, they say the Taj Mahal is the greatest monument to love ever constructed. It was built by Shah Jahan as a tomb for his favourite wife when she died (shortly after giving birth to 14 kids in 20 years...). You can't see the actual tomb - that is sacred and in the basement. But they have a public version available inside that you can walk around. Then we came back out and took a million photos - serious ones and goofy ones and then some more serious ones. And then we finally dragged ourselves away to move on to the next site, knowing we could come back to watch the sunset over the building at the end of the day.

Our next stop was the Agra Fort, which we didn't expect to impress us, since we were still bathed in the glow of the Taj.

But actually the fort held its own - it was a series of courtyards leading to courtyards, each one a new and interesting suprise when we stumbled onto it. And there were lots of monkeys, and many views back over the river to the Taj.
After the Fort we tracked down a rather unimpressive mosque that our driver warned us not to bother with, and then he took us to the mini Taj Mahal, which we promptly nicknamed Bebe Taj, which was actually magical in its own right.
Then we raced the setting sun back to the other side of the river from the Taj Mahal so we could watch it turn pink (ish... it never really achieved the full effect) in the company of a little entourage of 8 year old boys, a camel, a cow, some goats, several other tourists and a guy selling little wooden backgammon sets (we passed).

We tried to end the night with some shopping but unfortunately all the places we went were overpriced and uncomfortably pushy - indian guys following us around from the moment we walked in the door. So we escaped to dinner and then came back to the hotel.

So that's all for today. I'll leave you with some photos...

Unimpressive Mosque and Bebe Taj...

Travel Day - Delhi to Agra

So today we took our car and driver from Delhi to Agra - about 245km - which takes about 4 hours on the good roads up here (would have taken a lot longer in the south where the roads aren't paved or smooth). Along the way we made a couple of stops.

The first was in Mathura, where Krishna was born and there is a temple over his birthplace. Matt says it kind of reminded him of Bethlehem because the shrine over the birthplace is in this tiny little room in the basement of the temple. The temple itself is inside a huge, heavily guarded complex where you have to go through a metal detector and by physically patted down to get in, and you can't take in any bags or electronics (no cameras, cell phones, etc). Not sure what all the security was about but it made Matt laugh when three different people searched him, made him take out his wallet, and then looked inside his wallet. Cause what safety threat was he going to be carrying inside his wallet exactly?

After the temple we decided to try and find Vishram Ghat - a spot on the river where at sunset they float lanterns out on the water. It was supposedly 2 km away through Mathura but although we walked for about half an hour, we couldn't find anything remotely resembling what we were looking for. In the meantime, we got a good look at Mathura and couldn't help but be a bit depressed... it was dusty and dirty and there were thousands of flies everywhere, and we were dodging cow poop everywhere, and the poverty was a bit overwhelming. And of course the smog... in fact everything about the North of India has been a bit depressing because of the pollution. So we were glad to get back to our nice, clean, air conditioned car.

Our next stop was the Tomb of Akbar, which we just happened to drive by on the side of the road - Mom asked the driver what the minarets were and he said "Oh, its a tomb of a king from the 1600's... did you want to stop and see it?" We said sure! It has a beautiful entry gate, and then another impressive building inside that contained the tomb. It also had quite an array of wildlife - peacocks, antelope, baboons, chipmunks...

Then finally we made it to Agra which was intimidating - our driver told us that he and his friends refer to Agra as the crazy city, and in fact when someone goes to Agra they say - "oh, he's gone to the mental hospital" instead of "he's gone to agra". Traffic was crazy, smog was thick, and we were very very grateful that we didn't take a train and then try to find out hotel on our own because it was tucked back away in a residential neighborhood and we would never have been able to locate it.

The hotel itself is a step down from our beautiful palace heights hotel in Delhi - when the scheduled black out hit this evening the hotel generator went out and it sounded like a helicopter was landing on our roof... electricity is back on until tomorrow morning at 7:30 am, so it sounds like we will be getting an early start.

Tomorrow morning we go to see the Taj Mahal... pending the weather. Apparently the smog/fog in the mornings here has been pretty bad the past couple of days, and if its bad you can't really see the Taj, so we may have to play it by ear. I'll keep you posted.

Long Day in Delhi

So over the past few days we have gently disuaded mom from her romanticized vision of the Indian Rail system, and this morning we made arrangements to hire a car and driver for the remainder of our trip, to transport us from Delhi to Agra, to Gwalior, to Fatehpur Sikri, to Jaipur, and then back to Delhi. If we hired just a car alone we would be dead in minutes - the traffic is ridiculous. Rickshaws, cars and motocycles in every direction, obeying no traffic signals or lane markings as far as we can tell, and honking non-stop.

Our driver came with a trial run today so after breakfast we had him transport us to Old Delhi where we started by visiting the Jami Masjid, a beautiful red mosque on a hill. Sadly, the pollution is so bad in Delhi that everything was hazy and foggy like a very cloudy day, so I am not sure we got the full effect.

After the mosque we wandered through the little streets to the Red Fort, stopping for some authentic street chai which was delicious, although not as good as the stuff I used to get in the internet cafe. Then we walked through the grounds of the red fort, which also would have been more impressive in the sunlight but was still pretty neat - there were little green parrots flying through the buildings, and chipmunks everywhere.

After the Red Fort we walked through some of the bazaars in Old Delhi which were a bit overwhelming - traffic and noise and dirt so many people - it was pretty unbelievable.

We met our driver again and he took us to Gandhi's tomb, and then to a place called Delli Haat which was a nice break - its a closed off market of indian handicrafts from all the different states of India, and you pay a small fee to get in (about 30 cents a person) so its a bit cleaner and less crowded than an authentic market. Usually we might have scoffed about after our more gritty experience in Old Delhi it was a welcome relief.

Now we are off to find some dinner, maybe back to the United Coffee House where Mom and I ate our first night here... although as I type Matt has fallen fast asleep on my leg so I'll see if we can rouse him with the lure of some murgh mahkani or chicken tikka masala.

Tomorrow we head to Agra...

p.s.

Matt has already started bargaining, and in fact has been quite taken with some of the goods India has to offer... we are thinking to bring home a little brother for Hector.

Delhi and Matt

Mom and I flew from Mumbai to Delhi yesterday on jet airways which was smooth and easy (great airline food, cute little bottles of himalayan water - oh, we have learned that the bottled water in India recently tested extremely highly for levels of pesticide and now joke endlessly about adding a little spurt of our high percentage deet bugspray into our drinking water for "flavour"). We checked in to our hotel with is just off Connaught Place in the center of New Delhi and the nicest one yet. We walked a bit and ate dinner and went to sleep, excited to see Matt when he arrived at 11:00 am the next morning (we assumed it would take him a couple of hours to get through customs and to the hotel...).
Instead we get a little knock at the door at 4 am... he had caught an earlier flight! Of course we hadn't made arrangements yet for the 3rd bed to be added to our double room, and so there was no where for poor Matt to lie down, so we did what any close family (read exhausted and cheap) would do and all three of us piled into the double bed in the room - me in the middle of course. We got a couple of hours sleep before heading out for our first full day in Delhi.
Breakfast was provided by the hotel - you could choose the continental version (Matt had eggs and bacon) or the Indian version (Abra had puri bahji - fried indian bread - and masala chai). Then we wandered arround connaught place for a bit enjoying the shops and visiting our new fave, Fab India.

After that we walked to Jantar Mantar, a set of buildings that are actually large astrological instruments (more pictures to come) - very interesting. Then we walked to the Gate of India in Dehli - the smog made it a little less impressive. Then we hailed a rickshaw to drive us past the parliament buildings and back to the hotel where we showered for dinner with a friend of mom's, Arun, from when she was a backpacking hippy in India 30 years ago, sleeping outside with the cockroaches.
Everyone's in bed now but me so I'll save the details for tomorrow. But suffice to say Delhi is a fascinating place and we will have plenty to keep us busy for the next couple of days. And also, I love rickshaws.

Mumbai & Elephanta

Today we have our morning in Mumbai and then a midday flight to Delhi. And then Mumbai has been interesting, if not my favourite place in India. I think the defining charactoristic of the cityh as been the architecture. All these huge, amazing, old stone british buildings from when it was a colony, now completely in disrepair. I think half of my photos from the last couple of days are of buildings. And after our trip to Elephanta yesterday, the other half are of Monkeys.

Yesterday morning we woke up and headed next door for masala chai and masala dosa for breakfast. Then we walked back over to the Gates of India where we caught a ferry out to a little spot called Elephanta. There we climbed up a long, stone staircase lined with monkeys and little stalls with the typical indian tourist fare (beads, carved ganesha statues, bags with little bits of mirrors embroidered on the sides) which made the climbing much more entertaining, as did the men who were killing a cobra about halfway up.

At the top were several stone temples carved into caves in the side of the rock... pretty neat with statues of gods carved into the cave walls. I'll post pictures when I have a fast enough internet connection. Afterwards we took the ferry back and wandered around town a bit more, visiting another shop we had noticed during our drive through the city that first night, and a little park with a mini botanical garden inside. Then it was back to the hotel for showers because something kept biting me, maybe the monkeys gave me fleas, and out to dinner at a nice fish restaurant with Kalpana where we ate the most amazing tandoori king prawn.
Now I am finishing up at the mumbai airport, cant wait to see Delhi! Tomorrow Matt finally arrives! Hurray!

Mumbai/Bombay

I know Mumbai is technically and politically correct, but no one here refers to it as Mumbai, everyone says Bombay!
I arrived the day before yesterday - the city is huge and crowded and very dirty, but still pretty amazing. And such a change from where I have been for the past month. I took a cab from the airport to the hotel where I met up with my mom... hurray! Our first night here a friend of my mom's from the last time she and my dad were at Stanford (when I was four and dad was a student in the journalism prog) named Kalpana picked us up and gave us a driving tour of some of the city before taking us over to Colaba, the touristy part of town, where we walked around a bit. We ended up eating dinner at Leopold's which was a bit creepy, but good food. It was packed, everyone seems determined to show any would be terrorists that they won't be intimidated or live in fear. Plus the general consensus seems to be that lightening doesn't strike twice so the spots that were hit are now the safest.
Yesterday mom and I wandered the city most of the day, seeing the Gates of India and the Taj hotel, and hitting everything from the local food and produce market in the midst of a low income neighborhood to a few high end department stores. Then today we are thinking to take a ferry to nearby elephant island.
Mom is waiting for me to go have breakfast with her so I can't write much but I'll try to post again soon. we have discovered we can use the computers in the hotel lobby which is very helpful.

Scorpion

Oh, and I accomplished my goal... to be able to hold the scorpion long enough for someone to take a picture before the end of the course...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/abrafrankel/3106505735/

FINISHED!

I'm done. Yesterday morning I took my exam (written, 60 questions, took about 2 hours to complete). Then we had a free afternoon during which we were positively euphoric, and then that night during the evening Satsang we had our graduation ceremony and I received my certificate of completion for the course. Hurray!
After all the challenges and difficulties, I think I can look back on the last four weeks and say I don't regret doing this. There are definitely aspects of the program that I did not enjoy or benefit from, but the people were incredible, the place was really amazing, and some of the things I struggled with intitally became much easier to manage as I figured out the system and how to work around it (for example - my illicit cell phone use). Being in India was amazing, totally worth the hassles getting here, and I think I learned a lot about myself in the process of this course. We have all even agreed that we could see coming back to an ashram for a yoga vacation, which would be a very different experience from TTC for a variety of reasons (although primarily not having to listen to two hours of italian swami lecture every day) and might be quite pleasant now that we know and understand the system.
Anyway, this morning we woke up early and checked out of the ashram by about 7:45, had our last morning chai together in the courtyard and then all piled into Marguit's car (she lives in Kerala and her husband sent her driver down to collect her). He drove us to a hotel on a cliff near Kovalam called the Leela, which is absolutly breathtaking... beautiful views out over the ocean... we ate an "expensive" (700 rupees or about $14) all you can eat buffett brunch which was everything we had ever dreamed of while eating ashram food (I had basically three breakfasts) and then Marguit and Helene hit the road, Helen and her BF went off to have some private time, and Eva and I lounged by the pool for most of the day. The highlight? Showers in the changing room that had HOT WATER. Do you know how long it has been since I had a shower in HOT WATER?!?!
Now we are down in Kovalam for the evening - we plan to have beer, another first on the trip, and dinner, and crash and tomorrow morning I'll catch a cab to the airport in Mumbai and go to meet Mom.
All for now!

back at the beach

Hurray for Fridays. I just finished my second breakfast of the day at Fusion, a cafe in Kovalam. For my first breakfast I indulged in the very western choice of muesli (granola) with banana and milk, accompanioed by masala chai. For my second breakfast, I had puri masala - puffed indian bread with a potato and vegetable curry. Oh, and more masala chai. I am stuffed to the gills but feel GREAT.
Yesterday morning I awoke to find my cold has begun the progression from my head and nose down into my chest, which actually delighted me to no end because even though my chest hurts and I am now sporting a very sexy wet hacking cough, I can once again breath through my nose. Crucial for yoga, but even more importantly, for sleeping. So I have been able to sleep quite well the last 2 nights which has made a huge difference in my mental outlook. Also the fact that tomorrow is my last day in the ashram!!!
So on Wednesday we learned how to teach yoga to the elderly, in chairs, and then also how to teach it to kids. Iinstead of just telling us, we were taught as if we were kids by skinny swami (the zimbabwean one, much nicer than the italian one) which was fun - he had us frog leaping from mat to mat at one point, and competing against each other in a simon says version of sun salutations.
But the real entertainment happened thursday morning when we had our pregnancy class. We were instructed to bring the pillow from our bed to the class - and then told to stick it up our shirts and tuck our shirts in for the class. Guys too. You can only imagine the entertainement value of the guys around us with pregnant bellies trying to do the asanas. Then halfway through the class, Anna who is from copenhagen but lives in London where she is a professional dancer, gave birth as her pillow fell right out... guess you had to be there. Sadly, after several days of perfect behaviour, the camera is on the fritz again, so I wasn't able to capture any of these moments, but I think my classmates did and will hopefully share.
Our afternoon asana class was more serious - we held each asana for a ridiculous amount of time. Despite not feeling great I decided to participate because it was our last yoga class in the ashram. I just skipped on of the breathing exercises which was too challenging with the congestion. But he had us try to hold the headstand for 7 minutes (my max is 1.5, but I came up and down 4 or 5 times, so it was cumulatively quite long) and the shoulder stand for 5 minutes straight (that one I accomplished). It was an exhausting class but felt good. I won't go into the details of our last lectures with Italian swami, mostly because I have learned that the best way to avoid being angered by his comments is to discretely read my book throughout the lecture and completely tune him out. I'll just share two gems I gleamed from yesterday with you - he explained to us that Coke and Diet Coke are pure poison and can probably kill you from across the room, and that when Drs and Nurses go on strike, deaths in hospitals decrease 50%... ie western medicine is a disaster and should be avoided at all costs. I quietly popped another advil and sudafed cocktail and continued to read Testimony by Anita Shreve, which I fininshed and have now moved on to David Sedaris's latest, thanks to Dana's reccomendation.
So now i will go back and rejoin the two Helens in the cafe (one english, one german) and continue to study for our exam tomorrow... The plan is to study a bit, then take a walk, during which I will try to either get the cam fixed or buy a disposable for tomorrow night, then a quick swim, then more food and studying. We have to be back in the ashram by 9 for evening Satsang and then tomorrow after morning Satsang we have our 3 hour written exam... but we only need to score 50% to pass, and then tomorrow night is graduation and Sunday we are out of here! We could spend Sunday day and night at the ashram (its covered in the cost of our course) but instead we are going to get a hotel room here at the beach for that night. And Monday, I fly to meet Mom in Mumbai and the second half of this adventure begins.
Kay, all for now...

Sick

Sadly, I have come down with a cold, as has everyone else in the ashram, it seems. We are all coughing, sneezing and sniffling our way through our last couple of days of classes. But I made it down here again today to upload a few more pictures... You can use the link from the previous post.
Hopefully I will start feeling better soon and will have more to tell you.

Pictures!

I was finally able to get a computer at the internet cafe to acknowledge my camera! I am currently uploading some pictures to flickr - not many because its incredibly slow AND I forgot to bring the memory card I filled up with me and only have the mostly empty one that was in the camera. But a few from our morning walk the other way, and I'll add more as soon as I can.
Here's a link to the set if you want to have a look:
http://www.flickr.com/gp/43854149@N00/86T3fz

p.s. I can't photo edit - the tool takes too long to open. So these are the basic images...

Last Monday

Today is my last Monday in the ashram. I won't be sad to be done with the lectures, but I will miss the people I have met here and the enviroment - we have become a little family, everyone supporting each other through the challenges and commiserating through the lectures and the homesickness.
This morning I got up for Satsang and the minute they turned the lights off for meditation I lay down and went back to sleep on the floor. I slept so solidly I actually had dreams during the chanting. Nothing could wake me up, not even Italian Swami trying to eat the microphone during his off key chanting. It was lovely. I woke up at 7:30 for my chai and felt much more refreshed.
Speaking of being exhausted, my friend Marguit told us a very funny story the other day to illustrate the point - she had gone back to her dorm to change out of her uniform and into her work out clothes for our asana class. She grabbed her bag and got to the door of her dorm before stopping with an overwhelming feeling that something wasn't right. At that point, she realized she had forgotten to put on pants, and was about to walk out the door in a shirt and underwear. This is how tired we all are!
Yesterday morning instead of a normal satsang we had a silent walk - basically we all meet at the gate of the ashram for roll call and then walk silently, matching our breathing to our footsteps, trying to meditate. Usually we go down to a bank by the lake and sit, but yesterday morning we climbed a mountain instead. And I do mean climbed - we were on all fours at one point scaling the side of a steep rock to get to the top. It took about 45 minutes and was pretty exhausting but once we got to the top it was incredible - miles and miles of hills and mountains with the mist rolling in... sadly there wasn't much of a sunrise but it was still an amazing view. We sat for about 15 minutes in silence, and then did some chanting, and then headed back down. Best silent walk yet. I just wish I could get the pictures up online - everything I tell you seems so unimpressive when I can't show you the visuals. But it looks like this computer I am on this morning has a camera wizard on it so maybe I will try again tomorrow to bring down the camera and upload.
After the silent walk yesterday I taught my second yoga class - an open class this time, which was much easier than teaching the beginners class because I didn't have to explain or demonstrate (and my students weren't trying as hard to catch me out by purposely doing things wrong to see if I would correct them). Now all I need to do is relax for the next couple of days and pass the exam, but we are now hearing that they will give us all the important points on Thursday, AND wonderful Jo has sent me a list of everything her exam covered, so I am feeling MUCH more prepared and not at all worried about it. Plus, to be honest, they say everyone passes, and there are a lot of people in the class who are struggling with english (its not their first language) and so I can't help but feel if they are all going to pass, its not going to be a problem for me.
Okay, I am going to wrap up. I'll try to bring some photos down tomorrow and see if I can get them to work. Have a great day,

Great and Terrible day

Yesterday might have been the worst day here so far. I'll get the bad stuff out of the way first - I dropped my camera. It still works but I can't get it to turn off unless I take the battery out, and the flash won't work. I'm sort of devestated, and really mad at myself for doing it. I am trying to bounce back to make it through the last week here, but so far that has proved challenging. It doesn't help that I am completely exhausted and really fed up with the teaching crew here.
The good news is I saw some neat some stuff yesterday, and the better news is that I saw most of it before the camera dropping incident (which I can't really cover in any more detail because I don't want to cry in the internet cafe. As it is I have to stop every couple of minutes and look at the pictures of Sawyer again to make me smile). The bad news is it colored the rest of the day for me, and I don't know if I'll be able to think back on everything happily. Maybe after the camera is fixed. But I'll try to tell you about it anway.
This Friday was the trip to Kanyakumari that got cancelled last time. We got up at the usual time, 5:30, and left by six in two little vans. I was in a van with two american women who are in the TTC course with me, Adrienne who is from Missouri, I think, and is in my teaching group, and Ashley who lives in Kenya doing development but is moving back to the US after this trip and ultimately would like to design furniture, Anna who is from Brisbane Australia, Linda from Germany, Ann-Sophie (I don't know where she is from but I think she is French-Canadian), and several Japanese girls.
We drove for about an hour and then visited a temple that has a natural waterfall out front - you bathe in the waterfall before going into the temple. It was still early in the day and chilly, but the water was actually really warm. Then we went back in the van to another temple, this one in the process of being restored. Then back on the bus and to a restaurant for breakfast - real doscha masala (not the either over-or undercooked pancake things we get in the ashram) and curry and chutney with actual flavour, and milky chai tea to finish it off. Delicious. Then back on the bus and on to KanyaKumari which is at the southern most tip of india. First we went to a beach and swam for about an hour in the Arrabian Sea - beautiful! It was hot and the water was perfect. I floated and chatted with a German girl named Laiya who did her TTC in the Bahamas under militant Israeli teachers and thinks our program is more relaxed, and Linda, from Utrecht, NL, who quit her job and is just traveling until her money runs out. Then we got back on the bus to go to the two temples on an island off the coast - one built on a rock where a swami acheived enlightenemnt which is reminiscent of the dome of the rock. This will all be more meaningful when I can share the photos with you. And then finally to the point where the three oceans meat, where we dipped our feet in the water and watched the sun set.
The day went downhill from there, and in fact because it takes so long to go anywhere in India we didn't get back to the ashram until after 11 pm. And up again this morning at 5:30. So I am struggling today. We did however get to watch Bollywood music videos in the van on the way back which was quite a treat - not having seen a TV in 3 weeks. And they were wildly entertaining.
I'll try to bounce back today and be more cheery tomorrow. Only 6 days left, after all. One frustration we are having at the moment is no one wants to tell us anything about the exam - every time we ask a question about what we need to know or study, they say, oh, Swamiji will tell you on Thursday. Okay, but the exams on Saturday and some of us would like more than 24 hours to prepare! It's really getting obnoxious the way they dodge the questions. Jo, any advice?
Okay, all for now. Hopefully more cheerful tomorrow or the day after...

Photos

I brought my camera down to the internet cafe this morning in the hopes of being able to upload some pictures, but couldn't get everything to work together. However, my mom has found a collection of photos someone else posted online from their ashram experience, so I can at least give you a little bit of a visual of where I am, even if they aren't mine...

The road to the ashram: there's a different banner now...
http://www.matkakuume.net/journals/2007/india/Gallery/Sivananda%20Yoga%20Vedanta%20Dhanwantari%20Ashram,%20Neyyar%20Dam,%20Kerala/slides/IMG_1989.html

The dam, a few minutes walk from the Ashram, where the area gets its name:
http://www.matkakuume.net/journals/2007/india/Gallery/Sivananda%20Yoga%20Vedanta%20Dhanwantari%20Ashram,%20Neyyar%20Dam,%20Kerala/slides/IMG_1994.html

The entrance to the main hall where all our classes are held:
http://www.matkakuume.net/journals/2007/india/Gallery/Sivananda%20Yoga%20Vedanta%20Dhanwantari%20Ashram,%20Neyyar%20Dam,%20Kerala/slides/IMG_2066.html

Inside the hall - our class is much bigger, 180 people plus the yoga vacationers, so its much more crowded. The hall also goes much farther back than you can see in this picture:
http://www.matkakuume.net/journals/2007/india/Gallery/Sivananda%20Yoga%20Vedanta%20Dhanwantari%20Ashram,%20Neyyar%20Dam,%20Kerala/slides/IMG_2108.html

The boutique where I work an hour a day for my karma yoga - its arranged a little differently, but essentially the same space. I am usually behind the counter:
http://www.matkakuume.net/journals/2007/india/Gallery/Sivananda%20Yoga%20Vedanta%20Dhanwantari%20Ashram,%20Neyyar%20Dam,%20Kerala/slides/IMG_2136.html

http://www.matkakuume.net/journals/2007/india/Gallery/Sivananda%20Yoga%20Vedanta%20Dhanwantari%20Ashram,%20Neyyar%20Dam,%20Kerala/slides/IMG_2259.html

My room - I think this one is lower down than mine, but they are essentially identical. My bed is the one you see in the first picture, only my mosquito net is green and I would never leave it open like that - don't want to discover any interesting little critters in my bed at night.
http://www.matkakuume.net/journals/2007/india/Gallery/Sivananda%20Yoga%20Vedanta%20Dhanwantari%20Ashram,%20Neyyar%20Dam,%20Kerala/slides/IMG_2201.html

My balcony - I sat in that same place just last night to look at the moon!
http://www.matkakuume.net/journals/2007/india/Gallery/Sivananda%20Yoga%20Vedanta%20Dhanwantari%20Ashram,%20Neyyar%20Dam,%20Kerala/slides/IMG_2185.html

http://www.matkakuume.net/journals/2007/india/Gallery/Sivananda%20Yoga%20Vedanta%20Dhanwantari%20Ashram,%20Neyyar%20Dam,%20Kerala/slides/IMG_2203.html

My bathroom, only my tile is white:
http://www.matkakuume.net/journals/2007/india/Gallery/Sivananda%20Yoga%20Vedanta%20Dhanwantari%20Ashram,%20Neyyar%20Dam,%20Kerala/slides/IMG_2199.html

So now at least you can have a vague idea of where I am, and I promise I am taking lots of pictures of my own to share with you as soon as possible.

Today I am exhausted... going to run back up to the ashram and try to get some fruit before the next class starts.

Descriptions

Matt said to me a couple of days ago - you should describe where you are because we have no idea what the place is like. So here goes...
Neyyer Dam is a tiny little town (and by tiny little town, I mean row of shacks side by side selling bananas, chai, and soda) at the bottom of a hill. Then you wind your way up the hill to the top where you find the ashram. There's a guard at the gate and you can't come in and out without getting an exit pass from reception and signing out in his book (one more way they make sure you don't skip anything). So you walk up a stairway, and through the gate into the ashram.
It's basically like a tiny tiny college campus - a collection of little brick buildings built into the hill and clustered around one really large hall where the lectures take place. The hall is open to the outdoors on the sides - instead of walls there are tall arches. The dorms are smaller brick buildings, either long halls with rows of beds, or little apartments like mine, with a small balcony looking out into the woods. The dorms aren't clustered together but spread around the grounds. There's also the reception hall (brick, open to the outdoors with smaller arches), a dining hall on top of the hill with a great view, some smaller temples I haven't explored yet, and a little thatched shack called the health hut where we get our snacks and fresh fruit from (couldn't live without that place!). I am taking pictures but don't have any way to upload them at the moment, although I may try to bring my camera down here and pull up a few in the next couple of days.

This morning I taught my first yoga class to three of my peers - it went pretty well, I think. I have the benefit of having english as my native toungue so I am better prepared to verbally describe the postures, and also I can hear Jo and Sara and Susan teaching their classes in my head and try to remember their pacing and phrasing. My students were cooperative, if a bit sluggish. But we are all pretty exhausted at this point so I can't really blame them. I think I teach one more time before I leave, and then I am not sure... but anyone who hasn't done yoga before and wants to let me practice with them, I'll be looking for you in January.

It's warm so I am going to head back up the hill in time to splash water on my face before noon. Have a great day,

Sunny day!

This morning the sun is shining and the laundry is drying and I am happy because I have purchased an illegal indian mobile phone to smuggle into the ashram. Life is good! I can really only call out because I am keeping the ringer off at all times, but at least I am able to talk to Matt more regularly, and even called my family last night to thank Margo for the box of treats that arrived at the post office for me yesterday - delightful!
After hearing about the body cleansing kriyas the other day, Mom said to me on the phone: "Honey, when they offer you the koolaid, don't drink it please." Don't worry I am not. But there are some bright moments too - Saturday nights during satsang we have a talent show. Last night a norweigian (sp?) guy who has not shown much personality yet got up on stage and did a spot on impression of the head swami here, an italian guy who was fortanetly out of town, leading us through a guided meditation. It was fantastic. I laughed so hard I cried. He guided us in the same way the swami does, and then started to improvise - In a thick italian accent, slow, calming voice - "Focus your attention on any spot on your body - for example, the mosquito bite on your left ankle. Or any place that is itchy, irritating or annoying. If you are are a loving, devoted person, focus your attention on the cute Japanese girl sitting behind you. If you are more of an intellectual person, focus your attention on the creature crawling up your back. Ask yourself "why did you start this course in the first place?" Then begin repeating your mantra to yourself. If you don't have a mantra, you can use the universal mantra... "This is boring".
I suppose its not as funny to those of you who haven't listened to the sanctioned version of this speech twice a day for the last two and a half weeks. You'll just have to take my word for it.
This week we start actually teaching yoga. Tomorrow I teach four of my classmates the 3rd course of a four class beginners program. Hopefully I will be able to get through it without sounding too frantic, forgetting any counter stretches, or damaging anyone physically. I'm both excited and nervous about it.
Today we get reassigned for Karma yoga so I don't know what my schedule will be moving forward but I will try to still make it down here periodically to check in. We are also still contemplating the situation in India and what we will do when my time here is up = whether we will follow our original itinerary, taking us north to Mumbai and then Dehli, Agra, Gwalier and Jaipur, or redirect. But I do know I don't want to take off as soon as this class is over - I felt like I haven't had any time to explore and enjoy yet! We'll see what happens.

FREE at last

So the bad news is that my trip to Kanyakumari was cancelled... apparently not enough people signed up, so they will try again next week. The good news is that instead I hopped in a cab with some friends to Kovalam, a beach town about 35 km (one hour on indian roads) away from the ashram. Its amazing. Just being free to do what we want and eat what we want... getting in the cab this morning we were positively giddy! Helen suggested we all write and mail ourselves letters from the ashram so that when we go back to our normal lives and forget how much we missed them, we have a reminder.

Anyway, in the cab on the way here it was rainy, but while we ate breakfast at a little restaurant looking out on the beach the sun came up, and now it is beautiful! And for breakfast I had fried eggs (which I had to send back 3 times until they cooked the whites all the way thru) toast and bacon! Don't tell the swamis!

I am here with a slew of other TTC girls - Helen from London, Helene from Stuttgart, Eva from Vienna, Marguit who is Austrian too but lives in Kerala, Josephine from the Netherlands, Marie-Helen from Quebec and Catherine from Nothern Canada. We plan to eat and wander and shop pretty much all day... so I will have a happy thanksgiving after all, just one day late.

Oh, and mail!

One more thing - I finally got my first piece of mail! Matt mailed me a copy of Us Weekly that arrived yesterday (totally goes against all yoga teachings - I love it!). So It does work, just sporadically, so if you have mailed me something, keep your fingers crossed and I'll let you know when I get it...

Completely safe

First off, let me say I am completely safe. I am very very very far away from Mumbai, probably at least a day by train. And I am in a very very very rural setting, not a hotspot for tourism at all, so not likely to be targeted by anyone. So please don't worry...

Second, Happy Thanksgiving, and thank you to everyone who sent me lovely thankgiving emails and updates. Its so nice to hear from everyone!

For thanksgiving this year, I ate a banana and a granola bar for breakfast (I skipped breakfast for reasons I'll reveal in a minute) and learned to pour salt water in one nostril so it comes out of the other nostril. And that was by the far the tamest of the Kriya (body cleansing techniques) they taught us in this mornings asana class. I also watched people demonstrate and then attempt some of the other kriya - including drinking 8 glasses of salt water and then making yourself throw it back up again, sticking a tube up your nose and pulling it out of your mouth, and the worst one of all, taking a long piece of gauze and slowly swallowing it down to your stomach and then pulling it back out... I took a pass on those techniques, despite the encouragement of our teachers to try everything, and then I took a pass on breakfast too.

However, the experimenting is not all bad - yesterday in the afternoon asana class I held a new posture I had never done before. I couldn't come into it in my own but someone caught my legs and helped me in, and I was able to hold it unsupported for a few seconds - it's called the Scorpion and you can see what it looks like here: http://www.santosha.com/asanas/scorpion.html.

I won't have internet again until Saturday or so, and my karma yoga gets switched Saturday so I don't know what my schedule will be like, but I will try to find time to write again.

Peace, Yoga, and TP

I want you to know that as I sit and type, there is a chicken that is wandering in and out of the internet cafe. Awesome. :)

It has finally stopped raining, after almost a solid week of pretty consistent downpour. We are supposed to have missed the rainy monsoon season but someone told me that global warming is throwing all the timing off, and we seem to have caught the tail end of it. But yesterday afternoon and today have been dry, giving me a chance to wash the sheet from my bed, which is nice - several of us have found little bits on our bodies in the mornings, and sadly our mosquito nets over our beds are pretty effective so we think there must be bed bugs or fleas in the mattresses (and by mattress I mean tiny, thin bit of foam like a gym mat on my wooden cot - you can't stay in one position for very long or your bones start to ache). I am pretending that washing my sheet is going to make a difference but it may just be one more thing to endure until this is all over. I think if I gain nothing else during this experience, I will come home with an intense appreciation for the amenities in my life, my cozy home, great food, comfortable and clean bed, etc...

What else can I tell you about our accomodations? I am in a small, twin room with two cots and a table and some shelves built into the wall. The floor is dirty - not "you can sweep or wash it clean" dirty but "suck it up, it will always be dirty" dirty, so we are constantly tracking dirt in and out of our bathroom (one big wetroom) and our beds. The bathroom is its own little treat - because toilet paper isn't common in India, you have to buy it from the boutique if you want to use it, and the plumbing can't accomodate it so if you use TP you have to throw it in a bucket and empty it out periodically. It doesn't smell great... I tried it for a couple of days and then resigned myself to the indian method (if you don't know what that is, don't ask). Matt, you'll want to bring some more pocket tissues along with you when you come.

But as I settle into the routine and start to feel a sense of control over everything again, I find I am not as unhappy as I was in the beginning. I now know what I need to carry with me and when, when I will have a moment to sneak away and read, snack, or go to the toilet, what to expect of the classes and lectures, and that makes it easier. I have been feeling more optomistic about making it through my time here (although of course this morning I slept poorly and had trouble getting up and have a headache, so its back to square one). Now, when I think about the amount of time left here, it doesn't make me want to cry the way it did at first. The food continues to be a challenge - I could only eat 3 bites of the breakfast this morning before having to toss the rest away - but there are plenty of snacks around so I won't starve (in fact because of all the snacking I have been doing, I don't think I am losing any weight or anything).

And while much of the course work until now has been challenging (in that is has been so preachy that its hard to take as educational) we seem to be moving onto more solid ground. Our main lectures the past two days have been on anatomy and diet, which is more concrete and interesting to me that some of the other aspects we have covered. We have also begun learning the Bhagavad Gita, Hindu scripture, which is interesting from a historical standpoint, and of course the yoga - next week we start teaching each other, but we are gaining ground everyday. I can now hold my headstand for 20 measured breaths and bring my legs out and back together before coming down WITH control. This morning Eva (from Vienna, Austria) managed to come up into her first headstand on her own ever, and she cried... a measure of how exhausted we all are, but also our excitement at accomplishing our goals. And there are quirky little things too I am learning about... in the sivananda yoga tradition, they believe the mantra's we chant create a certain type of energy that spreads around (this is a simplified explanation - if you want the more intricate version I know a swami from Zimbabwe who can talk you through it for hours!), and there is one mantra in particular that spreads peace (On Namo Narrayanaya). So they chant it for peace but they also believe it creates the same energy when you write it down. So people sit and write the mantra over and over and over, and they collect the papers from anyone who wants to contribute by writing it, and they carry them all up into a cave in the Himalayas where they are kept together for posterity. I think that's kind of cool. I'll be writing a page to conrtibute to the collection before I leave and if anyone else wants to you can mail it to me (although judging by the speed of the mail so far, I may not ever get it) and I will turn it in for you... The address is

Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Dhanwantari Ashram
Neyyar Dam P.O.
Thiruvananthapuram Dist (Trivandrum)
Kerala 695 572
India

Okay, got to run back up the hill, or hire a rickshaw to take me...

Rain Rain Rain

The good news is, my karma yoga was moved from 10:45 am until 6:30 pm, giving me a nice long break in the morning after breakfast before my noon chanting class where I can sneak away and go to the internet cafe. Today I had a little less time because I was waiting for Matt to call at 10:30 before rushing out... instead of Matt I got a suprise call from my family! Turns out Matt was on a plane during our regularly scheduled call time and so we got my mom, dad, margo and fat baby sawyer to call as replacements. It was great... although Sawyer got very upset about the whole wet, dirty uniform thing. My mom says in solidarity with me, they have decided to forgo the turkey for thanksgiving dinner and instead they have bought extra jars of mushy green vegetables and rice baby food and will all eat that with Sawyer for Thanksgiving. I said unless they plan to do that twice a day for a week I don't think they are going to have the full experience.
Since I had a little less time than usual, I hopped in a rickshaw instead of walking down the hill to the internet cafe. So fun! They aren't pulled by people the way you think of rickshaws, but rather they are like little scooters with a cab on the back, open to the air. It was my first ride in one and I loved it! Now I am at the internet cafe at the bottom of the hill drinking a hot delicious glass of chai tea for 3 rupees from the walla next door while I type. I have to make sure I leave with enough time to get back up the hill and into my uniform before chanting class begins because that woman who teaches that is a bit of a tiger and I wouldn't want to cross her.
It has been raining pretty solidly for the past 4 or 5 days which I actually don't mind so much because the air is cool and not too humid, and at night its so pleasant to sleep (and as a side benefit, people don't sit outside my window and chat after satsang at night when its raining outside). The major drawback is that our laundry won't dry... we have two copies of our uniform and we wash one while we wear the other but with this weather it takes several days for the wet one to dry, and meanwhile the white pants get dirty the second you walk out of your room because there is much everywhere... so its a bit of a flawed system and we are in dirty clothes all the time. But at least we are in it together. There is a growing feeling of community amongst the TTC students that I am enjoying.
What else can I squeeze in before I run back up the hill? I am still trying to meditate, some fellow students have given me some tips on getting started, which is helpful because the swamis aren't really giving us beginner information. This morning I thought for a moment I was getting somewhere but it turned out I was just drifting off to sleep. But I will keep trying...
Okay, must run back up but I will try to come back down again later this week!

sneaking out...

well, not really. chanting classes ended on time, possibly for the first time every, and I have 50 minutes free - unheard of. Last night another inmate at the ashram (that's really how they refer to us btw, joking, I think, but it rings a little too true sometimes) named Francoise (he's french but has been living in India for a while doing waste management for a NGO - everyone has such interesting stories) told me of a back way down to the little town where they have an internet cafe. The back way takes a little less time than the front way (although there is a lot more mud) so I was able to race down here and squeeze in a couple of minutes. Hopefully I can do this a couple of times a week, especially since this comign Friday, which is my next free day, I am planning to take part in an ashram organized trip that will take all day, so no internet for me that day. Instead I'll spend four hours on a bus (with some stops at various temples along the way) going to Kanyakymari- the sourthern most tip of India where the three oceans meet. Its considered a very holy place because of the oceans, but I am really more excited to see such a neat and identifiable geographic landmark.
Okay, must run to get back in time for the 2 pm lecture... they really read you the riot act if you are late, and today we start anatomy and physiology and I don't want to miss out...