We didn't have much time and the internet is incredibly slow, so this is just a little taster before we get some more up when we're in Oz...
Friday, 18 November 2011
Thursday, 10 November 2011
Hindu Bootcamp
So our arrival in India wasn't quite what we'd call a pleasurable experience. Our flight was from Kathmandu to Chennai via Delhi but it was somewhat delayed as they forgot to put one of our bags on the plane in Nepal and consequently waiting for it to turn up on the next flight meant that we had 15 minutes until our connecting flight departed. Sprinting through Delhi airport we imagined a scene from that programme about Easy Jet where some kind steward at the check-in desk would make the all important phone call and hold the plane for us... in reality we got stopped by every security guard who wanted to see our ticket and had trouble making sense of the computer print-out. The woman at the desk said the plane had already gone (yeah right, since when has a flight ever left early??) and she said not to worry that there would be another flight in about 5 hours. Great 5 hours in Delhi airport on the wrong side of the duty free. We tried to wrangle an upgrade for the remaining leg of the flight but somehow she made it sound as though she were doing us a huge favour by putting us on the next flight - hang on, we only missed the connection because your airline couldn't be bothered to put all of the bags on the plane. We eventually arrived in Chennai and got out of there 1st thing the next morning, we had no desire to wait to see the city in daylight.
After another day or two of travelling we arrived at the Sivananda Ashram near Neyyar Dam in Kerala. It was definitely a worthwhile experience but not necessarily one that we would hurry to repeat. We decided that being in the ashram was probably a lot like being in the army, a wake-up bell was rung every morning at 5.20am, silent mediation at 6am followed by chanting, a cup of tea at 7.30am and then yoga 8-10. You finally got breakfast at 10 served up on mess plates, sat on the floor, which you had to eat with your hands, oh and no talking at meal times. At 11am you would do your 'Karma Yoga duty' which was essentially a chore that had been assigned to you - Tom's was emptying bins and mine dishing up dinner. 2pm the director of the Ashram would give a lecture which was occasionally interesting but mostly a bit to cosmic for us. 3.30pm 2nd yoga class of the day, followed by dinner (we only got 2 meals a day) and then a little bit of free time before evening satsang (mediation and chanting) from 8-9.30pm. If it hadn't been for the four hours of yoga a day I'm not sure that we would have stayed for the full 2 weeks but in retrospect we got a real insight into Hindu culture - some evenings there would be special fire puja's or ceremonies which the priests would conduct and the ashram itself was a really beautiful place, full of paintings, colour, palm trees and incredible butterflies.
We left a few days ago and are now sunning ourselves on Varkala beach which would be slightly more enjoyable if we hadn't got burnt on the first day but it's amazing to be able to splash in a warm sea, makes a change to the Cornish coast for sure! Tomorrow we're going to move on again, heading further up the coast for the Keralan backwaters.
I'm starting to really worry that it's not going to smell like Christmas in Australia; the christmas trees, mince pies, cinnamon, nutmeg. I wonder if they'll have gingerbread latte's....
After another day or two of travelling we arrived at the Sivananda Ashram near Neyyar Dam in Kerala. It was definitely a worthwhile experience but not necessarily one that we would hurry to repeat. We decided that being in the ashram was probably a lot like being in the army, a wake-up bell was rung every morning at 5.20am, silent mediation at 6am followed by chanting, a cup of tea at 7.30am and then yoga 8-10. You finally got breakfast at 10 served up on mess plates, sat on the floor, which you had to eat with your hands, oh and no talking at meal times. At 11am you would do your 'Karma Yoga duty' which was essentially a chore that had been assigned to you - Tom's was emptying bins and mine dishing up dinner. 2pm the director of the Ashram would give a lecture which was occasionally interesting but mostly a bit to cosmic for us. 3.30pm 2nd yoga class of the day, followed by dinner (we only got 2 meals a day) and then a little bit of free time before evening satsang (mediation and chanting) from 8-9.30pm. If it hadn't been for the four hours of yoga a day I'm not sure that we would have stayed for the full 2 weeks but in retrospect we got a real insight into Hindu culture - some evenings there would be special fire puja's or ceremonies which the priests would conduct and the ashram itself was a really beautiful place, full of paintings, colour, palm trees and incredible butterflies.
We left a few days ago and are now sunning ourselves on Varkala beach which would be slightly more enjoyable if we hadn't got burnt on the first day but it's amazing to be able to splash in a warm sea, makes a change to the Cornish coast for sure! Tomorrow we're going to move on again, heading further up the coast for the Keralan backwaters.
I'm starting to really worry that it's not going to smell like Christmas in Australia; the christmas trees, mince pies, cinnamon, nutmeg. I wonder if they'll have gingerbread latte's....
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