The last couple of weeks...

The last couple of weeks have been very good to me. I have never experienced anything like ashram life and I am very grateful for the opportunity. The days really did consist of the schedule I posted earlier but what is missing from the schedule is the peace and solitude I felt as I went about the day. It is amazing to experience life without any sort of stimulation and just be. On my 'free' time I went to the lake and hung out, read, slept and day dreamed. It was a beautiful spot:


After the second yoga class of the day is when us girls caught up on the daily activities and then we went to dinner together (but ate in silence!) Emily on the left is from Washington and Jo is from London. This picture is taken at about 6:15am when we meditated as a very large group (140) by the lake and watched the sun come up.



For the most part the days were the exact same but a couple days before christmas they had a morning fire service which was performed by a priest from an outside community. It was incredible and the drawing on the floor was done with colored powder. This is also the room I did afternoon yoga in.

This room is where it all happened! They call it the main hall and morning meditation, morning yoga, the afternoon lecture and the evening meditation took place here. My butt and hips are finally starting to recover from sitting on the slate floor crossed legs for hours at a time!!!

I am now in Varkala and experiencing beach bliss with great coffee, food and conversations - loads of stimulation!

Another Upgrade!

I was given the option of a dorm bed or a shared double at the ashram and decided to upgrade to the dorm! My thoughts were if I was in a double with a winger I would be trapped but in a dorm there would be more 'space.' Besides sharing four bathrooms with about 36 women, the dorm option turned out to be okay! I shared my section with Jo who I met at reception and Emily was across from us. The three of us developed quite a nice friendship and it felt like I was back in university again except Jo talked me to sleep instead of Tracey T! Tracey, it took her two nights to realize she was talking to me and I was fast asleep!



The mosquitos were quite bad here so I quickly got used to sleeping under the dirty, blood stained net they gave me.... The only other down fall was cold water showers and when I say cold water, I mean cold water.... it goes like this; hold your breath, duck under the shower and get wet. Turn the water off and lather up from head to toe then suck in your breath, turn the water on and get under. After about 30 seconds you slowly let your breath out to get the remaining soap off! My head got really itchy after a couple of days so my guess is the shampoo did not quite get fully out!!!

Karma Yoga

Everyday from 10:30am - 11:30am I did Karma Yoga at the Health Hut. Everyone at the ashram does one hour of volunteer work and I was most grateful to get this job versus bathrooms! I spent the hour either taking orders or working back in the kitchen chopping fruit or making tea! The hut is open twice a day and it sells fruit salad, fruit juices, porridge, toast and tea. Needless to say, when you only get two meals a day it can get rather busy! I was a big fan of porridge and bananas or the banana milkshake!

The lady I am with in the picture is the only paid employee and she has been there for six years. She speaks very little english but told me that her husband died six years ago from bad spirits - the alcohol kind, and now she is working to support his mom and dad and her two children. She is such a hard worker and strong as an ox. I look like a giant next to her so you can imagine how little she is. When I left the ashram yesterday (more details to come) and said goodbye to her she gave me the warmest hug and a blessing which I did not understand, but I definately felt the meaning.

An Ashram Christmas!

A feast fit for a Queen! Here I am at 10am on Christmas day waiting to dig in to my veg Christmas brunch. Brunch is the main meal of the day at the ashram and there is nothing quite like having Christmas dinner in the morning! They went all out for this meal and it really was much more 'Martha' than the regular daily meals.

In the cup is Ayurvedic tea and next to that is glass noodle pudding, which is kind of like rice pudding but made with noodles. On the banana leaf from left to right is a banana, banana chips, some type of bean, beets, pineapple curd (similar to plain yogurt), poppadom, okra, dessert rice with nuts then plain rice with sambor on top. I stuffed myself to the gills and even ate my neighbours banana!

In the evening we went for a walk to the lake and did our 8pm meditation at lake side. On the way we saw this Christmas tree which Emily was much more enthused about than Jo!

It was a very different way to spend Christmas day but definately enjoyable!

Om

I have been freed for the day!!!! It seems like a long time since I posted and even longer since I have been at the ashram!


Where to even begin? Well, I arrived on Monday evening after a 5 hour train ride and 1.5 hr bus ride. It was only a 36 km bus trip but when there are approx 90 people on a 45 person limit bus many stops take place along the way.... I have to say I was a little apprehensive upon arriving as it was meal time and they told me to drop my bag and come get food before I checked in. I knew there were a few rules around eating so I was hoping to have a couple of hours to prepare myself but oh no! Off I went and entered the eating hall to see four rows of about 40 people each sitting cross legged on grass matts on the floor, eating a strict (no meat, eggs, onion, garlic, sweets..) veg meal with their right hand in silence................. When you have to eat with your hand you really begin to understand the entire bathroom situation in India. Let me put it this way, basically only non indians use toilet paper and those who don't use t.p. use their left hand and a water bucket to clean themselves.... At this point I can go on and on about cleanliness but really it gets me no where and I have to eat in India!


After the meal I went and checked in and met a lovely girl from London who also does Bikram's yoga so we decided to be 'roommates.' Off we went to the dorm and started to make up our home for the next two weeks. Well, before I knew it it was 7:50pm and the bell was dinging for evening Satsang (meditation and chanting) so we troopped off and it was then that I had my real first ashram experience. There were about 180 of us in a hall sitting on the floor and it begin with us all chanting/singing 'om' three times. The Swami then started us on the road to meditating and we continued in silence for about 30 min after which we sang some more and then had a brief lecture. At 9:30 we concluded and headed back to our dorms. It seemed okay at this point.


I had an alright sleep and at 5:20am the bell rang to get up and do the above procedure at 6am followed by a 90 min yoga class and then brunch. After brunch there was an introduction to ashram life, more yoga, and then we were given our karma yoga (volunteer work) for the time we are here. I have been assigned to the Health Hut which is where you can buy fruit, teas and fruit juices throughout the day as two meals are day are not enough... By this point in the day I was going bat shit crazy! I live a scheduled life and was feeling so constricted by this damn schedule. It felt like it was never ending and the last thing from peaceful... hmmm what is going on?


By the end of day two I was having full conversations with myself about why the hell am I putting myself through this and the other part of the conversation was wondering why I was going bat shit crazy. I even tried to book a hotel in Varkala for a week earlier then I was supposed to leave but the phones were not working... Well, the next morning in our lecture we were given a lovely talk on how the ashram is a retreat away from everyday life and all it's stimulations and the schedule is in place so we do not have to think about what to do next. Okay, this was making sense (apparently some don't know how to live on a schedule!) and then he continued and explained that our minds were probably going all over the place and to let them wander and within time in this peaceful environment they will settle down..... Okay, okay, okay.

The remainder of that day and yesterday were lovely, the yoga is great, the lectures are inspiring and thought provoking and the meditation in theory sounds wonderful but it is hard to stay in a meditative state for 30 minutes! None the less, I think I am going to like the next 10 days and hopefully I will learn how to stay in a meditation for the entire 30 minutes!!!!

Enjoy the holidays and catch up with you later!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to ALL my friends and family. Enjoy the festivities and have loads of fun and laughter! Be safe.

Lots of love and peace,
Tracy xoxo

Sivananda Ashram

My time in Fort Cochin is coming to an end and tomorrow morning bright and early I am off via Tuk Tuk and ferry to catch a four train ride to Trivandrum. I then have about an hour bus ride before I arrive at Sivananda Ashram.

I will be staying at the ashram for two weeks! I am really looking forward to my time there and I'm going in with very few expectations of what the two week journey will be like. I have been asked lots of questions regarding this part of my trip such as:

• What is an ashram?
• What do you do there?
• Why are you going?
• Are you scared?
• Will you chant?
• What will you eat?
• How much does it cost?
• Are you religious?

Basically, I am going on a Yoga Vacation which means I am going to yoga, meditate and eat two meals daily. When you travel in India you hear lots of chatter about other travellers going on 10 day silent retreats (vipassana), yoga courses, guru searches etc., and it has always peaked my interest and curiosity. When I decided to come back to India this time I intentionally made my trip long enough to allow myself the opportunity to experience a sample of all of the above! After doing loads of research I found this ashram which seems to have yoga, silence and teachings in what looks to be peaceful surroundings.... sounds good to me!

Here is my daily schedule:
0520 hrs WAKE UP BELL
0600 hrs SATSANG (meditation)
0730 hrs TEA TIME
0800 hrs ASANA CLASS (yoga)
1000 hrs BRUNCH
1100 hrs KARMA YOGA (volunteer work - I can only imagine what I will be assigned)
1230 hrs COACHING CLASS (optional)
1330 hrs TEA TIME
1400 hrs LECTURE
1600 hrs ASANA CLASS
1800 hrs DINNER
2000 hrs SATSANG
2200 hrs LIGHTS OUT
The entire schedule is mandatory....

There you have it! Looks pretty damn good to me. I don't think I will have computer access when I am there. On my day off, if I leave the ashram, I may be able to find an internet spot but I'm not really sure. This means more than likely, you will not be hearing from me again until December 30th. Now, my fellow bloggers have told me I will lose readership with such a gap but I look forward to giving you a blow by blow of ashram life and then the remainder of my travells.

A Tuk Tuk

Adam, this one is for you! Love you too xoxo

The backwaters of Kerala

There is a 900km network of waterways in Kerala and still to this day many people have to use these highways to get from their villages to the pavement. The only way to see this part of the country is to take a full day tour.

The driver picked me up at 8am sharp as it was a 35 km ride to meet the boat. Well, 10 minutes into the drive we pulled into a truck stop and he informed me I was joining another group. Being the last person to join the group I was in the front seat of a mini bus. Now, Indian driving is reckless but when you are in the front seat you gain a whole new perspective! I have decided there is an invisible lane in the middle of every two lane road. This lane goes in either direction and is based on telepathy who is going to go first! Actually I had a perfect view of the sights, a window that opened plus I was not sitting so close to the next person that I was stuck to them! 45 minutes later we arrived at our destination and boarded a covered houseboat which held 20 of us.



The morning was spent cruising the large open waterways which was extremely pleasant and peaceful. There were many fishers going after tiny mussels and our guide told us mussels are not only used for food but the shell is used as a medical agent used to help with osteophoris.


We stopped off at a small village and learned about different spices but I was more interested in checking out how the household was run. The kitchen was outside as were the toothbrushes hanging in a basket nailed to the side of the house and the toilet was inside. Makes no sense to me to have the sticky part of the house inside and trust me it smelled... These ladies from the house had homemade snacks to sell. I bought fried bananas and tapioca chips which were delicious!

After three hours of cruising we headed back to the dock and lunch was served on board. It was pretty good but I was hesitant as I really did not want to have to use the washroom on board!

After lunch we transferred back to our bus and headed to much narrower backwaters which can only be accessed by wooden canoes. I was upgraded to business class on this trip too!

The afternoon in these boats was really nice as the highway was now down to a single lane and you could hear all the wildlife and see the plants up close! We had a couple of stops the first being at a coir factory :) It was amazing to watch this woman make what I call twine. I had no idea that this kind of rope came from coconuts. Nothing is considered waste in India.

The second stop was at a coconut field where I tried coco milk and fresh coconut for the first time. I am not big on liquid that is room temperature and it was not as sweet as I thought it would be but none the less I managed a sip or two! The actual coconut was slimy and tasteless. At lunch we had it dried and flavoured two different ways which was great!

The day ended at 4pm and the trip home was a repeat of the start except in Saturday afternoon traffic, which is heaviest in India as Sunday is the only day off most people have, so there is much more movement taking place. More motorized vehicles to share the 'middle' lane with!!

Fort Cochin, Kerala

After a 13 hour train journey, 20 minute tuk tuk drive, 15 minute ferry ride and a 10 minute walk I arrived dazed, tired, and wrinkled at the Vintage Inn. The first day was a write off but once I was functioning with all senses I discovered this little town has a really nice vibe!

Fort Cochi was the centre of the spice trade for the Jews, Chinese and Arabs for many centuries so it has quite an eclectic feel to it! At the crack of dawn I went to the water to check out the ancient chinese fishing nets:



It was amazing to watch them in action powered by 5 men using what seemed like all their strength. It is a weighted net and three men let the weights go gently while two guys walk on the poles to sink it fully. After about 15 minutes they pull it up. All this work for what looked like about 5 tiny fish!


I left the fish nets and wandered to Kashi Art Cafe and had the best breakfast I have had since leaving home! French toast (brown bread) with honey, loads of fresh fruit and (drum roll....) french pressed coffee! I felt like I had died and gone to heaven. In actual fact, my stomach did not know what hit is so pretty soon there after I hit the toilet! (I am now on round two of antibiotics but this time it is a different color and flavour :) Hopefully this set will kill the bug in my gut!) While eating I was reading the Indian Express newspaper and there was an article about Patsy George from Vancouver who received the Order of Canada but is here visiting her hometown!

With a smile on my face after the yummy food I made my way to Jew Town which is a district in Fort Cochin. It was delightful to poke about in all the different markets and stores. I was keen to find a shop called SPR as they sell essential oils and I really wanted to bring some home for my diffuser- fresh from India!!! I had the most delightful time smelling all the smells and in the end I settled on 5: white rose, black jasmine, lotus flower, kerala flower and vanilla. All their oils come from natural flowers and wood extracts.

Shanti was a wonderful lady and we chatted away about her family as she filled my bottles and packaged everything up! She has a 24 and 22 year old and has been working for the last 10 years in this shop to see them through university!! Now she is working to fix up her dilapitated 'house.'

It is backwater cruising tomorrow.....

SFX

On my final day in Panaji I went to Old Goa which is 12km from Panaji via public transport. Up until 1843 Old Goa used to be the capital of Goa and it had a population exceeding London and Lisbon at the time. Needless to say there are many churches in Old Goa. The one church I was most interested in seeing was Basilica of Bom Jesus. This basilica is famous because it holds the tomb (pic above) and mortal remains of St Francis Xavier.

While going to university at Acadia we were great sporting rivals of SFX. I also have a semi (wedding date to be set...) sister in law who attended SFX so seeing this tomb and learning about St Francis Xavier put a little perspective in place for me.

My last night in Panaji I met Thomas and Tony who have been travelling for the last 14 months!!!!! We spent the day in Old Goa together, it was a scorcher but I was glad we went and then we ended our day together with lunch. Thomas and Tony have a beautiful travel site: www.contemporarynomad.com.

The next phase of my trip was to take the 'non stop' shuttle, which stopped three times, to Margao where I then got a tuk tuk to the train station and boarded the ever dirty Indian Railway train for an overnight journey to Fort Cochi!

This is as glam as it gets!

After a lovely three km walk along the promenade, in which I was followed by a young Indian boy I arrived at the Goa Marriott. I enjoyed an Americano and marvelled at the difference between being a tourist and a traveller! Cold water showers, backpacks, motorbike taxi's and having to provide your own toilet paper is being a traveller, using the bathroom with an attendent passing you a facecloth and a toilet seat that does not wabble is being a tourist - it was good while it latest but I am back to being a traveller!

Panaji

The journey here was fabulous! I took a motorbike taxi from Agonda all along the coast and arrived in Margao to catch the 'express' bus to Panaji 45 minutes later, windswept and smiling! The journey was 34km to Panaji and it took the express 55min to arrive! I was sitting next to a chatty lady who told me Goan's were very friendly people and if I ever had any questions to ask 'decent' people. She then pointed to the two ladies in front of us and said "not like those people." Hmmm....

As I started walking towards the old village I realized how beautiful it is here! Very Mediterranean. I had three hotels in mind to look at but before I checked them out I had a lovely lunch at the Lonely Planet recommended Hotel Venite.

After lunch I went room searching and let me tell you, 2 of the 3 were pretty bad. I ended up picking Comfort Guest House. The reception was very reassuring:

Actually, I have a great room for 400Rs which includes a TV, bottom and top sheets, a towel, nice soap and a hot water shower! Now that is luxury! If the truth be told, my room shower is only cold water but the bathroom in the reception area has hot water - very exciting. For the past 8 days I have had cold water showers only and I swear 8 days worth of dirt and sun screen was washed off me with the hot water. You have no idea how good it felt....

After cleaning up I toured about town and at times I felt like I was in Europe. Here are a few shots of the architecture:

The highlight of the day was finding this lovely store which showcased all handcrafted Indian products some of which were beautiful and nothing like I have seen before. If it was the end of my trip the damage would have been bad but since I have lots of travelling left I only purchased some silver jewellry (earrings and a ring) made by a Goan lady. I am so happy with them - I might even go back and get a necklace I really liked...

More tomorrow..

Panaji

I am off to Panaji in a few hours via motorbike and two buses! Panaji was under Portuguese colonial rule until 1961 and was then incorporated with the rest of Goa into India in December 1961. It became the state capital in May, 1987. Apparently there is still quite a Portuguese influence which I am interested in experiencing - I will keep you posted!

The pattern has been established with a small interruption!

The day begins around 6:30am walking the beach. I get back to the hut at about 8am and then have a milk coffee and read while I wait for the internet place to open at 9am and do my daily chores :) My first stop is to get water and this lovely lady greets me everyday! She speaks next to no English but it really is amazing how we communicate!

I then make my way to the German bakery (shop on left) and pick up a croissant or bracket... both are bread dough, the croissant is rolled dough and the bracket is braided! Then I go next door to the internet cafe (orange door) and do a little blogging. As you noticed I have not posted for a couple of days; the internet was down for 36 hours and I had a case of Delhi belly for the last couple of days as well - minor interruption!

Before I head back to my hard days work of lying on the beach I drop off my laundry at a local laundry service. The three ladies are wonderful and I just make sure to duck whenever I see a rock or ball flying at me from one of the 9 kids that live there! All the action stops when they count out my articles of clothing to determine the price and when they get to the underwear the kids just giggle away...

I hit the beach at about 10:30 and don't leave until 3ish when I go for another walk! It is a hard life but someone has to do it!

Food has been a bit of a struggle because my stomach has been funny. My diet so far has consisted of milk coffee (boiled milk and instant coffee), water, coke, plain rice, plain toast, Chinese noodles, briyani and I have had a couple of really nice fresh out of the water tuna dinners!

Little Italy is the restaurant at my 'resort' and lots of longterm hippies come and have a beer and pizza throughout the day. It is a great spot to hang out for the week but my time is coming to an end here and I will probably head out to the capital of Goa, Panaji in a few days.

Haircut anyone?

The Fort area of Mumbai:

Agonda village:

The beach...

Now this is the life....

A pattern of waking at 6am and walking the beach each day is developing! This is the North end of the beach:

Here is the south end:

My first morning walking on the beach I noticed a group of cows at the south end just hanging out. At 4pm they strolled along the entire beach and then hung out at the north end. Well, this is what happens everyday... it's a cow's life!

Sai Valentines

Ding! 9pm - why did I go to bed so early?.. 12:30am try to get a little more sleep... From 4:30 - 6:30am I lay in bed starring at this mold stained mosquito net!

I decided at this point to get up and check out the beach. OMG! The beach is absolutely beautiful! It is 3km long and in an alcove with palm covered out crops at each end. I walked from one end to the other and decided at this point that I made the right decision to park in Agonda.

Agonda is a small village with one road, no buses and tourism is it's main occupation. Due to the small size I was not quite sure if I could stay put for over a week - well after one day I am already starting to see a pattern... more on that later!

After my walk I went hunting for an internet place and as I was leaving I noticed the property sign lying on the ground waiting to be put up - the beach communities in Goa dismantle everything each year before the monsoon and then rebuild again in late November for the start of the tourism season. I guess I was so tired when I arrived that I thought I was staying at Little Italy but I am actually staying at Sai Valentines and Little Italy is the restaurant at the huts!

Here are my diggs for the next week or so! Pretty cute hey?!
The hut is so large I had to go into the bathroom to get this shot!
The rest of the day was spent relaxing at the beach and it felt sooooo good! Stay tuned...

Mumbai to Agonda, Goa

Ding! 2:30am and I am wide awake, gotta love jet lag. After reading for a bit in my windowless room I decided to sit on the balcony and check out the early morning sites of Mumbai.. lots of activity with chai sellers on bikes, taxi's honking their horns for no apparent reason and the sugar cane man setting up shop for the day ahead!


At 4:30am I made my way to the train station for the nine hour ride to Goa. It was only a 200 meter walk and I saw 48 people sleeping on the 'sidewalk' and 4 rats! Right, I am in India and that was my early morning reminder. The train ride got off to a booming start with the chai seller spilling a cup of very very very hot tea all over my legs. Now I have wanted an India themed tattoo for sometime but the moon shaped one I have from the tea is not exactly what I was hoping for! Really I had a lotus flower in mind... The sweet couple behind me were most helpful as I was dripping wet and they assisted with the cleanup. Their daughter was fast asleep but she soon awoke and spent most of the trip rubbing my hair and saying something I did not understand.. Blonde maybe? Here she is, what a sweetie:

After nine hours exactly I arrived in a town called Margao. During my past two trips to India I basically got assaulted by touts trying to get me to take their taxi and stay in their hotels. What a pleasant surprise here - no one asked me anything until I was almost outside the station. Wow! Apparently this is one of the beautiful things about travelling in South India and if so, I am going to like the travel here. The man that did approach me was nice enough and he had a cast and slippers on so I thought, okay, I will go with him. Once we negotiated a price (250Rs) for the 45 minute ride we made our way to his.... motorbike! Now, before we started I told him I was not going anywhere without a helmet. He looked at me like I had 10 heads at which point I told him I wanted a head left at the end of our trip! I put on the helmet which must have had 10 pounds of dust in it and with my pack on my back away we went! At the end of the trip I asked him what happened to his hand and he told me he hit a buffalo at midnight while driving his bike drunk... I knew I smelled stale alcohol!

I was supposed to stay at Madhu Huts and when I arrived the owner told me he would take me to my hut. Well this required a scooter ride so I started to get suspicious.... After a 5 min drive we ended up at his 'relatives' because he was full - classic Indian style. The place was dump so I got him to bring me back to his place and I started walking the beach looking for a spot. Little Italy is where I planted myself as I liked the beach loungers and the bathroom was clean! By 6:30pm I was in bed, beat to a snot and hoping to sleep through the night....