India Day 21 - 20th of August

So now I've spoken to mum about the shark attack, and her immediate reaction was "Gosh I hope it doesn't put him off surfing."  Now that's a cool mum.  She knows her priorities, and it's all about the surfing.
Gokul Chats has turned out to be my favourite joint for lunch, and we had a treat on the way there.  There was a pig digging up the side of the road looking for food.  It was totally unconcerned by my presence, just kept on digging and chomping.

Babe in the city

Today was the second day of the Thai Massage classes, and we covered a lot.  It was great fun, and I think this is something I'll use in the future on my friends and family.  I have good notes, so should be able to.

India Day 20 - 19th of August

Big news today is that my brother got attacked by a shark back in Australia.  It was a big bull shark, and he's ok, with no major injuries.  It seems that he was mistaken for something else by the shark, and so it exhibited typical aggressive behaviour, circling him and charging him.  Fortunately he was on a Mal at the time, so he was able to pull himself up onto the board and out of harms way.  The shark eventually lost interest, and he could paddle in.
He says that one of his friends was spear fishing nearby, and so that could have alerted the shark to prey being in the area, or it could have been protecting it's territory.  We'll never know, but he's ok, just a little shaken up.

Today was the first day of my Thai massage course with Lillie.  Last time I studied Thai massage was in Mexico, so it's been a very long time since my last go.  It all came back though, and it was a lot of fun.  Lillie has a great way of explaining things.

At Gokul Chats today I decided to weigh myself.  I came in at 77.1kg.  That's only just down on my typical 78kg, so no real difference.  After eating I weighed myself again at the pharmacy and got 77.1kg again.  Hmm.  Well 77.1 it is then.  One special little treat left for me at Gokul Chats today was a cockroach in my food.  I'll leave a little pic right here of the wee fella.

Cockroach Thali

India Day 19 - 18th of August

Today we had organised a trip to go to another temple, but I just couldn't make it.  I'm absolutely exhausted.  I just couldn't do anything.  I tried to go to Anu's submission at the police station, but even that was too hard, so I just ate and rested.
At class tonight with Vinay he said "You are tired because you are losing a lot of weight." Oh dear.  That's not exactly what I wanted to hear.  I have to agree though, I do feel quite skinny at the moment, though it's more of a change in weight distribution.  With the food here in India, my weight seems to be dropping from my chest, and onto my belly.  I have a soft tummy now, I can feel it in my forward folds.

India Day 18 - 17th of August

Led class today, which is always fun.  I love being in led class with all the others, but it can be a bit cold.  I have to stop after Marichyasana D and everyone else keeps going.  Then when it's time for Urhva Dhanurasana, I have to magically join back in again.  In the interim I've cooled down a whole lot, which makes Urdhva Dhanurasana more than a challenge.  During the interim I sit there in lotus, following the ujjai breathing and listening to Saraswathi's count.  I like to watch the other students too.  My favourite to watch are Brittney, Melissa, Charalambos and Kiri.  I watch them because they're my friends and I always think that if they can do it, maybe one day so can I.  Especially Charalambos.  Even though he's a foot taller than me, we have the same body shape.

I lost my jump-backs again today in led.  I think it's because I'm really tired at the moment.

Anokhi's for a nice big breakfast, and I spent a good long time chatting to Everett and Jeff.  They're really nice guys, and seem to be into the yoga here for exactly the right reasons.  They're not all crazy about whatever the next posture is, they just enjoy wherever they are with the yoga.

After Anokhi's we went to Sams for his weekend lunch.  As before I had everything on the menu.  Yum.

Tonight was my first ever attempt at a castor oil bath.  Britt and I had a go at it, and we made a huge mess.  I think we might have left it on too long as well, because it made us both really really sleepy.

India Day 17 - 16th of August

Saraswathi told me to come earlier tomorrow morning.  I think there are less people practicing now than when I first started.  All the people that came for the USA summer and have now headed back to their homes to start work or university again.  Earlier is much better in my opinion.  It's cooler and the mind is more calm at that time in the morning.

 i skipped both the Parivritta Parsvakonasanas today.  I wouldn't be able to do them if I tried with my newly added stiffness, so it was a good thing to do.  I'm sure it didn't help my Marichyasanas not having done that early spinal twist, but today just wasn't the day for them... I wasn't feeling it.

Breakfast at Anokhi's, then off to the Tibetan Village and the Golden Temple.  The most amazing thing was listening to the Buddhist chanting.  The voices are so low and gravelly, it really seems like they're trawling the deep for lost spirits.

Leah and I being silly

Green hotel tonight for dinner.  It was nice.  There's a server there who is in the foulest mood possible.  It was quite funny.

India day 16 - 15th of August

Each day when Sam sits down to try to adjust me into Marichyasana D, he says to me "tomorrow you'll bind".  It seems that somehow Sam has cottoned on to the fact that tomorrow I won't bind, because today he didn't say it.  Today he said "Next week you'll bind".  Oh well.  I'm used to being the difficult student in class...
Breakfast today we went to the secret breakfast place in Lacksmipuram.  it was amazing, with the best idlis I've ever tasted.

Secret Breakfast Place

After breakfast it was straight to the chocolate man for some more of my cacao addiction.  Today I had a dark ginger and a dark mint.

In Vinay's class, we did something different.  Instead of doing a flexibility class, we did a strength class.  It was fantastic!!! For the first time in a yoga class, everyone else was struggling and I was ok!  It felt like the old days going cycling with weaker riders, or going for a surf in big waves with my friends.  I know it's ego inflating, but to not be "that guy" that struggles was a special feeling.

Today is Independence day in India, and so there's no sleep to be had by anyone.  Crackers and music going off all night, this is why I'm here. :D  <3 India!!

India Day 15 - 14th of August

All these attempts at Urdhva Dhanurasana and my wrists are really sore.  They have a severly limited range of motion, and that combined with the limited range of motion in my shoulders is causing them to be over extended each time I try to backbend.

Jumping through is also becoming more difficult.  It could be that I'm just getting tired after being here two weeks, but it seems more than that.  The jump-backs are getting harder too, though they are at least easy enough that I don't have to aim where to put my feet.  Once I'm up, I'm back.

Finally today I made it to the chocolate man...  This is going to be a daily affair.  I got dark truffle, dark orange, and dark cream caramel.

Chocolate man chocolate

India Day 14 - 13th of August

Practice today was tough.  I've lost a lot of my spinal twisting ability from Vinay's work.  So much so, that today I couldn't touch the ground in Parivritta Parsvakonasana.  I hope it's only stiffness, and not a genuine loss of flexibility.

With Marichyasana D, Sam is getting me to put my foot down on the ground for the first set.  This means that I can get practice binding on both sides before trying again with my feet up in half lotus.  I think it's helping.  Sam seems to have noticed that I'm getting stiffer, and is adjusting for me.  He's not pushing to bind me anymore, just taking me as far as I can go.

India Day 13 - 12th of August

Back to two classes a day today.  Ashtanga in the morning, and flexibility/backbending at night.  I really like the two-a-day thing.  It feels good.

In the morning, there are a whole bunch of salesmen and delivery people that roll past my window and balcony.  One of them is the newspaper delivery guy.  He's got a special talent, and it's putting the newspaper in the exact same spot every day.  Outside my window I can see the second story balcony of the house next door, and the newspaper lands exactly in the same spot each day.  If you look closely at this photo you can see it.  It sure beats my newspaper delivery guy back home.  He can hardly even get the driveway.

Gokulam Chats again for lunch, I love that place.  The food is good and well priced.  It's also nice to sit outside at lunch.

I also ordered a new custom surfboard from Rodney Dahlberg.  It'll be ready when I arrive in Australia.  I went for a 6'3" 19 1/2" 2 1/2".  I'm going to get an orange all over spray.  The fin setup will be a thruster/quad combo.  I can't wait for it to be made.  Rod glasses his boards really lightly, so it'll be light as a feather.

India Day 12 - 11th of August

Today was our day off, so Tullia and I went to climb Chamundi Hill.  It was an interesting experience, being ripped off by a tuktuk driver, but eventually getting there.  At the bottom we saw the fattest monkey in the world eating sugar cane.

At the top, we started to have problems with too many people asking for photos.  Because I'm tall and blond, blue-eyed, and have long hair, everyone seems to want a photo with me.  It's ok occassionally, but when it's all the time it gets annoying.  I've started asking for 20 rupees per photo whenever someone asks.  Of course they're Indian so they never pay, but it decreases the number of people who ask for photos for sure.

On the way back from Chamundi Hill, we were running a bit late for breakfast, so made a quick call to Marie at Anokhi and asked her to prepare some breakfast for us for when we got back.

Fat Monkey

Chamundi Hill Stairs

Temple Atop Chamundi Hill

Britt has decided that she wants to join us for Vinay's flexibility classes.  She's really excited about it.  i don't know why, she already backbends like a beast, and can grab her calves in a drop back with no trouble at all!

Tonight is the farewell dinner for Monica.  She's been so much fun to have around, hopefully I'll see her in either Mexico or India in the near future.

A final note, I finally figured out how to get hot water from my shower.  Until now I've been heating it on the stove.  Hahaha.

India Day 11 - 10th of August

Led class again today.  It wasn't so good.  I'm definitely getting less flexible.  My binding in Marichyasana B and C wasn't so good, though I still bound.

I went for a massage with Lillie.  It was fantastic.  I think it's one of the best western massages I've ever had.  It certainly isn't the same as getting a massage from Madhu, but it's still good for the muscles.  We did a full hour and a half because obviously my muscles are quite a bit harder than the average person's.

Tonight was my first experience at the Green hotel, going with Belen and Brittany.  The food was ok, but not as good as Green Leaf.  The do serve meat though which is great.

During the day there were cows sniffing around the bottom of the house, so took a few photos.  They're beautiful peaceful creatures.  Here's a pic of them eating the neighbours' garden.

Cows

Lunch was at Sam's house.  He did two traditional Japanese meals, and also some desserts.  I had both meals and all the desserts.  The food was fantastic, but serving sizes were normal sized, which just isn't enough for me.

In the afternoon I bought a bicycle.  It's called "miss India" and it's a cute little thing.  It's a little small for me, but still a good bike.

India day 10 - 9th of August

Each day before practice, I get up, and put some water on for my mate.  I make my mate, and then I sit down and do a little meditation, and some hip openers.  After that I eat a small meal, and it's time for my morning shower and nauli, before getting changed and ready to leave for practice.

I'm a little worried about my mate supplies.  I've gone through nearly a third of the bag after only ten days here.  Perhaps I'll have to switch to chai or something like that for the second month.

My Marichyasana B and C were more difficult today.  I think Vinay's work is tightening up my core and hips, and so I can't slide in to those poses easily and it's taking a bit of effort to bind.  This week they've been very easy, but today was harder.  I feel like I'm getting worse!  Marichyasana D was further away than usual as well.  I'm usually almost there, but today I was miles away.

This morning I got Brittney to take a photo of me outside the shala.  Here it is.

The Shala

India Day 9 - 8th of August

Today my first niggles from the yoga have arrived.  One of my intercostals on my back seems to have been strained a little, and also my right ankle is sore.  I think the right ankle is just loosening up from the motorcycle accident I had a couple of years ago.  There's still only a limited range of motion in my ankle from that.
I called Madhu for another massage, but he says he's heading to Kerala, so he can't do it.  That's the second time he's not been willing to make an appointment.  He must be really busy.

Vinay's classes were different for everyone today.  That's nice.  I like that he's specialising them a bit.  He still doesn't adjust though, and that's a bit annoying.  Also the fact that we are forced to wear a t-shirt in class is tough, because he closes all windows and doors, so it's steamy in there.

With a few others I walked around the city a bit.  Interestingly there's a McDonalds in Mysore.  I don't know how that works with the no beef thing.  We all went to FabIndia as well, but didn't buy anything.

Tullia took me to Gokulam Chats.  That's a really great restaurant.  We had the South Indian Thali, and it's really nice.  I'll be coming here more often.

After that we visited the Elixir juice bar.  Unfortunately it was expensive and horrible.  Haha.

I bought another cotton mat for yoga.  Hopefully this one is better than the blue one I have.  The blue one is nylony, and so slips a bit, and is stretchy.  This one is thick and cotton and orange.  It's really nice.

I found the himalaya muscle rub for my back and ankle.  There are two types.  One is a gel, and the other a cream.  The Gel seems to be faster acting, but not as good.  The cream is natural, and lasts a while.

Just a note on the monkeys here.  There are a lot, but they're picky with what they eat.  If you give them a piece of fruit, they'll often ignore it, and go searching for chocolate.  This one was going through a bin, picking out all the best chocolates, and ignoring all the other food!

A monkey hunting for chocolate

India Day 8 - 7th of August

So Saraswathi says she doesn't like my Marichyasana B.  She says I have to get my front foot wider, not so close to my other knee.  I try, but it makes binding more difficult.  I think the muscles in the legs and hips need to open up a little more before I am able to get that one looking pretty.
In chanting class, Rachael gave me a hint for Marichyasana D.  I'm so close to binding, especially on the second side.  Sometimes I touch my hand, but I just can't quite get there.  Rachael says to get my foot on the ground a little wider, and right the way back, near my hip.  Then try to get my knee under my armpit, rather than closer to my elbow.  Rachael leaves tomorrow.  That's a bit sad because she's really cool.

I bought a shala carpet, just to see how it compares to the one I have.  Also, I'll need to wash the other one once a week, and we won't always have a moon day to do it.

Vinay gave me some variations in class.  I can't quite manage what the others are doing, so he gave me some easier poses instead.  I'm a little worried with some of the work we're doing.  It doesn't seem too good anatomically speaking.  He seems to be creating some muscle imbalances in my legs.  I hope that doesn't cause an injury.

Green Leaf for dinner.  Great food there.  The mango Lassis are great!

India Day 7 - 6th of August

Today is my first moon day here.  I started with a lazy breakfast at Santosha, and of course everyone else was there as well. :)  At Santosha Tullia invited me to come to Sam's baking class.  Now that was amazing!  Sam is an incredible patissier, and he's a really good teacher.  We made 7 different desserts, with lots of chocolate.  A lot of it was vegan too, which is useful in a group of yogis.

Sammy's Mud Cake

After the cooking class I went back to the phone guy for the third time, and finally got my phone working.  Calls are cheap here which is cool, because it means that everyone calls everyone all the time, we're like teenage girls.

For dinner I went for a giant paper dosa.  I've been wanting one since I saw a photo of one years ago, and here it is! It's huge.  Yum.

Mmmm, Paper Dosa

Photo reblog

http://wanderinmymind.tumblr.com/post/7393867578

India day 6 - 5th of August

Today was my first regular class.  I got there to a line of two people waiting at the door just inside.  I lined up behind them and heard "one more" in Saraswathi's sweet voice come chiming through the gap and the first of us three went through.  Ten seconds later "One more" and about a minute after that, "One more" and i went in.

Saraswathi is amazing.  As soon as you step into the room you feel her presence.  She only has to stand near me and the postures seem easier.  I don't know what it is, but she has some sort of energy about her.  It's indescribable.  One thing that surprised me was how cool she is.  She's often making little jokes at the students, either encouraging them, chastising them, or slowing them down if they're pushing too hard.  She says some things that just crack me up and I have to stop from giggling in the middle of class.

The students are a different story however.  Maybe it's just culture shock, but I'm not really used to being around so many Americans.  They're very loud and brash and rude, and talk badly about each other, and only seem to care about shopping.  I don't know how I'm going to handle this - perhaps I'll only hang out with Europeans for a while.

Saraswathi stopped me at Marichyasana D as expected.  She said I should get it next week.  I laughed.  How many teachers have told me I'm about a week away from Marichyasana D?  I'm guessing ten.  She'll change her tune once she sees how unchanging my body is.

Problems with the bank meant that I didn't have time to eat lunch, only a quick smoothie before backbending.

Belen and I met Romey at Vinay's.  She's here to do a teacher training in Vinay's own style of yoga.  It's based on Ashtanga (Vinay studied with BNS Iyengar, who was one of Guruji's early students at the Mysore Palace.)  While picking up Romey from her hotel, we met a guy from Venezuela here on business named Hugo.  He's a really cool guy.  We went to dinner with him at 6 Main.  After dropping Belen and Romey home, I saw a huge frog hanging out on the street, and had to jump in front of a rickshaw to save it.  The driver thought I was nuts until he saw the frog, then he totally understood.

India day 5 - 4th of August

Today's a Sunday, so it's rest day.

This morning we went to Santosha for breakfast.  The meals are a little better here than Anokhi's garden - a little plainer and bigger which is my style.  We hung around Santosha all morning until Arun needed to go to lunch, so we went with him to a combination "Chinese and Thai" restaurant.  Their take on Thai food was a little different, but it was enjoyable all the same.

Interesting Thai Food

Today I signed up to Vinay's backbending classes.  He's built a new studio near the park, and will be holding backbending classes in the evenings.  We signed our lives away at KPJAYI, so we're not allowed to do yoga at any other studio.  So this is my only option, it's not yoga, it's just backbending exercises, but still it's fun.  This way I'll be able to keep my body challenged while I'm here.

I had a smoothie at Anu's cafe.  The cafe isn't open, but she's serving smoothies between five and seven each day.  The smoothie was quite disappointing in the end.  That's the second time I've been disappointed by Anu's.  Better to spend my money at Anokhi's and Santosha.

India Day 4 - 3rd of August

I'd read about shala time beforehand so I knew to arrive early.  From people studying with Sharath, they'd said "15 minutes early to class for shala time, 15min earlier than that because Sharath says so, and 15min earlier than that because everyone else does."  That makes 45min early to class.

So I arrived at the shala at 5:35am for the 6:20am class.  Immediately I felt a little bit silly because there was nobody else there.  So I sat down, and waited.  A couple of minutes later somebody else turned up and sat down beside me silently (who later turned out to be Rachael from North Carolina).  Slowly more and more people came and sat silently until we were a whole lot of lumps in the dark slowly getting lighter.  Just before six, the guy opened the gate and we trundled through.

Today was a led class.  In fact I'd organised it so that my first class would be a led class.  I don't want to be in there doing the wrong thing in Mysore style.  Saraswathi came in and everyone stood up.  She carries a presence with her, an energy.  She led the chant which was just beautiful and then counted us through.

Marichyasana D didn't bind today, but I had a great Garbha Pindasana and Kukkutasana.  I was the first one up in Kukku, and stayed up for her five full long breaths.  I could see she was looking at me which is a good thing I guess.  She stopped me at Supta Konasana, and I waited with everyone else until we all did Urdhva Dhanurasana together.

I don't know why, but somehow I was expecting more of a challenge at the shala.  Not like the adjustments from hell like the old days, but something more.  Historically there were two double sessions a day, whereas now I was just going to be doing one half-primary a day.  I know Saraswathi will stop me at Marichyasana D on Monday, so I've got to find something else to do.

After class, Carmen, Sarah, and Tullia invited me to breakfast which was really nice of them.  They're all really cool people!!  We had it at Sarah's house.

Cooking class with Anu was fun.  I have to admit the food wasn't very good, but she admitted that she'd only been cooking since she came from Mysore, and it's a different type of food to where she's from.  We made Palak Paneer, and chai masala, and some milky desert, and chapatis.

I went to the phone guy and got a sim card.  He said it'll take another 48h for the sim to start working, but all I have to do is wait.

After cooking class I had my first massage with Madhu.  On Marie's recommendation, Madhu was the best (but the most painful).  Well I'm a big boy, I should be ok...  Haha, I wasn't prepared for that.  It was very very painful.  Still, it was amazing, and I'll definitely be back.

Madhu's torture table

Dinner was Dosas for the first time. Yum.

India Day 3 - 2nd of August

This is Mysore?  What?  Rows of mansions in quiet streets.  Where's India???  This I was not expecting.  I thought I was going to India, but it seems I've arrived in Beverly Hills.  Getting woken up by tweeting birds, looking out from my balcony and seeing huge private houses and palm trees.  Ummmm…

I tried to practice in my room this morning, but coming up from the second Suriya B I blacked out and hit the floor quite hard.  Ok, time to eat!
Looking at the options, I went in search of Anokhi's Garden for breakfast.  Right outside the front, I met Belen from Spain, and we hung out during the day.  She's studying at another shala.  We were walking down the road, both looking for the same place, not realising that we were right outside!

Registering was fun.  The lady finally came at 5pm to take registration, and I was let in.  I walked in and gave my papers and photo. "Sit down".  I sat down on the floor.  "You beginner."  It was not a question.
"Ok"
so I paid my money and got a little card with a pic of Saraswathi on it.  She told me that class started at 6:20 tomorrow.