Bangles, temples, bindis, saris, beggers, gawkers, lovers and haters.. India so far..
An entire day spent with our indian mother, whos name we never knew. We left the comfort of our indian home and into the fancy streets of bombay. Our mom stays home all day with her two daughter-in-laws cooking and playing with the children, she took us on a tour of her side of Bombay. We spent the ENTIRE day going to temples and eating tons of food. Best quality day for her and for us too!! Tired and branded with tikka powder, bangles, bindis and henna we did a quick sari wrapping/photo shoot and set off for the Punjab Mail Train to Agra. Experience on a 30hr train ride; staring men, constant crying babies, staring men, worst food, staring men, and sleep. Not any different from the rest of India other than the crying babies and worst food.. Agra begins...
Friday, April 23, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
indian dress :)
"Be easy about this. Be playful about it. Don't work so hard at it. Let your dominant intent to be to feel good, and if you don't feel good, then let your dominant intent be to feel relief. Feel your way through it. If you think your way through it, you can get off on all kinds of tangents. If you feel your way through it, you can come quickly to your Core Energy, and when you do that only good can then flow to you." -spirit of abraham
a great message from my wonderful uncle marc :)
things are still crazy here. me and megan decided to buy indian outfits, punjabi suits so that we might fit in more. it seems to be working. :) getting more respect and one lady came up to us and told us that we looked lovely in our indian dress and we almost started crying because we were so happy. she was so sweet. we felt so akward but now we know it is a good thing. its so funny. pictures coming soon (whenever i can find a computer that will handle it and not take 2 hours.....)
we had a horrible dinner last night, we met a friend on the street, a nice guy who sells maps, he took us around and showed us some of the city, jsut walking around. we loved him and had chai with him and just talked. we had made plans to meet up with a guy we met on the airplane and he was a business man (he told us to call him if we had any problems when we were in india, so nice). when he came up he came in his car. we asked if our friend raul could come and he said it was ok (he thought we had known him before), come to find out when we get to the resturant that we are in an extremely akward situation where our business friend told us to watch out for this guy because he sells maps and is poor. we ended up having dinner and the business man paid. raul told us how uncomfortable he felt and how he was being judged. really they were both judging each other and we were just in the middle and both of them were nice guys. i know that the business man was looking out for us but we were just so sad that it was like that. when we got home me and megan felt so sick because it just seems like this is how it is and what can we do about it. both of them were nice guys why couldnt they just have a conversation and be friends? not sure.
we have been really careful and are very aware of what is going on, it sounds like we are just hanging out with these random guys but we arent. actually we dont really like most of the men and we love the women.
weve been having some really good food and eating with our hands. how fun!
we went to the crazy train station today and booked our tickets to agra (city of the taj mahal) on wednesday! we are really excited! its about a 22 hour journey, should be interesting to say the least.
lots of love to you all!!!
a great message from my wonderful uncle marc :)
things are still crazy here. me and megan decided to buy indian outfits, punjabi suits so that we might fit in more. it seems to be working. :) getting more respect and one lady came up to us and told us that we looked lovely in our indian dress and we almost started crying because we were so happy. she was so sweet. we felt so akward but now we know it is a good thing. its so funny. pictures coming soon (whenever i can find a computer that will handle it and not take 2 hours.....)
we had a horrible dinner last night, we met a friend on the street, a nice guy who sells maps, he took us around and showed us some of the city, jsut walking around. we loved him and had chai with him and just talked. we had made plans to meet up with a guy we met on the airplane and he was a business man (he told us to call him if we had any problems when we were in india, so nice). when he came up he came in his car. we asked if our friend raul could come and he said it was ok (he thought we had known him before), come to find out when we get to the resturant that we are in an extremely akward situation where our business friend told us to watch out for this guy because he sells maps and is poor. we ended up having dinner and the business man paid. raul told us how uncomfortable he felt and how he was being judged. really they were both judging each other and we were just in the middle and both of them were nice guys. i know that the business man was looking out for us but we were just so sad that it was like that. when we got home me and megan felt so sick because it just seems like this is how it is and what can we do about it. both of them were nice guys why couldnt they just have a conversation and be friends? not sure.
we have been really careful and are very aware of what is going on, it sounds like we are just hanging out with these random guys but we arent. actually we dont really like most of the men and we love the women.
weve been having some really good food and eating with our hands. how fun!
we went to the crazy train station today and booked our tickets to agra (city of the taj mahal) on wednesday! we are really excited! its about a 22 hour journey, should be interesting to say the least.
lots of love to you all!!!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
"maybe what you are looking for is in the journey"
not really sure where to start, maybe i will first describe where i am right at this moment. i came to get on the internet at a place where they have phone booths inside and internet rooms. kindof a wierd place. they said that all the computers are full but they have some next door that are open, "this guy will take you there,follow him" (by next door they mean 2 doorways down, down a dark hallway and up a flight of stairs, than take a left and there is a small door with even stepper set of stairs leading to a small room about 8 feet by 10 feet with 10 computers and office chairs all in this space, also there is an attendant there to write down your information and they must have your fully address and everything, who knows why? but it takes forever and its really annoying. they wont let you say that you dont have an address right at this moment so i use my parents, haha) so here i am in this sweaty little box room. a sign that reads "viweing of pornography strictly prohibited", isisnt that odvious? i guess not.
i am in mumbai now, the "heart of india" as our friend that we sat next to on the plane from bangkok to mumbai said. we are meeting him at leopolds cafe (from shantaram) tonight at 9 for a drink or food, not sure. he is really nice and he told us to call him if we had any problems when we were in india. we told him we were headed to goa to check out a yoga place but we were not sure about it.
turns out that our intuitions about this place were true. we found a place called shri kali ashram, they do a 200 hour yoga teacher training program and it is near the beach in goa. sounded sweet. we had a little bit of a wierd feeling when we didnt hear back from their emails for a few weeks, but we figured oh india is crazy, maybe they have a bad connection. so we decided to check it out for ourselves because we alwyas would have wondered about it if we didnt. we flew straight to goa from mumbai and took a taxi straight to the ashram. actually it was a house that was really hard to find and the taxi had to ask a bunch of peopel where it was. a little wierd that noone in the town knew it. we talked to this guy whiteny who has been studying with bagavan the "teacher/guru" for 4 years, whiteny teaches the yoga and classes. there are meetings every other day with bagavan, his real name is sean. he told us about the program and we asked him questions. everyone eats whenever they feel like it, there is an indian family that cooks and just leaves the food out. really akward. but the food was awesome and really fresh and good. we ate with our hands. so fun!
he showed us our room, it was at a random womans house down the street named syrilla, she was super nice but didnt know anything about shri kali, she just got money from them for the people who stayed there. another wierd thing.
so we got there in the morning and spent the whole day participating as if we were in te program already, went to the lecture and it was really intense, alot about philosophy and intense stuff but we couldnt tell if he really knew what he was talking about and was smart or if he was just blabbing and talking in circles. the lecture started out with , "so what do you guys want to talk about"....... it was about 3 hours.
than we went to the yoga practice, it was actually really nice and relaxing. imagine this....we go into the kitchen and grab some mats that are there for peopel to use, they are extremely dirty and smelly, than we walk up the stairs to where we practice, it is the cement rooftop of the building, not even smooth, and so people put down a straw mat before the yoga mat to make it better. the other students helped us. there were about 5 people there who had been there at least 5 weeks some about 4 months. they are crazy. the practice was interesting. we did a great thing called tantric smiling meditation, where whitney led us throughout our body and had us smile and relax from head to toe. nice.
it was a good class but there was no learning or teaching involved. it would be the same class and sequence every night. a little boring.
the next day there was a breathing and exercise near the beach. the breathing was on this random platform down the road that we walked to. we did a few interesting things. yet again with no explanation of why or what we were doing. we just followed the other students.
than we did cartwheels and wheelbarrow and other exercies on the beach, really intense and hard.
there were some books for the course, written by the bagavhan, sean, that we would have to read. never got them.
we decided that this was a crazy place! in between all of these activities me and megan would discuss wheather we were crazy for not understanding why these people were liking this course or if they were the crazy ones. we went back and forth throughout that whole day and night and the vertict was that it was crazy and we would get out of there as soon as possible. it was not what we were looking for. we were looking to learn and this place was not where it would happen for us.
we went to the internet in the town of agonda (which by the way was a ghost town because the "season" was over because it was so hot, another reason to get out of there, who wants to stay in a dead abandoned town? not us.) so we did a little research and decided to get to pune, another town that is supposed to have alot of yoga and things. we made a plan and told the ashram we were leaving, no problem.
a guy who was in the internet place told us that maybe what we are looking for is not at a yoga place but on our journey to find one. so we decided to take this up and travel around and if we find a yoga place than its a bonus, otherwise we will enjoy the journey and let india take us in. (she has :))
we took a crazy 10 hour bus ride to pune (its a few hours away from mumbai). we almost got in a million car accidents, thankfully (or not....) our driver had the loudest most obnoxious horn known to man. so we managed to get there :)
we made friends with about 10 business men who were on a trip there for a meeting. we ended up having lunch with them and they bought us tea also when we stopped. they were really interested in us and really friendly. we exhanged information and wil lprobably hear from them soon. our "main friend" loved megan and he told her that her dreads were very stylish and beautiful. everyone loves her dreads here.
we stand out like sore thumbs, blonde and red dreads. if you can even imagine how much they stare.
pune was interesting, we did not really like it there, we got in late at night and felt a wierd vibe almost the whole time. the best thing that happened was we found a autorickshaw/tuk tuk driver named sayeed and we ended up spending a whole day with him and he took us to a bunch of yoga places and called his friends and got a newspaper to look for yoga places for us. none seemed to work out or have space and me and megan almost cried once. but we got over it. he took us to all of the main sites, bought us a lassi from his favorite place becase they have "great quality". and we tried to take him to dinner with us but he only had a pepsi and than left and sai he would wait for us outside. he was so great. he took us to the bus station this morning and told us he was so sad and to watch our bags and our cameras. thanks.
our 2 hour bus ride turned into 4 hours like usual india time and dropped us at a completely random location in the middle of the street, luckily there was an indian woman who said follow me so we did and than we got a cab. no problem.
so now here we are in mumbai the heart of india. not sure how long we will stay yet. it feels good to be here. not really sure why, just have a good feeling. we found a place to stay really quick after our cab dropped us off. its called apollo guest house. it smells a bit and we are sharing a bathroom but its not bad. its in a good part of town, coloba. we will see how mumbai treats us.
our plan is to just travel around and see the places we want to go and if a yoga place comes up, great, if not that is ok too.
we are flexible.
i am so thankful that i found megan at kalani and that she came with me! if not i think i would have already been home by now after going to shri kali by myself and figuring out it was insane , i dont think traveling around india is such a good idea by yourself. it is good to have someone with you who you can say "is this legit?" and help to make decisions and stay safe. we are great travel partners and are having a great time!
i am in mumbai now, the "heart of india" as our friend that we sat next to on the plane from bangkok to mumbai said. we are meeting him at leopolds cafe (from shantaram) tonight at 9 for a drink or food, not sure. he is really nice and he told us to call him if we had any problems when we were in india. we told him we were headed to goa to check out a yoga place but we were not sure about it.
turns out that our intuitions about this place were true. we found a place called shri kali ashram, they do a 200 hour yoga teacher training program and it is near the beach in goa. sounded sweet. we had a little bit of a wierd feeling when we didnt hear back from their emails for a few weeks, but we figured oh india is crazy, maybe they have a bad connection. so we decided to check it out for ourselves because we alwyas would have wondered about it if we didnt. we flew straight to goa from mumbai and took a taxi straight to the ashram. actually it was a house that was really hard to find and the taxi had to ask a bunch of peopel where it was. a little wierd that noone in the town knew it. we talked to this guy whiteny who has been studying with bagavan the "teacher/guru" for 4 years, whiteny teaches the yoga and classes. there are meetings every other day with bagavan, his real name is sean. he told us about the program and we asked him questions. everyone eats whenever they feel like it, there is an indian family that cooks and just leaves the food out. really akward. but the food was awesome and really fresh and good. we ate with our hands. so fun!
he showed us our room, it was at a random womans house down the street named syrilla, she was super nice but didnt know anything about shri kali, she just got money from them for the people who stayed there. another wierd thing.
so we got there in the morning and spent the whole day participating as if we were in te program already, went to the lecture and it was really intense, alot about philosophy and intense stuff but we couldnt tell if he really knew what he was talking about and was smart or if he was just blabbing and talking in circles. the lecture started out with , "so what do you guys want to talk about"....... it was about 3 hours.
than we went to the yoga practice, it was actually really nice and relaxing. imagine this....we go into the kitchen and grab some mats that are there for peopel to use, they are extremely dirty and smelly, than we walk up the stairs to where we practice, it is the cement rooftop of the building, not even smooth, and so people put down a straw mat before the yoga mat to make it better. the other students helped us. there were about 5 people there who had been there at least 5 weeks some about 4 months. they are crazy. the practice was interesting. we did a great thing called tantric smiling meditation, where whitney led us throughout our body and had us smile and relax from head to toe. nice.
it was a good class but there was no learning or teaching involved. it would be the same class and sequence every night. a little boring.
the next day there was a breathing and exercise near the beach. the breathing was on this random platform down the road that we walked to. we did a few interesting things. yet again with no explanation of why or what we were doing. we just followed the other students.
than we did cartwheels and wheelbarrow and other exercies on the beach, really intense and hard.
there were some books for the course, written by the bagavhan, sean, that we would have to read. never got them.
we decided that this was a crazy place! in between all of these activities me and megan would discuss wheather we were crazy for not understanding why these people were liking this course or if they were the crazy ones. we went back and forth throughout that whole day and night and the vertict was that it was crazy and we would get out of there as soon as possible. it was not what we were looking for. we were looking to learn and this place was not where it would happen for us.
we went to the internet in the town of agonda (which by the way was a ghost town because the "season" was over because it was so hot, another reason to get out of there, who wants to stay in a dead abandoned town? not us.) so we did a little research and decided to get to pune, another town that is supposed to have alot of yoga and things. we made a plan and told the ashram we were leaving, no problem.
a guy who was in the internet place told us that maybe what we are looking for is not at a yoga place but on our journey to find one. so we decided to take this up and travel around and if we find a yoga place than its a bonus, otherwise we will enjoy the journey and let india take us in. (she has :))
we took a crazy 10 hour bus ride to pune (its a few hours away from mumbai). we almost got in a million car accidents, thankfully (or not....) our driver had the loudest most obnoxious horn known to man. so we managed to get there :)
we made friends with about 10 business men who were on a trip there for a meeting. we ended up having lunch with them and they bought us tea also when we stopped. they were really interested in us and really friendly. we exhanged information and wil lprobably hear from them soon. our "main friend" loved megan and he told her that her dreads were very stylish and beautiful. everyone loves her dreads here.
we stand out like sore thumbs, blonde and red dreads. if you can even imagine how much they stare.
pune was interesting, we did not really like it there, we got in late at night and felt a wierd vibe almost the whole time. the best thing that happened was we found a autorickshaw/tuk tuk driver named sayeed and we ended up spending a whole day with him and he took us to a bunch of yoga places and called his friends and got a newspaper to look for yoga places for us. none seemed to work out or have space and me and megan almost cried once. but we got over it. he took us to all of the main sites, bought us a lassi from his favorite place becase they have "great quality". and we tried to take him to dinner with us but he only had a pepsi and than left and sai he would wait for us outside. he was so great. he took us to the bus station this morning and told us he was so sad and to watch our bags and our cameras. thanks.
our 2 hour bus ride turned into 4 hours like usual india time and dropped us at a completely random location in the middle of the street, luckily there was an indian woman who said follow me so we did and than we got a cab. no problem.
so now here we are in mumbai the heart of india. not sure how long we will stay yet. it feels good to be here. not really sure why, just have a good feeling. we found a place to stay really quick after our cab dropped us off. its called apollo guest house. it smells a bit and we are sharing a bathroom but its not bad. its in a good part of town, coloba. we will see how mumbai treats us.
our plan is to just travel around and see the places we want to go and if a yoga place comes up, great, if not that is ok too.
we are flexible.
i am so thankful that i found megan at kalani and that she came with me! if not i think i would have already been home by now after going to shri kali by myself and figuring out it was insane , i dont think traveling around india is such a good idea by yourself. it is good to have someone with you who you can say "is this legit?" and help to make decisions and stay safe. we are great travel partners and are having a great time!
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