Arrived in Kathmandu and got a prepaid taxi. Absolutely no hassle and a 45 minute drive to the hotel. Sort of reminds me of India but without the hassles. People are very kind to tourists - of course they want you to buy something but are not in your face and definitely accept no for an answer. Wandered around for a day.
Then I hopped on the bus to Pokhara and Sue made arrangements to fly to the game park. It was tempting to join Sue for a minute or two but I decided to stay with my game plan. There were no air-conditioned buses available due to the upcoming festival so I got a regular tourist bus. It was great - enjoyed meeting a couple of interesting people and travelled up the valley.
I dropped my pack off at the guest house affiliated with the trek. Then I hoofed it up the hill to the yoga studio. I took the palace of a room - the round place, brand new, next door with shower and western toilet and queen bed - and all to myself. Then it turns out that the neighbours own this so I spent some time with them having tea and chatting. Saw the goat after being sacrificed and killed. They boiled water and took all of the long shaggy coat off. Then I guess it was cut up and split up with some neighbors. One goat costs about 10,000rupees - about $180.00 quite a huge amount of money for the festival. They invited me for goat stew and dinner but I declined. Everybody seems to welcome you here. Everyone talks to you and it is nonthreatening - just so very friendly and most have good English.
The yoga studio was high above the lake - a superb location - the monsoons have not finished so I watched the rain come in from the end of the valley for a few afternoons. The food was fantastic - homemade yogurt and museli with apple and banana and a milk-banana drink for breakfast. Much earned after meditation from 6-7am: a walk for an hour down the hill, along the lake and back up, then one hour of yoga and finally the breakfast. Lunch was awesome - thali like - 5 items on a big metal tray with something in each compartment. Always rice, lentil soup, 3 different vegetables, and relish (acidy). All fabulous with such individual flavors and lots of different spices. Evening meal was a bowl of bean and potato soup and 2 chappatis - yummy flavours again. Tea was homemade and clear most of the time with lots of great spices. Midafternoon was chai - spicy tea made with milk and sugar. All terrific!....and you'll notice no wine or beer and I never ever thought of that - different places and different things.
The yoga was interesting - very different than at home. Lots of meditation, lots of repitious exercises, focusing on one or two parts of the body when we got into the asanas, lots of breathing exercises. The second day I offered to teach the instructor a class done in the Western way. He didn't really respond. They expect you to do one hour of karma yoga - selfless service - once a day and I was not impressed with the assigned tasks so thought that I could dream one up. ....fat chance. By the third day, I was less resistant and actually really liked the yoga classes - quite intense which of course I like. There is no explanation here and no checking any poses so a previous background is really helpful. Anyways a wonderful wonderful experience but enough at 3 days - in this style with this teacher. So many good things about it though and I am glad that I did it.
Still getting over jet lag - that should finish soon.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment