Month: June 2015

@ Isha Yoga Center

Isha is very nice. The people are extremely patient, warm and helpful.
The food is delicious and the amount of comfort in the rooms is extremely above my expectations.

I’m looking forward to the program, which starts tonight after dinner.
I’m getting more calm and relaxed, although I underestimated the exam and travel stress that has been now obviously vibrant in my body and mind. I need a ton of rest and naps, and hope to recover soon.

However, I’m feeling really calm inside, and living slowly. This is making me realize again how rushed we do things back home. Even the simplest things go in such a hurry, that there’s no time to do anything profoundly.
I’m walking slower, eating slower, meeting people slower, breathing slower. And everything is more enjoyable and profound this way.
There are many rituals here, which all have a precise goal and are very elaborated. I’m just going with the flow and being open to anything. At least that’s what I’m trying. I notice a lot of resistance in my mind, which doesn’t seem to want to engage into new things, or maybe is scared for something, I don’t know.

I’m glad I can take the time to relax here, quite opposite to my last stay in India.
Looking forward to the rest of my stay here.

…

A few days later
…

There are many things to say about this ashram, and words would be hard to explain most of them.
The way people eat, drink, talk, smile, walk, and do everything here, is so vastly different.
So vastly more natural, more human.

I’ve been diving in a very beautiful and rich culture and country, into many beautiful people.
It’s just unthinkable how a place like this can still exist in today’s world, however it’s very much here.

While I don’t feel like spending too much time in this blog, I think I should spend at least some, although I don’t feel like there is that much that I need to say.

Everything here is done with grace, respect, and thankfulness, at a normal/human pace. One thing at a time, but thoroughly, fully.
We eat in silence, all together, sitting on the floor while the people go around with buckets of food. You can eat as much as you need.
There are a few temples, gardens and walking paths, places to play, places to meditate, places for yoga, big halls, small halls.
It’s quite undescribable.

The program had a very significant but small effect on me, that I feel present and slightly growing daily. It’s been a beautiful experience and I’ve been bonding with so many people.

At this point, I need half of the food I usually eat, 1/3 of the water I usually drink, and between 2/3 and 1/2 of the sleep I usually get. No jokes.

In 2 days I will take an ‘advanced’ program, we’ll see how that goes. And now it’s time for my homework for it.

Thanks for reading 😉

Airport and Arrival nonsense

I guess I came here for adventure, and boy did I get some.

The battle between sleep and caffeïne went on for hours as I sat at the airport.
On the screens, I would have to board on gate 10. Then the gate disappeared.
Then gate 10 appeared again. Then the gate disappeared. Then it showed gate 9.

With no personnel in sight to ask help from, or any idea where or when I was (time had no meaning anymore), I just tried to stand in line in the awake state.
Asked around to a few very helpful Indian dudes, and they kind of confirmed that I was in the right row. Hooray.

The plane took off, the plane landed. A 7 hour wait for a 1.5 hour plane ride – worth it.

Time to go to the ATM and withdraw some sweet ass rupees.
If only …

3 different ATM’s failed the transaction and I started to get worried as fuck.
Without money, it’s kind of hard to BUY something
.
I did have a hotel booked but it was a pay on arrival. A taxi driver genuinely asked if I needed a taxi ride, when he saw me cluelessly circling around for some kind of magical money withdrawal that would appear out of nowhere.

That’s right, he genuinely asked, not shouting and starting to take bags out of my hand together with the rest of the swarm of hasslers. I was amazed.

Now at this point, the worst-case-scenario thinking and concerns of my parents did save my ass, as I had a dollar emergency fund in my backpack.
I changed a few dollars for rupees with the taxi driver, so I could pay that taxi ride to the hotel and my room there.

I think I found a way to withdraw money which is extremely inconvenient, but if I can get internet connection and have time, it should be fine. I made a bank transfer to another card and should be able to withdraw as soon as that money arrives. No idea how long that will take.

But now away from financial survival, into the depths of first impressions.

There was a huge difference between this side of India and the northern side.
People came to me and actually tried to help, they were really friendly and not charging 10x the price or shooing me away.

Sure, there was horning. But not that insanely ridiculous, psychopathic nerve crushing 24/7 all together pointless horning that I remembered from last year.
Sure, there was filth, but the streets were quite amazingly clean here.
And there were traffic lights! I am very amazed and have a great first impression.

It feels alot more like Nepal here than it felt in northern India.
I hope this feeling can stay.
Tomorrow I will hopefully make my way towards the yoga center, and will have to see what happens there.
Time to take a rest from 30 hours in airports and airplanes, with just some 20 – 40 minute snoozes now and then and no deep sleep.

One could say I’m exhausted.

@ Mumbai Airport

Okay, 24 hours of airplane and airport sitting could be easier.

While I must admit that the Indian airplane food is now rank 1 in my master list of extreme airplane dishes, I still feel pretty fatigued after almost 24 hours of being awake and mostly waiting (in the airplane, for the airplane, to the airplane, …).

I find myself at Mumbai airport, drinking a huge 210 rupee coffee. International rupee price. In 4 hours my third and final airplane will leave towards Coimbatore, and then the only remaining challenge will be to find the hotel and to actually have it booked (gogo random online website).

Even though last year, on my only other trip, I had to take a total of 4 or 5 airplanes, the experience does not show itself yet.

Thank god my dad had the idea to leave before the morning traffic jam, so that we arrived in Brussels airport more than 3 hours early.
Apparently I could fly from Brussels to London, but no further, without a return ticket from India. I would be sent back in the first airplane.

This surely battled my adventurous spirit that made me a one-way-ticket believer. I had to quickly order a random ticket back, that would not be too expensive to cancel.
Funnily enough, a retour ticket was cheaper than a one-way ticket (almost half the price), and so, I’m not only flying from Delhi to Brussels in september, I’ll also have a nice empty seat in november back.

When I landed here in Mumbai, and had to take a bus to the other terminal, I immediately remembered. The humid heat, the stares of the people, the awesome flora (palm trees wut?), the filth on the street and the big business buildings next to sheds where the poor live. Bam. In your face. India.
So as of now, I’m quite curious about what will happen, how I will enjoy it, which people I will meet.

Since now the fatigue is pretty great, my brain just switched to waiting in lines with apathy. It works.
Let’s see what happens when I walk around in Coimbatore, hopefully later today.
Well, at least there’s no mistake that I arrived in the right country already!

Namaskar, India.