South Trip, Holi and recent

Hello everyone,
Pictures are of tea gardens, Kathakali, Sunrise, temple man and me at Holi. Please check out facebook for more photos.
Sorry I haven’t posted in a while but I have been away and I don’t really have too much time at the moment. This blog will tell you about the South India trip I took at the end of February, what I have been up to recently and also the Indian festival of Holi.
First the South trip, as I said at the end of February I took a Rotary organized trip to South India. The trip was really incredible. With the trip to North India I had the opportunity to see the India we all see in magazines or on the TV but in contrast the south had superior natural beauty and the atmosphere was totally different. It was hard to believe this is all the same country. First we took a 27 hour train journey to Cochin and spent the night there. We did the sightseeing in Cochin and went to Munnar. Munnar is really an incredible place. It is a hill station but has the perfect altitude, rainfall and soil for growing tea so there are tea gardens everywhere. Some places there is tea for as far as you can see. The beauty of this hill station in incredible. We saw other things in the surrounding area like a couple dams with beautiful lakes (where we took a speedboat ride), a place where if you shouted you could hear an echo and also a tea factory/museum. This part of the trip was very tea oriented. The carrots at this place were amazing too. Most of the carrots in India are red in colour and the taste is different than Canada but the carrots here were almost exactly the same as good farmer’s market carrot. I never really knew what tea originally looks like till this trip. It is like leaves from a bush that are cut very finely then dried. There are also many other ways to get different styles or flavors of tea. In Munnar there was also a man who was selling ducks on the street. He had a huge pack of them and was taking them for a walk trying to sell them. It was a hilarious sight seeing all these ducks running around in a pack being scared by the duck keepers stick with a plastic bag attached to it to stay in the pack. The next stop was Thekkady. Here we saw a really cool dance/drama performance called Kathakali. It required the performers to put on like a pound of make up then a costume that probably weighs as much as a Great Dane. They then preformed the dance/drama to music. The performers were able to express themselves amazingly through different hand movements and facial expressions. Originally Kathakali was the way for people of a low caste to experience the Hindu epic stories because they were not allowed to read them. The next day we visited a spice garden. I never knew how all these spices were made and how complex the process is. The garden had pepper, rubber, cardamom, all spice, cloves and many more but I can’t remember them all. In the afternoon this day we went on a trek through a wildlife sanctuary and were able to see a bunch of wild elephants. There were two mother elephants with their babies so that was amazing to see. The next day we drove to Madurai. Madurai is a city famous for the enormous Meenakshi temple. I would say that is only reason we visited this place but unfortunately the temple was under renovation so it was about 5% as spectacular as it would have been if it wasn’t under renovation. I bought some postcards but that just made me angrier that I didn’t get to see the spectacle. There were some really weird vehicles that I will not even try to describe in this city, ok one I will try to describe. It was like a motorbike motor and two wheels under the motor then a couple long metal tubes stretching a couple meters back to a primitive wagon like structure upon which was a man who was ‘under control’ of the vehicle. Overall Madurai wasn’t too great though. Next stop was the southernmost point of India and the subcontinent, Kanyakumari. South of this place is Antarctica. This was one of my favorite stops on the tour. First we arrived and went to a fort and a deserted (but unfortunately rocky) beach then had time to look around and watch the amazing sunset. The sunsets and sunrises in this place were amazing, I don’t think I have ever got up to watch the sunrise two days in a row but I did here. Another cool thing about this place is that it is the meeting place of three major bodies of water, the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. People say you can see the difference in colour of water as these 3 seas meet but I couldn’t see it. Maybe I need to find my specs or at least buy a new pair. Cool thing about India is the use of British terms; my favorite two are rubbish and specs. I prefer them to the Canadian garbage and glasses because the Canadian alternatives sound like a moan kind of but the Indian way sounds sophisticated and proper. Thought you might like to know. The next day we stayed in Kanyakumari but did the sightseeing of a couple small islands with statues and a really amazing temple. The temple was very old, most of the temple was about 1000-2000 years old but one rock with carvings was estimated to be 9,000 years old. There was also really amazing stutues of the gods, pillars in the temple which the main preist guy could play like drums as all the pillars had a different tone, a large magnificent tower and it is the only temple in India which has a female Ganesh( Ganesh is the elephant god and is normally male). Also the men had to go into the temple without a shirt and of course like all temples without shoes so that was cool; I like to use any excuse I can to take off my shirt in India. It is so hot and no doubt the Indian girls like it, so I enjoy making other people happy. The next day we drove to Allepy but stopped at such a great beach on the way there. The waves were pretty big and the sand was clean. Oh ya I forgot to mention in Madurai I bought 4 goldfish and kept them as pets for almost the entirety of the trip. They survived changing tanks on countless occasions and also they survived when the water bottle they were in tipped over spilling all contents on two separate occasions. Three of four of them even survived an overnight train journey. One night we put a fish in a girls glass at dinner time when she went to the buffet line and she didn’t notice until she was about to drink and someone told her not to. It was funny but not really for her. Ok back on topic we drove to Allepy and there we did a sunset cruise of the Kerala backwaters (a system of lagoons and lakes which lies parallel to the Arabian Sea). The cruise really showed the natural beauty of the area and the humble lifestyle the people who live around the area. Although the ride was amazing I made it more fun by climbing all over the boat, and swimming in the water. One thing I found weird about south India was the prevalence of the Communist Party. Although the party is not in power it has a lot of support in South and East India. Therefore there are many red flags with the hammer and sickle lining the roads, and billboards. So after the cruise we came back to the hotel. The next day we took an overnight train journey to Goa. Goa is really like a paradise, when you are sitting on the beach sipping a cold beverage you don’t feel like you are in India. We had almost 4 days in Goa, one for sightseeing (included church which holds St. Francis Xavier’s mortal remains, dolphins in the ocean, a couple viewpoints, and a temple) and the other 3 were just spending time on the beach, shopping, exploring or doing other activities. One day I went paragliding so that was fun but other than that we just spent a lot of time relaxing and swimming. Goa is full of foreigners (especially Russians and Israelis) so you have many people trying to sell you their services, or drugs. To sum up Goa was a great place to relax or party and we all had an amazing time there.
You can take this time to grab a glass of water or use the toilet; I know my blogs are too long.
We arrived in Mumbai at 5:30am on March 2nd and that day I started a one month Yoga teachers training course so that is basically all I’ve been up to these days. Basically I have been doing yoga based classes from 10am till 4pm every weekday. The classes are not what you might think just stretching 6 hours a day it is very different. The first class of the day is the exercises (or asanas), then comes theory. The theory session shows how yoga is a lifestyle rather than just a set of exercises, we talk about things such as the hierarchy of duties (first to yourself, then to your loved ones, then to your work, then to society), how you can attain happiness, how faith is a state of mind, the importance of positive thinking/techniques for such, acceptance, different attitudes we have, the importance of humility and much more. The topics are pretty deep for me but it is always rewarding when you find one sentence which makes perfect sense that you feel the need to share with people. We then have lunch at 12:30, the lunch is pretty brutal but in India I have acquired the ability to eat food regardless of taste you just don’t think and realize your body is still getting the nutrition it needs. Don’t get me wrong Indian food rocks my world but some of the stuff is not so great. After lunch we have relaxation which is a good session where you just (you guessed it) relax, observe your breathing or sounds around you as opposed to thinking. The goal of this session is to make your mind blank except for observing your breathing so when you can focus on one thing you allow your mind to relax. This relaxation is important because your mind gets such a work out everyday traveling to different parts of the world in the blink of an eye, you need to relax it. This relaxation can be more rewarding than even sleeping if you do it properly because when you are sleeping your mind may still be running amuck. Note I said if you do it properly, it is very difficult to not let your mind wander take my word for this. I find as soon as I can concentrate on my breathing my mind starts thinking about something I need to ask or do. After Relaxation we play a game which always has some message, like don’t get to attached, or the mind works better after it has relaxed. We also have started juggling as it uses more than one part of the brain and promotes concentration. Depending on the day of the week we then do methodology (how to teach), anatomy (body systems), or theory and lastly we always have more exercises. The exercises are difficult but I am becoming better, the thing is I can’t do some simple twisting exercise (because the flexibility in my back and hips is comparable to an Iron Festivus pole) but I can do some that require strength. In addition to this there are two Japanese girls, who I swear just came from being contortionists at the circus, who make me look like a noob. The class will end on the last day of March. On the weekend of the 27-29 March I will be going to famous caves in the interior of Maharashtra, called Ajanta and Ellora, with my host family so I am pretty excited for that. Also I have been doing tabla drum classes twice and my counselor lent me a tabla so I can practice at home now, I am better but still not very good. It is a little embarrassing when a 7 year old is far better than you at anything but there is definitely one of those guys in my tabla class. Whatevs I feel like I am learning relatively fast. Not a whole lot other news except I will be going on a Himalayan trek on April 24th for 10 days and I signed up for a crazy meditation course starting April 8th-19th during which you can not speak, read or have any sensory stimulation. You just meditate all day for ten full days, oh ya and you have to wake up at 4 am to meditate and your last meal of the day is at 5:30pm. I really want to do this as a challenge to myself and I am sure there are countless benefits.
Ok now for the answer to the question ‘How did this man become so red?’ the answer, HOLI. Holi is an Indian festival during which everyone regardless of caste, religion, job, or anything gets together to celebrate. The celebration traditionally had something to do with an Indian myth during which a demon was killed by a god because he abused the power given to him ‘and there was much rejoicing’ (Monty Python anyone). The story is part of Hindu mythology but the celebration is now enjoyed by all religions. The day after the full moon people play with colours to signify the rejoicing after the elimination of evil. On this day first I went to a beach where not many people were applying colours to each other then I went to the housing society of one Rotarian so that is where the real party was. They had all the free colours (which come in power form then you can mix them with water or simply throw or apply as power), a DJ, free food, many people (all of whom were rejoicing), and a rain dance. Rain dance means there was set up with 25 shower heads or so in an area about 5m by 5m and people were dancing and cleaning themselves. I wanted to keep the colours on me but realized in the afternoon that the colours are not coming out. That is one contributing factor to how this man became so red. After this party we went to another party at a different housing society, this place was bigger, the rain dance was better, the food was better and there were water balloons so where can you go wrong. The only problem was the colours at this place were the ones that really stuck, and one downer was I got colours in my mouth so they didn’t taste to peachy. I am surprised I didn’t get sick after playing with this material in the sun all day, but that is a good thing. After about 2 hours at this place me along with 8 other exchange students, whom I shared the amazing experience with, were pooped so we sat on the driveway wishing passersby a ‘Happy Holi’ and relaxing. How all the colours are applied are you put the mixture in your hands and apply it to the persons face or body whom you want to wish a happy holi, sometimes it gets out of control and there is a colours fight but it is all in good fun. The colours are also applied to hair so that pretty much destroys your hair, and the water from the rain dance spreads the colours all over your body hence the almost full red body. I have not attempted to wash my holi clothes; I will probably give them away. After exactly a week and many showers, my body is not yet colour free but it is almost colour free. My eyebrows, front of the hair, and nails (toe and finger) are still pink. If you are ever coming to India time your trip with at least one of the many amazing Indian festivals and be prepared to participate if you want to see the real cultural side of India. If you are in the Mumbai area give me a shout and maybe I can hook you up with someone to take you around to see the festival.
I think that is pretty much it. I have written too much but I had a lot to pass on. I hope you enjoyed the post despite my brain going a little haywire about 2/3 of the way through such. Have a great week! My next post will be in a couple weeks once I am done my yoga course. Have a good St. Patty’s day.