Highlights from India

We did so many things whilst in India and the simple encounters we made en route with some amazing people have to be a great highlight but there are some memorable moments certainly for me that stick out as highlights along the way....
Bylakuppe : the Tibetan community 2 hours from Mysore with 10000 monks living and studying in this amazing environment with monastries, schools, hosiptals and the constant sound of prayer and chant as musical backdrop to our stay. A shere delight to share this with them and with our friend and guide Sonam.
The Backwaters - the boat trip with Johnson's Eco Boat was a definite higligh for us all. Very chilled out, lots of space, Fab food! and a perfect way to view life in all its guises on this stretch of water.....simple magical.
Yoga with Venkatesh in Mysore - a unique way of practising hatha yoga to work from within to without focussing on the breath, limited movement and looking to the organs to stretch as opposed to the body
Varkala - this unique cliff-side spot with its red cliffs jutting sharply down into the sea. We stayed at the perfect spot Sea Pearl Chalets which was quite simply ideal with its eagle eye view of the beach below, perfect little garden for morning yoga and afternoon chilling whilst watching the birds of prey fly over head....
The station platform at Coimbatore - witnessing the muslim community say farewell to a few loved-ones leaving for the hadge and Mecca....very moving
The steam train ride to Ooty - long but worth it as it wound its way up the mountain side to Ooty with breath taking views and drops either side to turn the stomach
Pondicherry and staying at the Aurodindo ashram accommodation by the sea with its incredible garden - prefect for yoga and meditation in the morning
Amma's ashram and the amazing kirtan vibes in the evening and the beautiful morning chanting energy
Walking up the Chembra Peak and the tea plantations!
Ayurvedic Massage - enjoying the vigorous moves of the ayurvedic massage especially a lovely little lady in Mamallapuram
The many people we met especially Lakshmi on the train to Coimbatore who sang to us so beautifully, Giatri who leet us squat in her home as Martine was so poorly for a couple of hours, Sonam our beautiful Tibetan friend who showed so much kindness towards us, Pradeep who helped us so much after Martine got her bag stolen from the hotel room aand the many nodding head people who listened too us when we needed help or talked to us and patiently explained the does and donts of India.... Namaste to all!

Last Day of October - Thoughts about India

Well I'm finding it a little gard to adjust to life back here in europe. Yes it is cold and rainy which is a vast difference to the weather in India but life in general is so different and I feel more than a little guilty at the amazing life I have and the beautiful countryisde that surrounds me. The richness of my life in material form is vast when compared to that of the many people we saw and encountered during our trip. Does that mean those people are poorer or unhappier? No I don't think so.... naturally everyone out there is working so hard often simply hand to mouth to earn enough to eat that evening or the next day and they would love a little more than they have but we saw plenty of smiling and happy people, children playing and a simplicity of life that left me in complete admiration ... money does not make you happy for sure it comes from way deeper.... I think that their devotion to whichever religion they have chosen - Muslim, Christian or Hindu and we met them all - provides them with an assurance deep within that everything is as it should be and God will be there for them no matter what and that ultimately everyone is connected in this universe- something we lack in our european world of seperateness. Their faith and devotion forms part of their every day routine just as we brush our teeth or dress for the day ahead whereas we reserve our worship - often the rare times we do - for a church environment on a Sunday or simple at Christmas....thus creating a seperate nature to our faith as opposed to one that has a direct affect on our every day lives.....This is just my opinion of course but I think this faith interlinked with one's day allows a person to feel more confident that their is a higher purpose to the mundane every day, to the hard work and thus be happier about daily tasks. And boy are the daily tasks hard work for many out there! Namaste

28th October 2010

Back in France...what a journey over this past month and what a last couple of days journey! Intense and my body seems to have given up a little filling up with cold on the flight home but we are back safe and sound. The journey back from Bylakuppe was full on with Martine very sick and Leslie not on form - an emotional farewell too to Sonam who was an absolute gem to us. Mysore and the train was intense as ever and Chennai is a heaving mass of life and not always the good side of it....it does have a smeel that only the heat and well dirt and poverty can creat but we found a great guest house for our last night in quiet gardens. We got an early taxi to the airport - mad driving right till the end - second and first gears are not used much! and the flight (s) home were just perfect. Club World is certainly THE best way to travel. My girls met me with Christian at the station in Valence on 26th in the evening and Teo and Claude came too for Leslie and Martine and we just about stayed awake for dinner before driving up the mountain in the cold to our own bed for the first time in a month. Thank God! I will posst more thoughts on India and this journey we have been on over the next few days and more photos as I start to get my head around life back here in europe....in the meantime namaste!

24th October Bylakuppe

Well it has been an amazing day here in Bylakuppe - it is not every day you see monks on motorbikes, a philosophy debate with several hundred monks, younger student monks playing football with an elastic band style ball, visit several quite outstanding temples and have a guided tour with our delightful friend and guide Sonam then bless the mala beads we bought around the hundreds of prayer wheels surrounding the monastry....then go back to Sonam's house to make momos and dhal with her and her husband and share a very privileged moment with her discussing life, budhism, tibet and how her family came to be in India, her daily life and oh so many more memories. Visually this whole journey has been an array of colours and diverse experiences and today the temples were also a mass of colour and sounds but my lasting memory of today has to be the time spent with Sonam sharing her real life Budhist philosophy built on devote belief and simple humility....her eyes, smiles, laugh and sometimes tears said it all.....such a wonderful day. Very sad to leave her home this evening and tomorrow we start our return journey to Mysore and Chennai.....France bound on Wednesday morning. From this corner of Budhist Tibet in the heart of Karnataka... namaste

Mysore to Bylakuppe

So a very bumpy road journey on the bounciest bus I have ever travelled on - but we made it and found our hotel and the yoga shala where we spent three days practising with the very precise and patient Venkatesh. Mysore is certainly the richest feeling city we have been in to date and the cleanest but also the most polluted. Still the people remain very welcoming and we really enjoyed our time there.....Martine found the nurse she was supposed to see to give her the letter from her godfather, we all found silk and had clothes made, went to an amazing temple an hour out of Mysore called Somnapur - incredible stone sculptures piled high - quite an incredible sight, and we had a great evening for my 40th birthday first at the Lalitha Mahal and then the Olive Garden, Unfortunately I got sick the day after (22nd) and spent most of the afternoon in bed or being sick. Better today thank goodness and we have headed to Bylakuppe accompanied by the delightly Sonam who arrived in Bylakuppe in full tibetan dress and we drove 2 hours to Bylakuppe - a vast tibetan community with about 10000 monks studying and living here. Quite an amazing experience to be here with so many monks and a completely different culture to the Indian one just a few kilometres away....Its not every day you see monks in burgundy robes on motorbikes drinking coke! We are here tomorrow and then via Hunsur travelling back to Mysore to catch the train to Chennai and then the return home to France on 27th....all going quickly. There may be one more entry before the end of the trip and then a resume with some more photos when we return to France....goodnight to all Namaste

19th October 2010 Chembra Peak

We climbed Chembra Peak today early start and climbed to the top of the 2100 metres peak and had some great views down the valley. The tea plantations were fantastic to se and the colours of the flowers amazing! Ayurvedic treatments this afternoon and we are collapsing into bed tonight and off to Mysore tomorrow......namaste

18th October 2010 Kalpetta

So three days have passed since the last entry and boy have we travelled. It started on a train from Allepey to Coimbatore with cockroaches for company and thankfully some great people including the lovely Lakshmi who even sang to us and entertained us for a couple of hours - aged 70 but full of energy! Then a rickshaw to Mettupalyam where we stayed in a lodge that wanted to be modern but let itself sadly down once you left the reception area.....evening at the station to collect the station masters token without which we would not be allowed a ticket the following day - purely at the station masters discretion the tokens and we bypassed the hundreds of people on the waiting list - as we were collecting the token we witnessed a moving departure of people to mecca for the hadge - on their first part of their epic journey Mettupalayam to Chennai. A lovely man explained the principles of Islam and the hadge to us as the prayers and tears and shouts of allah akbar could be heard along the platform by the many relatives standing their to see them off. 5 am start and off the to station for the ticket collection and then stood in a queue for an hour or so to make our way through the srum and bag our seats for the 5 hour journey up the mountain to Ooty at over 2000 metres altitude it a hillstation that used to be manned by the brits to escape the heat. The train crawled steam driven up the mountain through tea plantations and with deep drops either side of the train on more than one occaision. We saw monkeys and amazing flowers and Martine appointed hersefl litter warden telling all the people i our carriage to put their rubbish in the bag she had and not to through it out the window as India is not a dustbin - she has her work cut out for her let me tell you! Ooty a disappointment - dirty, poor, nothing on offer although funnily they were actually selling scalves, gloves and hats outside the station - it was at least 25 degrees in the sun not -25! Then we took an epic 4 hour taxi journey down the mountain in possibly the oldest taxi in India with a driver who battled with his collapsing car and kept telling us to pray for him and performing elaborate signs of the cross on himself and the car whilst Christian songs blarred out from his stereo. We finally arrived in kalpetta and the ayurvedic clinic - yet another disappointment on the hygene front but otherwsie all ok. Then I realised I'd left my mobile in the taxi so we frantically called him and he drove to meet us in Sultans Battery (yes this is the real name!) so a later evening than planned but I got my phone back. Today we have all had a breif consultation with the Ayurvedic Doctore Dr Vinod Babu and had treatments this morning and this afternoon followed by some yoga and tomorrow we are off to clim the Chembra Peak at 6 in the morning before more treatments in the afternoon and hopefully and early night! Mysore will be the next stop...I hope to add some photos there of the last few days but suffice to say we have already had quite a journey here and we are all still digesting everything we are seeing every day of this trip...it will take some time to do so I think.....until the next entry. Namaste