More of Mangalore

After almost 3-weeks in the Ayureveda Center, I left Kerala and went back to the ashram. I had gotten little relief from the heat and I wanted to return for a Kriya Yoga Camp. I had broken out badly from a heat rash and was pretty uncomfortable. Once I arrived to the ashram, I got a tad irritated as I had to sleep on the marble meditation hall floor as they did not have any rooms. I thought everyone knew I was coming but no one including myself made a reservation! I lasted one night, then they finally moved me to a room the next afternoon, but they said I would have to be booted out again right after the camp. So I made a decision to leave the ashram after the camp was over. It was an exhausting 5-days. They kept us busy 18-hours a day, a little much I thought. But overall it was a great experience. So with unplanned time on my hands now, I decided to do a little sightseeing and took an afternoon bus to Mysore, 7-hours away. The first 2-nights I stayed at a dive and I thought it was overpriced. I am all about value. If I stay in a room with nothing, I don’t; want to pay but $10 USD. So a $30 room with nothing is overpriced in my opinion. I'd rather pay double and get everything I need. (within reason) I hired a driver and toured the area the next day. Mysore is a beautiful city and I am glad I went. It is known as the City of Palaces. It reminded me how perturbed I get visiting tourist areas. They really gouge the tourist and I hate haggling for everything. I had scheduled another bus ride back to Mangalore and there ended up being a state wide strike; for the rising fuel prices. I was told to return 4-hours later which I did. When I checked in, and they said my bus had left an hour earlier and I was considered a no-show. I would have to buy another ticket and wait other 4-hours before the next bus left. I immediately hired a driver. I can be so impatient! Now I remember how much happier I am when I travel for a purpose instead of as a tourist. I needed up back in Mangalore, about 40 km from the ashram. I kind of like this town! It is relatively clean for India, affluent, well educated, numerous colleges here, not too over populated and has everything you need….. and they don’t gouge the tourist. I didn’t feel like I had enough Ayurveda time, so I found a place here. It is cute and I am probably their first Western patient. They made me a nice room and are spoiling me rotten. I feel like a little princess and get everything I want and need for a very fair price. Actually cheaper than the hotel I had in Mysore and it includes TV, internet, 3-meals and 3- treatments a day! On two different occasions, I spent the day and night with Karen and Anita (and Indian from the ashram). She and her beautiful young family live about a half hour drive away in a beautiful new, custom built home. Us three girls had lunch together; delicious Chinese food one day and another day yummy Italian food. We had such a wonderful time together. Today was the last time I will see my friend while I am in India this trip. Next week I head north for my program at Osho for three months. It is bitter sweet for me! Osho Meditation Resort is called Spiritual Disneyland. They say it use to be fantastic but has now become too commercial. Each day 1000 people from all over the world are at Osho. I hope to not long for the simplicity of the ashram and my days with the cows. Finally, monsoon season has begun and I have cooled down. What a welcome relief. It is now about 83-degrees in my room instead of 90! I have uploaded lots of photos from my trip on my Facebook page. To see them, log into FB.

Kerala for Pancah Karma

I’ve been away from the ashram and the cows for a week now! I actually miss it. I don’t miss not having electricity and getting overheated but I miss my routine and friends at the ashram. The ashram was an incredible experience for me. I spent 3-nights in Mangalore. I visited an ENT, for my sinus infection and of course he doped me up with all kinds of meds which are making me sleepy. The ENT cost $3 USD. I even had my hearing checked by an audiologist, for 2-hearing tests at $10. The good news is I am not deaf. I think I just tune everybody out since I can’t understand what they are saying anyway. I had my rounds at the hotel bar for vodka and tonics and got the desire for alcohol out of my system. It was easy to get around the town in the tuk-tuks as most drivers spoke some English. Only one driver cheated me out of probably the 15-rides I took. This is very good odds! When I looked at a map of India I realized how close I was to Kerala so I decided to visit for Pancha Karma. This is a 5-step cleansing process which is not fun at all but it makes you feel amazing afterwards. I was at this center and did some training here in 2007, ayugreen.com I couldn’t be so close and not return. My last visit was bitter sweet. I went through a difficult period going off anti depressants. Thankfully I have not been on them since, although I still struggle with bouts of depression. I have been here about 5-days and studying a little of Ayurveda, but mostly I am receiving treatments. Yesterday I received an herbal bundle treatment. It is for joint pain, relaxation, weight loss and to reduce the brown spots on my skin from the sun allergy. I was amazed after one treatment the spots were 2-3 shades lighter. I didn’t even want to take my evening sunset beach and sun gazing walk! It is a powerful treatment and makes you pretty lethargic afterwards. I am also here to help reduce the heat in my body. I am cold and crave sweets after pancha karma. I need to cool down as the heat the last few weeks has taken a toll on me. My body swells in the heat and humidity and I have literally “no” energy! Mt walks on the beach don’t draw the crowd like it did 5-years ago. But everyone still says “hi, how are you, what is your name, where are you from”? But at least they don’t follow me any more. I wanted a burka last time just so I could walk the beach alone without 10-people attached to my arm! The center is a working Ayurveda Hospital for the locals as well as a training center for foreigners. Right now it is quiet with foreigners. Besides myself, there is a Russian and a gentleman from Sri Lanka. The Russian has been here 4-months for psoriasis and joint issues. He was not able to lift his arms. Now he can almost raise them to his shoulders! I heard another Russian just left. He was here for 21-months recovering from a drug addiction. 2-days ago within 10-minutes of here there was a Marxist political rally. During the rally a bomb was set-off to scare and scatter the people while the politician was stabbed to death! When such incidents happen, there is a harthal, a strike, called. No city services are available and the roads can be blocked with the strikers. We could hear the strikers rally on a nearby highway. I’ll have to do some research on this, but I remember the Marxist party being a problem when I was here 5-years ago too. Good new……………..I heard today they caught the murderers. Today is a holiday, as is every Sunday. Most of the staff is off. They took us on a sightseeing tor. We went to a local handicraft place. Too bad I don’t have a home or I would have bought several pieces of art today. I loved the boat ride on the river which took us out to the Arabian Sea. There were seven of us in the boat, and I am the only westerner. Once again I feel like a celebrity. Everyone along the banks of the river was waving at us/me. Now I know what movie start and politicians feel like. It felt feel good to get out and about. I am trying to decide whether to return to the cow ashram for another few weeks, or if I should hop on a plane and go north for a special class with Agama yoga in Dharmsala. It’s actually more than a hop and rather exhausting travel. I will have to take a car an hour a way to the airport. Then fly to Deli for at least 1-night, and finally take a 12-hour overnight bus ride to the Dharmsala area. I’d stay there for 1-2 nights then go to another area for a 5-day class. I am trying to decide if it is worth the hassle, or if I should just wait until another time to take the class. After the class I would need to hop on another bus ride and plane and come south for my 3-month long program at Osho. I love India but the traveling part is exhausting, expensive and very stressful for me. Decisions, decisions……let me ponder for a few days.

Finally......back in India

After Mumbai, I spent a few days in Bangalore; taking a Pranic Healing Course. It was fabulous and I learned a lot. I have since taught a few people how to self heal. I should use it on myself more! The last few weeks have been amazing but difficult. I was at a basic ashram in southern India. It is a friend of mine’s ashram who I met in Rishikesh. I had stayed at her place in Goa for a month. She has been going to this ashram for 7-years. I mainly came for a Gau Seva, servitude to the cows. I ended up only spending a little time with the cows. Most of them were located at a more primitive location half an hour away. I spent time massaging the adults as well as the calves and their mother’s. They had a total of 250 cows in both locations. I helped my friend with a Kids Camp the ashram was having. She didn’t really even like kids until she was forced to teach them yoga. hehe One evening 4 of us; my friend, a young Russian couple and I decided to spend the night outdoors on top of a hill. Bugs were everywhere but I enjoyed the fresh air. Out of no where and at 2 am, clouds rolled in, the wind whipped up and the Russian fellow says, “I think we need to leave”. We quickly gathered everything up and ran down the hill in the dark with only 1-torch for the four of us. We only made it indoors by just a second. I thought the world was coming to an end! We had hurricane force winds and the rain on a tin roof was deafening! It rained like this for hours and dried rat shit from the rafters above blew on me and my face all night long. It was an experience I will remember forever! While at the ashram, I meditated a lot which was very good for me. I actually discovered god in a cave when my kundlini energy was awakened. It was an incredible feeling as this loving, warm energy traveled through my body as a bright light. I feel it is the same energy my massage clients have felt for years, yet I could never experience. I had asked for a sign from god, and within seconds this incredible white light and energy entered my body. I immediately wept. When I opened my eyes, I could see a beautiful angel of smoke before me. Later, I since realized it was sandalwood incense burning that the cook had left, but at the moment, I saw an angel before me! Another interesting experience was after a yoga nidra CD that I would listen to daily. I had really good experiences with this program 6-months earlier in Rishikesh. Yoga Nidra is a yogic or physic sleep. I was totally lucid and relaxed on a roof top terrace and putting away my mat after a session. I saw a person walk across the room outside of the window. He was purplish and I asked my friend who this person was? She said what you are talking about; there is no room outside of this window. It was like I was seeing another dimension, another plane, another room that did not exist with a person walking in it. And during a hike we heard a buzzing or humming sound. It was distinctive and we listened to it for a long time. The Indian with us said it way tree energy. You could feel your hands vibrating. Come to find out, the guru said it was the earth’s energy in resonance with solar energy and that not everyone can hear this. We could hear it again almost everyday in different locations. It was absolutely mesmerizing! Afterwards I checked a sight solarstormwarnings.com It appears there is a lot of solar activity going on right now. More to come for some scary stuff told to us by our guru, teacher of spirituality. Our guru had planned to be in silence for the entire year. After 3-months he came out and called a meeting for his followers. He said he had some news that he must share with us. The message he received from his deep meditations showed signs of upcoming world calamities. The world will start changing as early as June or July. He said there will be tsunamis, earthquakes, and World War III started between Iran and Israel. He sees Japan getting split into 3-pieces and more problems with the nuclear fallout there. Indonesia and New York he sees in deep trouble. Mexico will have a tsunami. The entire earth will be without electricity by October for 3-days. Many people will die, but the farming communities will have an easier time. The Middle East will suffer quickly without power. He told us about NASA agreeing with much of what he has said. He mentioned a famous astrophysicist Alexia Demetria who says there is a solar cloud of debris in our solar system with asteroids the size of planets. He first gave this message to the adults, then to the teenagers. He brought out a back pack and showed them everything to pack for an emergency. He even had stronger warning for the teenagers after he had receiving updated information from the astrophysicist. He sees the Himalayas having problems as glaciers start to melt. He has already gotten his family from Delhi to move south. He told my friend that if her son comes to India from New York in December, that it will be too late. Her son needs to get here now, before June. He as advised others not to travel in June. This of course is pretty upsetting. I guess we have all been hearing about 2012. My family back in the states has taken this pretty serious for years even before hearing this information. I met with a spiritual couple back in Nov of 2010. They had me as a guest in their home in Guatemala and were doing an audio pod cast to their followers. They said they foresaw an earthquake, tsunami or nuclear problem would affect Japan or the Philippines during the week of March 11-17, 2011. So 4-months earlier, they were right to a tee about their prediction of the Japan disaster! I use to not pay much attention to the New Age Spiritual goers, but now I do because I am one! The ashram was located about 3 km outside of a good sized village and over 40 km from Mangalore, a good sized town in S India where many engineers live and work and train before they work in the Middle East; Dubai and Abu Dhabi UAE. It was comfortable enough but I really tired of the food. We mostly ate just rice with a stewed vegetable. We even had rice porridge for breakfast everyday. The last week there, the electricity only worked about 2-4 hours a day. So the heat was pretty unbearable for me and I ended up getting a sinus infection and a heat allergy. I’m now in Mangalore at a decent hotel for a couple of nights. Ahhhhh………it’s like luxury, I have A/C! Tomorrow I go to Kerala to the Ayurveda Center I stayed at in 2007. I’m going for another Pancha Karma treatment and to learn more about Ayurveda. I didn’t realize I was so close to the area, only a 4-hour drive which is nothing in India. I really felt I should visit this place again. The treatments will help me with the heat issues I am having too! I guess I need to get use to not having A/C and electricity as the world comes nearer to the end! Really in all seriousness, if you read this, please know that I do not take this information lightly. Please read it. Google some of the above information. Absorb it. Start planning what you will do in the event of these world calamities.

Another month on Koh Phangan

I haven’t written in my blog in ages. No excuse, except I hate typing on my little keyboard.

I have been on Koh Phangan since January 18th. I will leave on March 22. I have finished my Level 2 yoga with Agama. I have to be honest, I didn’t enjoy it at all and it was a real struggle to finish. I was ready for the intensity again, but we only had class 3x a week. The teacher really didn’t teach, we viewed a video of Swami. I could have done the same thing by distant learning over the internet. It has been hard to meet people here as the island and classes are so spread out. Besides, I am one of the oldies. There are only a handful of us compared to the hundreds of 20-30 year olds! I just haven’t fit it. But………..I may consider spending more time here in the future. I could actually run a massage business and live and work here 5-6 months a year.

On another positive note, the island is beautiful and I am getting use to relaxing. I love walking on the beach and wading out to a sandbar and just enjoying the simple pleasures of life. I have gotten into drinking fresh coconut water! This is the island’s main economy besides tourism!

I took a weekend Experiential Tantra Workshop which was loads of fun but a little awkward! I am now taking 10 sessions of Chakra Balancing. It’s given by a Thai woman, and mostly I’m receiving some pretty rare body work. I feel amazing, after being pretty darn depressed for a few weeks. Today I learned how to use a pendulum. I’m so excited about this. It’s scientific magic! Basically we are an energy based universe. Everything is energy. Pendulum work is a way of connecting with your inner self, your innate intelligence. All living matter has ability to sense beneficial or destructive energy. Animal’s sense danger, plants shrink when hostile people walk near them. Our nervous system is like a cosmic computer. But most of us are not in tuned enough to recognize what answers the nervous system gives us. Our mind is like a big radio or television receiver and transmitter. A properly trained person can concentrate on thing, person, object, thought, etc, and becomes in tune with it. The person touches the thing on its own frequency. Nerve cells begin to vibrate in resonance to it, and this vibration has a frequency. The nervous system then translates this quality and causes the appropriate agreed upon movement in the pendulum. You can get a yes or no answer to just about question using the pendulum. They say it takes a year to a year and a half of practice to master it. I am already doing very well with it just in the first day. And have asked it some questions. Maybe all this yoga has done my pea brain some good! Hehe All kidding aside, I have always had a good intuition, but using the pendulum will make it even stronger and more accurate.

I leave the island on the 22nd and will spend a few days in Bangkok waiting on my visa to return to India. I plan to spend a few days in Mumbai, and maybe even do a little massage work there too! Then I am taking a Pranic Healing Workshop for a few days in Bangalore, the IT capital of India. I’ll end up at an ashram near Mangalore, to do a “gau seva”, servitude to the cows for a month. This is a highly spiritual experience! I’ll shovel cow shit, bath, feed milk, massage and meditate with the cows. I want to practice my new learned Pranic healing skills on the cows too! They say it burns bad karma to serve the cows and it helps with psychosomatic disorders and calms the minds and nerves! It’s going o be a hot dirty job but I am really looking forward to it. I know, people think I am crazy! I got so attached to the cows in Rishikesh and I felt a real connection. They would almost fall over when I massaged them.

Then I have a 3-month program lined up at Osho Meditation Resort in Pune. It is an intern position where I will live, work and learn about meditation. Osho was quite controversial and had some wild ideas. Like using dynamic movements, music, dancing, yelling, laughing, and screaming to get the energy out of your system so you can then be at peace and still to meditate. The program I’m on teaches you how to integrate work and play. We were taught early in life that play is one thing and work another. This program teaches you how to be playful in your work! The program radically changes our approach to work and life. I am excited! I will learn new things and the resort will put me to work utilizing my skill sets.

So that’s about 4 ½ months of my 6-month return visa to India. My family and friends ask when I am coming home? The truth is, I no longer have a home!

4-nights of fun on Koh Phangan

I haven’t written in my blog in a while. I guess it is easier to read other peoples blogs than I write in my own. Hehe It is so damn hard to type on this little keyboard and without a proper desk.

I am getting more and more adjusted to life on Koh Phangan, but to tell you the truth it is a bit boring. I am having trouble doing my own self-practice for yoga.

I have started Level 2, and it is going okay. Not quite the dynamics or intensity that we had in Rishikesh. I guess you can never repeat your experiences and you have to be content with the memories of the past. We only go three days a week for 3.5 hours each day. There is about 25-people in the class, many just took Level 1 here on the island. I wanted to attend simultaneously a Third Eye Retreat, but it was for 10-hours a day for 10-hours. I thought it would be too intense to do both courses at the same time. I also had concerns with so much meditation and sitting still. I’m afraid I might find myself to be a crazy woman when given and forced with so much time to focus! Someday I will do something like that, I just don’t think now is the time.

One of my classmates from Australia had to leave Rishiksh a day early and missed graduation. Her grandfather was dying and she had to return home. So now she has arrived here on the island for our yoga class. We have done a few things together. Her first night here we went to a “1001 Arabian Nights Party” that the yoga school was sponsoring. I didn’t expect much…………boy I was blown away! There must have been 40-belly dancers entertaining us. They had all just graduated from a belly and mystical dance class as part of our tantra yoga school, Agama Yoga. They were all ages, sizes, shapes and nationalities with beautiful costumes. I enjoyed their performances very much and hope I can take classes someday. I actually taught myself to belly dance when I was about 20-years old.

The second night another friend and classmates from Rishikesh was in a Thai Boxing Match. I wasn’t crazy about attending but thought I should go just to give him my moral support. I ended up loving it! Our friend’s opponent was Thai. Three were to be 5-rounds of three minutes each. Within 1-minute of starting, our friend knocked the Thai guy out! He is such a good yogi, and boxing might be considered controversial. We watched several different fights.

The third night of her being here, we went to a Full Moon Party on the Beach. That it what this island is famous for. Basically a bunch of young kids partying and getting drunk. It was fun to go, just once! There were fire dancers and jump roping with fire. Not good for drunks! There was even a stand for Magic Mushrooms which are illegal. Tons of bars, a water slide, trampolines and all kinds of music. People were drinking buckets of cocktails. You buy a bucket, let’s say with vodka and Redbull, and they supply the ice. You drink the drink out of your bucket! We came and left early before it got too wild on the beach. Thousands come for this event every month. There are now Black Moon and Half Moon parties as well, so just about every night of the week there is a party here.

And the 4th night of her arrival, we had a Yang Spiral Meditation. Basically the full moon produces a lot of yin, female energy, so we did a yang, masculine meditation to counter balcony the effects. There were over a hundred people in attendance. You divide up by your astrological sign, then male/female. By dividing in to all the twelve astrological signs this helps give healing energy from the universe. You get into a spiral position holding hands, male, female, male female and so forth. Then trance music plays, you hold hands in a standing meditation for 45-minutes. I was concerned this would be a struggle for me, the wiggle worm that I am. You can’t let go of holding hands or you break the spiral. If you do, you have to step back and connect the people on either side of you. Within a few minutes my belly area felt like it is on fire. I thought, if I hugged a snow man it would melt. It was an incredible experience. Unfortunately, I could not get the energy to move any higher which is the goal, to get to the higher chakras and out the crown. You are suppose to get all kinds of healing benefits from the meditation. Google Yang Spiral Meditation. So maybe now my belly will be healed! I carry a ton of emotions in my abdomen!

So what a contrast in the 4-nights of activities! Last night I stayed home and watched a sci-fi movie!

Penang, Malaysia

I took an exhausting 15-hour trip by ferry and mini-bus ride to Penang. The reason was to get a visa for Thailand so I could stay beyond 30-days here. Now I have a visa to stay 2-months longer, which I won’t need. I needed more than 30 days but not 60. The travel to/from was awful, except for the ferry ride. But my time in Penang was fabulous, yet expensive for me! I stayed at a cute boutique hotel for 3-nights because I was scheduled to get in very late and all the on-line guest houses were sold out. The first night and second day I was worn out from the trip. I visited the Red Garden Café and Food Court a couple of nights for entertainment and good food. It’s always fun to listen to Asian musicians singing American songs. An older, local gentlemen sat next to me the first night. We visited and he wanted me to return again the next night. Our visit reminded me of my around the world trip in 2005. I spent about 10-days in Penang, but I mostly stayed on the beach area and did not come into town. I made friends with a Malay man. We had a great time together. He took me to the train station and cried when I left. I had thought of trying to find him again, but didn’t. I can’t even remember his name! I came back again to the food court my last night and a young Thai tried to pick me up. He was very aggressive with me and I was starting to get scared. A rarity for me! My warning lights were going up to not go anywhere with him. Another night I went to the famous Eastern & Oriental Hotel to their English Style Pub. Heard great music and had one drink. I like to visit interesting hotels in every city I visit. My last day there I met a delightful lady from Montreal and we went on a private city tour together. We got to see all the sights of Penang! Such as all the British Colonial buildings, Penang Hill, (a cog wheeled train up a mountain) a couple of beautiful and scenic Chinese Temples, the port, and old immigrant village. It is a lovely city of 1.2 million! I could see myself living there. I had some trouble getting home. The travel agent screwed up and consequently screwed me! Gawd, sometime I hate being a tourist and taken advantage of.

My own bungalow

I checked out of my cute bungalow resort, Lime N Soda, yesterday and finally got moved into my new monthly bungalow rental. I am pretty pleased with it and although it is close to a main road, it is not bothering me and I enjoy watching cars, scooters and people go by. The landlord also runs a restaurant right across the street and I can see what is going on over there too. This way I don't feel so isolated! I've got great wifi, a small living room area with a TV and loads of channels, and a small kitchen. There is no a/c which I will be okay without it, but to get air flow, you have to open all the windows which give you no protection to the mosquito's or for theft. The owner assures me in 10-years the only thefts he has had was with two different guys who had prostitutes in their bungalows and they decided not to pay them. The ladies came back and stole their computers. I guess I am still bothered by my robbery in Guatemala as I am much more sensitive to security issues now. Gawd,I use to be so trusting!

I shopped for groceries and it is very expensive here. I think it might be cheaper for me to eat at the food court daily. For $26 USD, I bought 6-eggs, 2-bananas, 3-tomatoes, 2-sm apples, 2-yogurts, crackers, 2-beers, sugar, tea, cheese, a small bag of Lays, a Snickers bar, little tube of local toothpaste, 2-cans V-8 juice, a mosquito coil, and 2-liters of bottled water. I guess anywhere in the world with rising food cost, $26 dollars doesn't buy much! The owner just had someone bring over a 5-gallon jug of water but I need some sort of stand and attachment to use it.

I took off on the bike to Haad Rin. This is the famous area for the Full Moon parties. I got scared after a few very steep hills and 15% grades and turned around. I couldn't get the bike to slow down enough going down hill! I don't trust these old brakes! The bike is an automatic so I couldn't put it in a lower gear. I had just read an article on the Koh Phangan "tattoo". These are permanent scars left on tourists who have had scooter accidents. Also after I read the article I took off on my scooter and got blocked on the road by a roll over accident. A French guy rolled his jeep while going to fast and an approaching car came on a narrow bridge. He was shaken, but not hurt! A rain shower came out of nowhere while I was on the scooter and I got drenched and was actually chilly for a few minutes!

It's hard to sight see while driving, but I swear I have seen a couple of dogs riding scooters and even a monkey! A dog on the street was chasing the scooter so I noticed it was because of the monkey passenger! I haven't seen any other monkeys on the island. Did I mention I saw a snake in the yoga hall in Goa? I hate snakes!!!!!! I was going into the last relaxation,(Shavastana, the corpse pose) and looked on the ceiling. Sure enough, in the rafters was a medium sized tree snake. Luckily, there was netting between us if that is any comfort. I also saw one dead sea snake on the beach in Goa, and next to him was a live one. I think sea snakes are extremely poisionous! Why do I have such a fear of snakes?

So now that I finally have good wifi where I am living, I can right more. I am now a "senior" reviewer on Tripadvisor! After so many years of me personally being reviewed for my spa and massage, it's been fun to write reviews on my experiences of traveling!