Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Ashram Life


Turns out the cool air on our first day in Rishikesh was not common place. After walking for hours in the extreme heat of Delhi the day before arriving, my feet were so swollen they no longer fit my sandals. (I hammered in a couple new holes using fine tweezers and a masterlock.) Not as hot as Delhi, but it sure is HOT around here. A bit of rain now and then, tail-ending the monsoon season, brings moments of relief but otherwise after breakfast I am sweating until dusk.

The yoga has been amazing - we are both very sore from our sessions yesterday - and the pranayama (special deep cleansing breathing techniques) feels very powerful to me. Unfortunately, the meditation has been a struggle. Getting up to meditate at sunrise or trying to meditate at the end of a long hot day as the sun sets has proven to be very difficult when we're so tired. I keep nodding off. I think we're going to try out afternoon naps and see if things get better.

There are lots of neat people staying at the ashram. A couple from Germany, a world traveller originally from Ohio, many from Japan (this ashram is well known there), a sweet woman from Korea... and the staff are all really great. One old guy told Pete he'd better get rid of his beard. "Only old men have beards here." He, however, had none.

Neither of us have gotten sick yet. (I hope I don't jinx us.) We've voluntarily introduced some of the Indian water into our system by brsuhing our teeth with it, washing our dishes with it. I have a feeling the acidophilis (probiotic) we're both taking is helping.

On with the day!

7 comments:

krishna said...

I'll leave the crazy indian water stories for your return (I can probably think of 2). But you should be fine as long as you don't drink it straight.

mbesh said...

dont die guys

Anonymous said...

What is the food like? What are you they feeding you guys? I hope the water experiment is going well.
Did U.S. customs let you take your lunch on the plane?

Peter said...

We were able to bring our lunch on the plane and it was the only food we ate on our first night in India. That bread is so good!

The food in the ashram is okay. In the mornings we tend to have this bland, dry rice, although sometimes we have delicious wheat porridge that Steph goes crazy about. Lunch and dinner follow a basic format of rice, daal, chappati, some veg, cucumbers. It almost always tastes the same-- at least it is agreeable. I'm sure Steph will describe it in more detail ;>

Anonymous said...

I'm glad they didn't confiscate your plane food. My friends have told me border crossing stories where the guards take away their grapes, grapefruits or whatever which gets dumped in the garbage because of the risk of diseases which can infect their crops. Luckily, bread and hard cheese are not that dangerous.
That bread I gave you has now seen quite a bit of the world. It started in Lithuania, got shipped to Mississauga, then Hamilton and ended up in India.

Algis Vaitonis said...

Please keep the updates coming! I hope to follow your adventure, and live vicariously through you guys. The more detal the beter!!!

Algis Vaitonis said...

the ashram life is interesting. I wold like to try it someday but I think I might get kicked out before the end of the firs week! S