...Sar somewhere...

Now for our next adventure...Morocco!

2010-03-28T13:00:00.000-07:00

Stef tries to fit in Fez...
The tanners terraces. Even from a viewpoint a few floors up, the smell is overwhelming! These poor guys spend their days stomping on and wringing out animal skins in lime and assorted dyes and who knows what else. Pretty foul, but great to see the process that goes on before all the bags and shoes end up in the markets.

Fez Fez Fez Fez. Ancient medina roofs that haven't changed much...apart from the satellites dishes facing their own Meccas in the sky.

Poor muley.
Chefchaoun dye!
Chefchaoun blue street!
Not sure what the graffiti says...
Our room in Tanger...through the little star window in the bathroom door!

So we finished our one month walk across Spain...and promptly boarded a bus for a 16hr trip to the port city of Algeciras and the ferry to Morocco.

It was a rather spontaneous decision. We figured we were pretty close, and since we had a few weeks to fill before we start work (on a luxury barge in the south of France fyi) we thought we'd just head here and see what it's like.

So what's it like?

Crazy, but not as crazy as India.

Colourful, loud, smelling delicious, and very foreign.

We spent a night in Tanger, the melting pot east/west spanish/french/arab port city and loved it.

Then we spent two nights in 'everyone's favourite town' Chefchaoun and were undewhelmed. The blue photo above is from there. The old town is very beautiful, all painted blue, but it felt a bit sleazy and we felt a bit guilty being there. This is pretty much the opposite of everyone else's reviews of chefchaoun, so perhaps we just needed to chill out a bit more after the walk to enjoy it properly.

Now we are in Fez, which is incredible. The medina is just...one huge yellow walled maze full of markets and mansions and donkeys and leather.

It's peak season so sadly, our intended budget accommodations have not been available. Instead we've had to stay in upmarket Dars and Riads - converted old Moroccan homes. From the outside they look like nothing special, but inside they are incredible. At least, the ones we have been staying in are!

They have a central courtyard, tiled and stuccoed, and staircases lead to rooms that are just...well better than any hotel I have ever stayed in.

Yes we are living the high life.

For a few days.

We FINISHED!

2010-03-28T12:33:00.000-07:00

So I threw out my stinky shoes...

And went to the university square in Santiago de Compostela for celebratory wine, olives, chips, wine, tortilla, wine and salad. Thanks Spain!

A favourite photo

2010-03-09T09:52:00.000-08:00

Australiana

2010-03-09T09:40:00.000-08:00

Walking gives you lots of time for thinking.

Walking overseas gives you lots of time for thinking about home, and getting homesick.

We´ve both been missing home a lot on this trip.

We were thinking of home and wondering where exactly ´home´ is these days (Alice? Tassie? NSW? Elsewhere?) about the time we were walking through Cantabrian hills and spotted some Eucalypts!

Turns out the place is covered in them! There are loads of plantations and some locals really don´t like them (they´re very different to the local vegetation and are just planted then bulldozed ten years later).

It was very exciting to see and smell them. And we´ve also found lots of wattle and even a couple of bottlebrushes.

Everyone we meet assumes we are English or German, or French if they hear Stef´s spanish.

When we tell them we´re Australian the standard response is raised eyebrows, big smile, and something along the lines of ´oh wow that is really far away!´ in spanish.

Then they say ´Antipodes!´ and laugh as they mime digging or drilling through the world to the other side.

Is Australia directly opposite Spain on the globe? Is this something all Spanish children are taught in school?

Whatever it is, it´s very funny.

Eating our way across Spain

2010-03-09T09:25:00.000-08:00

Spain = yum. Especially if you are born again carnivore like Stef.

This photo was taken at the end of a lovely and a bit fancy meal out in Castro Urdiales. Stef had local fish probably caught that afternoon. He loved it.

I had ´Seasons mixed vegetables´ which, being in Spain, was full of bacon.

The waiter thoughtfully gave me a plate so I could pick out the bacon bits. I´m not sure how I could have been more clear ... ordering a meal which sounded distinctly vegetarian, and checking with him that it was ´without meat, without fish, only vegetables´.

Oh well at least we have food!

Partly due to this pesky vegetarianism and partly due to finances we have mostly been cooking for ourselves. Here´s a rundown of our daily eating:

Breaky: fruit, yoghurt and cereal

Lunch: fresh bread, tomato, assorted salady things, sometimes boiled eggs pre-prepared, sometimes rice cakes for me when I am sick of bread. Stef does not get sick of bread. Ever.

Snacks: fruit, nuts, biscuits, chocolate, lollies,...all good.

Dinner: those cheesy packet pastas (surprisingly good here) or soups with added veggies and bread on the side, or just a mix of cooked veggies with beans and/or boiled egg. Or tapas and red wine at a bar :)

I do miss tea and soy milk but we´re both really enjoying the fresh food here, and the tapas!

And tonight we´re having felafel kebabs at Bar Madrid in Llanes. Yep kebabs IN a bar, not just after the pub.

The Way

2010-03-09T08:32:00.000-08:00

My Dad recently asked me how it is we are walking through fields one day and a major city like Bilbao the next, and did that mean we were walking through endless suburbs half of the time?

Well yes.

And no.

The track takes us across just about every type of track and field there is in northern Spain. Sometimes we´ve got a quiet muddy forest track all to ourselves, other times we share a major highway with semi-trailers. Sometimes the track takes us through tiny old villages and sometimes we walk right into the middle of a big city.

We´ve been up mountains, through green valleys, across beaches over rocky outcrops and headlands. It can be beautiful.

But sometimes it doubles up and backtracks and goes through the most awful stretch of road for no reason, or through what once was a lovely and very significant village that is now dwarfed by a huge motorway viaduct or massive housing estate of ´chalets´.

So sometimes we just get the bus :)

Here are some examples of the way we´ve been walking.

This was a beautiful valley with just a smattering of old old farmhouses and animals left alone - we didn´t see any people at all.

A very old cobbled street in Santillana Del Mar
A beach near Somo just before we hopped on a ferry to Santander

The track tries to take the original pilgrims route as much as possible (whatever the original route was...i imagine it changed just a bit over the centuries!) so we come across ruins quite a lot. Here´s Stef walking over an old aquaduct. Just because it´s there.

The Guggenheim!

We´ve taken the Northern Route of the camino rather than the apparently much easier and cheaper main route (the Camino Frances) because we really miss the sea. The track veers towards and away from the ocean each day and it´s always best when we´re right beside it.

Fantastic old lighthouse and fort and church on the headland at Castro Urdiales.
We´ve seen so many horses on this trip. Especially tiny ones. This photo is actually from our very first day walking, along the spectacular headlands out of Hondarribia. We also go through or past fields with goats, cows, sheep, sheep dogs and lots of chickens.

This way! We spend our days searching for these sometimes elusive yellow arrows, pointing the way to Santiago. I can just imagine the thoughts going through the yellow arrow artist´s mind when deciding where they should go. ¨hmm. shall I put one at eye height at this confusing interstiong? No I´d best save the paint for that long straight stretch where there is no other route to be mistaken for the Camino. Yes I´ll use it all on that historic wall over there...´

What´s in a pack?

2010-03-09T04:48:00.000-08:00

We started the trip with two big backpacks, a tent, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, spare clothes and spare food and other things that we didn´t really need.

We soon realised this was unsustainable and have since posted more than half of our gear to a friend in the south of Spain, to be picked up after the walk.

So now we are carrying:

1 sleeping bag (relying on albergues/hostels having at least one spare blankie)

sleeping bag liners

small gas stove

2 pots

1 fork 1 spoon

minimal toiletries

1 book each (In the Shadow of Crows from Angus and The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton)

1 Diary

2 maps

2 small guidebooklets

1 ixus camera

mobiles & mp3 players

and clothing - one main outfit, one spare top, thermals, rain jackets, hats n beanies

Food for the day!

Our packs are wonderfully light and we only have what we really need (and even then..do we need mobiles and Mp3 players?). It´s nice to grab food fresh as we go along too.

I actually bought a new bag when we sent our gear in my old big backpack to our mate. So I now have a great 40L bag and I swear I am only ever using this bag when backpacking from now on. I can actually walk around with it on. What a revelation!

Sorry!

2010-03-09T04:43:00.000-08:00

Ok so grand plans to blog every day or two have been scuttled by lack of internet cafes and let´s face it, utter exhaustion.

It´s also been lovely to be walking walking walking every day and staying away from computers and TVs.

But today we are giving ourselves a rest day in Llanes after walking more than 40km yesterday, including through snow and icy rain along a main road with trucks spraying us, so I am back in the land of the blog.

2010-02-22T00:04:00.000-08:00

It's a dull wet London Monday.

Hey, let's go to Spain instead!

And let's do some walking there. For a month. Yeah!

In a few hours we jump on the Eurostar to Paris, then to Biarritz, cross the border into north-eastern Spain tomorrow and begin the Camino de Santiago de Compostela.

The Camino is an ancient religious pilgrimage to the town of Santiago de

Compostela, where they say the remains of the less famous brother, St James, were found.

Each year thousands of people put right foot in front of left foot and walk one of the many routes across Spain and France to reach the town. Some people even walk straight out their front door and across Europe to get there.

We just want a good long walk.

The most popular route to Santiago de Compostela goes through inland Spain, but the allure of the sea was just too strong so we're taking the Camino del Norte - the northern route from Irun through San Sebastian, Bilbao, Guernica etc.

Stay tuned for a month of great views, revelations, sore feet, soggy packs, Spanish food n wine, troubles with translation, and the struggles of a hungry vegetarian in the land of chorizo.

What have we been doing?

2010-02-21T23:33:00.000-08:00

Wow we have just been so busy working working working for the past three months that I haven't had a second to blog.

That's a big fat lie.

We've been in Europe for more than three months now and the time has just flown. I took a break from the blog because a) I wanted a break from it, and b) I kind of lost the flow. But I'm back now, look out!

Here's a rough rundown of what we've done in our time here since November (!):

* spent a lot of time just hanging in London with Angus, Chris, Mon, Karla, Chris, Magda and new friends.

* spent a lot of time feeling uncomfortably cold.

* saw lots of snow in lots of places. Slipped over in it lots of times.

* went to Brighton (3 times!), Oxford, Aylesbury, Gloucester, Bristol, Godalming, Rye, Cornwall, Devon, Glastonbury...and a few other towns to visit friends, rellies, or just to have a look-see.

* France! The francofile returned to his place of birth, and I met him there two weeks later. The highlight so far.

* I did some temp work zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and half-heartedly looked for 'proper work'.

* gigs, markets, gigs, markets, museums, gardens, sights.

* indulged at Christmas with a little family of friends away from home.

* fun New Years (with Mon fresh off the boat woohoo). Partied.

* got homesick.

* got a bit pasty and soft.

* tried not to spend all our money. This place is expensive!

* baked! We just spend two weeks house-sitting Chris and Magda's basement flat in Islington and went into mega domestic mode. Stef the baker of bread re-emerged after a travel-induced hiatus. He was very welcome. His bread is awesome.

* wondered what we should do next!

So that gives you an idea of how we've spent one of the coldest winters in years in London. Next I would like some sun please.

GOODBYE INDIA

2009-11-01T01:51:00.001-07:00

Today is our last day in India. It has been more than three months since we landed in Delhi in the midnight rain on July 27.

Will I be sad to leave tomorrow?

NO!

I am ready to go. I am exhausted.

Things I am looking forward to:
Drinking water from a tap
Wearing pants that are made from less than 10 square metres of fabric
Less time spent on the loo
Full-sized towels
Breathing in through my nose more often
No thongs in the shower (depending of course on how clean Angus and Chris' shower is)
Soy milk!
Non-Indian food. Any kind.
Less ghee
Anonymity (i.e. being stared at by every man on the street)

We have had an amazing time here. We have met great, interesting people, we've made Indian and French and Norwegian friends, we've tasted more flavours than imaginable, and we've seen so many sights.

Things I will miss:
The friendliness of the people here
The head wiggle
Nice hotels
Shopping
The food. Maybe. In a while.
The colours - saris, dyes, flowers, paints, religious posters, in the food...
Heat
The rupee.

Over and out for now. See you in London!

The Houseboat

2009-10-29T01:24:00.000-07:00

We spent one lovely and very expensive night on a houseboat called Angel Queen in the backwaters of Kerala. It was a smallish boat (some can hold conferences, a jacuzzi, ten bedrooms...) but felt like a palace floating through the flotsam.

It was beautiful, even if I did regret swimming in the water when I saw people pooing in it the next day. Ah well what can you do, this is India.

Spice tour

2009-10-29T00:58:00.000-07:00

We spent a few days in Thekkady - a beautiful Keralan hill town famous for its Tiger Sanctuary (where I saw no tigers but two ELEPHANTS!) and also for spices. We stayed at a guesthouse that backed onto the reserve so woke and fell asleep to the sounds of birds, monkeys and wild boars. It was so nice to be in the jungle, to see so much green and so much mist. To be so far from a desert!

The town was very quiet because earlier in the season there was a terrible boating accident on the lake in the sanctuary. Over 40 people were killed when many people apparently rushed onto the upper deck to get a better look at the view and the boat capsized.

Again I think how lucky we are to be Australian - this time because we are (almost all) taught to swim at a very young age.

Outside of the sanctuary, the town is surrounded by delicious plantations - forests of cardamom, cinnamon, coffee, tea.

We went on a short tour of an excellent spice garden with a very proud Abraham (you may have seen him on BBC's Around the World in 80 Gardens):

He showed us how cinnamon actually grows on a plant:

The tiniest chillies can be the deadliest:

My favourite (cocoa!):

and who knew 'Allspice' was a single plant? I always thought it was a mixture of all spices. I swear I could identify distinct spices in that mix!

I now want a spice garden.

Haircut

2009-10-29T00:35:00.000-07:00

One day, a little boy called Stefan wanted to get his hair cut.

He found an Indian barber who didn't speak English.

The style was touch and go for a while there...
And at times it was pretty scary...

But he survived, and his haircut even looked good. And although it cost more than when his girlfriend cuts it for free, the grand total was less than $3, so he was pleased.

The End.

Kochin

2009-10-14T03:55:00.001-07:00

We are in The South!

We got the overnight train from Bikaner back to Delhi and went straight to the airport at 6am - just in time for our midday flight which was delayed by another two hours. Two flights and a lightning quick stop in Hyderabad later we were in Cochi/Kochin on the west coast of Kerala, on the ocean, with greenness and lushness and coconuts and pineapples and mangoes and men wearing dotis.

Aside from the heat, I think the doti is perhaps most responsible for the laid back atmosphere of this area. The doti is basically a bed sheet worn by local men as a sarong, or at times tucked up into itself to resemble a nappy. Can't help but feel relaxed when all the men look like this. And I am happy to report near to ZERO hassle from these nappy clad men too. Ahhhhhhhh this is nice.

It's lovely here. We feel like we are in another country. After all the travel and the belly sickness we have just been chilling out, doing some yoga again, eating dosai (savoury pancake) and getting ready to board a houseboat to cruise the backwaters.

It's fascinating too - it's a very Christian area, with Christian iconography worshipped with the enthusiasim of the hindus and some Jewish history thrown in for good measure. It was colonised by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British and is now Communist. And it seems to work!

We did spend one day doing some proper sightseeing in Cochi. We got the ferry across to Fort Cochin (no sign of any fort-age but we believe them) and took the above pics.

Now we are in Allepey, and tomorrow we board our houseboat! More pics surely from that.

High Tea!

2009-10-14T03:44:00.000-07:00

We've been on a quest to take High Tea ever since my cousin Sam infamously misheard me and thought I said Stef's work in Alice Springs involved 'providing HIGH TEA for an aboriginal health organisation", rather t6han the usual IT.

I still crack up at the image of Stef and Stew driving their troupie in tails to provide the remote nurses in Aboriginal communities across central Australia and WA with fresh scones and delightful cakes.

In steamy Fort Cochin we found it in a cute oasis of a cafe called 'teapot'. We had Assam tea with honey and banana and walnut cake. I wanted to stay there forever.

2009-10-14T03:22:00.000-07:00

In Bikaner, we stayed here:It's called Lallgarh Palace and it is the most amazing hotel I have ever been in. Why did we take such a sudden turn away from the usual shabby but ok budget guesthouses that we deserve? How did we get let in? Family connections don't you know. Stef's great-grandfather lived in India, he was an architect who was partly responsible for some pretty impressive landmarks (such as the Victoria Railway Station in Mumbai, for example). He was also good mates with the Maharaja of Bikaner at the time, whose granddaughter, pictured below, now runs the palace as a hotel.

Stef's dad Simon has a copy of a beautiful, signed book the Maharaja gifted his grandfather way back when. Simon very generously wrote to the Princess and offered to donate the book to her museum, if she was interested.

So we brought the beautiful book - which is even bigger than Shantaram - all the way to India. We were invited to the Princess' Delhi home, which is a lovely apartment in the diplomatic area, where we were fed tea and biscuits and tried very very hard to behave in an appropriate manner. We were really nervous, but the Princess, who has lived for many years in London as well as in the Palace in Bikaner, was an expert in small talk. It turns out she already has a copy of the book, so she told us we should hold onto it and that we should visit the palace.

So we did. We got an amazing discount so we spent two nights in one of the best 'historical' rooms, with a bathroom bigger than any I've had in a house, a couch set, a writing desk and a beautiful bed. We slept well.
The Princess with her pugs.
A less adored pet.
The pool.
One of many, many corridors in the epic palace.

My only disappointment was that I was a little ill in the belly department and couldn't take full advantage of the massive buffet breakfast.

We left for the overnight train back to Delhi wondering what had just happened, where we'd just spent three days, which of us had dreamed it?

Back in the desert

2009-10-14T02:54:00.000-07:00

It seems we can't stay away from desert country. And so we found ourselves swaying to sleep on an overnight train from Delhi to Bikaner in Rajastan, the state of the desert kings.

It looks a lot like Alice Springs around here, with infinite stretches of yellow sand dotted with spinifex-like green shrubs and not a lot else.

There are some differences, of course. There are less road trains and more camels, there's more pollution, and happily there is more harmony between the two major groups in the area (muslims and hindus).

Also, rats are worshipped.
We took a local bus to Deshnok, a village close to Bikaner and famous for the Karni Mata
Temple...also known as the Rat Temple. There are rats EVERYWHERE, asleep, awake, eating, pooing, or just running around erratically. As with all Hindu temples you have to remove your shoes before entering. We spent about ten minutes walking around the small temple, stepping in rat poo and trying not to have them run over (or under!) our feet. In a word, it was FOUL. But kind of interesting.

Smelly Delhi

2009-10-14T02:42:00.000-07:00

Snapshot of Dharamkot

2009-10-14T01:08:00.000-07:00

A Month of Lotus (Lotii?)

2009-09-30T01:53:00.000-07:00

So, one month of intense yoga practice and what do we have to show for it?

Yesterday Ida and I took some pics during our self-practice...here is a sneak peak.
This is me doing a version of 'Scorpion' pose. Note the feet are NOT touching the wall (in this split second).
Mid way between back arch and handstand or something.

Hari letting me know my left leg is not straight.Ida, the Girl with the Amazing Flexible Hips.

Ida and I in a relaxation pose - the amazing Halasana. You can all try this at home next time you are stressed out - simply pass out over a table and VOILA, perfect.

Shock! Horror!

2009-09-30T01:44:00.000-07:00

Those of you familiar with my previous travel blog may remember that on my last trip to India I found myself in Dharamkot and LOVED it - that is why we came here this time around.

You might also remember that last time I was here I gave myself a rather nasty electric shock when testing the waters (literally - we heated our water for bucket showers by sticking an electric bar in the bucket. Water + Electricity = Safety).

Oops, I did it again.

This time it wasn't something so (apparently) dangerous as sticking my fingers in a bucket of electrified water.

This time all I did was turn off the kitchen light.

Somehow i managed to touch the black wire (pictured), which was at the time hanging out of the socket. I felt the shock through my finger, hand, arm, side and to my feet.

I swore, then had to have a little lie down.

But I'm fine. Indian electrics are not.

I AM YOGINI!

2009-09-22T02:35:00.000-07:00

I am officially a yoga teacher!

This morning I took my first class. Eight strangers, two hours, everyone looking at me and listening to me and actually doing what I told them.

It's a very strange experience and I kept waiting for my teacher to come and take over.

But he didn't, and I continued, and when I said "exhale into Downward Facing Dog' every one of them exhaled and went into Downward Facing Dog. When I said "If you can, bring your legs up into shoulder stand", some of them brought their legs up into shoulder stands, and some of them fell over.

It was terrifying, then fun, and I look forward to doing it again when I'm a little more confident and a little less wobbly-voiced.

I got my teacher's certificate from Mahi today too - I'm all official like!

And Ida, Hari and I are on the Yoga Alliance India website - check us out.

http://yogaalliance.in/index.php?option=com_joomgallery&func=detail&id=249&Itemid=28

And here is my favourite photo of today. This is Ida trying to teach our friend Brownie, the local fatty boombalada dog, how to do his own speciality, Downward Facing Dog. I think there was an error in communication...

Some images

2009-09-22T02:09:00.000-07:00

I haven't been able to post photos in a little while, so here is a pictorial snapshot of the past month, starting with the early morning view from our courtyard. For those who are interested, this is similar to the view I had when vomiting yesterday, though I was seeing a bit more of the ground, a bit less of the sky, a few less birds and a bit more water.

This is the breakfast we were meant to eat every day. Cow's milk, sprouts (not very sprouted) and a bit of fruit. I just eat the fruit and add nuts and fairly often, chocolate.
Buddha Delight is the local cafe (very, very close to home) that has been my saviour many times over. Whenever I am about to have a tantrum, or whenever i just really feel like a tea, I run to Buddha Delight. I love its serenity and its distinct lack of yoga teachers. And this is the courtyard we walk through to get to Buddha Delight. I don't think the animals every get to move.

This is Tripita, who has been cooking all our delicious lunches and dinners during the course. She is lovely and also, a magician. She manages to make a slightly different version of dhal and vegetables every single day.

This is the Osho centre near our house. We go here because a) it is on the way to Bhagsu (the larger, more touristy village down from Dharamkot with cheaper internet and better cafes) and b) it has...
PUPPIES! We found a litter of four (including one total runt, not pictures) hanging out with Osho* and today we visited them a second time, and took milk (the leftover milk we didn't want for breakfast).

Sadly it made them all vomit. Stef did some research and it turns out cow's milk is not good for dogs - all dogs are basically lactose intolerant. Oops. No wonder this one looks so unimpressed in the photo.

* Osho is dead.

VOMIT

2009-09-21T00:42:00.001-07:00

You may have picked up that I don't quite believe many of the things my yoga teacher tells me.

Now he wants us to start the day by vomiting.

This morning we got up at 6am, drank four glasses each of warm salty water, then vomited it back up.

It was gross, and hilarious. So glad my fellow student Ida is a like-minded girl.

It is meant to clean you out - like a colon cleanse but for the upper part of the digestive system. Our Ayurvedic doctor agrees.

All I felt was silly, and then hungry. And it gave me a burning throat.

He wants us to do this every morning for 15 days. I refuse.

By now he knows there are some things that I simply will not do (like drink very fatty, very creamy cow's milk with added ghee in the morning. Or stand on a beginner's back in yoga to push them further into a pose). When I said 'no' he said 'ok, for four days'.

I walked away and tomorrow morning at 6am I will be walking away again, away from the vomiting.

Meanwhile, poor Stef woke up to the sounds of us - one loud Indian man and two small giggly western girls - vomiting. He disapproves also.

Words of Wisdom

2009-09-14T06:49:00.000-07:00

I have two yoga teachers. Mahi, the director, and his cousin Hari.

Hari teaches us Iyengar style Hatha Yoga each morning, as well as meditation, breathing, and other things. He has trained for a long time with a very strict teacher. He is celibate, he is quiet, he is careful, he is quite hilarious. He hates cats and mongoose, and is scared of bears in the corn fields.

Mahi is obsessed with women, yet also professes his celibacy numerous times a day. He means well, but has on occasion been known to punch people, and recently said he would like to kill the Dalai Lama. His favourite topic is himself, and he often tells us he is going to meditate in the cornfields when actually he spends most of his time in Bhagsu (touristy village 10 mins walk away) chatting up Israeli girls (though he 'hates Israelis'). He can, however, do many very difficult yoga postures.

They have taught us many things, some of which are relevant to a yoga teacher training course.

So that we never forget these priceless bits of information I have will chronicle their Words of Wisdom here from time to time.

Words of Wisdom from my Yoga teachers:

"Red apples are green apples that 'they' have injected with acid to make them red"

"Cats are dirtier than dogs"

"Cat hair gives you epilepsy"

"Cow's milk is good for everyone, all the time, regardless of any lactose intolerance or allergy."

"Tibetans are thieves and very violent"

"Love is a Risky Game"

"Indian women never tell anyone when they have their periods. They are not allowed to be in the kitchen when they do - they must work in the cow shed. you should not speak about your period" (though it is important to tell your yoga teacher when you have your period, because you shouldn't do any upside down postures at that time)

"All Western people waste water" (this coming from a man who tells us not to stop a leaking tap, and lives in a village where public taps just pour forth water constantly.)

"Eat as much ghee (clarified butter) as possible to be super healthy - it lubricates your body so that you are better at yoga".

To be continued, I'm sure...

My Day

2009-09-14T06:37:00.000-07:00

Firstly, apologies for slackness in blogging. I've been a wee bit busy you see, doing a yoga teacher training course in Dharamkot, near Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India.

Every Monday to Saturday my timetable goes something like this:

5:30am: Alarm goes off...

6:00am: Get up, shower, get dressed in the semi darkness, try not to wake Stef more than twice, go for a (very short) walk).

6:30-7:30am: meditation and pranayam (breathing). This time is generally spent thinking about food, or about London or Alice Springs or Sydney.

7:30: 'breakfast' - sprouts and cow's milk. Mmmm cow's milk. There is a reason I haven't had it in ten years: I hate it!

9-11am: Hatha Yoga class with Hari.

11:15: hang upside down from a rope in my bedroom for ten/fifteen minutes.

11:30: lunch - different from breakfast in that it is very edible. Always rice, dal, vegetables and chappati.

1pm: Mondays and Thursdays we have 'digetive breathing' classes. Somewhat similar to how Iimagine birthing classes are - lots of lying down under a blanket breahting heavily. Trying not to laugh.

Rest/break until 3pm: self practise.

4-6pm: Astanga Yoga Class with Mahi.

6pm: sometimes a lecture by Mahi, completely out of control, no particular topic.

7:30pm: dinner - same as lunch.

9pm: collapse into bed or perhaps run away to a cafe for tea or something.

It is exhausting!

I love Sundays - the day off! We go into town for a 10am massage and generally spend the rest of the time eating.

Animals of Ladakh

2009-08-24T03:50:00.000-07:00

Ladakh is home to many rare and hilarious animals, most of which are far less aggressive than your regular insane Indian Monkey or rabid dog.

Here is a photographic essay of animals we encountered in Ladakh. All I am missing is a picture of me on a Yak.

We saw rare puppies:

Very placid dogs:

Flirty cows:

Animals either locked out of or jailed within gompas:

Surprising trout:

And our favourites, donkeys. They are so cute, and numerous. In Leh there are many donkeys that have been retired from their professions in the manual labour fields yet have nowhere to go. So they just wander the streets eating rubbish and trying to avoid being hit by cars or trucks. So someone has set up the Donkey Sanctuary, where they have a lovely time standing in this dirt field. We took them some carrots and had a lovely afternoon.

Julaaay from Ladakh

2009-08-24T03:15:00.000-07:00

Sincere apologies for the lateness of these first posts from overseas!

We've been in India for a month now. And we spent most of that time in Ladakh. Ladakh is famous for many things, like yaks, butter tea, gompas and lamas (of the religious variety), barley flavoured things, and crappy internet connections.

It is also the land of insane roads and passes - like this one, Kardung La, the highest motorable plass in the world! Yes we motored over it. On the other side of Kardung La is the beautiful Nubra Valley, but that deserves a post of its own a little later.

At 3600 metres, Leh - the capital of Ladakh - is breathtaking in more than one way. It took us about 5 days to recover from the sudden jump in altitude (we flew from Delhi to Leh in one go). We had headaches and sniffles and lethargy and would get puffed after about a two block walk uphill. Particularly distressing when 80 year old Ladakhi women race past you carrying loads of wheat or barley bigger than them.

We spent our time in Ladakh eating (thukpa, thantuk, tea, bread, and so, so many apricots), walking (trekking between villages), driving (cars, buses, motorbikes - some less succesfully than others) and hanging out at our second home, Norlakh restaurant. We ate here so many times they offered floor space for our sleeping bags. Ah, makes me hungry.

We are now in Manali, in beautiful Himachal Pradesh So lovely and green after dry deserty Ladakh (didn't we just leave a desert?). But still, the blog needs catching up on the Ladakh chapter so stay tuned for a few more.

A festival of facepainting

2009-05-10T19:24:00.000-07:00

Hmmm, fringe maintenance seemingly needed...

Pics taken at the kids space at the Wide Open Spaaaces fest out east of Alice. More festy pics soon.

i love abandoned cars

2009-04-28T05:03:00.001-07:00

I found these ones out east of Alice. The holes are from some kinda shooting practice. I think.

On the Road

2009-04-28T04:53:00.000-07:00

Territory wildlife

2009-04-28T04:43:00.000-07:00

(the eagle in the middle pic is also in the tree in the second one...looking somewhat less menacing)

R.I.P Percy

2009-04-15T04:25:00.000-07:00

Just before Christmas Bec and I took off from our desert home to drive to Sydney.

Despite everyone else's doubts, we made it.

Sadly, the car did not.

RIP Percy, last seen hanging out in Glendambo wondering what the hell we did to his head gasket.