Being tourists

Mysore is in the Southern Indian state of Karnataka, and there's more than plenty in both Mysore and Karnataka to satisfy our tourism curiosity. Here's a quick round up of some of our recent outings. 

The temple at the top of Chamundi Hill

Up to Chamundi Hill - a short rickshaw ride away is Chamundi Hill which is 1062m high. At the top of the hill is Sri Chamundeswari Temple which has lovely views of the city. We visited on a Sunday afternoon not realizing that that is when the temple gives out free food. The long lines of "assertive" locals eager to get in, and the midday heat put us off actually going inside, but we enjoyed the views. On the way down, we met Nandi the bull, carved out of stone.

A bull (I'm Taurus) meets a bull

The Maharaja's Palace at night - according to the Lonely Planet guide book, the Maharaja's Palace in Mysore is one of the grandest of India's royal buildings. Every Sunday evening it is lit up like a giant fairy tale palace for all to admire, and it was certainly well-admired by us and a bunch of our yoga friends a couple of weeks ago. 

Erik and Lisa romantic at the palace

The gates opened and we all rushed in to the grounds just before 7pm. We were standing aww-ing at the palace with its elegant lighting, when all of a sudden, somebody somewhere flipped a switch, and we were dazzled by close to 100,000 light bulbs decorating the entire outside of the palace. There was a collective intake of breath from those of us seeing it for the first time. Even though it was close to something from Disney, it was still utterly majestic and definitely romantic. I look forward to seeing the insides on another visit.

Bylakuppe - en route to a long weekend in the hills (see next posting) we stopped at this village which was one of the first refugee settlements set up for Tibetan people fleeing their county after the Chinese invasion in 1959. It's a fascinating place which has preserved the Tibetan way of life.

In front of the temple

Our main reason for visiting Bylakuppe was the amazing Namdroling monastery and it's stunning Golden Temple. Having spent 2 years in Thailand, we have seen our share of Buddhist temples, but this place really moved me. The monastery was peaceful, the young monks in their purple and yellow robes seemed content both inside the temple at prayers as well as when they were playing cricket and football behind the temple. The intricate decoration of the temple showed such love and devotion from those involved in its conception and building. The 18m high gold plated buddha statue,  in spite of its grandeur, instilled a sense of calm and serenity. 

Beautiful Buddha statue

At 1pm it was time for prayers when the whole temple turned in to this clanging, banging amusement arcade sounding place.... crashing high-pitched gongs and cymbals punctuating, and completely contrasting with, the low-muttered, meditative prayers.

Big gongs and low prayers

A wonderful place! From there we went on to the Coorg/Kodagu region to the hills.... Worth a posting all to itself.

Our house

Yesterday, I hurt my back a little during yoga. It's the old disc problem that I live with. Like the "Delhi Belly" it was sure to happen during this trip, so nothing to do but rest a few days while it passes.

Consequently, I find myself up on the roof terrace of our apartment at a time of day when I'm usually inside napping or eating breakfast. It's lovely up here as the sun rises, and that inspires me to write about where we live as some of you have asked about it.

Erik in front of Nirmala Nilas

We have a two-bedroomed, two-bathroomed apartment in a small cute apartment building called Nirmala Nilas. I think the two rooms are usually rented out separately. The kitchen is basic, but it's bigger than we had in NY, and we've already been fairly creative with that strange gas hob.

The place has a roof terrace which is where I'm sitting. It's where the monkeys love to hang out in the shade of the palm trees, or play games like "how many ways can we slide down the roof?" or "what happens if I swing about on this cable?" They're going crazy around the place now as I write.

Roof terrace

Everybody enjoys a Pepsi

Three palm trees grow through the house, one of them starts in our entrance porch, makes an appearance in our neighbour's living room above us, and finally comes up through the roof.  It's pretty impressive how they've managed to build the apartment to incorporate the palms. The palm trees in turn provide some shade and keep things a bit cooler as we start to get temperatures of over 30 degrees fahrenheit on a daily basis.


There's also a little garden on the ground level with a swinging seat where we sometimes sit and read, and a questionable statue of an egret bird. 

Our neighbours are good. Two of them are at the same yoga school as Erik and I so we see them a lot. Above us is a couple from San Francisco who we met on our first day in the apartment as they held a pizza and movie evening for everybody. They are not yogis, they are here for other business, and have been a wealth of knowledge and tips for us. 

We are about a 20 minute walk to the yoga shala, which for us is perfect as we need that walk to warm up our muscles a bit before we start. The older we get, the more we need that we find, unlike the other younger yoginis who seem to be able to show up and throw their legs over their heads without a second thought. More on that in another posting.

On the next corner from us - in fact we can see it from our bedroom - is one of Mysore's best ice cream parlours. Some of you know that Erik is a huge ice cream fan, so naturally we have availed ourselves of their services more than once or twice already!!! All in all it suits us well for our 2 months in Mysore. Right, time for breakfast, a very un-Indian bowl of porridge with nuts! 

Food glorious food, and more

Happy Valentine's Day.

And on this day of love, it's appropriate to say that in spite of the few set-backs we have met in the last week, we love being here in Mysore.

This is a well overdue blog post, being more than a week since the last one, so I'm going to try to group our experiences under a couple of themes. This one will be one of our favorites... Food.

Green Leaf - North and South India Thali

We continue to be enthralled by everything food here. Starting with buying the raw ingredients. We decided to make the veggie curry that we learnt in our cookery class last week so off we went to procure the various vegetables. 6 lemons, a bunch of fennel leaves, a bunch of spinach, some sweet potatoes, 300g of fresh peas, 6 bananas, and some other things I must have forgotten cost just over a dollar, or about 80 pence!!!

All for 67 Rupies

When it comes to the food of the yogis, they tend to be a healthy crowd, the majority vegetarian and many vegans. For that reason, a whole bunch of health cafes operate within the immediate area around the yoga shala. Some do set menu veggie buffets for less than 4 dollars (3 pounds), others provide much needed western salads and pancakes. All of them are a great place to sit, drink chai tea and get to know other yogis and hear their stories. It's a pleasant way to spend the afternoon or morning.

Anokhi Garden

But this is India - and as expected we have both now suffered our first case of "Delhi belly." It had to happen some time, in spite of our meticulous hand hygiene and caution in what we eat. So Tuesday to Thursday last week were somewhat lost as we tended to stay near places where we knew the toilets were comfortable. No more needed to be said on that.

 But what about drink, I hear you ask. This is after all Lisa and Erik's blog. Where is that couple who spent the last 18 months delighting in the craft beers of the US?? Well, given our daily 3.30am rise, there is no question of any week-day tipples. So our alcohol intake has been significantly reduced - only a good thing. However, Saturday lunch time saw us at our favorite little Indian roof terrace restaurant in the City. The sun was shining, we sat under a parasol, the clock had passed noon, the mood was just right for a beer. It came as somewhat of a shock that the pair of us felt a little tipsy after only one large bottle of Kingfisher beer each!!!

Aaah... a refreshing beer

We are going to be cheap dates when we get back to Europe. Kisses to all on Valentine's Day.

Lungs and stomachs

This is not actually a posting about our yoga! When Erik and I moved to New York, we were deliberate in choosing to live near Central Park. After 8 years in Stockholm, greenery would be necessary, and strolls in "the lungs of NYC" did indeed become an important part of most of our days. We were sad to say goodbye to the Park. Imagine our surprise then when yesterday we went to "Kukkarahalli Lake" park, considered to be the "lungs of Mysore" and discovered we live only a 20 minute walk away.

At 8am, the temperature in Mysore is still pleasant, and the 4km stroll around the lake was a delight. There were all sorts of birds enjoying the grasses and water, the Mysorians were out in their trainers getting their heart rates up, and the walkways were lovely and shaded. I think it will become a regular on our weekend schedule - a good place away from the honking horns to give our lungs some "fresh air." 

After the stroll, we headed off to our first Indian cookery class. Not like any cookery class I've attended before - well that's not so many anyway. There was only Erik and I at home with Rishi - a local Indian lady who lives up the road from the yoga shala. She's been teaching visitors Indian cooking for 6 years, and we had a great time.

Two hours later, we came away knowing how to prepare and cook 2 vegetarian curries, a pumpkin dish, a lassi (Indian version of smoothies if you like) and chapatis. My chapatis were more square than round, but Erik was more on top of things. All this was achieved on the same kind of funny gas cooker that we have in our apartment. We also had the pleasure of eating the results. A fun day off from yoga while still beneficial for our lungs and stomachs.

The eve of our day off

Oh no. Change of plans again. In class on Friday, while I was giving it my best downward dog, our teacher announces, "for newcomers, I teach the led class tomorrow." All controlled breathing went out the window as I grappled with idea that we don't after all get a day off! "What tomorrow, Saturday, no day of rest?" I asked in dismay. "Yes tomorrow, but Sunday holiday," she replied. So, we were up again this morning for yoga but had a mini lie-in until 5am!

After a stop at our local "Starbucks" of Mysore, we decided to hit the market today. Devaraja market is amazing, such an array of fruits arranged in pyramids, spices that tingle your nostrils, rices - long, short, fat and thin, beans, lentils, incense, oils, jasmine and rose garlands with bees and flies humming around them, and these piles of colored powder that they use to dye the fabulous bright saris that the women wear.

We bought a pack sandalwood incense, unsure of how to barter on the lovely veggies for the time being. After a 3-course curry lunch with drinks for a grand total of about $4, we decided to de-dust by the swimming pool of the Regalis hotel (formerly Southern Star) where all the yogis hangout for a bit of sun.

Now here we are on Saturday evening, our official eve of the rest day. So, after a week of healthy eating, no alcohol and a mostly vegetarian diet, we have decided to celebrate by ordering in pepperoni pizza (that costs 3 times the price of our lunch) and buying a couple of beers! I guess we have a way to go yet before our bodies are our temples! Cheers to you all with a Kingfisher beer.

First days at school

I feel like I should be writing testing...testing... 1,2,3. Does this work? Are you seeing this? Here is not only the first ever blog posting on the snappily titled "Lisa and Erik in India" blog, but also my first blog posting ever, so forgive any mishaps.

We are here in Mysore, India, and yesterday was our first day at school - the esteemed KPJAYI yoga shala - known by ashtanga yogis the world over.We were a little nervous not really knowing what to expect. But that soon disappeared. In spite of the steamy, packed room with mats no more than 2 cms apart, there was a peace in the hall and we were soon in our swing, or rhythm, or rather.... Vinyasa. We were soon shaken out of that when were allocated a new, shockingly early start time of 4.30am. So yes, we were up today at 3.30am, drank our hot lemon, and headed sleepily off for day 2's yoga. We are already feeling the familiar aches of trying too hard!!

A couple of other firsts for the last 48 hours: our first coconut water drink, straight from the coconut; our first attempt at cooking on our weird gas hob - set the oil alight; my official first day not being employed; first time we saw the pigs wandering aimlessly along our street (that follows the yellow cows and pink sheep); and my first almost-argument with Mysorian pushing in front of me in the veggie queue at the supermarket.

On safari last weekend, we saw our first Indian elephants and leopards, had our first Ayurvedic massage and hot-oil-on-head treatment, and preferably our last trip in India in a car without seat belts in the back!

Tomorrow is already Friday - the days go surprisingly fast with so many new events and impressions. Since Saturday is our weekly yoga "day off" we are already planning a couple beers for tomorrow evening. Not very yogic apparently, but we gotta have something in return for the 3.30am risings. It's almost 8.30pm now and clearly time for bed. More soon. Cheers