Nepal blog 5

Our teacher here (can't be bothered to call him dr, since he isn't really, according to western standards) finally got to understand us! He arranged for another man to come and teach us about yoga. Mr. Chintamani has got an PHD in yoga and is a really nice man. I'm very happy now :). The first class we did hypes of yoga (which was a bit heavy, since I only had lunch anhour before he arrived) and he taught us a mantra and he was just full of energy and a happy person :). We started out doing some flexibility exercises, because he wanted to see how flexible we were. He was pleasantly surprised I think! The first class was really nice and I did feel my muscles the next day, and the day after..

On Thursday Lara, Mum, Mr.Subodh and I went to do some sightseeing in the valley of Kathmandu. We had a taxi for the day and we started out @ the stupa of Bodhnath. It's 40 meters high and 40 meter in diameter and it is the biggest one in this area, probably over 2000 years old. It's also the most Tibetan stupa around. My mum bought a really nice Mandela: a handmade drawing on canvas for meditation. The painter needs about 30 days to finish is (a small one), so that's pretty amazing (check pic's). It takes about 10 years for the painter to practice and to make a good quality one… can you imagine painting the same thing over and over again every month for the rest of you life?! It's beautiful though…

Next we went to Patan, where you can see the ceremony of the cremations. The body's of the people that have passed away are burned on a plateau at the river side. There are many cremations a day, which is not a surprise, since there are (probably over) 4 million people living in Kathmandu. The men (family members of close friends) are lighting the body's and the women are sitting on the other side of the river and are only allowed to watch.

Last, we went to the Patan Durbar square, where we had lunch and checked out the old royal palace (now a museum) and some statues. I bought a Mandela there and after that we went back home, since we were exhausted! The pollution, al the input and it was nearly 4pm: time for tea and a rest ;)

There was no meditation that afternoon (we were chilling out upstairs, but Lara was actually waiting downstairs for him to come to do the meditation. He showed up 20 minutes late and then directly walked out again, without saying a word.. that was really strange…).

Jason and Dan left that day: they weren't happy about not being able to have a shower and they had the feeling they paid way to much for what they were getting.

On Friday, Mr Chintamana passed by again in the afternoon and I had a really nice yoga class. My mum was not feeling well: stomach ache and coughing, so she just took notes.

Saturday after lunch, Lara, mum and I went to the nuns again or coffee and banana cake :) We really needed that: it's definitely worth walking uphill for 45 minutes for… We also bought some nice crackers: the bread here is really sweet… We were back in time for our 5pm class, but he was busy teaching Evelin (the Portuguese girl), so no class. Instead we had some tea and chilled out before meditation. Two Dutch girls arrived that afternoon for a 2 night stay and they (and Lara) had dinner with us.

I send out lots of email for the trek and the stay and the bus to Pokhara. We'll be there in two weeks and I'm really looking forward to it. It's great that Lara is coming as well. I'll definitely have to go and visit her in South Africa ;).

Saturday we went to the nuns again for a coffee and the banana cake :) Again really nice and worth every step uphill :). We were back in time for our 5pm class, but that didn't happen.. Meditation did though, and I was so tired that I think I kind of fell asleep for a bit. At night we're still playing cards and Lara is joining us nowadays. The Dutch girls hanged around for a while as well.

We had a very busy schedule on Sunday. Well, actually, mum and I skipped the yoga class in the morning (mum wasn't feeling well, so she skipped class the past couple of days and my knees hurt, because I overused my knees a bit doing the lotus pose too often). I took a nice hot shower (doesn't happen too often: 'no power, no (hot) shower') and prepared for class. We started class with Mr. Subodh after breakfast at 10 am. At 1pm, another yoga teacher showed up: he was suppose to come on Monday, but he was a day early. We were kind of hungry, but agreed in having a class given by him for just a while, since he travelled so far to get here. Well, Mr. Bharat was amazing (and definitely gay ;) and we finished around 3.15 pm, cause the class was just so good… I finally start to understand all the things Mr. Subodh talked about. We had a discussion about feeling sad and happy. According to yoga science, it's okay to feel happy or sad, but you shouldn't get attached to those feelings. Feelings are flowing through you and it you try to hold on to them, they can never go away (sorrow) or get bigger (happiness). So you just have to let it happen and go with the flow. (we talked about that most of the time, so this is a very short version!). People do get e.g. bitter or addicted when they do attach/ try to hold on to those feelings of sorrow or happiness. Life is ups and downs, nothing wrong with that. But is you don't attach to these feelings, the happiness will grow bigger every time and the sorrow will disappear more easily and quicker… I say it's a win-win situation ;)

So we had a late lunch and then Mr. Chintamani showed up again! My knees were still kind of sore and we just had lunch, so I wasn't really in for yoga practice… He was fine with that and we had more theory that day :) which was exhausting, but it was the most productive day so far and so interesting! This was exactly what I hoped Nepal would be like and I'm very happy to be here now, definitely worth it!

Mr. Chintamani invited us to come over to see the Geriatric Center where he works and we decided to go there the next day. Mr. Subodh and Lara were coming along.

It was quite a long bus ride to get there (so we took a taxi to get back home), but also worth it. We met the founders of the center and they showed us around, one man, Chris, was the funniest ever!

Back home we had lunch and shortly after that, Mr Chintamani arrived for another yoga class. Again it was awesome: mum and Lara joined us and I tried to do (and succeeded!) some amazing postures (eg: the pigeon: ) Anyway, it was another challenging class and I really enjoyed it.

That morning, we had a little chat with Rajan: he is the man I emailed with to discuss the reservation. Since we're not completely happy with the accommodation (we booked a bungalow, but Mr. Subodh has got his office downstairs and we're doing yoga here and meditation and having dinner here, since it's the only building here and too cold in the morning and at night do do those things outside) and we did pay a lot to stay at the 'bungalow' instead of a room or tent, we wanted to get some of our money back… There some other things here that need to be improved as well (this center was founded less than a year ago) and I asked Mr. Subodh to call Rajan to ask him to come over. Well, he did get a bit scared and said to us that if we wanted to talk about the yoga lessons, we should talk to him and not to Rajan. I told him, that I would not talk about the quality of the yoga lessons, unless we wouldn't get a fair bit of money back… is that blackmailing?? Anyways, we'll each got over ¼ of what we paid back, so that's a pretty good deal!

And Mr. Subodh is paying the other yoga teachers himself I think. I bet that the Rajan guy doesn't know about that… Well, as long as we're happy, right? And I'm really learning things right now and I might actually be able to teach yoga when I'm finished here…

Today I really didn't want to get up for yoga in the morning, but I really had to :( After breakfast we had class about the nature cure/ natural therapy. It was alright: Mr. Subodh actually does have a master degree on this subject, but he still had to improve his teaching skills…

After lunch, Lara and I went for a stroll and bought some cornflakes and crackers, etc, mainly for my mum, who's still not feeling 100%.. Our Guru couldn't make it this afternoon,so Lara and I did some yoga ourselves (good time to practice teaching) and that was actually very nice. Way better then the yoga classes in the morning… Luckily my knees are not sore anymore :).

A shower (yes there was power!) and meditation afterwards and a nice dinner, tea, cards… standard routine now…

Well, power just went on, so I'll put this blog on for you to read.. That must have taken a while ;). Thanks all of you that are leaving me messages: I really appreciate that!

Big hugs & kisses!