Felix's farewell post - some reflections on what he's learned. Hoping we will be back soon, and thank you for reading!

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED BY BEING IN INDIA

• Cows can be dangerous
• Don’t listen to what mum says when she is describing your yoga teacher.  For a while before we got to India, she was saying ‘better pick up your game Felix, Saraswati will whip you into shape’ and then Saraswati turned out to be sweet and lovely.  Good ol’ mum.
• Monkeys are cute and funny until you get too close and they show their super sharp teeth
• Don’t judge anything by looks.  The seediest looking van turned out to sell the best Dosas I have had in my life.
• If any Indian man stares at you just because you’re from a different country, stare right back.  Just think of it as a staring competition with a random guy.
• I am too good of a teacher of the card game speed.  Everyone I teach just beats me.
• If you put in 100% to your yoga with every practice, you notice big changes.  Before I came to Mysore, I couldn’t catch my toe in 9/10 of my poses, now I catch all of them save one or two.  Mum said that my body has definitely changed, she says I look more flexible and stronger, and I look more focused.  This information pleased me a lot.
• Not everyone understands sarcasm.  Mum had to remind of this a few times.  Some people were left a bit confused when I said something sarcastic, as I’m used to everyone just understanding instantly.
• Indian buses are horrible.  Especially if you are in one for eleven hours straight.  It was worth it to go to Hampi though.
• Always try new things.  For example, bouldering.  I never even considered it until we met Ariel and Mariela, and Ariel, being a climber, wanted to go to Hampi.  So to Hampi we went.  And climb we did.  After Ariel taught me a few basics, we had a great time, climbing and chilling out with a bunch of random climbers. Frisbee, Guitar jamming and laughs we had up on the rocks that fine day.

This is my last blog for the India trip, I hope everyone enjoyed reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.  To everyone back home, I will see you soon, you have all been missed, to everyone I met here in Mysore, thank you very much, I will miss you all, I hope to see you again in the future! Much love and good fortune to all J

Since food was the #1 Good Thing About India by Felix's reckoning, he decided to give a small tour of the places we have been eating at. It is, of course, just a selection of the available spots where yogis like to eat during their stay in Mysore.

FOOD OF GOKULAM

If you’ve been to Mysore, you’re going to tell me ‘oh Felix not all of these are located in Gokulam’ but most of them are.

Santosha: one of the breakfast places, and one of the two places that we go to most often.  It is probably the cosiest of the lot, and to me, it has the best vibe.  As usual, the tables are low and you sit on pillows around them.  The guy that works there, Arun, a local, is super chilled out and really friendly.  He has long hair and always wears a fedora style hat.  He always greets me with a big smile, a fist bump, and a ‘Hey bro!’  The woman that works there, Maya, is also Indian, and I’m not sure why, but she told Mum and I one day that we are her favourite customers.  Ever since then we have been good friends and many a card game has been played.  There are also the Indian guys that cook and work in the kitchen but they don’t really talk to customers.  Maybe they think we smell.  Or maybe they're shy. Who knows.

Khushi: the other most frequented place by Mum and I.  Pretty much the same as Santosha except not as cosy.  There is a bit more room.  Santosha and Khushi pretty much sell the exact same stuff, for very similar prices, so we don’t mind which one we eat at.  Though mum did make me go and volunteer to work there, yay me.  But the work is good, and all the Indian guys in the kitchen are super friendly and all excellent workers.  I mostly just make coffee, tea and chai, take orders, bring people their food, and clear tables.  Really easy work, and the payment is a free meal, woohoo.

Anokhi Gardens:  the fanciest of the breakfast places, therefore the most expensive, therefore the least frequented by us.  Really nice food, and it’s run by two really lovely French women. 

Tina’s Café: the best Indian food, made by the best Indian person.  The food there is traditional Indian food, and it is just amazing.  Every day it has changes to the menu, but the egg curry (my favourite) is always there, thank goodness.  I love eating the food and seeing Tina and Sanjeev, so it is just an all round great place

Dosa Van: from the first look, you would think this little white van parked on the side of the road selling Indian food looks really seedy.  That’s what I thought.  And my family DRIVES a white van.  So you can imagine how seedy this looks.  But the food they sell OH MY SHIVA (as I’m in India I decided to say an Indian god instead of just boring old oh my god) BEST dosas I’ve had so far.  A dosa is like a savory pancake, and the main one is the Masala Dosa, which has potato inside it, and two different sauces that accompany it, mostly a red one, and a spicier green one (reminds me of a funny story actually.  We were having Dosas and Ariel was sharing a Masala Dosa with me, and he kept eating the green curry because he thought the red one would be spicier, simple because it’s red.  Talk about stereotyping).  Yeah so no Dosa I’ve had even comes close to the ultimate deliciousness of the Van Dosas.  It’s like a rainbow exploding in your mouth.

Anu’s Café:  really lovely place, during the day there is a buffet that has traditional Indian food, really nice, but in the evenings they sell an assortment of smoothies and drinks, and because Mum and I’s daily routine is all munted because of our late yoga times, we have a late lunch so we aren’t really hungry  by dinnertime so it’s really lovely to just go to Anu’s and have a smoothie. (Warning: inside joke coming up) But if you text someone telling them you’re going to get a smoothie at Anu’s, make sure you put the apostrophe.  Especially if you’re ordering double chocolate.

Green Hotel:  fanciest on the list.  It has really good Indian food and apparently the rooms there are really nice too.  Not a casual place for us, more of a get-together with friends for an occasion place.  Surrounded by garden and greenness (I wonder why they call it The Green Hotel), it is a lovely restaurant, and the place where Ariel first learnt about Aussie slang.  He didn’t really understand, much to the amusement of Mum and I. 

So, the food places listed above are the reason that I'm putting on as much weight as I'm losing from doing the yoga. Indian food is the best.

Our last week in India has begun - and so has the scramble to see places we haven't been to yet, and looking for presents to take home. Not to be missed is a climb up the 1000 steps of Chamundi Hill. Here we go!

CHAMUNDI HILL

Chamundi Hill hosts the main temple in India for the goddess Chamundi.  Chamundi is a version of the warrior goddess Durga, and Chamundi received her name after she killed the two demons, Chanda and Munda.  Oh and she has three eyes, eight arms, and carries a trident, mace, arrow, disk, conch shell, shield and a rope.  And she rides a tiger.  Sometimes it’s a lion.  It can also be a buffalo.  I guess the animal she rides depends on the mood she is in at that present time.  All I am trying to say is, she is badass.  There is one thousand steps leading up to the top of Chamundi Hill, and at around seven hundred there is a Swami devoted to Shiva, the god of destruction.  Swamis are holy men, and mum knew this particular Swami.  He also has a giant bull statue outside the cave he lives in. 

Anyway, to our story.  After a hair raising scooter ride through town, we arrived at the bottom of the thousand steps.  There was a vast array of indian wildlife down there.  Monkeys, cows and turkeys all over the place.  The start of the steps had a big arch over it with statues of gods and all that holy Indian stuff.  It was really cool, and the crafting skill in the carving was exquisite.  We began our ascent, and then stopped again after about ten steps, because mum paid her respects to a Ganesh shrine.  We began our ascent once again.  On the corner of every step was a mixture of coloured powder, as some people, as they walk up, put a bit of powder on every step.  The view of the city just got better as we went up.  It was very different to Australian views, because there was a smog covering the entire of Mysore, making everything look a bit dull.  The view was spectacular nonetheless.  We arrived at the Bull statue and the Swami’s cave, took of our shoes, and did the ritual of walking around the bull three times thinking to yourself ‘Om Namah Shivaya’ which is a prayer to Shiva, as the statue was Shiva’s steed, a bull.  Also this being a giant bull, it had giant testicles.  Mum told Ariel and I that, according to legend, if you touch the bull’s balls, it increases your fertility.  So touch the balls we did.  Mum also got a photo of us touching the gargantuan testicles, happy day.  After the testicular experience we headed to the Swami’s cave.  We popped inside his cave, which was very tiny.  It had been pretty pimped out though.  Tiled floor, padded roof, painted, and he had a very packed shrine.  I found out later that this wasn’t the cave he lived in.  He had a bigger one around the back.  It had a lot of statues and incense.  And his offerings tray had quite a lot of money.  The Swami himself was a short little man, with the traditional orange clothes and long hair and beard.  He was very nice.  Him and mum had a short conversation, then we paid our respects by touching his feet then touching our hands to our heart.  We left a bit of money and he also gave us a handful of sugar each.  We walked out of the cave, ate our sugar, put on our shoes, and continued up the hill. 

We passed A LOT of chipmunks on the way up.  They are everywhere in Mysore, but there was double the usual amount up here.  Chipmunks are funny little creatures.  They constantly live in a sustained state of mild panic.  Like little birds.  They never look relaxed.  And when they run it’s a stiff legged half-hop, and their tails stick straight up in the air.  The amount of Chipmunk brown-eyes I’ve had is too many to count.  We arrived to the top of the hill, and it was bustling with life.  Cows, monkeys, goats, and more monkeys.  There is a whole village at the top of Chamundi hill, and of course, the temple.  The temple was a tall structure, covered with statues of gods and exquisite carvings.  There was a vast array of different shops surrounding the temple, mostly food.  We decided not to go into the temple, we just looked from the outside.  We walked around the temple, which was pretty much a lap of the whole village.  We got about one quarter around, and this young cow, not full grown, came galloping out and ran quite quickly down the street, where there was three small Indian children walking along.  They screamed and ran out of the way.  The cow however, was not heading for them.  It merely ran past them and into the buildings on the other side of the street.  Mum, Ariel and I watched this unfold with much amusement.  We continued to walk around the temple, and when we were about one third around the cow appeared again.  It let out a big, sad sounding MOO and ran across the street.  I don’t know what vexed this cow, but it was pissed off.  It continued up the street opposite our trio, at around the same pace as us, until it ran into a cat walking along the fence line.  It seemed very interested in this cat and it started to follow it.  This seemed to calm the cow down.  We finished our lap of the temple, climbed up on a wall, and enjoyed the view of Mysore for a good ten minutes.  After that, we got a drink each and walked back down.  We got to the bottom, worn out but pleased, paid the guy you watched our scooters, said goodbye to the turkeys who were getting a bit close for comfort, and left.

After a little over three weeks in India, Felix shares his thoughts on the positives and negatives...

INDIA GOODS AND BADS

GOOD

1. Food.  This is plain obvious.  Indian food rocks!
2. Liveliness.  The whole place is just buzzing with activity the whole time.  People and animals milling together, all going about their business.
3. Monkeys.  When they aren’t busy attacking you, monkeys are probably the funniest creatures on earth.  They climb so well it makes me jealous, they are greedy, and the babies are adorable.
4. Cows.  Why can’t we have cows just roaming the streets in Australia?  They just add to the place.  Helps build character
5. Yoga.  Duh.  Why did I come here if not to do yoga.
6. Scooter.  Mum has started letting me drive it.  There is not much more fun than hooning down and Indian side street on a scooter.  Believe me.
7. Smells.  Especially where we are staying.  The Indian family that owns the place are always cooking, therefore the house is always full of delicious smells.
8. Meeting new people.  I have made a few new friends on this trip, closest of which is Ariel, a 17 year old from Costa Rica.  We have been having a great time.
9. Coconuts.  Nothing is better than a cold coconut after a hot practice.  I found out that coconuts greatly restore energy.  One time the coconut man wasn’t there after practiced.  I hardly made it home.  I felt betrayed, and my trust in this coconut man has lowered considerably.
10. Hampi!  Of course!  It was such a great experience, seeing and climbing this vast landscape of boulders.  Except when the monkey attacked me.  That wasn’t so fun.

BAD

1. Locals who stare at me.  Every second guy you pass in the street just full on stares at you.  After a while I got fed up, so every guy who stared at me, I stared at them right back.
2. Various animal turds.  They are everywhere!  You have to keep a subconscious crap detector whenever you go outside!  But you can never escape the smell.
3. Monkeys who attack me.  If you read the past blog, you know the full story.  Enough said.  It’s not like I wanted to keep the pants I was wearing that day anyway.
4. Cows who attack me.  I was just walking down the street minding my own business, when a cow decides to ram its horn into my belly and slobber all over me.  Bloody cows.
5. Led class.  Nothing is more tiring than a yoga teacher who holds you in those really uncomfortable poses forever.  And keeping up.  I’m not too good at that.
6. Traffic.  There are no proper rules! Mum and I came up with rules of our own.
   1 don’t go near buses
   2 beep your horn
   3 don’t go near buses
7. Buses.  They are horrible to be in and around.  It is quite terrifying when you are on a small scooter, and then you hear an ear-splitting horn blast, and there’s a bus right behind you.  They are also very horrible to be in for eleven hours straight.  They are hot, smelly, and the bus driver beeps the bloody horn every two minutes.  The horns on the bus are eardrum piercingly loud.  Bus drivers don’t like letting people sleep.
8. Bus stations.  Like the buses, they are smelly, dirty and loud.
9. The toilets.  There is no toilet paper.   Just a bucket and a tap.  Maybe If your lucky you get a hose.  I will let you imagine the rest.
10. Eh, nine is enough.  India is not bad enough to deserve a tenth.