LUSH South India awaits you!
Here is your chance to experience India with one of India’s best tour guides, Dr. Arvind Singh, and to practice daily Hatha Yoga with me, Fran Gallo, while you are touring various jewel-like sites of South India. There are two enticing trips to choose from and this blog post focuses on the South India adventure. My next blog post will focus on the second trip being offered in Rajasthan. Readers, kindly share this blog link with friends who may be interested.
- South India January 2 – 18, 2020 (this blog’s focus)
- Rajasthan, Agra, and Varanasi in North India January 18 – February 5, 2020
The deadline to register is August 31, 2019 or sixteen days from now. Both trips are organized and offered by Spiritual India Journeys. I am lucky enough to be hired by Spiritual India Journeys to teach daily yoga. I get to experience yoga with you and help you navigate one of the most fascinating continents on earth.
There’s got to be a reason why I go back to India again and again, right? I was certain that last year would be my last time taking part in the India tours (only because I have worked with the tours six times and would like to offer a variety of other yoga-related travels). However, I had such a great time and felt so deeply connected to the tour participants and to the experience of being fully immersed in India that I committed to teaching again in India in January 2020!
Why travel to India? India is simply other-worldly and enticing! It is a vast country with much diversity in its people, religions, languages, cuisine, spices, terrain, climate, art, music, dance, history, and architecture (to name a few!). Being on one of Dr. Arvind Singh’s tours is like a college course in that you learn so much.
Quite frankly, it is really mind boggling to write about India. Where do I begin? In this blog, I will use my photos from South India to give you an idea why you must go to India at least once in your lifetime. I hope to and intend to perhaps convince you to come with me in January 2020. Your greatest challenge will be deciding on which trip to sign up for because, honestly, they are both incredible! (Perhaps you will sign up for both trips since they are back to back!) The following is only a sample of what you will experience in our South India tour with daily yoga.
LUSH SOUTH INDIA
Mamallapuram
The first time I went to Mamallauram, I was greeted by the ching ching ching of the stone cutters chipping away at their stone carvings of bulls, lotus flowers, Ganesha, Saraswati, and Gopi Krishna, to name a few. Not only does this town have a name that is a mouthful and very fun to say aloud, it is also home to some of India’s most well-known historic monolithic temples and carvings. There is a singular boulder lovingly called Shiva’s Butterball. It is enormous and seems to balance delicately on a steep hill. The boulder leaves you wondering where on earth this stone came from. Did this magically rendered boulder drop from the heavens? And if so, did the earth shake and quake when it dropped? Or did it pop up, erupting from the bowels of the earth? Did Shiva forget to eat his tasty butterball and leave it to melt in the sun? And, let’s say this boulder rolled into place from some invisible disintegrating mountain chain. If so, why did it stop rolling to where it is today and how has it managed to balance in place so perfectly for millennia when most of us cannot even hold Tree Pose for more than three minutes? The lone-stone sparks the imagination of schoolchildren and adults alike.
Many school children arrive by the busload to admire the mysterious boulder and the nearby carvings. The children are beautiful, dynamic, boisterous, and adorable. It is ever so fun to interact with them as well as the adults accompanying them.
Our guide brings meaning and life to the ancient carvings, Shore Temple, and stones as he interprets the stories behind the ancient artwork.
Brihadeeswara Temple in Thanjavur is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We usually arrive early evening and are greeted by a local guide who gives us a tour of the temple. The temple and grounds are vast and the guide gives us access to sacred places of Hindu worship. The temple is overwhelmingly exquisite in structure, art, and architecture. The early evening brings a sense of magic as the temple lights are turned on.
Trichy Rock Fort Temple
Rock Fort is a historic temple complex built on an ancient rock that reaches 272 ft, located in the state of Tamil Nadu. There 344 steps cut directly into the stone and the steps lead directly to three temples. One temple is all the way at the top of the rock. The rock was used as a fort by various rulers. The oldest structure within the fort is a cave temple built in 580 AD. The cave temple is filled with intricately decorated columns, carved directly from the existing rock.
And just so you know, it’s not everyone who can make it to the top of the 344 steps. The day might be hot and the sun beaming on the stones may make you feel like a fire walker. Usually, if the day is particularly hot, jute mats are placed over the stone so you can walk more easily without feeling the hot stones on your sensitive feet. To enter temple grounds in India, you must always remove your shoes and enter barefoot. Some clever people in our group packed several pairs of socks to wear on such occasions. After walking around the temple in socks, they simply tossed the used pair of socks in a rubbish bin. For those who can not climb so many stairs, there are markets and shopping stalls, tea shops, and more accessible places for you to visit while the others in your group do the stair climb to the top.
The climb to the top is exhilarating. And at the very top, you get to pay homage to Ganesha as the temple is dedicated to him. Ganesha offers protection and power. He is the remover of the obstacles that life throws your way. The climb is a journey, a pilgrimage. Even if you are not Hindu, the climb to the top gives you a chance to experience Tapas. The tapas I mention here has nothing to do with small tasty and delectable dishes found in a restaurant in Spain. Tapas in Hinduism is an ascetic practice voluntarily carried out to achieve spiritual strength or purification of self. Tapas are spiritual practices that often involve a high degree of self-discipline, like climbing 344 steps to reach a quiet temple in the sky. Engaging in a period of deep meditation or going on a ten-day Vipassana meditation retreat are also forms of tapas.
In the yoga practice, Tapas is one of the niyamas, yoga’s ethical guide to living. Tapas refers to “self-discipline”. Everyone who manages to undergo the temple steps has an intense experience. It is a powerful and unforgettable experience.
The word tapas comes from the Sanskrit root word tap, which means “to be hot.” This relates the word to the concept of spiritual rebirth and the inner fire needed to achieve spiritual rebirth.
Madurai
My best writing about India happens when I am actually there, when my head is swimming with stories of gods and goddesses, or humming with the sounds of humanity, or filled with names of birds I have just seen in the quiet of the morning in Madurai. There is one hotel where we stay which has employee-groundskeepers who double as avid birders. These knowledgeable birders offer early morning and early evening bird watching on and near the hotel grounds. Even if you are not a birder, you will want to go on these walks. You will most likely see at least a few of the following species of birds: Indian paradise flycatchers, blue-bearded bee-eaters, Indian pittas, red-whiskered bulbuls and red-vented bulbuls, Malabar trogons, Indian golden orioles, purple-rumpled sunbirds, and the greater raquet-tailed Drongo with its showy long tailed feathers! The magical names of these birds are beautiful but nowhere near as lovely as the actual birds!
Meenakshi Temple in Madurai
This temple is fascinating. I am not a Hindu and yet I feel perfectly comfortable in this and all Hindu places of worship. I believe the reason for this is because temples in India embrace universal aspects of spirituality. Temples in India represent a macrocosm of ideas related to what it means to be human and our relationship to the divine. I do not understand all that is happening around me when I am in a Hindu temple, but I understand that the temple is a powerful place of worship. In Meenakshi Temple, I feel the sanctity of this temple strongly. I understand why this temple is so beloved a place of worship. This is a temple dedicated to the goddess Meenakshi. She sleeps with one eye open because she is always looking after you. Intricate stone carvings, colorful mandala-covered ceilings, festive bright saris, and ceremonies greet you. Arvind explains it all for us, but really, in the end, you take into your heart what you feel while you are there. Large numbers of women come to this temple to pray for safe pregnancies. The women also come to pray for their husband’s health. When I saw the women praying for their husbands at this temple, I felt so deeply moved. This temple is truly a special place of spirit.
Periyar National Park
This national park is home to the wild Asian elephant. The elephants are magnificent and can be seen from your boat on Lake Periyar. In the evening, the elephants make their way to the lake for a refreshing drink of water. Mothers create a moving fortress for the baby elephants as they walk by putting their cherished toddlers in the center of their group!
Cardamom County
Cardamom County is the name of the hotel we stay at near Periyar National Park. Besides a large inviting swimming pool and a beautiful yoga studio, where you can see a giant squirrel up in the trees, there is an Ayurvedic doctor who gives each hotel guest a complimentary Ayurvedic consultation. I cannot tell you how much I benefited from this consultation! I had very specific concerns and the doctor gave me some great ideas on hydration, diet, and lifestyle. I was given guidelines on many aspect of life. I dream of going back and checking into the Cardamom County Hotel for one full month to simply get treatments, consultations, and eat a wholesome Ayurvedic diet prescribed specifically for me! There is a wonderful Ayurvedic spa at this hotel and the treatments are heavenly and affordable!
Houseboat
Hands down, this is the most relaxing part of the whole two weeks! What else are you supposed to do on a houseboat but relax! The houseboat has sleeping rooms and space for us to do yoga. The bedrooms are wonderfully air conditioned. The waters are lined with colorful homes and as we go out on smaller canoes, we can see local life taking place along the canals. From the canoe, I felt terribly voyeuristic watching a woman squeeze the excess water from her freshly washed long thick hair. But, I shamefully kept staring, mesmerized by her beauty, unable to pry my eyes from the scene.
On the houseboat, the staff is attentive. They prepare delicious meals for us. Most people just chill out drinking fresh coconut milk straight out of the coconut. We lie back, taking in the essence of India. After a full two weeks together, we all just lounge about and smile, digesting the journey together thus far. No need to talk at this point. Time to just take in the sun setting over the water, the water turning pink as sunset deepens. This is a bit of heaven on earth.
Cooking with Maria
I am proud to say that I found Maria. When I told Arvind I wanted to add Maria’s cooking school experience to the itinerary, he looked at me askance! After all, he had never had a cooking school component on the tours. However, he gave in to my request. Shortly after the cooking experience with Maria, he said with an ear to ear smile, “Tell me again how you found her????” Maria is lovely and reminds me of a wizard mixing up some magical concoction that will make you fall in love or make you fall deeper in love with all that is India. Oh, yeah! We all file into her modest kitchen and it’s all hands on. We create a gigantic meal over her little 4-burner cook-stove. Later we eat together at a big table while her husband sings for us. While her husband sings Bollywood love songs, Arvind happily bops his head.
