Arrived in Gokulam, a small town in Mysore. Gokulam is known for several yoga schools. This town is a lot cleaner and quieter than Bangalore. Here I will park for all of February for this yoga course.
The famous Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Vinyasa Institute is around the corner from where I’ll stay. The ashtanga institute attracts a crazy number of foreigners. It’s basically an asana class with a sequence. You move through the asanas and cannot progress unless you’ve mastered each asana in order. It’s a very external practice and very competitive. The students of this school seem grumpy and can be found taking selfies (with duck faces and all) on the streets.
Today, I’ll look into a SIM card for my overpriced phone and a rubber yoga mat. Wishing I had one of the crappy GoodLife mats now, the ones here are even crappier (thinner) and practice floors are tiles…so anti-yogic.
Looking forward to being immersed in this course. I’m thinking it will be the last time I come back to India for training. Yoga seems way too commercialized and I’m tired of being ripped off…even by the dog who stole my slipper outside class!
Beats minus 10 degrees freezing rain and now a monsoon.. lol
But you’re home, and there’s no other place like it – even at -25C. :). That was a Birkenstock slipper…wait till I find that dog! No matter how much yoga/meditation, the urge to wring it’s neck is still there! 😉
Question : ?
How can Half Pigeon and sleeping Pigeon be the same thing as “Swan”?
Yoga has been taken apart and relabelled by many. In yin, pigeon is called swan. This is why we learn the sanskrit term “kapotasana” which translates to pigeon pose. ☺
Somehow I got in without going through Facebook. It is comforting this will be your last trip to India for yoga. I still think you are going home early – I wish!
If i went to Tobago you’d still be concerned! 💖
Looks like a posh area in Trinidad!
Thought the same. It’s the Ashtanga Yoga Institute that made the city Mysore prosper. Many people here also have servants – cooks, cleaners and gardeners.