I came to Alleppey after Varkala Beach, and it is the center for Backwater tours and houseboating on the miles of rivers, canals, and lakes that make up this area. They call Alleppey the "Venice of India". Well there are canals and rivers, but it is not quite Venice! It is very interesting though, crazy streets busy with Indian men wearing these skirt like cloth things around their waists (kind of like shorts)- probably beacuse it is so rediculously hot and humid! There are temples everywhere, and bells are ringing all day, the smell of incense all over the place, and [View Full Entry]

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I flew down to meet my friend Marie in Varkala, an amazing beach town in Southern Kerala state, on the west coast of India. We stayed at a beautiful ayurvedic resort with lush landscapes, beautiful cottages, and mosquitos the size of small birds! At night, they come to your room with a iron pot full of hot coals, and burn this amazing incense to "smoke out" your room and keep the mosquitos at bay. Even still, it was DEET mania, and malaria medicine galore. The beach itself is a small strip of sandy area, overlooked by amazing red cliffs, where the [View Full Entry]

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Hey everybody!! So check out my Rishikesh blog, it is finally updated... On to the next adventure. A Yoga group member, Amber, and I went to Aurangabad to visit the incredible caves at Ajanta and Ellora. We had to travel to the middle of nowhere to do it, but it was well worth it. Wow- these caves are incredible. And photos barely do them justice. We had to drive 2 hours to these caves, where I felt like i should be fliming an Indiana Jones Movie. At Ajanta, they are all Buddhist, and were built from 400BC to 800 AD or [View Full Entry]

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Finally! After weeks of living in an ashram, with virtually no internet access and 12 hour days of Yoga and Yoga Teacher Training, finally i am updating my blog and adding pics! Teacher Training was a fantastic experience. It took place at an ashram in northern India, in a city called Rishikesh. It is at the foothills of the himalayas, and is situated on the most holy Ganges river. My ashram, called Parmarth Niketan, is the largest ashram in Rishikesh, with over 1000 rooms, and beautifully landscaped gardens, temples, and yoga halls. Our group was 13 people, from all over the [View Full Entry]

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I decided on a whim to take a flight down to South East India, to Pondicherry, an old French colonial town on the Bay of Bengal. The driver picked me up at the airport, with a sign reading my name "Mykl". Ha Ha! Somehow I found him in a sea of about 100 white clad taxi drivers. The ride from Chennai (used to be called Madras) was about 2.5 hours, through coconut groves and along the seaside. It is very hot and humid down here, about 90 degrees, and about 60 percent humidity. There are huts all along the road, farms, [View Full Entry]

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Well another day in Little Tibet! Today I took a taxi about a half hour down to the famous Norbulingka Insititute! The ride was bumpy, and through what seemed to be a neighborhood. South of Dharamsala, in the foothills, it is an incredible place, aimed at preserving Tibetan culture and arts and crafts. There are the most highly skilled artisans doing metal work (think Huge Buddha heads), and painters doing the most intricate work ever - think painting with the point of a needle, along with applique work (sewn with horse hair and silk) that is so incredibly detailed. I got [View Full Entry]

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Dharamsala Part 2- There is lots to do in such a small town! Yesterday I went hiking to an amazing waterfall with some new friends, Etta and Peter, who are from Prague, Czech Republic. It was about an hours hike, fairly easy, but through dense forest and over lots of rocks, and thru streams. Very peaceful and we were the only people there for at least an hour. After the hike, I packed up my stuff and moved hotels, down into the main town (called McLeod Ganj) at Hotel Tibet. The room is about 12 USD per night. Insanely cheap, and [View Full Entry]

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My first travels outside of Delhi- I took the overnight train from Delhi to Pathankot (a rail junction about 3 hrs from Dharamsala), then had a car drive me the rest of the way. It was super bumpy and I was not feeling good, so I laid down in the back of the car the whole way. We stopped in a small village called Rait Rait, and while the driver and his friend had lunch, i drank coca cola, and took photos of the stunning scenery. This is called the Kangra Valley, with beautiful rivers running through it, and mountains topping [View Full Entry]

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The adventure has begun... I arrived in Delhi airport yesterday evening, only to breeze through immigration and customs, and walk out to the baggage claim to see my bag waiting for me. It could not have been any easier! I expected chaotic madness, to be swarmed by taxi drivers, and to just feel like I had been runover by a train..... but alas... everything was smooth as could be. My friend Jon-Lea, who lives in Delhi with her husband Bob, had their driver pick me up at the airport, and I easily spotted him holding a sign with my name on [View Full Entry]

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Once, again, Anthony was traveling for work, so jimmy and I went to Seattle to meet him and then drove up to Canada to visit Vancouver! I love this place, it reminds me so much of San Francisco, the weather and also the people. So friendly and diverse. We stayed at the Westin Bayshore which was beautiful, and went on a drive through Stanley Park, Saw Downtown and the Gaslamp Districts, took a ferry to North Vancouver, walked along the marina, and ate DIM SUM! Yummy! I will for sure be back here soon. [View Full Entry]

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