Blogs from Madhya Pradesh, India, Asia - page 9

Imagine the extreme adventure of free-falling from an altitude of 10,000ft; that too at a speed of 200km/hr! - Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? Well, this past weekend I had experienced the same thing at the 1st ever Commercial Skydiving Camp in India at a place called Sagar, in Madhya Pradesh, India. And boy, it was an experience which I can't describe in words. But I'll try to. Well... I began my journey on Friday Noon in the Kamayani Express from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai and had reached Sagar Railway Station by crack of dawn on Saturday. I could’ve taken a flight as my mode of transport, but I firmly believe that to truly experience traveling, one has to travel by train. The adventure begins right there on the berth of the train. I quickly managed ... read more

Day 1 - Arriving in Aurangabad at around 7.30 AM we quickly jumped a rickshaw to the YHAI hostel only to find they were closed, so our driver took us to his friends place (hotel pushpak), tucked away down a quiet alley and conveniently located next to the train station and local food area. Tired from the long journey we checked in for 500 rupees a night and had a few hours sleep. Waking around midday we headed out in search of food ..... we decided upon the pure veg restaurant where we indulged in another paneer butter massala, bhajis and garlic chappatis. Walking around the town, we soon noticed that we were one of very few westerners (we saw 1 other couple) and that all the local women were covered from head to toe in ... read more

Before we left Agra, we were introduced to another traveller called Kat who was a journalist from Poland. She was catching the same train as us so we shared a tuk-tuk to the station. The train journey to Khajuraho was very uncomfortable on AC3. Angelo as usual wozzed out of sleeping on the top bunk as he thought he might roll of the bunk!! On arriving to Khajuraho we decided to stay in Hotel Surya and we shared a tuk-tuk with Kat. On arrival we noticed that this area was not very densely populated as other places in India and also did not look as polluted! This was a great sign! The hotel was reasonably priced, we haggled our room down to Rs 550 (Debbie had a little moan, as she felt she did not haggle ... read more

November 24th We wend our merry way on through more road challenges, hellish toilets, other times preferring roadside pee breaks accompanied by occasional outbreaks of dancing and then after five or six hours we arrive at Osho Tirth, a beautiful Osho centre run by Swami Satyatirth Bharti who also has a meditation centre in Tokyo. This centre is everything the one in Jabalpur is not and that's ok, both are necessary and exist beyond good and bad. We are received by the Swami in his Japanese style house and it's fair to say that though Indian, Japan seems to live and breathe in him. After lunch we walk to Osho's birthplace, the house where he spent much of his childhood living with his grandparents. On the approach, children run past calling out 'Osho, Osho!' As we ... read more

After 7 months in Montreal, I again saved up the money to continue my adventures. But this one takes me back to a familiar place. I contemplated traveling through Central America, but something was missing....I wanted more this time than a backpacking experience. I looked for jobs abroad, tried to think of different ways to experience a new country, I even looked for a regular, normal old job! But my heart kept pulling me back to India and yoga. So, here I am...after researching many different courses throughout the country...in a relatively unknown town amongst tourists, studying the life of a yogi. After one intense month, I'm a certified yoga teacher. Yay! I flew to Mumbai before coming to the ashram and was able to spend some time at the orphanage I visited last year. It ... read more