Ahhhhhhhh! I found INdia again! AFter 2 months in Goa and a few days in Hampi I was wondering...!!! But now I am finally in Mysore, a real INdian city and although I just arrived yesterday, I am in love with the place already! The birthplace of Ashtanga Yoga! The trip to get here was uneventful, I said good bye to my friends who were going to Varanasi the same day I was leaving for Bangalore and then Mysore. Met a lot of tourists at the train station, even some from Montreal! And also ran into some yogis from Goa who were also going to Bangalore to then move on to another city. It was a night train, I slept a little bit, and arrived in Bangalore early in the morning. From there I took a ... read more

Incredible, I was in Goa for more than 50 days and it seemed like a long time and now it is over! Today is my last day, I am super excited to leave even if I will miss Goa and the people I know here. I will come back anyway in a month to pick up a huge load of things that I don't need to carry with me on my way south. My last weeks in Goa were not super busy with exploring, although I did go to a spice farm close to Ponda. The experience was OK, but the farm I went to was very much a tourist attraction, they seem to be doing the same thing over and over again so it didn't have the authentic feeling that you find is smaller family-run ... read more

Yesterday was a day without yoga practice, so as I had planned I decided to visit Old Goa. This was "the big city" when the Portuguese were here and Old Goa is known for its churches, cathedrals, convents, etc. So after breakfast, I took the bus to Panjim first, and then to Old Goa. Taking the bus... Well, for people who have never been in India, maybe I should mention a few things. Buses are very frequent here, not expansive, but also not so comfortable. Well, they get VERY crowded and the drivers can be a bit...hum...crazy. Usually there is a driver and then a "manager". I don't really know how they are called but these guys work their bums off... They can say the destination of the bus at a rate of probably 3 times ... read more

I said already that yoga students here have a lot in common... Well, I just found out this Monday morning that we all shared something else too... The bad food from the German Bakery! Actually I only found out on Tuesday morning after some friends worried about me after I didn't show up for yoga practice for 2 days... They came to see me and this is when I heard that 10 other yogis had been sick and we then found the common denominator which was the restaurant were we all ate the morning before some strange melodies started coming from our guts... So that morning, as we were again eating breakfast in a (hopefully) safer restaurant, we all shared our experience of the previous day and night... It was hilarious. Some had it worse than ... read more

Here I am again! Back in Goa! This place is addictive, and for a reason! Nice beach, great climate, nice places to stay, good restaurants, colorful markets, friendly people.... So after 2 nights sleeping in the train from Gujarat to Mumbai and then Mumbai to Goa, I came to Candolim, where I did yoga last year. It was great to drive back to a familiar area and recognize places and people. On my way to Candolim from the train station, my taxi driver said "shirt, shirt"... I said "no, I don't need a shirt". I thought he wanted to take me to a shirt shop somewhere where he would get commission and I really just wanted to find a place to stay and have a shower... But no, he meant he had to stop at his ... read more