A travel log for my journey to 10 Jyotir Lingums throughout south and central India, November-December 2002 with my yoga group, Dhyanyoga Centers.

 
In the Madras airport, at an Internet station, checking email, and even getting to chat with Scot back in NC who happened to be on MSIM. I guess it's about 7 am in the U.S. I think we both surpirsed each other being about to check in with chat. It is so cool to be able to check in with home!

A lot of travel in India is hurrying up to wait. However, right now I did hear some sort of boarding call for our flight, but I dont see folks in my group moving yet. Hopefully I will be able to right at length soon.

Last night we visited the wealthiest temple in India, called Tirumala in Tirupati. I will write more about it soon. I have been taking lots of notes. We'll see if the wish I put in there gets answered in 2003!
posted by Lydia at 7:08 AM

 
Well here I am in a little hole in the wall Cyber Station in Madras. Paying 15 rupees for a half hour in here was a much better idea than 150 for the same in our fancy hotel!

I like getting appropriate value for my money here in India, but because I am a Westerner, that assumption always is that we can afford more. To me, blogging from here is more "real" than in our five star hotel.

Everything at the hotel is very wonderful, don't get me wrong, but I am so happy that some of us decided to go three to a room to save money. The hotel rooms are surely large enough for us, and full of eminities, like a baday (I am not spelling that right). I have to admit that I like those creatures a lot, and you dont get them to often in the U.S.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day for us, going to Tirupathi, an auspicious place of Vishnu. I hope to get lots of photos there. I still have to get in gear with respect to taking pictures.

Until next time...
posted by Lydia at 1:30 AM

 
Oh No! I just put together a nice long entry from the email station in Singpore, but it did not save! ARGH!

OK, let's try this again...

I was trying to blog about sitting next to a young man going back to India to get married. He was delightful, telling me about how his maternal grandfather was a Gandhian, after I expressed my interest to him in fiber arts. His grandfather was in charge of an ashram, and was a proficient charka spinner. He also has a connection to Charlotte in that he works on contract for Wachovia, so I had to mention to him that my boyfriend did as well.

We asked him a little about his wedding, excitedly wanting to know if he was going to get to ride in on a horse. He smiled shyly in response and we were all thrilled for him. Traditional Indian weddings last 3 days.

We are traveling to his hometown of Indore, but not until after his wedding. Too bad, I joked, otherwise we could have crashed it! He did give me great information about where to go shopping for fabric and fiber there, though.
posted by Lydia at 5:59 AM

 
Here I am on lay-over in Hong Kong, about to get back in flight to Singapore. Luckily the bulk of the flying is behind me for the moment, as it was truly like a cattlecar. [We think a lay-over here is required in hopes that we will shop at the duty-free stores. *giggle* ] The stewardesses keep feeding us to keep us pacified!

I am at a Samsung Free Internet station in the airport. Internet browsers are strange here in HG. They don't seem like they are going to allow pop-ups of any sort. Forget about my Yahoo email address book here!

I said something to a friend about, "Don't ask me about the time...I'll think about it later!" in response to thinking about jet-lag. She thought that was awfully funny, as I have a habit of popping up with profound idioms when I am not trying.
posted by Lydia at 6:43 PM

 
Greetings or Namaste,

At the suggestion of some of my blogger co-workers, I am setting up a weblog to document the yatra, or pilgrimage, that I am going on with my yoga group, Dhyanyoga Centers.
posted by Lydia at 2:53 PM