Insights from trekking the hills of Coorg with GoMowgli

This past Sunday was a "moonday" (in the Ashtanga tradition, we do not practice on either the full or new moon), so everyone who was practicing with Sharath had 2 days off in a row.  So, I decided to venture out for another trip with the folks over at GoMowgli, this time for a 2-day trip to the neighboring district of Coorg.  The main focus of this trip was a trek through the hills to climb up the tallest peak in the district, Tadiandamol, at an elevation of 1,748 meters (about 5,700 feet).  As I've mentioned in previous posts, having access to nature is really important to me and I have been known to spend 5, 6 or 7 hours at a time wandering around in the woods (or desert when I am back in Arizona).  After the last trip when I got my first view of the beautiful Coorg countryside, I was eager to go back and see it some more.  So, when GoMowgli posted that they would be leading a 6 hour trek in Coorg, I was totally game.  Ironically, despite a beautiful start to the trip, this trek actually turned out to not being my favorite trip with the GoMowgli people.

What I loved: winding through the Coorg hills on the bus, still enchanted by the site of the lush forests and fields of coffee plants; sitting in the back of a "no frills" Jeep and getting jostled around as we climbed over narrow, rough and rocky roads, watching the landscape pass by from the open back; walking the couple of kilometers up to the lodge where we were staying the night, all of us completely mesmerized by the wonder and beauty of the rising full moon (we all kept stopping to just stare at the moon, it was so beautiful) and enchanted by the sights and sounds of the forest--have you ever stood in the middle of a circuit of bats jetting back and forth between their nest and a food source?  I have.  And let me tell you, if you are quiet enough, you can hear the subtle flap of their wings, and between that sound and their quick, almost invisible, movement, it was like standing in the middle of swarm of ghosts.  The place we stayed at (Honey Valley Homestay) was far into the hills of Coorg, away from all the sounds and busy-ness of the city,

view from the porch of our rooms

with several friendly dogs that live there but have the freedom to come and go as they please and often accompany people on the hikes into the hills.

This sweet girl ended up being our companion during our hike.  We decided to give her the name of "Short Round," as she is tiny but clever, tough and full of spunk and energy, just like her namesake from "Indian Jones" 

The homestay also had minimal outside lights, a small library, good food and a fantastic view of the moon rising over the hills.  We, again, had a nice small group on this trip and, again, we all ended up feeling like close friends by the time the trip was finished.  So, with all these wonderful things, what happened that made this trip less favorable for me than the others.  Well, honestly, mostly poor planning on my part, as well as me neglecting the reason hiking is so important to me.  The other thing?  It is the beginning of summer over here, and a vast majority of the hike was out in the sun, through what is now, a lot of dry grass and brush.  Also, this hike was very long, it felt like it was probably close to 13 kilometers, though the distance is an approximation because I did not know the trail that we were on.

All of which leads me to my poor preparation.  Normally when I go out hiking in Boston, I bring one, maybe two bottles of water and rarely drink both of them, sometimes not even one, even during the summer time and even during the times that I am out for 5-7 hours at a time.  I also don't usually eat much when I am out hiking, because my body is on the move and eating actually feels more tiring.  I also never wear a hat and often put on very little sunscreen.  Yes, I know--bad lady.  So, I did the same thing here: I only brought along one 8 ounce water bottle for the hike and some dried fruits.  No hat, minimal water and I forgot to even bring my sunscreen--and yes, GoMowgli did tell us to bring a hat, sunscreen and plenty of water and food.  Well, what do you think happened with this recipe?  If you guessed sunburn, you would be correct.  Albeit a very amusing one, as I was wearing capri yoga pants and a short-sleeved shirt--which actually spared the rest of my body from getting fried, that and being able to use someone else's sunscreen.  I was also thoroughly exhausted by the end of the hike.  I drank very little water, even though it was very hot, but thankfully, the guides from GoMowgli brought some oranges, so that gave me both some liquid and energy.  I think it's actually quite amazing that I did not get heat stroke or something, given how little I took care of myself during this hike.  Perhaps my body remembers what it was like to live and run in the desert of Arizona?  (side note: yay Merrel for making awesome barefoot trail shoes.  I did not feel a single sharp edge of a rock and the light-weight shoes are a blessing on hikes, as is being able to be "barefoot" during hot temperatures, not mention being able to be "barefoot" makes balance so much easier).

Either way, this hike also did something else, other than just leaving me feeling quite exhausted and weary of the sun--it revealed exactly how much the Ashtanga practice is doing for my body.  Any time I start lamenting about how much I miss really using my legs, and worry about them losing strength, remind me of this time, when, after a month and a half of only doing the Ashtanga practice (and not even my full Intermediate practice, which has a lot of leg-strengthening postures), and much less walking around and climbing up and down all the stairs that I used to encounter every day just from living in Boston, my legs carried me over around 13 kilometers of hilly and rocky terrain in what was probably around 90 degree heat--with the crux of the hike (the tallest peak) being at the very end of the hike.  Remind me also of how my feet carried me over these hills, after the practice helped to heal and strengthen them after years of stress from running.  My breathing was also strong and steady and my body automatically kept an even and steady pace--there really was not much thinking on my part, my brain was too tired from the heat for that, lol (although, to be fair, some of that also comes from my background in distance running).  My Sanskrit language teacher, Laksmish, likes to tell us about an analogy regarding the keys on a harmonium.  He refers to the black keys as being the unpleasant, painful or "bad" times and the white keys as being the pleasant, joyful or "good" times, and he notes that, while playing the harmonium, you cannot have a melody, or song, using only the black keys or only the white keys, you have to use both.  The analogy, thus, being that in life you cannot have only pleasant times, as we all say that we wish we could, because it would not be a complete experience, or song, you have to have unpleasant experiences as well.

So, even though this was not my favorite trip with GoMowgli and I finished that day feeling weary and hot and mildly annoyed with the experience, the days since have given me more time to see how the seemingly "unpleasant" experiences in this trip really only added knowledge to the experience from a different angle, highlighting all of the things that serve me so well in my life right and has given me a more clear of exactly how they support me.  The Ashtanga practice is my base, giving my body and mind so much strength, focus and balance.  It also shed some clarity on exactly what it is about India that draws me to this country.  Yes, of course, the landscape here is beautiful and unique, but, for me, it is nature within the context of this culture that really distinguishes it from other natural places.  Usually, after my last two trips with GoMowgli, I return to the Gokulam neighborhood (where I am staying) feeling even more connected to this country and its people.  This time, I did not.  And that has nothing to do with how this trip was run, it simply has to do with what connects me to this place, as I think all of us that travel here have our own things that draw us to this country.  For me, it is the culture, the people, the history and religion and spirituality, and those things in combination with the natural surroundings that pull me here.  This trip has shown me that, because there was much less interaction with the people and exploration of culture, simply because that was not the focus of this trip, the hike itself was the primary focus.

As for how hiking fits into my life--the hiking is best as a solo experience for me.  Yes, I know--everyone says, "don't go hiking by yourself."  But the hiking is like my "outdoor yoga"--it is not just a physical exercise, it is something that I do to disconnect from the outside, social world for a while and reconnect with the peace, beauty and simplicity that is so easily accessible out in nature.  As Sharath noted during one of the conferences here, there is a reason that all of the ancient yogis went to the Himalayas and the forests--going deep into nature and away from humans, meditation comes naturally, so half of the work of their meditation was already done for them ;-)  And for me, it is very hard for me to find that when I am hiking with people.  I usually walk much slower during my solo hikes, just naturally moving much slower and taking time to stop and soak in the experience.  But during this last hike, I found myself moving faster than I would on my own just to try and get further away from the group, away from people.  It had nothing to do with the specific people that I was with, they were all kind and friendly people, but what I was really craving was to be out in nature by myself.  After I have been able to spend several hours out in nature, by myself, I find it easier and less draining to be around people.  Ironically, hiking does not usually make my Ashtanga practice feel worse by giving me tight muscles, if anything it actually makes it feel stronger and more stable, especially with regards to my back bending practice.  I know I said that the Ashtanga practice does keep my legs strong, even though it is sometimes hard to tell, but there is something about hiking out in nature and getting to scramble and climb over the rocks of a terrain that connects me to my legs in a way that just going for long walks in the city or walking up and down stairs cannot even come close to achieving.  Every time I come back to my practice the day after a hike, my legs feel more awake and it feels like I can really feel and access them when I am standing up from and dropping down into my back bends.  And, because I can really feel the strength and stability coming from my legs, the back bending is easier because it feels like I can more easily relax the upper body because it feels like I have more support coming from my legs.  So in the days following a hike, my back bends feel easier and deeper than they do when I have gone for a long time without going out for a hike.

Of course, I don't know the terrain here, so the only way I can really go out hiking here is to go with a group.  All of that being said, the terrain in the hills of Coorg is breath-taking, even in the dry summertime (I can only imagine how beautiful it must look at the end of the rainy season, with the hills much more green and all of the streams and waterfalls flowing with water).  And, as always, the GoMowgli guides not only knew the area, but they also truly cared for it, picking up trash along the way and eventually carrying out 3 full bags of other people's trash

one of our guides (a native of the Coorg area) picking up trash at one of the streams that we stopped at

So, many thanks, again, to the people at GoMowgli for organizing trips like this for us and for sharing your country and culture with us :-)

And, without further ado, pictures :-)

some of the landscape at the beginning of the hike

one of our guides leading the way and searching out his landmarks

You see that dark grey and white patch in the middle of the picture, just above the trees?  During the rainy season, I am told that it is actually a beautiful waterfall

That peak is Tadiandamol--still a long ways off at this point, I'd say that we were maybe about halfway

"Kaa" (his GoMowgli nickname) perfectly at home in his home region

finally starting on the path to ascend the peak

view of the hills that we trekked over to get to the peak

going through a little walk in the jungle--with "natural stair cases"

Finally, at the top of Tadiandamol

I have no idea what was so funny--possibly thinking about how crazy my hair must look at this point ;-)

Short Round (aka "Shortie") joining me for a photo op

Heading back down the mountain--where I finally got some alone exploring time, since I knew the path this time

And, one last shot of our faithful doggy side-kick, because she really made this hike special--waiting for the people in the back of our group to catch up, sometimes scouting ahead, being adorable with her need to be up on the highest surface whenever we stopped and for just being a great companion during a long and strenuous hike--did I mention that she also ran after the Jeep when we got to the end?  We tried to get her to go in the Jeep, but she would not, so she followed after us all the way to the point where the road split back to the lodge.  Thank you for coming and staying with us Shortie ;-)

GoMowgli Tour #2: Dubare elephant camp and Coorg countryside

Hello all!

I had tried to write a post for my latest excursion out with the folks over at GoMowgli this past Saturday (March 1), but I found that I really did not have much to say!  Which is amusing given that I wrote enough about the first one for it to be a 5-page essay, lol.  The trip had all of what is becoming characteristic features of a GoMowgli tour: friendly and knowledgeable guide, visit to places that take you out of the city and get you interacting more with the local people and the culture and unhurried time for you to really absorb the experience.  I enjoyed it every bit as much as the first one, but I just don't have a lot to say about this one, lol.  But, of course, I did take plenty of pictures.  I am not posting all of them here, so for those of you who are not on the Facebook, here is a link to the album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.808175109190.1073741834.74903602&type=1&l=6b5c7dbe0d

Enjoy!

Exploring outside the "Gokulam Bubble," Melkote tour with GoMowgli

So, as I mentioned in the previous post, I was feeling eager to get outside the “Gokulam bubble” and see some more of India—especially now that I was feeling better.  The lake in another part of Mysore was nice, but I really wanted to get out of the city.  I had seen a person posting pictures from a recent trip with a tour company called GoMowgli on the Facebook group for the Ashtanga community here in Mysore and it looked like they had gone to places that would be difficult to see if you were not familiar with the area.  I contacted the tour company and the next outing was to be a one-day trip on Saturday, February 22, to areas outside of Mysore, with the temple town, Melkote, about 50km away from Mysore, being the highlight.  A friend of mine had been on one of their tours and said it was a really good, and I had seen many other Ashtanga practitioners posting and raving about their tours with this group, so I decided that it would be both a safe and, probably, a very good trip.  I was not disappointed.

GoMowgli is a brand new tour company here in Mysore, but it is run by people who have lived here for most of their lives and not only know the area very well (as only a local could) but who also clearly have pride in their city and culture.  Not only that, but the people of this company also have a passion for travel.  Not in the way of your typical touristy sight-seeing, but in the way that facilitates growth through exposure to new ways of living and thinking.  If you are in Mysore, or coming here, I cannot recommend going on a trip with this company enough.  Our guide was extremely knowledgeable (despite his open and humble claim that he was no expert in religion, philosophy or history), caring (lunch was included in the cost of the trip, but when I mentioned I had special dietary needs he made sure to bring something I could eat, even though I said that I would bring my own food…which was a good thing, because I did not bring enough, lol) and very friendly, it felt more like I was on a road-trip with a really knowledgeable friend rather than a company!

Our first stop was to be an area known as Kunti Betta, or, the French Rocks.  This area had two main stories to it—one being that it was an area that Kunti (the mother of the Pandava brothers of the Hindu epic The Mahabharata) favored most during their time of exile, the other being that this was the area where the French allies of the Mysore king would stand watch for British forces.  But, before we got to the hills, we made a brief stop to a jaggery production plant!

We had been travelling through numerous fields of sugarcane crops, with plants being taller than a person.  Our guide said that there were a number of jaggery (a type of sugar produced from the sugarcane plant) production plants in the area and that he would see if we could stop in at one and see how it was made.  Normally, back home, when I think of a production or manufacturing plant, I think of a big, industrial type building, with lots of machines to produce mass quantities of things.  But, this is rural India, these were more like small-scale farms instead of “plants,” so this is where we stopped

The people there were so sweet and let us taste the raw sugar cane plant by just peeling away the outside stem and chewing on the inner fibers.  Now, most of you who know me know that in the past couple of years I have kept my sugar intake as low as I possibly can.  But, how could I pass up a chance to taste raw sugar cane?  It was delicious!  Sweet, of course, but also juicy and because it was straight from the plant, it did not have that feel of instant shot of sugar, like a drug.  The sugar cane is juiced, boiled and then when it cools, the by-product is jaggery.

boiling vats

When it’s all done, this is what it looked like

And, yes, I did try it.  I think I had tried jaggery once before and was not impressed with the taste.  But this stuff…wow, this stuff was good!  Not super sweet—kind of like a thick honey taste with almost a subtle butter-like taste.  It’s really hard to describe.  But it was good and it doesn’t get any fresher than that!

So, after our brief stop at the jaggery plant/farm, we continued on to Kunti Betta.  There are 3 main hills with large boulders that you scramble and hike over in order to get to the top.  Also, as I mentioned this area is part of the legend of the Mahabharata, so there were also some small old shrines and temples there.  I loved the country feel to these little temples and shrines, with shrines to snake gods (nagas) and offerings of sugar cane to Ganesha (remover of obstacles).

small shrines to Nagas (snake deities)

 

Ganesha with sugarcane offering

The hills themselves were so much fun to scramble over, with stunning views of the area once you got to the top.  Anyone who knows me knows that I love hiking and climbing over rocks, so I was very much in my element here.  I love the yoga, and it is going well, but hiking and being out in nature just touches on a whole other part of me that feels stifled when I spend too much time in a city environment, it felt so good to get out of the city and into the country, and to really use my legs and go scrambling over rocks.  I could have spent so much more time there, climbing the other hills, exploring more of the temple/shrines, going up and down this rock so that I can keep sliding down it (lol) and maybe even seeing if the group of guys that showed up would let me have a go out pulling myself along the rope over the old temple bathing tank ;-)

The best way to get down the bottom part of the rocks--slide!

zip-liners going across the old bathing tank

But, it was time to move on to the main portion of the tour, Melkote.  As I said earlier, Melkote is a temple town, meaning that the town has built up around the existence of the temples, so pilgrims and holy men are a very common sight here, as that is the main purpose of this town.  It also had a very peaceful feel to the city, due to so many people coming here for worship.  The thing I was most excited to see here was the temple of Narasimha.  Narasimha is an incarnation of Vishnu, the preserving energy/god of the Hindu “trinity” (the others being Brahma, creative energy/god, and Shiva, destructive energy/god).  Throughout the many legends and stories in the Hindu world, the gods take on different forms, or incarnations/avatars, in order to accomplish specific things.  Or, from a more atheistic, historical point of view, these avatars (and many minor deities) were actually local, indigenous deities that were absorbed into the larger Aryan deities.  Narasimha is the incarnation of Vishnu that is half man and half lion, with the upper half being the lion and the lower being human.  The story goes that a demon named Hiranyakashipu wanted revenge against Vishnu for killing his brother.  So he performed severe austerities to Brahma and was granted a boon (blessing/gift) that practically made him invincible.  Now, a brief explanation on praying to gods and receiving gifts/boons in Hinduism (as I found it confusing when I first heard about it…a demon receiving a boon?  What, how does that happen?!).  Note: I am by no means an expert on Hinduism, this is just what I have learned from my experiences here and from talking with people of the Hindu religions and from reading--anyone with more knowledge, please feel free to correct or clarify anything that I write.  As I currently understand Hinduism, the gods of Hinduism do not seem to control the order of the universe, like God in Christianity or Islam.  The gods seem to be more like higher beings with powers over certain aspects of the universe (as with Lakshmi, who is the goddess of wealth and prosperity), but they do not seem to control the order of the world.  They are sustained by the prayers and offerings of devotees, human or demon.  So, when someone prays to them or performs great tapas or austerities (discipline, such as extreme meditation), they have to respond.  So, this demon, Hiranyakashipu, wanted what all demons seem to want, more power and immortality.  The demon stipulated that he could not be able to be killed by any man or beast, or during the day or at night, or indoors or outside, or on the ground or in the sky and could not be killed by any weapon.  The boon was granted and the demon, of course, wreaked havoc on the world with his new strength.  The demon, however, had a son named Prahlada, who was a devout worshipper of Vishnu.  Of course, the demon did not like that his son was worshipping Vishnu, the god that had killed his brother.  From the versions that I have heard, he tried many times to have his son killed, but the son always prayed to Vishnu and was saved.  Hiranyakashipu angrily asked his son, “where is God/Vishnu?!” and Prahlada responded that “God/Vishnu is everywhere.”  Hiranyakashipu asked his son “is god here in this statue?!” and smashed a statue of a lion and, in doing so, out burst Narasimha—the half man-half lion avatar of Vishnu (so neither fully human or fully beast).  Narasimha grabbed Hiranyakashipu and carried him to the threshold of a house—so neither indoors or outside, but in between.  The time of day was also twilight, neither night time nor day time.  He laid Hiranyakashipu over his knee—neither on the ground nor in the sky—and ripped his stomach open with his claws (not a weapon), killing him and freeing the world from his influence.  Yes, it is rather grotesque,

But something about the story really stuck with me the first time that I heard it, how God never left his devotee’s side and always protected him, even against something that seemed invincible.  It also has special meaning for me because during my first visit to India in 2012/2013, it was one of the chants that our swami-guide, Radhakunda Das, would chant for us before travelling to any new location, for protection.  He also chanted that prayer for the 5 of us (including myself) that decided to walk up the 3,200-step footpath (spread out over approximately 8 kilometers) up to the Venkateswara temple in the hills of Tirupati.  It was very early in the morning when we started our trek (I think around 5:30) and I had overslept and only made it down to the lobby of the hotel we were staying at because Radhakunda called me to wake me up.  I was also starting to get very sick at that point in the trip, so I felt barely conscious and quite frazzled when we started out walk.  But hearing Radhakunda sing that chant for us in the early morning hour before we started our 3.5 hour walk (separate from the rest of the group, who was going up by bus) felt very comforting.  So, all of that is to give you an understanding of why seeing this temple was special for me.

Story aside, the temple itself was beautiful.  Not grand and huge like many of the temples that I saw on my first trip to India, but big enough to have a presence, but small enough for it to feel intimate (no 3-hour line or getting moved along after only getting to see the deity for a second or two).

Temple bathing tank

Hanuman

Krishna

Narasimha Temple up on the top of the hill

starting the walk up the steps

entrance to temple grounds

Narasimha up on the top of the "gopuram," (the large pyramid/tower-like structure you see at the temples)

After our visit at Melkote, we stopped to have lunch at an organic farm where they also make cotton clothing old-school style, with small looms and spindles run entirely by hand.  One of my favorite things to see here in India continues to be seeing things that are currently mass produced by impersonal machines in a large manufacturing building created through the effort of individual people.  In the modern world, it seems like we are so disconnected from everything around us—the things we wear, use or eat, and even our natural environment—and it is refreshing to see people still connected to the true labor and energy it takes to create things.  It also reminds me of something I read in the The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.  It has been a long time since I read it, but I remember something about how one of the big downfalls of capitalism is that it deprives human beings of their creative talent.  Since the focus of capitalism is to acquire as much wealth as possible, humans lose their creativity to machines that can produce the same thing in a fraction of the time that it would take to them to make by hand.  And I believe that the things that humans are capable of creating using nothing more than their hands and a few simple tools is nothing short of remarkable and is a work of art.

Old school spindles meet new school devices--that is a bicycle wheel and chain!

Part one of fabric making: spinning threads together

Part two, the loom: she operates it with foot pedals and a handle that simultaneously moves the cloth through and shoots a horizontal thread across the fabric, stitching the vertical threads together,

The last of our temple/historical stops was a Jain temple at Gomatagiri.  This temple is not frequented much and, as our guide noted, is mostly a “forgotten” temple…but not completely, as it is still cared for by a priest.  Jainism is related to Buddhism in that it is an “atheistic” religion—meaning that it has no god that one prays to and is more of a philosophy on how to live that will lead to enlightenment or wisdom (or to freedom from suffering and from the karmic cycle of re-birth).  Jainism is noted for its extremely strict rule of non-violence to ANY living thing—plant, insect, animal or human being.  Extremely devout Jains will wear a cloth over their mouth, to prevent the possibility of swallowing bugs, and sweep the path in front of them in order to prevent accidentally stepping on an insect.  They even refrain from picking fruit from a tree and will wait until it falls naturally, of its own accord, and do not eat roots, since that entails killing the plant.  Do not ask me what they do eat, because I have no idea, lol.  Anyways, this Jain temple has a large statue to Gomateswara, a renowned figure in Jainism for his intense meditation and one who triumphed over physical desires.  Off to the side, it also has 24 small shrines with the emblems of feet, symbolizing that if we walk in the footsteps of these teachers/enlightened ones (called tirthankaras), then we too will be able to attain wisdom and enlightenment.

Our final stop before returning to Mysore was to an area that only a local could know, a small lake-side beach/shore overlooking the backwaters of a major dam.  We drove through narrow country roads and settlements, with the residents looking a little shocked not just to see Westerners in the car going down the road, but to just see a larger tour van coming down their street!  It was a little cloudy that evening, so we could not see much of a sunset once it disappeared behind the clouds, but it was a nice quiet way to end a very fulfilling day.  We all just sat down on the shore talking with each other or skipping rocks on the lake, feeling very much like a group of friends that have known each other for longer than just one day.  It felt so good to be out travelling and exploring the area—visiting the temples, seeing the Indian countryside and people still living a more simple life were the things that touched me the most when I first visited India, so it was heartening to get to do it again.  And, just like many times during my first visit to India, we were the only Westerners at these places—this was not tourism, we were guests getting to experience another culture’s ways of life.