Nepal – Pokhara

I got up early (as is the usual these days), got my pack on, and walked on down to the bus station to catch a bus to Pokhara. There was a long line of buses, mostly not labeled, and a helpful wandering vendor pointed me in the right direction. I bartered for a cup of fresh masala tea (15 rupees which is like 15 cents—not bad) and baked goods then sipped away at the hot deliciousness while watching the constant stream of travelers file through.  

It was a mostly uneventful eight hours. Although I was seated next to a very large man that kept spilling over into my space. I did the usual wiggling around and trying to slightly forcefully exert presence over my territory by pushing my left leg and arm up against his spilling. That didn’t really work. Then, stroke of brilliance, I realized the armrest wasn’t down. That seemed to draw his awareness to the situation and it was mostly okay for the rest of the trip. Aside from when he would fall asleep and creep over, which wasn’t infrequent. 

I arrived in Pokhara and spied the best site to see when arriving in a new city—a sign with my name on it. The hostel had gotten my email and they came to pick me up! It was my first pick up on a motorcycle, and balancing on the back of the bike with my five kilo bag in front of me and my 13 kilo bag on my back was a bit unnerving. But we arrived without incident.  

The first point of order was to visit the two different yoga centers I’d been emailing. That was somewhat difficult since a huge block of town goes by the same address--Lakeside 6. I had to look at online maps then draw them onto a map in a guidebook and count the number of streets and look for restaurants and other landmarks to find these places. I stopped at the  the Annapurna Yoga Ashram first, and was shown around by the yoga guru. But the schedule he gave me a rundown of was not nearly as busy as a truly intensive yoga experience and he during all that free time he said I could pay extra for treatments like massage and facial. Before he got into yoga, he worked in the tourism industry, and that appears to have leaked into his yoga studio, not exactly the kind of place I was looking for. I continued on to the next place, the Himalayan Yogini (or Nepali Yoga? they seem to be undergoing some re-branding along with their new location which I only discovered upon arriving at the old location and being redirected for a further 10 minute walk). The main yoga teacher wasn’t available, but one of the other teachers confirmed that the very busy schedule listed on their website was accurate. So I decided to go with them. Accommodation isn’t a part of this package and it's more expensive than Ananda yoga, but I think it’s worth it.  

My first day of class I overestimated the walking time between my guesthouse and the yoga center, and arrived 15 minutes early. I didn’t realize that the class actually started 30 minutes later than I’d been told, so I was really early. There were four people in the studio when I walked in, the teacher I’d met yesterday, two other people meditating and stretching, and the fourth person a skinny woman with wild hair lying on her back doing some sort of active stretching with all fours flailing up in the air. I sat down and did some stretching but was rather distracted by this woman. After her round of stretching, she started in on breathing exercises which were pretty intense. At points it sounded like she was in labor doing la maas breathing, then it sounded like she was having a nightmare with frightened breathing, and then she sounded like Darth Vader. Then she started moving around in a twitchy, wriggly way that seemed like she was a dervish or some spirit was trying to possess her body. It was intense and a little scary. Turns out it was Devika, our teacher. 

When the yoga did finally start it was fairly normal hatha yoga, oms, intro chant, stretching, breathing, though with a bit more heavy breathing than usual. Interestingly, she said she never planned a class ahead of time but went as the ideas came to her. She was a medium for instruction. Some of the exercises were new to her, too, but she tuned in to the energy of the participants of the class and directed as she was inspired to teach.  

After class I went down to the kitchen for breakfast and was greeted by a bearded western face. Hamilton from Vancouver (BC), Devika’s husband, a filmmaker and aspiring mushroom farmer. They’re newlyweds and during breakfast I was privy to their family disputes over some recently purchased farmland that Hamilton is trying to develop with the help of his father- and brother-in-law, though not without differences of opinion and butting of heads about progressive versus traditional farming methodology. Devika was ping ponged back and forth trying to mediate the discussion. Both father and husband got frustrated at the inability of the other to understand his point of view. It seemed like a classic misunderstanding between easterner and westerner, parent and child, no doubt a clash that will last the rest of their married lives. Brave people. If there is culture clash between American and Australian, that between Canadian and Nepali would be magnified many-fold.  

After breakfast I had…well, I’m not sure what to call it. Class. A sort of lecture narrative about yoga, how it’s more comprehensive than what is practiced in the west, how it’s practiced differently everywhere and how each person needs to listen to their own body and practice according to their needs and limits. That yoga can be very healing for maladies caused mentally, emotionally and physically. That she had practiced yoga for 13 years without her own illness being healed, then realized that she needed to change her experience and look deeper and wider for what would work for her. The wounded guru, perhaps. ;) She also talked about the chakra colors, something I knew of from somewhere (maybe a crayon coloring of Peter’s chakras he got from a psychic once) but hadn’t really remembered. She talked about color therapy where if you’re feeling weaker in one of the chakra areas you can wear the corresponding color to heal yourself. The color of the anahata chakra is green. Explain why I gravitate to green so much? And the color of the chakra for middle/lower back is orange (my favorite color). Explain why my lower back is my physical malady? Again, maybe horoscope stuff, but the connection is almost uncanny. The set-up was fantastic and reminded me of something my sister Anna might set up for a tarot card reading.

 

After the lecture, we practiced energy work, holding our hands over chakras, feeling and opening up the energy flows, working on self healing. This part was certainly new to me and not something I’ve seen in yoga before. I followed directions as I’m wont to do and while remaining open-minded, I imagined Marcus looking on questioningly.  

Lunch followed then a bit of free time, so I went to a café for tea but ended up with a brownie also. Why can’t I just say no to baked goods? The brownie wasn’t even that good! I typed away and was approached every ten minutes or so by children or someone else asking for money. I saw one or two get money and another got bought whatever she wanted from the bakery. Yes, sugary food is definitely the right thing for them…when will people wake up? They do tug at your heartstrings and it’s wonderful to want to do something about it. Giving food isn’t a bad idea, either, but definitely not food that is completely lacking in any form of nutrition. Anyway, this from the person who’s so confused about what the right thing to do is that she does nothing. I give a smile, so maybe that’s something?

Here was my view that afternoon.

 

Yes, cows do wander aimlessly through the main road in town.

Meditation was the next class, a one-on-one meditation with Devika’s brother who is also venturing into the yoga field. He’s been studying yoga for six years, but he still considers himself at the beginning of the career path. He led me in the meditation of seven, where you count in multiples of seven. I’m breathing in one, I’m breathing out one, I’m breathing in two, I'm breathing out two etc. until you reach seven and then counting back to one. Then from one to fourteen and back, and in multiples of seven basically until you lose your concentration and have to start all over or until the session is finished. Counting is probably the most common form of meditation I’ve been exposed to at this point and I kind of like it now because it gives you something to rely on, regularity. Something to bring the mind back from distracted thoughts. Though furrowed eyebrows plagued me. I couldn’t seem to unknit my brows the whole day.

After meditation was another hour and a half of yoga with Devika’s brother and thankfully some other people who had dropped in for the class. Pretty standard yoga class with her brother, which is a good balance for her focus on energy. After class was dinner then I did a little bit of shopping here and there on the way back to my guesthouse. Chilled out, watched a bit of Gavin and Stacy, and called it an early night. 

The next day was mostly the same. Yoga, breakfast, listening to family disputes, energy healing. I discovered the rooftop at Devika’s house and opted for a roof sit-and-read rather than the tea and brownie. The sunshine and the mushroom farmer’s bathtub garden kept me company.

 

 

Meditation and evening yoga with Devika’s brother, then dinner with the family, a little bit of shopping on the way home, and to bed.

Last day

Pokhara, I didn’t see any more of you than the 15 minutes of walking between my guest house and Devika’s house/yoga studio. Yet you will forever retain a special place in my heart. This is exactly the kind of experience I have been looking for in my travels. It’s confirmed. The travel from place to place, packing up the bag every day and moving from city to city is going to fade from my repertoire. The last three days have moved me to a wonderfully happy state. 

This morning I woke up a little bit later, with the goal of arriving at class on time rather than an hour early. I took the slightly longer route and walked along the lakeside, enjoying the water and boats, and miscalculated my time.

 

 

I arrived late. Devika was just moving into the oms. I had completely missed her morning warm-up, and I didn’t realize how much I had actually enjoyed watching her strange yet purposeful breathing, stretching and general wriggling about. Damn. And unlike the other two mornings, this morning the studio was packed! Every single yoga mat was in use, so not only did everyone have to shimmy on over to make room for me, Devika had to get up and rummage around to find a mat for me to use. She gave me a good-humored "you've know you've been naughty" kind of look. Way to break up the energy on my last morning of yoga. J 

In this particular class, proof that the world is small was presented. I actually knew someone else in the yoga class. When I first moved to Sydney, our roommate Aidan had his girlfriend Jenn over all the time. And Jenn was sitting front and center at class today! I did quite a few double-takes during class, then waited for her after class and it was her! I’ve wondered for ages when I’d randomly come across somebody I knew while traveling and now Jenn’s my first. We had a little chat, both amazed to have crossed paths in a yoga class in Pokhara, Nepal. There wasn’t much for us to really chat about as she and Aidan broke up shortly after we all moved out of that house and I haven’t seen either of them since. She even forgot my name. J But still, I saw someone I knew. We were even wearing the same crazy traveler pants. She made the half attempt to try to make plans to hang out, but I don’t think either of us felt bad when I declined due to my full day of yoga. Still, a fun chance encounter with somebody from the past. 

After that piece of familiarity, I headed down to breakfast where there was strictly good conversation in place of the family dispute. Then I had a little bit of free time, so I took my chair on up to the rooftop again to enjoy the sun and sat in a completely blissed out state. With the Dalai Lama’s “The Art of Happiness” in hand, I soaked in the sun at my back looking over the other neighborhood rooftops with the mountains in the background, dozens of paragliders floating through the sky, and even a hazy but present white capped mountain. Tibetan prayer flags blowing in the breeze around me. Clean clothes and yoga mats hanging on the lines around me. The hum of traffic and road construction below me and somehow I found the inner peace that has been eluding me during meditation time. I could have sat there for hours. 

Not sure if you can see all the paragliders in that second picture, but they are absolutely littering the sky. There must have been upwards of 40 chutes in the sky. I wondered how they avoided running into each other, the sky was so packed.

Then Sachiko came to collect me for healing time. Instead of self-healing today, Sachiko and another of Devika’s students treated me to an energy healing session. For an hour and a half I laid on the ground while they moved their hands over different energy centers of my body. This is the first time I’ve ever had energy healing, and I’m not entirely sure what to expect, but Sachiko looked at me afterwards as if I was acting strangely. She and the other lady told me that I had a lot of activity in my head (yes, always) and they were trying to quiet my thoughts, a lot of activity in my shoulders (yes, this is an area where I hold stress), and a lot of energy coming from my hands (?). I don’t know how to evaluate the session, really, I think it’ll take more time for me to notice any effects. Though there were certain positions in the afternoon yoga session that finally came about and I had some weird pangs in my abdomen later in the night.  

One of the other best parts of my day? Making cookies. Of course. Weren’t you waiting for it? There had to be cookie making at some point in this trip, and this was the best place for it to happen. As we chatted and talked about ourselves on day one, Hamilton had asked what my "thing" was. My answer was international development, had just finished a Master’s degree in it. But my “thing” is baking. Cookies. He and Devika said they had a hankering for something just like that and asked if I’d make some. Like music to my ears. They have no oven, but we decided that the stovetop method deserved a go.  

Sachiko and I went shopping to pick up the last few crucial ingredients—chocolate, honey (couldn’t find brown sugar), butter and baking soda. Lunch was speedier than usual and I got right to business afterward. The cookie batter was delicious as usual, then I cooked five cookies at a time in the pan.

The internet directions say medium heat with five minutes on each side, but a gas stovetop gives off a lot of heat, so it was low heat with two to three minutes on each side. The first batch was fairly black on both sides, but batch after batch, I slowly got the hang of it. They look like little griddle cookies. 

 

Not bad for my first batch of stovetop cookies! Hamilton was the first to come taste and after initially giving a critique of methods proceeded to eat six cookies. Sachiko also came in and sampled and it made me so happy to see people eating my cookies! It always does…  so in the chocolate chip cookie world, I’ve added a new tick to my list—stove top baking. I love resourceful cookie making.  

More rooftop time and reading of the Dalai Lama’s wise words, then I headed down for my final yoga class with Sachiko. The sitting poses were easier and my lower back finally felt like it was aligning properly. Maybe in part due to the healing session? And although my knees got bruised from so many kneeling poses, it was a good session and I enjoyed Sachiko’s cute Japanese accent. 

Finally there was dinner, cooked by Devika’s nephew who is studying to become a chef and we talked about how much we’d enjoyed spending time with each other the last few days. It was so easy to be with Devika and Sachiko. Conversation was easy, energy was easy, and being in each others’ company felt really nice. Devika said that the energy during our self-healing sessions had been really great and that they had enjoyed being around me, that my energy lifted them up. Sachiko said when she met me that first day that she knew we were going to be friends. I have to say, it was so, so nice to be around people where it’s so easy. There was so much openness and I got their energy, their personalities, they got me and mine. It’s not something I’ve come across frequently and is something for which I have a great appreciation.

Three days is all it takes. My time at Himalayan Yogini (yes, that’s the right name) was exactly what I was looking for. Some instruction and guiding on how to go deeper into yoga as well as a glimpse into what lies beyond the asanas. Devika is the closest thing to a goddess that I’ve yet come across, and Sachiko was such a sweet woman that I couldn’t stop hugging when saying goodbye. A close bond has formed with these two ladies over the past few days, one that feels like it will continue. I think I’ll be back to do yoga with these ladies. And to bake more cookies for them.