South India, Part I

My apologies to any dedicated readers of this blog (if there are any other than Dave D, who has already scolded me for failing to post anything in January). In fact, I have not written anything at all about south India, which has included not only the beach town of Goa, but also a stay with friends in Bangalore, yoga at Mysore and a trek to Karnataka’s highest peak, Kumara Parvatha.

So, without getting too long-winded, I am going to try to recap the past two months of my journey in the next two blog posts. Hopefully I can get it done by the end of this weekend.

So here goes.

Bright Lights, Big City

Where I last left off, I boarded a plane in Bhopal after completing my Buddhist pilgrimage en route to Bangalore via Mumbai’s international airport. I was sick when I left Sanchi and it was a pretty miserable day of travel on the airlines. I probably should have fasted, but I ate the complimentary airline sandwiches and had a huge Starbucks white mocha latte in the airport.

Eventually I made it to Bangalore and took a bus downtown to the transportation hub at the center of town, which is called Majestic. It doesn’t quite live up to the promises its name entails, as I would come learn over the next few days.

An unseasonal rain had just started and would linger over the city for most of my time there. That and the lingering illness led me to seek a room in that seedy district of the city. It was hard to find a room and I ended up paying too much for a not so nice room near the metro.

The nice thing about Bangalore, is that they do have two nice metro lines that extend two directions in the city. They don’t go everywhere though and transportation by city bus or taxi is slow-going on overly congested roads.

I would spend a total of about three days in Bangalore, one of which was a day at the home of my friend Ajay, who I had met on the Sandakphu Trek at Darjeeling in September. He lives on the outskirts of the city in a suburb called Sarjapur and it would take us nearly three hours to get downtown on the Friday evening we would leave for our trek.

While in the city, I visited the swanky Mohatma Gandhi Road area, the state Parliament building, the pleasantly green Cubbon Park and the massive temple of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).

With a population of 15 to 20 million people, Bangalore is definitely a major city and it has all the drawbacks of the city. Even though I had a week to kill before our planned trek, I had to get away; so I booked a night bus ticket to the smaller city of Mysore, which is known for its signature style of Ashtanga yoga.

Yoga – Mysore Style

Unbeknownst to me, the night bus I took was not bound for Mysore, but just went through it. I woke up from my sleep as we were passing through the city. We were about 12 kilometers to the northwest of Mysore before the bus driver dropped me off in the middle of the night with a guy who was going to help me flag down a bus back to my destination.

Fortunately for me, despite the fact that it was 2:30 a.m., a local bus loaded with people came tootling along and took me back to town for a nominal fee.

Much to my dismay, they continued right by my hostel and took me another one to two kilometers away from my destination. I caught a tuk-tuk back and was able to check into the hostel sometime after 3 in the morning.

Despite the mishaps of the night before, I was able to get up fairly early and explore the area, looking for yoga. I learned that I was not in the right neighborhood for the yoga scene, but did find my way into a pretty cool streetside cafe that specialized in South Indian filter coffee, which is an art form in and of itself. I’m not sure what all goes into making it, but there is definitely a lot of pouring involved. Unlike the plain black Americanos or Nescafes I was used to drinking, filter coffee is sweet and milky and only costs about a quarter a cup in the local joints.

I eventually made my way up to the yoga shalas and western restaurants of the Gokulam neighborhood and found a place to practice for the few days I would be in town.

Mysore style yoga is based on the principle that Ashtanga is the same routine and practitioners can practice at their own pace. The instructor of the course does not need to prompt changes, but instead makes her or his way around the room, offering personalized suggestions and adjustments to the asanas of the individual practitioners. Mysore itself was the home of a renowned teacher named Pattabhi Jois, whose grandson Sharath Jois, still maintains a shala there.

I did not attempt to practice at the Sharath Yoga Center, which requires advance registration and a one-month commitment, but I met several people who were doing so. While Pattabhi Jois’ shala used to be right in the heart of the Golukam district, the new shala is located in what sounds like a quonset hut on the outskirts of the city.

Not only is my Ashtanga practice (and appreciation of Ashtanga in general) not up to snuff for this kind of practice, but I don’t really want to be in a warehouse of people packed into lines stretching. This just isn’t yoga to me.

Instead I found a class in the small shala at a restaurant called Chakra House Cafe and practiced there with a teacher named Jai Parshwal and two or three other people. It was very personal, and a pleasant and memorable introduction to Mysore style yoga.

In addition to this class, I found a nightly meditation class at an Osho meditation center near where I was staying.

I wished I had more time to spend in Mysore, but I had to get back to the big city to meet up with my friends for our reunion trek. I did find time to visit the historic Mysore Palace, which was also the only thing I photographed in the city.

Trekking the Mighty Kumara Parvatha

As I mentioned, I met up with Ajay and his wife Suomi in their home in Sarjapur before embarking on our trek. We had a couple of pleasant meals together on Thursday and a nice evening walk in the subdivision before we left out for the trek on Friday.

During the Sandakphu Trek at Darjeeling in September, Ajay had suggested that we all plan a reunion trek in December. I don’t think anyone really expected it would happen as with traveling companions, we often tend to forget one another almost as soon as the hum-drum routine of everyday life takes control upon our return to civilization.

But this time, it was different.

Not only did Ajay follow through with his plan to organize a hike, but Adithya, Devika and Vindhya, all of whom also live in Bangalore joined. And most surprisingly, Mansi flew in from Mumbai to join the weekend trek. It was quite the reunion.

We spent the night catching up with one another on the past few months of our lives and trying to catch some ZZZs as our bus with its audacious neon lights plowed into the night. The following morning, we had access to a shower in a hotel to freshen up before we left out for the trek.

I thought this was going to be an easy climb compared to the monster mountains I had overcome in the Himalayas, but I was surprised by the level of difficulty of the mighty Kumara Parvatha, which is the highest peak in the state of Karnataka. While its elevation of 1,715 meters (5,614 feet) is a far cry from the altitude of the Thorong-La Pass, the hike up from the base is no easy climb. And the descent proved to be even more challenging.

I think the biggest thing I was not prepared for was the heat of the hike in south India. I was used to climbing in the thin and cooler air of the Himalayas, where the bright sun did not have as tiring of an impact as it did on this climb. Plus, it was an extremely long climb on one of the shortest days of the year. Not only did we go up the mountain on the first day, but we came more than halfway down the other side. It was definitely a hot and tiring day of trekking.

We started out in the Pushpagiri Wilderness Reserve and made our way up the mountain paths, which took us by two steep stretches or barren rock we had to scurry up, and were able to reach the peak before noon. The view at the official highest point, however, was not as spectacular as some of the vistas we would catch on the descent back down the other side of the path. It was really amazing to get to share these views with some of my new BIFs (Best Indian Friends). Most of us even wore the India Hikes shirts we got after Sandakphu; so it made our selfies at these spots extra special.

That afternoon’s descent, however, was pretty excruciating. The South Indian sun was extremely hot and my water was running low. Fortunately, there was a cool bubbling stream along the route that provided an excellent opportunity to use the water filter I had brought along. I even shared with a fellow trekker making the descent.

We reached the camping point at Bhattara Mane between 3 and 4 p.m. before much of the rest of the crowd would arrive. And believe me when I say crowd. That small campsite had hundreds of tents and a massive throng of people converged on it for the night. I heard it is not so busy on weekdays but apparently the weekends draw lots of Bangalore’s young IT and professional set for the promise of a quick two-day excursion. There was only one place for dinner and a huge queue formed. We were lucky our trek leader prepped us on what to expect at dinner and we were able to get fed and in bed well before the rest of the mass of people.

With the mostly sleepless previous night and strenous day of hiking behind us, sleep was mercifully fast in coming and I didn’t really awaken at all until it was time to rise and finish the hike.

The downhill that morning took only a couple of hours as it was much cooler at that time of day and shaded by ample vegetation. We reached our hotel at the destination town and were able to shower again.

Before we left out, however, Ajay and I had the opportunity to visit the holy Kukke Subrahmanya Temple, which we had to enter shirtless and pay a small fee to skip the otherwise hours-long line. We offered prayers and a small amount of silver to the sacred Shivalinga in the temple to help overcome obstacles in our lives. We then reunited with Mansi and Vindhya for some street food and a little exploring of the small town.

We gathered by the bus prior to its return to Bangalore and said our final farewells. It was really cool to have this opportunity to explore two of India’s natural treasures with this lovely group of people. As the saying goes, “Come as a guest, leave as a friend.”

Night Train

With everyone else en route back to Bangalore or points beyond, I set out to make my way to Goa. It would be an interesting 24 hours of travel, but I would get there.

Having not planned out this segment of my trip, I ended up traveling by second class seats on the train, which means scrapping for a seat on the overcrowded local cars. I was fairly quick to board but I still had to climb up onto a luggage rack, where I perched for most all of the night. I also had to change trains at the city of Hubbali and, despite the fact that the second train was slightly less crowded, I still took a spot atop the luggage racks, where I could stretch out and get a couple of hours of sleep.

We eventually arrived in Belgavi and I was able to disembark and locate a tourist bus onward to the town of Mapusa, which is just a few kilometers from where I am now staying.

I will leave Goa for Part II of this blog, however.