Hello INDIA! (again)

After a fairly uneventful journey from Bangkok, I am back in India. This is my 3rd trip to India and once again I am here to study yoga with my teacher in Mysore. My flight got in at 11.30pm last night so I got a hotel near the airport and I am currently relaxing in Bangalore before travelling to Mysore (it is a 3-4hr journey). Its pretty cold in India at the moment but here in Bangalore it is still warmer than a NZ summer. I think its going to be a great month!

The view from my hotel room

Breakfast Indian Style

So, the plan for today is to get a driver to take me to Mysore. I’d usually prefer to take the train (more interesting), however my bags are heavy and I don’t want to risk hurting my hip before I start the yoga.

Yes, the hip…. as some of you know, a couple of years ago I tore a ligament and the labrum in my hip joint (gym accident). I had surgery in Oct 2010 and was expected to make a full recovery within 3-4 months. A year after my surgery I still hadn’t managed to get back to full activity. In October, after a series of events (incl sailing, a drunken walk home and pushing through the pain) I ended up in hospital. This put me back to square one of my recovery. Its been a few months now and I am hoping that some gentle yoga, curry, warm weather, fresh coconuts and sunshine I will be able to make some good progress on my recovery. I’d be very happy if I could get past this speed-bump and get my active lifestyle back. But, I am trying hard not to have any expectations so that I can avoid disappointment if the yoga doesn’t work out. I figure, worst case scenario if the hip doesn’t want to play the game I will have a lovely holiday in India and hang out with my international yogi friends.

Right, I better pack my bags. In the next few days I will update the blog as its been a while and I have two trips to Thailand to write about.

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas.

The Thai Cat Museam

So, on Pats recommendation we visited the Thai Cat Museum on the way home from Hua-Hin. I am not sure how I feel about this museum, there were many cats and they were all in small cages. On the plus side, this man breeds the cats for sale in Thailand and internationally. So he is doing a lot to keep some of the rarer breeds of Thai cats alive and I am hoping the cats in cages are young and will be in homes very soon.

Here are some photos.

The Vintage Market at Hua Hin

We checked out the vintage market at Hua Hin, VERY cool market. It was mostly full of Thai tourists and is based on an old-style market design and a lot of the stalls are themed appropriately. I bought some vintage (but hopefully fresh) sweets for my colleagues, a little robot (not sure why) and took plenty of photos. At 7pm (or 6pm) the National Anthem played and in respect to the King everyone stopped what they were doing and stood in silence. I’ve been in places before in Thailand where this happens however the atmosphere of the market made it seem even more special.

Resting up in Hua Hin

I spent almost week in Hua Hin with the family before heading to India for my month of yoga therapy. This was good because after the flight from NZ I needed some R&R to give the hip a chance to settle down again.

Dad booked us into a lovely resort which was hard to find but lovely. Several steps up from my usual standard of accommodation! I spent a lot of time reading, lazing by the pool and eating AMAZING thai seafood.

Hua Hin is a lovely wee beach town on the coast south of Bangkok. The beach isn’t as spectacular as some of the islands in southern thailand but its nice enough. I think it took us 3hours to drive from Dad’s place. Hua Hin is MUCH MUCH MUCH nicer than pattya, it has all the resorts and tourist attractions but is a lot less seedy. I really liked it.

Here are some photos and a link to more info about Hua Hin.

Meet Pat’s Cats

I was very excited that I could catch up with the family in Thailand AND meet my sister Pat’s cats. She has two little kittens, the white one is called ‘Morning’ and the other one is ‘Sompaan’. Morning is also known as Ling Kaow which means white monkey, he gets this name because he climbs the curtains to try and catch the gekkos! As you can see, they are very very cute cats.

Travelling with a duffy hip

The flight to Thailand was a little painful for lefty (my left hip) but the crutches made things a lot easier. In Auckland I made the mistake of accepting help to get from the domestic terminal to international (I am sure I could have manged the shuttle). Because I was requiring assistance I had to spend the 1.5hrs before my flight sitting with a bunch of grannies/grandpas waiting for the shuttle. Then I had to wait with all the kids (unaccompanied minors) and elderly folk in International until someone came to rush me to the plane. No time for lunch or (more importantly) buying duty free.

About 15 mins before my flight was due to depart I was zipped through “VIP” immigration/customs (kinda cool) and rushed to the plane which was waiting for me. My crutches were taken off me (safety hazard) and every 20-30mins when I needed to go for a walk I had to ask for one of them back. It was a bit of a hassle, but c’est la vie. I was just very very happy I could go on the trip.

On arrival to Thailand a wheel chair was waiting for me. A tired granny tried to steal it but I got priority. Just as well, Bangkok airport is huge and I would never have made it! I think it took about 15-20 mins to walk to Immigration. Once I got to the other side of customs I was wheeled to my Dad who was waiting for me, I happily ditched the wheel chair and used the crutches.

My hip gets flared up from sitting, so the flight set me back for a few days. Luckily Dad had booked the family in to a resort in HuaHin so I was able to rest-up before the trip to India.

Travelling Kiwi hits the road again

So, after a period of non-travelling Travelling Kiwi FINALLY got to go travelling again! Ok, its not that bad, I did actually sneak in a little trip to Thailand before starting my new job in April 2011.

Anyways, after a lot of drama in NZ in Oct/Nov/Dec (incl 10 days in hospital and over a month of bedrest) I locked in my plans to return to India to study yoga with my teacher in Mysore. The purpose of the trip is to try and heal my problematic hip. I figure the mixture of a warm climate, Asian food, fresh coconuts and yoga will do me the world of good. My employer has been VERY understanding and despite me having all that sick leave they are allowing me to take another month off to try and fix my hip and get a good rest. Luckily for me, the cheapest ticket to India was via Bangkok so I get to see my family in Thailand on the way over.

So, I am leaving NZ on crutches and am hoping like hell I don’t need them when I come back!