Lions and Tigers and Sloth Bears, Oh My!

We danced in the new year in kind of BurningMan style at a roof top party under a crazy 3/4 moon. Ken, a fellow yoga student, had strung christmas lights on split bamboo poles to make arcs and had a dj spinning music and a movie projecting on a wall from his laptop and we all brought sweets. And he had hired the coconut man, Bek, to come with a truck full of coconuts. It was really fun. We drink a lot of coconut water. The fluid of life after yoga.

I had fun dancing and just watching the dance floor. Very entertaining...A number of yogis come from a dance background, some were professional dancers. Very expressive dancing that takes a lot of room. It was wonderful to see folks shaking off the dust to start the new year

There is little public drinking and alcohol is not served in most restaurants, except at resort hotels. But at the New Year's party it was fun to see the saintly yogis open bad Indian wine, Kingfisher beer, and precious bottles of single malt Scotch (wisely purchased at the last duty free airport shop)...and let loose. I don't remember many sober New Years, but it was a blast and nice to wake up feeling well. We celebrated January 1st with some outrageously good chinese food. The best steamed pot stickers and steamed wontons I have ever had in my life and a long scooter ride around the outskirts of the city to a big palace. It was a blast.

http://www.mysoretourism.org/mysore.htm

It was sad to have both David and Julie go home. They took such good care of us and introduced us to so many kind people and wonderful places. While they were here we were always winging off to see someone or do something. And it got more and more frantic as their precious Mysore minutes got smaller. Julie left first and then we saw David off. One of the last things I did with David was return a tabla. I had never ridden on the back of a motorcyle carrying a huge North Indian percussion instrument. I felt like we were jousting. But then they were gone, and we both felt kind of lonely and lost without them. But have settled in, and established our own rythm and all is well.

We have a couple days off while Guruji does a personal worship that we believe is for his deceased wife. So, while the shala is closed we are taking the time to go look for animals in the jungle. There are a number of huge wildlife refuges around Mysore. We are going to stay at the Kabini River Lodge, on the edge of the Nagarhole National Park. There should be wild elephants, lots of deer and birds, and of course, if we are lucky, leopards and tigers. We hope to go out on the elephants to look for animals. Here is the link:

http://www.junglelodges.com/resort_overview.asp?resort=Kabini

I hope to have some animal pictures to post when we return in a few days.

fwgh2o