journey2mysore

journey2mysore
January 8, 2006

I am quite settled in. Life has become a routine. Asana practice in the morning with Sarasvatti, coconut (7rs), shower then breakfast (usually at Tina’s House). BTW, Tina has an amazing memory. Once you visit her, she remembers your name. And remembers what you usually eat, so “my usual” gets my usual. I usually get small fruit salad (30rs) and a cup of curd (10rs) (in the states we call it yoghurt). Sometimes I add a rotti with tomato chutney (25rs). Sometimes an egg dosa (30rs). She got this spirulina/mint/lemon concoction that looks terrible, but tastes great. I just tried it, but yet to get hooked on it. There are other places to have breakfast – Green Leaf café (which I am going to try today, as Tina takes a day off on Sundays) or Anu’s Internet Café that serves lunch and Sunday breakfast (some other time). There is something going on at Green Hotel on Sundays, so I plan to pay them a visit. There are plenty of foreigners, so it helps to network and do stuff together. I became friends with a Oxana from Tokyo, but she has left back home. So yesterday was hanging out with Ray from Ireland, we walked to Southern Star hotel where we hung out by the pool (180rs) and had a “mini meal” of rice and Paneer in curry sauce. With bottle of water the meal cost 200rs. The rickshaw ride back was 22rs. So there are plenty of places to spend money, and plenty to save – the meal can range from 30rs at local café to 500rs at Southern Star. But I prefer lunch buffet (Planters Buffet as they call it) at Metropolitan. 250rs with taxes gets you wonderful spread, with excellent service to boot. Also, they got a nice outside patio, as the air conditioned inside gets pretty chilly quick. The weather has been fantastic. Warm days (~25c) and nice, balmy nights (~20c). It has not rained once since I have got here. There were a few cooler nights, but that’s it. Wasn’t it for mosquitoes, I would sleep with the windows open. Actually, mosquitoes appear at dusk – around 5 o’clock, and disappear at 7. So the local wisdom is to close the windows at 5, and reopen at 7. My place does not have mosquito screens, so I am not that brave. Being bitten on the first two days I purchased “All Out” bug repellent that plugs into a power outlet. It uses some sort of the chemical to discourage bugs from hanging around. Well, it works! No mosquito attacks at night so far. It is probably not the healthiest thing, so I try to air the room out during day time. Today I got Hutch (India Vodafone) SIM card for my phone, the card cost me 100rs plus 350rs for 193rs of talk time (plus 150rs bonus for cell to cell calls). Good for a month. Plus, I might get GPRS to work, so I’ll be able to check my email without going to internet café. We’ll see! Today is a rest day, no asana practice, so I am taking it easy. Yesterday Saraswati had a lead class and it kicked my butt. I feel like I should practice with Sheshadri to get my body more limber and strong. But I still got 2 weeks with Saraswati, so I don’t know. I would like to make most of my time in India without injuring myself.