Excited to leave at Montreal airport
Namaste! I am writing to you from the yoga platform, a masala chai by my side. The sound of the ocean and the sound of all these birds as background. The view of palm trees and a few employees busy preparing for the start of the day. The sun rising slowly, we don't feel its heat yet. How lucky I am no... To be here, in India, for a 5th time.
Getting to India is no small thing, but for a traveler with a yoga practice, it's well worth the effort.
We left Montreal airport on Friday evening with Qatar Airways. Flight of 12:15, transit via Doha, then a last small flight of 4 hours towards Bengaluru. It was my first time traveling with Qatar Airways, it was a great experience.
Isn't amazing to be travelling this distance...
At Doha airport
Our internal flight was canceled before we left, so we switched to another plan for getting from Bengaluru to Kundapura. We took a driver to cover the distance of about 400km by van. Driving is not an easy task in India, but it allowed us to see beautiful landscapes on the road. Villages, mountains, forest, cows, monkeys, India in several of these colors. These 8-9 hours of driving allowed us to get to know each other a little better. To have discussions, to learn, to laugh...
Rice fields
Aagumbe Sun Set Point, near Shringeri
We caught some traffic on the way!
What a joy to finally arrive at the Glucklich Resort... This little corner of paradise located on the beach, in a small village. But also, what a joy to see my good friends Sivaram and Marie-Noëlle again. We will be practicing yoga together for the next 3 weeks. Ayurvedic detox, satsang (meditation, kirtans, teaching), asanas, pranayamas, and more. A friendship in the practice is very precious...
Marie-Noëlle, me and Sivaram in front of the yoga platform
It's been too long since I've attended a retreat. Yes, I practice every day and I have the chance to do kirtans several times a week. But it is not the same as an intensive retreat of several weeks. The results are not the same when you intensify your practice over a longer period of time. In this case, 3 weeks. I will tell you about this in another article. I am very excited at the idea of re-immersing myself in this intensity.
On arrival we tasted a delicious ginger-lemon! A tradition upon arrival.
After the reunion and everything, I felt I had to go visit Hanuman. Take the time to go and settle down, pray, honour... Take the time to get this journey started on the right track. This trip is an outer journey, but above all this inner journey. So we organized a tuk-tuk to take me to the Hanuman temple, which is not far from here. The driver arrived after some delay (Indian time), and I was able to visit this dear friend, Hanuman. Over there I recited the Hanuman chalisa, I meditated, etc. As I was about to leave, there are 3 young women who got there to pray. I stayed at a distance to watch them for a bit. Then, they asked me to go up with them because "uncle", the priest of the temple, would come to do arati. Wow... what synchronicity no! Thanks to the tuk-tuk driver for the delay. Ahahaha So I had a great experience at this temple. This journey is now launched!
Prasanna Anjaneya Temple
I leave you with our first sunset. There were a lot of people on the beach yesterday as there was a fisherman's party/kite contest.
See you soon, Jai Hanuman!
Śraddhā
Thank you so much for sharing this amazing experience with us here! I can almost visualize the whole adventure. I can’t get over the beauty of that Hanuman monument 🙌🏼 And yes you should be grateful to that late driver for sure. ✨✨🫶🫶🙏🏼🙏🏼What a great begining to the trip!