going to india

[Augo]

Does anybody here know anybody in India? Even better would be if they lived around Bangalore, and better than that would be if they    were young folks that would translate for cheap and have an in with the Indian Forest Service...

[Bernard]

Yes to the first question, no to all the others, sorry!

[dieblucasdie]

I know some people in Mumbai in their 20s, but that's, you know, far away from Bangalore.

[clare]

I know someone who lived in Bangalore for several years - he's not young, but he is gay and pretty cool...(he now lives in SF and was part of the team that developed the Band of the Day app for iTunes) So I doubt he could help with the forestry service bit, but he might know someone who does...

[clare]

I didn't get as far as asking him about the forestry service stuff yet, but if you want advice on where to go out to have fun, he's your man (and no, it's not a list of gay bars ;-)

Sophisticated nightclubs in brigade road, unsophisticated ones also

http://eveningflavors.com/Restaurants-Pubs-Bars/St-Marks-Road/Bangalore/

http://bangalore.burrp.com/listing/the-13th-floor_mg-road_bangalore_lounges/154238455

http://www.mouthshut.com/product-reviews/Pecos-Bangalore-reviews-925072889 He describes this as 'a classic dive bar'

[clare]

Said friend knows someone who is involved in tiger conservation near Bangalore...does that sound helpful?

[Augo]

Sweet! I may not have much time to go out and have fun proper...trying to get into a village within the national forests to do some photojournalism with mahouts, but apparently there are loads and loads of red tape to go through because mahouts are employees of the state. If that doesn't work out I'm gonna end up in Delhi, which would be cool and all...but BANGALORE and elephants!! Would be radical.

[dieblucasdie]

Rad! When are you going? For how long?

[justinh]

Indian bars are hilarious.  Get ready for being amongst a bunch of dudes.  All dudes.  On the plus side, the bar food is good, although beer is definitely in the lager-only phase.  Maybe this bar experience is more typical of northern India, though. 

I've never been to Bangalore, I have been to Delhi a few times.  It's interesting, but probably not a place you're going to love (it's probably more likely that you're going to hate it).  However, if you can escape Delhi and get to Jaipur or further into Rajasthan, it is awesome.  They have elephants there too.  No forests in Rajasthan, however. 

[Augo]

Yeah, Jaipur is on the list of places to go if I can escape Delhi. Leaving this week and I'll be wandering around there until May 28th. I have a bad feeling that 3 weeks isn't gonna be enough though.

[Augo]

Also just talked to a guy in Bangladore today and he said it generally takes about 3 months to get permission from the forest service to have access to mahouts. The whole point would be to kind of expose the living conditions that these employees of the state are subject to, so I probably would never get permission anyways...pretty bummed about that at the moment.

[cold before sunrise]

I've got to attend yoga teacher training school but am hardly willing to give up every second weekend from the 19th of this month through until Dec, commuting to Vancouver. Would prefer to spend a month or 2 in an ashram intensive. Does anybody have information on this? What's the best place to study in India? There are also classes in Bali, Thailand and Costa Rica that look interesting... I'm doing my research now, am curious if folks know anybody who has done this.

 

[justinh]

Rishikesh seemed to be a big yoga/ashram destination.  That's where Donovan and the Beatles went in the 60s, and is full of western yuppie women with too much money.  It's also by Haridwar, on the Ganges--Haridwar is really beautiful. 

Both towns are in the foothills of the Himalayas, and although getting into the Himalayas far enough that you can see the big ones is a little difficult from this angle (the roads are beyond terrible) I think that given some time it would be very awesome. 

Also near Haridwar/Rishiksesh is a waterfall that has been hilariously turned into a super-crass tourist trap with a waterpark at the bottom. 

[cold before sunrise]

what's crass to me is how the guys here act to response to my mistake of wearing a dress that doesn't cover my knees. holy smokes. it's disturbing that girls have to go swimming fully clothed and that men from a country that birthed yoga, the art of restraint, still haven't figured out how to handle their impulses thousands of years later.

it's been a fabulous trip and i was enjoying the yoga theory lessons immensely until an instructor said something yesterday that stopped me dead in my tracks. he described a holy concoction that indian yogis eat called 'nectar' that is made of cow manure, cow urine, ghee, curd and sugar. i mean, everybody knows they're into cows here but that's ridiculous... getting into major creepy stalkerish territory.

[Ashley]

dem weirdos, stalkin dem darn cows

[cold before sunrise]

it's worship and faith, not obsessive and semi-disturbing.

[Ignatius]

You never ate a cute guy's poo when he wasn't looking? Come on now, be honest.

[cold before sunrise]

apparently there is also dalai lama poop on the market. if you are what you eat i wonder if that would give you various man-god powers... would you eat poop if it gave you supernatural powers? there's a yogic sect called the aghori (or is it naga?) who live in graveyards - in tribute to shiva - and dig up graves the night after a full moon to drink blood from a human skull, who claim to be immortal. india.

[Ashley]

if you ate poop it would make you poop!

[Thermofusion]

apparently there is also dalai lama poop on the market. if you are what you eat i wonder if that would give you various man-god powers... would you eat poop if it gave you supernatural powers? there's a yogic sect called the aghori (or is it naga?) who live in graveyards - in tribute to shiva - and dig up graves the night after a full moon to drink blood from a human skull, who claim to be immortal. india.

I'm ashamed of what happened here, so many years ago, and I assure you -- this will never happen again in my kingdom.