Palolem randomings for make posting of the bloggings

Krishna Das Baba, our yoga instructor, friend and favorite chef. His website we are building is www.yogavillapalolem.com 

Riding rain gear :)

The bus to Chawdi

For some reason I thought this would make a great pic

Our $3 room

Another beach shot

Heidi's favorite calf, he eats all our banana peels.

Not sure of his name, but he is a huge Shepherd, he stands guard outside one of the restaurants. 

Snowflake, the manager and CEO of Krishna's businesses.

We have noticed many very large frogs hanging out in the water channels.

Ganesha Festival — the elephant headed boy riding a mouse

Ganesha is one of the most well-known Gods of Hindu religion, which has five prime Deity’s. He is the
destroyer of obstacles, vanity and pride.  The Lord of success, knowledge and wealth.  He is a symbol, just as Jesus, Buddha, Thoth, Horus and the life giving omnipotent Sun is to their respective religions.

How this boy got the head of an elephant is another story of which I won’t go into here.

“Ganesha's head symbolizes the Atman or the soul, which is the ultimate supreme reality of human existence, and his human body signifies Maya or the earthly existence of human beings. The elephant head denotes wisdom and its trunk represents Om, the sound symbol of cosmic reality. In his upper right hand Ganesha holds a goad, which helps him propel mankind forward on the eternal path and remove obstacles from the way. The noose in Ganesha's left hand is a gentle implement to capture all difficulties.

The broken tusk that Ganesha holds like a pen in his lower right hand is a symbol of sacrifice, which he broke for writing the Mahabharata. The rosary in his other hand suggests that the pursuit of knowledge should be continuous. The laddoo (sweet) he holds in his trunk indicates that one must discover the sweetness of the Atman. His fan-like ears convey that he is all ears to our petition. The snake that runs round his waist represents energy in all forms. And he is humble enough to ride the lowest of creatures, a mouse.”  - Source: Hinduism Guide

Note the Om symbol on the left and Svastika on the right.

Another

If one were interested, you could look up the ancient meanings behind “Amen” and “Om”. You would find some similarities. J

No matter what religion you are or are not, the lessons are all the same. In the texts of sacred writings, almost nothing is meant to be taken in a literal sense. Even the scriptures that seem to have a simple straight forward understanding are still a parable to the hidden truth.  Just as the Masonic degrees to me and countless others, are parables to a deeper lesson. One Word, or one Symbol, once understood properly can point to volumes of knowledge you never knew existed.  You know what you know; you know what you don’t know. But you don’t know what you don’t know until you stumble upon a new Truth

Ganesh Chaturthi

Ganesha’s birthday is celebrated every year in India for almost a month. His birthday comes during the Hindu month of Bhaadrapada, starting on the shukla chaturthi (fourth day of the waxing moon period). from mid August to mid September. Here in Palolem, Heidi and I got to participate in the celebration on many nights of this month-long event. Almost every night around 7pm we would hear fireworks randomly exploding in the distance. Once darkness came the fireworks became more frequent. Soon we would hear loud music coming from the edge of town. Eventually the parade of cars, scooters and people dancing would make it to main street of Palolem. One car, or large truck, if the Ganesha was very large, would have the Ganesha in the rear hatchback. It would be decorated with flowers, Indian treats, and other alms, all as offerings to the Deity.  The treats were also handed out to anyone present for the celebration, including us.  Another vehicle would be blasting Hindu music and the streets would resemble a moving Disco. After slowly moving through town the Ganesha vehicle would back up to the entrance of the beach. The Ganesha would be unloaded with all reverence and carried to the beach and placed on a pedestal. More dancing, offerings, singing, and loads of fireworks continued, some blasts sounded like dynamite. 

When the ceremony was properly completed, Ganesha would be taken to the sea and submerged in the waters, eventually carried out to the depths of the ocean by the tide regularly ebbing and flowing. With it taking the misfortunes of all mankind, until the next year, when Hindu’s with great misfortune wish he would come early to relieve their troubles J

Below are some video’s of the celebration. Usually this party would last until at least 2am.

 

Can you find the man who had too much to drink?

Even the dogs were celebrating.

Last one, on the beach

Gokarna Day 2 - To Palolem

Gokarna, Day Two

I woke up very early Sunday morning after a terrible night of sleep.  I decided when I woke up that I was going to try to be positive and happy and accepting of any situation.  I grabbed my book and walked into the cafe to read my book.  I sat for a few minutes, and then decided to walk down the beach for a bit to see if I could find a different hotel as well as and nice spot to sit and possibly read my book.  As I walked, I noticed the water was very rough, and not good for swimming.  I thought maybe it was because it was morning.  But I would soon find out that it was actually due to the monsoons, which start in June, and then start to wane in September.  I walked quite far down the beach, and realized that the only other open hotel was hosting about 19 people to a room.  No thank you.  I decided to walk back to Namaste, and wait for Kale to wake up so we could talk about our next move.  As I was walking back to the beach, I started feeling raindrops, and then a terenchel downpour followed.  And of course I forgot my umbrella at the cafe.  Good thing I remembered my book though!  Idiot.  This time I actually laughed at my situation instead of cursing and writhing. 

When I got back to the hotel I decided to read while my clothing dried.  When Kale woke up, we sat at a table in the cafe to order some tea, and a very nice couple from Spain joined us.  They too, had arrived the previous evening and were hoping we could tell them what to expect out of Gokarna.  We were no help to them as far as their questions about Gokarna were concerned, however we all offered solace to each other, as we swapped horror stories about our experiences at Namaste hotel.  We were also joined by Linda from Germany who actually had to change rooms because her bed was covered in mold!  Oh, Namaste!  The couple from Spain decided to pack up and leave that afternoon.  Their plan was to take a train to the Goa airport and then fly south to where it is warmer and drier.  We decided to stay, and take a rickshaw into town with Linda to get online and plan our next move.  We walked around the town of Gokarna for a few hours looking in the shops and just observing.  We finally resolved to accompany Linda to Palolem, which is one of the southern-most beaches in Goa.  We thought about traveling south to Varkala, but it would have been a minimum of a 20-hour trip…no thank youJ  Palolem was a one-hour train ride north, and Linda knew a yoga instructor who was giving daily classes.  We’ve wanted to find yoga classes since we arrived in India, so we were really excited about the prospect of meeting the instructor in Palolem.       

When we got back to Namaste Kale and I decided to go for a walk to Kudle Beach, which was supposed to be about 20 minutes away according to Lonely Planet.  We walked on a trail that cut through some cliffs on the beach!  It was AMAZINGLY beautiful and I wasn't looking where I was going, and then felt something squishy on my foot that engulfed my flip flop, and when I looked down I realized I had planted my foot deep into fresh cow shit!  I screamed!  Good thing we were next to the ocean and I could rinse it off.  We never made it to Kudle Beach because it was getting dark, it started raining, and the beach turned out to be much further than 20-minutes away.  On the way back Kale sank his foot into cow crap!  HAHA! 

When we got back to the hotel we decided to have dinner, and get the best night of sleep possible before heading to Palolem in the morning.  YAY!

Palolem

We arrived in Palolem around 2 pm and Linda showed us to a great little hotel called, Mamoo’s Place.  We booked a room for two nights, and Linda ended up being our neighbor.  YAY!  We walked around the beach for a while and came to “Monkey Island” where we could see monkeys sitting around in their trees.  It was so awesome!  Too bad we forgot our cameraJ

After walking on the beach for a while we went to the bookstore and met Krishna, the yoga instructor and bookstore owner.  He was such a kind, and laid back person, and talked to us about breathing and Hatha and Ashtanga yoga for quite a while.  He also told us that he was going to get rid of our fat.  He was raised in an ashram and began practicing yoga when he was 15 years old.  We signed up for a class for the next morning.  After eating dinner we when back to our hotel room for a good-night’s rest.  We were happy to sleep in a bed with dry sheets and no mold on the walls!  YAY!

Our room at Mamoo's Place

The next morning we slept in and met Krishna at 9:30 am for yoga.  The class was an hour and thirty minutes, and felt really good to our muscles and joints.  After yoga we went back to the bookstore, which also has a small kitchen and living room area in the back, and Krishna poured us a cup of some of his kombucha, and made us breakfast, which was dal and toast.  Over breakfast he asked Kale if he knew how to make a Web site, and Kale showed him the site he built for his business.  Kale told Krishna he would work on one for him while we’re here, as well as improve the performance of his laptop, which was painfully slow.  We (Kale, Linda and I) made plans to have dinner with Krishna that evening to work on his computer, help him build a Web site and learn how to cook authentic, vegan Indian food.  Not only is Krishna a yoga instructor, but he is also a master chef when it comes to Indian cuisine.  He holds cooking classes during the busy season here in Palolem. 

We ended up having dinner at Krishna’s place with Linda three nights in a row, as well as doing yoga every day.  It was really fun, and the food was amazing!  We also decided to spend a month in Palolem.  We found a nice room across the street from the beach, and Krishna is pretty much our neighbor.  This will be a nice place for us to relax, read and hold onto our money while we plan our next step.

Our new German friend Linda

 The local cows find shelter at Krishna's store awning, and crushed Heidi's umbrella :)

 More computer work :)

 The main street in Palolem, taken from our favorite restaurant

 Our favorite restaurant on the roof

 The beach in Palolem

 Heidi and another new friend, Sandra from Spain

 Cooking class

Our posts will probably not be as frequent since we are pretty much stationary for the next four weeksJ