Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! You will have to forgive me and take this as this year's Christmas letter. Due to all the traveling, a letter just couldn't be done. Jeff and I had the wonderful gift of going to India while Nana and Grandaddy Jackson took care of Kai for two weeks. Jeff did a story on the climbing in the area, which is some of the best he has seen. Look for the story in Rock and Ice around March or April. While in Mysore, located in southern India, we stayed at the Indus Valley Ayurvedic Center. For anyone interested in India and Ayurveda, I would highly recommend going here. While Jeff was off climbing, I took part in a 9 day cleanse which consisted of many warm oil, 4 handed, full body massages, facials, pedicures, crazy eye treatments with ghee (clarified butter) and many other treatments that are far too different to try and describe. I was fully pampered and relaxed, doing yoga twice a day and eating (except for two of the days) amazing Indian meals. Jeff also had the massages every day after his full days of climbing, however, he did not do Panchakarma- the cleansing. The culture is rich with color, beauty and warmth. This was one of our favorite trips and both of us hope that we will be able to return some day.Kai continues to grow and blossom. He is a talking machine, putting long sentences together, questioning about what everything is, has a huge imagination and continues to LOVE to read and play. When we read to him now, even a book he has not heard before, and the book seems a bit long for mama and papa and we try to tell it by the pictures, Kai will point to the words and say, "read these words." How does that happen?
He loves dinosaurs, likes to play doctor and Peter Pan and Captain Hook (he got a wooden pirate ship for Christmas). When he is Peter Pan and is being chased by Captain Hook (Nana or Uncle Erik), and gets scared, he quickly wants Tinker Bell to come and save him. These are all games he loved playing with Nana and Grandaddy. Nana saved all Jeff and Erik's old books and toys. There really was no reason for Christmas gifts, Kai preferred his papa's old toys.
We hope you all had a wonderful holiday. Wishing you many blessings for 2010!
Love,
Hannah, Jeff and Kai
Beautiful Flower mandalas that changed daily and welcomed us at IVAC
Celebrating Christmas at Nana and Grandaddy
Beautiful Flower mandalas that changed daily and welcomed us at IVAC
The Glorious pool at IVAC.
Celebrating Christmas at Nana and Grandaddy Jackson's. Kai is looking for Santa up the chimney
On Christmas Eve.
A cooking class offered to us. YUM!
Beautiful fruit and pumpkin carvings for decoration.
All the spices used in cooking delicious Indian meals.
Our dining area. We had to be on constant lookout for falling coconuts.
A regular, beautiful, delicious meal.
My meal for two of the days while I was doing Panchakarma. MMMMM. Anyone want to trade?
This was of course taken in jest of "panchakarma jail." My last day of panchakarma, I had to stay in my room and detox. Lets just say I had record times of using the toilet for 8 hours. Not only did I lose 8 pounds, I said bye bye to some parasites who, I am sure were very sad to leave their warm home.
Keeping wrapped up and eating my "oh so tasty porridge" during my cleanse. Keep in mind that we are on the equator and it is anything but cool out during the day. We had big winter hats we had to wear too. This was my last day, after the big "flush" so my hat was off.
We were the brave souls who did panchakarma. Your body's constitutional type dictates the cleanse program you are put on. It can be 2 enemas daily (not mine) a huge one day flush (mine), oil poured into every orifice of your body, and "tickling of the throat" so glad I did not get that one. If all this sounds interesting to you, you can google panchakarma and ayurvedic treatments.
Signs such as these would be needed. We saw men and children going to the bathroom everywhere. Just drop your pants and go. They need to add don't poop here either.
School fieldtrip. When these girls saw me in the temple, they all ran up and circled me wanting to shake my hand. Two of them took my hands and held them throughout half of the temple until it became to narrow and busy to continue. Pretty cute.
HUGE beehive!
Country living.
Mysore Palace by day. The Maharaja's palace.
Family on motorbike. Sometimes we saw even more people on a bike like this. Jeff saw one man carrying a ladder with his head stuck through the rungs while driving his motorcycle. Yikes!
403 steps up to the temple in Ramnagara. I don't know if there is a significance, I just wanted to count.
Hanuman! The monkey god.
The loads people would carry on bikes amazed us.
Flower garlands and coconuts for temple offerings.
Traveling garland seller
Nandi, Shiva's holy bull, carved out of a granite boulder.
The sacred cow!
Cows eating garland off car. The cows were wondering around everywhere - temples, middle of traffic, markets - all appeared to be wanderers and very respected. We saw one man bathing a cow in the river. Another man lifted his young daughter up to pet a cow.
Chamundi Temple. Chamundi was a goddess who killed the demon Mahishasura so that the region would be at peace. Mysore was originally called Mahishur, after this demon. You can see a picture of Chamundi in a little roadside temple I took further down in the blog.
Hannah trying to get away! No, I don't need that fan, carved figurine, bangles, etc. etc. Yes, yes, they really are beautiful, no thank you. Okay bye. The man to my left followed me to the car and had to have the door closed while still reaching in with his bag of goods to sell. Persistent little boogers.
Gumbaz. The mausoleum of Hyder Ali, his wife Fatima and his son Tipu Sultan.
Okra and eggplants
Small roadside temple to Chamundi
Sandalwood Factory.
Shopping for Saris
Chicken Truck
Cobra Den. These were everywhere. The cobra is sacred and the locals decorate the dens with garlands and pour milk on the dens to feed the cobras.
Cobra Temple. Jeff saw a 4 foot den while hiking to rock climbing area.
Ganesh- Remover of Obstacles.
Mysore Temple lit up at night.
Entrance to IVAC-Indus Valley Ayurvedic Center
Bollywood, Jeff's new climb in Ramnagara.
Arrived at IVAC and blessed after 35 hours of travel.
Dodging traffic in taxi on way to Mysore from Bangalore airport. Super sketchy and crazy. Notice the lane we are in. Weaving, horn blowing, dodging, narrowly escaping disaster.
A cooking class offered to us. YUM!
Beautiful fruit and pumpkin carvings for decoration.
All the spices used in cooking delicious Indian meals.
Our dining area. We had to be on constant lookout for falling coconuts.
A regular, beautiful, delicious meal.
My meal for two of the days while I was doing Panchakarma. MMMMM. Anyone want to trade?
This was of course taken in jest of "panchakarma jail." My last day of panchakarma, I had to stay in my room and detox. Lets just say I had record times of using the toilet for 8 hours. Not only did I lose 8 pounds, I said bye bye to some parasites who, I am sure were very sad to leave their warm home.
Keeping wrapped up and eating my "oh so tasty porridge" during my cleanse. Keep in mind that we are on the equator and it is anything but cool out during the day. We had big winter hats we had to wear too. This was my last day, after the big "flush" so my hat was off.
We were the brave souls who did panchakarma. Your body's constitutional type dictates the cleanse program you are put on. It can be 2 enemas daily (not mine) a huge one day flush (mine), oil poured into every orifice of your body, and "tickling of the throat" so glad I did not get that one. If all this sounds interesting to you, you can google panchakarma and ayurvedic treatments.
Signs such as these would be needed. We saw men and children going to the bathroom everywhere. Just drop your pants and go. They need to add don't poop here either.
School fieldtrip. When these girls saw me in the temple, they all ran up and circled me wanting to shake my hand. Two of them took my hands and held them throughout half of the temple until it became to narrow and busy to continue. Pretty cute.
HUGE beehive!
Country living.
Mysore Palace by day. The Maharaja's palace.
Family on motorbike. Sometimes we saw even more people on a bike like this. Jeff saw one man carrying a ladder with his head stuck through the rungs while driving his motorcycle. Yikes!
403 steps up to the temple in Ramnagara. I don't know if there is a significance, I just wanted to count.
Hanuman! The monkey god.
The loads people would carry on bikes amazed us.
Flower garlands and coconuts for temple offerings.
Traveling garland seller
Nandi, Shiva's holy bull, carved out of a granite boulder.
The sacred cow!
Cows eating garland off car. The cows were wondering around everywhere - temples, middle of traffic, markets - all appeared to be wanderers and very respected. We saw one man bathing a cow in the river. Another man lifted his young daughter up to pet a cow.
Chamundi Temple. Chamundi was a goddess who killed the demon Mahishasura so that the region would be at peace. Mysore was originally called Mahishur, after this demon. You can see a picture of Chamundi in a little roadside temple I took further down in the blog.
Hannah trying to get away! No, I don't need that fan, carved figurine, bangles, etc. etc. Yes, yes, they really are beautiful, no thank you. Okay bye. The man to my left followed me to the car and had to have the door closed while still reaching in with his bag of goods to sell. Persistent little boogers.
Gumbaz. The mausoleum of Hyder Ali, his wife Fatima and his son Tipu Sultan. 
Okra and eggplants
Small roadside temple to Chamundi
Sandalwood Factory.
Shopping for Saris
Chicken Truck
Cobra Den. These were everywhere. The cobra is sacred and the locals decorate the dens with garlands and pour milk on the dens to feed the cobras.
Cobra Temple. Jeff saw a 4 foot den while hiking to rock climbing area.
Ganesh- Remover of Obstacles.
Mysore Temple lit up at night.
Entrance to IVAC-Indus Valley Ayurvedic Center
Bollywood, Jeff's new climb in Ramnagara.
Arrived at IVAC and blessed after 35 hours of travel.
Dodging traffic in taxi on way to Mysore from Bangalore airport. Super sketchy and crazy. Notice the lane we are in. Weaving, horn blowing, dodging, narrowly escaping disaster.
1 comment:
Looks like a great trip. Happy New Year.
Steve
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