After an 8 hour Bus Journey we Arrived in Satna to catch the connecting bus to Khajurho which the transport guy said would be no problem... The lonely planet has the following to say about Satna ''pass straight through satna if you can''. I concur
After some heated words with the bus officials who were trying to get us to stay the night in satna, we got a bus to a town 10 km from Khajurho as the connecting bus was a problem and Satna was such a hole with the people not being very nice we didnt want to stay there... so off we went and somehow hitched to our destination late in the evening...
So once there we checked into the Yogi lodge, where they did yoga classes each morning for residents. the nxt morning we went to see yogi sharma and he read our Ouras... Mine said i liked helping people and was a champion of the subordinates and i had no fear of my superiors and that i was to help people with words, not fighting. H went on to say that i had alot of anger in me and that i had to be nicer to women as in my past life i had been a wife beater! He concluded tho that i was a nice person but needed to stop drinking alchohol as i had a problem with my water chakra and to stop eating ''tiger food'' or meat... So off i went to be nicer to women and giove up meat and licker (incidentally we have been mostly vegitarian and since rajasthan (now 3 weeks ago) for the best part dry of alchohol). We were expecting to do physical yoga but we found out the next day Yogi didnt gdo this any more. We also met 2 young guys in the town who befreinded us and we walked round the old town with them the 1st day... The 2nd day there we went round the market, bought ingridients for a meal then had what they described as a pic nic party... We basically walked for about 1-2 km out of town into farm lands... found a nice spot, collected loads of cow dung and made a fire... we then made chapatis, a veg dish containing aubergene, tomato, gee, masala spices, bay leaves and chilies (very nice)... and then ate as much as possible... the left over chapatis were fed to the cows and when i joked that this was to make more dung for the next pic nic party they were highly amused... score!
The next few Days however Claudia and I were quite i'll. We Dont thuink it was a result of the Pic nic as i started to get dizzy whilst still out there... Just Par for the Course as they say...
Anyway on about the 5th day there we went to the Yogi School, which was run on donation (mainly from france and italy) and taught, Hindi, English, Music and Yoga... the little yogi leadinmg the class was only about 8 and was amazing at Yoga... Then an american ex pat came too (he had 1st been in 86) and we all taught a class English for the morning...
Then i bought the school dinners for all 60 kids (A samosa each at 2 rs) for 1.50gbp. so my khama was good for the day.. Then the kids did a ritual tribal dance which was really impressive but did amount to about 10 8yr old boys dancing in their pants for 3 westerners which was slightly sureal..
Anyhoo... the schol was a few km out of town so we had rented Bikes.. that was really nice, cycling around the countryside for a while in the afternoon also and then we met David again in the evening for a really nice meal... As it was the night before my birthday, we went to a really nice mediterranean restaurant and had some pizza and pasta as we were still just getting over the illness and just wanted something not swimming in Ghee...
03.04.2008 my 28th... nice easy day... we pottered, plotted our trip the next day to Bodhgaya in the morning... went on the internet for a bit, called my mum etc...
In the evening however we had our 1st physical Yoga session and it was good... I dont know where my flexability has gone but i'm gonna get it back... We then had an ayerstic massage and felt wonderfull...
The Next Day We left for Bodhgaya:
We had to catch a Bus at 14.00 hrs... Then we arrived in Satna again (really dont Go its horrible) Then a train from Satna - Varanassi (20.00hrs - 06.00hrs) then from Varanassi @ 10.00hrs - Gaya arrived 14.30 then an auto to Bodhgaya...
we are staying at the Bhutaneese monestary and it is really tranquil. There isnt much to do here exept see the temples but it is really a nice charming little place... This is where Prince Guatam meditated for ages to find enlightenment not 500yrds from where i type this from... the Corresponding temple is really impresive and there are monks and pilgrims from all over asia... The Dhali Lama often takes a pilgrimage here in December and January... I would like to come back around that time as there are aprox 3 million pilgrims from tibet etc that come here to worship that time of year....
we have also found a good Yoga class here ran by a man and his Daughter for 100 rupees for 2 hrs... am a bit achey but its really interesting and even tho ive only done it now 3 - 4 times, i feel more supple... Just cravin some cardio now but its just too hot to do any propper stuff...
there are also some good Meditation retreats here but are really for those who are very serious to get involved with the Buddist way of medditation.
Tomorrow we leave on the train to Calcutta:
