A day in India

Thank goodness we were on the orange bus for the ride some Armitsar to Chandigarh

Carl and I traveled from Amritsar (where the Golden Temple is) to Chandigarh by bus early in the morning. The ride was a peaceful four hours with scattered little towns and wide open rice fields. We arrived in Chandigarh at about 1 in the afternoon.

Waiting to buy bus tickets 

The cloak room

 When we arrived we bought our bus tickets to Mandi, deposited our bags in the cloak room and took an auto rickshaw to the rose garden. The garden was HUGE and there wasn't trash everywhere but sadly no one seemed to be actually gardening the roses. My first words when I walked in were "well I'm already disappointed" as Carl checked out the delappaded rose bushes he started to giggle as well. We had a great time enjoying the nature and park even though most of the roses were dead. We used our imagination to envision the park exploding with colors from the roses and trust us, its amazing when the roses are in bloom.

Carl showing off the roses

After the rose garden we headed to the rock garden which was interesting and beautiful and surprisingly not dirty! The rock garden is a maze filled with  waterfalls, nature, swings and artwork made from old bathroom tiles. It took us a couple hours to explore and made us wish that we had something this interesting in Colorado. We went on a Sunday so  it was especially crowded but all the women were really dressed up in colorful saris, jewelry and hena.

Art

More art

Swinging 

More swinging 

 We had a pretty confusing afternoon after the rock garden. We already had bus tickets to Mandi for that evening and we were told that we would get there around 1am so we needed to book at hotel. We headed to a cafe called "backerpackers cafe" to get some food and use there wifi. Their mission statement was to help backpackers but turns out they didn't have the one thing that will help all backpackers: wifi. Luckily they had an India Lonely Planet travel book and after looking up places to stay in Mandi I tried to call but my phone wasn't working. We used the restaurants phone to call a hotel but they said they wouldn't be open when we arrived at 1am. In order to call the other hotel we needed to put money on my phone which proved to be a complicated process. Finally we were able to make a reservation at a hotel in Mandi. After a detour at the wrong bus station we made it to the correct one. 

When we got on the bus we asked how long it would take to get to Mandi.  Previously we were told we would arrive close to midnight but turns our we were wrong and it was actually 4am. Just like that a four hour bus ride turns into an 8 hour bus ride, boom!  When we booked the bus ticket they told us it was a Volvo with AC. Instead we get a super old bus that had possibly NEVER been cleaned....it had AC though. Carl and I both agreed that it was the worst bus ride we have ever taken. The road was pretty terrible. However we made it to Mandi and were asleep by 5 in the morning at our hotel!

Dirty bus

The day before I received a rather anxiety inducing email from my yoga program about things we needed for living in the ashram and what to expect of the teacher training. My mission for the day was to get the flip flops and indian clothing because I was told I would need them. After breakfast we walked around the center square which was sort of sunken into the ground. Carl managed to get himself a sketchy SIM card for a dollar. It was only 2pm and we already completed most of our mission so we headed to the hotel to drop off our new things. 

We had lunch of delicious naan, dal and indian beer. Over lunch we worked on our blog post about the Golden Temple and discussed how magical and crazy India is. After lunch we  found a tiny magical chai stand squeezed in between two jewelry shops down a small narrow corridor. We drank our tea and waved to a girl who was smiling at us while sitting in a second story window.

Chai stand 

Girl who smiled at us while we drank chai

After our little chia break we saw many shops that were full of very colorful fabric. The shops had raw fabric and the cloth was being sewn into women's clothing right in the shops. After wandering around a bit we finally found the perfect shop. A little old lady was sewing on a old singer type push peddle machine that they some how stuck a motor on so it could go way faster. 

Sewing machine and bad ass scissors 

Most of the other shops seem to be only made to order but this shop had a couple dress/pants outfits already made. I asked if I could buy one, It had blue and white detail and it seemed like it would fit me; it was perfect! There was no draw string for the pants so I asked her for one. She dug around in her fabric scraps and started sewing. We waited about 3 minutes and it was done! It was amazing, I had almost just given up on finding any clothes and then proof, the perfect outfit basically hand made for me.

Sewing the draw string

My new outfit! 

My teacher training course starts tomorrow. I wont have wifi and I will be busy practicing yoga, learning how to teach yoga and so much more. Ill make sure to post once I am done (on October 11) with some of the highlights.