our stay in chennai...

It's hard to believe a whole week has gone by since the last writing! Our stay in India was most interesting and as we had been told, India is a country of contrasts. While Chennai is a very dirty city, people are very clean with beautiful colorful clothing. There is stark poverty, and there are areas of great wealth. There is dense crowding and noise, yet many of the people seem able to find quiet and serenity in the middle of it.

Following the diplomatic briefing the morning of our arrival, March 5, John had a yoga demonstration scheduled for his students and that took place on the ship. I was able to see only part of it since I was getting ready for my "Art of Living" trip. John also had a City Orientation trip later that day, and by that time we had left. Our bus loaded at 11:30am and left the harbor with 7 boys, 21 girls, a faculty member (Marquisa) and I. We were questioned by the armed harbor guards about the number of males and females on the bus and our excellent guide, Sushila, told us that security in the area has been greatly increased since the bombing in Mumbai. We certainly found this to be true -- there were armed guards around the ship and to go in or out we had to show shore passes and ID. We felt well looked after.

We headed for Mamallapuram, also known as Mahabalipuram http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabalipuram. Mamallapuram is a World Heritage Site because of the ancient monuments and temples there. Under the Pallava dynasty in the 4th - 9th centuries, the art of temple construction was redefined and moved from the use of wood to carving from rock. I was most impressed with the cave temple with its carved bas-reliefs that tell the story of The Descent of the Ganga http://www.anand.to/india/ganga.html. There is a sample in the photo and if you look closely you can see two of the goats that live near this temple climbing around the back legs of the elephant on the right. We also saw the Five Rathas from the 7th - 8th centuries http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancha_Rathas and the Shore Temple http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shore_Temple. We learned that this shoreline was affected by the tsunami in 2004 and we passed through a couple of fishing villages where people are living in dwellings on the beach constructed of palm leaves. We also learned that Madras Harbor, now known as Chennai Harbor, was bombed by the Japanese four months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

We went then to DakshinaChitra village http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakshinchitra which I mentioned in my last posting. There we got room assignments and our schedule, then settled in our rooms, which were comfortable although very basic. Marquisa and I shared a room. Most of the women students had six in a room, but it was clear from the schedule we would not be spending that much time in the rooms anyway. We had our first meditation session that evening, met our teacher, Veda Chakra, and learned some of the breathing techniques that would be used in the sessions. Afterward we had a traditional meal served on banana leaves and eaten with our fingers. We had been told that we would be eating vegetarian meals during our stay -- the food was delicious. We went to bed after that and I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow!

Friday morning we were up for hot chocolate at 6:30am, and our first session started at 7:00am. We did some stretches and a few yoga movements and learned more about breathing. We had breakfast at 8:30am then continued with the sessions -- a total of about 8 hours that day, four in the morning and four in the afternoon, on breathing and meditation. There was no air conditioning and temperatures were in the mid-90's in the middle of the day, so we had a break during the hottest part and were able to tour the village and walk through the market. The buildings are designed to let air flow through and at about 4:00pm the temperature starts to cool and a breeze makes things very comfortable. After supper on that second night we had a story teller who came to entertain us. We had learned some stories of the Hindu gods and goddesses on the ship during our Global Studies and cultural pre-port, but there are so many and an endless supply of stories to tell. We all went to bed pleasantly tired from the work we had done that day.

On Saturday morning we had much the same schedule as we had on Friday. This was our last day and there were lots of activities in our classes in the afternoon, mainly games designed to teach life lessons. There was also lots of singing and dancing with a group of Veda's friends. During a break in the middle of the day there was a palm reader and many of the students had their palms read. This was very entertaining for everyone! We ended the day with a final meal together and got back to the ship at about 10:00pm, exhausted. Students were thrilled to have a real shower for the first time in days.

John and I went shopping on Sunday after negotiating a good price with a cab driver. He dropped us at the Taj Hotel and we walked up an alley to the mall. We didn't spend a huge amount of time there since there was not much we wanted to buy, but we did run into a number of the students I had spent the last few days with and it was good to see them all. We went to the Taj for lunch then and it was nice to eat some good western food. We returned to the ship in one of the motorized rickshaws, not realizing that these vehicles are not allowed into the harbor gates, so we had a long walk in high heat to get back to the ship. Chennai is quite dirty with black ash or something in the air. It's hard to think about what you might be breathing. We always have to conserve water while in port since the ship can only produce water while moving, but we sure felt that we needed to clean up after that walk!

Traffic in Chennai reminds me of skiing -- you are responsible for everyone in front of you and you sort of ignore what is going on behind you. It is very important to have a working horn as that is how you signal your location. During a shopping trip on Monday, the last day of our stay, I was in one of the little three wheeled motorized rickshaws with four of my shipmates and my arm was brushed by the handlebar of the motorcycle next to us! Drivers chat with each other through open windows while driving down the road at full speed. I was very impressed by the judgement and reaction time of drivers who manage to share the road -- bicycles, motorcycles (sometimes carrying entire families), rickshaws (both motor and cycle driven), cars, SUV's and oxcarts pulled by sacred cows! Even the pedestrians get into the act. We had been told if we needed to cross a street, find a local and cross with them. I just avoided any street crossings.

We are now on our way to Singapore for bunkering. No one will be allowed off the ship there, but we should be in Thailand on March 15. We have made adjustments in time over the last couple of days, and you have implemented Daylight Savings time, so we are now 11 hours ahead of EDT, 12 hours ahead of CDT, 13 hours ahead of MDT and 14 hours ahead of PDT. We are passing through the area of the earthquake that started the tsunami on Boxing Day in 2004 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake. But we aren't worried about it. Really.

Current location...

Latitude: 6 degrees 35.59' N

Longitude: 96 degrees 9.65' E

Course: 112 degrees