Positive vibrations

I flew into Chennai, south-east India on my fourth visit. There's not much to recommend this enormous, sprawling city as far as I could tell in 3 days but I was there to make a pilgrimage to the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram and to touch the shoes of the great yoga guru and yoga therapist, Krishnamacharya. He taught both my Guruji, Sri K Pattabhis Jois, father of Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga, and BKS Iyengar who developed the system of Iyengar Yoga. Unfortunately, his shoes, cast in silver, were no longer on display in the shrine room and nobody knew where they were!

I paid $30 for a consultation with a yoga therapist, who examined and questioned me before prescribing a set of postures and breathing exercises. These were then taught to me thoroughly by another therapist on 3 days for an hour each day. I was given hand-drawn pictures of all the postures so that I can practice by myself. I was really impressed by the knowledge of the consultants and the care taken by them to ensure I understood my prescription. It encouraged me to do the Yoga Therapy course in Kerala as well as the Ayurvedic Massage course- these two therapies can complement each other very well and traditionally they support each other. My plan is to give free massage and yoga therapy to friends and family in order to get as much experience as possible. I then hope to do some of this work (on a donation basis in the tradition of yoga therapy and some meditation centres) at the Bob Marley cafe for people passing through.

There are a couple of nice buildings in Chennai- I particularly liked the Sao Tome Cathedral:

And one of the many Hindu Temples

As many of you already know, I have been offered a great 'once in a lifetime' opportunity to run a small and very chilled out cafe- the Bob Marley- on the seafront in Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu, South India. I was passing through the small fishing town on my way to Pondicherry, planning to spend at most 2 days there. A crazy month later and I'm planning to spend the next 6 months there, at least, running the cafe for its owner and my friend, Swamy. He is planning a long trip to Europe and I'll be in charge of the roof-top with the great help of my glamourous assistant, Guru. I really feel lucky to have been handed this chance to live in such a beautiful place, a place where I felt immediately comfortable, welcome and at home. In addition to giving me experience of running a little business, I will also have the time to continue my yoga and meditation practice and to do some massage and yoga therapy to get some experience. I have also taken up sea swimming, which I love when there are no jelly fish about and body-boarding which is the most fun I've had in years. I love everything about the seaside and am getting used to having sand in every nook and cranny 24/7! Below are some pictures of the town, my bedroom and my local shop. Above you can see Guru at work and the beach with fishing boats.