Reflections: Yoga Teacher Training Day 1

Where do I begin?

What an awesome day. I feel a little tired, but refreshed. I feel confident, but still have so much to learn. I learnt that I am not as flexible or strong with my asanas (postures) as I used to be. But I quickly latched on to the first sutra - verse - of the first book of Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali,

Now we begin our practice

For me, this is an important thought not to be forgotten, but embraced. Yoga is the moment. It is not about previous experiences, or future practices, it is about being centered and clear. It is about sharing the practice. It is about practice. I have to lose the need to be the most flexible, strong and balanced. I think I am almost there. Today's teacher training lesson allowed me to do that.

We began the morning with Ujjayi Pranyama - breathing techniques - and meditation with Teacher Michael. This allowed me to become centered and remember my fondness of learning and practicing breathing techniques over 10 years ago. Meditation followed for five minutes. I must have been in a deep meditation because I got lost in the moment and it felt like less than a minute for me.

I judged myself too harshly during Teacher Sucharita's asana flow. I found the postures asked for strength I didn't seem to have, and for balance which had escaped me. My inability to 'master' the asanas made me internally unbalanced, which only added to my frustration and showed in my poses.
Throughout the day I learnt to accept the idea that Yoga is about practice. It is momentary. Every day and every practice is different. I shouldn't compare myself with the 16 year old ex-gymnast I used to be. I have to move on. I have to practice Yoga now.

In a way, I feel that I am beginning my practice from scratch. Learning how to be grounded. Learning how to stand in a seemingly simple tadasana - mountain pose - correctly. I have to pay attention to my feet, knees and hips in a way I have never had to before. I enjoyed 'pulling apart' the poses, body part by body part, and teaching techniques with other students. We are more hard on ourselves than each other. Being able to correct each other and learn more about the pose was enlightening. A roll of the shoulder here, and slightly bended knee there, and the pose becomes deeper and stronger.

In the first book of The Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali, a sutra really struck me,

Misconception occurs when knowledge of something is not based upon its true form

I wrote in down in my notebook, to serve as a personal mantra. However, when it came to the last activity of the day, chanting, I couldn't get past it. The chant today was Hare Krishna. Immediately my mind raced to stereotypes. I thought of the lyrics of  'I am the Walrus' by The Beatles and of students at my university in Australia coming to lectures with a shaved head and bare, dirty feet. After reading the handout we were given, I understood Hare Krishna to be a universal feeling of spiritual awareness and inner peace.

I reread the sutra I had previously written down. I tried to chant and join in, but I held back. I had dove into seated quiet meditation earlier in the day, but I couldn't perform this type of meditation. Maybe chanting isn't my thing. Maybe I have been consumed by misconceptions. Maybe I just need to let go. Maybe I am just not there...yet.

Reflections: Yoga Teacher Training RYT 200

I began practicing Yoga when I was about 16 years old. My mother and I used to head down to the local community centre on a Tuesday evening for our Yoga class with Maurie. I suffered headaches and neck tension as I grew up and Yoga, as well as remedial massages, was a way for me to overcome those pains. I loved Yoga immediately. I was flexible and relished in the opportunity to learn advanced Asana's, or poses, especially the more difficult balancing poses. I loved learning Pranayama - centered breathing techniques. I didn't love meditation though. I found it a boring - I wanted to perform headstands and full shoulder stands, not close my eyes and think of nothing.

Fast forward 10 years and my practice of Yoga has continued, albeit sporadically. I practiced Yoga at home and in gyms, as well as Bikram 'hot' Yoga in London, taught it to my lovely Grade 2 class and as an after school class in Morocco, and have recently began teaching it to Grade 10, 11 and 12 students at my current school in Taiwan. I am not as flexible, balanced in mind and body and perhaps strong as I used to be. I want to get that back.

I have not taken a 'proper' class in years. By 'proper' I am referring to the full practice. From Pranyama to Asana's to Meditation. I felt it was time to return to my practice and love of Yoga, so I joined a Registered Yoga Alliance Teacher Training school - Yoga House Institute, in Koahsiung.

I have been super excited for the course since signing up. I have to be honest and confess to being a bit of a nerd, and am happy at the prospect of having to study and complete projects. I want to learn more about Yoga and be able to help others who want to practice Yoga too.

The course takes 200 hours. That is every Saturday and Sunday for 10 weeks. I was a little apprehensive about 'giving up' my weekends. But then I thought about it with a different perspective. I will be gaining so much. Knowledge. Strength. Flexibility. Calmness. Balance. Positivity. As well as Yoga teacher certification.

Read my reflection on my first class here.

'Learning Lunch' with Paon Bali, Ubud

After much research, it came to be that the most popular Balinese cooking class, courtesy of trip advisor was Paon Bali. With fantastic reviews I decided not to bother with any more research and booked Jeff and I into a class.

Our day started at 8:15am with Wayan, the friendly husband of the duo, collecting us from our hotel. We then stopped at the Ubud market where we met with the rest of our class and Puspa and her assistant. We were led around the market and learnt about woven hats and steamers, which are not to be confused with each other, but which often are, by unassuming tourists. We learnt about the offering baskets, made by hand each day from banana leaves and bamboo sticks and filled with sweet things that a spirit may need. We tried some traditional Balinese cakes as well as many kinds of fruits and vegetables.

Palm sugar

Fresh garlic

Puspa teaches us about the 'offerings'

A skilled woman makes the offerings in the market

The colorful offerings are found everywhere in Bali

The flowers used for the offerings

Spices ready to take home

Fresh flowers and more offerings

Dense Balinese cakes

The fresh produce section of the market

Purple eggplant and bittermelon

Women selling their produce

Puspa warned us not to try everything!

Juicy rambuttans

Snakeskin fruit and oranges

Imported produce

The suckling pig

Jeff even tried the famous Balinese suckling pig and was impressed with its tenderness and tasty sauce. With an iron stomach, Jeff was as tough as a local eating the wares, although other foreigners may not be so lucky.

We took a stop at the village’s rice fields for a quick information lesson with Wayan. The particular rice paddies we were shown did not belong to Wayan’s family. His was being served a bid helping of fresh chicken poop and he did not want us to endure the stench. 

One of our hosts, Wayan 

A soaked rice paddi

We learnt that all of the paddies in this particular village were once organic, as the farmers did not know about chemicals until introduced to them by the greedy government who wanted to yield three crops a year instead of two. Now, after the bugs have formed a strong resistance, farmers are going back to old farming methods, with their crops almost being certified organic. Organic farming techniques must be employed for 5 years for a farm to be certified, and the village is well on their way almost into their fourth year.

We learnt that for a village to exist in Ubud it must contain at least three temples, two rice paddies and one holy banyan tree. Wayan is currently the assistant leader of his village, Laplapan, and he must settle disputes and offer advice. For example, if one family blocks the water supply to other fields, they may be punished and told to pay each family affected with a sum of money.

We were then driven a short distance to Wayan and Puspa’s family home in Laplapan. We were warmly welcomed with a tasty fresh lemon drink adorned with fresh frangipani’s and we learnt about the formation of a Balinese home.

The entrance

Puspa's assistants

At the front of the property, closest to the street entrance, is the alter. The Balinese believe that the spirits of their ancestors inhabit that place. Then to the east of the compound is the family temple or house where important ceremonies take place like a wedding or wake. To the west is the building which houses the ‘King and Queen’ or eldest members of the family. This is also the room where a newlywed couple will spend the first 24 hours locked in. The Balinese believe that without the forced, yet romantic ‘lock up’ a couples’ marriage is doomed. Wayan told a story to cement this belief. To the south is where other family members sleep, like the children. To the rear of the compound is the kitchen, beyond the kitchen the garden, then finally the animals at the rear.

After finishing our drinks we were invited to the rear of the compound, which used to be home to hundreds of ducks, but is now a purpose built outdoor cooking studio, complete with organic garden, outdoor stove and barbeque, gas burners and large dining tables.

Traditional outdoor stove

Puspa explains the colorful ingredients

The organic garden

Fresh coconut oil

Ingredients for the gado gado peanut sauce

Ingredients for clear mushroom soup

Making the 'basic sauce'

Hard work! Crushing and blending the spices
for the 'basic sauce'

The finished 'basic sauce'! or Bumbu Kuning

Delicious clear mushroom soup, or Sup Jamur

Rolling the tuna in the banana leaf

Pepis Ikan, stemed fish

Curry or Kare Vegetable

Snakebean and coconut salad, or Jukut Urab

Deep fried tempe in sweet soy sauce or Tempe Kering

Pepis Ikan

We were reintroduced to the spices and vegetables that we met at the market, and began slicing and dicing the ingredients to make our first dish ‘basic sauce’. I had the envious job of chopping the garlic. My hands took on the smell like a moth to the flame. We then proceeded to make many more dishes – satay, tempeh, bean and coconut salad, clear mushroom soup, steamed fish in banana leaves, gado gado as well as a delicious and creamy banana and jackfruit boiled in coconut dessert.

Banana and jackfruit desert or Kolak Pisang,
flavoured with a pandan leaf and
sweetened with palm sugar

Options were given for the vegetarian of the group (me) and to another student who had celiac disease.

We were served our delicious meals at a large table big enough for the entire group. The clearing and washing of dishes was done for us and it was just as well – as we were all very tired from creating, cooking and eating such delicious Balinese food!

The course cost 350,000IDR. There are cheaper cooking courses available, and everyone has an ‘uncle’ or ‘aunt’ who teaches a class, but Paon Bali is professional, friendly and holistic.

Find Paon Bali here.

 
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Stumpy Tailed Cats in Indonesia

A friendly short tailed kitten

I know I am not the first tourist to ask a local What is up with the cats’ tails? on Gili Trawangan. If you have ever been to Gili Trawangan – a very small island off Lombok, Indonesia, you will have definitely noticed, and perhaps be bemused by, the strange tails that adorn the pleasant feral cats. Some are stumpy. Some are curly. Some are crooked. Some are just your average, run of the mill long and slender.

I thought about the different reasons for this. Torture? Accident? Mass accident? Diseased? Deformed? I really had no idea so asked a local.

Our Dive Master for the day, Adi, is from Lombok and lives on the island for work. I asked him about the curious cats. Yes, you are not the first to ask. Many tourists ask this. We do not cut off the tails. Cats are cute and fluffy. We do not want to harm them. They are just born that way.

So there it was. There were too many cats and kittens with deformed tails for it to be accidental.  And Gili Trawangan’s small population is too polite and relaxed to cause any harm.

Practically non-existent

Possum like curl

Stumpy

I decided to take this further and did some research for myself.

It seems that the cats in Indonesia and elsewhere through Asia may have descended from the Japanese bobtail breed. This, mixed with interbreeding being that some islands are very small, has increased the chances that a cat will be born with a smaller tail. So rest assured that cats with stumpy or curly tails have not been harmed, but are the result of breeding.

These photos were taken of cats in Gili Trawangen, the largest (far east) of the Gilis off Lombok.

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Arie's Warung - Ubud, Bali

Arie's Warung recently moved locations

After finding a cheap home stay in Ubud, we wandered around and found the main tourist information centre. This term ‘tourist information’ should be used loosely however, as the employees are hardly informative on tourist matters and wants. Regardless, Jeff picked up a poorly printed black and white brochure with a smiling cartoon advertising delicious Balinese food at Arie’s Warung. With no other agenda, we followed the directions on the brochure to the small warung – small familily owned Balinese restaurant – on Jawal Sukma.

The flyer boasted of smoked succulent duck, friendly service and great cheap food. 

We entered the warung and were greeted by a smiling woman and given menus in the empty, simple restaurant. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until we were greeted enthusiastically by the smiling cartoon himself – Arie.

Arie in real life

Arie's prized possession - A Mick Joffe original

He showered us with Balinese facts – fruits and vegetables, distances to and from other Balinese towns, useful Balinese sayings to keep the street vendors at bay… He also proudly showed us his treasured ‘feedback books’ – bloated journals containing the praises from previous customers from far and wide. Their nationality highlighted at the top of the page. He is proud to be mentioned in lonely Planet, as well as the French Michelin  2010 Guide.

Most customers praised the friendly Arie for his knowledge and food. Most strongly recommended the smoked duck. As I am a non-duck eater among other things, we passed on the duck for two and instead ordered a vegetarian and non-vegetarian Nasi Campur.

Vege Nasi Campur

We were told by Arie to eat each part individually as mixing it all together would spoil the flavours.

We ate our late lunch listening to Arie’s stories and reading multiple newspapers and booklets courtesy of Arie of course.

While we have had more extravagant and adventurous food during our Bali travels, especially during the Paon Bali cooking lesson, Arie’s Warung was certainly one to remember. If you happen to visit, perhaps order the duck.

If visiting Ubud, Bali, Arie's Warung can be found here

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