Yoga at 4000M

Though not the most flattering of photos, one of the greatest things that I was able to do this season was  to teach a yoga class at the Bumdra camp. 4000 meters above sea level and on a rather cold morning, though I have to suspect that most mornings are cold up there, we ran through some basic sun salutations as well as other more simple but much needed stretches.  Garbed up in numerous layers that would soon be stripped down as the internal tapas, or heat, was built up. It proved to be a very nice flow class and definitely a yoga class that the guests, nor I, will soon forget.

In transit...

Yep, in transit again.  I know this past season I didn't post the most about Bhutan or travels. I do have a few stories queued up to post and hope to do it soon. I didn't have the best internet in Bhutan and was also pretty busy with work and life, but I'll be in Thailand for a few weeks and expecting some downtime to update some things.  Days of travel are always a bit confusing. While I'm sad to leave friends and loved ones in Bhutan, I'm very happy to be in Chiang Mai. It's a city I know well with super fast internet and more importantly it has good and healthy food.  Fresh fruit.. here I come.

New posts up soon too.

All the best to all you out there.

Love and Light

Bumdra Hike, Day 2

Day two started off in an unexpected way. I couldn't sleep well as I was very cold and also didn't want to miss the sunrise, so around 5am I woke up. Cold and tired, I trudged out from my tent and was greeted with a beautiful display of Himalayan peaks nestling over rising clouds.  I felt so special, and no one else was awake yet so I had it all to myself.  Eventually the other people rose from slumber but with the clouds rising, a lot of the beauty had begun to disappear. We did some yoga (another post on that), had breakfast, packed up and started the descent down to Tiger's Nest.  A beautiful hike, and even though most people go to Tiger's Nest, they don't go any higher so this means more solitude time. A few of us were even fortunate enough to see a mountain goat on a ledge. A first for me here.  A lovely day and a lovely hike, and a lovely hot bath when I got back to the lodge. ;)

Bumdra Hike, Day 1

One of the things I've always wanted to do while being in Bhutan is hike to Bumdra and camp out over night, 1000meters above Tiger's Nest.  I've been told how beautiful the sunrise over the Himalayas is and how special of a place the area is.  I was very fortunate enough to have been asked by a group of guests I was working with, to go up there camp out and more importantly... teach yoga in the morning. I met the group at a buddhist monk college below and together we started the journey up to the top.  A few hours in, we stopped for lunch near the ruins of an old temple, at least it looked like ruins. Our guides and crew setting up a lovely picnic. Afterwards we progressed on through forests of different qualities and fauna till reaching our base camp for the evening in a yak valley just beneath the Bumdra Monastery.  I decided to hike up a little further to a sky burial site, but no one cared to join as they were too tired from the walk.  It's amazing how thin the air gets above 4,000meters and each step had my lungs wheezing for precious oxygen. Tiring but very worth the struggle up, especially when finding this special little meditation cave and seeing the spot where sky burials are performed.  I've always wanted to see a sky burial, but never had the chance so seeing the pit was impressive enough for me.  A storm looked to be approaching and I didn't want to be stuck up top for long so I made my way back down to camp. Lucky for us, no storm came and we had a beautiful night full of good food, good laughs and great stories.