International Yoga Festival

Saturday (28) - Arriving at Parmarth Niketan Ashram

bought blanket

International Yoga Festival - Sunday 1
Today was the start of the International Yoga Festival in Rishikesh. This is the festival I just missed two years ago when I arrived from Paharganj, where I had attended the Dalai Lama's teachings for a few days. However, it was a divine plan that helped me walk into this ashram, of all the ashrams that are here in Rishikesh, and that is why I am here today. This year is the 8th year the festival is being held and there are almost 400 participants here. There were about 500 participants here last year, and the decline is probably due to the Mumbai bombings last year and the recession.

This morning I did not attend the Kundalini Sadhana (spiritual practice) which starts at 4am every day. My body was still adjusting to the cold temperature and recovering from the long journey, so I had decided to skip that session. I started at 6:30 doing Sukshma Yoga with Swami Yogananda who was born in 1909, i.e.: he is 99 years old. He was quite something, shouting orders very fiercely in another language while a translator gave us direction, although the Swami knows English and would occasionally speak some English. He started doing some simple warm-up exercises and then moved on to some asanas, but finished with some very advanced asanas, including Matsyendrasana with one leg in half lotus and Yoga Nidra (both legs behind the head), which of course nobody could do, especially since we in a large tent and was very cold.

We had some light snacks like a banana and a bit of porridge and tea and next I attended Deep Yoga with Bhava Ram and Sundari Ram. Bhava Ram has an interesting experience of Yoga, since he used Yoga and Ayurveda to heal his broken back and recover from stage 4 cancer. He started the class playing the guitar and chanting a mantra to Shiva, the father of yoga. The class was not very vigorous as I expect most classes will be, but I need to relinquish my attachment of the hard ashtanga asana practice for a while. What I am feeling though, is that because I am experiencing so many different yoga styles so quickly, I am feeling ungrounded, and this is another reasone I am missing my ashtanga practice... a regular practice and a practice that I know, and a grounding practice.

At 10:15 there was brunch, which is one of two big meals we have in the day. The food is extremely sweet, which I am not enjoying. The porridge is already prepared with so much sugar, you cannot taste the porridge, only the texture. I am missing the fruit salads and dosas I had in Mysore.

At 11:30 there was lecture in the big tent, which was not very interesting. The big tent that they have put up for the festival has been decorated nicely with white and gold linen sheets creating a false ceiling on which the monkeys like to climb and look at us through the gaps. One of them decided to pee right above me. Luckily it just missed me and went onto my yoga mat... I guess I was blessed by the Indian monkey god called Hanuman :-)

At 13:15 was the first Reiki session, which was a simple introduction. She will do this every day during the festival at the same time and if we attend all of the sessions we will gain the level 1 Reiki certification.
At 15:00 I attended the Shinto Yoga class. This was very interesting and it had a very big Japanese influence. We did sun salutations the shinto way, both standing and kneeling and then we did some things on our backs, which he said was like a fish writhing. We had to do it for thirty seconds or more, which became quite difficult. Towards the end I felt like I was back in a martial arts class when we were facing a partner holding there hand and trying to throw each other off balance, but it was a very playfull atmosphere which was enjoyable. At then end we each got a piece of paper and a pebble from the ganges, which he said will help us clear our minds while we practice Dharana (concentration).

At 17:00 was the welcoming ceremony, during which some of the boys at the school in the ashram showed us some yoga poses. They were incredible, but what struck me was that the poses were sloppy, just like Krishnamacharya in his 1938 video, which Nancy had mentioned during her retreat. According to the book "The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace", it was only BKS Iyengar who introdruced precision into the asanas, and the west has taken this even further applying anatomical science. Afterwards was the evening aarti (devotional singing), which happens on the banks of the ganges every evening. At 19:00 was finally dinner. I am finding that I am extremely hungry here, even though I am eating a lot, which I think is due to the colder temperatures. After dinner there were Indian cultural dances, which went on until just before 22:00.

IYF - Monday 2
I was late for the 6:30 class, so instead I decided to practice Ashtanga in the room, which by the way I am sharing with Prana, a guy who runs the ZenDen Mountain Retreat near Cape Town. The space was cramped but it felt good and I got up to Janu Shirshasana and then did finishing sequence so that I would be in time for the next class, which was Kundalini Yoga with Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa. She seems to be a big favourite with everybody and she seems to have been teaching at the festival for years already. She does not teach in the tent or in one of the large rooms in the three story building, but she teaches on the ghat (steps next to the ganges river). Yesterday I did not want to do this because I was very cold, but it had actually warmed up a bit since I arrived on Saturday and when I got onto the ghat I was happy I came, because it was so very beautiful.

I had attended very few Kundalini classes before and hated all of them until I did Gurmukh's workshop in South Africa last year in May. I did enjoy it, but I was still not convinced this was my cup of tea, so I had a little worry in the back of my mind. I did not need to worry though, because the Kundalini Yoga class was fantastic. Gurmukh's theme was one of Yogi Bhajan's (founder of this lineage of Kundalini yoga) sayings, "Understand through compassion, otherwise you will missunderstand the times", and she talked about the fact that we all pick our parents, our bodies etc through our karma and that we make a living by what we get, but that we live by what we give. Then she made us shake our bodies while sitting with our arms raised above our heads for about ten minutes and then another eight minutes standing up. I think my shoulders felt like my arms were lead after the first minute, but then the pain subsided and I could hold my arms up throughout and I felt elated. The session was quite similar to what Gurmukh had taught in South Africa. We finished by clapping hands while sitting in a circle in groups of four, chanting "Sat Nam", "Har" and "I god, you god".

Then we had breakfast at around eleven and I did not attend the lecture afterwards. The Reiki was very nice and we learnt more about the seven energy centres or chakras in our bodies. I then did the Vyayam Yoga session, which I found very interesting. The only problem I had with the session, like so many Indian teachers, they do not introduce themselves or their session. He started by singing and playing the harmonium with two assistants. He then did pranayama with us, but while we were doing the pranayama (seated) there was a lot of arm movement and mudras that we had to do.
He then handed over to one of his assistants, a young teenager I think with a shaved head, except for some long hair flowing down from the top portion of the back of her head. This seems to be something a lot of kids do here... need to find out more about this. Anyway, she then took us through some movements and explained that the movement follows the breath, so this was very similar to ashtanga, and the breath was also ujjayi. The movements were very circular and flowing continuously, there were no postures and the whole system is based on a system used by ancient Indian warriors, so one movement for instance was supposed to look like drawing a sword from the sheath. The hands and arms move with strength in the muscles, however, we should not be thinking of the muscles moving the body, but the breath, which is exactly what Gurmukh was teaching in the Kundalini class this morning.

I then went and had a "swim", more like a quick three dips in the cold waters of mother ganga with my room mate Prana. We bought a ready made small basket of flowers with a candle, lit the candle and sent it down the river before we entered the water.

Brunch at 10:30 and Dinner at 19:00 are almost always the same with two types of rice, dhal, kitcheree, chapati and naan, some vegetables such as carrots and green beans and sometimes some ochre. So it is very monotonous, but the desert is always different. Today was gulab jamoon and I had a total of nine of them... they were sooooo good! After dinner was satsang (divine association) with Pujya Swamiji, who is the head of the ashram where the festival is at. Pujya Swamiji seems to be a very well known spiritual leader, as I have seen pictures of him with the Dalai Lama, with Bill Clinton and with the Israely Prime Minister. Swamiji's right hand person, an american lady, who renounced the material life to lead a spiritual life of service to others unser Swamiji's guidance, who lives at the ashram talked about the first two yamas from the eight limbs of Ashtanga Yoga, namely Ahimsa (non-violence) and Satya (Truth). Ahimsa included mentioning that we should not eat meat as this could save our lives, our families lives and the earths life. Apparently there is no food shortage in the world, only a distribution problem, as we feed the grain to cows, chicken and pigs, that could feed the poor instead. Regarding truth, she said that we should always ensure that our words serve a purpose and are kind. She used the metaphor of the monks cleaning a clay Buddha and finding gold in a crack and then discovering that there is a clay Buddha hidden behind the clay, which was put on the statue to protect it from warriors who were marauding the country. The truth does not always need to be the cold heartless facts that are required in a court of law.
Pujya Swamiji was then asked a question about how we can make a difference considering all the poverty around us and he answered that we should live a simple life and give to those in need.

IYF - Tuesday 3
In the morning I attended a Kriya Yoga or Nada Yoga session with Sadhvi Abha Saraswati, who gives month long training to lead chants. We started off with some pranayama exercises and then went onto singing the Vaidika Shanti Mantra and she was really good because she actually was very clear on which syllables are high notes and low notes. There are only three notes, the middle one being the same as OM. There is a fourth note, which is a double note, which she explained in the Gaayatri Mahaa Mantra, which I have already mentioned in my blog about Kirtan with James. Then we moved onto the Mrtyujaya Mantra, which I love and we finished with the Asatoma chant. I can only tell you what the names of the mantras are because she actually handed out books with the words, so that is quiet nice!!!

After a quick snack I headed off for another session of Kundalini Yoga with Gurmukh. My calves are stiff from jumping around yesterday. She actually arrived on time today and was quite funny when she welcomed the newcomers, saying that those of us who attended the first few sessions will have stopped wondering, "Where are the downdogs?" as there are none. Kundalini is very different to normal Hatha yoga, and I can only remember doing one asana with her so far, namely Ushtrasana (Camel pose). Today she actually made us hold camel pose for a full three minutes while chanting "I will not take the bait" (of complaining and having a normal negative mindset). She gave us another hard class with the theme being another of Yogi Bhajans sayings "See others as yourself." My shoulders were really saw from her class because we were holding up our arms almost the entire class starting at 8:15 and she ended late again at 10:40. The partner work I did with Indra whom I had met in Mysore. She is from Malaysia and actually taught a workshop on kids yoga in Mysore, which I had missed. The end of the class was very enjoyable. Gurmukh asked an american lady who had studied Bangra dancing in India for six years to lead us in dancing bangra to two songs after which we got into a huge circle holding hands and singing and then repeating something the Dalai Lama had said.

After the big brunch, was a lecture with Pujya Swamiji during which he talked about what it means to be a yogi. It mainly means that a yogi is always content - santosha (one of the niyamas in Patanjalis Yoga Sutras). We should always be content. The reason people are unhappy is because they constantly want more and he said when he came to Rishikesh there were no shops between the ashram and Laksman Jhula (pedestrian bridge) and Ram Jhula did not exist, so people had to walk (this side of the ganges river is a pedestrian only zone) all the way up to Lakshman Jhula to go buy something and people were happy with that. He talked about a poor beggar within whom he saw a yogi, because the beggar was not complaining. He said god wanted him there, and his journey was over.
He also said that everybody we worship today is someone who had special powers, and that those people went through tests without complaining and always used their powers or gifts to help others and never to help themselves. We should accept the divine plan.
He made two other points, namely that we need to be consistent and that we should practice moderation and he finished by saying that the yamas and niyamas are the foundation of yoga - union with the divine. We can miss our asana and pranayama practice, but we should always keep the connection with the people around us and see the divine in everyone.
After some questions he concluded saying that the most important of the yamas and niyamas is surrender!

Afterwards was another Reiki session and then I wanted to attend the Om Meditation session, but I went to my room as I was in a bit of pain and have trouble sitting. Don't know exactly when I got hurt, but hopefully my left QL muscle will recover soon. In the evening after dinner was a cultural musical performance in the tent organised by the Uttarakhand (state) Tourism Department. It was absolutely fantastic. I was very unhappy because my camera battery packed up! What was also sad was that hardly any of the yogi's attending the IYF actually attended. I was there with Almendra from Mexico and Jetal from the USA. There were probably less than 10 others. However, lots of Indian people from outside had come including lots of kids, as well as all the Rishikumars (orphans and other poor kids going to school in the ashram) of course.

IYF - Wednesday 4
The program for today was slightly different in that there were no classes at 6:30, instead there was a walk up behind the ashram into the Himalayas with Pujya Swamiji. He seems quite fit because the pace was quite good. The walk was only an hour, so I was disappointed when we had to turn back. Afterwards I decided not to do Kundalini again as my back was still not happy. There were quite a number of other people who had sore legs or other complaints from the Kundalini yoga. I attended the Deep Yoga (San Diego) class again, which was very new agey again, but it is very grounding and nurturing.

At Brunch they served masala dosas today, which everybody enjoyed. The lecture today was with Dr David Frawley and his wife on Lord Shiva and Shakti energies. I had bought one of Dr Frawley's books during the trip on Ayurveda and yoga, and everybody else also seemed quite excited about the lecture, as he is I think the only westerner ever to have officially been recognised as a master of Vedanta. Kerry had heard him speak before the last time she came to the conference and said he was too intellectual and she went to bed as she had had no sleep. The lecture was very intellectual and Iola from Cape Town just immediately lay down and dozed because it was straight over the top of her head. I started taking notes furiously, but there was so much new information I could not keep up. I was also lying down on my chest so that I could take notes and not feel any pain, but lying down was not conducive to staying alert. At one stage I realised that his wife was speaking and I did not remember when she took over from him.

Straight afterwards was another Reiki session, and then into another session, so three sessions back to back, one and a half hours long each. The third session I chose to go to a Kundalini yoga class taught by Siddhi, an elderly german lady, who teaches hand mudras. Other people had loved her class and I also really enjoyed it, but again not something that I see myself practicing daily in the near future. We basically sat for the entire one and a half hours, learnt several mudras and then she put on some music and we would do the mudras in a sequence chanting to the music at the same time, so it was quite enjoyable.

IYF - Thursday 5
Sat-chit-anand

IYF - Friday 6

Rishikesh

Namaste, this is your cross legged guru coming from the yoga capital of the world... Well that is what Rishikesh calls itself, and this is with some justification, because there are a multitude of ashrams, not just shala's where you practice yoga, but ashrams where you live and do yoga, lining the ganges river banks and hugging the slopes of the foothills of the Himalayas. Even the hotels have got daily yoga sessions taking place at the hotel, which outsiders can also join for a fee of about Rs 100.

So let me start from the beginning. On Wednesday, the 7th of March, I left McLeod Ganj and got on the bus in Dharamsala for Dehra Dun, which was supposed to be a 12 hour trip. We left at 17:30, but only arrived in Dehra Dun around 13:00 on Thursday, due to the fact that the bus got a punctured tire sometime after midnight. I was snoozing and only got out of the bus to see what was going on around four or five am. By that time they were busy putting a spare tyre on but I do not know what took them so long. When we finally got going we went to get the tyre that was just put on, replaced... I have a suspicion that the tyre was borrowed. Well we finally got going again after seven.

When we arrived in Dehra Dun, people started getting off at different places until only three tourists (including myself) were left and the bus driver decided to drop us off in the middle of some busy intersection (I guess he wanted to get rid of us so he could get some shut eye), so the three of us had to catch bus number 5 to the ISBT (Inter State Bus Terminal), which we found out by asking the shop keepers around us. The "bus" was more like the rickshaws used in Malaysia and Thailand, slightly bigger than the black and yellow kerosene burning rickshaws used in India, and it has 2 bunks on which you can seat 3 people each. It was not fun in the midday heat with all my baggage and the fact that I had felt nauseaus since I got onto the bus (I think it was the fried BakLek I had at the restaurant before leaving - I won't be looking at any more fried food in a while!) and had not eaten since did not help. I eventually stopped a "bus" that was not completely packed and got on with all my gear. It ended up being almost half an hours drive to the ISBT, which I did not expect and the "bus" filled up very quickly until we were squashed in with 4 on each bunk and all my gear on other peoples laps...

At the ISBT I caught a local bus to Rishikesh, which was another one and a half hours away, and was another terribly squashing experience. I was alone now even though the other 2 tourists were also going to Rishikesh because we could not all fit on "bus" number 5.

So I eventually got to Rishikesh just before 16:00. I had intended getting there early in the morning and hoped to do some yoga during the day, but it was not to be. I had gone through the lonely planet and found the conglomeration of ashrams I found most interesting. Getting off the bus I had the usual trouble with rickshaw touts and walked two or three hundred metres away from the bus station where I was still charged 4 times the price locals pay (Rs 5), but it was still only two thirds of what I would have paid at the bus station.

It took me a while to finally decide on an ashram. Along the way I met people staying at the Shivananda ashram who told me that the yoga there was not so nice and they were actually looking for an afternoon yoga session at another ashram. We crossed the pedestrian bridge over the holy river "mother" ganges, and looked at 2 ashrams on the other side. The girls ended up joining the yoga class at one of them, even though they were half an hour late. I decided to go to the previous ashram we had looked at, the Parmarth Niketan Ashram.

In India, so many things happen by coincidence... I found out later that this was the largest ashram in Rishikesh with over 1000 rooms, and on arriving I found out that the International Yoga festival had just taken place here from the 1st to the 7th of March. If I had known, I would have come to Rishikesh instead of gone to McLeod Ganj... anyway, will have to do this another time.

I had to wait quite some time to be helped, but I eventually got a room for Rs 400 a night, which includes all meals and all the yoga sessions at the ashram... Excellent!
At 18:00 until 19:00 every evening there is aarti at the banks of the ganges, run by this ashram. Aarti is prayer ceremonies and is basically lots of singing and clapping hands sitting at the ghats (steps down to the river). According to the literature here it is world famous and it was quite a pleasant experience.
After that we had supper, which was thali. I was actually looking forward to rice and dal, as I had not had any since I left the south of India.
The gates to the ashram close at 22:00, and the town is actually dead by that time because all the shops close between 19:00 and 21:30.

Friday
I got up in time for the seven o'clock Iyengar class with Karin O'Bannon, which was quite good, but typical of the Iyengar style, she took one single pose, the warrior pose, and we worked on that for the entire one and a half hours, just perfecting alignment. This is a great complement to Ashtanga yoga in my opinion, but of course you never ever break into a sweat. Straight afterwards I went to the Kundalini Yoga session until ten o'clock. This was a more energetic class and includes lots of chanting and the movements are timed, but I did not enjoy Kundalini very much.
At the end of class someone called my name and guess who happened to be at the same ashram in India... it was Kerry, the owner of the Haum of Yoga in Johannesburg. As breakfast time at the ashram was over, we went to a nice little restaurant outside and caught up with each other. Kerry had come to India specifically for the International Yoga Festival and told me more about it. She wants to get a group of South Africans to go together next year. She also said that the Kundalini Yoga during the festival was much much better and was led by Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, a sentiment I had heard before too.

Kerry also made an insightful comment that I thought I would share. There are seven chakras along the body's axis. We were discussing how difficult it is to travel in India and she explained that while travelling in India you are operating from your root chakra, because you are always on the defensive, and therefore it is very difficult to operate from your heart chakra and be open and loving to others.

Lunch at the ashram was another simple thali with rice, dal, a vegetable, chapati and some pickled mixed vegetables (achar) which I enjoyed. At three o'clock I said good-bye to Kerry, as she was leaving for Delhi and I gave her the biltong I had been carrying since the beginning of my trip (I have been living on a pure vegetarian diet since arriving at Purple Valley) as she wanted to give it to a South African friend in Delhi.

At 15:30 I did another yoga class which focused on backbending. It was the first time I had ever gone into the full back-bend without having generated all the internal heat through the ashtanga yoga sequence.

Supper was another Thali with different vegetables and was very good again... I really enjoyed the food at the ashram even though it was very very simple.

Saturday
My last day at the ashram. A very unexpected rain shower woke me up in the early hours of the morning. I then joined the satsang at 6 o'clock, which basically consisted of meditating for an hour while the sun was coming up, listening to chanting music in the background and a candle lit in front of us. There were only three of us at the session.

The next available class was the Kundalini at 8:30, but I decided to go look at the yoga at another ashram. I watched as they started and decided not to join as it was just too calm and easy for my taste. I ended up spending four hours on the Internet working on the blog and then had lunch at the ashram... guess what it was... Thali... but I enjoyed it again.

After lunch I decided to explore the town more and strolled up to Lakshman Jhula (pedestrian bridge) and further up along the ganges and then turned back and crossed the ganges on the bridge, walked back down the other side and crossed back over on the Swarg Ashram Jhula. This was about a three or four hour walk, during which I saw many signs for a 7 day Ashtanga Yoga retreat.
On the way I bought some gooseberries. I did not expect to see gooseberries in India and when asked what it is, the locals call them raspberries and cherries and who knows what else, because they don't know the English name. I then realised that there were monkeys around and quickly had to make an escape, only to realise that where I was now standing on the street there were two more monkeys watching me from the roof of the building. So I ate them very quickly.

A quick comment on the holy cows... They are everywhere, even crossing the pedestrian bridges, and of course they shit everywhere, so you have to watch where you step ALL the time. In the mornings some hay gets put out by the ghats next to the river, but after that the cows forage in dustbins etc around town. I have heard that they sometimes die from eating plastic packets and I have personally seen a cow literally eat the posters off the walls using its tongue to tear pieces of paper away.

After the walk I bought another four books at a great little store that gave twenty percent discount on top of the very cheap prices. I then joined the evening aarti at the ashram again and then headed off to my room where I showered and got ready for my forty hour trip back home. During that time, the heavens opened up again and I was looking at a very wet trip to the bus station. I went and had another Thali for supper.... mmmm... I love this ashram... another full belly and I am ready to leave.
I asked the guys if there was anyway to have a taxi come pick me up at the ashram because of the rain, but this was not possible, because there are NO bridges for cars!!! Luckily the rain had died down and I did not get too wet hiking to the other side. I was wearing my shorts and long pants as well as a t-shirt, long-sleeved top, and wind breaker, even though it was not very cold. This was only to ensure that I could fit all my stuff into my bags. I had also donated my towel and some other t-shirts to the ashram.

On the other side I had to bargain for a taxi to the bus station because with the rain, the taxi driver was not going to be able to pick up any other passengers. The bus was supposed to leave at 21:30, but I got there at around 20:50, just in case it left early. I could not afford to miss any of my modes of transport from now on. My bus was scheduled to arrive in Delhi after four in the morning and there was no other bus that evening. The bus the next day would have been too late to catch my flight to Mumbai, which left at 14:00.
I was however quite undisturbed if any of my modes of transport were delayed, because I did not relish the thought of arriving at four am in Delhi and I had plenty of time to spare in between. As it turned out, the bus we were all waiting for at the travel agent never arrived, so the travel agent quickly packed the seven or eight of us into two taxi's and took us to the bus station where there was pandemonium because people had paid for sleepers and were not getting sleeper seats etc. I was refunded the Rs 250 I had paid and paid Rs 200 to the conductor on this bus. I was relieved that I did get a seat though, because the bus was full!!!

Sunday
We arrived in Delhi around five in the morning and I read my Lonely Planet to figure out what I would do until it was time to go to the airport. I decided to go look for a yoga or meditation class in the city and afterwards have breakfast and then do some final shopping.
I left my big backpack at the cloak room at the bus station and then took the Metro for Rs 9 to Connaught Place.
I had chosen to visit the Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga, and guess what I found when I got there. They are holding a National Yoga Week from the 12th to the 16th of March. It would have cost a mere Rs 1200 for the entire week, including accommodation and meals... That is incredibly cheap. But the fact that there is so much happening around yoga wherever I look, makes me think that yoga is well and alive in India!!!
There was unfortunately no classes that I could attend because everybody was apparently preparing for the yoga week.

So I headed back to Connaught Place to find a restaurant serving up some good south indian breakfast... my last chance :-). I found a restaurant that was open at 8am on a Sunday morning and was recommended by the Lonely Planet. However, the idli's were tiny, the dosa was too thin and Delhi was extremely expensive. I remember having breakfast with Ayu at a restaurant in Mysore and we had four plates of idli, and three plates of dosa and four cups of chai and it all came to about Rs 58. One plate of tiny idli's here cost Rs 45.

After enquiring what the best option would be to get to the airport, I headed back to the bus station to collect my bag. I got back to Connaught place around 10:30 when some stores started opening up, but most remained closed because it was Sunday. I started searching for masala chai... spices for the tea in India. As Connaught place was not a residential area and had no general stores, only brand stores, I was very unsuccessful in finding tea spices.

At around noon I looked for a public bus to the airport but was unsuccessful as well and eventually resigned myself to having to pay about Rs 250 for a rickshaw. Luckily I found a very helpful gentleman who told me to wait in the building, while he got me a rickshaw for the true price of Rs 60 or 70. Eventually I got a rickshaw for Rs 90, plus Rs 10 for the bags, which I was very happy with. On the way to the airport I struck a deal with the rickshaw driver to make a detour to some shops to buy Masala Chai.

My flight was slightly delayed and we arrived in Mumbai just before five in the afternoon, but I was very impressed again with the service on Jet Airways and the food. We were served Baskin and Robbins ice cream after lunch, so I had three helpings :-)
After I got my bags, I took the shuttle transfer to the international terminal where I had to spend seven hours waiting. This is the same terminal where I had spent the first few hours of my trip (when I arrived in India) waiting until morning. The food in the terminal was extremely expensive at four times the price on the street, and so was the internet cafe.

At midnight I joined the long queue to have my bags security checked and they actually asked me to open my backpack to get my alarm clock. They took out the battery, so that the clock would not tick. The aeroplane was new and big and more spacious than any of the domestic flights I had been on, but the service on SAA was not very good. I did not have anyone sitting next to me, which was lucky as the flight was 95% full. We landed at 7:15 and I was happy to be home.