More then likely you will be lucky to witness a wedding at solstice.
The groom
The bride
Kirtan was amazing and performed by Snatam Kaur and family, literally! Her mother, father and husband were playing various instruments.
A facilitator is on a side stage informing everybody what is going on. I found this very good, especially as it was in English! It also helped people involved with the wedding as it informed them what needs to be done and when.
Kirtan by Ravi Kaur
After the wedding I popped to the laundry, even though we were only traveling for three weeks we are still traveling light.
The afternoon was back to the lectures and more yoga. Sometimes, you feel you are just yoga’d out!!
Yoga in another tent
In the food shelter there were a number of stalls selling food, one was selling dhosa for $10 which in my opionon was very expensive and another was selling roti rolls (chappatti rolled with paneer and potato inside.) for $5.00 a very fair priced for a tasty meal.
As I was unable to handle the solstice diet, I started living off the roti rolls!!
In the evening we headed back to the cabin to find another person sleeping in one of the other bunks!!! Until now we had enjoyed the 4 bunk cabin to ourselves. The cabins have 4 bunks and you pay for the number of bunks required………night!
Laundry day is here, so an early morning trip (7am) to Mr Suds, the laundry in South Lake Tahoe.
Even though we are only traveling for three weeks, it is still best to travel lightly.
Back at the hotel I said to Sangeet we need to figure out where to eat. Sangeet suggested checking happy cow for vegan restaurants, I was surprised to find one:
Simple Bliss Vegan Cafe
2540 Lake Tahoe Blvd. #7
Located in the Swiss Chalet Village
South Lake Tahoe
California
USA
t: +1 530 542 1474
e: [email protected]
Pictures of the restaurant
Dare you try the chilli sauce?!
Vegan burger
Vegan and gluten free French toast
Negotiating the burger!
The meals were fantastic. Simple Bliss Cafe is a great vegan restaurant. All the dishes can also be made gluten free.
We will be back to Simple Bliss Cafe….
Afterwards we drove through downtown and stopped at the beach. It was a few minutes walk from the busy end of the beach, here we took some yoga pictures for class posters etc.
The quiet side of the beach
Kundalini yoga pose
The busier side of the beach
Beautiful clear water
Walkway next to the beach, here you have access to seating and barbecues
We then drove to the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe, stopping off at various vista points
Logan Shoals Vista a fantastic vista point to take photographs. There is parking available and a short walk to the vista point.
Our roadside snack
The views of Lake Tahoe seems to be better from the Nevada side, maybe it seems that way as it is very sunny today.
Driving along with marvellous views of the lake. We also stopped at Memorial Point and took a short walk along the lakeshore.
Amazing views
Sangeet made her way to the top of this waterfall, by hanging onto trees!!
We drove full circle around Lake Tahoe today.
For dinner, back to Bliss Cafe
The drinks are amazing and worth trying
On the menu there is more then just the burger, honest!
Cheesecake, made out of cashew, it was so yummy!!
Back at the hotel we relaxed in the common area
Movie time!
We watched ‘The Blind Side’. The Blind Side is a 2009 American semi-biographical sports drama film. It is written and directed by John Lee Hancock, and based on the 2006 book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis. The storyline features Michael Oher, an offensive lineman who plays for the Baltimore Ravens of the NFL. The film follows Oher from his impoverished upbringing, through his years at Wingate Christian School (a fictional representation of Briarcrest Christian School in Memphis, Tennessee), his adoption by Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, to his position as one of the most highly coveted prospects in college football, then finally becoming a first round pick in the NFL by the Baltimore Ravens .
So wrapped up with technology, at one point I was using the laptop, iPad and iPhone whilst watching the movie!
I truly recommend watching this movie, a fantastic and heart warming story!
Today we looked into flights to Vientiane there are two companies we can use Lao Airlines or Lao Central Airlines. Lao airlines worked out best for us in terms of times. The tickets are booked for Saturday.
We had a wander around town, visited Phou Si temple (climbing around 300 steps to get there!), Buddhist footprint, other temples and a Buddhist monk school.
Phou Si
The main hill in the city from which you have a good view of the whole area. It’s not a very steep climb from the bottom and sunrise and sunset are particularly rewarding times to go up. There is a near-panoramic view from the top. There are 2 entrances from ground level: 1 on the north along Sisavangvong Road, facing the Royal Palace, and another one on the East, on Sisavang Vatthana Road. The northern entrance has about 130 steps up to the ticket counter, and another 190 steps to the top. The eastern entrance is longer than the northern one by a factor of 2 or 3, and is hence less steep and has more points of interest along the way, which are perfect excuses for stopping for a breather on the climb. Entrance fee 20,000 kip. Here there is a Buddhist footprint.
Temple at the ticket office
looking across to the Royal Palace Museum
The next steps up
Views from the top
the temple from the outside
Another temple at the bottom
Monks studying
Afterwards we had a walk around town popping into the Big Brother Mouse offices (more information in my post for tomorrow) and Ock Pop Tok (a fair trade textile shop which is linked to the Living Craft Centre). The shop assistant was curious and asked what religion we are We told her, she then wanted Sangeet to tie a turban on her. She also gave us her email address and wants information on Sikhi.
Big Brother Mouse
Ock Pop Tok shop, the lady liked Sangeet’s turban and wanted Sangeet to tie one on her.
We then popped into saffron cafe for a strawberry smoothie.
Red chillies
We wandered around town for a while then made our way to The Royal Palace.
The Royal Palace (official name “Haw Kham”) in Luang Prabang, Laos, was built in 1904 during the French colonial era for King Sisavang Vong and his family. The site for the palace was chosen so that official visitors to Luang Prabang could disembark from their river voyages directly below the palace and be received there. After the death of King Sisavang Vong, the Crown Prince Savang Vatthana and his family were the last to occupy the grounds. In 1975, the monarchy was overthrown by the communists and the Royal Family were taken to re-education camps. The palace was then converted into a national museum.
On the way back through the night stall which was being setup we stopped at the vegetarian stall for a late lunch / early dinner. We were the first to arrive so were able to enjoy the buffet whilst fresh.
In the evening I went to pick up the laundry from town and also had a one hour foot massage. It was a bargain at 40000kip (around £3)!
This morning I did not get to sleep until 5am. As part of the kundalini yoga teacher training you have three ‘check in’ calls with your group. It discusses how you are doing after the teacher training. The teacher asked if I was grounded, I answered “it is 4am in Malaysia, I am definitely grounded!”
So as you can imagine I had a lie in, well apart from waking up at 10am to go and get breakfast. When it is free I make sure I get my monies worth!
In the afternoon we went to Blue Boy Cafe
Blue Boy Vegetarian Food Centre
6001, Blue Boy Mansion,
Jalan Tong Shin,
55100, Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia
T: +60 3-2144-9011
The restaurant did not seem that clean so we did not eat there.
Afterwards, we walked to Mainduab Gurdwara. The address is in a previous post. I noticed a lot of Sikhs here with cut hair. Most of the time Sikhs with cut hair look like people from other religions and it is hard to tell them apart. Sikhs with cut hair always say Sikhi is in my heart that is what matters!! Seems like we are great at changing Sikhi to how it suits us.
Just to prove we walked!
Looking outside from the lungar hall
Lungar hall
Darbar sahib
Entrance to the Gurdwara
Afterwards we had a drink at Woods Bio Marche, again the address is in a previous post. By this time the heavens had opened up and the rain was getting heavy.
We walked to Petaling Street. At one stage the rain was very heavy, we took cover the side of a building. Once the rain turned into a drizzle we carried on walking.
Petaling Street (Malay: Jalan Petaling, Simplified Chinese: 茨厂街, Traditional Chinese: 茨廠街, pinyin: Cíchǎng Jiē, Cantonese: Chee Cheong Kai) is a Chinatown located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is infamous for pirated clothes and accessories along with bootleg DVDs and CDs. Petaling Street however does not exclusively offer pirated products. Haggling is a common sight here and the place is usually crowded with locals as well as tourists.
The area has dozens of restaurants and food stalls, serving local favourites such as Hokkien mee, ikan bakar (barbecued fish), asam laksa and curry noodles. Traders here are mainly Chinese but there are also Indian, Malay, and Bangladeshi traders.
The walk towards Petaling Street
Petaling Street
‘Genuine’ Mont Blanc pens
We walked through the sheltered street and arrived on the other side to see and feel the very heavy rain. We waited until it calmed down then tried to hail a taxi. They wanted RM20 to drop us off at the hotel. I said we would like to use the meter he said no. On the side of the taxi it says metered fair no haggling allowed!!
Everybody is waiting until the rain eases or stops
We carried on walking and saw the LRT which we caught to the hotel.
Sewerage is flushed directly into the water
LRT
LRT ticket which is a plastic disc and gets reused
First train was packed, so we caught the next one
A much quieter train
Back at the hotel I noticed the clothes I sent to a third party laundry via concierge had not come back. I called concierge to chase this. A little while later they said that the laundry had a problem and will have my clothes washed by 11pm because they had this problem they will not charge me. I received the clothes later that night. We packed as we had a very early morning flight to Siam Reap, Cambodia.
Hi, thanks for visiting my blog, feel free and have a look around.Here is a bit about me, as you may or may not have guessed my name is Mandeep,I work to travel as opposed to work to pay bills and die!Every trip for me is an adventure, I have been very fortunate to stumble across amazing places and meet awesome people along the way.
Why gaygoat? When I first started this blog I was a vegetarian, so gaygoat – happy goat! Also you have to admit it is catchy and a URL you will not forget!
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