Incredible India (Part 5 - Palolem, Goa)

Leaving the peace & quiet of Patnem, we headed to Palolem for a few days. Just a short tuktuk ride over the hill, and we were there!

Palolem is much busier & touritsy than Patnem, although still very underdeveloped in comparison with places like Phuket, or Koh Samui in Thailand for example. There is a law in South Goa that all the beachfront huts and restaurants must be taken down every monsoon season. Although a lot of work, this is a great idea as it stops any big hotels and developers rolling in & spoiling the natural beauty of the area. The beach is still home to many a roaming cow and retains a very honest charm! 

Happy cows.

Before we left London, Su & I had only pre-booked one accomodation for the whole trip, it was to be our little treat before Su headed back to London & work, and I started my intensive yoga teacher training course. We had booked to stay at Ciaran's, a little slice of paradise on Palolem! 

The bed in the room was like one of those big, tall, fluffy, bouncy white beds, I had to restrain myself from actually jumping on the bed like a 4 year old! One of the best parts of Ciaran's was probably the complimentary chai tea & cake every day at 4pm whilst dolphin spotting from the shore!

The view from Ciaran's terrace.

Whilst in Palolem, we did a boat trip to Butterfly beach, and saw lots & lots of dolphins on the way! It is amazing the number of wild dolphins in the sea here, if you look long & hard enough you can honestly spot them from the shore! Butterfly beach itself was nice, but not amazing- we did not even get off the boat, but the trip was more than worthwhile for all the dolphins! If you do go, be prepared to get soaked with the waves (and don't sit right up front!).

Tommy, Lex, Su & I (and our photobomber)!

My favourite time of the day, such a happy time! Coincidentally also the perfect time for a mojito!

Palolem gave us the gift of one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen! The whole sky was awash with colour. In the city it's so rare that anybody actually stops to appreciate the beauty of sunset, sometimes we are too caught up in the daily trials & tribulations of life to even realise the sun is setting. Everyday can be beautiful as long as we choose to see the beauty. Even if it's a dull, grey, rainy day you can still create your own sunshine & beauty! This is one of my sankalpas -  a resolution - from the trip, to choose to see the beauty everyday. If you follow me on instagram (@lisahladnik), you will know that I am participating in the 100happydays challenge, a challenge to find one thing that makes you happy everyday for 100 days. It tries to develop the ability to appreciate and enjoy the moment that you are in: to stop worrying about how stressed we are, and remember how blessed we are! Go on, I dare you to try the challenge too!

#100happydays

Back to Palolem! I discovered a Sampoorna Yoga Shala right next door to Ciaran's - with the course starting in less than a week and my yoga practice for the previous 10 days being minimal at best, I desperately needed to get myself back on the mat. I was almost suffering from yoga withdrawl symptoms! Although this branch of Sampoorna is not a full school, they offer morning & afternoon classes in a lovely little shala just back from the beach. All the Sampoorna team are super friendly & very welcoming, so if you do find yourself there, go & say hello!

Astavakrasana (eight angle pose) on Palolem 

Susan was a yoga virgin before coming to India, but she was a natural. By the end of the two weeks she was even doing bakasana (crow pose). I will turn her into a yogi yet!!

Palolem has a bit more of a bar scene to it then Patnem does - there is lots of live music almost every night. On our last night here, we had heard about a silent disco party at Cleo's and thought it could be quite amusing. We were told it was very close - a few minutes walk from the beach. We followed the directions given and ended up in some very dimly lit, quiet back streets, not ideal for two girls alone in India! Being a silent disco there was not even any music that we could follow. Luckily we bumped into some others who were also heading to Cleo's, although they had even less idea of where they were going! After finally getting there, we were two of approximately 15 people there. We were given headphones with a choice of three channels: The Grease soundtrack, Indian music, or hardcore techno! It actually felt like we were on the set of the Inbetweeners it was that dire! Fortunately for me, unfortunately for Susan, Susan started to feel queasy and we had to make a very quick exit. I can safely say that you will not be missing out on the time of your life if you don't go to Cleo's, but I can highly recommend Leopard Valley on a Friday night (more about that coming soon!)!

Palolem is a great people watching beach, there are lots of restaurants, bars and the most shops in the area (although don't expect shopping malls- more small touristy stalls!), while still retaining the Goan charm, lots of dolphins, and some beautiful sunsets!

Next & final stop, Agonda!

xx

Incredible India (Part 4 - Patnem, Goa)

From Alleppey we caught an overnight train all the way up to Goa's central station Madgaon. Although Su & I have traveled on a tight, shoestring budget through Brazil, this was many years ago and, although exciting, in our older age the thought of an overnight train in India did give us slight goosebumps! In the end it turned out to be quite a pleasant experience!!

We had pre-booked tickets and the only availability was in first class (a real shame!), for £30 each. We were welcomed aboard the Rajdhani Express and into our private 2 person cabin, air conditioned cabin. We were very spoiled!! Even the toilets were much better than anticipated! We settled in for a good nights sleep, and were awoken by a loud "BANG BANG BANG" on our door at 6.30am, we nearly jumped out of the train window we got such a fright! Luckily it was only the morning tea - despite us saying we did not want it on boarding, and them making a note of this. Oh well! It was beautiful watching the scenery roll by being bathed in the Indian rising sun. 

View from the train

If you are planning to travel by rail in India, I highly recommend signing up for a Clear Trip account. Reserving tickets on Indian trains is quite a complicated process, with a very complex system - Clear trip hugely simplifies the process for you for a very small fee (about 30p per ticket). Many trains will sell out as soon as tickets are released (normally 90 days in advance), and you are then put on a waitlist for tickets. Normally as long as you are under 20 on the waiting list you should be fine! Also, be prepared for everyone to ask you for a tip, even people you have never seen and some people will ask you twice!

From Madgoan we jumped on an hour long bus (for 30p!) to the southern beaches. The first thing we noticed on the bus was how much more colourful the saris are here than in Kerla - so many fluorescent colours! Goa is much drier and dustier than Kerla, but there was still some lush jungle along the way.

We arrived in Patnem, and (still not having learnt our lesson) based on a Lonely Planet recommendation we went to 'SeaView Rooms'. The place was a dive and definitely didn't have seaviews, but we decided to stay anyway as we had been basically travelling since getting off the house boat the day before and were in desperate need of a shower! After checking in & paying for the night we almost skipped back to the room to have a shower. Guess what?? Water doesn't work!! And we have a HUGE cockroach in the room too. We tell the lady downstairs who promises us it will be fixed so in the meantime we went for some lunch & a swim in the sea - next best thing to a shower! We returned 3 hours later to find the water still not working and the cockroach still there too. All we want to do is have a shower now, so we politely explain the situation to the lady and say we would like to leave as we have not spent more than 5 mins in the room. Her answer "No". To put this lady into context, she could easily have been Miss Trunchball's twin in Matilda. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of her, but I'm sure you can imagine! We ask to speak to the manager, she says she is the manager but the man next door tells us she isn't, and she then concedes that she isn't the manager and he will be back later. We leave again, and go looking for a better place to stay, we found some lovely little huts which are 100 times nicer, and 100roupees cheaper. Winning! Returning to "Seaview" the manager is still not there and Miss Trunchball is refusing to give us even half of our money back so we went to get our bags from the room and leave. Seeing as they would not give us any refund we decided to keep the room key for the night we had paid for so that nobody else could be ripped off that night. Miss Trunchball then started screaming at us "NO, YOU CAN'T GO, I AM CALLING THE POLICE", excuse me?! After we have paid full price for a room where the water doesn't work and you have done nothing and we are now criminals?! We finally spoke to the manager on the phone who happened to be Miss Trunchball's brother and was just as helpful as she was and actually hung up on us! So we walked out with the key, at this point Miss Trunchball finally managed to get off her behind and come running after us into the street telling us to wait while she called the police, anything we tried to say she just replied "SHUT UP", the icing on the cake was when she screamed "SHUT UP, I DON'T LIKE YOU" whilst trying to grab my suitcase whilst the whole street was watching! We kept walking and she told her restaurant boys to follow us, but they were secretly giving us the thumbs up whenever she wasn't looking, so didn't really pay her much attention! All the tuk tuk drivers said "nasty woman", but we were still on the run! 

We checked into Casa Fiesta (which is a delight, if you happen to be going to Patnem), and explained the situation to the owner just in case the police did turn up and then we headed for some cocktails on the run (yogis like cocktails too sometimes)! 

Criminal cocktails on the run!

Of course, no police turned up, and we got to watch this magical sunset which made everything ok again!

As promised to Miss Trunchball, we diligently went to "check out" of Seaview Rooms the next morning, to which we received no more than a grunt from the ever delightful Miss T herself. Definitely give this one a miss, unless you enjoy the comedy of such situations!!

Aside from Seaview, Patnem is a lovely little beach full of beach bars & restaurants, and lots of puppies too! After the eventful arrival, we spent a quiet few days relaxing here in the sunshine - there is a very shanti (peaceful) vibe, lots of yogis and families too, no crazy wild parties (that we saw anyway). Once again, were joined by Lexy, & Tommy too, for a few days before they headed off on their North Indian adventures. 

Susan almost adopted a few puppies!

Beach-side yoga challenge!

Tough life!

Next stop, Palolem 

xx

Incredible India (Part 1 - Fort Kochi)

I'm sorry I have been a naughty blogger, but I have good reason for it, I promise!

After finally giving up my old job (you can read about that here), I went on a little 7 week adventure to India to travel and do a 200hr intensive yoga teacher training course (YTTC). The YTTC warrants a whole (very long!) post of it's own, but before that I did a bit of travelling around South India with one of my favourite travelling buddies Su, and my amazing cousin Lexy joined us for parts too.

Susan and I have been on 6 adventures together through Brazil, to Thailand, Dubai, Malta, Barcelona and Istanbul and when she decided to join me at last minute for adventure numero 7 I couldn't have been more delighted! We both needed a break from the chaos that comes from London life and this was perfect.

Meeting at Heathrow on a rainy, windy & freezing February evening we were like two giddy school girls delirious with excitement!

Of course, we had to have a glass (or 2) of bubbles to begin the latest adventure, and naturally to help us get some kip on the 9hour flight.

On arrival in Mumbai we transferred straight through and onto Kochi. For anyone travelling through Mumbai airport, I had been warned that it would be total chaos but I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was so don't worry!

Kochi is in the southern state of Kerala - nicknamed "God's Own Country" and for good reason too, it is beautiful! We headed straight to Fort Kochi. 600 years ago Fort Kochi was established as the gateway to India, it was from here that the colonization of India actually began. The town nowadays is a sleepy melange of worldly influences: Portuguese churches, Anglo-Dutch houses, Colonial buildings and Chinese fishing nets. 

 Our first Indian sunset over the Chinese Fishing Nets

We were hoping to wash the sunset down with a nice cold beer, but after fruitless effort to find one, a local kindly told us that the 1st of every month is a dry-day where no alcohol is available anywhere. Ah!

Luckily Lexy then appeared from the distance on the back of a motorbike, with a huge grin on her face. Lexy is one of the most amazing people you could meet! She has been on a journey herself travelling solo through Nepal, Sri Lanka and now India, a very seasoned traveler who steered us fresh faced city girls in the right direction!

We even found our way to a temple festival in a village outside Fort Kochi. We had been told there would be fire and elephants there, and although these were no where to be seen, it was still a lovely occasion and it was beautiful to see all the ladies dressed up in their colourful saris! There was a beautiful young girl who had jasmine flowers decorating her hair, she was very shy but let me take a photo! 

Although Fort Kochi was a visually beautiful little place, there was not a huge amount to do here and we found our 2 nights & 1 day was plenty. We visited the Kochi Flower Show, however this was less Chelsea Flower Show, more walking round a Homebase store! Although they did have this very cool bean man! 

Fort Kochi is a lovely little place to stroll around and watch dolphins playing in the mouth of the river, it was a perfect transition from London chaos into South Indian life. There is some delicious food too - if you happen to find yourself in Fort Kochi don't miss Fusion Bay for some great Keralan specialities, and Kashi Cafe & Art Gallery for breakfasts and amazing cakes!

Next stop Periyar National Park.....

xx

Yoga Flash Mob!

London Yoga Flash Mob!

Last Friday, with the elusive London sunshine gracing us with it's rays, I participated in a Yoga Flash Mob on Piccadilly Circus organised by the lifestyle brand Lululemon Uk.

The call to practice was sent out via a cheeky little Instagram post from their account @lululemonuk:

  Yogis from all corners of London united in what was to be an unexpectedly serene class. Being in the middle of London on Piccadilly Circus, with thousands of people passing by and traffic beeping I was expecting a fun class, but did not expect to truly be able to concentrate on my yoga. I was amazed by how easily I zoned out and managed to forget the staring, photo taking tourists and really get into the flow. Practice was over before I knew it! 

Although there was one dog who was clearly very confused by the yoga, and had a little barking episode which slightly disturbed the flow! 

Aside from this little canine, the class was amazingly serene and we even managed to practice shavasana on Piccadilly Circus, although sadly I have no photos of this. I left happy with a big smile on my face for the rest of the day.

Good work Lululemon! They are organising regular yoga flashmobs so keep your eyes and ears peeled and you may hear about the next one. Let's do this London!

xxx

Our Daily Bread....

Poor little bread really has had a hard time recently at the hand of the carb nazis, totally undeserved too. Widespread belief, thanks to diets such as the Atkins diet, is that carbs will make you fat, and must be avoided at all costs if you are ever to look like Gisele. However, the truth of the matter is that carbs actually have just 4 calories per gram, whereas fat has a whooping 9 calories per gram. It is not eating carbs which will lead to weight gain, it is over consumption in general which makes you gain weight. 

Diets like the Atkins work by seriously restricting calorie intake so that the body has to look elsewhere for energy and starts to burn body fat. This is a process called Ketosis, which incidentally also has a side effect of bad breath! Atkins and other similar diets are completely unbalanced, and are actually very unhealthy in the long run as they promote a high intake of saturated fats (the baddies) which can lead to a higher risk of heart disease.  

There is no need to go to such extreme lengths as completely removing whole food groups from your diet in order to stay in shape and healthy - especially bread which actually has many nutritional benefits! Bread is actually a great source of protein - it contains 12g of protein per 100g - this is a fair amount considering an egg has 13g of protein. It also contains iron, fibre, magnesium, calcium and zinc - all nutrients which can be lacking in modern diets. It is also a great source of B vitamins which support your brain, nervous system, energy levels, moods and keeps skin and hair glowing. 

If consumed in moderation (like all good things!) bread really can contribute to a healthy, balanced diet. It has been eaten for centuries, and forms a large part of the healthy Mediterranean diet so many of us strive for. When choosing breads, it is always important to choose a wholegrain bread with seeds (white bread is nutritionally rather empty after the bleaching process it undergoes to become white). Wholegrain breads with seeds are also low GI which means their energy is released slowly, leaving you satisfied for longer. As with all products, labeling can be very deceiving so make sure to choose a bread labeled as 100% wholewheat or wholegrain, and check the ingredients carefully as even breads which claim to be wholegrain can contain enriched bleached flour.  

Being healthy and staying in shape is not about going on extreme fad diets which cannot be sustained and ultimately only lead to temporary weight loss, it is about making small positive lifestyle changes such as switching from white bread to wholewheat bread, exercising regularly, and eating in moderation. 

See, you can have your bread and eat it!

xx

Detoxifying my bathroom

With a society so obsessed by eating organic, and staying fit and healthy it is amazing how many chemicals we haphazardly slap onto our body without even a second thought as to what side effects these chemicals may have on us. Modern city life has become dependent on so many products - mascara, foundation, eye cream, moisturizer, perfume and lip gloss, to name a few, that it is almost impossible to completely eliminate chemicals from our daily routines without going totally make-up and product free (Nooooooooooo!). 

In order to try and start detoxifying my bathroom, I am going to start with a basic: Shampoo. Most shampoos, soaps, detergents and toothpastes often contain these three nasty chemicals:

-Parabens : These bad boys act as a preservative prolonging the shelf life of many of our cosmetic products. Recent studies have linked Parabens to certain types of cancers, most significantly breast cancer as it increases levels of estrogen. Aside from this, Parabens also rather ironically contribute to hair and scalp problems such as removing the protective cuticle and making hair dull and brittle. Why would we want our shampoo to do that?!

- Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (SLS): SLS is used as a foaming agent. Unfortunately, not all of its effects are good, and it is actually known to be irritating to the skin and is even used as a standard skin irritant in clinical studies! Again ironically for a shampoo, SLS can cause scalp problems such as an itchy, flaky scalp when used frequently. SLS has also been linked to other undesirable effects such as its ability to penetrate the cornea of the eye, even if absorbed through the skin, where it can accumulate and then be released slowly. No thanks!

-Phthalates: Phthalates act as gelling agents, and in fragrances to make the smell last longer in many cosmetic and beauty products. Phthalates are known as "endocrine disruptors" which mimic the body's hormones and have, in laboratory animal tests, been shown to cause reproductive and neurological damage. Excessive exposure to Phthalates has also been linked to weight gain in adults and children. 

Aside from the very serious cancer links with these chemicals, I personally have enough trouble keeping away from the chocolate without my shampoo contributing to weight gain too! Many chemicals can and do penetrate the skin, and with these three nasties floating around, I am trying to detoxify my bathroom products as much as I can. 

First on the list is finding a good SLS, Phthalates and Paraben free shampoo.....(drum roll please).......Jason Natural Care to the rescue! Jason have been providing "natural products containing only pure, nutritional, and organic ingredients". Given my naturally wavy (read frizzy) hair, I decided to try their Smoothing Sea Kelp Shampoo at £6.29. Like any seasoned shampoo-er, I enjoy a good lather in the shower so despite the clear benefits I would get from an SLS free shampoo, I was not looking forward to giving this up. Luckily this product still manages to give a great lather and smells delicious. After using this shampoo for a good month, my hair feels moisturized, much smoother and I have much less breakage. 

Although Jason is SLS, Phthalates and Paraben free and it is a definite step in the right direction from other mass-produced super market brands, despite their tag line ("natural, pure, nutritional, organic")  it still does have a few chemicals in it. 

This is one of the hardest things about detoxifying your products - labeling does not always clearly show what is in the product, and unless you have a science degree they can be hard to understand. Labeling laws should be much stricter on this issue so ingredients are completely transparent for users. Labeling on food items is much stricter, yet food must go through the whole digestive system (which can eliminate chemicals) before reaching the blood stream, where as any products applied to the skin go straight into the blood stream. Thus I shall continue my search for the perfect 'free from' products and keep you guys updated!

If you have found any excellent 'free from' shampoo or other products, I would love to hear about them!

xx