Ganeshpuri Accommodations

Ganeshpuri is full of guest houses. I am staying at Yogini's guest house and I love it! As I mentioned in an earlier post, there are other solo international travelers here. We've found a lovely community with each other. I think guest houses are the way to go when traveling.

This is the front of Yogini's guest house.

The first floor has a few apartments. There is a Bank of Baroda a couple of doors down, and two of the apartments are occupied Mon-Fri with bankers. The other apartment is occupied by Karan, who is the son of Yogini's son's best friend. He helps Yogini take care of the house and the guests.

This is the back, where the entrance to the upper floors is. The artwork on the wall is called Warli art.

Yogini keeps offering me her car to drive down to the temple - lol! Traffic on the roads here is rather chaotic, so I have politely declined her offer each time.

The hallway looks basically the same for all four floors. Notice the rangoli art on the stairs. You'll find this art all over the place here.

The fourth floor leads to a rooftop terrace. The open wall lets cool air in, which is the same for three floors. Even in the height of the day's heat, which is right around 100 degrees currently, it feels cool in that hallway. The marble floors help with that! Notice the yellow rope, for hanging the laundry on rainy days.

On non-rainy days, the rooftop terrace is the perfect place for the laundry.

I like sitting on this bench and watching the world go by below! More Warli art decorates the rooftop terrace.

Here's s some views from the rooftop.

Now for my personal accommodations...

This is my room. I requested a private room with AC and a big bed. I'm able to open the windows at night, and keep them open through the morning. The temperature drops to the upper 60's, low 70's at night, which is perfectsleeping weather. There's a high speed fan (I'm beginning to wonder if there's any other fan setting here!) that keeps my room nice and cool. If I turn on the AC at all, it's during the afternoon. I'm usually taking a rest during the hottest part of the day. I'll nap, do my ujjayi practice and my asana practice. I can understand now why a lot of life's activities here take place in the early morning hours and later at night. That heat really has a way of sapping your energy.

I requested some yoga blankets (India style) from the gentlemen that helped me make my arrangements. This is where I do my ujjayi and asana practice. I've been able to make it to meditation club once, and I meditated here as well. Usually, I'm meditating at one of the holy sites on or around the temple grounds.

I've got a table that serves as a desk for my computer. There's wifi, and as long as there is power, I've got everything I need to stay connected.

My bathroom has separate rooms for the toilet and shower.

The shower room is huge, and feels downright luxurious. We'll, except for the lack of hot water. I shower at night, which helps to cool me down before bed, so I don't really mind the coldish shower. Have I mentioned that it's hot here?!

This is a typical Indian bathroom, with the shower and toilet in the same room. The buckets offer a nice system for washing. You fill the big bucket, and use the pitcher to pour the water over you. This is the other bathroom on my floor.

There's a nice common space on the second floor, which is where three of the guest rooms are, including mine.

And a nice front gallery. There's a ceiling fan, and the windows slide open behind the screens. I love that rocker. This is a great spot for me to write blog posts!

While there's a living room on the 2nd floor, we tend to gather here, in Yogini's living room on the third floor.

We take our meals in Yogini's kitchen. She has a chef, Hari, who makes delicious food. Nobody goes hungry at Yogini's house! Notice the bowl/bird feeder hanging outside the window. It sees a lot of action, as do we, when we're sitting at the table.

Here's Hari, the chef. Notice the two burner gas cooktop in the corner. It sees a lot of action as well.

Here is the other two burner cooktop. Note the gas tanks.

I'm being so well taken care of here - it's a real delight!