My yogic rebirth in Nepal

22 januari 2020 - Pokhara, Nepal

Nepal   3/11/2019   -   6/12/2019

5 months ago I wasn’t sure about my life on earth, now I was about to discover another part of it. I had to laugh a little as I walked down the bridge to enter the Etihad plane, which was going to take me towards a new adventure. Is this life? Apparently. Created for me, by me. I just needed a ‘little’ push on the right path, a path that would awaken me. Awaken me to start following my heart and live my life for me. Credits to the horse who decided to sit on my lap, thank you, I have seen the light! Almost literally. I really feel like I am living my second life now; firstly because I am very lucky to still be here and secondly because I did a complete 180 on my way of living. That was the reason for the accident to happen in the first place. Doing a yoga teacher training in Nepal was a big part of my evolution, so to say. I will not share much about the ins and outs of the training itself or the details of my personal experience of it. However, we did have some days off from yoga boot camp and I’ve tried to collect those moments and put them on paper. Have a look in my Nepali life.


Amsterdam – Abu Dhabi – Kathmandu. Tribhuvan International Airport is very small compared to the size of the city itself. Namasté Nepal! I made my way to the visa counter. Luckily I applied for my visa in advance; the whole process went surprisingly smooth and quick. Not so much for people who had to fix their visa at the airport, the line was as long as the hall itself. Finding my luggage was actually more interesting. There is just one big carousel in the baggage claim area, and in every curve of the carousel there is a man taking all the luggage off the belt, putting them on a big pile. Not sure why?? So I had to go check every pile to find my suitcase, this took me at least 30 minutes.
Okay so I had found my suitcase, now I had to find the man holding a sign with my name on it. As I walked through the sliding doors to go outside, there were a lot of drivers waiting at the side of the road, and also a lot of signs with names. Feeling like I was walking a runway with an extra 20 kilos on one arm, I walked past the line of men, and I found my name at the end. Finished off with a pose and walked back. Hmm okay not really; I told the driver I was the one he was looking for and off we went to the hostel. This took a while because the traffic in Kathmandu is so crazy and chaotic. There are no rules really, everyone and everything just drives, moves, walks in all directions. I haven’t even seen one traffic light, at least non that worked. A lot of hooting going on as well, which was actually necessary to keep it sort of safe..

The hostel was nice, basic but nice. Could not expect more for the price I paid though. That night I didn’t sleep too well because of the jet lag and noises from the streets. Still I wanted to see a little bit of the city, since I would only be there for one full day. Coincidentally, two girls in my room needed to go to the immigration office to extend their visa and so did I. So we went together and after that we walked around in Thamel, the touristic part of the city. A lot of shops, traffic, noises; after a couple of hours I felt drained. I’ve traveled quite a bit so far but I must say this was the first real culture shock I have experienced. When I got back at the hostel I just relaxed for the rest of the day. I planned to go and climb the monkey temple, which was only a 15 minute walk from the hostel, but I was just too tired. Jet lagged, too many impressions and triggers from the city. Kathmandu was not really my thing and it is also very, very polluted. Just after one day I could literally feel the dust in my throat and lungs. No need to say that I was happy to leave for Pokhara the next morning.

The bus ride from Kathmandu to Pokhara would take 9 hours. It took us 2 hours just to get out of the city, which shows how big it is. Also there is just one road connecting the two cities so there was a traffic jam every now and then. Besides that, it’s right through the mountains so bumps and scary edges were a part of the experience. Still I tried not to focus on the depths I could see right beside me, and so I put my headphones on and enjoyed the great views. Later in the afternoon we got close to our destination and we could already see the tops of the Annapurna mountain range. Even from far it was astonishing. The hotel where the YTTC was taking place arranged a pick up from the bus station and when I arrived at the hotel I could just feel such a shift in energy. Like a blanket of calmness and peace embraced me. I could breathe again, literally. Our hotel was up a hill, with a view at the Phewa lake and the mountains on the other side. What a blessing to be able to stay here and practice yoga for a month…

We were staying in Lake Side, a very chill and laid-back part of Pokhara. It would only take a 15 minute walk to get from the hotel to the main street. It’s a nice walk; the first part is a dirt road down the hill, that ended at a paved street along the lake which would take you to the ‘center’ of Lake Side. There is way less traffic here (thank God) and just a really nice, easygoing vibe. A lot of nice little shops; 80% of them sell typical Nepali clothes. You know, pants with elephants on them and other prints, those harem pants in many colors, different kind of shirts and blouses. I love it. Also there were a lot of shops selling scarves and blankets, bags in beautiful fabrics; pashmina, cashmere, yak wool. Then there were shops where you could buy different souvenirs, like a small singing bowl, Mala’s (a special kind of bracelet worn by Buddhists), the prayer flags and lots more. Everything is so authentic and beautiful, I wanted to buy it all. And eventually I did…my bargain game was actually quite strong! Alongside the lake there were many nice cafés, but we always ended up at the same one; The Juicery Café. It was just the best. Super nice food, smoothies, bowls and a nice terrace and chill area. Every day off I came here to eat and relax, and mostly to consume something different than rice twice a day, every day. I started to see why the shops were selling t-shirts that said ’24 hour dal bhat power’. Because the locals eat it every day and so did we during our training (dal bhat is rice and lentils and it’s a traditional Nepali dish). I think I can speak for the whole group that we were so excited to go to the Juicery every off day.

Sometimes the school would organize an activity on our free day. One Sunday we went to see the sunrise in Sarangkot, a place on top of the hill. A bus took us up at 5.30 in the morning. I found the ride a little tricky, in the dark, up the mountain, again some interesting edges and sometimes there was no paved road. In Nepal they don’t really care about that, they just drive any kind of vehicle on any kind of road. You just have to surrender and put your faith in the drivers. Though the drive and the nerves that came with it were totally worth it; it was one of the most incredible sunrises I have witnessed. Some of the mountain peaks were almost 7000M high and the snow on top reflected the sunlight to give them a golden glow. We took a lot of pictures of the mountains and also some group pictures. Afterwards we had a coffee and a little dance. What a blissful morning!

The next week we went to the Gupteswar cave, a lot of steps took us down where we could see a waterfall. After that we went to the peace pagoda on top of one of the hills surrounding the Phewa lake. Every time we walked down from our hotel to Lake Side, we could see the peace pagoda on the other side. Again, a bus took us up the hill on a dirt road with a lot of curves. The last part we had to walk up by ourselves, which was a little tough since our muscles were aching from doing 3 hours of yoga every day. The stupa was beautiful and so was the view. You could see the lake, a big part of the city and between the clouds you could see some mountaintops as well. The other free days I spent down at the Juicery, strolling down the street, probably buying something new again. In one of the last weeks I treated my body on a traditional Nepali massage which was amazing and also really necessary. Another amazing thing we did was a sound healing meditation at the Buddha temple. Me and my roommate were the only one attending the class. We laid down and 2 guys were playing the singing bowls and singing mantras. It was the most amazing thing. The vibration of the different sounds really effects the body and man I could feel it. One moment one of the guys put the big singing bowl on my belly and the vibration of it went straight through my whole body. Such a crazy and yet special experience. At the end of the class when we opened our eyes we looked at each other and we wondered what happened… We just felt so amazing and replenished. I regret that I only went there in the last week and not earlier in the course.

The last week of the training was so great, well the whole course was great, but especially the last week because I felt like I improved so much in the last couple of days. I found myself doing asanas that I wasn’t able to do properly before. My body got so much more flexible and stronger within this month; at the beginning of the training I would never have thought that I would find myself like that at the end of the course. It was tough and I can’t deny that I underestimated the training. 28 days of different kind of classes and practices and also a lot of emotions and physical pains, funny tummies, exhaustion. But the amount of gratitude, love and unity I have felt, they completely overruled the lower vibrations. I was, and I still am, so grateful for all my guru’s and fellow yogi’s (if you’re reading this, I love you) for sharing this experience with me and teaching me things that I will implement in my daily life forever. Our group was just so amazing and I could not wish for any other people to have shared this month with. This made the goodbye part more difficult though… after our little graduation and closing ceremony, more and more people left and it felt like someone was poking holes in this nice bubble we had been living in for the past month. The day of my departure I was the only one left at the hotel and I sat on top of the roof, taking in the amazing view one last time. Tears of gratitude, humbleness and love kissed my cheeks as I took a moment to thank Nepal for everything it revealed to me in the past five weeks. I also gave a big thanks to my body, for being healthy, strong, and for flowing me into becoming a yoga teacher. While not even 6 months before it was at intensive care, spending all its energy on healing itself. It is magic. Life is magic.

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