At the age of 13, I followed my first yoga class … well, to be honest, it was more some sort of stretch class for the elderly. I had some stress at school and my parents thought it would be good if I learned to relax through yoga. It wasn’t like I took many classes here, so flash forward to my second introduction in yoga. I am now 21 years old and live in Amsterdam. Everyone here is practising yoga, and so I start to take some yoga classes at my gym and later at all kinds of specialized yoga studios.
Hatha, Vinyasa and Yin yoga
I learn the difference between Hatha, Vinyassa and Yin yoga (the latter still feels like relaxing in a pose for a long time). I experiment with Hot yoga, Bikram yoga (still don’t understand the difference) and Asthanga yoga. Every time when I visit a new yoga studio or take a new class, I get the question of how I classify myself. A bit embarrassed I keep telling the teachers that I really am still a beginner. Because even now, after taking yoga classes every week for six years, done in many different countries around the world, I still can’t do a real downward facing dog and I get a headache while only thinking about doing a headstand.
And yet I keep trying and practising, hoping I will get more flexible. And indeed, sometimes I can do poses I wasn’t able to do before. Ries continues to join me as well, and he is just as stiff and inflexible like I am. Oh well, at least we stand out together among all those flexible people!
The best yoga studios in Pokhara:
Mudra Yoga Studio – yoga in Pokhara
Hatha Flow Yoga and Sound Bowl Healing lessons
Price: RS800 / $8, week membership: RS3800 / $38
Class duration: 60 minutes
Reservation required: no
Mudra is located in the middle of the tourist centre of Pokhara, above the popular restaurant OR2K. Yoga takes place in a large, light studio with a beautiful view of the lake. Teacher Christof gave modern Hatha yoga with lots of sun salutations, sometimes using a sound bowl to loosen your shakra (my shakra is mostly in shock every time I suddenly hear such a loud reverberation sound). Even though our class was filled with advanced students, Christof made sure that everyone could come along or that there were enough alternatives. This is the most expensive yoga studio we tried but it was well worth the money. Click here for the location of the Mudra Yoga Studio on Google Maps and click here for their Facebook page.
Holy Garden – yoga in Pokhara
Sound Bowl, Hatha, Vinyassa, Ashtanga, Aerobatic yoga, Yin yoga
Price: RS650 / $6.50, 10 lessons for RS4000 / $40
Class duration: 90 minutes
Reservation needed: no but advised otherwise the lesson may not take place
Wow, a class at Holy Garden was a completely different experience of yoga. After first taking an introduction sound bowl session from the cheerful and energetic Rajesh (conclusion: sounds bowls are really not my thing), he taught an hour and a half yoga class. We were allowed to choose what kind of yoga we wanted to practice and chose Hatha yoga, which he himself called dancing yoga.
And so we were ‘dancing’ in yoga poses for an hour and a half with an occasional pause in which he mainly asked strange questions (such as: “Wouldn’t you like to be a child again?”) and laughed a lot. The yoga in the Holy Garden is a lot less structured and strict than western yoga classes. There is room to do nothing or to chat. Quite refreshing. In retrospect, I did not really feel like I had done a huge workout, but surprisingly I noticed the next morning that Rajesh had certainly made sure my muscles had come into action!
The studio itself is dark and there is some background noise from associated Busy Bee’s bar. Nevertheless, I would recommend this special experience, especially with a free meditation class (duration: 60 minutes) in advance. Click here for the location of the Holy Garden Studio on Google Maps and click here for their Facebook page.
