When we visited Varkala in India I was very keen to try out some different yoga teachers! (There is still no way of persuading Joshua to try yoga …) There are numerous Yoga Schools in Varkala that you can find online, and if you walk along the shop fronts of Varkala beach you’ll be bombarded with flyers for Yoga classes. So where do you start? Here’s some feedback about the classes I tried. Continue reading “Yoga Classes in Varkala, India”
India being so close to the UAE makes it an exciting, easy getaway, so with a week’s holiday left to take this year we ventured to Varkala in Kerala, in the very south of India. The trip gave me a lot of food for thought, so there will be a few posts coming up on related topics, but the first one I want to start with today is to address the stark reality check I got by visiting Varkala: the reality of the luxury and consumerism we live in, and the reality of the poverty and hardship other people face. For many, none of the experiences I share here will be news, and I was obviously aware of the stark contrast of India vs my world already, but the trip provided a much needed reality check and a thirst for making a difference. Continue reading “Visiting India – A Reality Check”
Life is crazy busy at the moment and time for writing anything is seriously lacking. We are in the middle of a move (within Abu Dhabi), visa renewals, passport renewals etc and I am still busy with editing footage from our trip to New Zealand in February.
In the meantime, please do keep up to date with our videos on You Tube 🙂 posted once a week, every Saturday. Once this move is over I will hopefully be able to return to my weekly blog posts too!
Here’s the most recent one, of our road trip through New Zealand:
In February we managed to escape Abu Dhabi for three weeks for our annual return to New Zealand! This time round, we were going to go on a tour around the South Island, ultimately ending up on Stewart Island. We collected quite a bit of footage of some of the most beautiful places, but if you ask me, New Zealand is a place you have to experience. It’s beauty cannot be captured easily on film. Yet, if you are stuck across the pond and haven’t been able to travel to NZ yet, do follow our upcoming series on our YouTube channel to get a taste for this wonderful place 🙂 Enjoy. First little intro video went up this weekend!
We travel quite frequently, especially since we moved to the UAE. Abu Dhabi (as well as Dubai) is a hub for international flights, and a lot of expats who live in the UAE make good use of this fact to ‘decompress’ in a different country every three months or so. Also, we are lucky to have a lot of public and religious holidays, that allow for several long week(end)s throughout the year 🙂 Continue reading “Like to travel? Check out the Etihad Guest Frequent Flyer Program”
The last video of the Paragliding in Spain series is up – Day 13 & 14. Check it out! There’ll be more videos to follow on a weekly basis about our life in Abu Dhabi, our travels and sports 🙂 We hope you’ll continue to follow our channel 🙂 Continue reading “Paragliding in Spain – Day 13 & 14”
I’ve been so busy editing videos that I haven’t had time to share them on the blog… so here we go. Continue reading “Paragliding in Spain – Day 9-12”
The next video in the series of Paragliding in Spain is up. After a busy first week, we got day 7 off. Pablo was kind enough to give us a ride to Ronda, which is definitely worth a visit. Very special place! Unfortunately there was bullfight on that day, which I am not in agreement with, but I respect that this is a local custom. Hopefully someday enough Spaniards will vote to have this practice banned due to animal cruelty. Irrespective of this, Khaled, Michal and I spent a wonderful morning wandering the streets of Ronda while Josh stayed back in Algo.
Day 8 provided us with some great conditions! We flew from Levante in the morning and went back to Poniente in the evening. As we had to wait for the winds to drop, we ended up being the last ones on Poniente and had the ridge all to ourselves! Joshua, Michal and I were the last three in the air, and we only gave into coming down when the sun got too low. After doing our first tandem at Poniente just over one week ago, it was an amazing feeling to fly here by ourselves!
Day 6 ended our first week of training, with a fantastic evening flight along the ridge of El Bosque, lasting over one hour! When we started this course, I did not think this kind of progress would be possible within just 6 days. And it was only achievable thanks to the experience and support of the awesome boys at Zero Gravity – Jose, Javi, Pablo: thank you so much! This is a day we surely won’t forget. And thanks to all the awesome people flying with us, especially Michal and Khaled!
Hope you enjoy the video. Although it basically shows this one long flight, it gives you a nice idea of the coaching we got while in the air, the beauty of the location, and the joy of finally advancing to flying with friends 🙂
Despite several hours of parawaiting, on Day 5 of our paragliding course with Zero Gravity we had the chance to make some beautiful flights at El Bosque and got to experience thermalling and soaring! Another beautiful day 🙂 Thanks to everyone who was part of it.
Living in a Sandcastle 