The Mysterious East

Yoga: its acolytes profess its ability to impart peace of mind, immortality, magical powers, extreme sexual stamina, and/or nice triceps; however, it does not, apparently, offer protection from the common cold. Where I picked up this delightful illness is uncertain, though if I were a betting sort of girl I'd put my money on the Yogashala itself, since both of the presiding teachers have been sick and the combined breathing and sweating of 60 or so ardent and tightly-packed yogis gives the practice room a moist, warm atmosphere that I can only imagine strikes cold viruses as heaven (or, perhaps, samadhi) itself.

I am pretty tired of blowing my nose at this point, but perks of the cold include discovering this fabulous product while I was assembling the ingredients for tea:






















Coorg Honey. Coorg is a region about two hours from Mysore in the lovely Western Ghats, mountains known for their old growth jungle. Todd and I actually visited a working coffee plantation/guest house about a week ago. It was stunningly beautiful:















While there we also learned that if one is hiking in a leech-infested area, the leeches will always attack the second passer-by, having been alerted to the presence of nice, warm fresh blood by the first creature to pass through their lair. This was a somewhat more painful lesson for Todd than for me given his location in our little trekking party of two, though I was given ample opportunity to hone my leech removal skills. Note: mighty Dettol is your secret weapon.

But the Coorg honey is worthy of blogging not for its Coorg pedigree, but rather, because it is, as the label tells us, "coorg ahimsak madhu"









Or Coorg non-violent honey. The residents of Coorg, themselves not only non-veg but actually consumers of (da-da-da-dum) pork are, one suspects, pandering to the Jain mafia. Or perhaps the vegetarian yoga student mafia. Hard to say. But in any case, apparently nary a honeybee was harmed to bring us this Coorg honey. Though I suspect a few leeches were trampled during the extraction process.