By joyoftravel.ca news services
India is the birthplace of yoga, and now a Vancouver travel company is offering a tour designed especially for people who are interested in yoga.
 The Yoga & Spirituality Tour of South India will include excursions to some of the holiest and most ancient Hindu temples. These include the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai, where visitors may be blessed by a sacred elephant, and the Brihadeshwara Temple in Thanjavur, a UNESCO world heritage monument displaying remarkable feats of architecture including a 216-foot high tower.
On most of the 16-days there will be either a morning or evening yoga session led by Michelle Labelle, a Certified Hatha Yoga teacher from Vancouver who has been studying meditation and energy work since 1996, following 16 years as a Respiratory Therapist.
Accommodations include luxury beachfront hotels on the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, a 100 year old heritage home set in a coconut grove, a houseboat in Kerala, and a former 17th century Dutch fort.
 "This tour was designed to utilize yoga to open the seven major energy enters of the body so participants can feel rejuvenated and reborn," said Helen Tomei, president of Sacred Earth Journeys, the travel company offering the program. "Practicing yoga in the place where it was born -- the vibrant cities, lush rainforests, scenic beaches and serene gardens of South India -- will lift our spirits to new heights, so we can feel at one with the universe and our authentic selves."
The itinerary also features a visit to Kanchipuram, the "Golden City of a Thousand Temples", some of which date back to the 7th century, tours of the experimental utopian community of Auroville and the nearby Aurobindo Ashram, and a boat ride to a tiger reserve renowned for its rare and endangered plants and animals.
Dates for the tour are February 13 to 28, 2010, with an optional four-day extension at the Krishnatheeram Resort and Ayurvedic Centre in Varkala.
Contact: Helen Tomei, President, Sacred Earth Journeys Ltd., 1-877-874-7922; www.SacredEarthJourneys.ca. |
