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India is a constant reminder for me of how other cultures view women’s rights.

Window at the Hawa Mahal, Jaipur, India By Sonja Bjelland

This ranges from my morning yoga class where some women cannot attend because their mothers-in-law won’t let them wear anything but a sari to being asked my father or husband’s name on a form to buy a cell phone.

Purdah is a Persian word and a concept brought to India about 1000 years ago by Muslim invaders from what is now Turkey and Afghanistan.

Depending on whom you ask, it means to hide women from the lustful eyes of men or to separate men and women, family and society.

At least that’s what the audio guide told me yesterday as I toured the Hawa Mahal, a palace built for the queens and concubines in Jaipur, India.

Tiny windows and marble screens allowed the women to see the festivals and outside on-goings. I thought of Jasmine from Disney’s Aladdin and how she’d never left the palace.

The building went up several floors and some of the women would have been carried on palanquins. And of course, the king had a room there as well – where he could write poetry and be “entertained,” so says the audio guide.

More disturbing though was what I saw at the Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur, India.

After the death of the king, the women of the palace prepared themselves as if for a royal festival. They left their handprints on the side of the gate as they were carried out by palanquins and then died on the funeral pyre.

Handprints at the Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur, India By Sonja Bjelland

It is not a far concept, even today. I see women around, but men make up the majority of who I see on the streets. And in some cases, women continue to have their faces covered, either by a burqa or sheer headscarf. This is especially true in the more conservative areas where I have been traveling west of Delhi. But of course not the national as a whole. I also see women driving mopeds in jeans and T-shirts or saris.

Where I have seen women the most is working in fields or road construction.

I saw a sign that stated “Men at Work” but it was women in glistening saris with pickaxes digging up the road. The same can be seen from a train car while riding across India’s countryside. The men are sitting. The women, again in dazzling saris – green, red pink, edged with metallic thread and bedecked with adornments, griping the shovels.

It has been months since I could just sit.

I have begun my ashram tour and am in much need of my time here. Not only from my weekend trip to Jodhpur, but also from the months leading up to this adventure. I am here now, and yes I have to figure out what I to do next, but I’ve already come this far.

My body also needed some down time. I over did it in Jodhpur, India, as I meandered through narrow city streets up to one of the largest and well-kept palaces remaining on earth.

I forgot I was still sweating until I took my clothes off and realized they were wet. My depleted body needed some time to recover. Fortunately, the ashram has allowed that.

Now staying in an ashram isn’t for everyone and not something to be taken up lightly.

Many require you be a disciple of that guru to stay. More and more they are having young women from the West wanting to stay for yoga classes and then they go sightseeing.

The Yoga in Daily Life, Sri Vishwagurudeep Ashram, in Jaipur, India, is a small place with few people staying here and it is an outpost of a larger ashram that is about 6 hours away. And I won’t lie, it’s not a palace. The beds are thin mattresses on wooden slat frames. There is not hot water but right now it’s so hot outside that I don’t need it and that’s down right amazing for me. I also don’t think my grandmothers would think I did a good job hand washing my clothes but at least they’re more clean then they were.

While it doesn’t have many Westerners, it does serve the local community that attends 6 a.m. yoga classes and an evening prayer service.

Last night, I attended the service that mostly includes singing mantras. The leader in the local ashram, Swami Gyaneshwar, has been kind enough to answer my questions – after years as a newspaper reporter I have many. The group also sings songs while seated in a circle, some of which tell a parable to bring home concepts such as not letting life pass you by.

With drums, small cymbals and a tambourine type device, the children and adults created a choir of sound. I was honored to sit among them even if I could not understand what they were singing, the sound created beauty.

This morning, I sprung out of bed for the 6 a.m. yoga class. While almost impossible for me in the states, jetlag makes it easier for me to get up that early in India. But until my first cup of chai after class I was still dragging.

Part of the yoga class in India resembled those I have attended in the states. But we also did 20 minutes of yogic pranayama breathing. In this case, we breathed in one side of the nose and out the other and then reversed course. The point is to make you focus on your breathing while saying a mantra to yourself – “so” on the inhale and “ham” on the exhale. Then as thoughts come up you tell them to go away.

Twenty minutes felt like an eternity because I have not meditated for so long. In the past, I would send away thoughts about what to fix for dinner or my to do list. This morning, I realized that the thoughts I need to send away include “oh, my back hurts” or “oh, my arm hurts.”

Then we went into a set of asanas or poses that would be familiar to anyone who has attended a yoga class. In this case, Yoga in Daily Life has a set series of poses and then they are reversed. After class, I studied their book and was reminded of why I like sitting in these yoga places. I’m a thinker and while I can think too much, I know I still have some things to think about.

In travel, especially by yourself, you can watch how you interact with different people. The people you meet on the road don’t know you or your past so you can become someone new if you so choose or find out how you act when you have no pretense. That can be an incredibly powerful way to see how the brain works and what changes different people bring about in you.

Soon I will be heading to my first ashram in India.

But first I’ve been doing some sightseeing.

Elephant on the streets of Jaipur, India By Sonja Bjelland

No, traveling in India is not for everyone. India is yoga itself. When the poses become difficult and I have to think about holding the pose correctly and just breathing, that’s when I forget the mind chatter and whatever happened in my day. That’s when I’m most present in the pose.

India creates a similar result. It takes so much to prepare just to go out on the street. Small bills for a rickshaw. Passport. Hotel address. Courage to know that I can convince a driver to take me back to the hotel from wherever I end up.

But I have seen camels, monkeys and elephants and that was today alone.

I am in the city of Jaipur and took the Ashram Express train from Delhi to get here. Not exactly Amtrak, but I was in the air-conditioned car and could manage for a few hours.

In town, the local tourism office organizes bus tours making it easy to see the all the sites. This is where royalty remains king. Relatives of the last Maharaja still have ties to the city and all the sites revolve around this history. The forts and palaces reveal what life would have been like with the king’s harem of women watching the on-goings from behind marble-carved walls. Museums include battle armor and weapons from the many wars.

After one more sightseeing trip I’ll be reporting back on ashram life. But why come to India if you can’t see at least a few elephants in the street.

The Ganges River is considered holy water in India and what gives life can also take away.

I was supposed to be on my way to the river city of Rishikesh on Monday. But the floods worsened and I decided it was safer to stay in Delhi. The TV stations have shown photos of a raging river and residents in boats trying to leave. A 10-foot-tall statue of Shiva that marked the holy town also is floating down the river.

I went to the office for foreigners at the New Delhi train station today and asked about service to Rishikesh. “Not good,” was the only reply.

Spending more time in Delhi was not my plan, and quite frankly I don’t recommend it. Delhi is like Lima for Machu Pichu visitors – a stop over to a nicer place. I had planned only a couple days in Delhi so I could quickly get to Rishikesh where I would have more Westerners, laundry services and a daily dose of yoga.

Instead, I’ve tried to take advantage of my time in Delhi and caught a local yoga class Monday night.

Finding a class I could take turned out to be quite an undertaking. Many yoga places in Delhi do not have a schedule online so I had to call them.  Then several did not have someone who spoke English, even if their website was in English. Others only had classes first thing in the morning or at 5 p.m., which doesn’t work for me because for safety reasons I try to be back at my hotel by sundown at 6:30 p.m.

I finally found the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Nataraja Centre. They have a drop-in class schedule online and charge 250 rupees/$5.50 per class. I built up my courage and finally tried the Delhi Metro, which is nice and even air conditioned. The Centre can be tough to find so it’s best to call in advance for some tips. My rickshaw driver just kept asking until we found it.

On my mat, I felt at home again. I happily rested and felt my body sinking into the floor. The class started with Pranayama breathing, a series of exercises that regulate breathing. Then we went in to all that I was familiar to me – downward dogs, forward folds and child pose.

The room was not as sterile as is typical in the U.S. but the open doors let me hear the falling rain. The poses were the same and the yogis were too. People laughed when our teacher made us hold a pose for a long time or tried to get us to do something difficult. I also met a few other yogis and I enjoyed having company on my trek back to the hotel.

It had been weeks since my last formal yoga class and I really needed it. My body and mind felt better and I am making decisions about rerouting my entire trip because of the flooding.

I still can’t believe I’m here.

Yes, I know that’s my laundry hanging in the bathroom, but it’s still sinking in.

So far my biggest difficulty has been not making eye contact with people. Apparently some men consider that to mean you’re interested. No, no I’m not. Look at my fake wedding band and believe me.

As an American I don’t think we realize how ingrained in us that is until you need to stop. Hopefully today sunglasses will help.

Last night, I wandered a couple blocks from my hotel to buy a couple tunic-type shirts to appear my appropriate. They were sold without sleeves attached leading me on another journey to visit a tailor and have the sleeves attached. One of the guys in the shop spoke a little English and we attempted to have a conversation while I waited.

The streets around my hotel are small, but my no means quiet. The swank lobbies open up to a street of potholes and spotty pavement. The air smells like a garbage fire – more acrid than a brush fire and without the sweet smell of a campfire. It almost burns your nose.

Fortunately, that smell stops upon entering the hotel. By no means a palace, but it offers surprisingly hot showers and slow, but useable wifi so I can keep updating.

If a journey begins with one step, tomorrow I’m putting my shoes on.

When I post Thursday, it will be from Delhi.

On BlissPassport, I’ll be letting you know about my travels in India and beyond.

I’ll be spending time in a variety of ashrams from Rishikesh in the north to Kerala in the south. But I don’t want to isolate myself in ashrams because there is so much more to see.

So I plan to hit the major sites such as the Taj Mahal and maybe see some elephants. OK maybe a camel too.

From overnight trains to ayurvedic massages, I am aiming to provide honest and interesting insights.

I’m also looking forward to what you all have to say, so join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter or on this site to follow along on my crazy, wonderful, magnificent, adventure.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

Yoga and traveling can sometimes be done together for fun or necessity.

A windmill off I-40 by Sonja Bjelland

Sometimes the yoga is required because of the traveling.

Take, for example, my recent trek 1,997 miles across the U.S. in my pickup.

This required twice-daily poses called thread-the-needle, which stretches the hips and piriformis muscle. Then there was another round of light twists to save my lower back.

Sometimes those occurred in hotel rooms but I was not below stretching out in a gas station parking lot.

But one woman on the road in an RV has found a few novel ways to continue her yoga practice.

The Ramblin’ Man blog on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s site shows her in lotus position on the RV’s table.

But as us yogis and yoginis know – we wouldn’t let something like a crowded RV stop us from a few poses.

For me Labor Day marks the speeding up to the end of the year.

Weekends steadily become busier until Halloween and then it’s a straight rush until Christmas and New Year’s Day.

This in between time is also a good time to make travel plans thereby forcing you to take a yoga break. Pre-holiday yoga vacations may seem to cut into that limited time for cookie baking and present buying. Then again a trip to Mexico or India would take care of presents.

Whatever kind of trip, it should leave you more relaxed to tackle whatever else the holidays require. But a yoga retreat might give you some pause about what you really want from the holidays.

Or you could plan a post-holiday yoga vacation to re-center yourself after the indulgences of the holidays.

Tourism groups are marketing such trips more and I wrote about some offerings several months ago. But now you can actually buy the tickets or sign up for that yoga retreat so you have no excuse but to go.

For more of a getaway, the Milan, Italy, YogaFestival takes place in early October. I’d love to see what the Italians bring to yoga.

Or the Hotel Eco Paraiso in Mexico is having Kundalini yoga master Jai Hari Singh visiting from Mexico City between November and January. Several workshops are planned at the hotel in the Yucatan for those looking to escape the hustle and bustle that will be the U.S. during those months. While this would be a warm and transforming trip, I’d suggest it only for those who have taken Kundalini classes in the U.S. and are familiar with this style of yoga.

How quickly September arrived. But with it comes cooler temperatures and free yoga.

Yoga Month has been building steam and events are being held across the country to celebrate yoga.

In the LA area, the month kicked off with the premier of Titans of Yoga, a documentary with interviews from today’s yoga leaders.

But more events are happening in Branson, Mo., Nashville, Tenn., and many other cities big and small.

Some places are even having entire days of free yoga classes. For Austin, Dallas and Houston that’s Sept. 6 and for Los Angeles and Philadelphia that’s Sept. 25. The Yoga Health Foundation’s Yoga Month website provides a searchable list of where the events will take place.

It’s a great way to try a new studio or that class you always wondered about. If you’re into power yoga, maybe try a restorative class or flip that around.

But these events aren’t just for current yogis. A survey done last year by Yoga Alliance looked at Americans’ perceptions of yoga and showed that yoga practitioners are the best ones to talk about the reality of yoga and increase participation.

“A majority of Americans who do not currently practice yoga (57%) – 63% of men and 51% of women – think that ‘yoga requires mantras or chanting that are about worship,’” the survey stated. Other misperceptions include thinking yoga requires flexibility and that it’s not a real workout.

At least other events are spread throughout the year to also garner interest in yoga and remind us to get back to the mat if we haven’t been practicing.

Yoga Day USA is held annually in January and D.C. Yoga Week will have yogis downward doging on the National Mall in May.