Day 5.

"Everybody look so happy today!" Maybe it was because Bikram promised an 89 minute Beginner's class and he actually came through right on time instead of the usual 2 long hours. Yet again there was not even a glimmer of carpet between mats - "I know there not much room, just don't make person next to you pregnant without their permission".

All week Bikram has been telling us that we have to flush the toilet every day and reminding us how bad it is that some people don't flush the toilet for 20 years. Well, we have been flushing the toilet twice a day for the last five days. This is what the towel bin looks like after class each day full of 580 towels:

Lucky this isn't smell-o-vision. The cloying reek of Bikram Yoga stench has reached beyond the ballroom - it can be smelt in the reception foyer. I wonder what they are going to do with the carpet. While the Beginner's class is practiced on a mat so there was some protection, the Advanced class was either directly on the carpet or on a towel. I hope that there are no weddings scheduled in the immediate future.

Last night we stayed up late to go to movie night. Bikram is an insomniac who firmly believes that people only need a couple of hours sleep and one meal a day. The ballroom morphed from torture chamber to cinema (yes, smell and all). We were subjected to a Bollywood romance. At 12.15am we snuck out - just after the hero and heroine were rescued from a remote island (think Indian version of the Blue Lagoon yet of course there wasn't even kissing) and the herione was about to be banished........to New Zealand. I wonder how it ended.

Home tomorrow!

R