Yoga in Jakarta

Ever sweat so much that when you bend down to tie your shoe, sweat drips on to the ground? Yeah, I thought I would never experience that either, but this week I went to my first yoga class in Jakarta. Yoga has not quite taken Jakarta by storm, but in the south of the city in an area called Kemang, the foreigners have rallied and opened a couple small studios. Finding a class for me was hard as most of the westerners who are attracted to yoga here are the wives of men that work and have the maid cook dinner and the driver take them shopping, i.e. they have a lot of time on their hands and take classes at all hours of the day that us working people cannot make. Finally I found Studio 42 that, although they specializes in Bikram (hot) yoga, has a Power Yoga class at 6:45 PM. Somewhat reasonable for us working folks and I have done Power Yoga before so I felt like I knew what I was getting into. It took a while to get there and find the place, but once there it was a little yoga oasis. Soothing music and all. Classes are not cheap, being centered in Jakarta costs a pretty penny, but they give out plenty of towels and free mats, so I was in. After about 5 minutes on my mat waiting for class to start I realized what the 42 in Studio 42 stands for – 42 degrees and that is 42 degree Celsius (for those of you who are not experts at the conversion to Fahrenheit that is really freaking hot.) Since this was Power yoga, they cooled the room to a comfortable 35 (still freaking hot) but I had not done one downward dog and I was already sweating. 90 minutes later I looked like I had spent way too long in the shvitz. My tank top was drenched and my yoga pants looked like I put them on after getting out of the pool without drying off. Totally gross and and next time I will have my own mat (lord only knows how many people sweat like I did that day on that mat) but there will be a next time. I might have been sweaty, stinky and horribly dehydrated, but I was centered and that was the point…wasn’t it?