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The last leg - India and home

Just before the 41st IVU World Vegfest, Malaysia, 2013, will be a Vegan Festival in India.

Anyone thinking of making the stopover might like to see the one I went to in 2010 - that one was called a 'Vegetarian Congress' but was of course a Vegan Festival - we've given up on all that since 2010 for the global events, and just call them Vegfests....

Thursday, October 28, 2010 - back on AirAsia again, from Malaysia, to Bangalore, India. Next day a few of us went to a press conference across the city, we were a little early so we convened an outdoor international meeting.

Standing in photo below is Shankar Narayan, President of the Indian Vegan Society, and IVU Regional Representative:

bangalore

Then we went into the Press Club of Bangalore, on the multi-national panel were Colin (New Zealand), Marly (Brazil), Shankar (India), Sandhya (Dubai,UAE), Mohana (Malaysia) and me (UK).

The Veg Congress itself was for two days, Sat/Sun October 30/31. We had a great range of speakers from many countries, on a wide variety of topics, all of it at the superb E-Inn - a completely vegetarian and very high quality hotel. They laid on a special vegan buffet for the two days, though most of the food in the main dining room is vegan anyway.

I did my talk to start things off, followed by Sandhya Prakash (below left) from Dubai UAE, a member of the IVU Council looking after the SW Asia (Middle East) part of the Congress. She gave an enlightening talk about the activities in the region.

On the right are Mohan Santhanam and his musicians, who gave a truly inspiring performance at the end of the afternoon, they had me totally engrossed for one and half hours:

congress

Monday, November 1 - World Vegan Day – some of us from the congress took a tour in a bus. In the morning we went to the Botanic Gardens where we found a new recruit for the group, along with more wildlife:

botanic dance
Then to the Green Path eco-hotel for lunch, as most of us were staying there that night. In the afternoon to an organic farm, out in the countryside an hour to the west of Bangalore.

The plan was to have a vegan day party, with music dancing and dinner in a small outdoor amphitheatre, but it rained... so we got wet looking around the farm and squeezed into a covered balcony for the music and dancing.

The highlight was the young lady on the right who performed several traditional dances, despite the small space she had available.

Tuesday November 2 - the end of the five week trek through Jakarta and Bali, Indonesia; Central Coast, Sydney, Canberra and Gold Coast; Australia; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and finally Bangalore, India.

Then the long haul back home for a few weeks with my ever-patient wife Hazel - it felt like going home for a holiday before setting off on the IVU trail again to Nairobi and Dubai in December.

So if you want to visit India, consider a few days en route to the 41st IVU World Vegfest in Malaysia. The Vegan Festival in India will be Fri-Sun, September 27-29, 2013, plus a local day tour on the Monday. One of the accommodation options is a great looking beach resort, so you might want to go earlier and spend a few days there. More details of everything at www.worldvegfest.org/index.php/blogs/congress-vegfest-updates/71-41st-ivu-congess-vegfest-malaysia-october-2013

For vegan history, see my free e-book: ‘World Veganism – past, present and future.” You can download it for free, or replace your existing copy at: www.ivu.org/history/Vegan_History.pdf  (7mb)

IVU on Facebook: www.facebook.com/InternationalVegUnion

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