Day 69 - Varkala

Last day in Varkala - no rain, yaaay! We have, yet again, spent a significant portion of the day pigging our faces in the german bakery (byebye 4" weight loss). Apple crumble wins hands down...

Richard: This is delicious, this is the best crumble I've ever tasted, no really, its amazing, heyhey did you make this? What is the recipe? Wow, this is great.
Me: darn, now I want some.
Becca: (immediately) excuse me, a piece of your fine apple pie thankyou... 2 spoons...

and so on...

Apparently it's ok to stuff ourselves silly, it's Halloween!

Have booked accommodation in Bangalore (or I think 've booked it- I'm pretty sure the guy on the phone understood me, but hey, in India you never can tell). We have also contacted the friendofafriendwhoisahipproducer. Unfortunately she is on a shoot in Mumbai, but she has given us the mobile numbers of her boyfriend and another mate. So now we could be going for a meal with a boyfriendofafriendofafriend and a whole bunch of people I have an even more tenuous link to - could be funny.

Day 68 - Varkala

Great day of sunshine, sea and sand. Today was the first day since being here that it hasn't rained 90% of the time so B and me hit the beach. Bumped into Richard on the way there, he had just left the ashram the previous day and was looking a bit shell shocked so we dragged him long with us to the beach. I hired a body board and we took it in turns to have the s@$t kicked out of us by the sea (have got a really burned face after too much squinting into the horizon, and so much sea went up my nose it felt as though I had had a marathon neti session).

Yesterday we pulled ourselves together and sorted out our travel plans. On wednesday we are catching a train from Trivandrum to Bangalore - funky modern city extrodinaire. B has a friend of a friend there who is a hip producer or something, so we may meet up with them and go for a meal. The next day we will catch a bus to Mysore, another yoga heaven and apparently a generally nice place. After a few days there we go up to Hampi, a beautiful ruinous city where we can do a bit of sightseeing and stuff. After that we split, B goes west to Goa, and flies out from Mumbai on the 18th or something, and I go further east. I plan to go to pondicherry, a French town south of Chennai, to sample the bakeries and visit the Auroville ashram with its huuuge crystal. I fly out of India from Chennai on the 20th - destination Singapore.

Day 66 - Varkala

Ahh, sweet boredom. Am now relaxing once again in the german bakery after a brief bout of manic exercise this morning.

The coffee yesterday sent my caffeine-starved body into hyperdrive - and I wasn't the only one! At about 5pm yesterday both Becca and I were actually shaking with energy. We went for a brisk walk up and down the cliff path and, when that didn't do much, we actually did the entire 12 sets of Sivananda yoga postures in our room. Madness. It doesn't end there - after a disturbed nights sleep I actually got up at 6.30 this morning for a jog, then went to a yoga class! Unfortunately the class was utterly dreadful (most especially in comparison to the ones at the ashram) and Becca was practically passing out with hunger, so we made our excuses and left after a mere 5 minutes, and got some sweet breakfast. The energetic mood has now passed - I entirely blame my bout of unnecessary activity on the turbo cappucino I had yesterday, and have resolved to switch back to chai.

Ah, I also am hatching plans to create a whole new diet - I call it the India diet, or the 'lose half your body weight down the toilet' diet (sorry). To be honest I really didn't think I'd lost so much, given that I haven't actually got sick yet, but I finally got round to taking my now somewhat baggy jeans and walking trousers to the tailors this morning and I had a bit of a nice suprise, I can tell you. When the bloke got me to put the trousers on and measured exactly how much he had to take them in, each pair had to go in by 4 1/2 inches!! My god. I got him to double check, and it was right. Maybe it's the heat, or all those punishing leg raises and sun salutations at the ashram - who cares, it's all good.

Day 65 - Varkala

Aaah, sweet Verkala, how I missed thy german bakeries and fish restaurants.

Becca and I departed from the ashram this morning for the bus ride to Verkala. We are staying in the same bamboo huts I stayed in before, and have set up shop in the Sun Shine Cafe (german bakery) that it turns out we both spent a significant proportion of our respective visits frequenting. I immediately ordered a cappucino, and scrambled eggs on brown toast (eeeeeggs, real bread - heaven) and made a beeline for the bookshelf. We are now both curled up in the comfy bamboo chairs and ploughing our way through Michael Crighton books (myself Congo and Becca State of Affairs).

Think I left not a moment too soon, ashram was severly infecting my brain and turning me into a pod person (as was confirmed when we both kept bursting into 'Jaya Ganesha' on the bus, then giving each other terrified looks!) Anyway, back in normalcy so all is now good. We plan to chill here for a few days, and on Sunday a whole bunch of people from the ashram are coming to Varanasi, so we can all meet up and go to a random party or something.

Below are some ashram piccies from Becca's camera:

Me being drowned in the waterfall



The health hut crowd



My singing partner Veera on guitar and mad Veronica eating the guitar



Me torturing the health hut with my rendition of House of the rising sun, Veera rocking on the guitar (don't ask, wasn't my idea, blame V)



Becca and Lisa looking all glowing and stuff, the temple



The lovely lake



The usual crowd getting their caffiene fix



Sam, Lise and myself, the wooden palace (ok, so this is not the best picture of me - I'm doing that bleary-eyed face I have a tendancy of pulling when the flash goes off - but good picture of Lise, plus you can see the red smudges of Kumkum on our foreheads)



Food hall - beautiful rice and goo, and sore legs from sitting on floor - I shall miss it (not)



Obligitory naff picture of me in the temple pretending to meditate

Please leave a message after the tone...

Right, this could be the last message I write for a while, tomorrow we are heading for Neyyar Dam, near Trivandrum, to enrol in the Sivananda Yoga Ashram for two weeks.

Unfortunately we are only allowed out on Sundays, so you will have to hang on for a weekly update - though I'm sure it will go on at great lengths about all the wierdos I meet! (That is, unless I cannot handle the 5.30 wake-up - in which case the update may come much sooner!!)

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmm

Day 53 - Verkala

Last day in Verkala and the weather is glorious. I've spent most of the day sat in a german bakery working my way through their book collection and getting jittery on milk-coffee.

It is still quite quiet here in Verkala - have discovered this is mainly due to an outbreak of mosquito-born Chikungunya (or chicken-gunky disease as we call it) in Kerala. Turns out the main hotspot is Alleppey - dur, guess that was why not many travellers were there, why does no one tell us these things?! Seems the whole thing is slightly exaggerated, but they are giving the full works here - mosquito coils, zappers, nets, incense, you name it. So anyhoo, when I awoke this morning with a rash on my face and upper arms, visions of being struck down with chicken-gunky disease gave me the complete be-jeebies... until I remembered I'd bought a new wrap the day before and worn it to dinner. Yeah, guess it was washed in something that I'm somewhat allergic to (poor, sensitive me), hence rash. Whew! Narrow escape (I do have a tendency toward hypochondria when it comes to tropical diseases - let me not even start about the time I was slavered on by a skanky greek dog, and the ensuing rabies-paranoia). Good news is that Chicken-gunky is not fatal, merely excessively painful and yukky... great.

Today is party night in Verkala. Each restaurant has told us, nudge nudge wink wink, that they are having a party with live music - but sssh, it's a secret. Due to strict Keralan licencing laws, pretty much no bars or restaurants have a license - cocktails come in innocent glasses (it's fruit juice - honest) and beer occasionally, and hilariously, comes in teapots. So, I can't quite see how they're going to pull off the all-night drinking without the cops noticing, to be honest. Still, I will attend - it may be amusing!

Day 52 - Verkala

Well, not much to update, apart from that this place is still lush. Finally got round to uploading a few photos...

The girls in Palolem:

Me and Lisa on a looocal bus (looking a bit ikky - it was a long day of local bus travel in hoot weather - ok?)

Cruising down the Keralan backwaters (note embarrasing umbrella to hide from sun)

Some general touristy photos:

Some more at my photobucket site

Day 51 - Verkala

It's official - we've found heaven on earth, it's in India and it is called Verkala (ok - this may be sliight exaggeration, but after the last few roach infested pits this really is nice!)

We went a bit crazy getting here from Kollam, and tried to do it the cheapest way possible - i.e. local buses. The first was fine, but it dropped us off in some random town where no-one spoke any English, and we had to catch another bus to Verkala town. Luckily we managed to find the elusive bus and haul our bags on - but the bus ride was the most humerous to date. All the ladies packed into the front whilst the men packed into the back (definite gender divide), and every time we stopped people would squeeze off, and others squieeze on to take their place. We parked ourselves and our rucksacks in the aisle, and spent the whole ride being thrown forwards or backwards like a sketch in some exaggerated old black-and-white comedy (to the great hilarity of all the cheerful ladies we kept cannoning into). By the end we were clinging, white-knucked, onto seat backs, and almost cried with happiness when the conductor finally told us that it was our stop. Then it was a rickshaw ride up to the accomodation we had randomly chosedn from the Lonely Paranoid. Needless to say said accommodation was grottsville - but across the way was the perfect Kerala Bamboo Village, with huts for 300R per night, and the rest is history.

Verkala is next to the sea, and the bit we are staying in is on a slightly touristy stretch perched on the cliffs overhanging the looong sandy beach. We are staying in a Bamboo hut in aformentioned 'village'. These aren't the grimy, tumbledown type - nooo, these are really classy bamboo huts - pristine showeroom, posh wooden furniture, little porch with a candle and comfy wicker chairs. We are also in a prime location on the cliff top, sandwiched between restaurants and beautiful little shops. In the morning we stop off at sunset cafe for their special 40R deluxe breakfast, then you can potter along to the beach, or go and sit in a cafe and read (lots of bookshops too). In the evening all the restaurants lay the daily catch out on tables infront and vie for your attention (yesterday I had barracuda, and Lisa blue marin, v. tasty indeed!).

We are here for 4 days or so, after which we will head south to Trivanandum then a short Bus trip to Neyyar Dam where we will start the yoga course.

Sod greece, I'm coming here for my summer holidays next year!