Beach, Bliss, Beach

  By the time we reached the end of our planned stay at Amritapuri, we all agreed that we would love to stay longer. It truly is the most peaceful, loving, spiritual place I’ve ever been. I know that I will go back at some point in my life, and for a longer period. I only hope that I can retain some of the pure bliss that filled each and every day there, and was only growing stronger. Alas, we had another overnight train booked, and would never get another one within the time frame we had to work with. I was also excited to get back to a beach where we could swim and shed a few layers of clothing, so we reluctantly packed our bags, cleaned our room, said some goodbyes (always met with a knowing look-‘You’ll be back…’), and took a rickshaw to the train station, returning to the ‘real’ world. The journey was quick and painless, and as I practiced meditating on the train, 45 minutes passed in the blink of an eye.

Not a single nail! A rare example of a dying art.

  While there is no beach at Cochin, I was looking forward to visiting one of the most important ports from the spice trading days.  Fort Cochin was a Portuguese settlement until being taken over by the Dutch East India Company in 1683. Saint Francis Church, built in 1516, was where Vasco da Gama was originally buried, and has some fascinating inscriptions chiseled into the stone. This area was central to the pepper and cinnamon trade that inspired the very beginnings of global trade, eventually suffering a near collapse after an outbreak of the Plague. We really enjoyed our time here, possibly because of the return to a more flavorful diet, but it was a very relaxed place. We wandered along the shore, did some souvenir shopping (we must have still been blissed out!), and surfed the internet from the comfort of our bed. There was a nice quiet rooftop for morning yoga and afternoon meditation, and the ‘homestay’ prepared a massive breakfast of toast, eggs, fruit, and coffee. On the way back to the train station, we took advantage of the commercial district on the mainland, stocking up on cash from an ATM with a limit higher than $200, and treating ourselves to lunch at Pizza Hut.

  Everything has been going so smoothly, it’s almost unnerving. Even though we were still on the waitlist, we found our seats had been confirmed, the train was arriving at platform 1, so we didn’t need to hike up and over the walkway in the scorching afternoon heat, and the train left right on time. More meditation, I finished yet another novel, ate some tasty train food, and drifted off to sleep. The only downside to this journey is that our train was due to arrive at 04:30, so I set my alarm for 4AM, not wanting to miss our stop. The morning had gotten surprisingly cool, with a steady wind dropping down from the mountains to the east. Reaching up to 2500 meters, this area is a popular summer getaway for the wealthy in the north, where temperatures are over 40 degrees Celsius. Just before our stop, we entered a long tunnel, the first I’ve ever seen in India, the air suddenly warm and humid again.

  It’s a good thing we were ready to go, because the train only stops for a few minutes at the smaller stations, and no sooner than we had all hopped down onto the platform, the train started pulling away. I thought we might have to spend a few hours at the station, waiting for the town to wake up, but there had been one other tourist on the platform, heading north, so his rickshaw driver was waiting around in case someone got off. Another first, his auto rickshaw had doors! We piled our bags onto the roof-rack, piled in, and with a strange sense of disbelief, closed the door behind us. Even though we half-heartedly haggled in the cool, predawn silence outside the station, we still paid too much for the two kilometer ride down to the beach. It was still only 05:30, so our only greeting was from the dozen stray dogs that surrounded us, barking and sniffing. Eventually they lost interest, and we dropped into some deserted wicker lounge chairs, waiting for the sun to rise so we could find a hotel and restaurant.

  We chose to come to Patnem,  the quieter of the two beaches in the area, and so our options were fairly limited. There are only a dozen or so ‘resorts’ on the beach, each with a thatched roof restaurant/bar in front, and various levels of luxury offered in the huts tucked behind. None of them opened until 8:00, so we had lots of time to watch the surf and work up an appetite. There were several that had signs for free WiFi, so we moved our bags closer and waited for them to open. We ended up staying at the resort that opened first, getting a great end-of-season rate for a room, since all the restaurants have similar prices. It worked out well, because this place has the best food. It’s a very laid back place, but the food is possibly the best we’ve had anywhere in India. This is truly the end of the season, and only a few places are still open, the rest are literally disappearing, slowly being dismantled and carted away. Since this is going to be our last chance to just relax on the beach, we have really shifted (stayed?) into low gear. We have spent day after hazy day eating, swimming, doing yoga, meditating to the crashing of the waves, and surfing the internet, planning out some details of the remainder of the trip.

  We will be very busy for the last 8 weeks of the journey, with a couple more UNESCO sites to visit in India, our African safari, a trip up Kilimanjaro (while the girls volunteer near Dar Es Salaam), a week in Egypt, and a whirlwind tour of Europe. Su wants to spend time with friends and family in the UK, while I plan on seeing as much as I can, having never been to Europe. I’ll fly from London to Paris, get a museum pass and rent a bike, then storm the city for three days, fueled by coffee, cheese and baguette; no whining, no compromise, just plenty of iconic landmarks, before hopping on an overnight bus to Amsterdam for more of the same. Our friend and housemate from Salleri, Vincent, lives an hour away, so hopefully we can spend a day cycling around The Hague. I found a cheap flight to Edinburgh that happens to have a 17 hour layover in Copenhagen;  plenty of time to wander the old city and the waterfront, before returning to the airport and finally meeting up with the girls at Tanya and John’s place in Scotland. We’ll still have time to do some camping and enjoy a few pints before heading back to London and our flight home. Yup, still a few things on the agenda. This has already been an amazing trip, it’s hard to believe there is still so much to come! 

Don't know what they've got onboard, but there's a lot of it!

Train to Kochi, Train to Goa, Train to True Self

Beach at Fort Cochin

Traveling to and staying at Fort Cochin (called Kochi on the map) was an effortless transition after our three weeks in the ashram. Since it was a Tuesday, there were no yoga classes, so instead, before breakfast we made the trek via local bus back to Dolphin Beach. We were in luck- dolphins were playing off the point this time. After a last communal curry breakfast we shouldered our bags, walked over the backwaters via the Setu Bridge, jumped in a taxi and made the train we wanted. (It helped that the train was late)To our delight, it was an express train, so the transit took one hour instead of the anticipated three. 

Waiting for the train

When we got off the train in Eranakulam Jnc, we stepped outside to find a tut tut to take us across two peninsulas or islands to the older and more picturesque Fort Cochin. This is usually the time for the ‘race to the tourist to get commission on a hotel’ game with the drivers. I couldn’t have been more surprised to see a quiet line up of taxis next to a queue of people waiting to get a ticket from a booth. You tell the booth person where you want to go, he prints you out a receipt with price on it, you load into the taxi that is first in line, and pay him the price on the ticket. No haggling, no games. Relief!

We weren’t sure where we wanted to stay, so when we got to the tourist area of the Fort Cochin, our driver pulled over so I could check out one place, but it was closed. An older gentleman ushered the taxi driver and myself down a small lane to look at his place, but it seemed quite far as the man hustled way ahead, so we stopped following him and got back into the taxi. Another gentleman showed up and said his hotel was just around the corner. The driver took us there, then waited while Heath and Raven took a look at the place. The price was right and the hotel was impeccably clean.  Room rentals in this area are called Home Stays. This place was called Christ Ville, reflecting the large amount of Christians in the area. The rooms were above the family’s main floor, with outside access steps and a roof top patio. Home Stays are much like B & B’s, but the delicious breakfast wasn’t included.  

Dutch Graveyard in Fort Cochin. Can see the European Influance

Reflecting on our travel day, l wonder how much of our painless travel and accommodations-securing was due to our tolerance and spiritual growth gained from the ashram experience. You receive what you ‘put out’ type karma. Or, was it easy because people are just so laid back in Kerala? Whatever it is- I appreciate it. Sometimes realizations occur slowly. Where was it exactly when the touts, tut tut drivers and shopkeepers started to give us so little attention? Tamil Nadu? Kerala? Are people just too hot and laid back to doggedly chase the tourist rupee here? Is it us? Has our outlook on life shifted that much?

After a two nights in Kochi/Cochin, sightseeing, readjusting to non-ashram life, catching up with family over skype and finalizing travel plans, we went back to the station to board an overnight sleeper train to our next beach destination, the state of Goa, specifically a quiet beach called Paladin, on the south west coast.

With the abundant amount of train travel we have done in India, and with three more overnight sleepers booked to see us through to our fly-out destination of Mumbai , I wanted to share more details about our train experiences.

This is what the Indian Railway (IRTC) has to say about itself:

“The Indian Railways are the principle mode of transportation for freight and passengers in India, while playing an important role in the development of industries and agriculture. Indian Railways has had the distinction of being one of the biggest and busiest rail networks in the world. It operates 9,000 passenger trains and transports 18 million passengers every day. The Indian Railway employs approximately 1.4 million people. The Indian Railways has been serving the people of India with utmost pride for more than two centuries. It was in 1851 the first train journey was made in India, for transferring construction material to Rorkee. The first passenger train journey became operational between Bori Bunder, Bombay and Thane, covering a distance of 21 miles, thus marking the formal birth of the rail network in India.

The Indian Railways network binds the social, cultural and economical fabric of the country and covers the whole country ranging from north to south and east to west removing the distance barrier for its people. The railway network of India has brought together the whole of country hence creating a feeling of unity among Indians.”

 

As you can imagine, this is a huge system to navigate. We have been purchasing tickets on line through an associated ticket site and sometimes from travel agents. Everyone takes a small commission. Tickets can be bought in a station, but you have to know where you want to go ahead of time as most of the smaller stations don’t have specific tourist travel planning agents.

We have always tried to cover our distances with the basic but comfortable second class sleeper trains. In the daytime, the top of the three tiered bunks is permanent, while the lower acts as a day seat and the middle one as backrest. The backrest flips up and is secured by hanging chains when it is decided to be turned into sleeping bunks. During the day, three people can sit along each seat, although four could fit comfortably. On the other side of the isle are two more seats. They are facing seats in the daytime, with a permanent upper bunk and a convertible lower one. Ample baggage space is located under all the seats. You bring your own bedding and there are no separation curtains in this class. Fans and lights are accessible by switch. There are no garbage cans, people throw their trash out the window, or sometimes leave it on the floor. I have found the trains to be cleaner the more south we go. There are a few creepy crawlies. It is not unusual to see a small cockroach or mouse scuttle by.

Sleeping Princess

 

 

Toilets (Western and Indian) with sinks are found at either end of the train car. These also have been much cleaner the further south we travel. A third wash basin is located in the entrance way. Raven and I much prefer taking the train over a bus, specifically for these features! The train is also cooler, having no glass windows to heat up, and we can move around if we get too fidgety.  Heath has to sleep on the uppermost bunk, as he is too long for the berths. If he is in a middle or bottom bunk, his feet that hang over the edge will invariably get knocked when someone walks by. 

My favourite train amenity is the chai guys that walk up and down the aisles calling, “Chai”,”Coffee”, “Chai”.  A small cup of hot chai costs 7 Rs s. The masala chai isn’t offered much in this part of India, so I purchased some finely ground masala spice at the eco shop in the ashram. You stir the premixed spices into tea, so now we can have a masala chai whenever it isn’t offered! (Or, save a whole 10 cents every time we order milk tea instead of masala chai in a restaurant! Think of the savings!) Dinner and meals are also served on the train, as well as snacks. There is generally a pantry car where I think things are cooked up fresh. This trip the dinner guy came around and we ordered 2 vegi meals, not knowing what they would be, or how much they cost. We were served really hot and tasty rice with vegies for 50 Rs each.

 Raven has been doing really well traveling. She enjoys the food and deals with the heat better than I do, proud of the fact that she has acclimatized. She has settled into the inevitable: we are traveling for 9 months. Her previous anger of being taken away from her friends has tempered. This must also be due to knowing she is on the ‘home stretch’. By the time I post this, we will have just under 2 months left. She maintains as much communication as possible with home by chatting with friends over the internet. One of our greatest fears before we left was worrying about her security. We joked about having her on a leash at all times in India. Those worries have been unfounded. We feel so safe here. Africa and Egypt will keep us on our toes again!  

Raven enjoyed the time at the Amritapuri Ashram. It was quiet, hence no kids, but she enjoyed swimming daily and learnt a new skill of book binding and covering. Our SEVA was art based- covering prayer books with sari material, photos of Amma and ribbon, after we had made the covers and inside covers. These beautiful prayer books are available for sale in many languages. Each batch will be sent overseas to a different country and meet up with Amma’s North American or European tour. 

One of the covered Prayer Books

I wonder what it must be like for Raven to have parents that are actively trying to change their lives for the better. Her rebellion so far has looked like: "I'm an Athiest." Seriously, how can a kid rebel against her parents when she can see them trying so had to be better people? Stupid question. She'll find a way! This trip has shifted into (or maybe always was) a spiritual journey.  Heath and I have been continuing our yoga and meditation practice since leaving Amma’s. We want to give more space for gratitude, reflection and loving in our lives.    Namaste

It's Darkest Just Before the Dawn

  Ahhh Varkala, another vacation from our vacation. Nothing like India at all, we could have been in Mexico, except for the festivals. We even had to walk for 15 minutes to find some authentic Indian food. I just love the way they make paratha down south. In Nepal, it was a thick potato filled pancake, but here, it’s more like a flat croissant. And our newest discovery, masala dosa! I can’t believe we hadn’t been gorging on these sooner. Basically a huge crepe, rolled up with curry potato inside. So good! Strange that I’m raving about Indian food now that we’ve been indulging our western tastes. Su has mentioned the amazing Coffee Temple, which has real coffee, and delicious, if expensive, western breakfasts. I would usually go and ‘visit’ Su and Raven for a latte, and then go down the path a little ways for a 100 rupee set breakfast. For less than $2, it would include a Nescafe, fruit salad, thick sliced toast, and a tomato omelette. Then I would spend 1-1 ½ hours bodysurfing, before the first shower of the day. Surfing the patchy WiFi would then be alternated with reading my way through the stash of books I’ve been lugging around. By then, Raven would be back, and we quickly found a favorite lunch spot, the Sky Lounge. It would usually have WiFi, but most importantly, amazing chicken sandwiches. After the return to carnivorous life in Pondicherry, I ended up having a chicken sandwich with fries nearly every day we were in Varkala. After lunch, we would just lay around in the shade, hopefully with the fan on, or at least a decent breeze, because the 35 degree heat was registering as 48 on the humidex.  That’s even too hot to swim. Seriously, I would be overheating while swimming in the ocean. We’d usually wait until around 4:30-5, and then swim until the sun dropped into the waves. Raven is a very strong swimmer, and has really taken to bodysurfing with me. Su doesn’t like the pounding of the surf, but Raven has become adept at ducking under the worst of the surf, and catching waves whenever possible. It can get pretty rough, and anyone who has surfed, or tried, knows what it’s like to be rag-dolled by a huge wave. Even while ducking under some monstrous waves, I have been picked up off the bottom and stuffed into the washing machine a few times, and the course sand is quick to take skin samples from elbows and knees. Raven even did a face-plant, leaving her with some battle wounds on her chin and cheek.

  After the second round of showers, we’d head out for dinner. Unless we were going into the village for Indian, we would walk along the path, admiring the amazing selection of fresh fish on display. There was marlin, mahi-mahi, tuna, snapper, crabs, octopi, massive prawns and many more I didn’t recognize, including two different types of shark. Any kind of western food is available, from chocolate brownies to pizza and pasta. With Su and Raven eating their fill of fruit salads, juice and beans and eggs on toast for free at Coffee Temple, we were still managing to keep to a budget, even with the relatively high tourist prices. Beer and ice cream were occasional treats that we couldn’t resist, especially considering the resort spirit of the place.

  We managed to spend a full two weeks doing a whole lot of nothing. Well, I don’t really consider three hours of swimming a day ‘doing nothing’, but the days certainly started to blur together. The festivities leading up to Holi were a welcome diversion from our laziness. The temple was right across from the best Indian restaurant around, providing a great opportunity to watch fireworks and listen to music over dinner. Some of the fireworks were insane! I actually hid behind the corner of a building as a violent series of explosions erupted very close to me. It started as a roar of small firecrackers, but quickly progressed into detonations that I could feel in my chest, and when they started to become painfully loud and outrageously powerful, I found myself fearing for my safety. I got it all on video, so you don’t need to take my word for it. I can’t wait to play that clip back on the 1000 watt Hi Def system! I also recorded some of the seemingly endless live music blaring out of the speakers at the temple. The final day and night of the Holi festival are full of festivities.  Holi is the ‘Festival of Colour’, the day people throw colored water and powder at each other. It’s fairly subdued in the south, which is alright by me, because it can get really crazy further north, and most tourists end up covered from head to toe with every colour of the rainbow. This seems like a lot of fun, until you start to consider what most of the commercial dye powders are made of, and read about the high rate of eye and skin irritation. There was a ‘club’ that was giving out powder after 9:00, but we didn’t go out again after the parade. We had planned to head back down to the temple to watch the fireworks, but they were so random and sporadic, that we didn’t bother. Considering how small Varkala town is, the parade was pretty elaborate. Su described the parade, and I’ll post some pictures here, too. The fully costumed characters were amazing, especially considering that they were all men. No wonder transvestites are so accepted here. I was definitely disappointed that we missed the elephants. Kerala is known for colorful festivals, some of which involve up to 60 elephants. Timing is everything, especially in India, which brings us to Amma.

  We delayed our trip to the Amritapuri ashram to enjoy Holi, and Amma left on her tour of south India the day before we arrived. Her full name is Mata Amritanandamayi, also  known as ‘The Hugging Mother’. She is one of India’s few female gurus, and often holds ‘darshan’ where she hugs thousands of people in a continuous sitting, going up to 22 hours without a single break. She is said to have turned a bowl of water into milk pudding, after being pressed to prove her powers as a young girl. Of course, the biggest question from her devotees is “Have you met Amma?” I must admit, I am very curious, as she is described as ‘Pure Love’, but the idea of travelling to meet up with her tour, and then standing in line for hours for a hug, still seems like a little too much work. If I need to meet her, I will be presented with the opportunity at some point, of this I’m sure. She travels for up to 8 months of the year, and will be in Seattle in June, but we won’t be home yet. Our plan to stay here really had little to do with seeing Amma , we just wanted to spend some time at an ashram, enjoying another extended stay somewhere that we could do yoga and hopefully meet some kids Raven’s age. It has turned into so much more. Everything here is so accessible; you just show up, sign in, and pay 250 rupees per night, which includes three meals a day and use of all facilities. There is a swimming pool, library, meditation hall, eco center that plays movies, yoga, ocean side guided meditations, etc. There is even a western café that serves up cheap pizza, burgers, toast and eggs, and decent filter coffee, if you want to splurge on food other than the rice and veg curry served up three times a day. They ask that you sign up for Seva, or selfless service, for one or two hours a day, but it’s optional, if you really want to sit around and just read and meditate all day.

  I have really enjoyed the opportunity to work on my karma yoga, and usually have three different Seva placements a day. I’ve started getting up at 6:30, which gives me time for a full yoga session down at the beach before it gets too hot, even though I’m absolutely dripping sweat before I’m half way through. After breakfast, I spend two hours washing dishes, and then I help to move the wet laundry up to the top of the 15 story housing complex, where another group of volunteers hangs it out to dry. Then I spend an hour in the well-stocked library, until lunch is served. After a leisurely meal, and usually an interesting conversation with a devotee or another traveller, I head over to the compost or the recycling department. Compost is one of the most physical ‘jobs’ at the ashram, sorting food and garden waste, shredding branches and palm fronds,  and turning the massive, steaming piles of compost. I was only there for few days before we were all caught up, so I was reassigned to the recycling department. At first, I would just help with the collections, driving around to all the different building to exchange full bins for clean, empty ones: Red for hard plastic, Orange for soft plastic, Blue for paper and cardboard, Beige for sanitary, small silver for sharps, small Brown for hair and dust. The bins would all be sorted and everything would be recycled, composted, or burned in the boiler that powered the kitchen. It was really great to do some physical labour, after six months my body loved the movement. Besides swimming and the occasional long walk, we hadn’t really had much exercise since trekking to ABC!

  After a day or two, I started fixing things around the recycling shop that needed a bit of attention. It started with one of the hand carts that was really hard to steer, and before long I was fixing the roof, repairing concrete, bringing in sand from the beach to level the floor, whatever they could think of. Fixing the roof was a main priority, with the rainy season just around the corner. They were obviously trying to leave as many trees standing as possible, and would construct the buildings around them. However, large, square holes had been cut out of the corrugated metal roof around the trees, and the water would simply pour in through the openings.  With a pair of metal snips, an old yoga mat, and some aluminum that I’d stripped off some old doors, I managed to stop about 95 % of the water. The rest could be collected into a couple of buckets, making for a much more comfortable work space. I was so thankful for the opportunity to be active, use my brain to problem solve, and improve my karma, all at the same time. Being active also helped me acclimatize to the extreme heat. Normally, even while just eating dinner, sweat covers my arms, and droplets roll down my chest and back, but after a couple of hours of being active, I look like I’ve gone swimming in my clothes! I actually rang out my shirt into a cup one afternoon, collecting 100 ml of sweat. I know, pretty gross!

  The ashram is starting to recognize the limits of the aquifer they’ve tapped into, so they ask you to only have one shower a day, and after I’m done Seva, I have mine, and then settle under the fan in our room to read, blog, or sort through the 1000’s of photos we’ve already taken. My ‘Best Of’ file already has over a thousand pictures in it! I hope everyone at home is prepared for multiple dinner/slide show nights at our house, because there is no way to get through the whole trip in one sitting!

  Every evening at 5:30, there is a guided meditation at the beach, where the afternoon breeze has whipped the sea into a froth, and the shadows are long and refreshing. I have been pleasantly surprised at how my meditation has blossomed in the short time we’ve been here. I never could have hoped to find such peace, such depths of stillness and silence, so quickly. It has changed the way I see everything around me, having really connected to the one-ness of all things. There is no question that this is the path to immense joy, and that the fear and doubt that have been nagging me are merely constructs of the ego, attempting to maintain a grasp on the old habits that give it power over me. There is light in all of us, even if we choose not to see it in ourselves, or are blind to the possibility. I now seek only the discipline to maintain a daily meditation practice, and for the patience to allow time for it to develop. The rhythm of the breath is like waves on the shore. Just as a few waves shift the sands and massage the beach, many waves, over many months can shape the beach, wear away the rocks, and even eventually cause sheer cliffs to surrender to the sea, attention to the breath through focused meditation can reshape who we think we are, and even free us from habits and cycles that seemed permanent and overwhelming. I am so thankful for the seemingly overwhelming challenges that have led me to seek out real solutions, not just more distractions. Sitting still, quieting the mind, and freeing the luminous Self that just IS, that is the most genuine, most challenging, most human pursuit we can aspire to, and I am so thankful for the time spent at Amritapuri, where I finally connected with that Self. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti. (Love, Love, Love)

 

Kerala map

State of Kerala map for your reference.

Picture in the background depicts the 'Backwaters'

We spent 2 weeks at Varkala beach, down south, before taking a short ‘backwaters cruise’ to Amritapuri Ashram, a few hours south of Alappuzha. 

From the ashram we took a short train ride to Kochi, which is also known as Fort Cochin.

From Kochi we will take an overnight train north, to the state of Goa, also known for its incredible beaches.

beach life to ashram living

Wow. We have completed 2/3 of our journey March 26^th

Varkala, Cliffside, state of Kerala. .. Happy Western tourist zone overlooking the Beach:

March 20^this the day I braved to swim through the breakers and actually began to ‘swim’ in the ocean. The ocean is calmer past the surf, with only the occasional small wave to contend with. The swell would lift me up and gently drop me with it. I swam parallel to the beach, so as to not get sucked further out to sea by a current. I was still worried of sharks nibbling my toes, but my arms were never happier for a bit of exercise. (I’ve slacked off the last few weeks…..blame the heat and traveller’s tummy...or…perhaps… laziness). I felt more confident when other swimmers were also out past the surf, but this didn’t always occur. The first day when I came in, a lifeguard let me know he was watching and noticed that I was a strong swimmer. Compared to most Indian non-swimmers, this is true! Raven might answer differently, as she can outswim me like a fish, but she didn’t fancy swimming out past the surf with me. The lifeguards are always blowing their whistles and waving, and it is really difficult to tell who they are directing their actions towards. Some days I’d use that as an excuse to come in early, (are they blowing their whistles at me?) especially if I was out past the surf zone alone.  You should have seen me freak out when a plastic bag floated by half submerged. “What is that? Don’t touch me- don’t touch me!”  I swam around it, willing it to not touch me, even as I realized it was only floating garbage!

One day a boat buzzed by, with guys yelling “Shark!” No one but me got out of the water- it must have been a joke, but one I wasn’t taking a chance on. Since then, I have given up my strident worrying of sharks, because the life guards have said“No sharks” and a French woman named Deborah, who is a scuba diver instructor, has said “No sharks”.  Heath says “No sharks”, but he also jokes around about this, so how can I take him seriously?At dinner time up on the Cliffside, sharks are set out on ice for passing diners to peruse which restaurant they want to eat at. So, I know there are sharks in this water. Deborah and Heath both assured me that they are too small to be interested in nibbling my toes. Blame it on too many shark movies. Deborah put succinctly, it in her thick French accent,“F#@!-ing Jaws!” She may be a scuba instructor, but sharks are at the back of her mind when she swims,too.

shark soup anyone?

the cutest puppies in Varkala

We have spent 2 weeks lounging in at Cliffside, Varkala. We have left the western zone only a handful of times, me, once to take the bus into town to get to a bank machine,and a few times by foot to the temple junction to eat at a local’s restaurant and see some traditional dance at the temple. We were excited to see an elephant paraded around the temple one night. Our time at the beach has coincided with a Hindu festival called Holi (pronounced holly).  We were scheduledto be at the ashram, a few hours North, on the 25^th, but the promise of more elephants, dancing and fireworks at the conclusion of Holi convinced us to stay. There have been nightly fireworks, some which we were lucky to see as we were dining in the local Indian restaurant, overlooking a historic swimming pool/water tank. This one isn’t unique- there are tanks like this all over India. Women come to do the wash, and bathe. During the night it becomes more of a younger man swimming spot.  Think of a Roman Bath, perhaps. Raven connected this tank to what she was learning about Ancient Rome in her socials class. We LOVE those moments when she can really SEE what she is learning about.

coffee temple latte

We are glad we stayed the few extra days. Every restaurant made Holi food and gave small cups of it complementary to patrons. The puppies that we enjoy playing with in one restaurant loved it too! It was a sweet, sticky rice concoction. 

holi food

dogs like it, too!

The evening parade was amazing. Unfortunately the 15 promised elephants never showed up. One tourist said he saw 4 or 5 at the temple earlier, but we never saw them. The parade was amplified by loudspeakers and lights running from generators on the truck ahead of each ‘act’. We saw men with elaborate costumes, their faces heavily painted into gods. Before the parade started we saw them sitting, waiting, fully costumed, while posing for photos. During the parade they danced and cavorted with each other. 

We saw men balancing tall decorated structures on their heads, which turned when they turned as they walked down the road. We have no idea what stopped them fromgetting dizzy and falling over. There were truck floats depicting the life of Shiva/Krishna in all his forms, drummers and bands, symbols crashing, umbrellas turning, but alas, no elephants.

We ate dinner at our favourite restaurant, the one by the pool. We decided to go back to our hotel room before the 11pm fireworks show. The fireworks were predicted to go off all night- and they did. We never did bother to leave the hotel room again, as an 8pm nap is disastrous for evening plans! We heard them go off until the grand finale at 3:30 am.

Arriving at AmritapuriAshram March 28

After a final latte and western breakfast at Coffee Temple, we shouldered our bags and jumped into a tuktukto drive us the few kilometers from our beach paradise to the train station in Varkala. After a half an hour train ride to Kollum, the beginning of the backwaters, we boarded a ‘tourist cruise’ boat to take us along the scenic waters. The canals and waterways stretch for 900km along the coast and inland. We followed a stretch that paralleled the open ocean. In some parts we could see the ocean to our left, as the land was only a narrow strip. We took about 1/3 of the 8 hour cruise, enough to see the narrow canals and brackish water goings on like fishing, industry and village life near the water.  The way they fish the canals is by using cantilevered Chinese fishing nets. We disembarked across the water way from the ashram. The outside was not what we were expecting, a complex of pink concrete buildings, including some high rises. We crossed the waterway via AmritaSetu, the ashram’s new pedestrian bridge.The huge and indestructible looking bridge was funded by Ammain the aftermath of the last tsunami to hit this area in 2004. It will expedite the next evacuation as the villagers, devotees and tourists will not have to rely solely on the boatmen to take them to safer ground.

Raven had passed tome her cold. It was inconsequential, but as soon we arrived at the Ashram, I was exhausted. Morning meditation on the beach starts at the reasonable hour of 6:30- followed by yoga at 7:30, but so far the only person to be awake at that time is Raven (reading, of course). I’ve given in to the sleep. And midday naps. If my body needs it, it can have it. It is hot and humid here. The ashram has plenty of shade, and some breeze off the ocean, but my body is slow to acclimatize.

The Amrita ashram, even when Amma(the hugging mother) is not here, runs like a well-oiled machine. It is quiet now thatAmma started her south Indian tour, taking 300 or so devoteeswith her. I wish we had met her. When people talk of her, they say she is pure love. The day we arrived, we were shown an introductory video to Amma, the ashram and her astounding humanitarian deeds. It is beyond impressive. She has created an NGO called Embracing Humanity. Outside of the incredible things she has done for Indians, she even donated 1 million US to Hurricane Katrina victims. Check out the website at http://www.embracingtheworld.org/

This place has a peaceful feel to it. Devotees chant and pray throughout the day, but there is no pressure to join any activity. Selfless service (SEVA) is promoted with the realization that people do what they can. Over the years Amma has been able to raise vast funds and do incredible humanitarian aid with them, but there is no pressure here to donate. Our lodgings are simple, but adequate, at the very reasonable cost of 15 dollars a day. The ashram provides alternate western food at a very low price (even to Indian money standards)if you need a change from the included but never changing thrice daily rice and curry meals. Ammabelieves that her meditation classes must be available free of cost to anyone- “spiritual knowledge is the birthright of humankind, and that to charge for meditation classes is like charging a baby for breastmilk.” Even the morning yoga classes are only about 2 dollars each.

The amount of recycling here is impressive. Heath can attest to that, when he comes back super sweaty after completing his volunteer time or SEVA. Outside of every housing building is an easily accessed recycle area. There are separate bins for paper, food (no need to worry about meat and bones in a Hindu country!), clothing (to be made into rags), hair and dust, sharps, solid plastics and food wrapping plastic like chip bags. Heath found out that a factory in Chennai takes the food wrapping plastic and heats it to extract the oil out of it. The predominate amount of garbage around India (and Nepal) is this plastic food wrapwaste. In this age of plastic ‘sanitary’ wrappings andmore material possessions, people toss things out, like they used to, but now the garbage doesn’t decompose. What used to be wrapped in banana leaves or paper is now in non-biodegradable plastic- with no education to the public about alternatives, and no national recycling plan. Unfortunately, many of the plastic water bottles say, “crush before disposal” or “throw away”. Personally I blame the large corporations. Pepsi Co distributes much of the pop, water and juice, but because the Indian government doesn’t force them to deal with their wastes, they don’t bother.  No deposits on beverage containers in this country.

There is a volunteer run ‘eco shop’ on the ashram premises. They occasionally show nature films. The store part of the place sells home-made soaps, essential oils and organic food items, mostly grown on an Ashram farm. Volunteers have also made items like jewelry, mugs, bowls and spoons made from coconut shells. Raven and I were most impressed by the little wallets out of juice tetra pack containers. They also make rag rugs from discarded clothing, and woven mats from discarded soft plastic. Nothing goes to waste in the ashram.

There is a beach at the Ashram, but it is forbidden to swim, as there are currents and a huge rock breakwater along the ocean’s edge. Thankfully there is a good sized swimming pool provided for our use. Men and women have separate swim times, and modesty is observed. For the men this means knee length shorts. No speedos. For the women, this means purchasing a special swimming costume, either a dress or pants that have shoulder straps and wide elastic across the top. The elastic typically traps a large air bubble when you jump into the pool. The suits are also awesome at giving wedgies. It took a few times to get used to wearing them.The pool is gorgeous. I don’t know how the water stays cool and refreshing in this heat, perhaps because of the shaded garden around it.  Mango trees grow over the pool, and we have found and dived for mangos that the crows have dropped in.

We are now a week in, and I am over the cold and feeling great. Heath and I are really enjoying our time here. Because Amma isn’t here, there are less people staying at the ashram, which means there aren’t any western kids Raven’s age. This is unfortunate, but she’s doing ok, finishing her school work (she only has a few items left to complete for the year),reading lots and watching videos. We have settled into a schedule. Chai/tea is served at 6am, but we are never up for it. There never was any 6:30 meditation, as I found out when I did manage to get up in time. I have started the 7:30am Amrita yoga class that runs until breakfast. This is practiced as a women’s only class, with great focus on breathing, prayer and meditation. It is hot, even in the morning, with little breeze coming off the ocean, but the fans in the room are not allowed to be turned on- similar to the rational of Bikrams Hot Yoga- “the body needs to build up a sweat to release the toxins”. The class is much less energetic that a class I would normally be attracted to take, but what I need to learn to do is to slow down, and focus inward on my breathe, so this is perfect.

Here’s my day:

7:30 -9 Women’s Yoga

9am Breakfast- rice/ curry/ sometimes the rice flour cakes or a maybe a chapatti, sometimes an egg or sprouts purchased from the western café to add protein

10:15- 11:15 swimming pool with Raven

11:30-12:30 visit the library, info center for mail, or down time

1pm  lunch see above, no chapatti

2pm –4:30 or 5:00 SEVA – selfless service- first dishes in the “western Café”, then join Raven for “arts and crafts”. We help bind and decorate the devotional books that get sold on Amma’s tours.

4pm- Hot Milk is served

5:30-6pm meditation on the beach

6-8- family time. Movie on the laptop (borrowed from the library), cards or reading.

8pm dinner

Bed soon after

Heath has mentioned before the soundtrack of India. There is always noise- cars drive down the road with loudspeakers blaring, and music is everywhere. There are two temples nearby the ashram, and for most of our stay, the loudspeakers (which are lined up down the road) have been playing Devotional music, even throughout the night. Luckily our family room is further away, because some devotees have been complaining about not being able to sleep because it is so loud. We keep the windows open at night, to let the cooler air in. The ashram would be such a completely tranquil place to be, but this music and chanting overrides the quiet moments, like meditation and yoga.The temple has been celebrating for 2 weeks. I am not sure what, but they had their own mini parade with drummers and girls in their finest saris holding coconut candles and fruit on plates as they walked by. The temple is outside of the ashram, but not affiliated with it. The locals fully support all she does for them.

Amma’s face is everywhere, on posters, in frames, reminding devotees to love and be good to one another. I realize now that we have been seeing her face the further south we travelled. There was even a poster of her at the Temple Café. I think people see her akin to Jesus- God who has come to earth in human form to remind the human race to take care of each other. Because we are in a Hindu society, people believe she is Krishna, reincarnate.  The first question we are asked is “Have you met Amma?”

Om Lokah samastah sukino bhavantu (om may all the beings in the world be happy)

Om santih santih santih (om peace peace peace)

Om NamahShivaya