India, Kerala Feb 14 to Mar 13

Me and Ana in front of the gorgeous lake outside the Sivananda Ashrum outside Trivandrum.

So from Malaysia I flew into Trichirepalli in south central India (Im butchering the spelling) and I waited about 5 hours at the tiny airport to get a connecting flight to the main airport on the south west coast of India, Trivandrum. From there I would take a short train ride to meet up with Ana and Jesse in Varkala Beach. While waiting in the airport I finally opened up my India guide book for the first time and read up on Indian history; I even took notes. Then got on my connecting flight and within two hours of arriving at Trivandrum airport, I already saw that India was not the third world disaster that everyone leads you to believe. There was some pushing in the airport, but things were easy to follow and people were helpful. I got to the Trivandrum train station and immediately met some British girls who said they loved India and this was their 2nd trip here. Europeans are amazing; they travel everywhere and have none of the hang ups about places like India the way some Americans seem to. The trains were easy to follow, comfortable and extremely cheap, although it pays to use the, "breathe through the mouth" method when using the Indian style squat toilets. So after a 30 min train ride and 2 min auto-rickshaw ride, I arrived at Varkala Beach and before I even started looking for the meetup point, I spotted Ana running up to me. The beach was beautiful with smooth sand and a cliff parallel to the beach, which is lined with shops and restaurants. I had an enormous grilled fish for about $4, which is a lot by Indian standards, and got a good nights rest. The next day Ana and I went to the Sivananda Yoga Center for a week long ashrum stay. The ride on the Indian bus to get there was so much fun; bouncing around, driving through bustling towns. It seemed that the driver used the horn more than the steering wheel so people and animals moved out of the way. We got to the Ashrum safe that evening and as soon as we got there, as I would realize is the norm in India, the electricity went out. So using my handy flashlight, one of the ashrum workers guided us to the kitchen to sneak in a late dinner, which was all small portions of a few vegetarian curries and big puffy rice with little to no spice and DELICIOUS. We blissfully ate in the darkness. Welcome to Keralan food. (I thought I was suppose to lose 50 pounds in Indian not develop a taste for a new cuisine!) We got two dorm beds in a charming, basic dorm style set up with a bunch of other girls of all ages from all over the world. I felt comfortable instantly even though I had walked through the place in darkness. For the next 7 days this was our strict schedule: 6am - 7:30am Satsung (Meditation and chanting), Tea time (awesome masala chai!) 8 - 10am Yoga Asana Class (30 min breathing and 90 min postures), 10-11am brunch (mild curries, fresh veggies, boiled water with herbs- all of us sat on the floor, ate with our hands and had to wash our own plates when done) 11 -12pm Karma Yoga (we were each given a duty to do while at the ashrum to help in the running of the place- my job was to clean the toilets of my dorm) 12- 2pm Coaching class if you wanted extra help or had questions or free time, tea time, 2pm - 4 Lecture by Swami (teacher) about how to reach enlightenment, 4pm- 6pm Yoga asana class again, 6pm dinner, 8pm Evening Satsung (meditation and chanting). I cant tell you how liberating it was to not have any freedom! I didn't have to think about anything; I just did it, and it felt great to be in a strict environment where I was guaranteed good food, good exercise positive, liberating advice on life. Smoking, drinking, meat eating and PDA were forbidden on the ashrum grounds. Anyone could leave and walk to town and do anything you wanted but the ashrum was an ultimate detox for body and mind. I had two major realizations during my stay; First is that Hinduism is not necessarily a polytheistic religion, but more a way of life centered on openness. Muhammad, Jesus, and Moses were all mentioned in the daily chants as if you can follow the yoga teachings under any religious belief system, and that many Hindu's don't take the multiple Gods as literal, but more manifestations of the one "God" or "Life Force". The second and more important realization was that prayer or mediation is suppose to be about NOT thinking; NOT letting useless mind chatter control life. And its true; when you remove the mind chatter you remove judgments, separation-ism, jealousy, anger and dwelling on things you cant change so that you can let in peace, contentment and love. But undoing 26 years of hardcore mind chatter is no easy task and definitely a skill that will take more than a week to master!! But I'm at least learning!
The facility was very clean and being a part of the running of the place really made it homey. Did I mention the dorm room, meals, classes and lectures were all inclusive for $6 a night!? Amazing. Oh and as an added bonus we were there during the opening of another Sivananda ashram in Trivandrum, where we would meet the Maharajah of Kerala State. It was a big to-do with saris, flower petals and musical performances. Then we saw the 5 foot, 100 pound Maharaja walk through to officially open the new center! It was a cool experience.

We stayed at the ashram for about 6 days and I didn't want to leave, but we had to press on. The lessons learned are very much still with me.

Jesse & I along the cliff in Varkala. The beautiful and untouched beach goes on for miles.

It was great to chill out for 2 days in easy, breezy Varkala Beach. Next on the agenda was the Keralan backwaters in Allepey. Backwaters are apparently rivers created by pockets of land close to the ocean and are a beautiful site. We opted to do a home stay at a families guest house along the backwaters. We had delicious home cooked meals, (at Western level comforts), and got 2 walking tours of the backwaters and canoe rides. I never realized how much coconut is used in the south Indian dishes. They live and die by the coconut, and use all parts of it. Most cushions are made of dried coconut fibers. It was beautiful and interesting, but the heat was rising with each passing day along with the humidity, so we were happy to head north after 2 nights.

The gorgeous, serene rock formations of Hampi - through rose colored glasses.

Then we had an overnight sleeper train to Bangalore, and that's when the first India- illness occurred for me. It happened in the middle of the night on the train to Bangalore. It was interesting seeing how my body felt, and after a pretty interesting train ride and a day of staring aimlessly at the TV in the hotel in Bangalore and eating crackers, I felt much better. I think the intoxicating heat was the true source of my illness; its something my body simply had to get used to. Bangalore was crowded and interesting city, surprisingly developed and organized with all the comforts of home, plus lots of heat and traffic, but nothing Im not used to from driving in NY, it was just with rickshaws instead of taxis! (Imagine how much more space we would have o the streets of NY if cabs were the size of rickshaws!) The next day was another sleeper train to Hampi and this time it was an AC sleeper and I slept like a baby. Hampi, the remote city of huge rock formations and hundreds of ruins and temples was very interesting, very hot, with lots of druggy tourists and beautiful scenery. Ill let the pics do the talking for Hampi. But again the heat and humidity demands beach! So after two days we were off to Goa.

There are probably 20 or more beaches along the coast in Goa so we decided to spend a few days in the less developed south beach of Patnem, and a few days in the very developed north beach, Arambol. Patnem was very charming and peaceful. I easily could have stayed there reading and daydreaming for a month, although it was a bit expensive for India, (bungalow on the beach for 800 rupees, $16 a night, dinners around $4). Arambol was much more developed with an eclectic crowd, but very cool to check out for a few days. Thats when we started seeing cows in the middle of the crowded beaches. (Little did we know that as we traveled north we would find cows in the strangest places.) So with a heavy heart, we had to say goodbye to the beautiful, beachy, easy, comfortable state of Kerala, and get our teeth into "real" India.

We had our AC sleep train booked for Mumbia on March 13, and we were ready to see what all the hype was about this developing city. (Just want to add here that the train system in India is amazing. Its extremely extensive; we have had minimal need for taking buses. Although sometimes confusing to book online, the trains are on time, on target, with designated seats that everyone seems to follow, comfortable to sleep on, you dont ever feel threatened about someone stealing, the people are friendly and helpful, and most of all its incredibly cheap! About $1 per 50 miles for an airconditioned car!) I dont want to ginx it, but again, I think a lot of people would be surprised with what India is like today. India will be a major player in the issues of economics and the environment in the years to come in a way that it never was before. Mumbai is a great place to gauge the speed of change in India...