Escape from Neyyar Dam

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My final morning Satsang today and getting up at 5.30am felt exceptionally easy. I showered and applied more after sun. Although I didn't blog yesterday, my highlight was David and I heading to the lake. Even though I didn't swim with David, my topless ten minutes in the sun had meant that I no longer had a t-shirt tan but was a nice shade of lobster pink!

I headed to Satsang and did my final meditation and chanting session before David and I checked out. We had morning tea and said our final goodbyes to a few of the friends we'd made at the ashram. Varkala was a two hour drive away so splitting a taxi between us seemed ideal so as to avoid struggling with heavy bags on public transport in the heat.

As we drove away from Neyyardam it almost felt appropriate to play AC/DC's 'Highway to Hell' but decided against it so as not to offend. It felt as though we had reentered India now. I had only been at the ashram for three days but David had been there ten so I can only imagine it was more elating for him to leave and rejoin the real world than it was for me. We passed through many of the same small villages on our way to Varkala that I had been through to gat to Neyyardam, each preparing for the huge Vishnu festival this evening. People at the ashram would be staying up until 3am chanting 'Om naom Sivaya' and my heart went out to them.

We arrived in Varkala at about 10.30am and found a room at The Clafouti. After we'd dumped our bags we went to get a much needed breakfast and a properly ground cup of coffee. The Coffee Temple came up trumps and served a cracking mug of coffee and a delicious fruit salad served in a hollowed out half pineapple.

After our late breakfast we headed to Rock 'n' Roll (The Southern Cross) which David's friend Billy owns and runs with her husband Max. They had live Keralan music on in the evening followed by a DJ, so the pair of us went flyering along the beach to drum up some business. Afterwards we went back to the bar and spent the afternoon drinking Kingfisher and playing Rummycub whilst the sun set over the cliff tops.

We headed back to our room for a quick shower and freshen up before dinner. We returned to Rock 'n' Roll where things had started to get busy with people we recognised from our short beach excursion. David had been raving about the Tikka Butterfish he'd had here before the ashram and who was I to argue. We watched as one of the guys started to cut up a large Butterfish into sections, skin it, debone it and marinate it before our eyes. He skewered it with peppers and onions and stuck it in a charcoal fire to cook. It smelled amazing and attracted a lot of attention from passers by at the front of the bar. It tasted as good as it smelt if not better! Succulent, fresh and extremely tasty...the best meal I'd had in days!

We spent the rest of the evening there drinking and chilling out with other escapees from the ashram. Fran, Dylan and Hugh all came and joined us and we all drank into the wee small hours of the morning so as to avoid our body clocks starting at 5.30am the next day.

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