Blogs from Trivandrum, Kerala, India, Asia - page 2

We flew down to South Kerala so that at least for the last two weeks we could be warm at night and, hopefully, Michelle could lie on a beach. As we flew in and we could now see the houses below, Michelle was excited; “Look! It’s beautiful, just like Venice with houses alongside canals”. This is more like it after the dry bustle of Delhi. Unfortunately, our enthusiasm was soon dashed as our taxi driver told us of the rain the night before, how roads were flooded and some people had been killed. However the south is much cleaner with better roads and seemingly more affluent with no hassle. Our hotel, The Fortune South Park, seemed nice but smelt damp, maybe from the floods. It was New Year’s Eve and we had chosen to stay at ... read more

Oh friends. What a 24 hours we've had. Spoiler alert: We did actually make it to India in one piece (possibly mentally in shreds). But we're feeling a little worse for wear at the other end. After a late night at the Night Market (and an ill advised later night for Aisha trying to catch up on emails), we woke up with plans to pack our bags, lug the huge amount of shopping we'd managed to acquire in five days to the Post Office to send home (NB. Will - DEFINITELY don't pick this one up on your bike. IT'S HUGE!), then head back to Tai Pan for one more awesome massage before we headed to the airport. But what can we say? Damn those plans for never going to...themselves? After a lovely suprise phone call/wake ... read more

Friday morning at 6:30am we traveled to the Kerala backwaters, the one attraction of Kerala I had been dying to see. I had seen photos before coming on the trip and they looked absolutely beautiful but even more beautiful seeing them with my own two eyes. A young boy Thomas had stayed with us at Loyola for a few days and came with us to the backwaters. We stopped at his summer home on the way to the backwaters for snacks. They had a beautiful home and we ate some fried bananas, dried jackfruit, coconuts, and chai tea. We finally arrived to our boat on the backwaters. It had two bedrooms and was very spacious. We had a delicious lunch of fish, shrimp, and other Indian dishes. It was so relaxing being on the boat for ... read more

This morning we went to an Indian wedding. The aroma of sandalwood filled the air as went stepped inside the place where the wedding was taking place and received many stares. Everywhere we go we stick out like sore thumbs especially to an occasion like this. I was so excited to finally witness an Indian wedding because a friend of mine who worked at a banquet facility had told me how lavish and extravagant Indian weddings were. The decorations and flowers were vibrant shades of yellow, pink, and green. The bride looked absolutely stunning dressed in a magenta and gold-trimmed saree. She was dripping with gold-bangles, earrings, and necklaces. Her jet black hair was pulled back in a beautiful thick braid that went down to her legs. Some of the family were very welcoming to us ... read more

Today I got up early and went running for 30 min. with another girl on the trip Brittany. It was still very dark but it was cool so good running weather. Then we had our Art of Living course from 6:30am to 8:30am. The course is really teaching us to find happiness in our lives. Some phrases they said that stuck out to me were "expectations reduce joy in life" and "memory clings to the negative". Also they talked about the difference between responding versus reacting. When we react, we might be too emotional but if we can respond with a clear mindset, we often can deal with situations effectively and as positively as we can. We did the sudarshankriya and it didn't feel as long as yesterday. We also did a meditation at the end ... read more