Blogs from Varkala, Kerala, India, Asia - page 16

Peace, yes :-) Well I basically took a break from everything: the noise, the pollution, the dirt, getting around on buses and trains, but also from writing my diary and my blog. Nothing spectacular happened, no juicy anecdotes.. (although I drank lots of juice) - I call it my holidays. It didn't feel like I was in India even. It's just absolutely lovely here, been along the backwaters for a while, enjoyed actual western cuisine (It's good to not eat so much rice, it inflates my intestines) including croissants, did another meditation course for a few days (although I think Vipassana is still better for me), read another book, went swimming in the Arabian Sea, AND I got to wear actual beach clothes (shorts and bikini's) for the first time on this trip... All that was ... read more

DOLPHINNNN BBBAAAYYYY *sings* So I was walking past Dolphin Bay Bar in Varkala with Paulas headphones in when a guy asked me why I was ignoring him, that's just rude blah blah. I said I wasn't ignoring him and offered him a headphone full of "Jesus Christ I'm alone again... what did you do those three days you were dead? Because this problems gonna last more than the weekend" bit of Brand New, can't go wrong. Lmao the guy liked it! He asked if he could take the ipod and play it on the massive bar speakers while me and paula picked songs. The rest of the night was spent getting a little bit mango-chutneyed on half price cocktails whilst listening to all our favourite songs, watching the waves come in. "I wanna stay 18 forever... ... read more

Welcome to the first travel update of the trip - although I managed to spit on the whole concept of the ashram experience by using the internet, it has still taken me this long to sit down and actually tell you all about it - but Ive found myself a lovely little cafe overlooking the arabian sea with a bit of prem joshua in the background (no i haven't suddenly developed amazing music recognition skills - the man just told me who it is).. are you jealous? you should be! Its lovely here and a million miles (not literally) from the ashram where i hid from india for the first 2 weeks. Its not real india here either - there are more foreigners than indians - and all of them have shoes - the disparaties here ... read more

Joy oh joy we are in actual paradise on earth! found a lush place called Varkala on the west coast, it was not on our list but talking to an old toothless man in a bar where women are not meant to go, he told us about this magical place, so we thought why not! and he was right its beautiful! it set on cliff tops overlooking the arabian sea with lots of bamboo huts and coconut palms lining the cliff, and eagles swooping over our heads! there is a sandy beach with a huge crashing waves which are really fun to jump into and get washed away! we planned to stay for 1 day but we love it so much we stayed for 3! not been doing much, chilling all day and sipping cocktails over ... read more

Hey everyone, very quick update as I've only got a day and a bit here plus the internet's expensive! We arrived in Fort Kochi in Kerala from Bangalore (on an AC bus, gloriously cool and with cheesy bollywood flick) last Sunday. Kochi is really nice, it has these great big chinese cantilevered fishing nets on the coast with little stalls selling the fish fresh by a market. We stayed in a little homestay run by two friends who were really nice and cooked for us on monday night - fish masala curry at a bargain 50 rupees. It was a nice place to chill out with an almost European feel to it thanks to it's mixed colonial origins from Portugal, the dutch and Britain. Unfortunately it was more than a bit humid too! From there we ... read more