Hut To Hut In Less Than 24 Hours

We left Panmana Asramam on Mon morning (I was the last), boarded a regular train to Ernakulam with a plan to head to Agastya ashram. What was I thinking at that time by want to go to another ashram after just finished my time at one? Well, I checked the website from the recommendation of the other students and it looks and sounds impressive--into nature! http://agastyaashram.com/gallery.html
Even G agreed to go along, this plan was a disaster! Don't let the pics on its website fool you!

Besides the pleasant 3hr train ride to Ernakulam, we got an over-aggressive autoshaw driver who drove erratically for another 2 hrs to get to Vypin island (crossing a ferry), he asked for more money for the unexpected distance (?) Once we got there, the ashram people were so unorganized to arrange a room for us while G & I were feeling exhausted for another hr before we got our hut! The dinner was worse than the previous ashram's. I saw one student In my group was there for a week, Bhooma and his team were there to rest and to prepare for the next training in Mar... I already felt I didn't belong there in the first few hours, but tried to rough it up or to make the best of what we got; watching G looked so tired, I felt worse every minute! We didn't have bathroom in our hut, had to go down to used the public shared one...The last draw which pushed us to leave was the  price.  They wanted to charge us 35Euro = $50US/night for what we were getting??! G and I were furious and shocked, we couldn't rest so we went to the Swami and asked him to get us an auto-shaw to go to any hotel that still opened at 10pm. I still paid him $20US for the crapy meal, shower, and the sheets they would have to wash...
To be reasonable, G and I had nothing to against what they are trying to establish there--back to nature! We think the place would be suitable for someone who needs to hide away from the world...with quiet beach, yogic lifestyle... But not for us, we are on vacation.

It was late at night, when the driver dropped us off at a fancy hotel--Cherai Beach Resort, we just took the lowest rate hut named Thottaruvu to get a proper sleep. We got a $75 no AC room which was really nice, except I still got tons of mosquitoes bits though ...but its surrounding was a paradise!

Ours is on the right

The next morning, we enjoyed the nutritional breakfast at CBR, then we were on the hunt for a cheaper hotel and we found one--Kadalkkara Lake Resort. First we settle with the no AC room for $20  but ended switch to a single hut with AC which has no adjoin wall, less noise from neighbor--$30. The lunch here was great too!

I just felt bad to put  G & myself into the very unpleasant situation last night, but he was very supportive by saying:"all of what happened are part of our adventure" So in hindsight, we had to said because of one bad experience, we more appreciated what we got after.  As of this moment,  we are in a nice AC room, looking out the lake, feeling like we are on a houseboat and I am writing this post because we got Wi-Fi unexpectedly!

What's next?  But for sure there will be no more ashram life for me. I can now wear short, tank top on a hot day, order food that we like...no more restriction or rules.