A Happy Valentine's Day

Actually this morning high spirit had helped us make it through the day on our way to Chennai--Tamil Nadu.
I fed the camel banana and G video taped it :)

It Was Worth Turning Back

Wow! Another learning experience when we took the 5:30 am train to Alappuzha! At Palakkad railway station, we saw a lot of local people slept on the floor overnight. They must be waiting for the boarding time, we wondered? And the urine smell from the tracks was obnoxious that we had to find a spot to sit where the wind blew the opposite direction!

Because we bought unreserved sleeper class tickets we had to grab the first seat in sight. G hopped on one of the upper beds, I stayed on a lower bench, only one person already there so I had the space of 3 seaters to lie down. Thought we were settled in, but by 8am, people who were going to work, school...started to fill up the train. They didn't like to see an inconsidered foreigner who took 3 seats, I realized that but I had a chest cold and another 3 hrs to go, I delayed sitting up for another hour. G was just being a good traveler, curled up in his upper bunk bed!

We arrived in Alappuzha by noon without breakfast, so we had lunch right away at the nearest restaurant. We got a referral from the restaurant owner and ended agreed to some info( room, boat trip) from an agent whom we soon know we might overpay. We stayed in a nice and small homestay type room for $20US/night with AC, one block away from the beach where we headed right away once we dropped off our luggage. It sad to see some dirty, full of garbage sections of the beach where locals come to enjoy after 3pm. The sections close to resorts or homestay places were much better.

  

The next day we went to a small boat backwater trip for two cost $60US/6hrs. For sure Alappuzha deserved the name Venice of the East. Gosh! We almost missed this place if we didn't decide to turn around. We so much enjoyed the whole time floating on the water, the delicious lunch as we stopped along the way! All the challenges to get back here seemed forgotten. We took so many perfect pics and videos of this place. There are a lot of tourists here. Some booked overnight big house boats from Kochi or Kollam.
The big house boats just like small cruises; they have bedrooms, bathrooms, chef to cook all meals....ours is smaller called Shikkara, could take 6 people for less cost/person with 4 chairs and 2 lounge chairs but we didn't know that! Some also stayed in the hotels or homestay places facing the backwater (something we didn't know when we arrived; but either way, one just needed to take an autorickshaw to get to the other end-either beach or backwater.

We couldn't ask for a perfect sunset to end the day!

On our last day at Alapuzha, after breakfast and short time at Internet cafe, we went visit a Hindu Temple named Mullakal Temple where they allowed non-Hindu visitors. The rules were: only males devotees or visitors had to take their shirts off when going inside, and no cameras allowed. Then we went for quick lunch and headed back to the beach for the last time. We found a hotel which was renovating and allowed to use the umbrella and lounge chairs as long as we bought a drink from the restaurant. Yah! I got it made for my afternoon leisure, while G walked along the shore, documented the fishermen's daily activities.



We had booked a flight from Kochi to Chennai on Thurs afternoon.  We still had to take 1hr+ train ride to Kochi, 1hr taxi to Kochi airport... I wished by the time you read my posts meant I got Wi-Fi again in Chennai as I got none for days in Alappuzha!

There was a highlight of Thurs morning--Valentine's Day. After breakfast we saw two camels walked along the beach. Of course, I couldn't pass the opportunity so we went for a ride. My favorite pic of riding a camel will be in the next post :) BTW, we were too busy planning our move, didn't realize it was Valentine"s Day until someone told us and we saw so many couples came out for the camel ride. Glad we joined them!

G said the unexpected events were always the best. How true!

In Transit

Out of all the suggested tourist destinations we asked around, my dear good traveler decided to take a 4-hr train to Palakkad which is unknown to us (not even on Lonely Planet) except it is on the way of the planned route to Chennai.

Again, we have had many "angels" help us along our journey every time we seemed at lost. The train ride to Palakkad was still pleasant except it was hot in a non AC cabin. I saw a young mother (with her little daughter) who swept the train floor to get few rupees  donation from us, instead of being a beggar!

A different model cab took us to a fancy hotel called Fort Palace $30US/night. This place is big, has nice rooms and service. It serves mostly the local people who attend conferences...so we were in our comfort zone again. The meals here are good too except we sat in a not well-lit bar for dinner, so we used iPhone as candlelight which was another laughable experience :) We went for a town festival that night just a block from the hotel.

We first were told there was no wi-fi in this hotel, but I was allowed to use a computer to E-mail for 40 Rupees/hr.  I am telling you, it's paid to marry a electronic geek (not sure about a good traveler though because the unknown does not suite me well ;)  The next morning as I was asking my nephew to publish a post for me through e-mailing, G spotted a modem under the manager's desk. Voila! We got Wi-Fi for ourselves and the reception still didn't know about it. G didn't tell them a thing ;)))

Sat morning, we walked to explore the city market for few hours. I didn't feel well from the day before with a chest cold and was loosing my voice as the day progressed. So far, I only had 4 bowls of hot & sour soup. There was not much to see in this city even it is close to the mountain range. In the evening, we went to see Alamuzha Dam, nice view of the mountains from afar, but the place looks like a Disneyland, especially on Sat we saw a sea of people!

Holly Cow!

We knew then we had to move on, so we went to book an night train to Chennai. Unfortunately, the overnight sleeper train was booked out for a week ahead, so the plan fell through! We just made the best of our day by going to see an old Fort (1745), and later had KFC-like Indian chicken that was delicious!

We discovered that Chennai does not have backwater trips as I researched, and something G hasn't experienced yet, so we decided to turn around to go back passed Kochi to Alappuzha--Venice of the East, they say (?) That meant we had to take the 5:30am morning train! We may be taking a flight from Kochi to Chennai as our last leg in India, this will include a 80-km train ride from Alappuzha back to Kochi. Well, we realized we didn't plan well, but many yin/yang experiences made it all worth while.

Happy Chinese New Year to All!

Leisure Days

After settling in an A/C hut at Kadalkkara Lake Resort, we were really feeling at ease: watching fishermen at work early in the morning, enjoying a nice lunch with fried fish, fried rice... (no more curry for me, except G ordered a "roast" chicken leg but ended with a curry chicken??? It was beyond our understanding but we ate it) Took a walk to the beach on Tues evening seeing lots of local people gather there to view the sunset and relax. finished the day by sharing a big trout for late dinner at a western style restaurant. To me, Cherai beach is not as nice as Varkala beach, that must explain why they have less foreigners here. Its busy season ends by mid Feb.

On Wed we rented a motorcycle for a day but only used it in the morning. We didn't feel safe on the busy city roads without helmets, so we cruised pleasantly on the side roads along the beach for couple hours, stopped by fishing harbour,  then came back to our favourite fish lunch again! The KLR's cook taught me how to marinate this fish dish because we love it so much that we ordered it again and again! Went to the beach again in the afternoon for a dip in the water, I pigged out on egg and banana fritters. Not sure I had lost any weight during the ashram month (Avelino did);  but I won't be able to tell until I get home as I know I will gain more with the way I am eatin,g and still have not reached Vietnam yet!  We also booked massage appointments for both of us. G had a Relaxation massage for $20, I gave myself a treat with a combination of Abhyanham-Sirodhara-Medicated bath for $44US. Experiencing Sirodhara is something to remember, but the rest was not impressive for the price we paid (but still cheap compared to home). I didn't think I had the medicated bath except a shower; but after 2hrs treatment loaded with oil I had enough to question the missing service. BTW, We had laundry service from the resort, cost $2-3/load max :)

Sirodhara

I think we both slept well here the last two nights, no mosquitoes with AC on, yah!
We were planning to leave here on Thurs afternoon back to Ernakulam by taxi, stay there overnight and will take the train on Fri morning to Palakkad--don't know what the place is about, it is just on our planned route to the final destination Chennai. "Go with the flow!" my loving good traveler said ;)

I am personnally not good at saying Goodbye, and at every place we stopped, we had met many nice people so it is emotionally hard moving onto the next destination.

Until next stop...

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.

On The Graduation Day

We still did our morning routine: Jala Nety, meditation, tea time, and 2-hr asanas  and pranayamas (Gunther came in to join us at the last 1/2 hour) I had tears in my eyes when we finished the last prayer.

 

 The graduation ceremony started at 12:30pm. It was beautiful and emotional to me! Bhooma and Yogesh gave us the final speech with some reflection and advice. We individual spoke our feelings and gratitude, warmed our face with the blessing flame, received white & red dots on the forehead by  Yogesh and the certificate from Bhooma, had group pic taken again.

Following was the delicious interesting feast started at 2pm! Gunther thought he was the lucky one to be able to join us, he enjoyed every bit of it. Well, too much of good thing might have a negative effect? His tummy couldn't digest this kind of food, he had to get some medicine from the ashram's Ayurveda center.

We slowly saying Goodbye to Bhooma first, then some through out the evening. Some will leaving early this morning as I am writing this post. Avelino and we will go to Varkala beach on Sun to get proper food, then he will leave to return to Canada early Mon morning while we will be heading to Kochi by train again.

I might not have Wi-Fi at the ashram in Kochi for a few days. Please stay tuned...

I "earned" it!

The Diiference

Gunther arrived safe and sound on Fri morning. The flight landed 10 minutes early but the checked baggage was delayed more than 1hr. G had to ask the security guys to come out to let me know, then went back in to wait for his luggage. Sooo glad to see him again.

Even he had a headache from the rough drive back to the ashram, he wouldn't hit the bed after 24hrs+ in transit.

So now you will hear from a good traveler's perspective, instead of the whiny one like me ;)

"I fell in love with this place already!" he told Bhooma.

"Regardless what you saw or heard about India through videos or magazine... , you have to be here to feel what it like. It!s so amazing!

He tried the ginger tea, listened to all "amazing sounds" of the surroundings in awe, went for walk while I was practicing the 2-hr Asanas & Pranayamas. Came back and had the first breakfast at the ashram...experiencing and loving every minute of it!

He still didn't want to waste any time for sleeping, so we went for a long walk together in the afternoon until it was getting hot, then we took a rich-shaw (first time for me too) to go back to the ashram.

Finally, his body told him to take a rest, took a 4-hr nap just until dinner time. He said to me he wants to experience the ashram life so I let him figured everything out:

- he had to get his own tray, cup; and washed them later with powdered soap using coconut husk as a sponge...

- while he was served the vegetarian food, he whispered to me: "Pork chop is coming next, right?" LOL, wishful thinking!  He first asked me if i would help him to finish the dinner.  Huh? I said No,  well he still finished it though. Will see how long he will last with this kind of food ;)
- he continued to go out for a walk, just wanted to absorb everything he saw...In the meantime, I skipped the chanting and hit the bed by 8pm. I was completed spent from waking up at 1:30am to go to the airport plus still had to complete my training day!

He is so happy to be here and I am happy just seeing him emerging, experiencing, and enjoying India :)