March 11-13, Friday-Sunday

March 11-13, Friday-Sunday

Varkala take two. We arrived Varkala Friday afternoon after a two hour taxi ride from the ashram. Heather was in the first stages of a bout of "Delhi belly." So far Jen and I have survived the trip with the anti-diarrhea pills still in the blister pack (we intend to keep it that way). Heather spent Saturday morning to afternoon close to the hotel, so Jen and I walked the beach and negotiated with the store keepers along the cliff path.

At dinner Saturday night I told Heather and Jen that I always kept my toothbrush in it's case at night (not sure how we got on this topic). Jen didn't say anything at the time but was thinking that I was perhaps a bit too cautious or maybe paranoid. Jen and Heather left for the hotel and I stayed behind to talk to Leela on Skype. While walking back to the hotel I meet Jen coming out of a small grocery store with a brand new toothbrush in hand. As it turned out when she got back to the hotel a big cockroach had taken a liking to the bristles of her toothbrush. The damsel in distress did manage to find a brave Indian gentleman who gently pinched the antenna of the cockroach between his fingers and released it unharmed outside. I probably would have smashed it like I did to the one I woke up to in my bathroom at the spa in Kovalum. Guess it's pays to be a bit cautious or maybe paranoid sometimes.

Next time I hear someone in SD complain about the heat I'll give them typical day in south India. Pretty much the only time your not dripping sweat and your clothes aren't sticking to your body are the nine or so hours after you've taken a shower and are inside your air conditioned hotel room for the evening. Otherwise it's 85+ degrees everyday and there's enough humidity to make your clothes totally stick your skin. After three weeks you just get used to it (kinda). Nice to know in three weeks from tomorrow (Monday) I'll be back in beautiful SD.

We did practice yoga for the three mornings we were at Varkala. The hotel has a second floor restaurant that overlooks the sea. Fortunately, the restaurant isn't being used so the somewhat dirty floor made a good yoga studio with a beautiful view of palm trees and waves crashing on the beach.

There was a local temple festival about a half hour's walk from the hotel. So Saturday afternoon we trekked to the Devi temple just in time to witness a pre-marriage ceremony. We watched them pour rice from one container to another and then again to another container to symbolize good blessings for the marriage. We were allowed to go inside the temple (men are required to take off their shirts which I really enjoyed not having it stick to me for a few minutes) and watch the puja (fire ceremony). There were four men playing drums (very loudly) and one man playing a small set of cymbals. And the ceremony also included an elephant. He stood just in front of the entrance to the temple. The elephant's was adorned with what looks like a gold shield outlined in red, green, and brown that started on the bridge of his trunk (just below where his tusks started) and extended a couple of feet above the crown of his head. There was a Brahmin priest sitting on the elephant and another (his owner/trainer) sitting on the ground near his front right leg. While we were in Trivandrum, Rajesh told us not to go looking for temple festivals as they would find us.

Babu (our taxi driver who drove us from Varkala to Trivandrum) showed up again and provided our transportation on Saturday afternoon and Sunday. He was asked to take us to a local village where no white people were. On our way to the train station he took us down this dirt road not a half mile from the main street. He drove for maybe a quarter mile and stopped. There were small cinder block looking homes many with palm prawn roofs on both sides of the street. Right in front of the car was a woman washing clothes on a rock next to a water faucet. I was a bit apprehensive to get out of the car and told Heather "you go first." We were immediately surrounded by twenty or more boys and girls whose ages ranged from two to twelve. "photo, photo, photo!" they yelled. So there we stood taking picture after picture of all these beautiful brown boys and girls. After every picture we took we had to show it to them. I took a couple of videos which they really enjoyed. There was a young man who spoke really good english who told me that what we were doing was a very special thing for most of these children. He said that most of the younger children had never left their village and had thus never seen a white person. Towards the end a couple of older men showed up and wanted to take me down the street with them but at that point we had to go. We were thanked for taking the time to come and visit and provide these children with morning that many will never forget. Neither will Heather, Jen, and myself. We said goodbye to Babu as he dropped us off at the train station.

The train ride from Varkala was similar to the ride from Thrissur to Varkala last week. The train was pulling out of the station as we boarded so we jumped in the first door available. We ended up in a sleeper car so it was somewhat more closed in with small compartment of six fold up/down bunks. We sat in a compartment with four young men who worked for an Indian telecommunications company. They were on a fifty-six hour ride to Lucknow. It made our four hour train ride seem inconsequential. As the ride progressed and passengers came and went two older Indian ladies sat across from us so the ride became more cozy. There were a few times during the ride that we just stopped along the track and "enjoyed" the heat of the day. One of the young men wrote this in Heather's book "We are Indians, we believe in ATITHI DEVO BHAV, which means Our Guests Are Our God."

After a four hour plus train ride and a bone jarring rickshaw ride from the train station we arrived back at the Hotel Delight in Cochin. Dinner at a local restaurant and a stop at a market for water and biscuits and we are in for the night. There's something comforting about coming back to someplace you've been before.