Cherai Beach

Cherai Beach Resort is located outside Kochi on a small island! I reached it yesterday after a one hour cab ride and a three hour train ride! I was so happy to come to a nice place! Actually it is beautiful here and for the first time I have a clean toilet! The shower is still cold but in this heat it does not matter anymore. To reach my tiny hut, i have to cross a lovely bamboo bridge! My hut is standing in the water and at night I can hear the fishes jump and it almost seams that they want to come to bed with me.
I started my day with a yoga practice just outside my front door surrounded by water! I went to breakfast and after that I treated myself to an Ayurvedic massage which ended with a steam bath, shower and then a face massage! This was truly heavenly and most amazing and I enjoyed every minute of it! The rest of the day I laid on the beach, did my meditation and then created a Mandala! What a day and how I needed that after all the traveling and being sick for a while. It is good for me to build up my strength again before I make my journey home!
After laying on the beach for one day I had to venture out again. I decided to go to Ernakulam the big city from where I arrived with the train. I did some shopping then took a ferry to Fort Kochi, the next island. I had a wonderful time to watch the fisherman bringing in the big beautiful nets full of fish. Walking along the shore, who was lined with beautiful little restaurants, got me contemplating about my journey! I examined my path in every possible angle. I will write new blog about thoughts and contemplation on the way home, for now I want to finish writing about Cherai Beach first! Today I visited an Elephant rescue camp and helped to wash the elephants in the river! They all layed down so that I could comfortably reach and scrub them with my brush. One of them played with me with his trunk. That was truly wonderful and it was a fantastic experience! The elephants where so grateful to get cooled off! Then they had to go back to their camp and got tied up, which made me very sad. I could not understand why they could not walk around freely, because I saw that their was a big fenced aerea! Today is the day that I also will pack my bags and say goodby to India. My journey home starts when you have Saturday evening and I will arrive in Richmond Monday night!
Thank you for listening, all your prayers and comments!
Namaste

Amritapuri Ashram

I arrived at the Ashram after traveling for 22 hours totally exhausted. When they asked me if I liked a shared room or single I opted for single! I do like my privacy especially with so many people here! Right now the Ashram is not as crowded, because Amma is not here. This Ashram is a big village with several high rise buildings, a big Temple and huge dinning hall.  The Ashram is able to host 5000 people and  there will thousands more, when Amma is in the Ashram, here for eating.  It is a well organized and very busy place!Like a big village crowded into a small place. There are whole families who give up their lives in their country's, to live here forever! Everybody who stays here has to work, do Seva, and help for several hours a day. I was gluing on address labels yesterday and today I had to sew little hearts filled with flowers. I think I am lucky not to be in the kitchen and prepare food early in the morning or wash dishes, clean toilets or floors! Meditation starts early in the morning and then chanting until breakfast. There is another meditation session from six in the evening until dinner time which is at 8pm.  I feel the amazing energy, which gets created with so many people meditating together. Then I had to teach two yoga classes and I felt a bit out of practice. Nonetheless the classes were lovely and the people liked them! There were people from all over the world in my class!

It is very, very hot here in the south and the proper  Ashram clothing's are long sleeves and long pants. Needless to say everybody sweats all day and night. There is no air condition either and Amma forbid for us to go to the beach right now, where we could get cooled of. She is concerned about another tsunami! Well I do long for the beach and so decided to go back to Kochi for my last 3 days in India and spent it in an nice Resort and let myself spoil with Ayurvedic Massages! So again I will be on the move tomorrow as I travel four hours north to Cherai Beach!

Namaste

More from Arambol

The next day I walked to the village and found a yoga teacher then I  practiced with him every day.Along the shore are a lot of little Restaurants where I got fabulous Indian food and lots of different kind of  fruit drinks.I decided to rent a motorbike to explore a bit the near area in  north Goa. Daria a Woman from Russia joined me. We went south along the coast over little mountains. We ended up in  Chapora.a small village by the Chapora river.We climed up a mountain to an old Fort and could enjoy the most beautiful view to the ocean and on the other side we saw the inland and where the river met the ocean! The land in Goa is very green with coconut plantations and other fresh produce!
The next day I climbed another small mountain near Arambol to an old Bajan tree. It is there where Baba, an enlightened being lives! People go visit him and bring small tokens of  fruits or tobacco. Everybody sits around a circle smokes and talks to him. When he saw me he started shouted out loud and opened his arms and said "Mama oh Mama you com here finally, finally i see you, oh Mama sit with me!" so i went to sit next to him and he kissed my cheeks. Then he was holding my hand and said you I will  be healed. He said my legs will be better soon.Well, I really look forward to that! After going back I went to lay on the beach and rest. But there is no rest at Arambols beaches , because there are a lot of woman in beautiful Saris walking around to sell their goods. Every two minutes one of them stands in front of you and says:"Madam want to see my things, give good price , make me happy , you bye!"  And if I say no they never will never go away and start unpacking all they have, put it on your leg. I made the mistake to bye something after one day being harassed and  that makes it all worse., because then everyone is coming to say: " Why you by not from me, me have better price better things!" and you have to know they are all friends, it is just a endless game! one day I made the mistake of giving a begging child some money! It took him only five minutes to bring back the whole village! At the same time a boy on a bike came by to sell ice cream and so i decided to by them each one. Now the crowd got even bigger and even the woman in the saris came by and said they are children too. It was a real spectacle at the beach. In India everybody makes their own prices, so I had to barter with the ice cream boy and still ended up with a big bill! As they all still where eating their ice a boy pushed a big wagon along the beach with a grill on it and he made corn on the cob! Now the children came to ask me if I would bye them dinner too! It is never enough no matter what I do.  Smiling I left the beach!
Arambol has a lot of tourists, especially from end of November to beginning of April! So the season comes to an end now! I still met a lot of people from all over the world. Daria from Russia and I became friends and I talked to people from Germany, Israel, Nepal, Denmark, Sweden, Japan, Switzerland, France, Spain, Belgium, Australia and Austria!  Amazing isn't it?
I considered the five days I spent in Arambol as resting days and did not so much sightseeing. My train  15 hour train ride leaves tonight to go to Kochin  south India!
Please forgive me if I make mistakes, the time is always short to be on the CP and I do not have time to read and correct the blog!

Goa ~ Arambole

After a long traveling day I arrived in Panaji, the capitol city of Goa. Goa is a small state of India and isstrongly influenced by the Portuguese who invaded Goa in 1510. They took control of the many harbors to bring spices and other goods to other places in the world.! They also brought Christianity to Goa and one can see catholic churches in all the villages. Goa's coast is lined with palm trees, rocky mountains and a lot of greens. This was a true welcome to my eyes after all the cities I visited.
From the airport I took a bus to Panaji and then got a cab to Arambole a very small village north  of Goa. The cabdriver unloaded me in the village and from there I had to walk about 15 minutes along the shore to my room. I got a little hut directly on the beach. At night I could open the bacony door and listen to the sound of the ocean. True music to my ears, really lovely! I had to share the room with a family of rats, lizards, roaches and ants and it got very cosy at times! The cows, dogs, pigs, coats, and roosters had to stay outside!
To be continued!!!!!