It has been brought to my attention that I forgot to reveal the champion of the rummy match between myself and Amar.
Drum roll, please.
It was me!!!!!!!!!! High five. We played a few final matches in Goa and I not only took the lead, but maintained it as we added more rounds to give Amar an opportunity to catch up. Phew, I was getting a little worried there for a while, but the stars aligned and victory was mine. Sweet!
There are a few other things I forgot to mention as well. The first is that on Oct. 21st I celebrated one year of being on the road. It’s hard to believe that an entire year has gone by. I have to say that it has been one of the most memorable, special, eye-opening, and inspiring years of my life and I am so grateful to have the means to do a trip of this nature, my health, a loving family, and fantastic friends who support me in my journey. I am also so thankful for the wonderful people I have met while on the road who have helped me to learn more about myself, see things through a different lens, and be grateful for the many gifts and liberties that I enjoy. I have every confidence that my path will cross with many of these people again, as genuine friendships have been made.
The other thing I forgot to share was this ridiculous story that took place on my bday. Amar and I were walking from Baga up to Calangute and along the way we were approached by tons of people asking us to do this scratch ticket thing. We declined each time, but finally asked one of the guys what it was all about. He explained that it was a scratch and win ticket to celebrate some anniversary of this big hotel chain and that we could possibly win some prizes with no obligation whatsoever (um, yeah right). In our weakened condition from the previous night‘s festivities we decided to give it a go and it turned out that I was a big winner. The guy saw my ticket and lost his mind, jumping up and down and whooping and hollering that he had never seen anyone win the “big prize” that I had supposedly just won. If I went with him to collect my big prize, which could be any of the following: an Apple computer, $200 cash, a free trip, or a DVD player, he would get 2000 rupees, which is about the average monthly wage in India. Of course now I had to go just so this guy could get his reward. He was ecstatic and explained that in order to get my prize I had to listen to a hour presentation about the property, but there was no obligation to buy. Essentially it was a time share pitch and at this point Amar and I had no other choice but to give it a go.
Evidently there were some additional perks for the guy based on the “quality” of the people he brought in so he coached us to tell them that we were a couple that had been together for a year and we now lived together. Whatever, dude, let’s just do this. Fast forward about 2.5 hours later and we are finally wrapping up the presentation. I finally collectedt my prize and unsurprisingly it was the “free trip” which allows me to stay at one of their properties in Thailand, India, or Indonesia. There’s a ton of fine print with hidden costs so it’s not the greatest, but I’m happy we could help this guy earn a little extra cash. It’s a pretty funny story too so all in all I’d say it was worth it.
OK now that we’re all caught up, let’s dive right into my last 2 weeks in India.
Cue the music from the Incredible India commercials, please.
After leaving Goa, I headed down to Ft. Cochin to meet up with Karthik who was leading a Beaches and Backwaters tour through Kerala. His tour started the day after I arrived so we had the evening free to enjoy a tasty dinner with some of the drivers who he works with on his various tours. They were all so warm and welcoming and I immediately felt at home. They were making a mean fish curry that was finger licking good. It’s such a treat to have a home cooked meal.
I love this picture! Three cheers for our psycho chef. Hahaha!
Whiskey…rarely a good idea.
We busted out a game of Indian rummy and I am pleased to say that I pulled out a victory here as well. Yeah! I’m on a roll.
The next day it was time to meet up with the group. Everyone seemed very nice and pumped up to get the tour started. The first item on their agenda was the Kathakali dance, which I had seen on my previous tour. Natalie, who was part of the tour, had been in Ft. Cochin for a few days and had already seen the Kathakali dance as well so we bagged the performance and enjoyed a leisurely evening in town. To assist us in full relaxation mode, we attempted to grab some Kingfishers, but the first day of the month is a holiday in Kerala so no beer can be served. What? How can this be? There must be a mistake. After trying about 3 other bars/restaurants we were pretty convinced that our efforts to obtain cold beer weren’t going to work so instead we enjoyed some limeade and great conversation.
We met up with the rest of the gang after the dance performance and Darren and Peter expressed a desire to grab some beers as well. Nat and I broke the holiday news to them and then asked Karthik if there was any way to get around this pesky first of the month holiday. I mean, it’s India, so anything is usually possible. Karthik said he would do his best, but he wasn’t very hopeful. I said goodbye to everyone since I was staying at another hotel, but was delighted when about 10 minutes later Natalie was knocking on my door with the great news that Karthik found a tuk tuk driver who could hook up the beer situation. Oh yeah, it is on!
We sat outside praising ourselves and Karthik for the next few hours and I knew that I had found my crew for the next week. Yahoo! It turns out that all of us had flexibility in our schedules as well, which meant more time to spend in Varkala after the tour. I love it, love it, love it!!!
The next morning we set out on the bus to Alleppey in the backwaters. Most of my people shots are courtesy of Darren. Thanks, D, for sharing. These pics are fab!
It was a tight fit, but the close quarters were conducive to massive amounts of smack talking for the long journey. We all share a love of sarcasm so you can imagine the things that we flying out of our mouths. I’m sure the other people within earshot of our conversation were wondering WTF we were talking about, but who cares? We thought we were pretty clever and hysterical so that’s all that really matters, right?
The backwaters were every bit as gorgeous as I remember them and it felt good to be back in this warm and relaxed environment.
Along the way to our next destination we stopped by a coconut fiber factory where they make rugs. It’s great to see that every part of the coconut is utilized and in such a creative way.
After Alleppey we visited Periyar. I had already done the nature reserve walk, which started at 6 AM, so I decided to sleep in and have a leisurely morning. When Natalie, my roomie, returned from the walk and notified me that they were all covered in leeches as they made their way through the reserve, it reinforced what a fabulous decision I had made to stay home. Leeches…um, no thank you. Gross me out! We spent the rest of the day shopping, stuffing our faces with delicious food, and of course washing it all down with a couple of Kingfishers.
One of the big highlights of our day was the impromptu sex show we were treated to by some monkeys on a nearby roof. All of the sudden we watched the male monkey slam the female face down on the roof and smash her face against the roof as he had his way with her. About 12 seconds later the entire thing was over and the female walked up the roof to most likely tell her female friends what a crap lover that guy was, while the guy feasted on himself. Yeah, gross. It was like string cheese with a string from his lower region to his mouth. Um, dude, really? Gross and by gross I mean awesome story to tell the rest of the group!
When we returned from dinner everyone was psyched to hang so we gathered in this little nook on the balcony and cracked ourselves up for the next few hours. What a great day!
On the way to our next destination we drove through the ultra lush and refreshingly cool tea plantations. It is such gorgeous scenery and something I will always think of when I think of south India.
Finally we reached the last stop on our trip, the beautiful, relaxing, cliff side beach town of Varkala. I had heard wonderful things about this town and I have to say that it exceeded my expectations on all accounts. It is jaw dropping gorgeous and filled with warm and kind locals, fabulous shopping, and mouthwatering food. Our first night in town happened to be Diwali, the festival of lights, which is celebrated with fireworks!! Happy Diwali!!!!!
After whooping it up with some fireworks it was time to…
And rock n’ roll we did into the wee hours of the morning.
This is our favorite guy at the bar who we named Pirate (yeah, we’re creative) and who we would continue to party down with for the next few days. We love you, Pirate!
After closing down Rock n’ Roll we decided a swim in the sea was a brilliant idea and the perfect way to end our evening. Miraculously we managed to climb down the rocks without killing ourselves and within about 3 seconds we had all stripped down to our undies and were frolicking in the sea. It was so much fun!!! After who knows how long we returned to the beach to collect our clothes, but my dress was nowhere to be found. Um…wow. Did I really lose my dress? I mean, who loses their dress? Apparently me. Fascinating! It must have been swept out to sea. I feel like it’s pretty unacceptable to lose one’s clothing, but what can you do? Great story, right?
The next morning I checked the rocks again to see if my dress was possibly stuffed into some crack, but it was nowhere to be found. Oh well.
After a much needed greasy breakfast I hit the beach with Darren, Natalie and Peter to chillax in the sun and surf. Ahhh, life is good.
This was the last day of the tour, but Darren and Peter were staying for 2 more days and Natalie and I were staying for another week. Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Let the good times roll, baby.
Sadly it was time to say goodbye to our other friends, but we had a delicious final dinner and a few drinks with our favorite Pirate back at Rock n’ Roll.
In the morning we said goodbye to everyone and then set off to our new hotel, Clafouti. Cue the music from the Jeffersons because we are definitely movin’ on up!
A huge shout out (please say out with a Canadian accent) to Natalie for finding this place because it was fabulous. Check out our home for the next week.
Here’s where Pete and Darren stayed.
Nat and I were across from them in
Here’s some artwork from our casa.
Our days were pretty leisurely, usually involving some time at the beach
Some shopping
and of course happy hour! We reserved our spot for sunset in the prime, tree house location.
It really was like we were living in paradise.
I cannot stop gushing about our time here. Everything about it was so fabulous!
Our last 2 days with Pete and Darren flew by, but we made the absolute most of them tearing it up one last time with Pirate and sending the boys off with bellies full of a tasty breakfast. Bye guys! Nat and I are going to miss you. I look forward to our reunion soon! It will no doubt be gorgeous and amazing, right?!? Safe travels back to London and please, please keep in touch.
And then there were 2.
After 4 days in Varkala with the boys, we had found our favorite restaurants for various meals and quickly fell into the routine of a leisurely breakfast at either Café Del Mar or Hungry Eye and a late lunch of either Thai green curry from Hungry Eye or vegetable dumpling noodle soup with pakora and/or fries from Sea Queen. We’d change it up a bit for dinner, but the chili prawns from Café Del Mar were one of our faves and definitely got some repeat visits. Both Nat and I are freaks for good food so if we weren’t shoving our faces with tasty treats, we were discussing when our next meal would occur and what we couldn‘t wait to be eating. Ah, simple pleasures.
In addition to gorging ourselves on fabulous food, we also filled our days with beach time,
Insanely cute puppy alert!
shopping and hanging out with some of the locals, fabulous massages at Lakshmi’s place, which was conveniently located right behind our bungalow, internet, gushing over sunset,
and finally ending the evening with a little movie night back at our place. I can‘t tell you how pumped we were to have movie channels. It‘s been ages since I‘ve seen a movie, and since Nat are I were having a little detox after the boys left, it was the perfect way to have a chill evening.
The beauty of being in this town for a while is that we had an opportunity to actually get to know some locals and make some friends. Allow me to introduce you to some of my posse.
This is Ali from whom I purchased a stunning ring and Natalie had some custom earrings made. He was on our route to the beach so we’d chat him up daily.
On the left is Ashok, our preferred vendor for these cool cards that had paintings done on leaves, and Linu who worked at one of the ayurvedic spas. Linu was thrilled to practice his English so we’d have a little hang session most days.
Here’s a pic of me, Linu and Reji John.
And this is Richard who worked at the Blue Marine restaurant and loved my hat.
I don’t know this little girl’s name, but she was adorable and had a special handshake that she’d do with Natalie each time their paths crossed.
The nice thing about these shopkeepers is that many of them are related either by blood or marriage. Here are some more of the friendly faces I’d see each day.
Finally I’d like to introduce you to a special boy named Laxman aka Lucky.
I promised him I’d visit his shop and though I tried to buy something from him he didn’t have my size. When it was time for me to leave his shop he got very angry that I was leaving empty handed and kind of started yelling at me for not buying anything. I cautioned him against yelling at his customers, reminded him that I had kept my promise to visit his shop, and said my goodbyes. On my way back from the beach I passed him sulking on the stairs and for the rest of the afternoon I couldn’t get him out of my mind. I returned to his shop later that day because I did want to buy something from him and while I was waiting for one of his coworkers to fetch me another size we got to talking. I could tell that he was very smart and asked him if he went to School. He said that he was working to save money so he could go to school. He was putting his 10 year old brother through school and taking care of his 5 year old sister as well. Both of his parents had died, as well as his uncle so these 3 were on their own. Laxman is only 12 years old. That’s a ton of pressure and responsibility for such a young boy. He went on to explain that school cost 3000 rupees (about $70) for the year and he didn’t have the money yet and he was leaving Varkala to go back home on the 18th. Today was the 12th. Now I can see why he was getting so upset when I didn’t buy something. I bought my shirts and said goodbye, but I had already decided that I’d like to cover his school expenses, but I needed to think about the best way to ensure the funds actually went to his school.
I discussed my idea with Rob over Skype and he agreed that the funds needed to go directly to the school, but since school was in another town several hours away, we’d need to be a little creative. I went back to Laxman’s shop to try to verify that the story Laxman had told me was true. I spoke with the lady who ran the shop, the stunningly gorgeous, Lakshmi
And she confirmed that Laxman had no parents, but he was her husband’s cousin’s something something so she was letting him work in her shop and trying to help him when she could, though she has 3 children of her own.
The story seemed to be checking out so when Karthik returned to Varkala a few days later with another tour group, I had him speak to Laxman in the local language and get a feel for the boy to see if he thought this was legitimate. He agreed that the boy seemed very smart and agreed to help me get the money to his school. I told Laxman of my plans and gave him my contact information as well as Karthik’s phone number and instructed him to have his school call Karthik to discuss how to transfer the funds into their account, provided of course that all of this was legitimate. I gave Karthik the 3000 rupees and am waiting to hear back from him about his conversations with Laxman’s school. Thanks, Karthik, for all of your help. I so appreciate it.
I told Laxman that if he studied hard and made good grades that I would continue to help him. I really hope that he follows up with Karthik and we are able to at least take this pressure off his young shoulders. My heart goes out to this boy and I hope that this turns out to be a relationship that continues to grow and blossom for years to come.
What a special way to end my time in India, in such a spectacular place and with such fantastic people. I absolutely adore this country and am genuinely sad to leave, but I know I’ll be back.
It was now time for me to say goodbye to Natalie who was headed further south to do a yoga teacher training course. Bye, Nat, I’m going to miss you and I can’t wait to come visit you in Toronto. Have a wonderful time at your class and in Mexico with your mom and sisters. See you soon.
Thank you, India, for all that you have given me. I cannot wait to return and reconnect with all the wonderful friends I have made there.
Next stop for me is Cape Town, South Africa where I’ll meet up with LWM. Yahoo! I’m so excited to see a familiar face. I’ll be with LWM for a little less than 2 weeks and then I’ll be doing 2 months of overland touring/camping throughout Africa. My internet is going to be pretty sporadic so don’t get concerned if you don’t hear from me for a while. This bush babe is going off the grid, but will be in touch when possible.
Huge hugs!
