No Room at the Inn...The true meaning of Christmas

Celias View ....

Dec 25th Gokarna , South India

We had finally made it out of the state of Kerala and arrived into Karnataka.
We were heading for the holy town of Gokarna, one of the most sacred places in Hinduism that we had also heard had some fantastic beaches.

We had a bit of a rough plan that we would settle down here for a little while before heading into Goa for New Years.
It was a long journey north

Sunset on Om Beach, Gokarna India, Christmas Day 2006

(600 Km or so by train) and when we arrived it was very early morning into a completely deserted tiny country train station. Up until this point we had been in fairly busy small little towns, reasonably well established on the backpacker trail and as its high season reasonably busy for India. Gokarna was a little different. It was definitely on the backpacker route but it seemed to be in the middle of nowhere and not built up whatsoever. Added to this there were always at least thirty stray holy cows on the beach , far more than in Kerala.

We met a great couple, Bianca and Ben, full of helpful advice about central America and great travel stories, on the bus into Gokarna and quickly formed one of those great little traveling groups that sometime happen on long trips.

We arrived onto Om beach, the second of four beaches that surrounded Gokarna town itself and went on the hunt for accommodation. Now it was nearly Christmas and this was a fairly little place but still it was incredibly difficult to find somewhere to stay. Bianca, Netty and I attempted first and failed miserably after wandering around for awhile we had only found two tiny little huts, next to chickens and pigs, for 50 rupee each (about 58p) a night that smelt and really were exactly the same as the chicken coop next door. The boys predictably went on the hunt and faired much better coming back with one lovely little hut for Bianca and Ben and one for us for one night only….

The next night we wandered again, searching for a place to stay. Finally in a scene straight out of the Christmas story, we were offered a tiny little shack for the three of us that looked exactly like a manger and we took it. Bianca and Netty outside our Manager/Hut ( sometimes known by less nice names)

It was nothing but sand on the ground and one wooden platform with a thin mattress on the sand and one light bulb that sometimes worked and sometimes did not and nothing else. Curt slept on three yoga mats on the floor and Netty and I slept up on the double platform. We grew to perfect our little hut in the week we were there, making it very homey and best of all managed to save stacks by getting out accommodation budget down to 33ruppees each (or 38p each) a night.

Which mean one thing…we could splurge on Christmas Day!
Ben and Bianca had a truly inspired idea of walking one beach over to where a 5 star resort had just opened up and asking if we could have Christmas Dinner at their resort. The resort itself charged $375 US a night which is completely crazy money but they let us come in and have a five course meal plus use of their pool on Christmas day for a measly $15US each.

The night before Christmas the five of us filled each other's stockings with toilet rolls, chess sets, jewelry, ganesh and other Hindi god stickers, huge firecrackers and harem pants and then let of firecrackers and played with firesticks on the beach.

Next morning after a lazy exchange of presents we made our way up to the resort where we feasted on prawns , fish curry, yummy salads, a great Christmas cakes and far far too much champagne and wine . It ended up being a group of nine and we had a blast.
Spent the afternoon swimming in a lovely pool and enjoying showers for the first time in awhile before heading back. A christmas with no hoopla, no advertising, no stress, hardly any money and a manger under some coconut trees....

OM SHANTI OM SHANTI (OH SHIT WHAT ARE WE DOING!)

Celias View Sivananda Ashram , Neyyar Dam, India December 2006

The day had finally come where we were to depart for the Ashram, a decision that had caused much debate amongst our little trio, with Curt very uncertain whether he really wanted to come and do yoga for five hours a day right up until the day we left for Sivananda Ashram at Neyyar Dam.

We decided to slightly bling it and got a car all the way to Neyyar Dam arriving in the late afternoon of the first day of Sivanandas Yoga vacation course.

With retrospect, we couldn't have had worse timing and everything coincided to make our first impressions of

Sivananda and ashram life in general very very bad! Janette on top of the ashram roof 5.30am Kerala India

First off it took forever to check in and Curt got left behind for over an hour waiting to be shown to the sparse boys dormitory. Secondly we missed all the yoga classes for that day but did arrive in time for Satsung, the part of the day where the ashram gets together to chant as well as meditate. The meditation was all right although we found it very hard at first but the chanting seemed to last forever and ever and ever.

That was absolutely nothing however compared to the talent show that followed !
OH MY GOD!
I Have never sat through anything so horrible in my whole life. Blissed out , daggy westerner gets up and sings terrible hare krishna like song completely out of tune and the another one does and then another one and it never ends!
But the worst person in the talent show?
The Australian man who got up with a guitar and sung a Bob Marley song badly WITH A FAKE JAMICAN ACCENT!
It was actual torture.

I divided my time between inwardly cringing and deciding on a scale of one to ten just how much cooler I actually was than everyone else in the room ( bar Netty and Curt)

I understand that Ego is a huge thing that Yoga devotees are supposed to overcome on their path to spiritual enlightenment ( and more flexible bodies ) and that being cool is just a part of ego but you can take that too far people! Mine and Nettys room...girls dormitory

Once we finally escaped we had a quick hurried conversation about what we would do. We were all freaked out and kind of disappointed but we had paid for three nights in advance ( only 450 R about 4.50GBP or $12 AUD a night for accommodation, food and yoga but still ) plus me and Netty still desperately wanted to try the yoga. Curt was very much for just bailing then and there despite it being 10pm at night as he hated it so much....

So what a surprise it was when the next morning me and netty finally run into Curt at 7.30am and he is singing the praises of the ashram and telling us he was happy to stay for the whole week!

It turned out that while me and netty had answered the 5am wake up call only to wander around for two hours lost, Curt has also gotten up ( every activity at Sivananda is mandatory so he didn't have much choice here) and had been taken on an amazing hike up a mountain in the dark to watch the sunrise over Neyyar Dam and the valleys surrounding it. The group held Satsung ( meditation and chanting ) on the mountain as the sun came up and Curt maintains it is by far and away the most beautiful thing he has seen in India.

Both me and Netty were extremely jealous but it did lift our spirits and make us more hopeful for better things. Plus while curt had been wandering up a mountain we had discovered the extremely strange noise we kept hearing everywhere was the Lions roaring from the Lion sanctuary on the next nearest mountain which gave the ashram a slightly trippy vibe which we liked.

So we decided to get into it and actually we started to have a really good time. We all loved the yoga classes which were some of the best I have ever taken. We did them in a huge marble hall and we all progressed super quickly so that now we are back in Varkala we haven't been able to find a class as advanced as we need. Our little group was split over meal times, taken all in long rows , eaten on the floor and with your hands and in silence. The meals were very basic and taken twice a day, once there would be vegetables and rice and sometimes pappadoms and the later meal would be very simple, rice and something very bland to go with it. Curt loved meal times, just enjoying getting his hands dirty, I found them kind of difficult since there were lots of people and it was kind of gross and noisy and Netty just hated eating with her hands.

We all enjoyed the Karma Yoga, ( basically helping out with chores to promote unselfishness) which was actually really easy but all three of us struggled in different ways with Satsung.
Luckily on the second day we attended a lecture ( we had skipped it on the first day very naughty so we could hang out and talk ) but actually it really helped.

Our lecturer was a guy called William a teacher from another connecting ashram. He was a really good lecturer just dabbling in different topics and yet he managed in less than an hour to allay most of our fears about the ashram as well as explain the five points of yoga in greater detail and talk a lot about the two gurus on which Sivanandas teachings are based. Both had been hugely active pacifists and had done really great things world wide ( plus helped with the cover of Yellow submarine for the Beatles :-) and we left with a better understanding of the role of Satsung in our yoga studies but also felt a lot more comfortable about not joining in with some of the more devotional parts of the ashram.

The next couple of days were kind of a high then low then high sort of a thing but we did finally decide to bail two days early for Varkala. It was a bit of a rushed decision based on our future travel plans but we have all left addicted to Yoga and maybe with some unfinished business in the land of ashrams!

The coolest little beach town ( except for the cliff)

Celias View : Varkala, India 2006 December


We had pretty much come to Varkala, a little beach town built on a cliff on a whim, basically to fill in some time before heading to our ashram but without any doubt it has become our favourite place on the entire trip.

Theres nothing particular about the place ....It is just a simple beach at the bottom of a big cliff but its just one of those places where everything just clicks into place....

For instance....

We got a great room for the three of us, for no more than the double price, in a funky little bamboo hut but that was really nice on the inside....

We found a great little juice bar almost straight away that made yummy chai masala, great beetroot apple and ginger juices as well as many others, healthy wraps or muesli and yoghurt and.......vegemite on toast. All very cheaply. Not only that but the owner Umesh lets us borrow his full India lonely planet and helped us out as much as possible.

The beach had great waves, just big enough for Curt to still be interested and just little enough for Netty to go further than she ever has in the sea before and even manage to catch a few waves!

The weather was picture perfect , not too hot but definately hot enough to tan, swim and play in...

Cute puppies and kittens ran about on the cliff and our little bamboo hut had a pathway that was well suited to firetwirling practice ( except maybe for the coconuts above)


The only real problem was my new found fear of heights ( completely connected to my new fear of flying and of trains and tubes ...obviously excellent timing since we are travelling on all of them ) was getting completely out of control. It meant I couldnt walk along the cliff path without help, suffered from vertigo really and diziness and sometimes tears just cause we were so close to the cliff edge.

Aside from that it was the perfect little beach town!

Floating down the backwaters in our very own house!

Celias View: Keralas Backwaters Dec 2006

We had one more little adventure in Kochi which didn't make the last post. An excellent dinner right under the chinese fishing nets. We basically selected our fish from the catch of the day and then they cooked it up for us.....It was amazingly good especially the calamari and our waiter ( who introduced himself as justin timberlake) was completely hilarious but unfortunately we were all wearing nowhere near enough mosquito repellent and all ended up with a mass of bites.
Although no one as much as Netty who was sporting almost 60 bites by the next morning!




We finally ventured out of Kochi and managed to catch our first train, something we had been very hesitant about but was actually reasonably easy ( although we did get kicked out of first class after sneaking in) to Alleppey further south in Kerala.

We had decided to head to Alleppey because it is the departure point for the the backwater house boats. These are cool keralan style houseboats that float around the big national park made up entirely of lakes and little rivers, streams and still water that surrounds Kerala. We had decided to hire our own ( plus cook and driver...they mainly push or punt the boat with two huge sticks and use a small motor in the bigger stretches of water ) and go for twenty four hours.




We spent one night in Alleppey first, staying in a great old marble guesthouse and eating dinner at this amazing vegetarian restaurant , a very simple affair but with chai masala that has yet to be equaled anywhere on our travels.


The next morning ( after a huge fight with the South Indian Bank who only dispensed 500 of the 12000 rupees I had tried to get out of the ATM , a massive amount of money in India ) we finally headed of on our journey...

The first afternoon was amazing....We passed other houseboats and major riverways which gradually narrowed down to small riverlets and little lakes. We passed literally thousands of ducks all together in one huge pack which was really strange to see and I'm sure photos wont convey at all. We also passed local village schools where all the kids would wave and later in the afternoon, tons of people bathing in the river or washing clothes or dishes.


We also ate....all the time! The cook just kept bringing out dishes and we stuffed ourselves on great vegetarian food and rice dishes as well as more masala chai ( a group favourite). I actually felt quite sick after eating so little at the Sanctuary.

Later at night we all sat around on pillows on the deck and chatted and played cards until late late night.

The next morning I beat everyone up at around 6am and watched us cross a huge lake, one of the biggest I've seen before we passed through another set of villages and made it back to Alleppey just in time for another round of arguements with the South Indian bank ( although one of the lovely bank tellers Lily not only taught us some more hindu but also invited us to come and stay with us) and a onward train to Varkala.

The Arrival of the Amazing Miss J

Celias View Kochi , Kerala , India


We have finally made it to India and Netty is here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was so excited just before she came, it was ridiculous and we have been having the best time!

We are in a small town called Kochi, in the state of Kerala in the south of India. It was a great place to arrive to, very similar in many ways to parts of South East Asia with Coconut trees and cashew nut plantations.

Curt and I had lucked out on our way to Kerala with smooth connections through Bangkok and by a stroke of luck scoring a day room in Sri Lanka where we could sleep the ten hour wait in the airport in privacy, even with our own bathroom!

This meant we had a lot of energy when we finally made it to Fort House, our lovely guesthouse right by the water and spent the first day exploring so that when netty arrived we could show her around.

We have found this great lunch place called Kashi Art Café, A gallery with a set lunch and the best Chai ever for about 70rupees ( less then a pound) and we have spent far too much time there.

Kochi is famous for its melting pot of cultures and settlers, Syrian Christians, Jews, the Dutch, the French and the British and the influence this has had on local food and customs is huge. We spent the next day exploring spice markets, marveling over how cheap rare spices are and then watched the sunset next to the fishing nets on Kochi’s waterfront.

We also went to the most amazing restaurant yesterday as a bit of a splurge, called the History Restaurant, the service was unheard of, very Raj era like, in a huge old heritage building and the food was amazing all based on different eras of settlers in Kochi.

We are moving on to the backwaters tomorrow……Cant wait!

Escape from the Island

Celias View----- The Sanctuary Ko Phagnan, Thailand.

In the middle of the night on the 5th of December, I woke up to the sound of rain pounding down on our bungalow roof. Curt and I had a hurried, whispered conversation about whether or not it would pass in time for us to leave by canoe the next morning on our way to catch connecting flights to India. We decided it was just a passing storm and would definitely clear up before morning. After all hadn’t the weather been absolutely picture perfect up until then?

How wrong could we have been!

We awoke in the morning to flooding throughout the whole Sanctuary. We had to wade to the restaurant, the rain wasn’t stopping and the sea was so rough that all taxi boats between Hat Thien where we were and Hat Rin had stopped running.
This was extremely bad news for us as we had a flight the next day from Ko Sumai which we had to make in order to make our international flights. There was a small chance we could wait till the next morning and still make it but the weather forecast was predicted the storm would last a whole week as it was the tail end of the cyclone in the Philippines

Two other girls we had been hanging out with, Nat and Mel were in the same position as us, having to make a 10:30 flight from Koh Sumai that day.

We started making enquires about how else to leave a place that is connected by road and were told two Thai guys would act as guys to take us two hours by jungle over the mountain to Hat Rin. We were completely dismayed by the prospect of trekking up a huge mountain with packs in torrential conditions but were resigning ourselves to the prospect when the owner of the sanctuary started talking to Curt on the beach.
They shared a quick spliff and the owner suggested we might be able to reach Ko Sumai by speed boat.

This idea quickly grew and soon the four of us had decided to split the cost of chartering a boat (about 5000 Baht or $150 Aus) and go for it. The owner swore the Thai guy he was calling from another beach wouldn’t take the boat of across if he didn’t think he could make the crossing and we decided to cross our fingers and do it.

There was no way under the storm conditions the boat could reach shore so we found ourselves with our bags wrapped in garbage bags, on the beach clinging to the side of a rubber dingy with a motor attached.
We were going to have to ride the waves to the boat.

The whole of the Sanctuary came out to watch us depart from the restaurant and with the three girls roped into the dingy, Curt and two Thai guys pushed us into the sea. We went straight under a massive wave, everything soaked and the Thai guy hanging of the side only half in. We grabbed him, got over the next two waves and finally sat up. We looked back and all the Sanctuary were cheering!

After that we finally made it to the speedboat for an extremely scary crossing, huge waves kept flipping the boat and I went quite pale and started thinking about death as well as crushing curts hand which had bruises by the time we made it.
Finally though all four of us were at mine and Curt’s hotel, wrapped up in robes, after lovely hot showers, getting ready to order room service and bum out to some movies!

The Ultimate Chill out....

We arrived on Ko Phagnan with a particular destination in mind and unlike the other backpackers on our ferry it wasn’t the famous full moon party.

We were headed to the remote beach of Hat Thien, to a place with a growing reputation amongst travelers and twenty somethings, The Sanctuary , a detox and yoga centre set on the beach surrounded by jungle.

Way back in London, I had booked us in for a fast and general detox and was delighted once I checked out our Thai style bungalow complete with separate circular bathroom and huge balcony complete with Hammocks.

I settled into the pace of the Sanctuary pretty much straight away, the restaurant was amazing, all organic with over 300 vegetarian dishes available. Even better the menu was organized so that you knew exactly which dishes you could eat pre fasting and which ones you could eat post fasting and on which days.

There was also a lovely spa attached to the Sanctuary with massages, facials, hot steam rooms and every sort of beauty treatment which overlooked the jungle.

Even better were the 11/2 hour Yoga classes set right up the mountain in an open air yoga hall. I attended these as much as possible and my Yoga instructor was one of the best I’ve ever had.

So I was loving it and preparing for my fast but Curt was very very bored. He found it difficult to settle down for a week, was restless, unhappy that the food was more expensive than the rest of Ko Phagnan and desperate for some excitement. We had discussed him leaving for Ko Tao to dive but money was becoming very tight as we had both spent far too much money in SE Asia and so that plan was scrapped.

Eventually ( after some extremely noisy and unpeaceful fights) we compromised with taking day trips to Hat Rin where we went shopping, lazed on the bigger and whiter beach there and fulfilled curts need for cheaper slightly less healthy food.

While this was going on I started my fast. I had to drink a mixture of clay and herbs on every alternate hour starting at 7am which encouraged internal cleansing and priobotics on every other hour. I also had two colonics which had completely scared me before the fast but turned out to be not bad at all, even kind of relaxing in a trippy sort of way. I would just lie back on my back in a special bathroom, let me gravity controlled colonic go to work, listen to my ipod and emerge an hour later as light as a feather.

I wish I had ended up doing the seven day fast but time and money prevented me. I will definitely definitely go back for that and sooner rather than later.
Curt and I both came away with lasting things from the Sanctuary, Curt came away far far better with firesticks due to all the time he had to practice. I came away with absolutely no desire for sweet food which seems to be lasting now a week or so later….
If you get the chance to be on this side of the world, The Sanctuary is highly recommended!

Elephants bareback riding.......

Elephant sanctuary
Koh Chang
Thailand

Curts View..........

Well if your on Koh Chang you might as well go and play with the elephants, and as i have never been to a zoo i was really keen to see them. Koh Chang has various different options for elephant trekking and we choose a place that was a rehabilitation centre for old logging elephants. These guys have brought the ex working elephants here to the Island so they are not mistreated or neglected, and given a decent life.


We were introduced to two elephants and went to the water hole to wash them. As i was sitting on the the back of one (trying to scrub behind the ears), she decided she didn't want to be scrubbed anymore and got out. I rode the hairy beast bareback out of the water and back to the rehabilitation centre. It was straight out of jungle book. We were then treated to a 45 min trek through the jungle, over creaks and up and down hills. It was great just to be wondering around on top of such a big mound of muscle, we stopped frequently to piss, eat and poo (the elephant that is) so it wasn't the quickest mode of transport I've ever taken and not recommended for adrenaline junkies fix. After the ride we got to feed them coconuts and bananas before saying goodbye. It was very cool and neither of us could take the smiles off our faces for hours

I just want to see fish godamnit!

DIVING : 4 DAY OPEN WATER COURSE
KO CHANG

Celias View.................


So after a few days of relaxing and exploring on the lovely Koh Chang , Curt and I decided we were up for a little more excitement.
We decided to sign up for our 4 day Open Water PADI course, something we had both been looking forward to for ages while planning the trip.

We picked a dive school, basically the one closest to us and got ready to go.
I asked the instructor if there would be any problems with me being asthmatic and diving and he admitted he had absolutely no idea and said I could either just risk it and lie on my dive form or go have a dive medical. ( and yes perhaps there should have been alarm bells ringing already)

I chose to get the dive medical and saw a lovely Thai doctor in the international clinic. He cleared me for diving although only to certain levels but did so without any tests or any history of my ashtma being asked whatsoever...

Next day we rock up for a mornings class on the theory behind diving. We learnt all the basic stuff, got handed out horrible big textbooks and finally hit the pool in the afternoon to practice skills.

Curt picked it up straight away , being just good at putting things together and so on, but I struggled from the first second I had to wear the regulator. I just felt breathless all the time underwater. The instructors were sure it was just nerves and kept telling me it was really common which made me confused. I was pretty sure I wasnt nervous but then I was getting more and more frustrated with the fact that I couldnt be underwater for more than ten minutes without having to come up and get air. Eventually I struggled through the exercises and crashed out for the day.

Second day same as the first except I was even more disheartened. Curt on the other hand was really crusing through the course and both of us were hoping it would be a little more fun once we hit the open water......

Finally the third day we hit the open sea and headed out to a dive site about an hour off the coast of Ko Chang. We did one quick dive nothing huge, to run through some skills on the ocean floor and then one afternoon dive which was really fun , I have no idea what any of the names of any of the cool fish were but there were lots of them! NO turtles though which was what we were searching for....

The only down side of that dive was the massive coughing fit I had right at the end that meant I had to exit quicker and which maybe should have been a bit of a warning to me.

Fourth day came round and I was really feeling rough. I hadnt been able to stop coughing all morning but was feeling kind of vunerable about the fact I'd been really struggling with the course the whole time so was determined to finish it . In retrospect Im not even sure why it was such a big deal to me since I hadnt been having much fun for the whole of the course and couldnt really imagine diving for fun but I guess just too much pride and ego involved.

Curt on the other hand was having a really good time, doing really well at it and enjoying it loads.
I bailed on the first dive ( at curts suggestion who was worried about how unwell i seemed) . This dive apparently was incredible, really good visability, loads of eels and fish and schools of Barracuda.

My instructor really pushed for the second dive from me though reminding me I wouldnt pass the course otherwise and going through the whole nerves, it will be fine , just relax in the water thing again.

So back to the water for the second dive......
I was doing a skill with my instructor when I started to feel pain in my right chest. I went up a little but nothing happened. I was pretty much non stop coughing at this stage and my instructor was signalling to me whether or not there was a problem or not.....I was signalling yes and then coughing and then I don't remember the next few seconds whatsoever until hitting the surface gasping for breath. Curt had thrown aside his mask, having been watching me from the surface through his snorkel and was yelling at the boat to get my puffer. The instructor had taken me up quickly as soon as I'd stopped signalling.

And then I was on the boat. Weak but okay.

So it turns out, after I did all the research I should have done all along that its pretty much completely NOT OKAY for asthmatics to dive. Espcially not asthmatics like me whose main trigger is cold air. Cold air ...like the cold dry air in a dive tank.
If your interested in more info on that look at this link.....

http://www.nevdgp.org.au/info/lungf/asthma-diving-health.html

One of those things about not trusting your instincts. I know I dont get asthma from nerves and I knew the air in the tank was making me breathless but I guess I was just kind of going along with everyone elses opinion instead of listening to myself. Majorly stupid.....

On the bright side....Curt passed with flying colours ..even acing his last task .........
The Divers version of a Beer Bong....Check it our below.............
:-)