Travel in India

My memories of Palolem were of a beautiful, empty beach and hoping my friend didn't crash the scooter we rented. We'd come to celebrate a colleague's birthday and spent a couple nights. Now 10 years later, the beach is lined with restaurants and shacks and hundreds of palm trees poking through. The number of palms is amazing and offsets the development, do it doesn't feel overwhelming. We arrived on a Saturday of a holiday weekend. The beach was hopping and there was almost nowhere to stay. While I was sightseeing in Pantaji, my other half had walked half the beach to be offered 2 spots for over Rs. 3000 a night. Yikes! There had been a guy at the bus stop who'd mentioned Rs. 1500 and he found me shortly after I arrived. Babush Ocean Star (named for the uncle) has about 10 rooms, each with a balcony. He went down to Rs. 1400 for 3 nights, not much of a difference, but better than other places we'd seen. The next 3 days were spent swimming, trying to get sunny...

We finally made it to Goa. Not where we expected to end up, but Goa nonetheless. As we hadn't pre-booked a train and weren't sure we'd get a sleeping spot, our plan was to go to Udupi, spend the night, and eat a great dosa in the morning before continuing onto Palolem. Then the train was more than an hour late and we got on the wrong train, so we decided on a new plan. Jump on the next train going north and see if there is space to Goa. We asked 2 Train Ticket Checkers (TTs) and one had space, so we settled into our bunks for about 5 hours of sleep. Luckily the train was even later than expected as we didn't hear the alarm through the earplugs and we made it off in time. Palolem is 30km south of Madgoa, where we got off, so we went to see about a train there. Moments later, we were racing to platform 3 as instructed and on the train that was waiting there. It took a while to leave so we dozed off and when I awoke, realized that we went north instead of south. Dang! We...

We'd learned about Theyyam, a ritualized dance form that worhips heroes and ancestors, from the Lost with Purpose duo. They wrote of their  night watching a Theyyam , and I was excited to see one myself. From a  Theyyam website  almost entirely in Malayalam, I'd deduced with some help that there was a  Pottan  Theyyam happening in Varam, which focus is on treating all people equal regardless of social class. To do so, Lord Shiva helps a man understand he isn't being socially correct by pretending to be someone of a lower caste to test the man's reaction. Let's just say he was initially rude, but then realized his error and Lord Shiva appeared to affirm his commitment to social equality. 6:30pm: After spending an unexpected night in Kochi, we made it to Kannur around last night. We'd traveled unreserved and found seats in Chair class where I slept and listened to podcasts. It was spacious until Kozhikode where the train became packed - I'm guessing beca...

After 5 months of traveling, I was feeling the need to do some work. Not spiritual work as one person thought, but physical work. Have someone provide a mound of dishes to wash or slices of bread to butter. The place to go for such things? An ashram. Which ashram? Well, I knew Amma's was in the south and I connect with her religion of love and dedication to selfless service, so it seemed fitting. On the hour long train ride from Alleppey, an enthusiastic university student told me about his home city if Kochi and how he was paving his own path vs. marriage at 25. From there I got a bus to the main bus station and then another to the village next to Amritapuri. While waiting for the second bus, I wondered if I would in fact get on it as everything was in Malayalam and English wasn't widely spoken. At some point a gal came up to me and pointed at the bus I should get on. The ashram is on the land surrounding Amma's childhood home, which is on a thin bit of...