CRIScom travel experience flow - The personal website of Christoph Potzinger » india 2008

Thank you, India!

Christoph — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 12:40:14 +0000

It’s been exactly two weeks since we returned from our trip through India. It’s been a busy time and I have worked almost non-stop ever since we touched down on Austrian soil on that sunny, cold Saturday morning dipped in snow-white. One might expect that there has not been much time for a deep Indian contemplation. But all that work could not attenuate the profound experiences that India had dealt out to me. India has been around ever since. Even in yesterday’s seminar it made more than a guest appearance and served for a couple of excellent metaphors and teachings to adduce my message.

However hard those three weeks might have been, I am more than happy that we chose India as our honeymoon destination. It was more than a holiday. It was one of those rare times where I was subjected to so many new experiences so that I found it hard to archive them in my system; coupled with many situations where India forced me to leave my comfort zone and learn to cope with new, unknown experiences and sides of my character. I like to call India my most profound and essential personal development seminar.
It’s never been a laid-back, smooth, nice affair. Those fleeting moments you forget so soon, anyway. It’s been more of a tour de force which has left its imprint indelibly burnt into my soul. Even those hectic 14 days could not conjur away India’s looming presence which I had to face time and again and which I had to deal with in order to reconcile those experiences with my attitude ever since our return. In addition, the many memories are proof enough for this holiday’s lasting impact.

Traveling India has taught me many lessons – mostly about myself. But I have also grasped a glimpse of the current state of humanity and its relationship to and dependency of mother earth. Those insights once again elucidated the need for a fundamental paradigma shift regarding the way we lead our lives. Thus, I can see the current world events in a positive light. In the midst of the current confusion, chaos and fear, an opportunity might arise for a different approach to almost everything which we have taken for granted, natural and self-evident but which after all is nothing more than a big, self-created, comfortable illusion which is based on short values and a win-lose paradigm. The current world events suggest that human mankind might be lead into a situation where it may have no other choice but to give up old systems, ways of thinking, habits and see themselves in a completely different light or else be eradicate.

Thank you, India, for such an overpowering experience. Thank you, too, Sylvia, for accompanying me on this wild, hard, bumpy journey and being there for me to calm me whenever I couldn’t cope with the chaos and confusion. It’s been a real test for our relationship but one which we have passed well, so I think, one, which has drawn us even closer together. Thank you, India, for that as well.

Find all the photos from our trip here in my Flickr photo album

India: A different holiday

Christoph — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 05:40:58 +0000

Rachna from Bangalore commented on my last post. She read it in the Bangalore Mirror, which featured a post from my blog. Thanks, Rachna, for giving us your point of view. Your words struck a chord in me and have triggered this post.

Despite being an experienced traveler the situation in India at the end of November was completely new to me. Up to then, such sad happenings as in Mumbai had just been stories in the newspapers for me. Suddenly, I experienced what it could mean to be a protagonist of such stories. Fortunately for us, we were far away but we felt deeply with the people in Mumbai. We could so much relate to them since we had just been there. Having just been there and with the people made it all worse for us.
Sylvia and I hope that the terrorists won’t achieve their main goal: destabilize the unity of India and worsening the relationship between India and Pakistan.
I know that Indians are confident, strong and persistent. That’s why we have no doubt that India will overcome the events in Mumbai even stronger.

Still we have enjoyed our stay in India although it was a ‘different’ enjoyment. I have seen and learnt more than on any other trip. My problem with India was more a personal attitude thing. Deep inside I longed for a quiet time on the beach. But India wanted me to participate and get into the moment. I had never been more in the “here and now” than in India. And for me that was a deep and lasting experience beside all the nice spots we visited and interesting people we met.

As for the situation at Mumbai airport, I think that it wouldn’t have been different at any other airport in the world. The shootings were still going on and people were frightened. What freaked us out was the fact that the transit bus left the airport area and took the public ‘highway’ which was more congested and chaotic than normal and we hardly couldn’t get through.

As you might already know, our photos have been saved and will be posted in the course of today

Home at last

Christoph — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 11:18:43 +0000

Yesterday at 11.45 a.m. we arrived at our apartment after a 24 hour trip that brought us from Bangalore via Mumbai, Dubai, Vienna to Graz. It was an exhausting journey back home, which pushed me to my very limits in Mumbai where we had to change over from the domestic airport, where we arrived from Bangalore, to the international airport. Although we had more than 3 hrs in order to change planes we made it by 15 minutes to catch our plane to Vienna.

My nerves where cracking for Mumbai airport was in a state of war: checkpoints, military, weapons, and outside busses, auto rickshaws and cars created a confusing and daunting situation. We had to push our way through the mess to get into the airport building.

More about this hell of a trip back in my next post.

Now we have settled in again in our snug little appartement. We are more than happy and thankful that we are back in Austria. India has taught us more than anything else to appreciate the privilege of being able to live in Austria. I have never been more aware of that. The memory card in our camera is making problems so there may be no photos from our trip. Such a problem might have made me freak out in the past. But at the moment, all I can do is laugh about it. Is it of any importance?

In Bangalore, we had a gorgeous driver who drove us all around Bangalore; he escorted us to the Bull temple and even helped to find a palm leaf reader at an obscure address. He was a happy man and had just bought a brand new auto rickshaw for 2000 US$. This was on Wednesday just before a lot was about to change for India. On Thursday while the terrorists were wreaking havoc in Mumbai he gave us another lift. It was immediately noticeable: The happenings in Mumbai had deeply affected this man. He appeared distraught and was close to crying when we talked about the sad happenings. The Mumbai attacks clearly left a trace and although we were about 1000 kilometers away from the metropolis, the atmosphere and mood of Bangalore’s citizens was gloomy and sad to say the least. They related to the sorrow of the people of Mumbai; to those that died or were injured and their families. But they also knew that the next months would be tough. So many Indians rely on tourism as their main source of income. So many are rickshaw drivers like our friend and live on a couple of hundred Rupees a day. The Mumbai attacks just came at the start of the high season. Flights out of Mumbai are full and we have heard that it is impossible to get out of India from Mumbai at the moment. Everyone not Indian seems to want to get out. This is understandable. Thus, our friend will drive around a lot fewer people this winter and there will be a lot less money coming in. Supporting his family and paying back for the new motor rickshaw will become even harder. Beyond the immediate grief, the consequences these attacks have on so many Indians is hardly grasbable.

What was really strinking about India was the fact that it appears as a harmonious amalgam of seemingly all the religions of the world. A Muslim mosque may just be a neighbour to a Hindu temple. We saw almost more Christian churches than in Styria and there are Synagoges scattered all over the sub continent. We never experienced any tensions between Indians of different religious backgrounds. Apparently, the irenic Indian mentality allows for such a coexistance and proves that harmony and cooperation lies beyond religious creeds.
The happenings in Mumbai now seem to poise a real threat to this unique balance. It can only be hoped that the peaceful, humane, non-aggressive Indian mentality prevails over those extremist cells that are manipulated into a deadly ideology of hatred, atrocious misantrophy.

Getting ready for returning home

Christoph — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 04:39:11 +0000

This is our last morning here in Bangalore. We are very positive that we can go home tonight since yesterday’s Austrian Airlines flight from Mumbai to Vienna was carried out as scheduled.
Honestly, I was very shocked by what has been going on in Mumbai. For me, it was utterly disturbing, all the more since we have visited all those places under attack – we had two lovely evenings in Leopold’s restaurant and used CST station to depart from Mumbai to Goa by train.
Although that is easy to say now, Sylvia and I had kind of a hunch about this trip. Although we were far from canceling our trip, we seriously considered going to Bali instead. Something didn’t feel inviting about this trip. However, in retrospect it is interesting to note what kind of messages our inner voices are communicating.

In essence, it was very difficult traveling India. But we were rewarded by some great experiences. We especially loved Goa, our stay on the cliffs of Varkala and the elephants in Mudumalai. Still, India was very demanding with its chaotic traffic, noise and heat.
But those shocking incidents in Mumbai capped it all.

We have just had breakfast and are waiting for our taxi to bring us to the airport, which will be in a few hours. Fortunately, the drizzle that has been pouring down on Bangalore for the last 3 days has finally stopped. We might go out to town for a last of our favorite Indian meals, but, understandably, we are not too keen on any more adventures. I’ve had my share of experience and so, I think, has Sylvia. We hope that all goes well with our flights. We have enough time in between flights so delays won’t be as much of a problem. We leave Bangalore at 4 pm MEZ and Mumbai at 20.30 pm – hopefully as scheduled.
Looking forward to seeing you all soon. Thanks for your comments and following us through India. I will put on a final post after our return.

In Bangalore watching the terror

Christoph — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 03:34:28 +0000

We heard of the terrorist attacks in Mumbay yesterday while watching the cricket one day international between India and England. At first, we thought that it was just a minor incident but we couldn’t be further away from the truth.
We are lucky to be here in Bengalore far away from Mumbay but we still have to go into Mumbay on Saturday morning to fly out of India. We wouldn’t want to go there today so we appreciate the extra day here in Bengalore and hope that the situation will have de-escalated by tomorrow evening when we board our plane to Mumbay. We have to wait 5 hours in Mumbay for our plane to Vienna.
The terrorist attacks were aimed at the very heard of Mumbay’s tourist attractions in the Colaba area. We stayed in a hotel just round the corner from the besieged and burning Taj hotel. We also went to Leopold’s, a very popular cafe in Colaba which was also attacked, situated just a five minutes walk from where we stayed.
We are not feeling all too well, being reminded of the fact that had we done our trip the other way round, we might have been in the middle of it all. The situation is, nevertheless, very unpleasant and worrying for us.
We are perfectly ok and the situation is normal here in Bangalore except for a cyclone that has hit the coast of Tamil Nadu about 300 kilometers east, bringing in a lot of clouds and rain which make for a very gloomy atmosphere. It’s rather cold, very rainy and dark here in Bengalore.
We can only hope that Austrian Airlines manages to fly us out on Saturday.

Spotting big game

Christoph — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:33:46 +0000

The boy woke me at 5.10 a.m. as we had arranged. It was still dark outside and it was drizzling. I scrambled out of the mosquito net that covered our beds and into the open air bathroom. My stomach was aching. I had, once again, eaten too much for dinner. I had still not learnt to handle the Indian food. It is much too good, literally forcing me to over eat. Terrible. But I had not experienced any problems with spices or had become sick of the food or water. Good.
At 5.45 a.m. I arrived at the reception which was a short walk away from our bamboo accommodation. These huts were built a little apart from one another in order to create an atmosphere of remoteness, of really being out there –alone– in the jungle. As a matter of fact, you can watch wild deer grazing just a few meters away from the huts at dusk and dawn.
Daniel, the gamekeeper and our guide for the morning trekking tour, was late. Trying to be nice to my stomach, I helped myself to a cup of black tea with milk. If you add sugar to this mixture you get the number one Indian drink: Chai. It is just delicious.
The noise of jeeps announced the arrival of Daniel, who appeared in his usual camouflage suit and safari hat. Either he has a couple of those in the cupboard or he wears the same suit all through the year for we should never see him in a different disguise.
Since Sylvia didn’t come, it was just me and a guy from Belgium to join Daniel. As we walked to the jeeps, we invited our driver, Baboo, to come along. We drove for about 15 minutes and were dropped off not too far from Jungle Retreat. The early day light was putting a gray veil on the scrubs and trees as we began our trek. Walking was not hard since the ground was covered with tense, short grassy scrub that reminded me more of a golf course than a jungle. As we continued along, however, we got a feeling of how tense and impenetrable the jungle really was as we forced ourselves through thorny bushes and low trees.
The scenery was just beautiful as was the fresh and clean air. It was a fantastic morning walk, our spirits were high and everyone was spying out for some game. Daniel led us to half a dozen water holes where he was sure that, at least, elephants would have their tea for breakfast. In the Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary, there live quite an impressive variety of wild animals, among them animal celebrities like tigers, leopards and elephants. But except for a lot of different noises, the animals managed well to keep out of sight.
After one and a half hours, we had reached the street again, where we were picked up by our jeep. I wasn’t disappointed for, honestly, I hadn’t expected much and there was still our afternoon safari.
Returning home, Sylvia had already raised and was ready for a hearty breakfast, after which we surrendered to our hut in order to enjoy the morning in wild nature.
Mudumalai is a remote place, except for two nearby villages, and it is one of those rare places in India where you can escape the hurliburly of her cities. But it is not a silent place for the jungle is alive and this you can hear. It is the most hypnotic, soothing sound you can imagine. It is prone to induce deep trance. We sat there listening for a long long time.
At four o’clock in the afternoon, we found ourselves again sitting beside Daniel in the jeep and off we drove to hopefully spot something exciting.
First on our menu was the washing of elephants. Here in the sanctuary, two dozens of elephants are taken care of by elephant caretakers. They watch them, train them and feed them. And in the evening, they wash them in the river. On the one hand, the washing is like a ritual, which is fascinating to watch. On the other hand, for the elephant, it seems to be going to the spa or even to the beauty studio. They lie down in the water and are washed, brushed and massaged all over by the care taker, injecting total bliss as evinced by relaxed elephant grunts. It is just sweet and nice to watch those gentle, impressive and good-natured (at least, there in the water) animals being treated so well.
Suddenly, Daniel was getting excited. He had received a call on his mobile, having been informed that a family of wild elephants were grazing nearby. And, hey, after a short ride, there they were. Five elephants including a baby elephant out there in the bushes having what seemed an excellent dinner. Monkeys were doing gymnastics in the trees and making a lot of noise. The elephants seemed not to care and made a very relaxed and unexcited impression. No wonder, Daniel explained, for the grass they were eating was top cuisine.
As more and more jeeps kept arriving, we decided to go cruising again. Returning to the river, Sylvia suddenly pointed out something in the bushes just beside the road. Daniel hit the brakes in excitement, reversed the car, and there it was: a wild leopard hiding just a few meters from us. It was beautiful with its dotted fur and elegant and smooth body. As we were really close, the animal decided to take leave and quickly disappeared into the jungle. Everyone was excited for not even Daniel had expected to see a leopard that close to the village and road. It was just about 150 meters from the next house. Sylvia was the hero of the day for she had spotted the hiding leopard, which, according to Daniel’s expertise, was really difficult. For me it wasn’t as much of a surprise because I know that she has extraordinary sight and an amazing ability of perception.
Of course, this was the highlight of the evening – the tigers wouldn’t show – but we still came across a huge elephant about to cross the street and saw a beautiful samba deer. The trip was an exciting, beautiful and memorable one, all the more since Daniel delivered some interesting details and stories about the animals and their way of living in the wilderness.
Thus we returned home after a great afternoon out in the jungle. Sylvia and I agreed: It was worth taking the pain of coming to Mudumalai all the long and difficult way up from the coast. We would not change our minds, even after our trip to Bengalore which we were supposed to do on the following day. More of that soon.

Fort Kochin to Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary

Christoph — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:24:47 +0000

Fort Kochin is special for the Indian’s try to make it that way – for tourists. The part where we stayed is the most ancient part of the peninsula, that part where the Europeans landed some 500 years ago. After a five minutes walk, however, you are quickly reminded of where you really are: India is beckoning with its littering, dilapitaded buildings, bad smell, traffic chaos.
On Saturday, we started our exploration of Fort Kochin by visiting the ancient and famous Chinese fisher nets. The fishermen were so friendly, calling us over, to check out the nets and take photos, only to demand an indecent amount of money from me – Sylvia having a hunch refused to come -afterwards. After telling them, that I was not willing to pay the demanded price the smiles suddenly vanished.
Afterwards, we decided to take a tour with a rickshaw and ended up telling the driver – after we had agreed to visit one which turned out to be heavily over priced – not to bring us to any more shops. It is anoying. You tell those drivers that you only wanted a trip around the place and end up continually telling the driver that you do not want to buy anything. This is because they get comissions from shops when they drop tourists there. It is anoying and nowadays I grow sick and tired of it very quickly.
Since refusing to play the driver’s game, the whole trip wasn’t such a happy affair anymore. Thus, we were happy to have seen a fair bit of Fort Kochin and to be back at our homestay. We decided to do the rest on foot and walked the streets of this ancient and admittedly beautiful place.
Due to its European heritage it is deeply rooted in Christianity as evinced by Saint Francis church, supposedly the oldest Christian church of India, situated just opposite of our homestay. Sylvia, in particular, like the place. Vasco da Gama’s grave was there until they brought the remains of his bones to Portugal 24 years after his burial in that church.
Another good thing about Fort Kochin was, no surprise, the food. We ate really good here: curry masalas, seafood, and the best chocolate cake you can imagine. Beer is not served because alcohol licences are expensive. If you ask for “special tea”, though, you might be lucky enough to end up with a Kingfisher beer in a tea cup.
Since we were destined east for Bengalore, we had to cross over from Kerla to Karnataka, which means passing through a mountain range called Western Ghats, which is renown for its Wildlife Sanctuaries. The owner of the place where we stayed, Wilson, arranged a two nights, three days trip for us from Fort Kochin to Mysore, which is about 500 kilometers or 12 hours by car. Since the journey goes through a Wildlife Sanctuary, we booked into one of the resorts there, Jungle Retreat, in order to relax for a day and spot some wildlife. We knew that the trip would be a challenge but we had to get to Bengalore anyway and with this trip we were able to combine a stay in the mountains and jungle with getting to the place from where we would return home.
We left early on a Sunday morning. Being Sunday, the streets were –relatively– empty and we made swift progress. We had a good driver, Baboo, who was instructed to put safety before speed. Still by mid morning, we had to go through the usual dodging of rickshaws and busses, the later being a real threat on the streets, approaching our vehicle in the middle of the street only to give way a few meters before impact. We passed through a busy area, the hub of India’s sandelwood production, saw some beautiful countryside, some really poor villages and something very peculiar: an elephant on a truck. It looks surreal when you see those elegant, huge animals on those small lorries. The look of it makes you really sorry for those poor things, who have to be taken down the lorry after half an hour for a walk in order for them to be able to make th journey.
We arrived the resort by mid afternoon after 380 kilometers in 8 1/2 hours. Before we had even got into our safari, we knew that Mudumalai was worth the effort, greeting us with lush rain forests, high mountain peeks and tranquility. It was nice to be out of the bustling towns of hot Kerala and in the coolness and tranquility of the most remote part of Tamil nadu. We settled into our bamboo huts and went for a well deserved afternoon nap.

Kollam to Kochin

Christoph — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:34:38 +0000

I am still not sure what was driving me, when I booked that hotel room in Kollam. For my sanity, I hope it was lack of choice. The walls and windows of our room seemed to have melted in the humid heat of the afternoon and not even a soft rain could help it. The noise of the busy thoroughfare came in stereo. And only started to subside at 1 am in the morning only to rise again by 4.30.
Under such circumstances we caught quite a decent amount of sleep. Enough to drag ourselves to the train station and board our belated train to Ernakulam, which we reached in the midday heat. A motor rickshaw brought us to the boat jetty from where we wanted to take a ferry to Kochin. As we were cuing up at the ticket counter, suddenly the shutters fell and the counter was shut down – lunch break – despite a fast growing line of people wanting tickets.
We had to wait for 15 minutes until the ticket ventor could be bothered to attend customers again. In those 15 minutes he had counted bunches of money for no apparent reason. He neither drank or ate in this ‘lunch break’.
The sea breeze on the ferry cooled us down while we were setting across to Fort Kochin, an appealing, ancient reminiscent of old glory colonial times. After having set foot on solid ground, we could immediately feel that clocks were going a lot slower here. There is, for Indian standards, hardly any traffic and the ubiquitous honking – another specific Indian vernacular and usually a constant background noise – turned out to be just an occasional disturbance.
We settled down in a beautiful old colonial house in a nice, comfortable and quiet room in the backyard with nice shady tables on the terrace and a big, ancient-looking Chinese fisher’s net in the middle. Wilson, the owner, is helpful and especially liked the fact that we were Austrians for he claimed to have an uncle who worked as a theologian at the university of Innsbruck. Anyway, he seemed to know his way around in Austria.
Despite the fact that we were very, very tired from the noisy night and our 4 hours train ride, we decided to go for a walk and get something to eat. We came across a football field where a football tournament is to take place on the weekend. Despite cricket being the No 1 sports in India, here in Kerala, they also seem to have affection for European football. I might go and watch the match tomorrow.
We are staying until Sunday and then are heading back towards Bengaluru, perhaps, stopping over to spot some wild life on the way. As of now, we are taking it easy, enjoying really beautiful Kochin.

Kollam: Backwaters

Christoph — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:30:17 +0000

Fortunately, nobody told us before we left from Kollam for Munroe Island what a 50 minutes trip of 27 kilometers in a motor rickshaw meant. Otherwise, we would have canceled the trip. But after we had started our trip through those crazy Kerala streets there was no turning back.
When we arrived at Munroe Island in order to go on board our canoe, I was again totally exhausted from the noise, dirt and confusion of our ride. I doubt whether I will ever get used to traveling on Indian streets. For me they are the ultimate definition of stress.
Munroe Island presented itself as a stark and welcomed contrast with its smooth, green-colored and tranquil waterways through lush palm tree forests. It was as if we had arrived on a different planet. I could have gone straight to sleep. But our guide, a 20 year old boy, who pushed us through the backwater channels, was utterly entertaining and made sure that we had a relaxing, entertaining and interesting trip. We visited a robe making – obviously for IKEA – group of women, who, at 2 pm, were at the end of their working day, hurrying to get back home in order to cook for their husbands, and enjoying a delicious chai in a backwater sort of cafe. We continued through the backwater for about 2 hours seeing a bit of Kerala wildlife, Kingfisher, water snakes …
It was just beautiful. Like waking up from a wonderful dream to a stark and uncomfortable reality we got on our rickshaw and took the way back to Kollam.
Back in Kollam our rooms were situated at the front side of the hotel, facing the busy thoroughfare. This room gave Prince’s “Let’s go crazy” a completely new meaning. The song must have been inspired by one of these rooms. The noise, for European ears, is something like quantum physics for Newton.
But the craziness didn’t end there. Heading for the post office, we ventured another rickshaw ride, the driver of which took us against the traffic on a three lane one way street. It was like being in a computer game dodging cars. We also survived this trip and here I am writing, in an Internet cafe, which is somewhat silent except for the loud Indian music that is bawling out of a loud speaker.
I am craving for another holiday…

Kerala: Varkala

Christoph — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:08:53 +0000

Kingfisher Airways brought us safely from Goa to Trivandrum, capital of Kerala, with a stop over in Bengaluru. We arrived in Trivandrum late at night and caught a taxi to a mediocre hotel close to the train station. The night was very unpleasant due to the most uncomfortable beds we have ever slept in. Before a taxi was supposed to give us a lift to Verkala, 60 ks north of Trivandrum, we went out to explore the neighborhood. We walked towards the train and bus terminal in order to have breakfast in a unique Indian Diner which is located in a tower. This was quite an experience although the food was not particularly noteworthy. For the breakfast we paid about 150 Rupees, which is less than 3 Euros.
Outside the streets were the usual mess and amalgam of people, buses, cars, motor rickshaws and motor bikes. But this time the confusion was even more intense than in Bombay. We caught a motor rickshaw to the most important temple in Trivandrum and as it happened to be a Sunday, the temple site was packed with worshipers. We were introduced to the place by a Hindu kind of guide and quickly left the place after the ‘tour’. The noise and chaos was exhausting and all we wanted was get out of this town. Back at the hotel we immediately had the taxi come and while still in the middle of the noise and action, we were happy to be at least moving out of it.

The 60 ks trip took 70 minutes and left us drained of energy. Driving here is, I am repeating myself, a mere nightmare, which, in retrospect and with admittedly distorted perception, makes the streets of Vietnam or Bali an empty six lane freeway. After arriving in Verkala, our destination city, we lost orientation in the winding streets. The taxi driver neither had a clue where to go nor did he speak or understand English properly. Assuring us to know where to drive us, he started asking people for a place called “Sea Freeze” while our hotel was called “Sea Breeze”. He didn’t heed neither of my many attempts to correct him. We were at the end of our tether…

Finally, at a cul de sac, I was able to point out the place for him and, after he had demanded another 50 Rupees for the long detour which –he– was responsible for, we could finally settle into our new home. The place was just perfect and compensated for all the problems we had gone through in order to reach it.
Sea Breeze is a clean, beautiful and quiet resort run by a gorgeous couple and over friendly staff. It is located at the very end of the north cliffs just in front of a beautiful, small beach, called Black Beach for its black sand. We chose the luxury apartments with comfortable beds and a hammock on the terrace.
We immediately hit the bed for a siesta to recover from the previous traveling and didn’t get up before the sun was reaching the edge of the sea just in front of our balcony.
The rest of our stay was a mirror of our first hours here. Except that we reduced the amount of sleeping and settled into a very relaxed, comfortable, easy-going rhythm of sleeping, eating, swiming, yoga and reading our new books – Sylvia was enjoying “Holy Cow” by Sarah Mac Donnald, an account of an Australian woman about her life as a journalist in India, and I dived into a thrilling book about Neuroplastics and Buddhism and one equally fascinating one about System Theory (by Fridjof Capra called “The turning point”).
In the evening, just before dusk, we would go for extensive walks on the cliffs in order to check out the many shops, buy heaps of stuff, and enjoy the best seafood I have ever come to taste.
Our journey had obviously reached one of its highlights and we could easily spend a week more here.

But as the days go by quickly there are still some destinations to be visited on our journey back to Bengaluru. Tomorrow a taxi will give us a lift to Kollam, 40 ks north of Varkala, where we want to go on a backwater trip. Then we are planning to take the train up to Ernakulam and visit beautiful Fort Cochin before we want to press on towards the mountains in order to visit a wildlife sanctuary.