Fort Cochin - Allepey - Amritapuri

Oooh, Fort Cochin was a breath of fresh air. Shopkeepers would talk to you without trying to sell you stuff. Every time they would come up to me, I would be waiting... waiting... waiting... when are they gonna ask the question?? But it never came. So it was relaxing to wander the streets, have a talk, drink a chai, eat in good restaurants and there is just a general atmosphere that makes you want to stay there. It's a fishing town, so you can go to the sea and see how they pull in the fresh fish in the morning and at night. Then they start bargaining and selling and that is just to fast to follow. But it's interesting to see.
We also went and took a Yoga class with Abe. Yes, Abraham is in his sixties, has a long grey beard and long grey hair and he is like most Indians; very tiny and small. But his body is in better shape than most people I know. He lives a bit out of town so when we got there it was a private house and we didn't know if we should go in. But he was expecting us, so we just went upstairs and there he has his own studio. His class was two hours and every now and then Devika and me would start laughing. Most of his students are very advanced and so it was obvious that we were the new kids in town. But he would just laugh along with us and make some jokes himself. The best thing about his class is that he took the time to help you on an individual level. He came and corrected you and pushed you to go further. After Yoga he invited us to stay for dinner, unfortunately we had a riksjaw waiting outside so we had to go. But next time I'm in Cochin, I will definitely go back to him! "Yoga with Abe"! :-)
I was also sick in Cochin. From the Airco on the nightbus I got a cold and then I probably ate something wrong so I had my first stomach-issue. Luckily the stomach only protested one day, so that went away pretty fast. The cold however is still with me, and traveling on open busses and ferries doesn't really help. But today I will go and get some Ayurvedic medicine, and if you believe what they tell you, I will be better tomorrow! Ha! :-D
I met some really nice people in Cochin and I'm still traveling with one of them, Devika. She has the same sarcastic humor as me and so we are just laughing our heads off. We have to. Because if you take India too serious, you might end up with a heart attack. Now for example when Indians lie to us, we just laugh and lie back to them. Haha, it's like a game. For me, this is good. After Mysore I was doubting if maybe I should leave India a bit earlier, but now I know how to handle the bad stuff. Just joke about it and laugh it away!!
We ended up staying in Fort Cochin for 3 nights and I did my first shopping there. I think my borther's kids will be the best dressed kids in Belgium when I get home next spring. Haha!
On Sunday we left Cochin and took the bus to Allepey. There is absolutely NOTHING to see in Allepey, but this is the town where you can go and take a trip through the backwaters. So we had to be there. When we walked around on Sunday there were hardly any people on the street, so we just thought that's because it's Sunday. After a little walk we ended up in a big city hallway where they had all these posters from a certain Guru. So we went in and asked around, but nobody spoke English. The best we could understand was that this man was gonna be there in 10 minutes and give a teaching about 'the art of living'. And since it was Sunday and there was absolutely nothing else to see, we decided to wait and see this guy. Well, the guy is Ravi Shankar, which is apparently a very well known Guru around the world. And after sitting on the steps outside for an hour and a half, we finally got the message that this Guru was NOT coming, but they were celebrating his birthday. We got up to leave when all of a sudden we heard music and there came the parade. It was crazy! Probably everybody who lives in Allepey was in this parade carrying pictures of Ravi, signs with his quotes on  ("One world, one family"), there were people dressed up like Gods and Goddesses dancing, there was live drums and other music... waw! All the women were wearing white Sarees. It was beautiful. And they let us take pictures without any problems. You see, it was a win-win situation. We took pictures of them and so they took pictures of us. They were Our attraction and we were Their attraction! Ha!
So we went back to the hall to see the celebration, both ended up buying one of his books and being surrounded by interested non-english-speaking Indians. So a boring Sunday ended up being a really interesting afternoon.
The next day two friends of Devika joined us, Nick and Lana, and the four of us went on a boattrip through the backwaters. You can take a big houseboat but they are expensive and too big to go through the smaller canals, so we took a small canoe without an engine. It might be slower that way, but at least we were not polluting the backwaters. They are so beautiful, but the way the number of boats are growing... there might not be any backwater anymore in 10 years. The pollution is really bad and the canals in the centre of Allepey are black and very stinky! (Thank God I still had a cold, so I didn't really smell it, we will just have to take Devika's word on that...) There are about a thousand big houseboats and who knows how many other boats, all sailing those backwaters. So people, if you go there, please take a canoe!
When we got back to our Guest House that night, we were gonna have a home-cooked meal. Our host, Biju, promised us the day before that he would cook for us. So we were expecting a nice and relaxing evening 'at home'. But you see, in India things are never what you expect them to be. So this guy starts drinking while he is cooking, even tough none of us were drinking anything. He got a friend to help him, that ended up cooking the whole meal and by the time the food was ready Biju was behaving like a big baby. He didn't like us because we didn't give him enough attention and we were talking amongst ourselves too much and so on and on... Jezus! This was supposed to be nice and relaxing?! Well, after dinner I just went to bed. I couldn't be bothered! The next day he apologized and told me it wasn't me he was angry at, just my friends and that we should stay in touch and he wanted to be my friend and blablabla... I just couldn't wait to get out of there.
We left very early anyway because this was the BIG DAY!!! Joehoe, we were on our way with the ferry to the Ashram of Amma. She is a female Guru, which is very rare in this male-dominating country and she gives blessings by hugging everybody! "The hugging mother" is what they call her. We called the Ashram and knew she was "home' so decided to drop by and get a hug. On the way there on the ferry all of a sudden you see a huge collection of big buildings, all pink, and a pink bridge. That's the Ashram. I couldn't believe how big it was. But apparently there are around 2000 people living in the Ashram permanently. They are students and devotees. And then there are a few hundred visitors, long term or short term. It's a well oiled machine, especially if you know it is run by volunteers. The Americans dominate the place tough, and that's a bit weird to see; white people going around telling Indian people what to do. I guess Amma knows that Indian people are just not that efficient and are not to be trusted... hihi. We checked in and that evening there was 'singing'. Yep, an hour and a half of singing about blessings and gods and so on. But you know what... I enjoyed it. The feeling of sitting in between a thousand people all singing the same songs, it has something magic. I don't think it's the Ashram, a football stadion filled with hooligans singing the same song probably has the same magic effect. But I can't deny that I liked it. After singing it was dinner and after that you had two more hours before they lock the place down at 11 PM. Us 3 women slept in one room that had little plastic matrasses on the floor. It looked uncomfortable, but I slept really well. We did have to keep the bathroom door shut because of the rats, but apart from that it was ok there on that 10th floor! ;-)  The next morning we got up at 4:30, Devika and Lana went to the chanting in the main temple and I went to see the Pooja at 5 AM. That is a prayer/ritual performed by a Brahman. You participate partly by sacrificing flowers to the fire and getting your bindy (dot on your forehead). It's a special atmosphere, so early in the morning, still dark, everybody is completely silent... definitely a unique experience.
After morning meditation on the beach it was finally time for our hug. We had to wait in line at 9AM to get our token that says we could get a hug today. There is a system and people who are leaving the Ashram get to go first. She would start hugging at 11AM and we were gonna be up first. But again... this is India. So we turn up at 11AM and these older Indian women ask us when we are leaving. Honestly we tell them we have a bus at 2 PM to go to Varkala. Now Varkala is not that far from the Ashram so they know we can go a bit later if we have to. So they tell us to come back at noon, that we have to wait because we still have time. Okay, so we do a bit of shopping and go back at noon. Again they tell us we have to wait and come back at 1PM. Finally we go back at 1PM and they put us in line, a line that will take forever. But we have to go and want to take a bus at 2:30. If we miss that one, the next one is around 5. So at 1:30 Devika is fed up with it (and so am I) and she just goes to the old ladies and tells them Indian style that we have an overseas plain to catch and that we have to be there on time so we have to see Amma RIGHT NOW!! No problem; a little signal here and there and all of a sudden we are in the front of the line right next to Amma...we are pushed on our knees and five minutes later someone is grabbing my head and pushing it in Amma's bosom. I got to stay there for 3 minutes, she kisses me, blesses me and that's that. Really bizar! You see, I don't adore this Guru, but I was feeling really happy after the hug. Yes it's true, we had to lie to get it, but then again this is still India, no matter how hard they try to make this Ashram into an island of peace and light. So we just did what we had to do in this country to get things done! And no, I don't feel bad about it! :-D
We did leave before they could question us some more and took the bus to this godforsaken town where we had to take a train. The bus dropped us at the busstation and when we wanted to ask people how to get to the trainstation... they all ran away from us. Huh? Are we lepras all of a sudden?! What is wrong with this town? Well, I'll tell you what is wrong! It's muslim and so you are not allowed to talk to women and as a woman you're not allowed to talk to men. So... we had to ask the police. But wait, they didn't speak English. What to do? Finally a Riksjawdriver took us there and after waiting for an hour the train finally came.
It only took us an hour to get to Varkala and here it is peace and tranquility. So I'm gonna go now and enjoy that!