Chillin' in Varkala

After a week at the Ashram, Sarah and I along with our new gang of Aussies and English decided to become Yoga School Dropouts and head to the beach, instead. After a few days at the Ashram, a session of Teacher's Training School began and the Ashram went from about 50 to 250 people. It was busy and somewhat crowded at mealtimes, and we decided we were up for less structure and more fun.

I think after working for 6 weeks on the boat, I should have gone to the beach first to unwind, then to the Ashram.

Anyway, for 10 days we all lounged, read, ate at the restaurants, and Sarah and I replaced our sailing wardrobe with traveller clothes. We bought baggy, comfy clothes made by tailors on the beach that covered our shoulders and legs, at least to the knees.

Yoga School Dropouts: Colin, Tom, Ori, Ricci, Sarah and Holly

Strappy tank tops and shorts are ok on the beach, but not really appropriate in the rest of India. Most places you go you'll see Western travellers wearing them, but they are ignoring Indian custom. I prefer to respect the places I visit by adhering to their cultural rules and suggestions. We both loved seeing the Kashmiri and Tibetan jewelry, and we both made some interesting additions to our collections. Sarah made some particularly good purchases of beautiful sets of jewelry. By this time, I had pretty much decided to spend the month in India then when Sarah left I would leave for Bali to meet my friends Rene and Eric who are on a year-long world adventure.

Sarah and I needed to lighten our loads of cumbersome sailing gear we wouldn't need, so spent a day in Varkala handling this important errand. Finding boxes was the biggest challenge. It took about an hour of asking at every store, finally an expensive sari store dug some up for us. After securing the boxes, we needed to take them to a tailor who helped us pack them, then sewed a muslin fabric cover for the whole box. We then took the package to the post office. Overall it went much smoother than when I did it seven years ago. I will hopefully see my package arrive in July.


At this point Sarah and I still discussed and processed the sailing trip quite a bit. Both of us had been planning for it for about a year, and I think might have still been in shock over the change in plans. It was great having her around to work through the feelings. We were both disappointed that it hadn't worked out, but handling it all pretty well. It helped a lot to be in a new and exciting place to explore. I think if I had gone home right away it would have been devastating. I'm writing this in May from Bali, and I'm still dealing with some of it. Some days I'm angry, others just sad. I wonder if I'll ever be able to experience cruising with all its ups and downs in a way that works for me.