Lisa & Kenny flew out this morning

It was so nice sharing the week with Lisa and Kenny.  It had been nearly two years since we'd seen them at their wedding in Melbourne.  They flew home this morning.  They have another week of school holidays so are heading to Lebanon for a few days before returning to school next Sunday.
We will catch up with them on April 30 in Dubai - their home town.

Our final dinner together was at Santana, one of our favourite restaurants here.  Kenny and I had fish tikka cooked in the tandoori oven,  Jim had chicken tandoori and Lisa had fish in coconut curry sauce.  There was also dahl and naan.  Lisa and Kenny were very impressed saying it was their favourite meal here so far, a good way to end their holiday.  Santana play seventies/eighties music so we played guess the song and artist, that is always fun.

So now it is back to just Jim and I.  We are enjoying our time away but if any other family and friends want to spend time with us along the way it would be great to share our holiday with you.

This afternoon we are planning (reading, researching and visiting a travel agent) a road trip leaving Kovalam next Saturday for nine days.  We will stay three nights each in Munnar, Kochi and Alleppey.   Our last five days we will spend back here on Lighthouse Beach before flying back to Delhi.  Tell you more later in the week when we work out what we'll do.

Lisa literally picked the bones out of her fish

Thanks guys, it was lovely spending time with you

Lighthouse Beach Lifesavers

The lifesavers of Lighthouse Beach love their whistles.  

You can understand why when you see the Indian families and groups of young men on the beach. 

They all frolic and laugh like children regardless of their age.

Ladies, men and children alike all swim in the surf fully dressed.  The ladies go in with their metres of saris or salwar kameez even their long scarves go in, imagine how heavy it would be soaking wet with sea water.  The men go in fully dressed as well with their long trousers and long sleeved shirts. 

Last week Jim couldn’t get over the fact that a man went in with his belt on.  Whether the belt was leather or vinyl (in the case if he was Hindu) it is not going to last.  It appears to be a disposable society even here in India.

Of course there are the more modern Indian families that wear shorts and t-shirts but they still go swimming fully dressed as well.  Then they have to return to their hotels, cars or buses or whatever in their soaking wet clothes, they never have towels. 

Day before yesterday, it was a near perfect day on the beach, sunny blue skies and crystal clear water and the whistle was going off.  Kenny was pretending that the whistle was being blown at him.  He comes out of the water stamping his feet and waving his arms saying “why me, what have I done” the lifesaver is saying “no, not you” but then he realizes Kenny is joking and starts laughing.

  

The lifesavers have hand actions that go with the whistling.  It is a fun pastime to work out whom the lifesaver is whistling at and what his hand actions mean.  You can see we have a lot of spare time on our hands. 

The whistling is normally for Indian tourists swimming out too far, they are not renowned for their strong swimming ability.  The only time a foreigner gets a whistle is if they are nearing the rip, which there are three along the beach.  They are marked with red flags.  I stay clear of the flags, as I have experienced the pull once already and that was enough to scare me. 

Talking of the beach, it is time to go and catch up with Jim down there.  He heads down before me most mornings as I like to check the emails and blog (whenever I don't have writters' block).  Jim has his morning ritual whilst I am at yoga, he likes to read the Sydney Morning Herald, watch the Sydney channel 9 news and check out Facebook all before breakfast.  Occasionally I ask is there any news I should know about.

Lisa & I enjoying the water

Why me?

Kenny & the lifesaver sharing the joke

Typical scene at the beach

What a special birthday

What a fantastic birthday I’ve had.

Woke up to many birthday emails, how lovely.  What a surprise, Jim gave me a beautiful silver necklace inlaid with gem stones.

We spent the day on the beach with Lisa and Kenny.  The waves were bigger today and we all had a fun body surf.  Everyone got to be in the green room, Kenny’s favourite saying for catching a good wave. 

The first part of their present to me was a cocktail “Majito” while watching the sun go down at their resort.  Majitoes are the drink to have in Dubai.  Very sweet and refreshing.

Birthday cocktail

Showing off my presents: black cardy (will be handy for covering my shoulders in Dubai),  perfume from Dubai and Aloe Vera anti ageing gel from Kerala

Walking across to the guesthouse for dinner Kenny did a bit of retail therapy and bought the bedspread he had been looking at for the past few days.  They are displayed on the beach, what a novel idea.

Final choice

The deal is done with Kumar

Kumar (the beach man Lisa had befriended the day before with the mussels) gave me a birthday rose garland (it was large and heavy) on arrival to the guesthouse.  They smelt divine.  
I now have them hanging in our room.  

Birthday rose garland

When we walked up to the roof where we would be having dinner WOW what a surprise the table was decorated with flowers.  My favourite saying is “it’s covered with dirt, sand etc”  Jim is always having a go at me for it but the table was covered and  smelt great.

It was like an Indian wedding

The night got better, the guesthouse boys bought out the cake with “Happy birthday Happy” on it.  It had a little tea light in the centre with a cylinder of cucumber as a tea light cover, how inventive.  Reluctantly we gave the boys half the cake and the other half (less a few slices) to Riju and JC at Sea Flower.  It is great to give but I love cake.  I knew I would be wanting it today.

Happy birthday to me

The night got even better after the happy birthday song, there was fire works.  Fantastic, by this time I was very excited.

The lobster, fish curry and accompaniments all came out and were delicious. 

Kenny and Lisa shared their duty free Chardonnay with me.  My first wine since leaving Australia.  The first two mouthfuls were um don’t know about this but the third was 'this is good'.

I was very happy.  It was so special, beautiful surrounds, yummy food and great friends.

My 49^th birthday will definitely be a memorable one.

Lisa & Kenny have landed

On Saturday Lisa and Kenny arrived in Kovalam to spend the week with us, it is their mid term break in Dubai.  We surprised them by meeting them at the airport.  We were waving welcome gift sarongs when they came out of arrivals so they could see us, not that we needed to we were the only whities there.  It was very emotional to see them after nearly two years.  They loved the surprise.

Their resort is a twenty-minute tuk tuk drive away from us.  It is beautiful 5 star resort that sits on a cliff overlooking the beach.

Lisa & Kenny in their tuk tuk

Yesterday they spent the day with us here on Lighthouse Beach.  It was nice to spend time with friends from home, old established friends so today we spent the day at their beach.  It turned out one of those days when opportunities arise.  This is how it happened:

While we were swimming a local man was diving for mussels (it is a common sight) came out of the surf beside us with a huge bag of mussels.  Lisa followed him and was asking him questions, as she is known to do.  The outcome, we ended up having freshly cooked mussels with lemon and fried rice for lunch at a guesthouse set in the coconut trees off the beach.  Besides a bit of sand; they don’t rinse their mussels before cooking they use the salt as flavour, lunch was good fun so good in fact we are returning there tomorrow night for my birthday dinner. 

Kumar, the man from the guesthouse and his brother (the cook) have organised lobster, fish curry, coconut rice and naan for a birthday dinner.  Kumar is also organising a birthday cake.  I promise to let you know how it all went on Wednesday.  I am very excited about having a special birthday dinner that was unplanned till Lisa started asking questions - good on her.  What a great story!

We were the only ones on the beach - yahoo!

Our mussels cooking

Here they come

Looking down to the beach from the guesthouse

Looking from the steps of the guesthouse

Rackman came to pick us up after lunch

Sea Flower vs Golden Sands

We moved rooms four days ago, from Sea Flower right on the beach where we had been for three weeks to Golden Sands in the back blocks.  Mod cons were the main reason for the move and a change of scenery.  The mod cons being a TV, fridge and a pool.

Jim was keen for the TV and fridge the pool was my desire.  The days seemed to be getting hotter and hotter so by 1pm we were leaving the beach and spending the afternoons in our room reading and heading out again by 5pm for a swim.  I thought it would be nice to be able to laze by a pool in the heat of the afternoon and that is what I have been doing these past few days.  Jim has been enjoying the TV and having beer on hand instead of having to go out to a restaurant at beer o’clock time.

Riju and JC were doing everything in their power to keep us at Sea Flower.  Obviously because of the money but also the friendship.  Riju, who is the younger of the two at 27 years old and an extrovert, has taken to calling Jim “James triple zero” you know like James Bond 007.  I thought that was very clever on his part.  JC is older and quieter, still likes a chat but is not outgoing like Riju.  

They wanted to know why we were leaving so we told them – for a TV, fridge and pool.  Their come back was you can watch TV with them at reception (which Jim had been doing already watching the cricket), as for the fridge they don’t even have one and beer was no good for you anyway and why would be want a pool when there is a natural pool (the ocean) right outside the door and the pool will make your skin itchy from the chlorine.  This argument went on for days.  

The meals here are quite large so when we order Indian and have leftovers I would take it home for the boys.  They said they appreciated the change from their rice and dahl to our rice and dahl???? so the night before we left we bought dinner for the four of us and had it on our balcony, it was special.

The next morning when we were packing to leave Riju is in our room saying stay at Golden Sands for two nights and then come back.  

We said don’t worry we will make sure we come and say hello everyday as we can walk that way to the beach and we have been, it is hilarious it is like we are long lost friends.

Changes are we will return there for a few days before we leave.

Golden Sands restaurant

Golden Sands pool - taken from our balcony

JC, Riju, James 000 or is it Santa Claus no it is Jim

Day trips around Kovalam

Rackman asking for directions from a local lady on our way home from Varkala

Firstly, I apologise to our families for being so slack in posting blogs.  I have become so relaxed (another word for lazy) these past few weeks.

It is amazing we have not gotten bored with sitting around on the beach these past three weeks but we haven’t.  We do venture out every couple of days to the ATM in Kovalam Junction.  It is a ten-minute tuk tuk drive to the Kovalam village centre.  We have been using the same driver, Rackman.  He is not that chatty because his English is limited and our Malayalam (local dialect) is zilch but he is helpful and a safe driver which is a big bonus.

We’ve had three day trips over the past few weeks with Rackman  – one to the harbour and the beaches south from here 20 minutes away, another one to Neyyar Dam and its sights, one hour inland and one to Varkala, another popular tourist beach two hours north.  That is a lot of time rattling around in a tuk tuk but good fun and natural air conditioning as they say.

The trips were reconnaissance missions to check out other places to stay.  We have decided to stay put. 

Rackman has enjoyed the day trips as much as us, helping us out looking for suitable accommodation and taking routes he hasn't taken before. 

Elephant rehabilitation farm on Neyyar Dam

Lion sanctuary on Neyyar Dam

Neyyar Dam

Carnival float 

Varkala beach - village sits on the cliff top above the beach

Rackman and I 

Enjoying the natural air conditioning

The fruit ladies turf war

It would have been handy to be forewarned about the unspoken rule that applies to buying fruit from the fruit ladies.

The rule is “the first lady that you agree to buy from becomes your permanent supplier”.  Sounds like a drug war.  It is a war of sorts, more like turf war.

Our first day here a lady whom we later learnt was Lily approached us to buy “fresh pineapple, fresh watermelon, banana, papaya” all this offered in her sing song voice (like all the fruit ladies singing for their supper) anyway we said not today maybe tomorrow. 

The next day on the beach we buy our plate of fruit for $1.80.  There we were sitting on our sun beds enjoying our fruit and a shadow appears, we look up and there is Lily, hands on hips and scowling.  She is not happy.  She starts telling us off saying we agreed to buy from her yesterday.  Jim and I are not sure what is going on because she is ranting and difficult to understand.  Abdul, the sun bed man comes along and explains the unspoken rule.  Oh!!!!!! I apologise to Lily for not knowing how it works. 

Now we have a situation as Shimna, the other fruit lady whom we bought from wants to be our supplier as well.  I say they will have to share.  We will buy from Lily one day and Shimna the next.  They agree, reluctantly. 

Lily is short and a rolypoly and loves to cuddle me to her bosom.  Shimna is taller and lean, not so demonstrative.  She likes to shake hands.  It is quite funny how they mark you as their territory, at least they don't pee on us.  

The high tourist season is coming to an end so the amount of tourists is few and each lady is fighting for their bit of turf.  Both Lily and Shimna say this summer has been quiet and with the monsoon fast approaching, May through to August their income is non-existent.  It is a hard life.  I am so thankful I wasn’t born a fruit lady from Kerala. 

A fruit lady heading up the beach at the start of the day - the lifesaver also in the photo

For my yoga friends

It goes without saying that both Jim and I miss being in Mt Beauty.  I especially miss my yoga friends, even though I no longer attend yoga classes and haven’t for over twelve months now but I am still there in spirit.

I try to do my own practice most days but since arriving in Kovalam (10 days now) I have been doing a 7am practice with Prem on the roof of our hotel.  Prem is a young man of mid twenties, he did his teacher training at the local Sivananda ashram which has a huge following here in Kerala.  Even at 7am in the morning I feel like I could be attending a Bikram class.  The sweat runs off me, mind you the class is quite rigorous.  A typical Sivananda practice starts with pranayama, sun salutations and head and shoulder stands with variations (which I find challenging).  Prem has had me doing scorpion pose from headstand for the past few days.  As Donna Farhi says “all bells and whistle” poses.  Followed by the old favourites: twists, backbends, standing poses and balancing poses.  Many are variations, which I have not done before so it can be difficult when you start doing a pose but Prem comes along and totally changes it. 

The resting poses are mini savasana and child pose in between the vinyasa and during these poses Prem chants Om, which is lovely.

Check out the Sivanada website

https://www.sivananda.org/teachings/fivepoints.html

I am enjoying the class but had I known what I was in for I might not have agreed, a more gentle class is more to my liking (most of the time).

We all know Mary-lou is a fantastic and well rounded yoga teacher who over the years has evolved and developed her own practice, which in turn her students (us) reap the benefits.  Her teaching suits our needs as westerners without forsaking the tradition of yoga – the whole 8 limbs of the yoga tree not just the asana practice.  We have so much to thank her.  I always felt extremely lucky to have such a caring teacher in a small town but this was reinforced when I moved to Sydney (and here in Kovalam) where I attended many different teachers and styles, which was a good experience, one I couldn’t have done without Mary-lou’s years of devotion.  I would not have been comfortable and wise enough (in regards to my ability and having the confidence to say please no more) to attend new classes. 

These past few days I have been reading a book called “Yoga school dropout” by Lucy Edge.  If you get a chance to read it, you should.  It is a very entertaining account of her 5 months in India of attending various yoga schools – to find one that will turn her into a yoga diva.  You don’t have to have travelled in India to get a laugh out of it, all you have to do is have a good imagination because it is all true.

In her final chapter she says:

“I was finally getting in touch with my inner guru.  The one that says be content with what you have. The one that says happiness is always available to us, we just have to look inside ourselves.  The one that says there is perfection in imperfection.  The one that says be blissful.  The one that says possess only what is necessary – and necessary may include pretty dresses, though they don’t always need to be labeled Joseph.   The one that says life is a delicate balancing act: one- part mugs of Maharishi Ayur-Ved Claiming Vata Tea and standing on one-leg yogic tree poses; one-part bottles of Pinot Grigio and falling over.”

I totally agree!

So, Namaste to all my yoga friends (and all my other friends who maybe thinking what is Happy going on about – has she had too much Kovalam sun).

Lazy beach whales – that is us!

What to say! 

We are leading very quiet and sedentary lives at the moment so different from our active lives in Gulmarg.  We have gone from two months adventure skiing to two weeks of lying on a beach chair.  Not that we are complaining, the truth is we are both enjoying it. 

We were looking fit and trim after all our hard work in Gulmarg but unfortunately the weight we lost is slowly going back on.  I went down two belt knotches and Jim was looking slim, more like the guy I met many years ago.  What can you expect with all this lying around and yummy food to eat.  Not too worry!  Not even the early morning rigorous yoga workouts are keeping the weight off – tell you more on those later.

I have been visiting a second hand bookshop “Ancy’s Book Store” down one of the many lane ways off the beach.  It is so easy to read a book every couple of days when reading is one of the main activities of the day.  

The first day I went to the bookshop there was an elderly Icelandic lady sitting there.  We started talking books, she had worked in publishing and has been visiting Kerala for many years every January and February to get away from their cold and dark days.  We were chatting away then the owner arrived, I introduced myself and then he said his name was Joy, I said are you joking?  Both the Icelandic lady (forgot her name was probably Helga) and Joy just laughed.  Jim said I was gone for an hour.  We were having a great chat all three of us.

At present I am reading “Yoga School Dropout” which is apt because Kovalam is the home of Ayurveda Medicine and yoga. 

We are the only tourists who sit under the umbrellas covered up

Looking up the beach from the rock garden (back to our end of the beach)

Another beautiful day

Standing in Rock Garden looking to Hawah Beach (next beach along)

The end of the day from our balcony

View from top of light house (our hotel is the one in the foreground with the orange)

Kovalam, Kerala

This is our fifth day in Kovalam and it feels just right.  It is an active beach but not too busy.  The tourists are made up of Europeans mostly, followed by Indians.  We haven’t come across (or heard) any other Australians as yet although they are bound to be around.

We arrived in Kovalam in the state of Kerala late Wednesday afternoon.  It was a two hour flight from Delhi to Mumbai and another two hours from Mumbai to Trivandrum.  The taxi driver picked us up at the airport as arranged and took us to Treetops the guesthouse I had chosen from Lonely Planet.  It was set back in the trees on a hill, unfortunately two years ago the construction of an apartment block was commenced (and is still under construction) right in front of Treetops blocking ocean views and the sea breeze.  Lonely Planet didn’t mention that.  The owner John, an English expat apologized for the view or lack of when we showed us our room.  He said he had no chance to object as it was a bribe job hence he has the property up for sale.  

We thought, oh well, doesn’t seem too bad until we ventured down the hill to check out the beach and restaurants.  

The beach is the place to be so the next day we set off to find a room on the beach.  John understood and was very gracious when we left that afternoon to our new room at the Sea Flower Beach Resort.

The Sea Flower is straight across from the beach.  Hopefully there won't be a tsunami anytime soon, a repeat of 2004.  We are one floor up so hopefully that would help, the building only has two stories and a roof.  

It took a couple of nights to get use to the noise of the waves, they are so loud.  

It is great being so close to the beach, the people watching is better than TV.  Jim has to say that because the room hasn't got one.  He has been watching the cricket on the TV in the reception area with the two cricket mad staff members.

I have been very slack in writing a blog since our arrival as I have been busy lazing on the beach, eating plates of fresh fruit, reading and walking.  Another couple of weeks of doing this and we’ll need to return to Gulmarg to ski off our excess weight from lying around.  

After 2 months of dahl, paneer and rice (which I love) it was good to have garlic prawns, crispy coleslaw and fresh chips - Yum!

View from our balcony

Photo taken along the promenade out the front