Back to Beach

Although the ashram and the yoga and the veganism and the chanting and the meditation and the early rises and the relaxation (you get the idea) were all really good things... the place was starting to wreck my nutz, so I upped and legged it. This post is coming to you from a mind-numbingly unspiritual beach called Gokarna on the coast of Karnataka state (south of Goa, north of Mangalore). I left the ashram yesterday morning and arrived here after a 24 hour train journey, during which I ate meat and didn't meditate... I've also just had a beer so you'll excuse the verbal vomit that follows.

I did enjoy the ashram and would have stayed there longer had I had more time (I.e. Had I been immortal I probably would have given it another day or two). I really found myself getting into the physical side of things and enjoyed each yoga class more than the last one. However, on the spirtual side of things, I just couldn't get down and jiggy with the meditation and found many of the practices and rituals strongly religious, which has never really sat well with me. I tried to keep my mind as open as possible, and in fairness, the experience has awakaned an interest in a variety of topics ranging from energy flows & shakras to buddhist and hindu concepts of enlightenment and oneness. Not being a big fan of religions to begin with, these philosophically based beliefs of mental betterment and eradication of ego go a lot further with me than what I consider the fairytales of the book-based Abrahamic religions.

On a slightly more serious note, my bowels have begun to move again... All the lentils, beans, semolina and chickpeas that they rammed down my throat weren't really in a rush to go anywhere and I've got to confess that I went for only one poo during my week with the yoga nuts. Literally as soon as I set foot outside the door of the place, I started to feel a 'motion in the ocean' if you know what I mean and things have since become more healthy. I think I must be the only person who has ever suffered from constipation in the Subcontinent!

The really great thing about the ashram (as in life in general) was the people I met. I fell in with a group of mildly piss-taking and marginally cynical folks from France, the UK and Oz and we had a good bit of banter poking fun at the die-hard lentil eaters. Although our days were pretty full, we managed to chill out swimming in the crocodile infested lake or else chatting over some fruit juices in the 'Health Hut' (the ashram equivalant to the local boozer)...

I saw my time in the ashram as a little present from me to my body... a lump of flesh and bones that I don't generally think about enough. I felt like I should have stayed there a little longer but I was in dire need of sun and sand, so I compromised and promised myself that I would do some yoga at least for the first few days of the beach, so as to get used to doing it independantly. So today I spread out my yoga mat on the beach and, feeling like a pretencious c*nt (sorry, but there's no other word to describe it), I proceed to do my sun salutations and stretches on the beach. Hopefully I can (a) keep it up for another few days and (b) find a more secret place to do it so that I don't feel like such a wanker.

I've finally managed to upload some photos. Below you can find three albums.

This one is general pics of Helen and me coming down the SouthEast coast from Kolkata to Pondicherry. (Helen didn't come to the ashram, she stayed on the beach but I'm due to meet her here in the next day or two).



This one is a few pics of Kerala, specifically Munnar the hill-station where I went wandering around the tea plantations with a great group of Canadians and Brits.



And finally, ye ol' Ashram... yoga and general paddiwhackery.