The Journey Begins.... Skies & Lows.

On the run up to the travels beginning I felt a lump of anxiety sitting deep in my throat,this was combined with an intense sadness associated with feeling a if I was leaving Amanda behind..... Which was strange considering she was as near to a 'gypsy' lady as you could get without her officially gaining the title. I wept a lot those few days before leaving, and then when it came to say good bye to my Mum & Dad who've supported me over the past 5 months, well I was literally gushing. I love them both so much, and all the friends who've helped me along the way.

I met one of my very best buddies, Stu in London, between my Gatwick arrival and Heathrow departure. Time was tight, we took turns to have a quick squizz at the National Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Natural History Museum as I had a ticket, but the exhibition was sold out. We also wanted to catch up over a cold beer for an hour in the nearest pub, before I had to grab my train to Heathrow. It was a lovely send off as was the one the night before with two of my other best pals Kevin and Steven (my brother).

The flight from the Isle of Man was a strange one. There was a little turbulence and shaking around as we came in, which normally puts the fear of God in to me, but now suffering no real fear of death everything seemed fine. So I was never scared of flying at all! In the same way that folks who are scared of heights aren't really scared of the height, rather the plunge of death associated with the fall from such an elevated position. As the plane bobbed and shuddered I did have a full mental dialogue with Amanda. I imagined her sitting opposite me gently calming me down. It worked a treat, Amanda was still able to work her magic in a spiritual sense.

The flight to India went well, pleasingly more heavy turbulence went by almost unnoticed. I was sat by a very pretty Sri Lankan girl who had been studying law in Southampton. She chatted about her family and Sri Lanka. I couldn't quite get over the size of her hands. They seemed vast, really long, but incredibly elegant at the same time....Perfect hands and fingers for doing some of the Indian twirly curly finger dancing.... There is a name for it.... Pardon my ignorance.

She managed to sleep much of the overnight flight. Whereas I meditated, I didn't really sleep at all Sri Lankan Airways had no brand new movies, the little screens were a bit sketchy to say the least and the films started when they started.... So I missed the beginning of the first one and left it at that. I felt too exhausted to read due to a distinct lack of sleep the previous two nights. Anxiety riddled hours of darkness. The plane landed in Sri Lanka, I got off and went straight across to the transfer flight to Cochin. Perfect.

ISLE OF WHERE???

On reaching the line of immigration points at Cochin airport my passport wouldn't scan, plus the guy couldn't find Isle of Man on his settings.... More and more staff collected around his little station... and as all the other passengers had now passed through, it was just me and 9 immigration officials.... After almost 20 minutes at the desk with the full team from Cochin Immigration they eventually put me through as a Independent British National.

I sat on the pavement outside beside a bus I hoped was going to Aluva. In the airport the lady told me it was 1000 rupees (a tenner) but it was actually 60 pence. I think she may have worked for one of the private bus firms. On the pavement I chatted with a 50 something Swiss woman who was heading to the Kerala Backwaters. We had both been sitting on the bus waiting, but the heat was stifling. At least outside it was only a mere 35 degrees celcius! We chatted. She was very nice. She wished me luck on my journey as the bus conductor pointed which street I needed to walk along to get to Aluva town centre.

I'd decided to get my train from Aluva, not because it sounds like 'I love her', although I did like the fact that it sounded like that, but because there was a 9.30am train the next morning..... It was a 1km walk from where I was dropped. Nothing in 35 degrees celcius with a backpack on front and one on the back, along with 3 bottles of read and a heavy quarterly magazine for the lady in Varkala. The first hotel I reached was near the train station. It was at the high end of the market for a non tourist venue at £12.00. I knew I could find a single Non AC room for about £3.00 so headed on in to town in search of somewhere cheap and cheerful to lay my head. It was about 4pm.....

It's 6pm now. I've just returned to the original 'high end' hotel after a horrible couple of hours of trudging around all the 'Tourist Guesthouses' of Aluva. By the fourth time I heard, 'No rooms, full house, try so and so down the road' I got the feeling they didn't want me staying in their bloody tatty guesthouses. By the eighth I was finally informed that the local Tourist Guesthouses are not meant to accommodate 'Foreigners'. What a lovely warm and racist welcome for my first night in India. They guy in the last guesthouse told me that only the posher Hotel by the train station would accommodate me. A very frustrating hour or so spent sweating around the dusty roads of Aluva. I was able to literally wring the sweat from my T-shirt when I arrived at my not so swanky hotel room. I have since washed it in the bucket.... a bucket that was actually there for washing myself in. No showers at this high end establishment.... Or internet for that matter.... So you'll be reading this a day or two late..

So here I am, one night's accommodation for the price of five! Broken the budget on my first day Ha ha! Amanda will be looking down and chuckling.

A night of blood sucking beasts....

I woke up and took a look at my mobile phone to check the time. I was so shattered I'd fallen asleep around 8.30pm, it was now almost 6am, so I decided having been well rested I'd pack my things up ahead of breakfast and the train. The last hour had been spent tossing around due to mosquito bites.... Had it not been morning I'd have pitched my tent to avoid the disease spreading beasties.

I took a bucket shower and packed everything away, including my photo's of Amanda. Aluva but Adon'tluv Aluva.... If that makes sense!

I decided to meditate for a bit but the mozzies just kept coming at me. I was covered in bites. Both arms the backs of my neck and shoulders and my feet and ankles.... Everywhere that had peeped out from under the white cotton sheet had been gorged upon. Seven tiny dead bodies were strewn around my cross legged form. It was almost 7am and there was no sign of light. How strange. I turned on the TV to find out it was only 1.30am.... I didn't believe it... I found four channels with 1.30am.... Good Lord, it was going to be a very long night indeed. My phone had reset to an unknown time zone..... I was done with the mozzies so I unpacked the inside mesh of my tent, clipped the poles together and threw it on the bed. 100% mozzie proofing and my first night camping.... in my hotel room.

Insect protection....

I managed about 2 hours sleep then had a lovely Masala Dosa for breakfast at the real 8am. A masala dosa is a type of crispy fried crepe with curried potato and vegetables. It was delicious. I loaded up my bags feeling a little down in the dumps as last night and this morning I was already thinking about heading home.... It was a rough start, and without my little darling wife to lift the mood, to bounce off, as we did when one of us got low, it was proving to be very taxing. Being turned away by so many people was tough emotionally, but that's just the state I'm in at the moment. I knew it would eventually pass.

As I sat waiting at the train station I prayed for a smooth and uneventful journey and that Varkala held some joy and peace.

The Train Station:

As I unfolded my paper ticket, printed from home a few days ago. I noticed WL printed in each corner. How had I not noticed this before. WL stands for waiting list. This meant I didn't actually have a ticket even though I'd paid my £3.00 for my 4 hour trip. Great value if you get on. I had no intentions of not getting on the train. It was an hour late.... I got on, found myself a seat in the sleeper cabin and made myself comfortable. For some reason the conductor walked past me on many occasions and never even asked me for a ticket. Every one else around me produced theirs. Once again I was almost invisible. But this time it was actually beneficial.

I chatted to a local guy for the last half hour. He was very pleasant, telling about his work with the local banks.

The train pulled into Varkala an hour late, as expected.

I shared a cab with two Spanish travellers and arrived at Kaiya house five minutes later.

Debra introduced herself pleased to be receiving her duty free booty of red wine and World of Interiors magazine. She ran through the house rules, then took the three newbies on an hour walkabout of Varkala and The Cliffs. Shortly after arriving I bumped into a chap called Mark, an Aussie (originally from Bolton UK), we laughed at how easy it would be to remember one anothers names. Yes that's right, we are both easily amused, which means we should get on just fine. We got chatting. He worked in finance (banking) for 16 years and was now getting out after being made redundant. I had worked in investments and insurance for 16 years too. We had worryingly similar senses of humour, Mark told me he was thirty eight, next birthday, same age as me now. I said I suppose you were born in April too. He laughed. 'What date?' he enquired. 11^th I responded. He was born on the 13^th . The ice had been well and truly broken. Mark and his fiance Maria (from Dublin) invited me to join them for dinner. I was pleased to have some company. And good company at that.

Another long night:

Toads are croaking whilst dogs bark and howl in the distance.... But it is not the noise of nature that keeps me awake, rather the noise of my mind. Tonight I long for sleep.... But my mind isn't interested one little bit. My eyes are beginning to ache. It's 2am. It's hot. I'm rising at 5am to grab a shower ahead of an early cuppa and a 7km sunrise walk led by Debra. It should be lovely. Hopefully the tiredness won't be a problem.... I think the thing to do for tomorrow will be to plough through with no temptation to 'catnap', do my best not to sleep, then when 8pm arrives - collapse until 7am the following morning..... I've only managed a couple of hours a night out of the past four. It won't be long before my body and mind say 'sleep', and everything will listen.... I look forward to hitting.

It's 5am.... and I'm still awake. Bugger!