Singapore has now become one of my new favorite cities and everyone who said I was going to love it was absolutely right.. what a beautiful city, full of beautiful people. Definitely did not have enough time to spend there and its going to the top of my " next travel destination" list.

The flight to Australia was fairly uneventful....and its incredibly nice to be in a civilized country again=). Spent the weekend at a Jazz festival in Adelaide, where Katia was playing a most fabulous gig, and catching up with a whole bunch of friends from the cruise ship days. It was a bit of reunion and got to check out my friend Jay do his original thing......you can check it out here www.jayhoadband.com its really funky, groovy music... a cross between John Butler Trio and Micheal Franti...

Heading up to Ayers rock for a bit of a road trip and then off to the Whitsundays on the Goldcoast before we make a pit stop in Byron Bay for the massive Bluesfest, where every band I have wanted to see in the past year is playing....pass on through to Sydney, Melbourne on to the Great Ocean Road and then back to Adelaide, for a few days before I jet off to Hawaii and then eventually back to T.O.....no complaints here!!

Hope this finds everyone well and life if good!!!
cheers
xxoo

Soooo....the last few days in India were interesting, as I would have expected nothing less from the country at this point. I parted ways with Dominic and headed south to stay in an ashram for 4 days before I left for Australia. The location of the ashram was visually stunning...perched on the edge of a crystal clear fresh water lake surrounded by lush vegetation and rolling hills. However, the experiance I had while there was not quite what I had expected, and ended up feeling like I had stumbled upon a cult of yogis, and swamis who had renounced the outside world for their version of reality. Not that I am one to judge what reality is or isn't but it was more then a bit bizarre and the only saving grace seemed to be the yoga classes everyday. I have always had a hard time understanding organized religion and this was just that...it had nothing to do with spirituality and self exploration and was all about worshipping the gurus and kissing the feet of the swamis! It turned out to be a bit to full on.......and although was happy to experiance it, was just as happy to move on after those 4 days!

And with that, after 2 months, I said good bye to India.... Its been bittersweet and have yet to determine if I will be on the side of the people who love India, or hate it. There is so much beauty in that country, it sometimes blows your mind. The values, the essence of the culture, and just the simple being of it can in some instances leave you feeling incredible. But the other side of the country is unbelievably exhausting and it sometimes felt as if it was doing everything in its power to literally drain you of all your energy. It was a constant struggle between the intimate fervor of embracing the moment and the never ending confrontation of aversion. It was a captivating and engaging encounter with their culture, a moment in my travels that I am not soon to forget............=)

These are just some random signs or objects that I found humorous in my travels........these support the defination, 'lost in translation'!!

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^^yes this truck is full of gasoline! ^^

The art of coffee, newspapers, yoga and other random things in Varkala!

Varkala....is a travellers heaven! A beautiful beach, surrounded by red sand cliffs, cheap accommodations, food, massages and yoga...can't really ask for much more...nor could I find anything to complain about........life is good!!!!

I am reluctantly admitting that I have reacquired the tiny habit of coffee drinking here in Varkala. It just seems to fit! And it most definitely seems to me that after that 7am yoga class, a coffee and newspaper seems to be the perfect combination. ( plus I am pretty sure I have had my fill of chai for a lifetime!) So... all this magic takes place at a cafe that sits on the edge of the cliffs overlooking the ocean. I have grown quite fond of it and my affection simply stems from the fact that they have an actual espresso machine. Now that is a big deal in India, since the coffee culture of Starbucks has not taken the population by storm yet. Most restaurants serve the instant Nescafe, which as a coffee connoisseur almost verges on undrinkable and simply re enforces the stigma that instant coffee is bad!!!...... now the newspapers on the other hand aren't so good. And most days its debatable if there was even one article worth reading. Between the improper use of grammar, the constant misuse of words and horrible sentence structure, you can almost forgive them for the lack of stories!.......but the coffee is satiable!

Have managed to get 2 yoga classes in a day ( with my busy schedule and all!!!) ....which as been amazing. Its nearing the end of season here, so the classes have been small, which translates into a lot of one on one time with the teacher. And its incredible how much that helps, as I am managing to do poses that seemed threatening to me a few weeks ago. The teacher, who is about half the size of me, has contorted my body in ways I am not convinced are healthy even though, in broken English, he passionately expresses to me they are..... but when I am eating my toes and my internal organs are screaming out in suffocation from being squished together, I am not so convinced! I did, however, drag Dom to a class....my reasoning being "when in India".....he took a bit of a beating but survived to tell the tale!...pretty sure he is not gonna become a yogi though!=)

Off to an ashram tomorrow in Trivandrum as I thought I would finish the trip the way I started it! Then a quick stop over in Singapore before I meet Katia is Australia.

Hope everyone is feeling beautiful!!! namaste!!!!!!!

Back on the coast, baby!

The ocean....just saying the word makes everything seem better and waking up to it everyday is simply unbeatable!

After another 15 hours of travel, (approximately 500kms here in India!), which consisted of 14 hours of an aggrevating, horn honking, mosquito ridden bus ride, where we experianced approximately 150 near death experiances,followed by a short ferry ride and a tuk tuk adventure, we arrived in Fort Kochi. Its one of the many small islands that make up this part of the Malabar Coast in southern India. A super laid back, colonial town with picturesque, portugese inspired buildings, lazy winding alleyways and calm waters.

Didn't do much here except unwind and wash off the dirt that had accumulated inland. A cooking class took up one afternoon, and slowly meandering through the silent, but expressive streets, and watching the fisherman with their cantilever chinese nets managed to fill the rest of the 2 days.

On sunday, we arrived in Allepphey, pleasantly surprised since the dreaded bus trip was for once incredible easy. This little place in the transport hub for the backwaters of Kerala. Its a dizzying network consisting of about 900kms worth of small waterways. Its home to what seems like an infinite amount of tiny villages and rice paddies. We spent a lazy 8 hours in a canoe, drifting in and out of peoples daily lives and soaking up the sun!

On a sidenote, oscar craze hit India hard and everyone is so proud of Slumdog millionaire here...its a beautiful thing!. =)

Our newest travel partner!

Meet JIMM...that's right...not 1 but 2 "M's" . He is the guitar that Dom and I bought to accompany us on our travels. We have creatively adorned him with the best and most expensive Indian stickers our rupees can buy.....I especially love the ones of the Bollywood actors....they say it all!!!..