Trivandrum - Kerala

Flew into Triv on the 30th from Bangalore, lovely flight with Jet air. We could see the Western Ghats from the plane, that stretch all the way from Mysore to Triv, can't wait to get up to some hill stations. We got a free (strange curry thing) meal on the flight and Eleanor made us nick the on board plastic hand fans (never seen someone so happy with a freebie). Ordered a taxi from the prepaid taxis stand, which is a god send as you do not feel up to the hassle of working out the taxis cost after a flight. So once that was done we got directed into our first Ambassador taxi: it was brilliant - a big white car that feels like a Rolls Royce. The driver was quite old and bald and drove the car like he was a Raj, tooting at anything that moved, and when it didn't him and his mate up front stuck their hands out the window and made rude signs at the drivers! Fantastic - I liked Kerala instantly.

After getting into town we decided to catch the state bus up to the Neyyar Dam where the yoga ashram was. We were told it was at stand 11 every half hour, easy we thought... of course stand 11 was 20 feet across and 30 buses seemed to come every 5 minutes with no sign of which place they were going to. Luckily a paper boy with the widest smile you have ever seen, took pity on us (for some baksheesh of course) and told us "no no not this one" every time a bus came up, we had our suspicions that he was in cahoots with the tuk tuk drivers as he kept talking to them, but in the end he saw us right and onto the right bus we got. Well when I say got on I mean squeezed on, we were standing all the way stuck in like sardines with no view, as we were above the windows... welcome to India's public buses. I could not believe that at every stop another couple of people would get on and the bus conductor kept on shouting for every one to make room.

Anyway we made it to the ashram and got into our room when from the main buildings came this sound "OMMMMMMMMM" ... "OMMMMMMMM" and chanting continued for an hour. "OMG," I thought, "what have I got myself into?". We went to the yoga shop and I bought some trousers and a OMMM t-shirt, if you can't beat them!! I will let El finish off the story of the Ashram as it was her thing.