Bon Voyage

Leaving. Moving. Transforming. A wild process of metamorphosis  that spirals you into new and profound experiences. A process that leaves a new person staring back at you when you glance in the mirror.  (Or stare. I say stare  into the mirror and muse upon the world that lives in the reflection  of your eyes you multidimensional  creature  you)

For me. Being at O R Thambo International Airport in Cape Town, is second hand business. I grew tired of planes a few years back because this incredible  privelege that is travelling,  also takes its toll on the body and sleep patterns!  But now. That old hand feeling is a joyous comfort , it makes this journey to South East Asia feel more natural,  more inevitable  and unquestionable.

When this wave of calm dominates your life.  Be quick to make decisions.  They could be the long dormant impulses you've been too afraid to follow and now they've finally presented you with the perfect timing to follow your internal rhythm.

Climbing on a plane. I'll miss you cape town but I'm so ready for a refreshing, perspective  altering journey. 

Trains, Rain, Spirit & Splendour Part 1: Insert 3 Gokarna Adventures

 30th December 2012 - 2nd January 2013

It is an unnerving thing only being able to hear through my right ear, an experience that has fittingly propelled me into silence and observation. All that floating about got the better of my eardrums! All connections seem dim and I feel like a drifting snowflake, waiting to evaporate comfortably and quietly. Silence has come to greet me in one of the strangest ways.

We spent our days in the market places, in the streets full of well decorated travelling (and some now settled) hippies. The gaze from under their Shiva scarf hoods, penetrating your own, speaking of a time where there is no time but the present, only their life unfolding and blending into the dusty ochre alleys of this holy town.

Gokarna (meaning 'Cows Ear' )  is one of the most sacred sites in India and is better known as a pilgrimage town more than a tourist destination. Walking through the streets towards the beach, we passed a huge wooden 'float' which was still draped in its colourful decorations from a recent festival. I tasted the first juices of my coconut and got lost in shops full of silk & patterns.

First Ganesha Shrine! 

Wooden Float

Coconut!

Ommmmm

Om Beach, can you see it? 

We arranged a banquet to welcome in the new year, feasting on a variety of delicious curries and vegetable basmati, followed by Om Shanti Cafe's infamous 'Chocolate balls' and their coconut lassies (which we spiked with Old Monk Rum! ) . We walked to the neighboring Kudle Beach and found ourselves lost in rice paddies searching for a party, I managed to break my sandals and we wandered back to our own beach through the throngs of Indian tourists & international ones alike, to catch the wild show of fireworks in the sky; and then came Shiva's rain to wash us into the new year as we stood on the shore, wild waves lapping our toes and putting fire spinning poi dancers to rest.

New Years  Banquet with new friends

_________

The day following the debauchery of New Years we wandered up and over the hillsides to Paradise beach. We passed white skinned, barely clothed families on the rocks, new born babies being cradled under shady palm trees, a strange phenomenon, but beautiful and simple and real. We swam in the wild waters for a while and decided to take a boat taxi back to Om Beach. The most exquisite red sun, setting on the horizon. Emotions stirring softly as I begin to open myself to all the wonders of love and exploration.

That night, Ilana cut my golden locks, a ritual of cleansing to release the old year. We wandered back to a very quiet Kudle Beach, instruments and high spirits in tow. We sang and made music together, lying beneath the 3/4 moonshine and studded starlight. I let myself unfold and dance, deepen and sink into the sand and into movement. A feeling of the glimmer of freedom I seek to indulge in. We ended the night in a sacred, skin baring bath in the (now quiet) ocean, I swear I felt the presence of Shiva. Destruction.Creation. Masculine. Feminine. Fire. Water.

Divine Red Sunset

Feeling legendary on our sunset boat taxi

Chopped Locks

Old Monk Rum!

In the wake of this new cleanse we sadly packed our bags and dished out our rupees, waving goodbye to our temporary hut homes. Just a few days had felt like a few weeks. Now onto Madgoan and then to Happy Hippie Hampi!!!

Gokarna Train Station

Trains, Rain, Spirit & Splendour Part 1: Insert 3 Gokarna

GOKARNA      30^th December 2012

Clean Bathrooms. Finally. Only yet again to realise that the real necessity here is toilet paper! The infamous and elusive ‘white gold’! I must be on my fourth or fifth dodgy toilet experience now. I do foresee the benefit of strong legs from all this squatting!

I still feel like I’m on the undulating creature of a bus that we took to get down here. I’m exhausted, but we’ve finally hit the coast and I’m sitting with Lauren at Namaste Café, sipping away at her very first India brewed chai while I gulp down some mango juice and await a rather continental serving of honey on toast.

The First (of many sweet) Chai

We’ve been wandering up and down the curving curls of sand that are Ohm Beach scouring for accommodation and hoping that one of the 25 doors we peeked into would reveal our friends Joshua and Dan. Our backpacks were heavy, we were dehydrated and I had run out of my sneaky stash of tissues which had been keeping my sinuses at bay. Namaste Café was our only mild solace.

It was a tricky situation to get to this point. We had landed, in the pitch blackness of Gokarna, at a petrol station around 04:00 am, not a soul in sight, but for a welcoming looking (and rather tiny) white mini taxi.  In just as much of a rush as we had  boarded our bus, we had been ejected hurriedly out, the conductors wails of ‘Pani Bottle! Water! Pani Bottle!’ , fading into the deep night as we stood on the side of the road. We were quickly snapped to by the waiting taxi driver ‘You need lift?’, ‘Yes Please! To Ohm Beach!’. We climbed in and in the few moments of silence he again piped up, ‘You want song?’ and, naturally, being as close to Goa as we were, a loud and happy trance track ensued.

We bumbled up and down the roads, watching sari-clad women swaying down the early morning road with clay pots on their heads, wandering how close we were and why on earth Gangnam Style had made its way onto the radio.

We arrived in the dark still, a lilac glow beginning to creep over the horizon. But we had no idea where to go from here. Taxi long gone, Lauren and I stood on the edge of a cliff, where we found a lone bench to lie our bags and our bodies down until the sun rose.

Waiting on the Edge of Ohm Beach 

____

Back in Namaste Café, we were feeling immediately settled by the arrival of our friends. Breakfast and chai in our bellies, feeling the need to rest but our souls beginning to smile as the heaviness of the past 24 hours began to leave us and the Gokarna sunrise lifted our spirits.

The salt water stung me as it sang to my body as I rediscovered floating. Water bottles flying over the murky, cool sea water, delightful shrieks of play echoing across the small bay. My fingers are already itching to greet strings. It’s going to take me some time to settle into this new rhythm, this unfathomably peaceful flow. I will gladly take restful refuge in one of our palm leaf huts tonight.

Palm Leaf Huts @ Om Shanti Cafe, Om Beach, Gokarna

Trains, Rain, Spirit & Splendour Part 1: Insert 1 ____ In Transit

Trains, Rain, Spirit & Splendour 

Part 1: Insert 1 

IN TRANSIT – 1^st Full Moon, 28^th December 2012

On Board the first plane. Already other’s stories are emerging and merging with mine. I imagine there will be many tales to fill me as I journey. The girl with the thick black hair and the bright eyes is following her heart to Argentina, there is something I  deeply respect and am simultaneously frightened by as I survey her choices. Will my heart do the same I wonder?

We drove beneath a full silver moon to reach Cape Town International Airport, the mountain range above Noordhoek, a breathtaking silhouette. We were indeed being guided by the sky and now, into that seemingly infinite space, I will fly; fly and find freedom and love and magic and all that comes with it. It hasn't struck my yet, the alone-ness. I wonder if it will.

It’s been hellishly quick so far. I made a silly mistake and didn’t realise that lacto-ovo vegetarian meant that I choose to ingest dairy and eggs and not the other way around! This is of course mildly confusing for my body, but I think from now on its really mind over matter for all that I encounter. [I thank the ‘Mousebird’ card from the Bird Card Pack by Jane Toerien & Joyce van Dobben  for this http://www.birdcards.net/]. 

We have already begun our descent into O.R.Thambo Airport in Johannesburg and all that seems to occupy me are the devastating expanses of farmland instead of lush life, and surprisingly, just as I write that, the land turns to rich velvet green and I laugh to myself.

How do we find harmony with Mama Earth? Balancing cultivation with exploitation? I often wonder to what extent our intensive farming is excessive. Who’s mouths are we really feeding? Oh right. It’s not just the raw material, its products and by-products and pharmaceutical organisations. Goodness Mama Gaia I pray that what all us eco-warriors are doing will help bring you (and us!) back into balance! I love you my South Africa. It was an odd thing to stare out at your rising fire orange sun and breathe  a sigh as I murmured a silent goodbye to Mama Mountain. Already so far and the journey is yet to being! How delighting.

I choose to be present though. In each moment. This is not some dream, this is the reality that I am choosing to create.

____

Like walking into paradise, golden beige seats and smooth cool air, music to soothe the soul and soften the travel frenzied temperaments, this is the beginning of my adventure. You have done well Ethihad Airways, you truly have! I met a man and his wife going to Mumbai; they advised me to go to Backwaters in Kerala. I met a family of Indians from Durban on their way to Chennai, Mumbai for a family holiday. The older woman was beyond sweet! I spotted someone kin like as well; golden dreads and big searching eyes, all clad in Indian already, she was with a young British couple. Everyone is on their move to the East. It’s so strangely beautiful. My own little paradise has begun…..

___

Sleep doesn’t come easily. Weird positions. Stomach filled with the unnecessary evils of cheese. Headache. But still this un-tameable excitement. The reality of it persists!

IN TRANSIT –Abu Dhabi – 29^th December

Rasgulla! Egg shaped syrup soaked pods that oozed odd white moisture. Oh wonderful introduction to India.

Abu Dhabi Aiport Roof

I met four Goa bound travellers each from England. The kind clad woman with honey dreads and olive coloured jersey, one mild-mannered curious young lawyer from Plymouth and a couple with a Birmingham accent. We teamed together for a while, trading stories and tips about our adventures and finding solidarity in our hunger and our exhaustion as we moved along each flight (Now currently stuck in the regal Abu Dhabi airport, waiting on our delayed flight to Mumbai).

Olive Jersey Traveller

We finally boarded and the Plymouth lawyer and I talked about finding and following a sense of adventure as we stared out over the dark expanses of Saudi Arabia, lit up by the unnervingly structured trails of street lights and desert blackness.