The fun side of the beach…

After much fun and learning on the beaches of India came the time where we were all ready to move onto different things, Nadia decided to go to Kerala to help out at an orphanage, Beverley decided to go to Pondicherry where she wanted to learn the “dance of Shiva” well Lee and I decided to stick together and move a little further down the beach the what we renamed “the fun side of the beach.”

Our first night on the "fun side of the beach"

We moved into a small place (I would probably have called it a shack or hut but was told by an American that we meet, that I should refer to it as a cabana.) Well this cabana was complete with a tiny porch and a pink mosquito net, totally cute! Fortunately the place was pretty cheap…unfortunately this meant that our mattress was so thin we had to put clothing underneath the mattress so we couldn’t feel the springs, our showers were with cold water (as they had been at Lotus Little Village) and our teeth brushing basin was outside in front of a palm tree (with a mirror nailed onto it.)

Brushing my teeth outside...hmmm

The people we met at Rasta Café (side note: rasta means road in Hindi, although it is spelt raasta) were really amazing people, they arranged a motorbike trip the one day for 8 of us staying at the Café, which meant we doubled up and had four motorbikes riding to the small village where we parked and went for a hike to a beautiful waterfall. I asked one of the guys what the waterfall was asked and he laughed and said “Up, down, mountain, tree waterfall” the hike was pretty intense but it was very worth it! Half way through the hike one of the girls (Liz) decided to turn back as she was tired from all the walking, later on one of the guys decided to go back to, to make sure Liz was safe. After our walk to the waterfall, swim in the waterfall and walk back we realized we had lost them both! So we split up Lee and I stayed with the motorbikes, and the other four went to find Liz and Trevor. We had quite a fun time while waiting for the others to return! First of all just about everyone in the whole village stepped outside at some stage to take a look at the strange foreigners (who were at this stage taking pictures of each other posing on the motorbikes), a little later on we discovered how Cashews grow (on trees by the way) and after that we realized how drinking fresh water from the village tap (which comes straight from a spring) takes a toll on your bladder! We asked one of the villagers if they had a bathroom, and they turned around and walked away, while Lee and I were standing and discussing our fate, we see the very same villager reemerge carrying a bucket of water, they show us to the top of a hill put down the bucket and walk away. Lee and I just looked at each other stunned! So basically what you do is pee and then ‘wash’ the bucket of water…hmmm…

"Up, down, mountain, tree waterfall"

A few days later we went on another motorbike trip but there were just 4 of us. The second waterfall wasn’t as impressive as the first, but we still had a good time. On the way back one of the guys thought it would be a good idea to teach me how to ride a motorbike (this is after I clearly told him I thought it was a bad idea because I am coordinately challenged) after two attempts of me trying to get the bike going (and after realizing I am in fact too short to reach the ground while sitting on the bike, he decided that if he sat on the bike with me he could help to stabilize it, this is a good idea however now I was trying to steer and worry about two people on the bike, well let’s just say it didn’t end very pretty! After getting it right and managing to drive so a while I asked him how I stop the bike, as I had had enough, he told me to keep going at the same time that a truck was driving towards, I guess I swerved a little too much and the result was scraped hands, elbow and head, broken sunglasses and flip flops and a huge bruise on my leg. Sometimes you just had to trust your gut instinct I guess! 

Motorbike accident injuries