"Two drifters, off to see the world."

After spending longer than really intended, which is very easy to do here, especially when you have so much time on your hands, we left Varkala. We caught a fast train to Kollam and found it to be a pretty busy Indian town. At the tourist information office we bought two boat tickets for the following morning to Alleppey, then asked about budget accomodation.

We were directed to a nearby guesthouse with a vague gesture that could mean left, right, up or down and off we went in search. After several detours and a rickshaw back the way we'd came we arrived at Shines Hotel. For R.200 (about 3 pounds) we secured a triple room. It is very hot and humid, so you have to shower two times a day just to cool off. Which we did, then set about finding dinner.

Our boat left at 10:30, taking us over the wide lakes and into the smaller canals and rivers of the Keralan backwaters. Chinese fishing nets lined the banks, as well as impressive curved fishing boats. We passed a mineral separation plant, where Thorium was being extracted from black sand, and spotted a number of glowing blue jellyfish. Could the two be related?


The boat stopped at Amma's Ashram, where we decided to stay for a couple of days. Amma's Ashram rises through the surrounding jungle, imposing pink tower blocks amid acres of palm trees. We exchanged a few quiet words with a group leaving the ashram on the same boat, and they told us it had been 'interesting'.

The accomodation office was not open for another couple of hours so we explored the place and found out about Amma. She is called the 'hugging guru' because she literally hugs thousands of people a year. She also provides free housing, healthcare and disaster relief (notably the tsunami of 2004) through her charitable work.

We were given a dormitory room on floor 6, sharing with a girl from Germany. We drifted around the buildings in an aimless kind of way, not quite knowing what to do with ourselves. People were going about their rituals quietly. When Amma is at the ashram, it is a lot more busy- with devotees coming from miles away to see her. In the main temple there is a shrine to Kali, with her right foot forwards on Shiva's body meaning she is Dakshina Kali (benign form). If her left foot were forward, she would be Vama Kali (terrible form).

As part of our stay we were asked to do some seva which is voluntary work around the ashram. So... we found ourselves elbows deep in greasy water with a pile of dishes that never seemed to shrink in a kitchen that would have made Swelter proud. See we haven't just been playing!


Later that night, while taking in the views from the rooftop we heard some distant drumming. It got steadily louder and we edged our way to the edge to see what was happening. Across the river there was a long procession of people holding flaming torches and chanting. We wondered, as they got closer, whether they might cross the bridge and storm the ashram. They did not. The procession continued along the river bank, the drums fading into the jungle, and into the silence came the sound of women humming. All of this and a far-off buffeting sound, perhaps from the Thorium works up river.

In a couple of days we left the ashram, continuing our journey to Alleppey by boat. It was an 84km journey, utterly beautiful. Our time at the ashram seemed like it had been a strange dream that we both had, while dozing on this lazy journey through the backwaters of Kerala.