The Ashram, Ooty trekking and the cold cold evenings!!

So we took the ferry from Appelley to Amma's ashram and had a great trip meeting lots of different travelers! The boat took us through the backwaters which were beautiful, so quiet, not the India we are used to.

The backwaters were beautiful full of palm trees and little houses. There were so many different boats on the water, many of them were small canoes which workmen used to ferry goods about as these waterways are their roads. There were also these luxurious house boats which people rented to enjoy the backwaters in a different way. These house boats had beautiful bedrooms and dinning areas, they also had their own chef- very posh!! They were beautiful though.

We got off the ferry about 6 hours later and crossed a big bridge, from the bridge we could see these how tower blocks- like you find at city outskirts. These blocks were the accommodation for the Ashram, so many people were living there permanently- 3000. Plus visitors like us. We walked into the main temple which as normal in India looked like a huge tacky monument with all these crazy colours and shapes. Inside the temple was the registration for International visitors. We were given a couple of forms to fill in and a daily time table and we went to find our room.

The room was the best room we had in India! It had TWO windows, which was just amazing but also the TWO windows had a sew view- so beautiful!!!!

We only paid 200 rupees for the room and it included meals, we were so excited that we booked an extra day to stay. We felt this was a good place to be. After we settled in we took a tour of the ashram and were told more information on Amma, the Ashram founder. Amma does a lot of fundraising in India and she is praised around the world for her efforts especially in America. This was all very interesting but we didn't learn much about the Ashram and all the hardcore Ashram goers seemed just to talk about Amma- very weird.

So we had our evening supper- a simple Indian meal but it was included! We had a early night as the program of the day started at 5am!!!

The alarm went off at 4.30am and we dragged ourselves out of bed and I went to the main temple and Dave went to a different temple. I walked in and people were already sitting there silently, I found my place on the floor and sat in the cross-legged position and waited for the prayer to start. Its all very dramatic the room is dark and the only bit that is alight is and statue that we are praying to, suddenly a deep noise of everything starting to chant the word "Om" in a "Ommmmmmmmmmmmmm" way- it rumbled through your belly, then it went on and more words were used that I didn't understand.

Now the whole point of this chanting is to fully concentrate on what you are saying and to feel the words and hopefully they were help you find your inner peace and pathway to god. I'm not very good at sitting still and sitting in that cross legged position made my leg go dead and so I was fidgeting a lot, no one seemed to notice as they were all concentrating and lost in their own world, thankfully. I also was not concentrating on what was being said, I did for about 10 mins but after that I was thinking about breakfast, if Mum and Dad were having a nice weekend and about the Maldives- so the other 50 mins seemed to drag by but eventually it was over.

After the chanting there was a Chai break and then it was time for meditation at the beach, again I tried and failed. So instead Dave and I discussed what we thought about the morning. We felt that we were glad we did it but we will not be getting up the next day at the same time. The sunrise over the beach was beautiful and it was nice to start the day early. We eventually had breakfast washed our clothes and walked around the Ashram.

We signed up for selfless service which means you help with the running of the Ashram, Dave and I did washing up! We met two nice women but our conversations were limited to how great Amma is and how anything they couldn't explain was Amma's way. I felt very frustrated as this was so closed minded and I felt all the hard core Ashram goers were brainwashed and all were vulnerable in someway. Dave agreed it was all very strange and we felt a little out of place.

From what I experienced at the Ashram I felt it was a bit of a doss for lots of people. People spent most of the day going on a day trip somewhere, meditating at the beach or doing selfless service- while trying to find inner peace. I feel that if they spent all there time working on volunteering projects in the area it might be easier to find their inner peace. I spent most of my time at the Ashram feeling very frustrated at the lack of activity and I had nothing to read not a good combination.

So when the day came for us to leave I was relieved to get on with the rest of our trip. We took the ferry back to Appelley and spent the night there. Where for some reason all of Appelley mosquitoes came and attacked me, it was the worse single attack I have ever had, but the next day we were going to Ooty where it is so high up there will be no mozzies!!! Yay!

We got up early caught a bus to Cochin then to Coimbatore then another bus to Ooty we eventually arrived 11hours later at 9pm in zero degrees I could see my breath, excellent!

We found a guest house - with a TV!!! and the next day we went and discovered Ooty. Its such a nice place with rolling hills and a racecourse and a massive lake which has some cheesy Indian tourism going on at the boathouse. We went and found the tourist information and booked two days of activities. The firs day we took a bus tour around the Nilgrils hills, which is the Mountain area name. The tour was good with stops of at points of interest. The scenery was so different to the rest of India. No Palm trees insight but instead pine trees and acres of tea plantations and also this is where local vegetables are grown such as carrots, cauliflower, potatoes and strawberries!

The last stop was at a national park where wild cheetahs, elephants, deer, etc could be found and we went on a safari which was good. We ended up seeing Elephants and Deer.

The second day we went trekking through the hills of Ooty and that was the better day out of the two. There was 15 of us all from different countries. The guide took us through tea plantations and farmland. It was really good. After we stopped for lunch we went and climbed the summit of one of the hills. The view was amazing, we could see for so far.

I expected the trek to be a lot more difficult and I was so worried that my foot wouldn't hold up, but it did and it was a fantastic day. So now we are having a day in Ooty sampling all the homemade chocolates yum.

Tomorrow or the next day we will be going to Mysore to get some essential oils and catch the train to Bangalore. Not long now until the trip to the Maldives, we are very excited!!!