two month anniversary, awesome birthday and goodbyes

saturday was the last night in varkala for the australians and we had a really nice chilled out night on their balcony. after everyone went to sleep, me and abe hung out at our lounge for a while and had deep conversations until 8am when they left. otis gave me his guitar and i asked him to sign it so he scratched on its backside. i loved it. awesome people.

abe, jordan, liya, oly, sessa, seamus, otis, sasha, anna. love all of them

best balcony in varkala this year

liya, naked oly sleeping, anna, jordan, sasha, otis, seamus and abe and me in the back

it was my two month anniversary in india on tuesday. not my longest time i've been abroad (i did my hotel reception practice in parga greece in 2008 for 4,5 months) but yet it's soooooo different. here i'm free. free and happy. also i'm six years older so almost a totally different person. 

anyway, there was nothing special during the day, but in the evening i got a call from anna that she's getting a tattoo now and i said okay im coming already! i went to rocknroll to pick her up but there was a trance party going on ! apparently i like trance cause i went straight away to the dancefloor. the dj was israeli and i was the only one dancing at first. then i went with anna to the tattoo place but couldnt stay there for long cause i wanted to dance again. i went back and forth for a couple of times and the dancefloor was awesome with lots of israelis and me. 

i was the biggest fan of the dj and i was nearly sober. one indian guy offered me a drink and later asked if i want to leave with him. didnt :) the police came (as usual) after eleven to shut the parties down but after ten minutes it was back on. after it finally ended around 1am we went to the beach for a chill.

on wednesday i celebrated my finnish friends birthday. she's in south africa and im in india but i got a tattoo, had some cake and got a massage for her birthday. 

chocolate cake, banana cake and coconut cake

first one

also it was my last night in varkala. after hanging out on the cliff saying byes to the shopkeepers we had a really nice chill night at mango with my varkala family. i love these people that have been around me for the last 1,5 months here in mango. 

lakshmi and me, bought a dress for xmas

shbir, me, rakesh

me and gangu

vanessa, sanu, johan, prasad, lauren

anna, me, johan

anyway, tonight me and lauren (usa, got back here on mon or tue) are leaving to gokarna by two trains. first one leaves from varkala at 21.23 and takes about 13-15 hrs and next one tomorrow after 14.00 so we'll be in gokarna around seven. anna will come there later. the two australian groups and the britts (mila, leo, hannah, matt) are there already and olys birthday is on saturday so it's gonna be party party party!! can not wait! and after christmas we're off to goa! at least me, the brits and the younger australians (sean, raudy, anthony) i met in kodaikanal. they were in varkala for a few nights, spent some time with them too. awesome people, awesome places = awesome end of the awesome year.

lots of love and awesome weekend everywhere! xxx

beach party and a trip to kodaikanal

on saturday there was a beach party hosted by our varkala friends lucy and lorenzo. i've heard lorenzos dj stuff before at rock n roll and i'm not sure if i like it or not. 

first of all, the way to the beach was horrible. we, as in me, anna, liya (rus) and the australians (abe, otis, sasha, oly, seamus, jordan and holden (english that lives in au)) decided to walk to the beach none of us had ever been to. we had some directions i guess and on the way met some people with a map and who were going to the same place. 

some of us were getting pretty anxious about the too long walk so far (cause we thought the party was on the beach that's near) and the partymood was going down. we tried taking short cuts run by seamus, made u turns more than a couple of times and finally found long dangerous-looking stairs that led down the south cliff to the beach.

the party was sort of like in a nice-sized cove (just learned the word from the australians) on the beach and there were people and music, a few even danced a little. music was ok but not so good and we just sat on the sand with guys, till i suggesed leaving. they drank their beers and we left cause everyone just wanted to chill out on their balcony listening to our own music.

we also made a little trip together the ten of us. we went to kodaikanal for two nights. it was on the mountains so it was colder there. we rented a minibus and a driver (who took a friend with him) for 23000 rupees (that's almost 30e per person). the drive took over ten hours cause we had so many stops (food, toilet, pharmacy) while we partied, talked and at times slept. the way back was much more silent after two nights of partying. 

our pink minibus

seamus, abe

liya, anna, oly and otis

sasha, seamus, abe and holden at lunch

abe getting a trim at a local barber

tuesday drive to town and back, jordan, anna, sasha and holden in the front and a mix of english and australians in the back

new australians

locals playing corona in the street (i also tried it) while me, seamus and holden are acting like tourists

sasha teaching anna to shoot

boys getting ready for war

war happening

mila, leo, hannah and matthew were also in kodaikanal, next door to ours, but we didnt spend so much time there together. i'll try to go to goa for christmas or new years to party with them. and to see max and babal again.

lots of love from varkala xxx

picstory from friday to friday

weekend in kollam at sarovaram ayurvedic resort for free with vanessa, victoria and monique. our house and a piece of garden in the picture

 vanessa sitting in the garden and my feet

 after massages we wear this orange thing

 johan from goa came to surprise me on saturday but surprise, i wasn't here! 

our neighbour australians and texas chilling out at ginger lounge (the name of mangos future restaurant)

 painting day. guys chilling. sanu, johan and the guy from juice shack (these indian names are pretty hard to remember i u only hear them once) and new guests

 and what do we paint exactly? just the wall, i felt like leaving my mark here, i already have my broken flute hanging on a tree (sanu sat on it so it's a reminder of what he did)

 anna, johan,  ali and me having masala dosas in town

 chilling on my terrace with ali, sanu and johan

i should probably write something about my everyday life here, and also why did i choose varkala, what's so special about this place and how things are going. one thing i'm ready to share already is i havn't had a cigarette since last thursday and i feel great. i just quit. ,\/,,

the perfect first set of guests and vanessas birthday

there are eight rooms in mango guest house. one was vanessa and sanus till they moved to a house next door last week, one is me and annas, two of them are used as ayurvedic treatment rooms so four (now five) rooms were free for guests.

two weeks ago four english, mila, leo, matthew and hannah, arrived in mango. they had booked two rooms via booking.com at night so it was a surprise to us when they came in the morning! the next day after that doug, ben, noah and lauren i met in goa walked in mango when i was just about to go for breakfast. the next ten days we spent hanging out every day at least a few hours whenever we were home the same time. 



we explored new places by scooters with mila, leo, matt and hannah, played loads of cards with everyone: finnish and english version of bullshit, king and slave, joli (aus) and a few others. ali and sanu were the number one fans of bullshit (fin).

 edava, fishermans beach 

 same same

 matt, leo, me

 an amazing place we found while driving scooters, han, matt, leo, mila

 a bunch of curious locals with leo

we celebrated vanessas birthday last wednesday: the day started with a meditation class by our friend monique from new zealand, then breakfast at coffee temple, lunch in town and chilling while vanessa had her first buddhism class with monique, elephant riding for vanessa, a scooterdrive to a lighthouse, cake and fruits at mango where also came our neighbours from mango house: 4 australian guys and swedish and russian girl. after showers we went to a big dinner at abbas, and for a couple of drinks in garden bistro. electricity went off and some of us went back to mango to chill more. most of the people from bistro followed and came with us. we sang happy birthday so many times at different places with different bunch of people. stayed up pretty late and went to meditation class at 8am. 

everyone at helipad: ben, leo, lauren, matt, doug, noah, hannah, otis, sasha, mila and the sweet four year old

vanessa with kids giving bananas to the elephant

 leo, mila, vanessa, me, matt, han

lauren, ali, vanessas friends whose names i dont remember

lauren, me, vanessa, matt, han, leo, mila, julia, victoria

the view from the lighthouse

the view from the other side

 vanessa, monique

 lauren, sasha, otis, oly, doug, noah, ben

awesome cake 

the birthdaygang

on their last night in varkala this beautiful, smart and awesome set of guests left their lovely goodbyes in a brand new guest book we got with mila on the same day. we hung out at mangos chillout lounge or on someones terrace until all of us went to sleep. 

me, a cutie pie from one shop and mila

on friday some went to meditation class (not me) and i met them at coffee temple for breakfast. after that everyone packed their bags and also i went away for the weekend with vanessa, victoria and monique. more of that next time.

good night xx

one week as a foster mom

a week ago anna came back home with a tiny puppy she had found crying on a road. not more than three weeks old she was when we took her in and gave her a foster home. apparently she was put in a bag with her siblings and left somewhere outside, got out of there and was lucky to be rescued.

she was named after baghira from the jungle book. we got her milk, cookies and puppyfood and gave her lots of love and shelter. she slept in our bed next to or on us changing places during the night. i woke up many times to her crying and took her out or to toilet to pee, gave her food or played with her. the very first time she went to the toilet she pooped near the drain ! 👊 good girl, though she peed a couple of times on our bed too.

she met a lot of people, mostly the other guests from our place but also random people from the restaurants or people passing and stopping to say hi to her. everyone who met her gave her love and the feeling of being safe. 

leo, mila, hannah, baghira and matthew

she learned new things everyday, for example how to climb the stairs, how to jump and run. everyday she became more playful and brave to explore her surroundings. anna was worried weather she'd survive after we leave, and was looking for a place for her. on saturday she heard about an indian family that's willing to take her. sunday they met and monday she was gone.. take care baghira, stay strong and receive the love u get from your new family. you'll always be in my heart baby girl. ♡