Skip to main content

Spice Village


Today was by far our most skrikerith journey of our lives. Five long hours of death defying overtaking on a mountain road that makes Chapmans Peak Drive look straight and wide. Then add some thick fog so that you cant see past a metre or two.
Alas, that did not deter our lovely driver Aji.The hooting just got louder and longer.

Hells bells, that was one of my top 5 worst moments of my life. With clear signage of which toilets were Indian and which were European, we took deep enough breaths to last us as long as we needed only to find two massive buckets in the middle of the bathroom and then another one in the actual toilet, but no toilet paper.Then to add to our hellish, albeit exciting trip, we stopped high up along a mountain pass that was really breathtaking with all it’s greenery and a supernatural fog to take a toilet break. Down some creepy stairs, deeper into the fog to a landing that had a beautiful view of a valley covered with trees and jack fruit, around the corner to … dum dum dum, the toilet.
Seriously?? It was a mixture of panic, fear, disgust and confusion but we managed to get out of there only to be charged ten rupees for the experience.Finally, we arrived at our destination, by the grace of all the gods, Nancy’s prayers and jesus handles. This place is so beautiful, we staying in little mock-tribal huts with wooden thatches. There are trees and spices and plants all over the place with little descriptions underneath.
On arrival we were greeted by 4 staff members, of which one of them put a beautiful recycled necklace on made out of all natural materials and a cup of cardamom tea. Its so calm and peaceful here. But now it’s time for an afternoon nap.

It’s now about 21h30 and we’ve just got into bed after yet another eventful day. We went to see the Kadathanadan Kalari Martial Arts, which is acrobatic combat drawing heavily on yoga and ancient knowledge of the human body.
These guys have been training for years and years and one wrong move looks as though they might actually loose a limb. It was an incredible act to watch and action packed and just when you think they couldn’t actually do that, they do something even more crazy.
After the show it was time for us to venture out in the streets of Kumily on foot. With the sun already down and the skies opened up for the monsoon rain, we were not deterred. We trudged on with our umbrella’s trying not to get knocked over by a bike, car or bus. Suddenly, the next dare. Everyone said, don’t eat the food from the locals, so what do we do, walk straight into a restaurant and order local food and a beer of course. Tell you what, the food was delicious. How safe it was I can only tell you tomorrow.
They don’t have TV’s or radio’s in the rooms here and we’re in the middle of a botanical garden and I am in love with this place. We can hear the frogs, crickets, guinea fowls and the soft rain falling. Okay, off to learn more about Ghandi, sleep tight all.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Rule No.33 - Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day

Okay, rules are back and what a classic one! This quote is by Harry S Truman. He was the 33 rd president of America, historians call him “a controversial president”, the band Chicago wrote a song just for him and he has a commemorative holiday in his name on the 8 th May in Missouri. This is brilliant advise, not in the literal sense, well, that too, but if you having a seriously bad day, don’t make things worse by deliberately doing something that will bite you in the bum later. I did this the other day, so I am talking out of experience here. I went into a situation and then on the way out, after realising it was a bad situation, I kicked a fresh turd cause I was so mad. (again, not literally, although, that might have been a better idea in hindsight) My advise in this circumstance is to stay indoors that day until you have calmed yourself down. I’ll leave you with another quote from Truman : A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who ...

Rule No. 76 – Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

I was on a plane last night on my way home and after my original idea of having a really awesome nap after two extremely tough weeks being completely thrown aside thanks to my hard of hearing peeps behind me that thought it necessary to use their fists on the tray to make a point, and they had a LOT of points, while bashing my chair at the same time, i decided what better time to think about this rule instead. Use my time productively. Then, somewhere between my eyes rolling back in exhaustion and semi consciousness, i looked over to the other row and there was a lady with her wallet on her lap, sorting out her slips, throwing away her bank statements. Brilliant. Seriously though, why would you want to keep them? We all do, just in case we need it for something, but when have you ever really needed them?These days they give you the option if you want to print out the receipt or not. Do yourself and the tree's a favour and just say no. Sorted. Now love letters. Aaah, love letters. I...

Restoring self-confidence after breast cancer - by Lauren Harmse

Self-confidence;  a feeling of trust in one’s abilities, qualities and judgement .  Something most women have issues with in everyday life in general. Add cancer into the mix and the concoction can be devastating.   My self-confidence took a huge hit after I was diagnosed with breast  cancer at the age of 29 . It was a whirlwind of doctors’  appointments,  preparations and wig shopping . I started treatment immediately and the reality only began to sink in  after I had completed  my first red devil chemo and  my scalp became  sensitive .  I was going to lose my hair and I was devastated. I had always had “mermaid” hair. It flowed down my back and had always been my crowning jewel. I decided to shave my hair before it started to fall out in chunks, I felt like it made me more in charge of my destiny. My adoring husband shaved his head first and then we started on mine. We first cut it into all sorts of funky styles (ver...