Post by Clinton Cool on Oct 28, 2018 18:51:02 GMT
Only a week to go till I'm home, thought I'd give the good folks of thunderboat a quick update of goings on here.
Not sure if it made the news there but equality has reached India with a court ruling that a sacred temple must allow 'women of a menstruating age' access to the most holy temple in Kerala. This didn't go down to well with groups of stone throwing thugs, including, strangely, women, repelling any attempts from women attempting to access the temple. Apparently a compromise deal, whereby a machine that could apparently detect whether women were actually menstruating or not was to be set up near the temple gates was ditched, seen as 'wholly incompatible with women's honour' quite right too. So far a general strike of 2 days has been called in reaction to the court's decision, and there have been 2200 arrests.
The resort I'm staying in, Varkala was virtually a ghost town when I arrived. The kerala floods made international news but this part of the state wasn't affected at all. Just shows you how fickle people are. It's all change now though, the place is rammed with yogis, meditators and those seeking spiritual retreat. It's rather pleasing that at least 70% of these 'practioners' are female. After a series of false alarms and a close shave with a rather spectacular Russian girl I've met a nice Danish girl who is studying to be a yoga teacher. I hire a surfboard each morning while she does her classes, we do some meditative stuff on the beach at sunset, that's new to me and pretty inspiring. Not sure I'll ever go to Copenhagen and my boat is only 35ft but it's nice to live in the moment.
One thing I like about places like this is the oddball characters you meet. Almost nobody is 'normal'. A 25 year old girl who has a year to live but could teach us all a thing or two about how to remain positive. The American woman who goes out onto the beach every day to pick up two bags of plastic, knowing full well that around the world a million times more than that is being dumped into the sea. The ex Vietnam ex pro skier ex pro surfer 75 year old bloke with Lyme disease who fascinated me for hours with his views on the state of the world, and the way it will go. The 70 year old Danish woman, strong as an ox, open and proud of all her conquests of Indian men less than half her age. The Russian girl with the alluring eyes, disarming smile and heart of gold and her genuine sorrow as to why Russian people can't be accepted, just like everyone else.
Not sure if it made the news there but equality has reached India with a court ruling that a sacred temple must allow 'women of a menstruating age' access to the most holy temple in Kerala. This didn't go down to well with groups of stone throwing thugs, including, strangely, women, repelling any attempts from women attempting to access the temple. Apparently a compromise deal, whereby a machine that could apparently detect whether women were actually menstruating or not was to be set up near the temple gates was ditched, seen as 'wholly incompatible with women's honour' quite right too. So far a general strike of 2 days has been called in reaction to the court's decision, and there have been 2200 arrests.
The resort I'm staying in, Varkala was virtually a ghost town when I arrived. The kerala floods made international news but this part of the state wasn't affected at all. Just shows you how fickle people are. It's all change now though, the place is rammed with yogis, meditators and those seeking spiritual retreat. It's rather pleasing that at least 70% of these 'practioners' are female. After a series of false alarms and a close shave with a rather spectacular Russian girl I've met a nice Danish girl who is studying to be a yoga teacher. I hire a surfboard each morning while she does her classes, we do some meditative stuff on the beach at sunset, that's new to me and pretty inspiring. Not sure I'll ever go to Copenhagen and my boat is only 35ft but it's nice to live in the moment.
One thing I like about places like this is the oddball characters you meet. Almost nobody is 'normal'. A 25 year old girl who has a year to live but could teach us all a thing or two about how to remain positive. The American woman who goes out onto the beach every day to pick up two bags of plastic, knowing full well that around the world a million times more than that is being dumped into the sea. The ex Vietnam ex pro skier ex pro surfer 75 year old bloke with Lyme disease who fascinated me for hours with his views on the state of the world, and the way it will go. The 70 year old Danish woman, strong as an ox, open and proud of all her conquests of Indian men less than half her age. The Russian girl with the alluring eyes, disarming smile and heart of gold and her genuine sorrow as to why Russian people can't be accepted, just like everyone else.
