Sunday, 15 September 2013

My little thatched hut

I got the train at a very agreeable 10.30 am and instead of paying 710r (a robbing travel agent had said the ticket would cost that much) I paid 80r at the station. Boom! It was the most civilised train station I’ve even been to in India. The whole experience was completely pain free. I would have been happy just kicking about in the station for a couple of days but I had a ticket to Varkala and was super excited to get to the beach.

I was even more excited when I found a place to stay. It’s true, it does sometimes look like a little timber prison, but I feel really happy here. I am now the proud, temporary, owner of a little, wicker hut. I have a cute little porch, with 2 two lounge chairs. (I've even managed to bribe two dogs to come and sit with me. All it took was a cheese sandwich). I have a big double bed and a soft pillow. If you ignore the damp and the slight smell it’s quite homely. There’s no hot water but I've managed to sweet talk the old boy who works here, into getting me a bucket of hot water each day. It’s an exciting sight seeing him come back with a full bucket of water. I am very easily pleased these days.

From my little window (the ones without bars) I can see the sea. Not only can I see the sea, I can hear it too. I could listen to that sound for hours (which is fortunate seeing as that’s all I’m going to be doing for a week or so). It makes me feel peaceful, which at times has seemed like an impossible task. I think I’ll stay here for a while, before going back into the craziness of real life.

I unpacked my stuff then went for dinner. At the restaurant I met a German bloke called Uli (quality name). He asked if he could join me. Seeing as my options are fairly limited I was happy for the company. It’s probably fair to say that Uli has even less direction in life than me (if that’s actually possible). He has jacked in his job just to sit about Varkala all day. Don’t get me wrong the place is like paradise but it’s not real life. If I were to stay here for more than 2 weeks I would go insane. It’s amazing to be lucky enough to see a place like this but life isn’t about places it’s about people and without your mates and your family then there’s not a huge amount of point in anything.

It was nice to have someone to talk to. We talked about all sorts of shit. He is a cool enough guy. I really like people who are passionate about something. He is completely passionate about his music. The problem is his music is properly pony. It felt like the musical equivalent of someone scraping their nails down a blackboard. Old Uli loves it though. At some stage in the evening he made the boldest claim of any person I have ever met. He said that he would happily trade all the other music in the world for this one song. After making a claim like that, the track that follows needs to be pretty fucking spectacular. This sounded like that something from the Swedish band, Europe (you remember, the final countdown. if you’re under the age of 30, google it) It felt like my ears would actually start bleeding at any minute. Christ, it was a long night.

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