Ive booked a connection flight between Mumbai and Goa, a seriously frivolous treat, cos I think the least I am going to want to do is get an overnight train to Goa on my own after a day and a half travelling! And then from Panaji airport in Goa Im going to hire a taxi up the coast to Arambol....and flop.....for a few days. Hopefully there will be some other travellers wanting to head towards the northern beaches so that I can share taxi costs but worst case scenario its only 950rp which is around £14. Not something I can afford to do all the time but worth it to protect my precious sanity on the first day. =P
From there, I should hopefully be meeting up with a lovely lass called Gems, who I met at SWHoop(South West Hoop Gathering), on Arambol beach in North Goa. Gems is travelling with her boy for a month and a bit in India before heading off to Thailand on the 20th Jan to start her Performers Without Borders tour of duty...! Will be nice to have a smiley face out there for when I arrive =) There are also a couple of other lovelies I would really like to meet up with, a great friend of Tashi, DeDe, who will be out for a month or so whilst Im around and may hopefully be in the south, and also a lovely Aussie lass called Rosie Borey who I met at BuddhaField Festival last summer who's a real star... she'll be around in India too hopefully. To be honest I think the majority of the UK have the same idea as me and are heading over to India to escape the cold...
The reason I started looking at travelling back to India in the first place was because I really wanted to find a cheaper and more condensed Massage course then the one I was planning on in Bristol. Ive put down a deposit on what looks like a really awesome course in Kannur, Kerala. Its a month long full time, 6 days a week course in ''Ayurvedic Massage and Pachakarma Therapy'' at the Ayurveda College of Kerala starting on the 2nd March. It sounds really interesting, though is going to be a lot of hard work.... but Ill be able to come home knowing how to give Indian full body massage... The plan from the beginning was to try to become as self sufficient as possible and not have to work for any more companies. Hopefully with sewing and massage I may well be part of the way there to being fully self employed! Not a bad dream really, Im so sick of working for people that don't really care about you and are happy to pay you minimum wage... new exciting beginnings I hope! The course itself costs around £650 in total including full fees, books, accommodation and food compared to£1900 in England which would have been only 1 weekend of every month for 11 months. I think I will definately learn better with a more condensed course, though I am REALLY sad I wont be doing the course in Bristol with NutMeg and all the lovely staff there. Hay ho. Ill be able to teach nutmeg what I learn about Ayurvedic massage and she can teach me about Holistic massage! It'll be really interesting finding out the differences in the courses as they seem quite similar types of massage in a lot of ways.
Because I am travelling on my own, Ive tried to find ways of using my time that seem less scary then just having '10weeks' of travelling around ahead of me...its the first time Ive ever travelled on my own and it seems really REALLY daunting to me at the moment. In fact I think I am in complete and utter denial, Yep....great coping mechanism ;-) I think it'll be a great experience for me though and will make me feel more grounded and confident within myself, as the people that I have around me are such an integral part of my happiness and stability and I think I need to learn how to be a bit more self contained. Ive only got 9 days left of being 22! Suppose its a good time to start!! When I first started thinking about the trip I really wanted to try and find a community project to be part of, not only to solve the 'issue' of travelling alone, but also to learn some new skills and become more ethically aware I guess. I found an awesome project just outside of Pondicherry on the South East coast, called Sadhana Forest, which is a family run community converting poor quality arable land back into forest. A few people that I know have volunteered there and have really enjoyed the experience and it seems like a really fantastic thing to put time and energy towards. I am going to volunteer there for a month at least, during February if all goes to plan. It also helps to solve my problem of very little money (my main source of income was suppose to be the stall at Clothes Show Live, which did not make as much money as we were hoping and only just covered costs)... Sadhana Forest swaps accommodation in exchange for 4 hours work a day 5 days a week, and food is only £1.50 per day. So a month at Sadhana would only cost me approx £65 instead of around £300 if I was travelling normally. And hopefully I will meet some amazing people out there and learn lots of new gardening skills! =)
Other then that I have no other plans... hopefully I'll meet lots of lovely people to talk to, or I will most definitely go completely INSANE! Ash is off on her month travel in Nepal on the 6th Jan, only 8days time! Its going to be so strange saying good bye to her for nearly 4 months... and I started packing up my room today in readiness of Mills moving into my room whilst Im away. Currently counting 8 BINBAGS of fabric...no wonder I have so much stuff! I need a studio space desperately...hopefully that will come when I return fingers crossed. Going to thoroughly get on it when I get back with Sawdust and Diamonds. I should be bringing back some stock and fabrics to sell during the summer too, as well as getting onto the Princes Trust for a start up loan hopefully. All in good time ey! So many exciting things on the horizon =) Depending on how the massage course goes, I also really want to specialise in Infant massage at some point. Get to squidge lots of babies =)
So yeh, thats the plan...hopefully my passport and visa will arrive safely soon and all of this will be fruitful!
Will hopefully be posting regularly with pictures and stories of what I am up to, would be really lovely to hear back from you guys too whilst Im away...hopefully I wont be too lonely! <3 Thats all for now,
Bexi
