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After refilling the petrol, we continued on the journey. There was one part where getting on the main road was unavoidable. I could see that there were no cars or Autos on the road, so every person on motorbike or cycle passing by was staring at us. Our 'smart' driver has attached a black flag to the front of the Auto, so that we wouldn't be caught. But when we were trying to make a turn to go on to the causeway to the island, we were stopped. There were several big guys, some with sticks, blocking our way. There was no choice but to use that road. So, our driver took that turn and had to stop infront of them. They told the driver to get out and pushed him here and there, trying to get him out. He was NOT supposed to drive on this day. The thing was that I didn't feel comfortable being stuck in this situation, when neither my grandpa or my mom, nor I could speak or understand the language(Malayalam, i think) there. Then my grandpa was saying something like "let the driver go, he an old person". My mom was praying and I was just staring blankly, as usual. One of the guy asked me where we were going. I lied to them that we were heading for the hospital. Emergency. But i guess it was obvious that we were going to Vallikavu, since we were heading for the bridge. Suddenly, a big fat guy(just describing, no insult) appeared and told the rest to let the driver go. It didn't really work at first. But he was then like slapping the driver's back, asking him to go off. Our driver did and we were safe. No injuries. Thank God. Then, till we reached our destination, we were getting stares from everybody along the way. Some were even pointing at us and saying something.After some time, we reached our destination. The Ashram was different from the rest of India-and also different from the rest of the places i've seen so far.
One main thing is the huge proportion of westerners there. The other thing is that everyone there was extremely kind, and every work there-cooking, serving, organising of prayers, building of Tsunami-relief houses, etc... is being done by volunteers-No pay. The place we went was quite badly damaged by the Tsunami, but it was now all cleaned and rebuilt. After unloading, we went to the temple area, where i had to wait super-long for the 2 to get the accomodation and darshan tickets. We were given a room on the 4th storey (but supposed to press 3 on the elevator, i took some time to figure this out) and so we couldn't get a view of the beach and everything. But, that's okay, since miraculously, we our room was next to another Singapore family- that family was staying tere, they bought the room. Immediately, we had to rush to get darshan. First, we bathed IN BITTER COLD water, since there was no heater-It's not poor service, but it's a form of discipline-kinda thing that we are expected to practice. It was okay for me, since it was afternoon and the weatrher was quite hot. We arranged some things and rushed down-but were too late and so we weren't allowed in.
Now, i've to talk about the drinks shop there. The first thing is that the fruit drinks and milkshakes there are super cheap- the pomogranate juice is less than a dollar(And it is the most expensive thing there), without ice. All the juices there are without ice. There is no need for ice la, the drink is served cold since the fruits were stored in a fridge. The cake there was also one of the most delicious i've ever eaten-a lot of cream and sugar. Then there was a singing session at night, before dinner. The dinner costs 7rupees-about 25 cents in s'pore. There is vegies and this special kind of rice(my mom told me tt it costs morethan the normal rice), which was fatter and tasted better than the normal rice, and soup. Simple, yet delicious annd it fills your stomach. We went to sleep on leather matteresses. (to be continued)