Mahab
One thing I've learned, I'm not gonna take my body for granted like I am doing right now. It's 33 not 20 and it hurts and I gotta listen to it more by exercising even harder if I wanna stay fit and fine.
Mahaballipuram surprised me. In a good way --- felt a tiny bit like Arugam Bay. The people were really hospitable, warm and catered to all my whims, fancies and queries. I was quite drowsy even though I caught a couple of winks at the airport. I did the right thing by going by aapre paid cab for INR 1500. I snoozed in the car and my driver did not hera pheri and looked after me well and even went out of his way to help me find my hotel.
The owner of Little Island, Rajendra aka Raja was extremely kind and well connected. Since his hotel was booked, and I came at an unGodly hour, he got me a room for a few hours to sleep, next to his place till I'd get my room. He finally ended up giving me a room which costed slightly more than what I had signed up for but he didn't murmur about it.
A heavy breakfast and a late tea were had at Joe's cafe. Quite nice tbh. Quaint, small seating and decent meal. To die for was this homemade banana jam which I was hoping they sold but no luck.
The most idiotic thing I did was walk to see the Pancha Rathas. It said 25 mins, I thought I'd be able to manage in the heat. Ghanta. I dunno how many times I died and how many times I was reborn. Lol. What a disaster. I didn't even go bothering about trying to find the write up about the place. Just took one overall round and sat under a tree. Just googled it and read it to myself. I saw the lighthouse from afar and I was like yeah fuggg it. And this wasn't even summer!
By the way rickshaw/auto fares start from INR 50 for a journey less than 500m! I had no energy and more than anything, it was a lost cause since they're all in this racket together. P.s. I reached the hotel again and slept for an hour and a half, I was drained but luckily hydrated so it wasn't too bad. Raja thought I was an idiot. I agree.
Mumu's surf school, was a different kind of friendly vibe. More serious but I'm glad I went to them as it is always a good experience learning something new. Rahul was my instructor and the bugger would walk so fast, I kept having fatigue breakdowns. My surfing class, other than the initial two waves I caught turned out to be a disaster. He was trying to get me up in a smoother way, focus on my knees bending slightly, face forward, hands balanced out, body almost upright, pushing the chest up with the palms... I just couldn't get my brain and body to be in sync. Moreover the waves were no help. But that's the best way to learn, under tough conditions. Sri Lanka seems easy peasy, now that I think about it. Lol. Well, not really. I feel like I'm taking a long long time to learn the basics. I have zero flexibility and have yet to get my hand at paddling better.
So many small small things to learn. I tried a couple of new things today, like holding the stringer/tail to make the board go up over a wave, lifting the leash over the regular waves that I could manage, going underwater while holding the tail. So much to learn. I will get better. I'm determined about getting better as surfing. I hired the board for an extra hour so I could practice on my own. It was a decent effort, I barely stood up but I tried paddling and looking at the waves and I know I have so much more to do. Wish me juju!
Went for a walk to the tip of the beach at dusk and surprisingly didn't find those beautiful green shells today.
Went to the room, showered and chilled with a well deserved bottle of beer. It really was such a nice cozy room. Thoughts of wanting to have my own space constantly hound me. Decided to take the bus to Guindy with the help of Raja who was kind enough to offer to drop me by bike to the bus stop and wait for the bus to show up because there was a blackout of streetlights for some reason. Thanked him profusely before boarding and then spent a lovely one hour plus on a comfortable bus journey. The conductor was once again helpful and told me where to take the next bus from. I decided to grab a plate of piping idli sambar and watermelon juice and then, as always, got lost trying to find the bus stop to take me to the airport that I Ubered myself outta there. Please note it was hot and I was starting to melt.
I'm already starting to ache and I have a feeling tomorrow is gonna be a very challenging ball game -- lack of sleep, bad posture at the airport trying to snooze and my achy breaky back. All in all, if I had to do one thing differently, it would be to stay in a place for two days minimum and no airport sleepovers ever again. Getting too old for this shit.
