The second week of ashram life begins fairly uneventfully. In fact, because the daily programme is so structured, and we cannot leave the complex (for the most part) there is very little variation on a day-to-day basis. It starts getting to the stage where I find myself excited by even the most mundane digressions from the daily schedule, like a salt-water nasal-cleansing session. Seriously. Gone are the days of having wine for breakfast. It's now all about the lacto-vegetarianism, yoga and nasal cleansing. Om!
Week 2 though is the week where frustrations and tensions start to surface. A few of our group of friends leave, boredom and the mendacity sets in and Lisa develops a condition that can only be described as "ashram bi-polar" (her words, not mine!) It's fairly understandable though. There is quite simply no escape; from the ashram, from other people and perhaps worst of all, from our own thoughts. And with so much time on our hands, it's safe to say that we've all been doing a lot of thinking. I feel almost plagued by myself and at times I can't stand it.
The dramatic change in weather does very little to boost morale either. A typhoon has hit the coast and the rains have come. And they are HEAVY. It's like being in Scotland, only minus the alcohol for comfort. Everything is damp, dank and festering. Although unlike Scotland, still uncomfortably hot and humid. Anyway, enough of the melancholy...
As the yoga sessions have progressed though, so have our relative abilities. To begin with, I was about as flexible as rusty nail, but come the end of week 2 I actually manage to do a headstand. Ok, so obviously it's a bit wobbly, I can only hold it for about 7 seconds, and I got so excited I fell straight back over again, but FUCK IT, I still managed. On our last day of yoga, Adite, our lovely teacher, tells me and Lisa that we are no longer beginners, but intermediates. It's all so heartwarming. And if nothing else, at least we have progressed (as opposed to regressed, which I feel I have done mentally...)
Although communal life is ok (if you discount the noise of someone hawking up a ton of phlegm every morning, the cat that cries at 4am and the perpetual noise of shagging lions from the sanctuary across the lake)perhaps one of the main drawbacks of life in the ashram - and particularly in such a tropical location - is the tendency towards bug infestations. They are all too frequent and a total pain in the ass. Lizards in the beds, mosquitoes that get EVERYWHERE and locusts the size of my fist...the places is literally crawling. One afternoon, after a blissed out yoga session, me and Lisa return to our bed recess to discover a trail of ants marching down from the window and in to our bags and clothes. Needless to say the feelings of yoga-induced serenity don't last very long, and I'm quickly in a total rage. The ants are everywhere; my make up bag (eating sugar-coated tablets!), my laundry, and worst of all, my knickers. Yes, I literally had ants in my pants. Hideous. And to make matters worse, they've chomped little holes in a few of them. I will wash, but I will never be clean.
We perform and ant-massacre and rid ourselves of them (going to have to do lots of karma yoga to make up for this), but whenever someone throws any food in a bin they will inevitably return. So sadly, ants is one part of the ashram that we're stuck with whether we like it or not.
We near the end of our 15 night stint, and by the end it's safe to say we're all gagging for the vices that we weren't able to indulge in while there. It's been an incredible experience, and one that I would most definitely repeat (if only for the yoga and meeting some great people). I'm still not convinced that chanting is really for me (though the chants are cemented in my mind, probably forever), but taken with a pinch of salt (and laterally, a few wines)then it's all in good fun.
And it's not only namaste to the ashram, but namaste to south-west India. In a complete change of scenery, me and Lisa are flying north to Calcutta. So it's off to the airport we go....
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