Turtle Bay has by far been the best place that we have visited in India so far. Turtle Bay is a very secluded area in India on the coast of the Arabian Sea. We are staying at a simple resort on the beach, directly in the middle of two small fishing villages. I am staying in a yoga studio with 14 other girls in one big room. We are served 3 Indian meals a day and chai at 4:00pm everyday.
The temperature of the water is so warm that it is easy to stay swimming in the ocean for a long time. We spent a lot of time in Turtle Bay at the beach and hanging out around the resort. In the morning, when it was cool, I went for a barefoot run on the beach.
On the second day in Turtle Bay, we had a talk from an Ayrvedic Doctor named Jessica who works at the resort that we are staying at. She is originally from Boston and trained in India and has now worked and lived here for 10 years. It was really interesting to hear about what she had to say about the Ayurvedic approach to health and medicine. Auyvedic health and wellness uses principals found in ancient sacred Hindu texts, the vedas. Some of the principals are similar to western health and medicine, such as eating well and exercising in order to live a long life, however some of the principals were harder for me to accept, such as blood-letting. It is interesting to see an alternative to western, traditional medicine although some of it is hard to take in because of our culture. It was interesting that the Ayrvedic doctor said that traditional, western medicine treats symptoms, while Ayruvedic medicine treats the causes.
In the afternoon we visited one of the fishing villages with an NGO called FSL India. This NGO was building toilets in the fishing villages because sanitation was a really big problem. The community was defecating on the beach before this NGO stepped in. This is a health problem because it can cause dengue fever and hook worm. Also, for the women, it is not culturally appropriate for them to do this in public and they are forced to hold it for long periods of time. The community was very proud to show us their homes and village. The kids were so cute and they loved to get their picture taken and then see themselves on our cameras.
We walked back to our resort from the fishing village along the beach just as the sun was setting. As we sat on the beach and watched the sunset, a Muslim family approached us and asked my friend, Stacy to hold their baby for a photograph. It seemed like such a crazy request but she agreed and they were so happy get the picture. The baby was so confused and scared and did not appreciate it as much as his family.
On our last day in Turtle Bay we went snorkeling around an island with a cave and white chested sea eagle (different from seagulls) nests. From where we were staying in Turtle Bay, we took a bus to a public beach then took a boat from the beach to the island. The public beach was full of groups of men swimming, some women swimming in saris, and plenty of animals. There was a cow lying casually on the beach and groups of stray dogs playing and fighting. I have been in India now for a few weeks so this did not surprise me, however you would never see something like that at a beach back home. By the public beach there the largest Shiva statue in India and a massive golden temple beside it that looked like a skyscraper. I have seen so many temples since I have arrived but none were the same scale as this one.
We were out all day on the boat and had collected our garbage from our food and water in two cardboard containers. At the end of the day we were handing our bags and equipment from the boat to the bus drivers to loading up the bus to head back. We handed them the garbage that we had collected and they immediately threw them onto the beach in a pile of other garbage. We were all really shocked because littering seems like such an irresponsible thing for us to do. We had to assure them that we would take the garbage with us.
In India, there is garbage all around the streets and it is very difficult to find a garbage can. There does not seem to be a very established and national system of garbage collection so littering is very common. In Chennai, we saw women cleaning the streets and we were told that these women work 24 hours a day, each working 8 hour shifts to clean the streets.
On our last night in Turtle Bay we had a bonfire on the beach and had some cheap Indian beers.
The temperature of the water is so warm that it is easy to stay swimming in the ocean for a long time. We spent a lot of time in Turtle Bay at the beach and hanging out around the resort. In the morning, when it was cool, I went for a barefoot run on the beach.
On the second day in Turtle Bay, we had a talk from an Ayrvedic Doctor named Jessica who works at the resort that we are staying at. She is originally from Boston and trained in India and has now worked and lived here for 10 years. It was really interesting to hear about what she had to say about the Ayurvedic approach to health and medicine. Auyvedic health and wellness uses principals found in ancient sacred Hindu texts, the vedas. Some of the principals are similar to western health and medicine, such as eating well and exercising in order to live a long life, however some of the principals were harder for me to accept, such as blood-letting. It is interesting to see an alternative to western, traditional medicine although some of it is hard to take in because of our culture. It was interesting that the Ayrvedic doctor said that traditional, western medicine treats symptoms, while Ayruvedic medicine treats the causes.
In the afternoon we visited one of the fishing villages with an NGO called FSL India. This NGO was building toilets in the fishing villages because sanitation was a really big problem. The community was defecating on the beach before this NGO stepped in. This is a health problem because it can cause dengue fever and hook worm. Also, for the women, it is not culturally appropriate for them to do this in public and they are forced to hold it for long periods of time. The community was very proud to show us their homes and village. The kids were so cute and they loved to get their picture taken and then see themselves on our cameras.
We walked back to our resort from the fishing village along the beach just as the sun was setting. As we sat on the beach and watched the sunset, a Muslim family approached us and asked my friend, Stacy to hold their baby for a photograph. It seemed like such a crazy request but she agreed and they were so happy get the picture. The baby was so confused and scared and did not appreciate it as much as his family.
On our last day in Turtle Bay we went snorkeling around an island with a cave and white chested sea eagle (different from seagulls) nests. From where we were staying in Turtle Bay, we took a bus to a public beach then took a boat from the beach to the island. The public beach was full of groups of men swimming, some women swimming in saris, and plenty of animals. There was a cow lying casually on the beach and groups of stray dogs playing and fighting. I have been in India now for a few weeks so this did not surprise me, however you would never see something like that at a beach back home. By the public beach there the largest Shiva statue in India and a massive golden temple beside it that looked like a skyscraper. I have seen so many temples since I have arrived but none were the same scale as this one.
We were out all day on the boat and had collected our garbage from our food and water in two cardboard containers. At the end of the day we were handing our bags and equipment from the boat to the bus drivers to loading up the bus to head back. We handed them the garbage that we had collected and they immediately threw them onto the beach in a pile of other garbage. We were all really shocked because littering seems like such an irresponsible thing for us to do. We had to assure them that we would take the garbage with us.
In India, there is garbage all around the streets and it is very difficult to find a garbage can. There does not seem to be a very established and national system of garbage collection so littering is very common. In Chennai, we saw women cleaning the streets and we were told that these women work 24 hours a day, each working 8 hour shifts to clean the streets.
On our last night in Turtle Bay we had a bonfire on the beach and had some cheap Indian beers.
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