Welcome to Arambol

On arrival at here I discovered that the Yoga place had not made my reservation for accommodation so the first day was spent scouring the town for a cheap and quite place to stay. I have now got settled into a nice wee beach hut for the inflated price of 400 rupees per day ($8); the yoga center would have been 300 rupees ($6). Considering this is peek session I think I did not bad since the average price seems to be around 600 rupees per night and come xmas and new year the prices go up to anywhere between 1000-2000 per night; crazy considering it is the same bamboo hut with cold water. Anyway all is well and good now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arambol

Arambol is a 2000’s new age/hippy hangout. I mean every kind of alternative therapy is available from massage and yoga  to panchkarma, chakra ailment, crystal healing, contact dance, astrology and those are only the posters I have seen; I am sure there much more but it does make me wonder just how authentic all this stuff is. Also it is quite a scene here especially at sunset when the spontaneous drum circle, singing and dancing  start going. People also parade the beach  or sit and have a smoke or perform their many acts such as, juggling, hula hoops, tight rope walking, neon ball throwing, fire stick twirling and again I am sure a whole lot more that I have yet to see. The hairstyles are diverse, dreadlocks of many varieties and lengths and colours, clean and filthy with attached feathers, shells, beads or coloured string. Full head shaves or half long half shaved with a tattoo over the ear, long and short hair ranging from blond to blue, red and black left loose of tied up in turbans. 

People here are from all over the world. A lot of Russians, English and Europeans but only a few Americans. The nice thing to see here is a lot of India tourist too but they seem to be in couples or families and I am sure must take some pleasure in checking out all the crazy foreign tourists. Music is 24/7;  ok maybe a few hours between 2 am and 5am  there is only the noise of the ocean. The techno music  goes till late then the Hindi devotional music starts early. 

morning catch

early morning waves

To think I came for some peace and quite is really quite funny because there is none. Yesterday I did take a long walk down the beach away from town and it was  very peaceful  but just too faraway for the yoga class. It will be interesting to be here, see who I meet and what more I can see  but I have a feeling 2 weeks will be enough.

The yoga course I came here for offers 5 days course in Iyanger yoga. To find courses in Iyanger can be difficult as the Iyanger school of yoga prefer that student  practice in Iyanger style of many years before one can do a teacher training program. So these short course will at least give me the basics of what Iyanger is all about.