The world was shut down and everyone I knew kept telling me to come home, I did no such thing.
I was not about to end my journey, my plan wasn’t to go home I wanted to start a new life, I had planned to go volunteering in Goa at a dog center while I looked for work but obviously it wasn’t possible to go up there at the current time.
Kovalam, Trivandrum, India! A beautiful, little beach town. The endless coconut trees, the year round 30 degree heat and the deep warm blue Arabian sea, what was not to love, not to mention the mountains only a few hours drive inland. Who wouldn’t want to spend lockdown here.
There was a few of us “stranded”, from all over slowly people went home but we formed quite the community and those of us there weren’t really into the lockdown thing and the gatherings continued. So much so one of the restaurants decided to actually have a party with a load of the city locals and it was LIT! Obviously is got shut down relatively early by the cops but was well worth it.
I remember early on in the lockdown I woke up one morning and had another one of those feelings, I said to my friend Jess “I think I’m going to get a dog”. The next thing I knew I bumped into an English man with a dog who was about to fly home and asked me if I could have the dog. Spikey. A golden white beach pup. The first of many dogs in my Indian story. He became my companion and was a damn good excuse to go out for long walks a couple times a day.
We got into quite the routine, which was a blessing because being the free spirit I am to be lockdown was mentally challenging. I’d wake up walk the pup, then go to yoga with the Russians, juice on the beach, come home do the house work, read endless books, afternoon nap, up at 3 and another walk around to the Chai shop where we would all meet up and then on to the beach for sunset and then to whoever’s place for dinner/drinks. As time went on things started opening and becoming more relaxed but routine stuck.
I’ll always look at 2020 as one of the best years of my life. (Thank you everyone for the memories.)
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