As we touched down in Delhi my heart leaped in my chest & my eyes flooded with tears. It felt like the very fabric of my soul was jumping for joy. Something inside me had obviously been wanting to make this journey for a tremendously long time.

Delhi airport was surprisingly pleasant - very clean with a wonderful aroma of incense - yoga hand mudras carved out of stone hung from the walls - and deck chair style beds awaited me at the departure gate for me to sleepily snooze on during my 5 hour stop over. The even sold fresh coconuts. Airport perfection. Liz was happy.

By the time I landed in my Trivandrum, I had been travelling for over 24 hours. (Well, I say travelling - I was mostly sitting down, snoozing on planes or in airports - not all bad when you put it into perspective). As I stepped out of the airport, the thick, humid and hot south Indian air hit me - and it was 10:30pm. Despite it being dark I tried to look out of the taxi window at the sights around me as much as possible: brightly painted buildings that had ornate swirly, twirly decorations: even more brightly painted trucks & buses: cars that looked like they were fresh out of a 1960s movie: lots of rubbish on the streets: palm trees everywhere. In my head it was like a tropical 1960s bonanza. Some of the local lads still sport flares. I kid you not. Perhaps my sleepiness from travelling had dumbed down my senses (or maybe he was just a super chilled driver), but I really didn't find the taxi ride at all hectic. I'll keep you posted on future taxi adventures.

We pulled up to the ashram (where I'm planning on staying until 3rd January) at about 2am and eventually (it took a while to find someone) I was checked into a temporary room. After a good night's sleep I checked in and found my room. Ashram rooms are simple & humble - but I managed to bag myself a room on the 15th floor that has killer views of the gorgeous scenery. The Arabian sea on one side, a river on the other - and palm trees as far as the eye can see. Not only that, but my wonderful (and very beautiful) room mate, Indira (from St Petersbourg - who's favourite colour also happens to be purple) has been here since July - and has already made our little space a home (with lots of lovely purple things!).

People here are,on the whole, wonderfully friendly. Already I've made some lovely friends from people all over the world - and I've had some very interesting conversations with some very colourful characters. There are a few 'ashram types' who seem to take themselves far too seriously, but hey, each to their own. I'm here to grow, not to judge at the end of the day ;) After being shown around the ashram, I headed to the temple for bhajan (devotional song). The atmosphere inside was so sublime. I sat down and absorbed the music, atmosphere and wafts of incense.

There are no frills surrounding life in this ashram. The food is simple and vegetarian, the showers only run cold water (to be fair, hot water in this heat isn't exactly a necessity!) and you are expected to wear simple, modest clothing. Every person residing inside the ashram is expected to do Seva, or 'selfless service' - in the form of chores for 2 hours daily. My seva is chopping vegetables from 7-9am (oh don't worry, I'm up at 4:30am for morning meditation, so by 7am I'm wide awake) and I have to say it's really rather fun! We all have a giggle and a chat around the table as we go about our tasks - and it's a really nice way of meeting people you may not otherwise get to talk to.

The ashram is set within beautiful surroundings. Coconut tress are all around us, and a sleepy, traditional little village lies just a short stroll over a bridge, on the other side of the river. It's very, very chilled. Already I can feel my mind slowing down. I've been doing a lot of meditation and it feels so good to have the time and space to really work on myself. So far, I'm loving my experiences. I'm very excited to see what the rest of my journey has in store for me.