5.31.05 - News from Goa...we're moving on!

We're in Goa, things are closing up, it's the end of the season and there is no mistaking this fact. Shops are boarded up (literally), restaurants and hotels are closed for the season and they're even tearing down the beach shacks around us as we eat. A change in plans and one that leaves me with mixed feelings. We aren't heading to the northern most reaches of India. I'm quite sad about this but know that it's just all the more reason to come back and do a true trekking excursion in northern India and Nepal. We've honestly seen a good portion of India...one filled with a variety of experiences...both good and bad...but never a dull moment. The main reason is that the trains are booked and travelling by bus can be truly traumatic and painstakingly slow...and all the trains have been booked 60 days in advance by all the Indian travellers seeking refuge during the school vacation time. Not the best timing but at least this will give us more time and flexibility in the Middle East!
So in the next couple days we're heading to Bombay and then it's off to Dubai and then Cairo!!! I'm actually really excited - we bought the Lonely Planet Middle East book and spend the time in between power outages and during rain showers reading all the juicy details!!! I should be Aswan for my bday - hopefully floating on a falucca and drinking champagne in the 50 degree heat!!! ;)
There are a couple plans in the works but we'll have to wait and see. We desperately need to find a "student card" if we hope to afford entry in to anything in the area. We'll have to see what a few rupees can buy us in Bombay.
But that's all the news for now. It's been a great time relaxing in Goa...it's definitely more mellow...and very "India light".
Take care!
Hugs
D

5.25.05 - Playing with water....(we'll see where this goes...just trying to make the blog a little more interesting...but admittedly it's a stretch)

I'd like to use the theme of WATER to express the events of the past days....

The Deluge: After Pondy we headed south making our way to Kanyakumari via Madurai. It was here that we got our first glimpse of the force of the monsoon rains as we sat "trapped" in a lovely palace as the deluge continued for several hours. We had a great time chatting with the Indian tourists (albeit our lack of knowledge of one of the many Indian languages needed to communicate with one of the many groups SERIOUSLY limited the exchange of information) who had come to admire the architecture and surroundings and were now stuck waiting out the downpour. At one point I even became the resident photographer and I believe I've agreed to send some photos to an address scrawled and presented to be on a scrap piece of paper. When it looked like the rain had let up we made our way to the streets. It was a very festive atmosphere as we, along with the rest of the masses, waded our way through the streets. The water was almost up to our knees in spots...and I had to concentrate really hard NOT to think about all the stuff that I'm usually tiptoe-ing through on the streets...that has now surely liquified and being carried along in these fresh rivers of rainwater. The rain definitely cleans things up - but it's a bit creepy when you're walking in the midst of that "process". But we had to get a move on. We had hoped to accomplish an amazing 3 things in one day - visit the Gandhi museum, check, visit the Palace, check...and hopefully visit the famous temple. Well it was foolish to think we could accomplish so many things in one day...the temple, now completely flooded with the rain would have to wait until tomorrow.

The convergence of 3 oceans - the pilgrimage: Finally we made it to the southern most point of India where 3 oceans converge. Obviously a great pilgrimage point especially at sunrise and sunset. There were many Indian tourists enjoying their holidays with all the necessary tchotckies (straw hats, guns, carved seashells) in tow. This also happened to be the place where the tsunami made a fairly big impact...washing away the piers and some of the local fishing villages. Evidence of that destruction is still apparent today but life for that fishing village continues on as usual.

Sweat: An ever present "accessory" of this trip to southern India. Never in my life have I had beads of sweat collect on my upper lip...and just pour down my face. So along with sweat comes the fact that several showers are taken throughout the day just to cool off!!! We haven't had hot water in our rooms in eons...but now I barely even think about it. The cold water is so refreshing!

Tears: Yep - I checked myself into the Sivananda Ashram near Trivandrum. In addition to learning more about yoga I wanted to find out what it was like to live on an ashram and become part of that type of community. It was a great experience in hindsight but not without its frustrations:
- The yoga was difficult - 2 classes per day for 2 hours each. The body ached but it honestly felt good. We would practice in a covered hut down my the lake in the morning and evening. It was so relaxing. And we would always have the sounds of lions from the safari park across the way keeping us company. (I guess it was feeding time during our yoga sessions)
- The chanting and more spiritual/ religious side of life was a bit more difficult to grasp. In an effort to survive these times of day I tried to look at it all as more like history/ religion classes. I did actually learn a lot more about the hindu religion...but to this day I can't get those chants out of my head.
- The motto of the ashram was "adapt, adjust, accommodate" and what I learned was that this needs to be a 2 way street...not just a motto that applies to the vacationers which seemed to be more the case. I'm told the "problem" is that the volunteer staff just don't "care" (this from one of the directors) and it's hard to get follow through and enpower a sense of responsibility. This was most difficult to deal with.
- I had been looking forward to meditation and I honestly did enjoy those silent times. But to think that at one time I considered doing one of those 10 day silent meditation retreats!?!? I would have gone insane!! I've proven that I can't sit still for longer than 15 minutes (we usually meditated for 20 minutes) and after that my feet fall asleep and my mind seriously starts wandering. It all starts when my one eye pops open to see what's going on around me and from there it's all over!
- Other frustrations involved the fact that the Kids Yoga Camp was just finishing up and it wasn't exactly the quietest place in which to find my "inner peace" but I'm starting to think that that's a little more elusive than it sounds.
- What wasn't frustrating were my fellow yoga vacationers. This was a great group of women who I spent countless hours chatting with under the "meeting tree". Karen is Scottish but living in Azerbaijan but calls Brighton, England home. She is the funniest, most positive person I've met and we shared many a great laugh. Much needed at times. Rosemarie was also a great friend - and a fellow Canadian. Together we made the most of it...and tried not to laugh during the readings when the swami used to turn the book around to show us the photo or illustration that accompanied the reading. I guess you had to be there....

The beach and very strong tides: After I'd sprung myself free from the ashram I headed to the cliffside beach resort of Varkala to meet up with MC. What a stunning destination. I could have stayed there forever. It was so much fun frolicking in the surf - but you really had to keep yourself steady because the waves and the "current" could easily knock you over. From the top of the cliff it was nice to spend relaxing evening watching the lightning storm in the distance...or finally getting to see the movie Gandhi in a local restaurant. It was nice to be free to wake up late (8am vs. 5:30am), eat what I want (veg or non-veg, eat with my hands or not) when I want and just really relax.

After a lovely cruise through the backwaters of Kerala we're now in Kochi which is another jewel of a town. I believe it's one of the first European settlements and happens as well to be one of the only Jewish settlements in India. There are old colonial mansions all along the tree lined streets, the beach is lined with fishermen and Chinese fishing nets (more for the sake of the tourists than for catching any big bounty of fish) and there are actually more western tourists around. We'll be here a couple days before making the journey to Goa. With the entire Indian population on holiday...and in the south...it's practically impossible to get a train reservation. So we'll be bussing it. It'll take two days...but I can't wait!! Goa calls!!!

5.10.05 - It's getting hot in here....

Hi all!
Since the last entry there's been fair bit of activity and I now find myself in southern India, Pondicherry...the French enclave that happened to be the only place spared from the tsunami devastation in this part of the world. It's hot, hot, hot. I don't usually sweat but it's just pouring out of me the moment I step outside. It's just so humid!!! But let me know get too far ahead. Since the last entry we "survived":
- Tim's bday bash/ Josie's re-entry party (she was heading back home after 1.5 years out of country) in Bombay that included a yummy dinner at the very trendy Indigo followed by a night of dancing and just plain revelry at Tim's room at the lovely Taj Hotel,

- the tearful goodbyes to both he and Josie,

- Trying to accomplish way too many things in the course of one day in India including a visit to the US Consulate because I needed to get a document notarized (talk about security!!!) and my adventure later that afternoon of sending a parcel from the main post office in Bombay (I had to pay someone to box it and stitch a covering for it, pay that same person to show me where the office was because the office was about to close!!!, bribe the foreign parcel office to stay open a wee bit longer to process my parcel (weigh, rip it open to pass it through "customs", pay another man to tape it up and sew it all over again, wait for another man to come and apply sealing wax to every possible seam...and finally give the man in charge a "little gift" to make sure they didn't take my parcel out back and burn it after all that effort)

- Leaving Bombay for Mysore (via Bangalore) on a 24 hour train ride - followed by a 4 hour bus journey on what a road that had more speed bumps that is physically tolerable. As for the train - we were fortunate enough to have an A/C car with sleeping berths. I never knew that I could remain reclined for a full 24 hours but I found out that it is achievable. Probably the longest I've stayed in one place in a long time....perhaps since Vang Vieng, Laos! ;)

- Quick stopover in Mysore to visit the lovely Palace and Chamburi Hill....a visit that involved not just us but hundreds upon hundreds of Indian tourists who don't know the first thing about standing in a nice orderly line. Sheer bedlam!!! And both visits proved once again that everyone wants something...whether it's the "nice security guard" who happens to point out that the style of painting lends itself to a 3D perspective and then requests "a gift" or the other nice man in the temple who took us aside to give us information about the rites and practices of the Hindu religion and the temple (which also meant we avoided the long line of Indian citizens who were really there for "business"). Now who possibly want to rip you off in a house of worship? Well we found him - it was this man....but seriously, perhaps I'm exaggerating, I don't think it was a total scam but the priest he brought over was rather insistent upon a hefty donation which is fine, it goes to feed the orphaned kids who show up every day at 3pm for food. I had more of a problem with the "nice man" who was not just in to having us donate money to the temple but also to him. Picture us standing on the roof of the temple, out of earshot, while MC is telling him that he can take what we are offering or nothing at all. It was brilliant and I captured it the digital. ****Please note that since reading "The Monk Who Sold his Ferrari" I'm learning to channel what would be negative thoughts resulting from these encounters into positive thoughts. I should be ready for sainthood upon my return.

- Back to Bangalore to take an overnight bus to Pondicherry, the former french colony/ now heavily influenced French seaside town in Southern India- the Tamil Nadu region. This happens to be the one area in the immediate vicinity along the coast that wasn't directly hit by the tsunami but so many people were impacted in other ways. For instance we met a man who was serving us at a restaurant. We got to talking and he said that he woke up to meditate every morning at 5am...to make a long story short it was the only way he was learning to cope with the lose of his father, mother and 3 sisters the morning of the tsunami…just 5 months ago. Everything washed away. It was so very sad and remarkable that he was able to be so strong. I don't know what I would do. And to top it all off his existing relatives have not received him with open arms (who knows the history) and it sounds like he has very little support. He’s not married and without a family to “make the arrangements” the prospects aren’t good. Argh…it was such a sad conversation. In addition to that he's involved in some bureaucratic nightmare and is unable to teach English (his profession these last 15 years in Chennai) until he receives original copies of his certification that I believe had been washed away. He apparently has photocopies but that won’t do. (Given my limited experience with both French and Indian bureaucracies I honestly don’t find that too hard to believe\) But what is truly amazing is that he’s persevering through it all, working in the restaurant to earn enough money to move on.

- Pondicherry is veritable oasis. Such a lovely place…despite the high humidity and mind blowing temperatures. It’s hot hot hot. But we decided to splash out (it was MC’s bday on the 9th) and stay in a nice colonial home converted in to guesthouse in the “French quarter” of town – The Patricia Guest House (it doesn’t even have a sign, you just have to know the address 54 Romain Rollard). Very boutique-y…with great splashes of color throughout the room, decorations (ie. Statues, vases, bowls, etc) that aren’t glued to the surfaces…and of course hot water and an amazing A/C unit!!! It was a great retreat from the oppressive heat of the day. But one cannot resist walking outsid, through the tree lined streets of the city…walking through the streets is actually do-able here (you’re not dodging cow poop, rickshaws, etc.) and it’s all very civilized. There’s some great architecture to be seen throughout and just the daily activity of the residents and vacation go-ers is a feast for the senses. Sunday night everyone descended on the Strand…the road along the water. It was a great collection of families and friends enjoying a nice evening out together. It was good fun to see that. There really aren’t many western tourists in these parts…that’s been weird getting use to. I have to mention that I finally got to eat baguette and camembert!!!! It was yesterday…for MC’s bday…we prepared a little feast in our room (pate, mini sausages, cashews, crackers…and of course, the camembert) and we ate it all!!! I’m surprised I’m not sick today and even if I was…boy was it worth it!!!

- Pondy looks and feels very French and even the local residents speak the language. Additionally has its own local “eccentrics” by the name of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother who have since passed on but before so left a wealth of their thoughts and ideas on life and even an entire “alternative” community just 10 km north of Pondy. But their presence if felt throughout Pondy as it seems “The Mother” was very industrious and in addition to writing 17 books – she also managed to instill a very commercial side that has helped sustain Auroville and related ashrams in the area. It seems this group own a host of guest houses/ hotels, boutiques, etc. You get a look at “The Mother” at just about every turn. It’s a little creepy but I honestly don’t know enough about her and the philosophy to say any more. We’re off to Auroville in a couple minutes….I hope they can enlighten me.

- I’ve been “accepted” at the Sivananda Ashram near Trivandrum. I’ll be there for 7 days (May 15th – 22nd) to take part in their yoga vacation. My friend Fabienne strongly recommended this ashram and I’m very much looking forward to the week of yoga, meditation, lectures, working and of course meeting some new people. I’ll be staying in a dorm…and I just honestly hope it isn’t too hot. The facility also offers ayurvedic treatments which I’m looking forward to trying. Until then there will be a stop in Madurai to visit a temple and then off to Cape Comorin, the southern most tip of India, where 3 seas converge and it’s said to be a very holy place that pilgrims flock to.

- Feeling good and can hardly believe it's been 7 months!!! I want to thank a couple of you for your patience with me while I'm off doing this...and the 6 months has turned in to 7...and I likely won't be back until fall...as long as the money holds out. There's just so much to see and do and I don't know when I'll get the opportunity again. I'm starting to understand that the end is in sight...but I want to make sure I maximize each and every day I'm not stuck behind a desk, chained a computer...and a very hectic, albeit monotonous, schedule. How I plan "re-entry" is top of mind and very critical. It's going to be difficult...getting back to the mundane...but oh, to have my stuff in one spot and friends and family relatively near by. What a dream!!! But until then I'm sure I'll continue to have dreams of being back at home only to realize that I forgot to visit Dubai, Egypt and Europe...and panicking that I have to get on a plane to finish my objective. Horrible dream really - like that late for exam dream, or the packing and late for the plane dream....hmmm...does everyone have those or just me?

- I'm sorry to have missed being present for some recent bdays including most recently my mother's on May 3rd, my father's tomorrow May 11th and of course the Mother's Day celebrations. My thoughts are with you all. Love D

5.1.05 - OK....so I last left off in Udaipur just about 10 days ago....

...had a brilliant time there - visited the fort, hung out...we ventured out to the Udaivilas Hotel (Oberoi's premiere hotel) which was absolutely stunning and this time the staff was actually nice enough to show us around. I don't believe there were any guests there at the time...it is low season after all and the "low end" rooms start at $450 - so not exactly in the "backpacker budget." Josie and I made another trip to the tailors...more clothes that won't fit in my bag. Oh well...

Saying goodbye to Rajasthan we boarded an overnight bus as we worked our way south to the island of Diu. I can hardly believe we spent 6 nights there...we rented mopeds to tour around the island, made some more friends, hung out at the church turned guesthouse/ restaurant and watched the sun set from that amazing vantage point at night, toured another fort and some caves....ran out of gas a couple times (funny now I know how the engine "handles" when it's low on gas - Tim, MC and I seemed to run out at exactly the same moment...not too surprising I suppose). I guess the recent highlights are as follows:

Diu:
- Heading to Diu we opted to hire a driver for the last hour journey in order to avoid the touts at the bus station. This is where I actually said to someone "I don't trust you cause you're a liar!" Yep - it's getting uglier!
- Meeting Del, Carol, Laura and Elliott from Toronto. This family has taken 10 months off to tour the world with their 9 and 11 year olds in tow. Great experience and the kids were absolutely brilliant!!!
- Beach time Indian style which involves a fair bit of gawking and just awkward staring. What can you expect when one ventures out on the beach in a bikini when the rest of the women are wearing saris!!! We did head to the more secluded end of the beach - Josie, myself and our "bodyguards" being the boys. There were some interesting moments, some good and some bad. I've had a woman run up to me to shake my hand and tell me she loves me (with her whole family in tow) and another day Josie and I spent a rather uncomfortable hour on the beach (before MC arrived) with men lined up in a semi circle around us. Despite our pleas/ verbal abuse (Josie's learned some key phrases in Hindi like "don't eat my brain" and "get away!") and our attempts to move they were unrelenting. What was even more disturbing was watching the one guy rub sand all over himself while staring at us. Very creepy!!! But even with MC's arrival the attention didn't dissipate and we even had a small child, encouraged by a bad of boys, run up to us and pee right in our midst...just about hitting me and my towel. Interesting times. It's no wonder there are arranged marriages in the country...these men wouldn't have a chance going it alone!!!

- Dancing the night away at the local discotheque, Footloose. Open only on Saturday and Sundays the early evening is the equivalent of "family fun night" or as Tim described it, dancing at a wedding reception. Kids on the dance floor, women, men - there were some pretty interesting dance moves all around. One of the father's even showed off his moonwalk skills as well as some other break dancing moves. There's something for his kids to be proud of. Eventually the women and children were herded away and you're left with a disco full of men...who love to dance and get rather aggressive on the dance floor (much like the full grown men we saw playing in the sand on the beach). It was fun to get out and just dance, dance, dance....I need to burn off some steam.

- Hanging out in the hotel restaurant for the whole day - boy did we laugh!


Bombay
- The flight from Diu to Bombay. Anything to avoid a hot, 22 hour bus journey.

- The fact that Josie and Tim are still travelling with us. We're savoring the last few days before Josie heads back home and Tim is off to Africa.

- I just at park near the Gate of India in Bombay. We woke up early to join the "Laughter Club" that meets at 7am every morning. This is a group of a dozen or so older people who get together to stretch, breathe, etc...but use laughter throughout. It was great therapy and something that I think might work back home. It was great fun and all the club members were so welcoming. It was also nice to be out in the "cool" morning air.

- May 2nd - It's Tim's bday!!! He's also 33. We hope to do it up Bollywood style with a nice meal at a chichi restaurant and perhaps even some karaoke!