Things are a changin

It's funny how your perspective can change so drastically in such a short period of time. I'm actually loving India now. It's still hectic and dirty and loud and non-sensical at times, but it's also fun and exciting, colorful, majestic, and very very unique...I don't think there is any other place in the world like India. In the beginning, it seems like the vultures smell you're fresh meat so they all pounce on you at once, making you feel so vulnerable & frustrated. But, you soon learn what to look out for, walk around like you own the place & bargain bargain bargain, and eventually the locals open up and are really friendly. It's nothing you can really explain accurately or prepare anyone for, you just have to experience it for yourself.

Varkala was so amazingly beautiful - I had a relaxing time. I met some good travelers and we just chilled and ate, lazed in hammocks and went to the beach every day - so nice. I hitchhiked for the first time! There is something about being on a motorcycle with a total stranger in a new place, taking in all your surroundings & nature, meeting new people - it makes you feel so alive. Not that I'm going to make a habit out of hitchhiking, but it's definitely fun every once in a while in places like this where the people are so willing to give a backpacker a free ride.

I've been training to become a yoga teacher for the last 3 weeks in Goa and it is instense. I get up at 530 every morning, and from 620am-630 pm I am either meditating, in lecture, or practicing yoga, then afterwars, I spend 2-3 hours studying. The schedule is definitely demanding and muscles are aching that I didn't know existed - everywhere! It's also pretty darn hot here - sweltering at times. But, I'm learning so much and no matter how tired I am, all my worries disappear during asana practice and I feel so good afterwards. Well, that's not exactly true...my body does like to give me a good punch in the face every once in while, slamming my jaw into the ground when I try to do chataranga, which is like a yogic push-up. It's like my body is saying, "oh, you want to work me for 6 hours today, I'm just going to slam your face into the ground! And, how do you like it???" When the course ends at the end of the month, I think I'm going to spend some time lazing around before heading inland and getting back to the real India.

I have no access to tv and very little to internet or newspapers, so I'm just now learning about all the devastation in Japan and potential threats to California. I hope you're all staying safe. My prayers go out to everyone in Japan and any of you that have loved ones affected by the devastation.

I met a nice girl from Switzerland, Martina, on my way to Ooty and we ended up traveling together for several days. Ooty was nice, freezing cold surprisingly at night, but a good place to be for 2 days. I did a day trek through the hillside, which ended in one of the tribal villages where there was a festival going on. All the women were dressed in their best, beautiful bright saris and they sat around the temple area while the men had a serious jam session and did some traditional dances around the small, colorful temple. It ended with a goat being sacrificed, which I didn't stick around to watch, but one of the families took me into their home and looked after me...they were really sweet. I felt really privileged to witness the festival and the ceremonies, most of which I wasn't allowed to photograph.

Traveling around India is cheap, dirt cheap, but often complicated, late, non-sensical and chaotic - all part of the experience I suppose. In order to get to the coast from Ooty which is about 100 km inland (I think) I had to take a miniature UNESCO train to Mettapulayam- amazing landscape and definitely one of the best things I've done in India - then a crazy bus ride to Coimbatore, stay overnight, then take another train that was more than 5 hours late to Ernakulum, then a rickshaw from the train station, finally arriving in Kochi. I was only planning to stay in Kochi a few days, but I liked it so much I stayed a week. It's definitely a tourist town, but it's a nice little seaside place with decent restaurants, good coffee and lots of shopping.

On my way to Kanniyakumari I took a day tour through the backwaters of Kerala, which run for about 900km through the southwestern Indian state. It was peaceful sailing down the little canals seeing all the different kinds of birds and flowers, passing by little villages along the way.

It's such a hard life here, especially for the women. Everywhere you look you'll see women busting their butts in the fields in the middle of the blazing afternoon sun still in their full-on heavy saris while the men stand idly by wearing close to nothing relaxing & watching under the shade of a nearby tree. You'll see the women in rivers everywhere washing loads of clothes by hand or carrying literally 15 to 20 bricks on their head or tending to their child's every need, all still in their saris...it's pretty impressive.

Now I'm in Kanniyakumari, which is the southernmost tip of India. They say it's the only place on earth you can watch the sun rise and set over the ocean from the same spot - i'm not sure I believe it, but I like it here. Tomorrow I think I'll head to Varkala, another beach town - I think I'll stick to the coast for now. India is growing on me veeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyy slowly, but surely.

India

I had a really great time in Sri Lanka. I completely fell in love with the people, the culture, the animals and the landscapes. I could definitely see myself living there. Maybe I could build two homes - one in the hillside and one on the beach...I could open up a couple businesses, drink tea, lay on the beach...live a dreamy life :)

But now, I am India. I landed in Bangalore on the 29th, stayed a few days, then headed to Mysore where I am now. I'm trying to stay positive about this country, but I have to say that its been pretty difficult to do. Aside from the noise, millions of cars, garbage everywhere, starving stray dogs, run down buildings, and pollution - the culture has been the most challenging to get used to, particularly the men. They clearly have no respect for women and they have no problem letting me know - they push their way in front of lines, completely ignore me when I speak, especially if I am with another man, and they stand as though they own the sidewalk, the street and everything else you might need to use. No gentlemen here - at least none I've met so far. I also ALWAYS feel like everyone is trying to scam me - whether it's for 3 rupees from the waiter, 300 rupees from the drivers, or 1000 rupees from shops, everyone seems to have a scam going and they're really good at making it seem as though they're being sincere. India lesson 1 - don't trust anyone!

OK, enough with the complaining. I got a couple beautiful saris and some silk scarves yesterday. I have been wanting a sari for forever, so I can't wait to wear it.

Tomorrow I'm taking a tour bus to Ooty where I'll stay for a few days before making my way further southwest to Kerala.

I've been having some serious trouble uploading pictures on to this blog, so take a look at my Facebook page to see my pictures.

Week 1

Madhu :)

 outside the Dambulla temple caves

Ancient Buddhist temple caves, Dambulla, Sri Lanka 

weekend monsoon rains flood nearby rivers and surrounding homes

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

New Years Eve in Colombo was a blast! My LEO hosts, Anne, Amal, and Si, reserved a table at one the beachside hangouts where we spent the night drinking and dancing and laughing as we watched the locals set off fireworks on the beach (and almost set themselves and some passersby on fire!) My hosts showed me around Colombo for the first few days, giving me some time to get acclimated to my new environment, before bringing me to the elephant reserve here in Kegalle.

I love Sri Lanka! All of the locals smile at you when you walk past them on the street and they're always willing to help out an occasional confused tourist like myself. It's a beautiful country. On my way to town in one of the tuk-tuks, I pass by rice paddy fields with lush, green forest in the backdrop - truly picturesque. The food is purrrfectly spicy. I wake up unusually early these days, before 6am on most mornings (shocking, I know), and as the sky begins to brighten, you hear one bird chirp, then a couple more, then 10, then it seems like hundreds begin to sound off at once, all with a distinct chirp. It sounds just like one of those sound machines that help people relax, but instead of coming from a little box, it's outside my window.

While the locals are very friendly face-to-face, they seem to take out all their aggression on the road. Can you say road rage? Every road is two lanes, one in each direction, but you wouldn't know it the way they all swerve around one another, blasting their horn, racing down the middle of the road between two, sometimes three cars going 30-40 miles an hour, at least one of which going the opposite direction. A honk from the horn seems to mean "Watch out! I don't want to hit you, but I will!!!" Vehicles literally come within inches of each other, and, since there doesn't seem to be any highways and the roads rarely have sidewalks, cars are constantly coming dangerously close to pedestrians, which is the scariest thing of all! My heart has stopped quite a few times witnessing this madness, so I've learned to just close my eyes until I get where I'm going. One of the mahouts offered to let me drive his motorcycle - I told him he was insane.

There are 8 elephants on the reserve right now, but it seems to change day-to-day. My elephant is Madhu, the youngest at 16. He is very cute, still smaller than the others. On the weekdays, I clean Madhu's bed around 730, then around 8, I go to the river to bathe him with shaved down coconut shells. Scrubbing him is hard work! Hopefully I'll have some guns by the time I leave here! Madhu just lays in the river, very still like he's getting a massage, as I scrub away. It's kind of exhilarating being in a river, bathing this massive animal that could turn over and smash me to bits in a second if he really wanted to...but he doesn't. With one-word from Sanjiva, the mahout, Madhu raises his foot or his ear or his tail or whatever Sanjiva asks - Madhu seems to know at least 100 commands - it's pretty amazing to watch the two of them together. After the bath, I give Madhu his daily vitamin clump along with some bananas that I save from breakfast and then I go to work in the garden for a couple hours. In the afternoon the volunteers switch off teaching English to some of the local kids, assisting the mobile vet, and helping the elephants paint.

I live in a bungalow with 8 other volunteers ranging in age from 19 to upper 40s. I share a room with a Dutch girl named Simone, who is very sweet. Then there are 4 British girls roomed together, a woman from Denmark has a room to herself across the hall from me, and a German guy & an American guy from Cleveland stay in the room next to mine.  It feels like college all over again.

The volunteers usually go off on the weekends and this weekend I toured around the hillside with one of the British girls and the other American. Had a great time!

For the first time in a looooooooong time, I'm actually excited about Monday! I love working with Madhu and Sanjiva. I look forward to it every morning.

I hope you all have a happy Monday!

Hong Kong skyline 12/30/10

Hong Kong Peak

Thankful

I watched the sunrise from the other side of the Pacific Ocean today. Descending upon a place like Hong Kong is pretty amazing and a bit surreal. The seemingly endless miles of skyscrapers, the hazy hills & peaks in the distance, the surrounding islands, hundreds of boats in the water...it's hard to believe I'm here. After months of planning, list-making, researching, budgeting, Amazon-shopping, packing, unpacking, re-packing, and more trips to REI than I can count, it has begun.

After an hour of wandering the streets of Hong Kong in search of the elusive 15C bus to take me to the Peak Tram and stopping in one of the million Starbucks in Hong Kong for a frappuccino, I finally stumbled upon the tram station. The view from the Peak, which overlooks all of Hong Kong, is like nothing I've ever seen before. It is an immaculate place. You don't see any garbage or smell anything funky around strange corners like in every other big city. And the shopping is out of control. I'm glad my clothes-shopping impulse/obsession has subsided since I started budgeting for this trip, otherwise I'd be in BIG trouble. 

I didn't go into Bangkok during my layover, but I did oversleep in the dayroom I rented (which is a hotel room inside the airport) and woke up 15 minutes before my flight was to take off! I threw my stuff in my bag and ran out that room looking for my gate so fast, faster than I ever knew I could move! Made it just in time!

It's around 530 in the morning here in Sri Lanka and I just settled into my new Colombo home for the next couple days before I move on to volunteer at the elephant facility in Kegalle. I'm so tired I think I could sleep for a whole day, well at least until the New Years festivities get under way.

I am so thankful for being able to do this and for all the love, support and advice all my friends, family and surrogate family alike have provided me. It's really made this sometimes tough and stressful process so much easier.

Have a happy and safe New Year!

(I'll post pictures once I figure out how :)