Sawadee KAAAAA~!

Keeping it short as I only brought 30 baht to the internet cafe, and I think I've already run over my time! Got the 'India Photos' section handled though (2 months late)... if you fancy a visit.

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Funny how I only know two things in Thai (hello and thank you), but I seem to mix them up on a constant basis. Shopkeepers are quite puzzled when you insist that they greet you long after you've already purchased something and are in fact, in the process of leaving the store.

So let me finish up on Sri Lanka. Emil left sometime on the 16th after a successful run of 2 months of travel, and I found myself not having anyone to threaten or torture with the pulling of chest and/or kneepit hair. I forgot that ordinary people don't like that. With only a week left in Sri Lanka at that point, Danielle and I made for the hills- spending 2 blissful nights in Ella before continuing on to Dalhousie to climb Adam's Peak for sunrise. Here's a cute little girl that boogied our way from the top of the hill down to where the road snaked left and we lost sight of her. A natural, if I ever saw one!



Adam's Peak (right) is maybe the hardest physical thing I've done since volcano boarding in Nicaragua. 5,200 steps straight up, and quite the queue once you get there. Adam's Peak, or Sri Pada, is a remarkable sight for two reasons. For Buddhists, the sacred footprint left at the top of the mount is said to be Lord Buddha's last step on earth before ascending into Heaven... for Christians, it was Adam's first step out as he was exiled. Whatever the case, there's certainly a very long line of pushy pilgrims. 3am hikes make for some grumpy devotees!

A day here, a day in Kandy- one 6-hour bus ride and a questionable "egg" sandwich later.. I was on my way to Bangkok. Not sure what I expected... but this wasn't it. Skyscrapers, air-con buses, and loads... I mean... LOADS of tourists. Heavens, me! After teaming up with an impulsive South African, I was on my way to Chiang Mai for party and pleasure. I won't post too much except to add this photo of Ben with a purse. We met Bobby, a Coloradan that had been living in Thailand for 4 years or so- and he introduced us to Fone.... a Thai native that insisted on driving. Ben was ousted to the back of his scooter, and a designer purse was hoisted onto his shoulder as Fone took the reigns and sped us off into the distance. Chiang Mai was fun- and was without a doubt, the best partying I've had since Goa... but I left to pursue a cooler climate, and people with long necks in the hill country bordering Myanmar. More on that later.

End o'India- and Sri Lanka

It's so strange when people ask me what my favorite countries are. It seems that my final 3 (Sri Lanka, El Salvador, and Ethiopia),... don't involve lots of crazy activities or tons of chaos. The only things tying them together are good food, good sunsets, and wonderful people... plus they're all cheap cheap cheap!

I took leave of my last Swede (Emil! You're my last!) and headed to Trichy for my flight to Colombo, set to take off on the 24th. I spent one moderately restful night in some shabby motel while watching the Nancy Drew movie and tweezing my toes. The next morning, I rose early for my 9am flight and took a taxi to the airport, tipping the driver heavily and shouting "G'BYE INDIA!" before beelining for the air-conditioned building in a manner reminiscent of a marathon runner hitting the tape. (If you've ever been to India- I'm sure you can relate). Upon arrival, I proudly presented my passport to the security agent and told him I'd be on the Mihin Lanka flight to Colombo. He responded that there were no scheduled flights with Mihin Lanka that day, and kindly asked me to step aside for the next passenger.

In the complaint office, 25 minutes later, I found out that my flight, which I had only booked a week or so in advance, had been canceled, and people had been notified by phone. When I asked why no one sent an e-mail, I was met with blank stares. Seriously, you have time to call EVERYONE by phone,... but no time to send an e-mail blast? Anyway, I was told to come back tomorrow (as if being told that there would be "no flight today" was the same as "no chocolate milk today")... and I damn near swallowed it and walked outside to find a taxi when I met Danielle, a Minnesotan who was supposed to be on the same flight. This is us standing in front of the Ambassador which brought us to the Meridian Hotel, where we stayed our last night in India with room service and HBO. People from Minneapolis get their shit handled (and handle it for me in the process). Hooray!

Anyway, we arrived in Sri Lanka the next day and made our way to Hikkaduwa, a surf town on the South-Western shore with the best waves and best nightlife in all Sri Lanka. I spent about 2 days there... but with the bug bites I got in India all infected and oozing (I'm sure you want to hear all about it), I found that in lieu of ostrasizing myself from the obscenely beautiful surf community, it was altogether better to piss off into the hill country for a little R&R. On the way, I met Catherine, a nurse from England who wasn't disgusted by my horrible ankles, and together, we made our way to Ella.

I won't post too much about Ella except to say it was lovely and that I met some friendly Canadians that greatly enhanced my experiences there.

A few days in Ella, a day or so in Haputale, and then on to Kandy to meet Emil for some elephant riding, botanical garden strolling, and 8th wonder of the world viewing.... although from entirely different perspectives. Having paid outside my budget for the RIDE out to Sigiraya... I was shocked to find that the ENTRANCE to the site was 3x outside my budget entirely. Strange that 30 dollars at home can seem like so little, but on the road, it's a fortune! At first, I was pretty bummed, especially as no one else seemed to have the financial limitations that I have. Luckily, I ran into some locals on a moped, who told me about the photo at the top of the post. Best hike of Sri Lanka, and it was free! I was the only one up there, enjoying the view, the sunshine, and a bag of cheese bits all to myself. Lovely!

From Sigiraya, we headed straight to Hikkaduwa for the nightlife, surf, and snorkeling. The timing was perfect, as some day old turtles were just being released within a couple days of our arrival. Here's a flappy little bugger I got to play with a bit before seeing him off into the ocean to begin a life of seaweed eating, jet stream riding, and female turtle romancing. So cute!

Anyway, several things happened from then until today... but I'll keep it down to just two... #1) Emil stepped on a sea urchin within a minute of his first Sri Lankan swimming experience. Here is Sam from Montreal picking out the spikes with a swiss army knife and a safety pin from someone's birthday card. Emil's been quite the trooper, but it made for a funny trail of gauze while he swam today as we #2) snorkeled with some giant sea turtles. Below is a photo of me feeding one seaweed. It's so crazy- I suppose they come close to shore in order to grab the abundance of seaweed covering the rocks... but the act of swimming in the water with them, stroking their backs and even grabbing onto their shells and letting them drag you (albeit not very far-- I reckon I need to lose a couple pounds) was bizzarre and humbling. I'm so small and clumsy! This was definitely the height of my Hikkaduwan experiences!

Anyway, tomorrow I continue north for Adam's peak and the hill country (again) until the night of the 21st, when it's on to Thailand!

Sool-Stool!

I had intended to do a full update regarding my goings-on for the past weeks, but I reckon that it'd be of little interest to anybody, least of all myself. Since departing Anjuna, my trip has consisted of revisiting much, and discovering very little. I don't suppose you want another post on Hampi? Gokarna? Anjuna? No? Neither do I!!

I came to Fort Cochin on the 11th of this month, shortly after spending a couple of weeks wandering around northern Karnataka with Emil, Emma, and Henrik... my Swedish mafia. Here is a photo of them. Aren't they cute? They know words like "catalyst" and "resolution" ... although they don't seem to be entirely sure where to add the stress sometimes. The word "diary" can become quite funny when the emphasis is placed on the last syllable, as I came to find out. Anyway, we went to Hampi and Gokarna together, and although I nearly wiped out Henrik's 16 GB memory card on accident, the time passed without incident and I found myself enjoying what could have been the most pleasurable 10 days of my time in India.

So, I came to Kochi (Cochin) by myself and met this crazy one. The manager at our hostel tried to get me to abandon her to his wily design, but I hung fast. Lucky for me, that resulted in mango cornflakes, picnics, and hours of bike riding. It also resulted in me getting thrown out of my hostel early, as the hostel manager (I'm assuming) got angry that there was never a minute alone with her to be had. I was always lurking... lurking nearby and watching. Anyway, because of me, he never made his move, and because of him, I was thrown out early. Scumbag!

Anyway, fast-forward a couple days, and I'm back in Swedish company as Emil and Emma come to meet me in Allepey for 3 full days of relaxing on a houseboat. I had originally fretted over what to do for 3 days on a boat in the backwaters.. but thanks to the $4 bottle of Mango vodka, with a helping hand from a bottle of Black Pepper rum and 2 cases of Kingfisher... that never really became an issue. Here's a couple of photos from the trip. We also had a discussion about the merits of sharing underwear while on the boat.. but I won't get into that here. The entire trip cost around 3, 250 rupees a person... roughly equivalent to 70 dollars for 3 days cruising through the backwaters in our own personal boat. All food included. You can see the banana-leaf spread on the photo below, prepared with love by our happy cook, Rajeevan. I didn't manage to get a photo of our crew (Pushpen was the name of our captain)... but they had acute hearing and a healthy appetite for drinking games. They caught on to "pyramid" quickly. I thank Australian Tom for teaching me that one.


Where we docked for the third night.
Rajeevan's lunch spread. On the top left of the banana leaf is okra. Then there was a potato thing on the upper right, and a pineapple banana curry on top of the rice. All you can eat- since those silver containers in the corner were full to bursting with more food. The best food I've had in India (best food of my trip??). The only complaint I had was that I had to waddle around in my bikini afterwards. Most of the trip, I was simply hovering between really, really full, and uncomfortably full. It makes for a not-very-productive boat trip.

Rice paddies. Watch the cloud of mosquitos lift.

Back in Kochi, afterwards, I managed to catch both a kalarippayattu show and a kathakali show (spelling?) in the Kathakali center. The kalarippayattu show was awesome because there were people chasing other people with knives. That's always good. The kathakali show was awesome because this guy's eyeballs were dancing all over his head. That's also always good. I'm going to try to post a video here and hopefully it'll work. I know it's sideways, but I don't know how to rotate it, so shut up. In case you're wondering what that thing he's swinging around is,... it's a double sword-whip thingy. There are two extremely long (and very sharp) swords attached to one hilt, which the guy swings around like a whip. In order to own one, you need a permit supplied by the Keralan police, lest you dice someone into fun sized pieces by accident. This guy was a gangster.

Anyway, I'm afraid if I muss with this post too much, it'll erase my video. I'm in Sri Lanka now and FUCKING LOVING IT. More to come.

I know,.... I know.

I'm terrible at updating this thing. In my defense, my camera has been absolutely useless for the last three weeks or so, and updating without relevant photos is no fun. Here is a picture of a really cute kid to balance out the text-photo ratio of this post.

Since leaving Hampi in mid-December, I ventured eastward to Hubli, a bo-dunk city in central Karnataka, famous for being completely unremarkable in every way. My reason for coming here was this: A friend from Anjuna, G-1, was concerned about the impending graduation of the woman of his dreams, a dental student named Deepti Rao, who was studying at Shree Something University. In India, after a woman finishes her education, it really is only a matter of time before she is pressured to marry and settle down. G-1 was not about to lose the fight for Deepti due to something as silly as his work schedule. It was my responsibility, then, to find Deepti, profess all of G-1's burning feelings for her, and return to Anjuna with mighty prize of her personal digits. My armor? Her name and the approximate location of her university. Period.

I accepted the challenge for two reasons: 1) my undying faith in true love, and 2) I was going to pass through Hubli anyway- how difficult could it be to find this girl in such a small town?

What I came to find out is that 1) Hubli is the second largest commercial center in the state of Karnataka, 2) the university isn't actually IN Hubli itself- it's about half an hour outside of the city, on the side of the highway, 3) the university is extremely large, and divided into two campuses that are impossible to bridge without the aid of the university bus, and 4) Deepti Rao had graduated about 5 months prior to my arrival in India. I was not pleased. Moreover, I arrived in Hubli in the middle of the night, and there was nowhere within my budget range to stay anywhere close to the campus. Thankfully, the manager at the Travel Inn was a freaking saint, and not only called every connection he had at the university in the attempt to find this girl, but managed to secure me cheap accommodation only a short bus ride away, as well as introduce me to a med student named John, who proved to be an invaluable guide to me for the rest of my stay in that horrible town. There was also beef jerky and salted plums involved... but I won't get into all that.

My initial anger at having been dragged out to the middle of nowhere for no reason at all immediately vanished at seeing G-1's crestfallen face when I told him that she was gone. It then resurfaced when he asked me to go back to pester her classmates for her personal cell number. I declined.

Anyway, I was back in Anjuna by the 23rd of December, just before Christmas. If any place in India could be what El Tunco, Maderas, Nazret, or Copán was to me... then Anjuna is it. Maybe Goa wasn't what it used to be, but it's still one of the best fucking places to party in the world. Best NYE I've ever had, hands down. Here's a photo from that night.

Ordinarily, I shun planning ahead- and I was having second thoughts about leaving behind the friends I had made in other parts of India to spend a fortune going to Goa to party for NYE, just to say I was there. (In the 70s and 80s, Anjuna became legendary for massive parties on the beach.. giving Goa the international reputation for being one of the best places in the world to spend NYE) I was not disappointed. When planning this trip, I only wanted a few things: A killer birthday, the pyramids of Giza, the opportunity to learn how to surf, and Goa for NYE. Thank God I never deviated from my plan.

Anyway, there was tomfoolery to be had afterwards.... Swedes are a fun lot to travel with- but I'll leave that for another post. It's on to Kerala tomorrow-- Kochi, Trivandrum, ashrams and lagoons. I'll post accordingly. In the meantime, here's a photo of Emil and Henrik in Paradise beach. The food was bad, but the tans were good.

One thing that stinks about travelling in a place like India is that everyone speaks English, but almost nobody speaks it well. Therefore, they don't really humor my Hindi, and I have to repeat myself at least 4 or 5 times before anyone can fully understand me in English. The funny thing is, I don't have to repeat it slower. I just have to repeat it rapid fire a few times. This strange custom made the purchase of my Bangalore-Mangalore train quite an entertaining endeavor.


Anyway, lots to update. From my train, I got into Goa state fine, but managed to oversleep and pass my stop for Anjuna. I ended up in South Goa instead, so I just made my way to Benaulim, a beach recommended in Rough Guide, and for good reason. Just look.

I spent a couple days there hanging out and listening attentively while a bunch of local boys tried to educate me on the finer points of cricket.... but all I walked away with was the knowledge that it was a sport that did not involve mallets, and that I would probably never watch with any genuine interest... oh, and also this photo. The horizon isn't straight, but I thought it looked cool. Also, the cricketers couldn't wait to show off for the camera.

From there, I made my way to Anjuna in the north- known to be one of Goa's top party spots. For everyone who knows me at home, I think it would surprise you to know that until I reached then, I hadn't partied almost at all (and in fact, hadn't had an alcoholic drink) since my birthday in Tel Aviv. It was nearly 2 months without any booze, and it felt almost nice--- my body felt great and my pocketbook felt even better... the only part of me that felt horrible was my soul, which was slowly dying day by day. Goa fixed that.

On the way, I met a cute Aussie couple whose photo I'll post here. Poppy and Tom had been traveling for near 21 months when I met them. What makes this particular pair remarkable is that after all that time on the road, they didn't seem at all blasé to places or people. Each place was still interesting and unique, and each person was still worth getting to know, even if it was clear the relationship would only last a day or two. They were even nice to touts. I don't mean nice in the, "No, thank you" kind of way, which frequently becomes automatic... but nice in the, "It's lovely... but I don't think I'm interested... thanks for showing me though!" way. How odd! Anyway, in the Aussie tradition, they drank and partied super hard, and we had a ball until near the end of the first week of Dec, when they left for Mumbai, and I ventured south to Gokarna, Karnataka.

I'm not going to write a lot about Gokarna except to say that it was paradise. That's basically it.

From Gokarna, I was off for Hampi, where I spent 4 days or so doing yoga, relaxing, and taking photos like this one. My sweet German anarchist friend is quite the photographer. Look at how long my legs look! I hung out for a few days with an entertaining mix of Dutch, German, and Finnish folk before I started to get ants in my pants. I left for Mysore shortly thereafter.

I'm going to wait to write about Mysore, since I'm not sure if my recent intestinal drama can be blamed on my street fish there, or whether it's something else. All I'm going to say is that I'm glad I didn't know anyone in the city for a few days. I was in pretty sorry condition.

Anyway, I came back to Hampi shortly thereafter and think I will be here for a day or two more before going BACK to Anjuna for some holiday merry-making. Let me leave off this post (and perhaps the year of 2009) with this photo.


Merry Christmas everyone~!

I don't think anyone else will have any interest in reading this, but I wanted to record it for my own sake...

I was laying in bed this morning trying to go back to sleep, (which was impossible because it's so damn hot, but if I use the fan, it oscillates WAAAAAY too quickly, and I'm afraid that it's just going to fly right off and chop me to pieces...) and I was thinking that I'm too hung over to do anything properly today, but that I'd be bored if I just laid around. Then, I remembered this guy named Tim I met in Maderas, Nicaragua, who said something I found funny at the time, but have remembered ever since with increasing fondness. He said something like "Some people aren't meant to do a lot with their lives. I think I'm one of those people. I'm never bored~ I'm always happy wherever I am." Then I remembered how he would hang out at Maderas doing nothing but sitting with his boombox, listening to music and whistling and having a ball just sitting there... like, all day... no joke.

Tim spent a combined total of a year at that 2 restaurant, one hostel "town" in southern Nicaragua, and was so content just fishing and surfing and listening to his boombox every day~ and even though I didn't know him all that well~ I think the image of him on that bench listening to Jo Manji's "Beyond the Sunset" and whistling will stay with me forever.

I'm here at 8 months, and I'm reflecting on all the people I've met and realizing that the world is fucking awesome. People are funny and interesting and moving and unpredictable, and no matter who you're with- you can always have fun if you've got the right attitude. I spent the whole morning just dicking around and comparing white hairs with the Nepali guys at my hotel and having a ball doing it (even though the hairs are coming in with increasing frequency), and even though I get homesick sometimes~ I'm the happiest I've ever been in my life.

Anyway, that's all I wanted to record. When you have those moments where you look at your life and think about how god damn lucky you are to have the things that you do, it's important to remember it.

This blog is turning all crappy.

I haven't been organized enough to put down a decent entry in months, so I'll try now, even though my tummy is feeling all fluttery. I wish it would just turn into full on food-poisoning. This half and half nonsense isn't working out.


Anyway, I left Rishikesh about a week and a half ago- originally intending to go to Manali, but somehow ending up in Delhi instead. It actually didn't matter too much WHERE I was going as long as it was somewhere warm with a lower concentration of hippies. I also wanted to go somewhere where I could continue to study Hindi. My teacher in Rishikesh was really quite good, and cheap as well- but he started taking to kissing my face when I understood a concept quickly, which was set off my creepy old man siren. Is this an Indian custom I don't know about? Was curling up and running away culturally insensitive of me? I never know. Anyway, here's a picture of the Ganges river at sunset. Beautiful, ain't it?


So, like I said, I ended up in Delhi, staying in a hostel with the most idiotic management ever. I'm used to people asking me if I'm from Korea/Japan/China, etc etc etc... but when I say that I'm not, and produce an American passport, you should really stop asking me how to say things in Korean. I DON'T FUCKING KNOW. There were also always bits of potato in the bathroom sink. I found that to be gross. Anyway, I finished up my Christmas shopping in Delhi and managed to send them seconds before my train to Agra with a couple of cool girls I met in the station the day before.


Amy and Leslie were an interesting duo. I can't remember if I gave them this address for this blog, but I'll write about them anyway. Amy was a Northwestern graduate swimmer who had been living in China for 3 years and spoke (what sounded to me like) fluent Mandarin. Leslie was a Chinese native who loved to extoll the benefits of drinking hot water. It was a funny couple of days. Here we are at the Taj Mahal, acting silly. This photo was actually taken on the first try- props to the small English woman behind the camera.

They were a good pair to travel with for a couple of days, but the two of them continued on to Varanasi. Ordinarily, I think I would have gone with them- but I'd started to really suffer from the pollution. When you start to sneeze car exhaust, you know it's time to leave. So, I went with them to the train station, and bid them farewell... not really knowing where I was headed next. I originally tried to get on a train to Bengaluru, with zero success. I'm not sure how much I like this whole "buying your ticket in advance" bullsh*t. How am I supposed to fly by the seat of my pants if there's someone walking around checking that I have the appropriate papers? Fie on your papers! Anyway, I decided to just let the man with the completely indecipherable English at the ticket kiosk determine where I should go- sometimes it's just easier that way. Anyway, the bastard put me on the waitlist for the Goa Express. WL #399. Basically, that means that I'm paying Sleeper prices to sit in Unreserved (4 thousand people to a car with about 2 wooden benches for the 38 hour train ride from Delhi to Goa). I also had an 8 hour wait before my train was supposed to depart. While I waited, I met a funny little Punjab boy named Praveen. He taught me my numbers in Hindi. Ever been chastised by a 11 year old for not being able to say "ket-thaaliis" correctly on the first try? It's very humbling. Anyway, after he and his mother took off, I started talking to a French woman named Kristen. Every now and again, when I feel my natural American pomp flagging, when I'm tired and my stools are watery, and all I can think about is having just one goddamn cheeseburger, I meet someone who inspires me and reminds me that it's not for nothing. "Be Brave!" she said, "You WILL find a seat on that train, the conductor will see you, and you will give him 200 rupees, and you will sit and have a wonderful journey!" I didn't really believe her, but after an hour or so of soaking up her positivity, I satisfied myself with knowing that 38 hours on a wooden bench with my backpack on my lap wouldn't KILL me. Maybe give me back problems, maybe my legs would rot and fall off, but it certainly wouldn't kill me. No no.

About 15 minutes before the arrival of my train, I decided to wander about and somehow ended up in front of the notice board. Lo! Who got a seat by magical 400-person lottery? Sam M.F. Chu! Lookee!


It was a great journey~ the people in my compartment were clean and courteous. As we went further south, it got warmer, and I slept well. Some blind musicians came on the train, and I listened to them rock out Hindi pop tunes as the chai-wallah came around with hot tea to compliment my dinner of biryani and samosas. Furthermore, around 11pm, when everyone crawled into bed, the one bar I had left on my MP3 player held strong for hours as my train barreled into the night.