porcelain homecoming

Maybe you saw it on facebook: welcome back to Canada, can I offer you some quality time in the temple of the porcelain god?

As my direct flight from Istanbul to Toronto prepared to land I was staring at the little barf bag in the pouch in front of me. Am I actually going to have to use this? Please Maria, please just hold on...
There's a hold up getting off the plane, the police are checking our passports before we're allowed to leave the airplane walkway thing (what's that called?)... oh god, hurry up!!
I'm through and scanning for the toilet- ah, there it is. please just let me through, I'm serious, I'm not trying to beat you to the immigration queue!

It's been a long time since I've been that sick in public. It really sucks. I felt a lot better after offering my airplane food as pooja to the porcelain gods of Pearson International Airport. I brushed my teeth, wiped away the tears, and made my way to immigration.

Unlike almost all other airports I've been to, in Toronto, there is no separate line up for foreigners and Canadians. It seems we're all the same here... nice, but I was kind of looking forward to some VIP treatment. No such luck. Although, I guess I didn't get hassled at all, which you might be if you're foreign?

I collected my bags and went through to meet Corinne who was patiently sitting having a tea. I wish I hadn't felt so off, perhaps I could have taken a picture of her, she looked really beautiful sitting there, clearly off in her thoughts. It took her a moment to see me waving.

I'm afraid I was terrible company, certainly not the way I had envisioned my return to Canada to look like. Oh well, we caught the bus then metro, and although I thought I might have to use the plastic bag in my hand, I managed to stave off the nausea until I was in Corinne's apartment. Once there I did the obvious ceremony, I then went to sleep. Ah, glorious recumbent sleep. I slept for about 5 hours, then got up, it was about 9pm. Corinne made me some rice and we had a chat before I went back to sleep around 1am (I'm not sure how I passed all that time actually) and slept for another 6 hours. I think I'll get over this jet lag quickly.

So I'm back in Canada, and I'm eager to experience Canada with new eyes. What will my impressions be? My first impression is how non-segregated and multicultural this city is. I saw such mixed groups on the subway, it was really cool. In Canada, or correction: in Toronto, you would never look at someone and assume they're not from here based on their appearance. Your appearance says nothing about whether or not you were born here... I've missed that. The concept of foreigner is almost not applicable here, at least, not the way it is in other countries. I guess that's what happens in a city where immigration is so prevalent. A symptom of a wealthy country, one which I appreciate.

I am sure I will come across differences which are less cool though. In fact, I can think of one already. There was some uncertainty last night as to whether or not it would be ok for me to sleep in Corinne's roommate's room while she's away. In Canada, it is so important to get permission and be considerate, it's part of our privacy, a concept which is almost completely lost in places like Sri Lanka. So even though I love my privacy, it also means we're a little less laid back and hospitable in some ways. I mean, in Sri Lanka, India, and Turkey there would be no issue. In fact, the roommate would probably be offended if you didn't sleep in their bed while they're away!

Anyway, I'm going to go look into getting showered and dressed. Maybe I'll go speak some rapid English to someone!!!

Kapadokya

Ümit and I are in Göreme, Kapadokya. It's amazing. I know, I think I always say 'amazing' but still, it is. There is something about the spirit of this place, maybe it's just all the big rocks, but it sort of reminds me of Hampi, India.

Yesterday and today we spent ages just hiking around admiring all these amazing stone pillars. I'm still not entirely sure how they were formed- something to do with volcanoes and erosion- but wow! In some there are these caves where people used to live and there are churches in some where you can still see the old Christian paintings which are beautiful. It's magical.

And perhaps a little phallic...

Tonight we're going to catch an overnight bus to Olympus, a town on the Mediterranean sea. I'm looking forward to being on the coast again- not that it's been so long. I suppose I'm always happy to be near water though.

cats, my elusive god, and the rhythm of life

i am back in istanbul- typing with one hand while i cuddle with the sweetest cat, duman. she purrs and kisses my nose. and instead of going out, into this city that i love so much, i am thinking about cats and god.

i was reading through old emails and i found this email which my father sent to me while i was in india. it really had such a profound effect on me. i want to share the passage he sent me:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 12 of AE's Song and its Fountains:

The high noon of time is past. We are nearing to its
twilight, but are like children who run about and play and
do not hear the voices calling them homewards, though
indeed they are weary and their play has not in it the young
delight of their dawn. How may we start on this travel? The
scriptures, which are the high Oracles of the Oversoul,
have told us the way. But they speak a language so high
that few can understand its symbolism, for it is to most of
us like a speech maintained in the court of a great king --
an ancient aristocratic speech -- while the rabble without
think, chatter, and barter with each other in a vulgar
tongue from which courtesy, dignity, and beauty are
absent. I cannot speak that high language of the seers who
wrote the scriptures of the world. I am as a child puzzled
and enchanted by the wood into which he has strayed,
who has the feeling that there is One who is playing hide-
and-seek with it in the tangle, and the child peers through
the leaves for a presence which always eludes it. I have
never had the high visitor of those who have gone into the
deeps of being and who have returned rapture-blinded by
the glory, and cried out in a divine intoxication to the Light
of Lights:

Spread thy rays and gather them. The Light which is
thy fairest form -- I am what he is.

I am a far exile from that great glory, and can but peer
through a dusky transparency to a greater light than the
light of day. That greater light shines behind and through
the psyche. It is the light of spirit which transcends the
psyche and the psyche in its own world transcends the
terrestrial ego. The psyche has a dual nature, for in part
it is earth-bound, and in part it clings to the ancient spirit.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

searching god in my travels... but still god eludes me.

soon i will return to canada, albeit, not to my home. i'm not sure that i have a home right now. for now i will continue to travel.

and now duman has become playful as she bites my hand and bats, claws retracted, at my arms. i have met so many wonderful cats on my voyage. cats everywhere are unique and yet the same. what a stupid thing to say- i mean, so are people: unique and yet the same!

i have been transitioning into the western style. turkey is the perfect place for this- it is where east meets west. a more perfect bridge could not be found.

oddly, i find that i have stomach problems in turkey. i recall i had some problems with my stomach last time i was here and i do again. in sri lanka i could drink the local water without issue and in india i only fell ill once, but it seems- even though i only drink bottled water here- i am always suffering from diarrhea. maybe it's just all the coffee...
but what does that have to do with god, you ask?
god is everywhere.
in the sky, in the sea, and in my bowels...
please don't take offense. don't be so serious. god has a sense of humour too. don't let the joys of silliness escape you too.

when i was in sri lanka i went to this turtle hatchery. in the evening we released baby turtles into the sea. the man who works there, handun, sent me an email yesterday. it was a handwritten letter which he had scanned and sent to me. he explained the meaning of my name to me in sinhala (edited slightly to make a little more sense): There are small currents in the sea. Sometimes they are floating on the surface of the sea waters. They go very slowly as a beautıful girl walks. Due to the nice rhythm, we call them in sinhala 'mariya.' That is the meaning of your name.

i thought that was nice. i always thought that mariya was a big wave, but it seems i misunderstood the concept.

well, i shouldn't spend more of my day on the computer when there is a beautiful city to explore. perhaps i can live up to my name and be a rhythmic current on the surface of istanbul...

today is a day for contemplation, a long walk is in order.

cold but happy

I am cold but happy. It was time to leave Sri Lanka, in fact, it had been time to leave for some time.
I had a bit of a stressful change in Doha as I had 3 hours to buy my visa, collect my baggage, then catch the shuttle bus over to the departure terminal where I had to book in to my next flight to Istanbul. Next time I decide to book flights using separate airlines I'm going to leave more than 3 hours... it felt tight. But I made it, and that's all that matters.
I got into Istanbul Ataturk airport early on Thursday morning. I'm not exactly sure how I ended up being so incredibly slow, but by the time I had gotten my visa and cleared customs there was no one at the baggage carousel and my bag was just sitting on the floor beside the now still carousel. No problem though... except I still hadn't been able to check my email so I didn't know where I was staying. I mean, I knew I had a place (Ümit's friend) but I didn't know how to get there and I didn't know her number. Again, it seemed I was moving extraordinarily slow and it took me 2 hours to locate internet and get a new SIM card. Finally, I was waiting at the bus stop where I discovered the directions I was given were not possible. Luckily, this man Çağri at the bus stop knew where I wanted to go and said I could take the bus with him to as close as I could get and then take a taxi.
After chatting with him on the bus ride in he offered to drive me there once we got to his car. I gratefully accepted. First we went to his house for a coffee. It was so nice to be in an apartment that looked like it could have been a friend's at home. After coffee he drove me to Burcu's where I was staying.
Burcu had to work, so she quickly ate some lunch with me, showed me around her apartment and then left me. I watched some crap TV, played with her adorable cat, had a luscious nap and then showered.
That evening Burcu and her boyfriend, Balant, took me out to Taksim square for dinner. The food was delicious and there was no rice!
Friday I caught the bus to Ankara where I was met by Ümit. We had a quiet evening and then yesterday we went downtown. It was super. I bought super new boots. We had some super food. I'm being super facetious.
But I digress...
Last night I had my coffee grinds read. Most of it was silly, but some of it was almost uncanny. Like she could see that I had two siblings who are like twins, but separated and one of their name's start with an S and that that one plays music... weird, eh?
Today all I've been doing is reading, eating and sleeping... it's marvellous. The rain is light and the skies are gray. I cannot take my sweater off. I'm cold but happy.

short update while crossing my legs...

Today I was talked into a tuk-tuk instead of taking the public bus. It wasn't a bad deal or anything, but just sort of annoying... because it turned out like all tours- me being taken to touristic spots without meeting any locals. Oh well. The tuk-tuk driver was nice and he spoke to me in Sinhala which I appreciated. I had to laugh though, because he spoke really slow and LOUD to me as if I were deaf....

actually, I am a little bit deaf, so maybe it was a good thing ;)

I went on an elephant ride and got drenched by the elephant, it was kind of funny, but like almost everything here: expensive. Also, the elephant was really bony, I worry she doesn't get enough to eat. Either that, or she's very old, I really hope it's the latter. I didn't think to ask at the time though.

I would love to write more, but I have to go find a toilet. Pronto. You know how it goes.

slight change in plans

I am now leaving SL on 20 April and I am going to Turkey. Then, I will fly to Toronto 7 May. Only 2 weeks left in SL!! Wow, feels so soon.... I'm inexplicably nervous.

Am I just hungry or have I had enough?

I know it's been a long time since I've posted. It seems every time I actually get around to using the internet, which isn't very often, the connection is poor and I have to do things like painfully slow internet banking, or snooping on friends' facebook photos, or searching for flights.

I am in Colombo right now, so I actually have access to fast internet. It's such a joy! I spent a good hour looking for flights and finally booked one with Emirates to Toronto on 7 May. Now I'm starting to wonder if it wasn't a mistake though... I mean, I think I might be sick of Sri Lanka. This country is so small I kind of feel like I'm in a small city and I can't seem to get away. Normally I don't think this would be too much of an issue, however, the attention from males here is really insufferable. It's just too much. I'm beginning to feel stifled and irritated...

I wanted to go to Jaffna at least before I leave, but my interest is waning. Today as I jumped through the hoops and finally managed to hand in my application for security clearance to the little security booth outside the Ministry of Defense (you cannot get too close! Not even up to the lawn!) only to find out it will take at least 4 days to process I started to wonder if it's even worth it. Maybe I'm just in a negative space right now, but it feels like there are quite a few things here which are more trouble than they're worth. I am sure it would be different if I were not traveling alone. In fact, SL, like Egypt, is a great place to travel with friends, but it's just too hard on your own. This is not true if you're a man though. If you're a man, prassneyak na. No problem.

SL is also expensive, as I'm sure I've complained about before. It costs $35 just to go see Sigiriya which I'll admit is really cool, but seriously, $35?! I am paying $24 for my room right now and I'm sleeping on a straw mattress which is as hard as hell. The toilet tank is cracked so badly that I have to turn the water off and flush it with a bucket... I have stayed in places this dire (and more so!) in India, but I only paid about $2.50 for those places, so it was tolerable.

Today I was followed out of the mall by this guy, Asanka. When he asked for my phone number I told him I had a boyfriend, so he asked for my email instead. I capitulated to this as it seemed harmless, but it was a mistake. Then he took the bus with me, even though I wasn't going to where he was going, and he paid for my bus fare. If you insist (it's only 8 rupees which is like 8 cents). I was meeting my friend, Jerome for lunch, but this guy came with me and waited while I was waiting for Jerome to show up (damn, he's always late!!) Later it came out that Asanka's actually married... and this is actually no surprise to me at all. It is really really common for married men to hit on me. In fact, it seems like most men here, married or not, 15 or 80, think I will probably sleep with them just because I'm a foreigner, and not only will I sleep with them, they think I'll buy them land and build them a house and give them lots of money. I'm the fairy god slut! Awesome. So yeah, it's kind of wearing on me...

Anyway, I am kind of thinking maybe I should change my flight and go to Europe. I still want to travel, but I'd like to be ignored a little more...

God, I really am feeling grumpy right now. Maybe I should go eat dinner eh?

thava eka sayanak: bicycle rental

i rented a bicycle yesterday to visit the sites in polonnoruwa. i was so nervous (remember kos?). anyway, just wanted to tell you all that i rented a bike and i didn't crash it. yep, amazing but true. it was super fun.

also, i woke up this morning to a peeping tom. a man had pushed aside the curtains in my room and was watching me. creepy! i told the woman at the guesthouse and she apparently found out who it was and told him off (i kind of doubt that's true, but whatever). oh well, time to leave. not such a fan of being watched while i sleep. nope. the worst part is: i was sleeping naked. i've been really trying to pare down on all the junk i'm carrying, so i no longer have pajamas. i think i'll have to start using at least a t-shirt again though... you know, just in case.

Now I Can See

Don't you hate it when you wake up and you don't know where you are?

I woke up blind, naked and alone(thank god!) to someone rapping on the door saying "Marie, Marie... I need to get something. Marie?!"

"Uh... just a minute"

I hopped out of bed and quickly put in my new contacts so I could see. No longer blind. Then I threw last night's clothes back on. No longer naked. I unlocked and opened the door. No longer alone. There's a storage cupboard in the room I slept in, I don't know what he needed... some toilet paper? Meh, who cares?!

Last night I was locked out of my guesthouse and I [stupidly] didn't have the number, nor could I seem to rouse anyone. I had to go sleep at another guesthouse, luckily they took pity on me and gave me a staff room for almost free. Of course, I didn't have any of my sleep stuff with me, and as you probably know: I'm really really blind. I had to throw my contacts away, but thankfully I usually keep a spare pair in my purse for times like this.

Now tonight I've decided to change guesthouses to that one (except I'll get a proper room, not a storage/staff room). The old couple at this guesthouse, in their limited English, seem to be insisting I don't go. I know these places are rivals... god, there is so much gossip here. Sometimes SL just feels like one giant high school.

I had an impromptu (and awesome!) surf lesson yesterday from a real teacher. I say real, because it turns out the guy I took a lesson from before doesn't even really know how to surf, or teach for that matter. Fraud! I felt like a bit of a tool that I'd been hustled so well by him. The same guy, Indi, who I hired as a guide. It turns out he's quite a liar about everything. He's 35 not 29, which makes sense since he looks more like 35. And he has 3 kids, not 1. Strange when you meet people like that. Not that I really care, but still, I suspect he was telling me these things because he thought I would find them more attractive. A futile effort.

Honestly though, I was not surprised to find out he was a liar. I already felt like most of what he said to me was complete bullshit. I often would say to him "boru" and it seems I was right. I'm kind of glad I was right. I like being right. haha. It tells me my intuition is still working.

Ugh, I should pack so I can move. I'm so lazy. Harima kameli. And it's so hot. Goduk rasnay.

One more thing. I just went outside to see Khalu the cat. Behind him, passing him by about 2 feet was a giant monitor lizard. Yesterday there was a monkey in the yard with a dog. Today there's a lizard and a cat. See what I mean? I don't need to go on any safari!

Kiri Kella

They've been calling me kiri kella (milk girl), but now I'm a little more rosa (pink) from the ride this afternoon.

Khalu katta! he said to me.

searching my brain for sinhala words I knew khalu was black, but what is katta. he points to his mouth. aha... but why? we had just finished eating and i had washed my hands and mouth... oh, and then i dried my face and hands with the newspaper they'd given me. ink, khalu ink all over my face. what a mess. koheda mage oluwa?! (where's my mind?!)

learning some sinhala is really paying off. i made friends with the woman, sawandi, who owns the rice and curry shop. she speaks a little english so we roughly exchanged stories over a walk to the temple and down to the beach with her 5 year old daughter. she is 28 and she has two daughters, one is 11 the other is 5. she left her husband because of too much arrak. i can see that this is a big problem here. i've run into a few crazy arrak drinkers already. i wouldn't want my partner to be slugging the stuff.

they stood on the beach and watched as i took a swim. they can't swim, but there is a huge push from the government, ever since the tsunami in 2004, to get everyone to learn. or so i've heard. still, they didn't join me in the water.

kiri kella in the water. dumburu kello (brown girls) on the beach.

i went on a safari yesterday in the yala national park. it was exceptionally expensive for what it was, which was really just some crazy driving while you sit in the back of a pick up looking for animals. it's incredible we saw anything at all with all the noise we made. we saw some elephants, wild boars, deer, birds, crocodiles, but nothing i hadn't already seen just from being in a car or on a scooter riding around this country. seems to me you don't need to be on a safari to see these animals here. it was fun anyway, but i wouldn't do it again. the driver of our jeep drove like an absolute maniac. when we stopped i told him "oyata pissude" (you're crazy). he laughed loudly, more from surprise at my sinhala than anything else; i'm sure he's been called crazy many times. he taught me the sinhalese words for the animals. i've forgotten most of them, but i think a peacock is monera, a squirrel is lena and an elephant is aliya. if i remember correctly, that is.

everyone loves to be my teacher. mama kamathi iganne ganne sinhala. i like to learn sinhala.

this morning i was having breakfast with sawandi and indi (my guide who i've hired for super cheap. super cheap because he likes me, sometimes too much). they were speaking in sinhala, and i actually picked up some words here and there. it was exciting, but i also felt bad. i understood when sawandi told indi that she's afraid (mata bayay) and i knew she was trying to assess her situation. sri lanka is not a good place to be a single mother, mind you, i reckon it's a better place to be than some (like egypt or even india would be worse).

so this is less of a recount of what i've been up to and more of a sinhala lesson. i can't be bothered to go into what's gone on the last couple of days... i want to write about the family trip i took with upul, but i'm too lazy.

one more story. yesterday i wanted to be alone so i took a walk along the beach. i really wanted to swim, but when i got to a place where it was safe to enter there was a guy masturbating, a little set back from the water, but i didn't think stopping would be a good idea. he called out to me, but i pretended not to see him and moved on. then as i was heading back to my guest house i was harassed by a group of drunk men. "koheda anne?" (where are you going?)

i don't know how to say home in sinhala, so i just smiled and pointed vaguely "over there."

one tried to touch my chest under some pretext of trying to teach me the sinhala word for heart. "epaa" (don't)

i fled quickly in my flite flip flops waving at the drunk stumbling man "bye bye"

"karunaakara yanna" (please go).

the woman who runs the guesthouse saw me coming. saw me rushing so. i told her i'd met some naraka kollo (bad boys) on the beach.

tsk tsk kiri kella, you shouldn't walk alone on the beach, even in the day. all the boys go crazy for the sudu kella (white girl). parissamen. take care.

Cricket Fiasco

After my escape from Hikkaduwa I went to Galle. I arrived in the morning, a little frazzled from my encounter with the Austrian and hungry. I got off the bus and found a little bakery to have some breakfast and make some calls to guesthouses so that I could secure a room. I found a room for a reasonable price and then I caught a tuk-tuk to the place.

The guesthouse was simple, but quaint, with all the rooms overlooking a lush courtyard. I was exhausted, so I took a nap before deciding to take a look around on foot. I barely made it around the corner before a man on a scooter stopped beside me and started chatting to me. I immediately got a nice vibe from him. He had seen me in the guesthouse as he had the room beside mine. The man, Upul, owns a small piece of land on top of a hill just out of the city in amongst all the rice fields and he was going there to watch the sunset. He asked me if I would like to join, and I accepted. The idea of going somewhere peaceful and quiet was much welcomed. I was happy to find that he was also very chatty, so all I had to do was sit back and listen to him.

We had a nice chat, watched the sunset and then went back to the guesthouse where I had a much needed early night.

The following day, Ikzath from Colombo came to visit me in Galle. We took the bus to Unawatuna where we swam and ate and then he took me back to Galle before heading back to Colombo. It was nice to be visited; it made me feel like less of a stranger in this land.

When I got back to the guesthouse I saw Upul and his brother, Sandun. I told them about how I was planning on going to Hambantota to watch the world cup cricket match between Sri Lanka and Canada (Canada has a team?! Yes, yes we do... news to me too). Upul and Sandun were driving to Kataragama the next day to visit their family and it turns out that Hambantota is on the way, so they offered me a lift. It seemed like the universe was giving me a lift, so of course I accepted, and boy am I glad I did!

The next morning we all left in a van for Kataragama via Hambantota. On the way Sandun and Upul showed me a few sites and we stopped for a coconut. It was super fun. In Hambantota we found a guesthouse for me in a slightly dingy, but acceptable place. The cost was more than it was worth (1500 Rs with cobwebs above the door and no mosquito net), but I took it anyway. I left my passport with the woman running the place and Upul and Sandun drove me to the cricket match.

When we got to the stadium I suddenly got cold feet about going to this match alone. I barely wanted to get out of the car, but I knew I had to... Upul could see I was concerned and said that if I had any troubles to call him. He said, if he wasn't too far away, he could pick me up and I could go with him to his family's home in Kataragama. I was grateful, but doubted I would take him up on the offer, and off I went into the mass of men...

The walk to the entrance was quite far and it was scorching. On the way I asked some people about how to get tickets, but it seemed that either no one spoke English, I didn't need a ticket (?), or there was no way to buy one. I was certainly confounded by the time I made it to the first security check where they took away my cigarettes and lighter (with a smile... it was a new pack and it looked like they would enjoy those cigarettes of mine). I tried telling them I didn't have a ticket, but they spoke no English and just ushered me through. Amidst a huge crowd of people I noticed that someone was, in fact, checking tickets, but I managed to stay in the centre so that I could go undetected.

Once past the first check, there were some lineups to get into the standing room only (which is where I figured I should go), but they were checking tickets there, so I just slipped under the bar behind the person checking tickets. I mean really, are they going to stop the only foreigner? Maybe, but they didn't. And that was it, I was in... except I don't know anything about cricket, and I was on a patch of lawn surrounded by SL dudes, many of whom were already drunk. It was intense, not the game, but the people, and I think I lasted about 20 minutes before I realized that there was no way I could stay.

I called Upul and he said he could meet me at the guesthouse. Bless him!

Well, it took me half an hour just to find the exit. I staggered around sweaty and unhappy looking for any way out, until I found one nice police guy (the only one it seems) who walked me all the way out to the bus stop. All the other cops I asked for help from were real jerks, so it seems SL is similar to Canada in some ways. Then I caught some weird free bus which didn't take me to where I wanted to go... anyway, long story short, Upul ended up having to come and save me from some small village bus stall where I was stranded. Seriously, what would I have done without him?!

He drove me back to the guesthouse so I could pick up my bad and retrieve my passport. I asked the woman if I could just pick up my bag, and that I'm sorry I'm not staying blah blah blah... but she said I had to pay the whole fare for the night. I thought that was a little ridiculous, so I asked if I could have at least some discount. She called her manager while I went up to the room to get my bag. When I came back down she said the manager said I could have 500 Rs back, and she handed me my passport with 500Rs in it. The thing is, I had never paid... so here I was getting 500Rs from her, instead of paying 1000Rs. I really didn't know what to do, so I took the money and left. I actually felt really bad about it... but what would you do?! And you have to think fast.

Okay, enough for now... I'm drinking a beer while I'm writing this and I think I may be too tipsy to make much sense soon.

Part II: Hikkaduwa

I'm already bored of being so far behind in my story telling... Hikkaduwa- picture one giant resort. Giggling drunk groups of beach bimbos- none of whom are from Sri Lanka, small groups, pairs or single Bob Marley inspired SL beach boys who routinely make their rounds in search of women (like me) to prey on. I felt like I stepped into a beach frat party, and everyone was trying to get me drunk.

But that was my impression later.

First, it seemed nice.

After escaping advances from Kumare (so sweet, but my goodness, does it never end? No.) I hopped a bus to Hikkaduwa with high hopes since I had the name of a guesthouse which came highly recommended from a guy I met in India. I got to Harmony guesthouse and the room was nice, as was the bathroom (no sickly sweet smell like at Venus), and the price not too shabby either. The owner, a small, skinny Austrian woman with dark circles under her eyes told me that they only rent the rooms out for a minimum stay of 3 nights. It looked nice, so I agreed.

I stepped out onto the beachfront restaurant and had a beer and a club sandwich... it was nice, really nice, beautiful beach, beautiful water... but then the voices started drifting in and I started to realize what a party town I was in. Call me dour, but it was just not the kind of scene I was looking for.

I had a few drinks of arrak, an alcohol made from coconuts which tastes like a mixture of rum and whiskey, followed by a drunken midnight swim with an SL dude I'd met (I can't actually be alone here, it's impossible). Then I went to bed... but I couldn't sleep, the party on the beach was much too raucous. Again, I don't mean to be a wet blanket, but it went on all night. Earlier I had given one of the staff at the hotel my phone number (under some sort of pretext of some live music the next night or something of that sort) and he called me at 6:30 in the morning... looking for a booty call? I think so.

Anyway, I woke up after a terrible sleep and packed my bags. I did not want to stay in this place. I didn't think it would be a big deal, but the Austrian woman actually freaked when I told her I was leaving and she demanded I pay for all 3 nights. I thought that she was being completely unreasonable and so I told her that I would only pay for one night, I had agreed to stay for 3 nights before I realized how noisy the room would be, and before I started getting advances from her staff. It was really crazy: she was shrilly screaming at me in the middle of her restaurant. I was super calm, as I was mostly surprised by her irrational outburst over, what seemed to me, a quite trivial matter. She wouldn't even listen to me though, since every time I tried to speak she either stormed off or started shrieking again. It was almost like another Lidia in Puttaparthi, except about 10x the volume. Of course I got super stubborn about the whole thing and refused to pay for more than 1 night, I even called this lawyer friend I'd made in Colombo, Jerome, for some support.

In the end, (cracked out?!) Austrian woman had one of the staff come talk to me, and I payed for the night, had a coffee, and left. I had wanted to stay for breakfast, but the verbal abuse had left my stomach a little heavy and I was eager to move on, which I did... on to Galle.

Indian memories

I am in the throes of writing my next blog covering Sri Lanka, but for now here is a music video from India. This song was super popular while I was there (and I`m sure it still is) and I had it stuck in my head a lot of the time...

Sri Lanka Saga Part I

This is going to be a long one, that is, if I wish to actually tell you all that has happened... which is a lot. Let me begin from when I left Colombo... or, I could tell you about Colombo, but perhaps it is best summarized by saying I did a few touristic things, like visiting galleries, and I also did some more responsible things, like getting some documents notarized (but never sent! A chore for today!) and extending my tourist visa to 3 months (a four hour ordeal made much more enjoyable by Ikzath`s company. Thank you!).

Okay, let the story unfold and I`ll try not to leave out too many details. On Tuesday, Feb 15 (Happy Birthday Mum) I awoke fairly early to the now familiar sounds of Murtaza`s mother in the kitchen. I said goodbye to Fathema and Murtaza as they left for work, then to Murtaza`s mother and aunt as they departed for mosque. I packed my things, made myself some milky chai, and then Murtaza`s father graciously helped me catch an AC bus to Induruwa, for which I was surely overcharged by the smiling conductor (alas, not so different from India in this regard, the only difference is that they`re so damn nice while they`re ripping you off, something I have a hard time dealing with. I mean, how do you contest a price when they`re smiling at you like you`re their best friend?! At least in India they were never so nice about it.). No need to get too upset though, he probably ripped me off by the equivalent of about fifty cents, maybe a whole dollar.

*And let me digress for a moment, and I assure you, this post will be full of digressions so bear with me, but after seeing and experiencing how people live over the past week, I feel a bit more relaxed about getting ripped off from time to time. That's not to say I don't still try not to let it happen, nor did I ever really lose any sleep about it before, but just that I know that no one is ripping you off by fifty cents so that they can polish their ferrari, you know? At the very worst, it's going towards their next bottle of Arrak, but more likely, they'll buy their kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, cousins, siblings, or parents some chocolate, at least I like to hope it's for something fun and frivolous. *

The AC "bus" was actually just a van, and it was cramped and packed full of people. Everyone shuffled me to what I presume is considered the primo spot, right under the AC, right behind the driver. It was quite terrible for me though, as my hair was still wet from my shower, so the cold air blasting on my wet head, along with the cool drips from the AC on my legs, made for a less than comfortable journey. Of course, I could not possibly go anywhere on my own without meeting someone, so I quickly made friends with the man beside me, Sanji. I was hoping that this friendship would assist in getting me off at the right place, and it almost worked; I was let off at a fancy resort about 2km farther than I wanted to be. Close, right? No worries though, I started walking and I called the owner of the place I had booked, Pinsiri, and he came and picked me up.

The guest house was lovely and I felt immediately at ease with the family feel of the place. After sleeping in a living room for the past 4 nights I was relieved to have a bit of privacy and a beautiful porch from which to gaze at the aquamarine waves crashing on the pristine white sand beach. I had a delicious lunch of leeks, green beans, fish, and beets followed by curd and treacle for desert. Unfortunately, they had no room for me for the following night, and it is hard to find affordable accommodation. Pinsiri said he would help find me another place to stay, but just to be sure, I called Senure's friend, Dan, who lives in a beautiful house amidst the tourist attraction, Brief Gardens. Dan was super helpful, but in the end it was Pinsiri who found me another guest house down the road at a place called Venus Tourist Lodge.

I spent the rest of the day swimming in the Indian Ocean, walking along the shores, and then in the evening I played some card games with some female German tourists. It was interesting that everyone staying at the guest house, save for one couple, were all female.

The next morning Pinsiri dropped me off at my new guesthouse then went back to Long Beach (his guesthouse) to pick up 2 of the German women while I got settled in. I was immediately welcomed by Kumare, who showed me my room and got me some water and such. Pinsiri picked me up anon, and dropped me off at the Turtle Hatchery where I was shown the cycle of turtle protection in Sri Lanka. Handun, my guide, walked me through the farm and gave me a talk on all the turtles, followed by his personal experience with the 2004 tsunami where he lost his girlfriend and home. He invited me to come back later to release some of the young turtles into the ocean. I agreed to come and he said he would personally pick me up at 7 (I probably should have been a little more alert given his assertion that he would personally pick me up, but sometimes I am still so naive).

After my visit to the hatchery, I decided to go visit Dan at Brief Gardens. I had texted Dan to get the directions, which were a little confusing, but what the hell, I had all day to get there... and that was a good thing.

First I caught a bus to one town, Amabalangoda, and again I got ripped off by the conductor (chocolates for grandma!) who charged me fifty rupees (on the way back it was only 12, so now I know). Then I had to change buses to another local bus (who did not, incidentally, rip me off). This shouldn't have been too complicated, but it was a bit confusing, and I decided then that I would learn Sinhalese. Anyway, half an hour later I was on my way inland, sitting beside a toothless man who kept showing me pictures of Bollywood actresses on his phone. Even if we couldn't communicate with language, it was pretty clear he was being sleazy, regardless, thanks to him I got off only about half a kilometer past my stop, from where I began my trek to Brief Gardens. A tuk-tuk pulled up alongside me and asked where I was going. He offered to take me for 200 rupees, but I talked him down to 100 rupees and off we went. It turns out that even the locals pay 150 rupees for this same trip, so I guess I got the good deal this time! *What's so funny to me about this is that it's not as though I am unwilling to pay the fair price, but because I really don't know what it should be, I often end up getting totally ripped off, or I get it for less than the locals would pay! So strange really.*

Brief Gardens were beautiful, and Dan, even though he had a terrible cold, sat down and had tea and biscuits with me. After, I explored the gardens on my own, which would have been a lot nicer with some company; I kept thinking how fun it would have been when I was a kid. The place was like what I imagined the Secret Garden to look like.

Dan got his driver to give me a lift back to the bus stall. The bus stand wasn't really a bust stand, but rather just a fork in the road. I wasn't exactly clear which way I wanted the bus to go, so I asked the only English speaker around, a young man named Mihiran, who said he would help me. Mihiran was waiting for a ride, and when his ride got there before any sign of a bus, he offered me a lift to Ambalangoda. I accepted, but then I immediately felt a little bit nervous that I had. Sometimes I wonder at how trusting I can be! Luckily, either my intuition is working, or there is an angel on my shoulder, because I got the lift and sure enough, they kindly dropped me off at the bus stand in Ambalangoda, where I easily (this time!) got a bus back to Induruwa.

Back at Venus I had some fruit salad with ice cream and then waited for my lift from Handun, who arrived right on time (actually, as I found out later, he was waiting outside for half an hour). We picked up some beer and then went to collect the baby turtles ready for release. It was great fun, we had a race between all the babies (5 of them) into the ocean. Handun's won. Then we had a campfire and drank some beer and he drove me back (where I skillfully avoided a goodnight kiss). Back at Venus, where I forgot to mention that my room smelled strangely sickly sweet (is that raid?), I sat outside and had a late night sandwich. Kumare had clearly also taken a shining to me, so I decided that I should leave the next morning. Next stop: Hikkaduwa. (And that only brings me to the 17th)

Okay, I want to go surfing now, so I'm going to leave it there for the moment. I'll have to continue this saga later. As I said before, I have a lot to tell.

24 and double

as i said before, people here are insanely nice, and it's true. i'm going to have to start lying though. i think, from now on, i am 24 and engaged. let's see if this helps. the number of propositions i've had is really too much. how are there so many single SL guys?

someone asked me yesterday: "are you single or double?"

i should have said double.

Sri Lankan Smiles

Someone told me awhile ago that Sri Lanka was rated the happiest place on earth. I don't know how one could measure such a thing, but I believe that it's probably true. The people here have the biggest smiles, and it seems they're always waiting to share their grins with you. It's incredible. I always knew I wanted to come here and I couldn't quite name why, but now that I'm here, I see that whatever was calling was so right. I am meant to be here now.

I have already made so many friends, and I have only been here for 48hours. I'm having a hard time making time for everyone... In fact, I think I may have more friends here than I do in Van. Weird.

I am staying with another couchsurfing family. They're super sweet. I was staying at the YWCA, but it was truly expensive and not worth the price. That, and I also felt a little infantalized by the staff.

Well, I want to go to the Art Gallery so I think I'll head. It's good to do something in the afternoon out of the sun because it's pretty hot here . Apparently they had the coldest day since 66 years ago just last week, when it went down to a chilly 18C. Seriously, even at night it doesn't usually go below about 25C they say. Yesterday it was about 35C, but it didn't feel too bad. I guess I did spend the hottest hours in the National Museum, which, I should add was a wonderful museum.

There is a stark difference between India and Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is so clean and civilized compared to India, I am surprised by how different it really is. Whoever said that Sri Lanka is like India with a broom, is sort of right, but it's even more than that. Visually that statement is apt, but then even the people are different. I'll have to develop this more later, as I said before, I'm gonna head.

Ashram Escape

I just finished writing Calcutta Wedding, so I'm a bit tired, but I just wanted to say that tomorrow I'm flying to Sri Lanka. I can't believe I'm leaving India now... it's so weird. I'm going to miss this country!

I just spent the last 5 days in an ashram. It was a little milatiristic. I made friends with this awesome girl, Kori.

They have this rule that you can't leave the ashram until 10:30am (you have to be back by 2pm!) and you need an outpass to leave. Kori and I wanted to go to this elephant sanctuary where they bathe the elephants from 9-11 am. We wanted to see and help(!) with the bathing, so we asked at reception if we could skip the breakfast at 10 and leave early. She said no, relax, go eat breakfast and go after. Kori and I were not impressed with her answer. Yesterday we left yoga class a little early, quickly changed and then ran past the guard at 10 and went anyway. It was pretty funny. Alas, we missed the bathing of the elephants anyway. It was okay though, because we got to ride them and feed them bananas. We decided to go back today. We were both leaving today anyway, so we checked out at 8 and took a rickshaw to the sanctuary. We were the only tourists there and so this morning Kori and I helped bathe an elephant. It was amazing! Before the bathing was over, a group of tourists arrived, which Kori and I took as our cue to leave. Then we stopped and saw the crocodiles at another reserve... we weren't allowed to bathe them. Huh.

Ugh, I should go though. I need to get some rest before my big day tomorrow, also I'm being eaten alive in this cyber cafe. So damn itchy!!!

Sri Lanka here I come!

Trivandrum

I got into Trivandrum yesterday, after a 20 hour journey, on what was supposed to be only 17. I had intended to continue on to the Sivananda ashram, which is about an hour away, but I was so hot and tired when I got in I opted to get a room with a shower and tv. It was lovely.

Today, as I was checking out, I met this older American man who is going to check out the palace here. He is so much like Eric Johnson's dad, it's uncanny! So if you know Eric's dad, you know who I'm dealing with. It will be an interesting day trip for sure. After that I will grab my bag and relax at the ashram. I am in need of some wholesome goodness, no more of this chain smoking, soda drinking, HBO crap tv stuff!

Love to all. Ciao for now.

Calcutta Wedding

When Rohit initially invited me to join him at his friend Mansi's wedding, I had no idea how rich it would be. I started to get an idea of how posh it would be when I saw the wedding invitation; a placard, which turns out was only an invitation to one of the events, because I later saw the real invite and it's actually more like a book. Then I started to get some idea, especially since Rohit told me that 2000 people had been invited. When I found out that the wedding was paying for Rohit and my accommodation it seemed like too much, but I still don't think I was quite prepared for the opulence I was in for.

On January 25th I said goodbye to my 2 great friends Nancy and Ashe at the Railway station in Bangalore and then headed down to MG road to meet Rohit for a drink. It was good to see him again, of course, I had a minor hassle with the rickshaw driver, but nothing out of the ordinary. Then Rohit and I crashed at his mum's place.

Rohit's plane left earlier than mine, and I saw him vaguely, through my near blind gaze, fuzzily leaving the apartment in the wee hours of the morning. My flight didn't go until 3:30, but you know traffic in Bangalore... or you probably don't, but it's absolutely crazy and going 10km can easily take 1+ hours. Sujata, Rohit's mother, bless her, helped me get to the airport with much ado. Her and Rohit's dad drove me around for an hour trying to catch the airport bus, but I ended up taking a taxi... heh, it was a total gong show, but I arrived in good time. Luckily, I have a huge paranoia about being late for planes so I always lie to everyone about what time it leaves and tell them at least a half hour earlier than the real time. This means I am always at least an hour early for every flight (*fingers crossed* I actually told the rickshaw driver today who I have arranged to pick me up and take me to the airport tomorrow morning the real time, so perhaps "always" is actually sometimes... it'll be okay though. I told him if he's late I'm finding someone else, I also told him if I find out 150Rs is too much I'm taking another rickshaw, he assured me it's a good price. I'll find out soon... but I digress, back to the wedding!)

I caught my flight and arrived without hassle into Calcutta. I was told that someone would be waiting for me with a sign, so I scanned all the flimsy hand written signs held up by various taxi drivers and hotel staff until I saw a huge, purple laminated sign with my name printed (and spelled correctly!) on it held by a man in a black suit with another man in a black suit. Yes, stinky, sweaty me with my backpack, was met by two men in nice suits... how bizarre. They then took me to my car where Rohit and I had our own personal driver and car whenever we wanted while we were in Calcutta. Did I mention this wedding was rich?! Jesus, I had no idea, but I was getting the picture!!

I got to the 5 star Fortune hotel and I felt like such an imposter. I'm a stinky backpacker, not exactly high class, but the staff was well trained in their manners and treated me well. In the room there was the wedding schedule professionally printed into a little booklet and a gorgeous box of chocolates waiting on the window seat, which overlooked the pool. The bathroom made me ecstatic. 24hour hot water, a bath tub and separate shower. Did I mention the bath tub? I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but I had been craving a bath for so long, I figured I wouldn't get a bath until I went home. I was also super stoked on actually washing my hands and face in hot water every night. I think this was probably the most exciting aspect of the whole experience. I mean a car, chocolates, bed, pool even, yeah... cool, but a bath with enough hot water to fill it??? Oh my god! Heaven.

Obviously, I knew there would be many events (I had seen the invite!) so I had borrowed some outfits from Rohit's sister Pixie. I'm a bit heavier than her, so it was hard to find many which fit, but I managed to find 2 salwar/kurta sets and then I borrowed a sari from Sujata. I needed 3 more outfits after that, but I was going to figure that out in Calcutta.

So the first night I wore the uglier salwar/kurta set, the one I felt a little frumpy in. I know that first impressions are important, but when you know you're probably going to be underdressed the whole time, it's better to start with that warning and then improve... right?
So here I am on the first night, posing idiotically in the hotel room.
The first evening was in a fancy garden at a hotel, or home... wait, it was a home I think. Some kind of mansion of the bride's family. The walkway leading to the garden was lined with a wall of candles and a ceiling/covering of flowers overhead. Just the walkway was astounding. The garden was decorated with beautiful lanterns of coloured glass and there was a live performance with suufi dancers. In another area separated by trees and gardens was the open bar and appetizer section and then behind that was the desert buffet, the Lebanese buffet, the South Indian buffet, the North Indian buffet, and the Thai buffet. The amount and variety of food was outrageous.

The second event was the Ladies Mehndi and Lunch. I wore a piece I picked up in Kochi, which I thought was not too fancy, but probably fancy enough. I was wrong. I was much more casual than everyone else, who were mostly all wearing beautiful saris. Oops.
At the Mehndi event, there was a smaller buffet, only Indian food, an open bar, and I got henna done on my hands. I really enjoyed the food and the mojitos that day.
After the henna and lunch, I decided to go shopping for that evening's Youngster's Evening at the Hyatt Regency Ball Room. I picked out a red dress with a pair of high heels pictured below.
Finally, I was dressed appropriately! I also matched Yasmine quite nicely, and we helped make Rodrigo look pretty snazzy too! It was a fun party with lots of booze and dim sum (all vegetarian) and dancing. At midnight they opened the buffets, the same as the first night, except instead of the Lebanese there was a Chinese stand (the Thai, South and North Indian buffets were also present though). Rohit and I stumbled back to our room well after 4am. Our poor driver Munna!



January 28th was the Musical Evening, Cocktails and Dinner at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club. Thankfully, I borrowed an outfit from Matilde, a friend of Mansi's who was staying a couple of doors down from me at the same hotel. Coincidentally, Yasmine and I matched again! The golf club event was outside and it was cold. I was also a little hungover and tired from the night before, so I had a couple of glasses of pretty decent red wine (another item I thought for sure I wouldn't get in India) and some of the (real!) cheese plate. I ate a falafal while I watched the live music and dancing acts. We were all ready to retire early, and we did, but not before taking a sampling at the lush desert buffet... so much food!! I didn't even visit the other numerous buffets, but I heard they had Italian food that night, as one of the foreign culinary features.

January 29 was the Mudda, Sageet, Lunch at the Grand Hotel Ballroom. This is quite an important affair, where all the friends and family of the bride and groom perform for them. Mansi also does a dance for the groom. It was a really entertaining afternoon, and I wore my second salwar/kurta set from Pixie. It was definitely appropriate. The food featured at this event was sushi, another item I never dreamed I'd eat in India. Mind you, everything was vegetarian as it was a Hindu wedding, but still!

The findal day, January 30th, was the actual wedding. Of course, I saved the sari for this day.The day started at 3:30 pm with the Dhukav, where there were some blessings and Mansi and Ayush exchanged flower garlands and then we all threw jasmine flowers and rice at/over them. Then we had Hi-Tea at 4 pm, which was extravagant, naturally. If you didn't eat enough from the many buffets at Hi-Tea, never fear, there were always trays of appetizers circulating around (as there was at every event). The wedding itself was dry though, so no hope for a drink. I went into the hotel bar thinking I might have one, but the 300Rs I'd stuffed in my purse wouldn't even buy me a beer there. Oh well, my liver probably appreciated the rest. At 7:30 they had the actual ceremony with priest and fire offerings and such, called Phera. It was really nice to watch, but it was interesting to see that not many people actually watched this part of the ceremony. It seemed like everyone was there for the parties and food, but most didn't watch the religious ceremonial part. After it was over we all threw rose petals and rice and then went to eat dinner. Not like we needed any more food, but how could one resist?! The final buffet had Thai, Greek, Japanese, South Indian and North Indian. I ate a lot since I reasoned it was my last hurrah before going back to my independent traveler diet. I was essentially rolled back to the hotel, I believe.

So that was the wedding. It was super rich and lavish. I suspect I will never go to anything so elite and high class again in my life, but it was quite the experience and I enjoyed myself immensely as I became a little more immense myself!! Eek.

Hopefully, this is also my most superficial post as it seems it has all been about food and clothes.

Ooty ooty ooty

Nancy and I have been adventuring about and it's been a grand old time. She's totally hilarious and fun. I'm sad that we're going to have to part pretty soon, since I have to fly to Calcutta. We've also added another traveler, so now we're a regular trio. It's amazing how quickly you become close to people when you're traveling. The completion to our trio is Ash, who is originally from Kenya but lives in Bath.

Today the 3 of us went on a day trek with a group of people. It was super rare but everyone on the trek was really interesting and cool, and there were 12 of us. It's seriously so unusual to meet so many interesting people. My cheeks are sore from all the laughs and my face is pink from too much sun, but I'm very happy. Unfortunately, as seems to happen with good times, I don't really have any stories to tell. It was all beautiful, it was all funny, I had lots of conversations about explosive diarrhea, (Ash loves to talk about crap, and so do I, much to Nancy's chagrin).

Yesterday we met Ash on the toy train going up to Ooty. After getting a room for the 3 of us we went to the Botanical gardens where we were inundated by school kids taking pictures. Intense. Ash had a good laugh, his family is from India (Gujarat!) originally, so he's not used to all the attention that 2 white girls get.

Lots of the kids and adults here wear these ear muffs (just like the one Lynn bought mum for xmas one year) so we all bought ear muffs and sported our new looks around town. Now we really stand out from other tourists, and other tourists are totally jealous and we've convinced a fair number to join the club. You'd think we were making a commission, but really, we just look super cool; that's all.

In the evening we went over to some other guys' room to have some drinks and exchange travel horror stories. I realize that I really don't have any horror stories, and I can't decide if it's because I'm forgetful (did I just block all the bad stuff out?), laid back (like yeah, maybe I just don't care) or lucky (probably the truth). I think it must be a bit of a combination.

After having finishing all our booze, Ash, Nancy and I had to wake up the guard to let us out of those guys' hotel and then stagger back to our hotel, where we had to wake up our guard. None of them were impressed. Ash fell into the sewage drain on the side of the road, which was funny, well, for me and Nancy it was anyway. God, I took a look at it this morning and it really is very nasty, way worse than I had thought. Haha.

This is just some random thoughts really, since I'm waiting for Ash to finish emailing his wife. We left Nancy to get some sleep a couple of hours ago. We're all going to head to Bangalore tomorrow. Of course, on Thursday I'm heading to Calcutta for the big wedding. Rohit told me a couple of days ago that he had to go see his girlfriend in Delhi first, but it seems there's been another change of plans, so maybe he's not... I don't know, I couldn't really hear him on the phone today. Okay, Ash is done. Gotta go!

sleeping through to serendipity

Last time I wrote I was still in Mysore and about to head to Bangalore with Rohit.

Rohit and I arrived at his mother's place a little late, so we had some yummy fish dinner and went to bed not too long after. The next day (Saturday), since I had missed the bull temple the last time I was in Bangalore, I asked Rohit if he wanted to do that, but he wasn't so keen so instead we went to a bookstore in MG road area. After we met up with a couple of his friends, Akshyat and Sandesh and went for lunch. Then we started a drinking tour of Bangalore, some of which is a little hazy...

*time passes*

Sunday I had a killer hangover (no thanks to Akshyat who, when asked for a glass of water, interprets this as a whiskey and water). I was supposed to catch an overnight bus to Kochi, but then the bus company called to tell me that sleeper I'd booked wasn't available and I would just be on a semi-sleeper deluxe. I've had some experiences on buses now, and I didn't really want to find out how "deluxe" this new bus would be, so with a bit of confusion and help from Rohit I managed to get it changed to the next day when I could for sure have a sleeper. I gave Reza a call and he invited me to go to a jazz concert with him, to which I happily (although a bit tiredly since the hangover was proving difficult to shake) agreed. Reza came and picked me up from Rohit's and off we went.

The concert was good, although ear shatteringly loud. I felt like I could be in Canada, only everyone was brown. Reza and I slept at Pouria's and the next day Reza borrowed a scooter and took me all over town. We went for some amazing biriyani and then he took me all the way to the bull temple. The bull temple was really far out and a total bust. It's one of the lamest sights I've seen yet, but the scooter ride adventure made it worthwhile, not to mention I had been saying I wanted to go for weeks. The scooter ride was actually a bit terrifying at points, like when you're driving in the space between two buses. I feared for my life a bit, but lo and behold, here I am still!

Anyway, poor Reza, I made him drive me everywhere on Sunday, but he was super nice about it. He took me to the bus station to catch my sleeper and it was delayed, so we had some dinner and then I took off. About an hour into the ride I realized that I needed to pee, but I figured that there would be a rest stop at some point so I tried to ignore it and go to sleep. Every once in awhile I would wake up, really really needing to pee, but when I saw we were moving I would just go back to sleep. I had asked the bus dude (not the driver, but his sidekick guy) to let me know when we got to Kochi, it was clear his English was barely existent, but I thought he understood. After all, my destination was written on my ticket! Originally, we were supposed to be in Kochi at 7 or 7:30 am, I couldn't quite remember, but something like that. So when I awoke and it was 7:30am I wasn't too alarmed that I wasn't in Kochi yet. I got out of my bunk and went and sat in one of the chairs- oh my god I had to pee so bad!! But I kept telling myself I'd be in Kochi any minute now.

At 8:30am I started to wonder, so I asked another passenger and he said we would be at our final destination: Kottayam, about 85 minutes past Kochi, in about 10 minutes. I was surprised, but I thought, well hell, change of plans I guess. First thing's first: find toilet.

Getting off the bus in Kottayam I quickly looked around and found a hotel restaurant where I hustled to to use the loo. *relief* Then I decided to take a coffee in the family room and read my Lonely Planet to see what there was to do in this place.

I asked the server for a coffee and he said "mutton? chicken? fish?"
hm... so I said "no, coffee"
"mutton? chicken? fish?"
Clearly I was required to take breakfast, and not being hungry I didn't want to waste any animal life so I just said "veg" to which he waggled his head appreciatively and wandered off. The coffee was disgusting, but my first veg Kerala breakfast was very tasty, so it turned out to be quite nice that he had insisted on the grub, even if I couldn't finish it.

In the tour book it appeared that there's not too much to do in Kottayam, but that there is a 2 1/2 hour ferry ride across the lake and in the backwaters to Alleppey. I decided to do that and took a rickshaw down to the boat jetty. I wanted to book a place for when I got there, but the landline of the place I was trying was all funky, so I called Mum and Dad so they could find the mobile number for me (funny to be calling them to find a number for me in the middle of nowhere!). I got through and arranged for my pickup on the other side. Then I had some time to kill so I went for a chai and then I went to use the pay and use toilet at the jetty.

On the outside of the building it is painted in big letters "NO SMOKING" and then the side for ladies and gents is very clearly indicated. I stepped into the "ladies" room, but there were about 6 old dudes sitting around smoking cigarettes. Right. As soon as they saw me 5 of them scuffled out leaving just one old dude, so I asked him how much to use the toilet and he said 5Rs and I paid. The toilet was very dirty, which is not so unusual, full of shit with no running water, but still not the norm. When I opened the bathroom stall door the old man approached me with a bottle of water to wash my hands so I started heading towards the sink, but he cut me off and started edging me into the stall again. It was quite odd, but I didn't really know what he was doing at first. He was touching my hands and then I saw that creepy little glint in his eye and his hands starting to move up to my chest and in disgust I just pushed this little old man (I almost knocked him over!) and grabbed my bag and left. Wow.

The ferry was nice, the views were beautiful, but I had some young Indian men chatting with me and I stupidly gave one of them my number. Initially, I suppose I was thinking it might be nice to grab dinner with them in Alleppey since I didn't know what I was going to do there alone. Anyway, nothing came of it, only that I eventually blocked that guy from my phone because he called me about 10 times a day for the next 3 days afterwards!

Ok, I'm going to cut this story off... I want to get out of here, but I'll summarize super quick: went on a overnight houseboat cruise with 4 other people, one of whom was this cool woman from Australia, Nancy. Nancy and I are now traveling together. We went to Kochi on Thursday and did a bunch of sightseeing yesterday. Now we're on our way to Ooty together, but right now we're in Coimbature.

Anyway, I'm glad that I slept through my stop in Kochi, because otherwise I wouldn't have met Nancy, and I might not have gone on a houseboat given my experience in Kashmir, so it seems I slept my way through to serendipity...

Back to Bangalore

i've been in mysore for a week now and most of my time has been spent writing my applications, eating, smoking (i know i'm bad), drinking, and doing very little sightseeing. it's been fun though. it's kind of like being home, except without a job.

last night i took rohit out for dinner as a 'thank you for having me' gesture. i picked a place which is supposed to be a little fancy, and it was. it was at a nice hotel and it was relatively expensive, in a small indian kind of way, but not in a delhi, bangalore or bombay indian kind of way; meaning the dishes were each about 100-400Rs (2-10$CAD) as opposed to 20-200Rs (0.5-5$CAD) which we pay elsewhere, so still not much. in delhi or bombay it is easy to spend $5-12 a dish. anyway, the point is not really about money, but just that it was supposed to be a nice restaurant and it had the ambiance of a nice restaurant, with a candlelit courtyard and waiters in crisp white shirts. the place is called tiger trail and it's in the hotel, the metropole. the food was very nice, and the service seemed okay until it came time to pay. they got our bill wrong twice and then tried to shortchange us. it was totally bizarre, and intentional. by the time we had gotten it all sorted out, the bill was 500Rs (about 12CAD) cheaper than the original and then they'd tried to rip us off an addition 100Rs ($2.50), so for all intents and purposes they had tried to scam us of an additional 600Rs, which, i would say is a lot of money. if my bill in canada was off by $15 i would definitely notice! needless to say, we were unimpressed.

let me tell you what 600Rs can buy you here:
-3 nights at a cheaper hotel, or one night in a bigger city.
or
-7 big kingfishers
or
-breakfast, lunch and dinner almost anywhere
or
-4 t-shirts
or
-60 papayas
or
-240 bananas
or
-12 packs of cigarettes
or
-an overnight bus or train ticket from bangalore to kochi
or
-one glass of wine...

which leads me to another funny thing about costs in india. a bottle of two oceans wine, which is a cheap ass bottle of wine in canada (maybe $12) will cost you close to 4000Rs, yes, close to $100 CAD. crazy, eh? and it's not even good wine!

well, onto something different now. i've been playing around with this photo program rohit has and so i'm posting a few pictures for your viewing pleasure. the first two are a before i fucked around with the photo and after of me and rohit on the first night i was here.





the third, fourth, and fifth photos are just some older photos i was screwing around with:
Abby in Ahmedabad

Me in Mysore


Some kids in Nasik (actually, Rohit really did the touch ups on this one, when he was showing me how to use the program)

and then this last one is my adopted pet dog here in mysore. i'm going to miss this bitch. she follows me everywhere.


so today i am going back to bangalore with rohit. i will spend the weekend there with him and then on sunday i'm going to take the bus to kochi. on the 25th i'll come back to bangalore so that rohit and i can fly to calcutta for his friend's wedding. fun fun fun!

i better go pack!

Messing around in Mysore

I've been in Mysore for much more time than I had anticipated. Ostensibly, I am working on my applications, but it seems like in reality I am not getting too much work done, as I am mostly wasting time and then drinking in the evening with Rohit. It's been a lot of fun though, and I have booked my return flights from Bangalore to Calcutta for the end of this month. Rohit and I will be going to his friend's wedding where there will be about 2000 guests, and no, that is not a typo! This is a BIG wedding!!! I'm super excited.

In the meantime, I need to figure out where I will go from here. At some point I'll have to get out of Rohit's hair, lest I drive him crazy. I think I'll head down to Kerala pretty soon... like at least by Friday... I think.

Hm... well, I really don't have too much to say. It's been nice just chilling out, but I feel like more of a bum than a traveler at the moment.

Couch Surfing in Karnataka

After Puttaparthi I decided to try that website couchsurfing.com. Initially, I was a bit wary of this site since you go and stay with strangers. Then I was thinking about all of the safe things I've done on this trip like flying to Srinagar to stay with the family of a man I met in a coffee shop in Delhi, and like getting off the plane in Bombay and getting into a car with some people I didn't know... you know, highly recommended behaviour if you want to get yourself killed. All this I did just based on my gut instincts about people, and luckily it seems that so far my instincts are pretty on. All this is to say, that I realized that couch surfing is actually significantly safer than just going to any old stranger's home and so I decided to give it a shot. For one thing, it had been awhile since I had met any locals and I was a little tired of hanging out with foreigners all the time.

My first experience couch surfing was with a family in Bangalore. They are a 3 person family; Vijay, Niya and Arjun, kind of like an Indian Nate, Katy and Naomi (they are all the same age, respectively). They were amazingly welcoming and helpful. Unfortunately, I was there during the week so Vijay had to work, but lucky for me, Niya was up for going and doing some sightseeing with me! On the first day Niya, Arjun and I went to the Lalbagh Botanical Gardens. It was so lovely, and I was super stoked that Niya let me carry Arjun around in the sling (I think she didn't mind too much as it gave her back a rest). That night I prepared cauliflower cheese pie for dinner, and it turned out pretty gross, which was embarrassing. Not to make excuses, but it seems the pie really suffers when the oven can't keep consistent heat. They were polite and ate it anyway, haha.

The next day Niya, Arjun and I went to the Bangalore palace (which is more like a mansion than a palace) and then the art gallery, which was beautiful. Of course, having a 6 month old baby means that they couldn't really go out at night, so I arranged to meet another person, Reza, from couchsurfing for dinner that night.

The traffic was crazy when I left Vijay and Niya's house so it took me over an hour to get downtown on the bus. I met Reza and then he told me that a few of his friends were making dinner at their flat and would I be interested in going there for dinner. I trusted my gut and thought he seemed fine, so I agreed and we took a rickshaw even farther from my hosts' home. By the time we got there I estimated that I was close to a 2 hour drive from my hosts' home and it was already 9:30pm. Reza's friends were super sweet (with an awesome awesome dog!) and offered for me to crash there, which I accepted. Dinner, as it turned out, was a bunch of meat with basil garnish. After not eating meat since Kashmir, it was a little hard on my stomach to have so much carne but it was good nevertheless.

Reza lives in and is from Iran but he went to university in Bangalore so he knows a lot of people there still. Most of his friends were also students at Bangalore University, so it was nice to tap into a different social network. Originally, I had planned on heading to Mysore the next day, but Reza convinced me to stay another night. He took me to the Iskon temple (Hare Krishna temple) and a group of us went out to a movie. It was a terrible movie, "Gulliver's Travels" with Jack Black, but it was fun anyway, besides, it was my first 3D movie ever! The following day, Friday, I finally caught the bus to Mysore where I had arranged to stay with a young man, Rohit.

Now, I figured life couldn't really get any better. I had already met the nicest people in Bangalore, but Rohit is really really really cool. The first night we stayed up drinking this cashew booze from Goa and just shooting the shit. He is super busy at work, so the next day he went to work and I went to the Mysore Palace (now that's a palace!) and then the art gallery on my own. Yesterday he managed to get the day off so he came with me to the railway museum, which was fun for both of us. He had never been there before, and since it was mostly just a bunch of trains you could climb on, it was significantly more fun with company than it would have been had I gone alone.

Rohit has invited me to a wedding in Calcutta and I've looked into flights and I've decided to go. The wedding is from January 25-30, and my applications to Naturopathic schools are due Feb 1, so this means I must get my applications in before I go. I was thinking I would go find a hotel somewhere and just hole myself away to work on them, but then Rohit said I could do it here if I wanted. So now I've spent 3 nights in his living room, and I hope he doesn't get sick of me, but it's nice to have some time to work on my applications in peace (which is what I should be doing, rather than updating my blog!). Okay, well, I should go work on my applications now. I just wanted to let you all know how I'm doing. I'm afraid that I've glossed over much of the interesting bits, but that's what happens when I try to recount everything without going into detail... oh well. Maybe I'll tell you something more later, like about the dog I seem to have adopted who follows me everywhere and is sitting outside the internet cafe as I type!

Much love to everyone! Ciao now.

friends of Baba have been friends to me

I think I was a little tough on Puttaparthi. My last day in Puttaparthi was actually very nice. In the morning I had breakfast with a bunch of people from all over the world. Afterward I had a visit with Elizabeth, the 80 year old American woman who runs the library in the Ayurveda centre. She is a really special woman. Then I walked to a temple with Anne-Claude (who is 40) and Paulette (who's about 65), followed by a visit to a bookstore and then lunch with Anne-Claude. Anne-Claude is another great woman. She works for the Swiss foreign ministry and she travels all over Africa. We had some really interesting conversations about the different legal systems since she also has a degree in law. After lunch I went back to the centre and had my last treatment and paid my bills. Then I had tea with 19 year old Ksenya, from Ukraine. For dinner I met Joseph (age 20 from Germany), Ksenya, Walter (45 from Austria), Ismael (46 from Turkey), and Phil (40 from Germany).

Anyway, my point is, I was thinking about it last night and I have a laundry list of amazing people I met there: Hedy, Monica, Margaret, Shanti, Rosemary, Anne-Claude, Ismael, Birgit, Ksenya, Walter, Joseph, Elizabeth, Garret, Paulette, Marie, Karin... so many! So although I don't regret leaving (I am happy to be in Bangalore), I am also blessed that I went there. Who knows, maybe it's true, maybe Baba really did call me!

Walter gave me a present to open on the train. I felt like a bit of an ass for saying those things about him last night when I opened up his sweet gift. Mind you, he really is a Baba psycho. The gift he gave me was a little picture of Baba, some ash from Baba's prayer offering (they package it up and sell it which I think is hilarious, it's akin to selling holy water, which I'm sure some people do), a Buddha figurine, and some sweets. He also wrote me a letter about how nice he thinks I am. It was touching.

Enough of that though. I am in Bangalore now. I wish I knew someone my age because I would love to go for a beer. Unfortunately, the family I'm staying with live a little far from downtown so I would be hesitant to go back too late. I think I will risk it a little though and go have a beer and some early dinner before I try and bus back to their place. I would rather take a bus than a rickshaw, especially since I have no idea what it should cost.

Well, didn't do too much sightseeing today so I don't have much to tell yet. The family is super nice and made me lunch today. The baby, Arjun, is very cute and placid.

Baba land is creeping me out

So it's time to leave. Last night I am pretty sure this freaky Russian dude actually followed me into a restaurant to whisper an inaudible, incomprehensible story about his 17years following Baba. There was also some mention of a woman who was an expert in karate and his wife who he was married to for 3 days (the same woman? I don't know). Also his family won't talk to him because he believes in Baba (um, actually, maybe it has something to do with the fact that he's really strange and takes no interest in anyone but himself and Baba). He also looks very waxy, and I already have a phobia of wax figures, so he was like the physical embodiment of my fears... yes, I was that creeped out.

There's this Austrian man, Walter, who has been sort of following me around preaching Baba stories. I thought he was bad, but this Russian dude was much worse. It was kind of funny, because I was feeling pleased that I had managed to escape having dinner with Walter only to be stuck with someone even worse. Oh well, it's definitely time to go, and go I shall, but not before one last dinner here with... *drumroll*... you guessed it! Walter! (and some other people too, of course).

(Walter and Ismael, Walter's on the left, Ismael is holding my hand)

Tomorrow I am going to Bangalore. I have tried out that site CouchSurfing and I am going to stay with a couple who have a baby the same age as Naomi (my niece, Nate and Katy's baby). I am really excited to meet them. They sound really nice and laid back, and it sounds like they even enjoy having the occasional beer!

New Year's Eve was spent in the Ayurveda Centre with a bunch of devotees. Walter talked my ear off and Lidia tried to avoid me without appearing to avoid me. I think she's an odd duck, but now I see I'm in her pond and almost all these ducks are a little odd.

Panchakarma was ok. I did feel very healthy after, but then I went out for dinner for New Year's and I retoxed in under an hour. I think my body is a little unhappy as my face is now very pimply. I will have to try to be a little more moderate over the next few weeks. I don't want a full retaliation.

Hm... well, I want to go but I cannot leave: it seems my leg is completely asleep... ugh. wake up! Aha, there it is. Ciao ciao! Sai Ram (as they say here!)