Age of Aquarius
Thursday, April 23, 2009
The beautiful state of Kerala
A shout out to Tony, my wonderfully optimistic and fun loving travel companion. From the moment our feet have hit the travelers trail there hasn't been one dull moment. As I write this tony is laying on the bunk above me in our swanky A/C sleeper cabin on the train reading The White Tiger. We are on rout either to Hampi to do some rock climbing or to Goa to check out the beach scene. We really can't decide though and have zero plans. It is so wonderful! Our train brings us to the state of Karnataka tonight, and from there we will see which way the Indian wind blows us. Each new state has completely different tastes, sounds, scenery, cultural and language oddities. We are leaving the state orf Kerala, famous for it's Kathakali traditional theater dances, backwaters, aurvedic massages, and tea plantations. They can also throw a pretty wicked Elephant festival. After our slip n' slide session with the ayurvedic massage place in Varkala we headed to Alappuzha to check out the famous backwaters often referred to as the Venice of the East. The train ride up was a blast. We got seats in the local low class section, meaning we literally rubbed shoulders with the locals. It was intimidating initially but we taught one Indian Vegetable Vendor to play crazy 8's and we were in with the rest of the group in no time, laughing at the Bollywood movies playing and sipping chai.
Alappuzha (which is just so much fun to say) knows it's own lure, houseboats will line up by the hundreds waiting to take you on an overnight tour of the canals. We peeked at a few of the houseboats and tried to bargain them down in the price, but no one was budging. So in the end Tony and I ended up renting a small canoe paddle boat with a frail but bad ass old Indian guy helmsman to push us around the canals for $4 US an hour. This actually turned out to be better because we floated into some of the smaller channels where you could feel the stillness and tranquility of the water sliding beneath you.
The reflections were gorgeous, colorful and vibrant. It was like we were floating on a mirror for 4 hours. It was such a perfect day, unfortunately I was sick as a dog with food poisoning that night from the sketchy lunch we had. So that was not so much fun.
After Alappuzha we headed North to the town of Fort Kochin, famous for Kathakali, an Indian traditional theater dance. We arrived at the theater early to watch the dancers put on their makeup. The performance revolves around the actors hand gestures and intricate eye movements so you need to pay close attention to get the storyline. We also got a quick demonstration before the actual show began. Every part of the face was utilized to communicate the intricate emotions of an elephant. The dancers arms would swing in huge circles up and down as his feet stomped the ground and I swear even his ears grew bigger. Sop after the demonstration came the real show which was a battle between Baka, a violent murderous forest-dwelling demon wearing a red mask and the most powerful and noble green faced hero Bhima.
Since this is an ancient art form it is usually an all night event with the final crescendo coming only before the dawn of an alluring festival. We just cut to the case though in a two hour performance show for tourists. Fort Kochin also has this old tradition of fishing with huge Chinese fishing nets which at sunset are gorgeous to behold, although there is the slight tinge of sea lion in the air.
One day while in Fort Kochin we rented bikes and accidentally-on-purpose got lost in the locals neighborhood. This was an amazingly crazy fun time because it was elections that day, so the entire town was gathered around this bridge shouting and chanting and verbally willing their candidate to win. Tony and I being very devout Americans decided to take the communist side, and scored some awesome paper commie visors and highfived so many Indian people. It was nuts. During elections the government restricts the alcohol and the entire state is dry for 3 days. I'm thinking this is the best possible solution after the thick rally we participated in. If those Indians were drunk it would have been shenanigans to the extreme.
I wanted to upload more pictures to facebook but Foxfire is being a royal twat, so you will have to eagerly await the photos from our debauchery until tomorrow!
Alappuzha (which is just so much fun to say) knows it's own lure, houseboats will line up by the hundreds waiting to take you on an overnight tour of the canals. We peeked at a few of the houseboats and tried to bargain them down in the price, but no one was budging. So in the end Tony and I ended up renting a small canoe paddle boat with a frail but bad ass old Indian guy helmsman to push us around the canals for $4 US an hour. This actually turned out to be better because we floated into some of the smaller channels where you could feel the stillness and tranquility of the water sliding beneath you.
The reflections were gorgeous, colorful and vibrant. It was like we were floating on a mirror for 4 hours. It was such a perfect day, unfortunately I was sick as a dog with food poisoning that night from the sketchy lunch we had. So that was not so much fun.
After Alappuzha we headed North to the town of Fort Kochin, famous for Kathakali, an Indian traditional theater dance. We arrived at the theater early to watch the dancers put on their makeup. The performance revolves around the actors hand gestures and intricate eye movements so you need to pay close attention to get the storyline. We also got a quick demonstration before the actual show began. Every part of the face was utilized to communicate the intricate emotions of an elephant. The dancers arms would swing in huge circles up and down as his feet stomped the ground and I swear even his ears grew bigger. Sop after the demonstration came the real show which was a battle between Baka, a violent murderous forest-dwelling demon wearing a red mask and the most powerful and noble green faced hero Bhima.
Since this is an ancient art form it is usually an all night event with the final crescendo coming only before the dawn of an alluring festival. We just cut to the case though in a two hour performance show for tourists. Fort Kochin also has this old tradition of fishing with huge Chinese fishing nets which at sunset are gorgeous to behold, although there is the slight tinge of sea lion in the air.
One day while in Fort Kochin we rented bikes and accidentally-on-purpose got lost in the locals neighborhood. This was an amazingly crazy fun time because it was elections that day, so the entire town was gathered around this bridge shouting and chanting and verbally willing their candidate to win. Tony and I being very devout Americans decided to take the communist side, and scored some awesome paper commie visors and highfived so many Indian people. It was nuts. During elections the government restricts the alcohol and the entire state is dry for 3 days. I'm thinking this is the best possible solution after the thick rally we participated in. If those Indians were drunk it would have been shenanigans to the extreme.
I wanted to upload more pictures to facebook but Foxfire is being a royal twat, so you will have to eagerly await the photos from our debauchery until tomorrow!
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Varkala shenanigans
Tony and I have been causing a ruckus with major debautcherific shenanigans on the coastal town of Varkala in the district of Kerala. "We own this town" is what Tony says to me as we walk down the street stopping at every other restaurant to say hi and have a quick chat with our new travel friends. Before I tell you about the shenanigans we have been getting into I want to give a little shout out to Tony.
He is a funny one. When he eats he makes these MMMMmmmmmmm noises of contentment Hooper from She Devil style that are just so adorable. He is a very mellow guy in conversations and decisions, except when we have to go somewhere and he goes into turbo mode and usually ends up hurting himself or reopening one of his battle wounds from the motorbike incident. So our new moto is SLOW DOWN, especially for Turbo. Traveling with Tony has been going really well, he is a wonderful travel companion who is very caring and genuine. We are leaving for Alapuzzha tonight to check out the backwaters on a houseboat. So now that you know a little bit more about my awesome new travel buddy it will make more sense when I tell you about the shenanigans we have been causing. There have been massive thunder and lightening storms almost every night here where the water pours down so hard you can barely see 5 feet in front of you. So of course we have to play in the rain. This is the cause for our nightly splash fights. It is so much fun just to run wround in the rain jumping in puddles and laughing so hard that I almost pee my dress, but it is raining so hard no one would even notice... not that Ive done that or anything :/ During these amazing rain storms we have also gone skinny dipping at 4am with two hot Spaniards and a Portuguese Bollywood star/ former Aladdin character at Disney world paris, but I didn't discover this little tid bit of info until the morning after I had kissed him. One more for the books.
Varkala is the number one spot for Ayurvedic healing. This is awesome and something we totally needed to take advantage of so we decided to both get massages. This was definitely an experience. First I stripped completely naked and sat upright in a chair while she massaged my head. Okay, a little weird sitting in this room with my muff hanging out for this Indian woman to check out, but alright im fine with it. Then after vigorously rubbing my head and doing a karate chop move similar to Thai massage she asked me to lay down on my back on the pleather table with no sheet to cover my lady bits. So im laying there completely naked as she pours warm oil all over my body, an abnormally large amount of oil. She is basting me like a turkey and there I can feel a pool forming in my belly button. She started slow, with circular and long oval motions, then slowly moved up to a speed which made all surrounding body parts jiggle, and it was during one of these hyper speed moves she was making going from my arm around to my shoulder that oil came flying off in little drips from the tips of her fingers and hit me smack in the face. It was like like when you wash your hands but don't have a towel around to dry off so you air dry by doing that flick at the wrists motion and water comes flying off in little droplets, well it was like that... except with oil... coming off my naked body... and landing on my face. So now that you understand the amount of oil flying all around this room at top speed im sure you won't be surprised when I tell you about the highly dangerous slip n' slide situation I encountered when she asked me to roll over on the already slick table so she could grease the other side of my body and work up to super jiggle speeds of rubbing. The entire time all I could think about was "Thank God I have travelers insurance" because I could picture myself slipping off that table at any moment and hitting the hard and cold Indian ground. Two days later I was still finding oil behind my ears. After that we decided we didn't need any more healing help via ayurvedic tradition medicine.
We have been staying in a really nice guesthouse for $5 dollars US a night for the two of us. It has nice black and white marbled tiled floors, a big bed with mosquito net, our own bathroom with western toilet and shower, and a veranda where we can lounge in our hammocks and chat with our neighbors Teal and Thomas, two German guys on holiday. Teal and Thomas are our German pseudo-Dads. They are the kind of European former hippie cool guys that have Burning Man written all over them. They both have kids our age and have saved our butts a couple times by giving us iodine to clean out Tony's wounds and mosquito coils. They also told us this funny little fact about the purple iodine that they were using at Sadhana to clean wounds. Apparently this tinted iodine is used by farmers on cows. It is tinted with purple ink so the farmer can see which cow they treated, haha. Whoops! Some nights we will sit on the veranda with them drinking beers and having awesome conversations about life. They are funny too, when Tony told them he is from Salt Lake City they got so excited because they are both armature kite making enthusiasts and box car racers and apparently SLC is the number one spot to fly a kite. We will talk about wine, Indian, European, and American culture, hobbies and books. Teal and Thomas have also introduced us to the best Mexican food IN THE WORLD! Im serious right now, the best burrito IN THE WORLD is at this restaurant called Clafouti. This burrito is better than anywhere in Mexico. They must put crack in with their Indian spices because we have eaten this delicious morsel every singe day since it was discovered. Snaps to Teal and Thomas.
SHOW ME PICS!!!
SHOW ME THE FESTIVAL OF ELEPHANTS AND CRAZY COSTUMES!!!
He is a funny one. When he eats he makes these MMMMmmmmmmm noises of contentment Hooper from She Devil style that are just so adorable. He is a very mellow guy in conversations and decisions, except when we have to go somewhere and he goes into turbo mode and usually ends up hurting himself or reopening one of his battle wounds from the motorbike incident. So our new moto is SLOW DOWN, especially for Turbo. Traveling with Tony has been going really well, he is a wonderful travel companion who is very caring and genuine. We are leaving for Alapuzzha tonight to check out the backwaters on a houseboat. So now that you know a little bit more about my awesome new travel buddy it will make more sense when I tell you about the shenanigans we have been causing. There have been massive thunder and lightening storms almost every night here where the water pours down so hard you can barely see 5 feet in front of you. So of course we have to play in the rain. This is the cause for our nightly splash fights. It is so much fun just to run wround in the rain jumping in puddles and laughing so hard that I almost pee my dress, but it is raining so hard no one would even notice... not that Ive done that or anything :/ During these amazing rain storms we have also gone skinny dipping at 4am with two hot Spaniards and a Portuguese Bollywood star/ former Aladdin character at Disney world paris, but I didn't discover this little tid bit of info until the morning after I had kissed him. One more for the books.
Varkala is the number one spot for Ayurvedic healing. This is awesome and something we totally needed to take advantage of so we decided to both get massages. This was definitely an experience. First I stripped completely naked and sat upright in a chair while she massaged my head. Okay, a little weird sitting in this room with my muff hanging out for this Indian woman to check out, but alright im fine with it. Then after vigorously rubbing my head and doing a karate chop move similar to Thai massage she asked me to lay down on my back on the pleather table with no sheet to cover my lady bits. So im laying there completely naked as she pours warm oil all over my body, an abnormally large amount of oil. She is basting me like a turkey and there I can feel a pool forming in my belly button. She started slow, with circular and long oval motions, then slowly moved up to a speed which made all surrounding body parts jiggle, and it was during one of these hyper speed moves she was making going from my arm around to my shoulder that oil came flying off in little drips from the tips of her fingers and hit me smack in the face. It was like like when you wash your hands but don't have a towel around to dry off so you air dry by doing that flick at the wrists motion and water comes flying off in little droplets, well it was like that... except with oil... coming off my naked body... and landing on my face. So now that you understand the amount of oil flying all around this room at top speed im sure you won't be surprised when I tell you about the highly dangerous slip n' slide situation I encountered when she asked me to roll over on the already slick table so she could grease the other side of my body and work up to super jiggle speeds of rubbing. The entire time all I could think about was "Thank God I have travelers insurance" because I could picture myself slipping off that table at any moment and hitting the hard and cold Indian ground. Two days later I was still finding oil behind my ears. After that we decided we didn't need any more healing help via ayurvedic tradition medicine.
We have been staying in a really nice guesthouse for $5 dollars US a night for the two of us. It has nice black and white marbled tiled floors, a big bed with mosquito net, our own bathroom with western toilet and shower, and a veranda where we can lounge in our hammocks and chat with our neighbors Teal and Thomas, two German guys on holiday. Teal and Thomas are our German pseudo-Dads. They are the kind of European former hippie cool guys that have Burning Man written all over them. They both have kids our age and have saved our butts a couple times by giving us iodine to clean out Tony's wounds and mosquito coils. They also told us this funny little fact about the purple iodine that they were using at Sadhana to clean wounds. Apparently this tinted iodine is used by farmers on cows. It is tinted with purple ink so the farmer can see which cow they treated, haha. Whoops! Some nights we will sit on the veranda with them drinking beers and having awesome conversations about life. They are funny too, when Tony told them he is from Salt Lake City they got so excited because they are both armature kite making enthusiasts and box car racers and apparently SLC is the number one spot to fly a kite. We will talk about wine, Indian, European, and American culture, hobbies and books. Teal and Thomas have also introduced us to the best Mexican food IN THE WORLD! Im serious right now, the best burrito IN THE WORLD is at this restaurant called Clafouti. This burrito is better than anywhere in Mexico. They must put crack in with their Indian spices because we have eaten this delicious morsel every singe day since it was discovered. Snaps to Teal and Thomas.
SHOW ME PICS!!!
SHOW ME THE FESTIVAL OF ELEPHANTS AND CRAZY COSTUMES!!!
Monday, April 6, 2009
REAL India!
Rickshaw drivers are NUTS! I have always had the impression that if you are going to be in the transportation business via taxi, tuk-tuk, rickshaw, or even those guys who are on foot pulling a little cart behind them you need to maintain a little bit of an edge. Anyway last night Tony and I experienced the crem de la crem of crazy drivers, and the best part is it wasn't his driving that was hilarious or weird, it was HIM! This particularly saucy individual was named Stalin, like the communist dictator. That should have been the first sign.
Something about Tony that I was not aware of before we started traveling together but absolutely adore is that he can speak gibberish. It's legit! I have a feeling that this pig latin-esque sounding language will come in handy during our travels together since everyone speaks English and having private conversations in public places aren't really possible. So my next task is to learn gibberish. It would have come in handy had I known this secret language invented by kids so we could express our fears of impeding doom to each other without upsetting Stalin. This is something I feel I need to work on.
So back to the rickshaw ride of insanity. We peer pressured ourselves into getting into this rickshaw just as it was getting dark so we wouldn't have to walk around the city at night. Little did we know though that the parts of town Stalin took us speeding through would be partly like slums, with families living in cardboard box houses that were about 5 feet tall and 7 feet wide. Women were cooking dinner on a small bon fire from blackened pots. The fires were aflame in the middle of the street so as not to light the cardboard house on fire. We had to dodge and weave around these on our ride down this slummy street. Laundry was drying hanging on power lines and neighbors shouted at each other in harsh Tamil. We went speeding through though never stopping. I wasn't scared, it is just another part of town down this back alley, some kids even waved and started screaming Hello! Hello! in English. It was probably the first time though that I have seen someone up close who made their home out of cardboard. Very surreal experience for me.
After we busted out of the slums we went careening around a corner of 8 lanes of traffic at a terrifying speed that made the images of twisted metal, torn flesh, and road rash instantly leap to mind. It probably didn't help matters that Stalin was letting out what sounded like a battle cry as he thrust his arm through the window and punched the air like he was a gladiator getting ready to charge the traffic. Once we reached a minimal terror cruising speed on the straight road Stalin declared his love for us.
Stalin: I like you (points to Tony). I like you (points to me). We good friend!
Juli and Tony: We like you too Stalin
Stalin: You give me kiss (points to me then to his cheek)
Juli: Hahahah (nervous laughter)
Then we joke around about kissing for a while (this whole time im wearing my faux wedding ring and holding Tony's hand) and finally Tony leans over and gives Stalin a big fatty kiss on the cheek. He seemed to like that, but he still want some lovin' from me.
Stalin: Now you (points to me then to his cheek)
Juli: Stalin that would be cheating (I point to Tony)
Tony: She only kiss me
Stalin: But it's French
Juli: Well it may be French to kiss on the cheek but I'm not French, and you aren't French... so no French!
Stalin: But it's French
Juli: No French Stalin!
Tricky devil. Then because this whole situation is just so ridiculous and also because I am on India sensory overload I start to laugh. I don't hold anything back, I laugh full force out loud. Stalin laughs back, some crazy contorted throat laugh that is the beginning of our laugh-a-thon. What proceeded over the next 2-3 minutes was a series of crazy laughs going back and forth from driver to passenger. Stalin would throw out a titter and I would come back with a high pitched laugh ending in a snort, the beginning of our crazy laugh competition. we would go back and forth with any and all crazy laughs and any strange laugh related sounds we could think of. There was snarling, whooping, giggles, small chuckles, big chuckles, stifled laughter, snickering, cackling, guffawing, HO HO HO-ing Santa style, and there was even a coyote howl at some point, I think that was Tony's ingenious contribution to our non-verbal communication game. It was nuts! Then Stalin points to me again,
Stalin: Now you (points to his cheek)
Juli: No Stalin
Tony: I'll kiss you again (Tony kisses Stalin again on his other cheek. Stalin likes)
Stalin: Now you (points to me then his cheek)
Juli: I only kiss him (I point to Tony and my faux wedding ring)
Stalin: But it's French
Juli: (sigh) Stalin we have already been through this. NO FRENCH STALIN!
Maybe he was trying to to try to impress me into giving him a kiss, but next thing we know Stalin busts out a boogie. He starts to do these funkadelic dance moves with arms flailing in all directions but mostly they stick out the sides of the open air vehicle in a sort of wave/convulsing motion which could be misconstrued as awkward traffic signalling to any unknowing innocent driver behind us. He even added in a little shoulder roll for some extra pizzaz. There were spirit fingers too. Lots of spirit fingers! And lest I forget the boobie shaking, let me tell you Stalin is a master of the moob shake.
This whole time we are still careening out of control mostly because his arms are jutting in all directions instead of hanging on to the steering wheel. But we finally made it back to our guest house safe and in one piece. Stalin gave us his phone number and said that if we needed anymore rides to call him up, then after one more attempt to squeeze a kiss out of me and being rejected he took off, blocking 3 lanes of traffic during his Austin Powers turn and sped away. Tony and I just stared at each other with that dumbfounded "Did that really just happen?" look for hours after our Stalin encounter. Seriously unreal.
Something about Tony that I was not aware of before we started traveling together but absolutely adore is that he can speak gibberish. It's legit! I have a feeling that this pig latin-esque sounding language will come in handy during our travels together since everyone speaks English and having private conversations in public places aren't really possible. So my next task is to learn gibberish. It would have come in handy had I known this secret language invented by kids so we could express our fears of impeding doom to each other without upsetting Stalin. This is something I feel I need to work on.
So back to the rickshaw ride of insanity. We peer pressured ourselves into getting into this rickshaw just as it was getting dark so we wouldn't have to walk around the city at night. Little did we know though that the parts of town Stalin took us speeding through would be partly like slums, with families living in cardboard box houses that were about 5 feet tall and 7 feet wide. Women were cooking dinner on a small bon fire from blackened pots. The fires were aflame in the middle of the street so as not to light the cardboard house on fire. We had to dodge and weave around these on our ride down this slummy street. Laundry was drying hanging on power lines and neighbors shouted at each other in harsh Tamil. We went speeding through though never stopping. I wasn't scared, it is just another part of town down this back alley, some kids even waved and started screaming Hello! Hello! in English. It was probably the first time though that I have seen someone up close who made their home out of cardboard. Very surreal experience for me.
After we busted out of the slums we went careening around a corner of 8 lanes of traffic at a terrifying speed that made the images of twisted metal, torn flesh, and road rash instantly leap to mind. It probably didn't help matters that Stalin was letting out what sounded like a battle cry as he thrust his arm through the window and punched the air like he was a gladiator getting ready to charge the traffic. Once we reached a minimal terror cruising speed on the straight road Stalin declared his love for us.
Stalin: I like you (points to Tony). I like you (points to me). We good friend!
Juli and Tony: We like you too Stalin
Stalin: You give me kiss (points to me then to his cheek)
Juli: Hahahah (nervous laughter)
Then we joke around about kissing for a while (this whole time im wearing my faux wedding ring and holding Tony's hand) and finally Tony leans over and gives Stalin a big fatty kiss on the cheek. He seemed to like that, but he still want some lovin' from me.
Stalin: Now you (points to me then to his cheek)
Juli: Stalin that would be cheating (I point to Tony)
Tony: She only kiss me
Stalin: But it's French
Juli: Well it may be French to kiss on the cheek but I'm not French, and you aren't French... so no French!
Stalin: But it's French
Juli: No French Stalin!
Tricky devil. Then because this whole situation is just so ridiculous and also because I am on India sensory overload I start to laugh. I don't hold anything back, I laugh full force out loud. Stalin laughs back, some crazy contorted throat laugh that is the beginning of our laugh-a-thon. What proceeded over the next 2-3 minutes was a series of crazy laughs going back and forth from driver to passenger. Stalin would throw out a titter and I would come back with a high pitched laugh ending in a snort, the beginning of our crazy laugh competition. we would go back and forth with any and all crazy laughs and any strange laugh related sounds we could think of. There was snarling, whooping, giggles, small chuckles, big chuckles, stifled laughter, snickering, cackling, guffawing, HO HO HO-ing Santa style, and there was even a coyote howl at some point, I think that was Tony's ingenious contribution to our non-verbal communication game. It was nuts! Then Stalin points to me again,
Stalin: Now you (points to his cheek)
Juli: No Stalin
Tony: I'll kiss you again (Tony kisses Stalin again on his other cheek. Stalin likes)
Stalin: Now you (points to me then his cheek)
Juli: I only kiss him (I point to Tony and my faux wedding ring)
Stalin: But it's French
Juli: (sigh) Stalin we have already been through this. NO FRENCH STALIN!
Maybe he was trying to to try to impress me into giving him a kiss, but next thing we know Stalin busts out a boogie. He starts to do these funkadelic dance moves with arms flailing in all directions but mostly they stick out the sides of the open air vehicle in a sort of wave/convulsing motion which could be misconstrued as awkward traffic signalling to any unknowing innocent driver behind us. He even added in a little shoulder roll for some extra pizzaz. There were spirit fingers too. Lots of spirit fingers! And lest I forget the boobie shaking, let me tell you Stalin is a master of the moob shake.
This whole time we are still careening out of control mostly because his arms are jutting in all directions instead of hanging on to the steering wheel. But we finally made it back to our guest house safe and in one piece. Stalin gave us his phone number and said that if we needed anymore rides to call him up, then after one more attempt to squeeze a kiss out of me and being rejected he took off, blocking 3 lanes of traffic during his Austin Powers turn and sped away. Tony and I just stared at each other with that dumbfounded "Did that really just happen?" look for hours after our Stalin encounter. Seriously unreal.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
On the road again...
I am laying sprawled on a pile of the circular red and orange pillows which I have come to know so well over the past month. In the main hut on my last night at Sadhana Forest I am feeling some conflicting emotions. Mike from New Mexico is playing Sublime "What I Got" and "Santaria" on the guitar which is awesome since this music makes me feel totally blissed out. I feel like its time to move on, and I am very happy to be traveling to Kerala with Tony tomorrow. We plan to explore back waterways on a houseboat and visit tea plantations, beaches, and wildlife sanctuaries which will be absolutely magical. I am so excited to start traveling again and actually see India. I am finally, after a month of drinking the Kool-aid ready to see, smell, and taste real India! However, I am conflicted because im sad to be leaving Liz. Things between us have never been better actually, and I have been thinking that it will be fabulous for both of us to part (for now) on such good terms. So Liz is going to stay in Sadhana Forest for at least another week, maybe two and we might meet up before she does her vapassana. Only time will tell.
March 26: I think I pulled a muscle in my back yesterday in my intense digging sessions with Belgium Bakery loving Nicolas. I have been slathering on Tiger Balm and trying to take it easy. For first work today Stacy let me sit with her in the office and I "Helped answer emails" but really we just had a little chat session and eavesdropped on people who are digging the banana pits outside the main hut. It's actually really funny to listen to everyone chatting without their knowledge of our eavesdropping. I have been here long enough now to recognize every ones voices and let me tell you it is quite a relief to know that im not the only one breaking Rule Number 2! In the afternoon Julia and I rode down to the beach on her motorbike and we had amazing egg and cheese omelet sandwiches and fresh grape juice. I also took my first shower in oh about 5ish days, although I have really lost count by this point. Since it is Thursday that means it is NIGHT OUT and we got the whole crew together at New Creation pizzeria. There were probably 30 people all squished into these tiny little tables ordering the chewy and gooey delicious pizzas. I split the Italian pizza, which had 3 different kinds of cheese, olives, and basil with my friend Chelsea. I have been working with this cool chicka on the eco-dome lately and (this is the best part) she is actually going to UO next year! GO DUCKS!!! I love being able to say that, haha. I have been having pretty regular nightly movie sessions with Nicolas. He ripped a ton of awesome movies from Kerri and Greg and tonight we watched Pineapple Express, which was really just a perfect way to end the evening.
Belgium Bakery loving Nicolas at the beach with us today. Check out the hot chick in the background.
March 27: CRAZY day today! I started first work raking leaves with Tony and British Seb.
We carried all these bags back to the compound, look at Tony getting his grunt on!
We saw the BIGGEST spider I have ever seen in my life! It was metallic silver and had fangs, fo reals! Check it,
I made Seb get the picture because I was running away at full speed, probably peeing my pants a little along the way. It was so freaking scary!
This is Seb, and he is a BAMF for getting the pic of Goliath!
After working hard in the forest I hopped on the back of Seb's bike to go to a Satay making workshop. Satay is a meat flavored tofu alternative. Unfortunately we ended up getting lost along the way, running out of gas, and missing the workshop. So after walking around the back alley ways of Auroville for about an hour chatting about skydiving, bungee jumping, and other ballsy shenanigans Seb has done we finally found a gas station and got some gas, which I have started calling petrol since that is the cool thing to do. Once we refueled we took one of the back roads home through the rice patties, it was the gorgeous time of day when light filters through the grass in a surreal orange mist. We sped through a palm tree lined road stopping only once to watch some Indian kids playing cricket in an open field. We were only impeded once by a huge truck filled with sticks blocking the entire motorway. Only in India. We got back only to learn that Liz and Tony had a little incident on their motorbike...
March 28- April 3: Over the past week I have been sitting in a guesthouse taking care of Liz and Tony who were in a near motorbike collision with a cow, which would be really funny if they weren't bashed up. Tony is bandaged from neck to toe, It's not pretty, but the perks of playing nurse include getting to watch movies all day, eating some really tasty food and making some very creative pain killer concoctions with the prescriptions from the Indian hospital. The drugs they gave us are hilarious knock off names of the popular brands. For example, Indian Vicodin is called Vi-cold-ine. So basically Liz and Tony have been hopped up on pain killers for the past four days and I think are actually quite enjoying being so gimpy. So that is whats going on in my part of the world.
One more thing I want to address before signing off, and that is the many diverse options I have been informed about for uses of your urine. It seems like everyday some Sadhanite comes up with a new way to utilize their urine. Got a cut? Pee on it! Ran out of facewash? Apparently piss is a great anti-wrinkle angent. Have we run out of fertilizer? Well don't worry we will spray our piss all over the garden dousing everything from the tomatoes to the herb spiral. Does the spiralina pool need some more water and the well has run dry? Let's just get everyone to piss in it until it is filled to the brim. Seriously unreal urine fasinations, it borders on kinky. As I said earlier Tony and I are leaving tomorrow for Kerala. So I will let you know the phone number of the next place we land. Lots of love!
March 26: I think I pulled a muscle in my back yesterday in my intense digging sessions with Belgium Bakery loving Nicolas. I have been slathering on Tiger Balm and trying to take it easy. For first work today Stacy let me sit with her in the office and I "Helped answer emails" but really we just had a little chat session and eavesdropped on people who are digging the banana pits outside the main hut. It's actually really funny to listen to everyone chatting without their knowledge of our eavesdropping. I have been here long enough now to recognize every ones voices and let me tell you it is quite a relief to know that im not the only one breaking Rule Number 2! In the afternoon Julia and I rode down to the beach on her motorbike and we had amazing egg and cheese omelet sandwiches and fresh grape juice. I also took my first shower in oh about 5ish days, although I have really lost count by this point. Since it is Thursday that means it is NIGHT OUT and we got the whole crew together at New Creation pizzeria. There were probably 30 people all squished into these tiny little tables ordering the chewy and gooey delicious pizzas. I split the Italian pizza, which had 3 different kinds of cheese, olives, and basil with my friend Chelsea. I have been working with this cool chicka on the eco-dome lately and (this is the best part) she is actually going to UO next year! GO DUCKS!!! I love being able to say that, haha. I have been having pretty regular nightly movie sessions with Nicolas. He ripped a ton of awesome movies from Kerri and Greg and tonight we watched Pineapple Express, which was really just a perfect way to end the evening.
Belgium Bakery loving Nicolas at the beach with us today. Check out the hot chick in the background.
March 27: CRAZY day today! I started first work raking leaves with Tony and British Seb.
We carried all these bags back to the compound, look at Tony getting his grunt on!
We saw the BIGGEST spider I have ever seen in my life! It was metallic silver and had fangs, fo reals! Check it,
I made Seb get the picture because I was running away at full speed, probably peeing my pants a little along the way. It was so freaking scary!
This is Seb, and he is a BAMF for getting the pic of Goliath!
After working hard in the forest I hopped on the back of Seb's bike to go to a Satay making workshop. Satay is a meat flavored tofu alternative. Unfortunately we ended up getting lost along the way, running out of gas, and missing the workshop. So after walking around the back alley ways of Auroville for about an hour chatting about skydiving, bungee jumping, and other ballsy shenanigans Seb has done we finally found a gas station and got some gas, which I have started calling petrol since that is the cool thing to do. Once we refueled we took one of the back roads home through the rice patties, it was the gorgeous time of day when light filters through the grass in a surreal orange mist. We sped through a palm tree lined road stopping only once to watch some Indian kids playing cricket in an open field. We were only impeded once by a huge truck filled with sticks blocking the entire motorway. Only in India. We got back only to learn that Liz and Tony had a little incident on their motorbike...
March 28- April 3: Over the past week I have been sitting in a guesthouse taking care of Liz and Tony who were in a near motorbike collision with a cow, which would be really funny if they weren't bashed up. Tony is bandaged from neck to toe, It's not pretty, but the perks of playing nurse include getting to watch movies all day, eating some really tasty food and making some very creative pain killer concoctions with the prescriptions from the Indian hospital. The drugs they gave us are hilarious knock off names of the popular brands. For example, Indian Vicodin is called Vi-cold-ine. So basically Liz and Tony have been hopped up on pain killers for the past four days and I think are actually quite enjoying being so gimpy. So that is whats going on in my part of the world.
One more thing I want to address before signing off, and that is the many diverse options I have been informed about for uses of your urine. It seems like everyday some Sadhanite comes up with a new way to utilize their urine. Got a cut? Pee on it! Ran out of facewash? Apparently piss is a great anti-wrinkle angent. Have we run out of fertilizer? Well don't worry we will spray our piss all over the garden dousing everything from the tomatoes to the herb spiral. Does the spiralina pool need some more water and the well has run dry? Let's just get everyone to piss in it until it is filled to the brim. Seriously unreal urine fasinations, it borders on kinky. As I said earlier Tony and I are leaving tomorrow for Kerala. So I will let you know the phone number of the next place we land. Lots of love!
