Agra, Varanasi, and Coorg, until the Leafing

Anywho, back to the land of India. Jensen and I were hesitant to get our tickets. The day before leaving Jensen enlightened me that his friend from Auroville was planning on meeting up with us. I'd the guy and he was really cool, so I didn't really mind, but it kind of built up the already-slightly-present resistance I had to leaving. I wasn't quite at the place I would liked to have been in my classes yet and a another week would fix that. With the parents also urging me to stay, I decided it might be beneficial in the long run to let Jensen go to Kashmir and meet up with him a week later in Delhi on the way to Agra. We then planned to continue onto the northeast and head back to Bangalore on the 5th of June. And so that's how that happened. You might say wait, it's the 6th of June, you just got back, but hold your horses. I'm getting there.

That week alone was chillin. I hung out with some dudes around the complex, played soccer, wrote essays and thought about home too much haha. I met Jensen in Paharganj in Delhi on the night of the 15th. After a scare of missing my flight due to monsoon traffic, I had a very nice flight. The dude I sat next to on the plane was actually from Kentucky. I talked to the guy for all but a half hour of the three hour flight. He was here with his family and had been for several years, with his company starting here in Bangalore. A very friendly and nice guy. If you want, check out his website here. He's just getting his whole idea started, but he's got a good message. 

But the plane landed in Delhi after midnight, right when the subway closes for the night, so I had to find a bus to take me to the train station from where I could walk to Jensen. This obstacle may have frustrated me, but for some reason I was in a great mood and couldn't have cared less. You almost have to expect things like that to happen anyway. I found Jensen an hour later and barely recognized the guy with his new hair. Looked nice again ahahahah! ;)

The next day in Delhi we got our train tickets to Varanasi from Agra, and bought some cool stuff. We ate at the same place we did on the previous trip with the little deformed man. He is awfully cute. I know I’ve brought this up before, but I want to reiterate that India has no trashcans outside. You just through it into a pile on the sidewalk or something. When we were walking to the train station to drop of our stuff, and tossed a wrapper onto a pile of garbage. Some drunk guy came up to us yelling and spitting, all pissed off that we would throw garbage onto a place covered in garbage. Haha.

Not wanting to carry all our new stuff around the northeast with us, we left it at a B-E-A-utiful hotel that Dad normally stays at when he comes to Delhi. That actually happened during a time crunch. We had to get to that hotel and back incredibly quick in order to catch the last train to Agra until midnight, which would suck. We made it with a surprising amount of time to spare. We didn't actually have a ticket for the train, so we eased our way in and hung out in the nice AC car for a while. We watched intently for the conductor to come to check our tickets. When he came, we went and hung out in the bathroom for about 20 minutes. In the train bathroom, which is not quite lovely. But we avoided getting kicked out of the car for a few hours. The conductor was sitting in the bed with all our stuff next to it, and we were laying on a bed right next to him with curtain closed and he didn't realize it until some guy opened it up a few hours later. We gave him our train ticket to Varanasi from Agra, and he thought we were just supposed to be in the sleeper car. hahaha. We were almost there anyway, so we didn't mind getting kicked.

Finding a place to stay in Agra sucked. It took over an hour of smoggy searching and the place we finally stayed in won by default, we just got too tired. We woke up early to get morning pictures of the Taj Mahal. The smog was disgusting. You couldn't see more than a half kilometer. Literally. It was like thick fog. But it wasn't fog. The filth was the worst of any place I'd seen in India. It's fair to say Jensen and I both fell into awful moods. My tolerance ended when I slipped out of my sandal and my foot fell into sewage irrigation while walking through a field to get to a river bed on the backside of the Taj. It put me over the edge. After 5 months of filth and poop, I think I found my limit in Agra.

I slowly recovered throughout the day. With a lot of time to kill before we went to enter the Taj later that evening, we went to one of the nicest hotels in Agra, and walked straight to the pool. We hung out for a couple hours there in the water. I forgot to mention the heat. Delhi and Agra were reaching daily highs of 43 degrees Celsius. That's 110 Fahrenheit. 110. I'd never been in heat like that and it was killer. We also went into a little internet café to escape the heat and relax. The shop owner next door asked me to come in and smoke some opium with him. Not too often do I get asked to smoke opium, but it just wasn’t a good day to start opium, so I had to decline.

The Taj Mahal was cooler than I expected after that morning. The marble is spectacular. It’s also the only place in India where there's been an equal number of women and men. Made me realize even more that there has been a major shortage of honies in the last months. But it was crazy standing in front of that building. I've been inside the Taj Mahal. Last year at this time, I never would have imagined this was possible. Life is crazy.

Pictures make the Taj look cool, but to stand there in front of it really is like nothing else. It’s just too beautiful.

Leaving the Taj, we counted how many rickshaw drivers came up to us and asked us if we needed a ride. In the equivalent of about 2 blocks, 16 dudes asked. They are relentless.

That night ended much better than the morning had started. We picked up our stuff from the hotel and caught our 16 hour train to Varanasi. This train was in the non-AC sleeper car. We were both incredibly tired from waking up at 6 and luckily for me, I didn't have trouble sleeping. I woke up in the middle of the night with mosquito bites on my hand and on my face- youch! At soon as the sun came up, it started getting real hot. By 9:00 it was already well over 90. It was the sweatiest night and day of my existence. It wasn’t all too miserable somehow, just hot and sweaty. Haha!

We got off the train a little too early at Varanasi because we kind of got scared we would miss it, so we had to walk a little ways to the city. On the way, little ganja plants grew like weeds on the sidewalk. They weren’t budding or anything, but it was pretty crazy to be surrounded by ganja plants. It was so hot on the walk to the city, and we hadn’t showered the night before, so we hoped for some kind of bath to get clean and refreshed. A little ways down the road, there were two big water tanks suspended about 30 feet in the air, with big holes in the sides. They made for a perfect shower- it was delightful. The people around thought it was a pretty good idea, I guess, and right as we left a guy walked under it for a bath. It’s random things like that that happen when you’re on the road that are just such pleasant surprises that you never get when you’re not out and about. I guess it’s what makes traveling fun.

We caught a rickshaw at the train station, to find a guest house. On the way, he offered for me to drive, so I sat up front with him and drove the rick. After finding a room and getting breakfast at like 2:30, we set out towards the Ganges. This is the same river that flows right through Rishikesh. The only difference is that Rishikesh is in the foothills of the Himalayas and therefore has relatively slightly decent water to swim in. By the time it gets to Varanasi, it has been through several more towns and villages, that all use it to clean their clothes and bodies, and to carry away all their sewage. At Varanasi, the Ganjes loses all sense of cleanliness or clarity it never had. Here, it not only gains a whole heap more sewage, but it also dissolves the ashes of hundreds of burned bodies every day, plus the corpses dead of animals. Here, at the holiest place in the Hindu religion, thousands of people bathe and swim in the flowing muck that was once a beautiful river.

Along the river, the banks are covered in poop. We asked a guy that had started walking with us if it was human poop. “Yes,” he says. When asked why, he says “because it’s India.” We asked him if he poops there. “Yes,” he answers. And that basically sums it up. I’ll link a few pictures here just because it’s hard to imagine the place. This water buffalo rolling in garbage and sewage, this family with their dead relative gives a slight understanding of what’s going on. We walked from one burning ground to the distant other, and got stopped for massages and many pictures on the way.

At the big cremation site, they don’t allow pictures. Originally, they say it’s because if you take a picture of the burning body, that the soul will be captured inside and they will not be able to achieve nirvana. However, if you pay 750 rupees, then that doesn’t matter. So basically, it’s all for money. They say the money goes to the poor families who can’t afford to pay the 300 rupees a kilo for wood to burn the bodies. Turns out the wood costs only 5 rupees a kilo. I get really sick of people trying to get money from you. In fact, it may be what I hate most about traveling.

Anyway, since we’d been taking photos the whole while walking along the river, when we got to the cremation place, we had our cameras out. We weren’t taking pictures, and respected that they didn’t want us to, but they would not leave us alone about how we couldn’t take pictures. They were ridiculous. And would not go away or shut up. So after a little while we left.

There are boats all along the river, where you pay a man and he’ll take you out on his boat and row around until you’ve gotten enough pictures and everyone is happy. From the boats, out front the cremation spot, you can take all the pictures you want and it doesn’t matter. I figure it’s because the people can’t walk out there and hassle you into paying them.

We took a boat out a little later and took pictures for about 20 minutes, but it got too dark so we went back in. No problem. We took pictures of the burning, and it didn’t matter. We were allowed to. Our boat driver, who lived in Varanasi his whole life, said that when they don’t allow pictures, they are in fact only wanting money, and that it doesn’t matter. After dinner, we walked back to the guest house (which was pretty far) and went to sleep early in anticipation of getting up early to go on a long boat ride in the morning.

We found a boat real easy, a 17 year old kid took us all the way down and back again. At the other side, at the cremation spot, in the daylight, we took a few pictures from our boat. It was ok. There were several other boats full of people right next to us taking tons of pictures. We were the only ones on our boat besides the kid. Some little idiot on the shore saw us and realized he could potentially make some money off of us. He rowed out with a few other guys and got on our boat and demanded we pay him, or the family of the body would beat us up and break our cameras. We knew the guy just wanted money, and we told him to get off the boat. He was an incredibly persistent, and even more annoying little bastard, and ultimately got off threatening to come hit me with a big bamboo stick. All the little episodes you have with people like this take a stressful toll.

Before getting off the boat back where we started, we rowed out to the middle of the river and jumped in. It is considered very holy and an honor to be able to bathe in the Ganges, so we had to. It was unnaturally warm. So gnarly hahaha.

We hung out back at the hotel for quite a while. We took our time eating breakfast on the rooftop, and packing up our stuff in our room. Our phones the night before had lost the correct time, so the only clock we had was on my ipod and the nook. Neither of which we paid much attention to until the owner of the guesthouse alerted us that the drive to the airport took an hour, and we had about 2 hours til the plane left. So we got kind of scared and had to leave quickly. The guy tried to charge us for an extra day because we didn’t check out at the right time. Not only did he never tell us, but we were also hanging around in his guesthouse all day. The confrontations never stop.

We had decided to cut the trip short based on a few key points. The destinations we had in mind would take over 30 hours of travel (bus and train) to get to. The noise and dirtiness were really getting to us. And if we went back to Bangalore, we could join the parents on their trip to Coorg. So a few days before we got a plane back to Bangalore. Had to make sure I brought that up haha.

Anywho, the rickshaw we were in was a guy that the guesthouse had called to take us. We didn’t completely trust him after we got in an argument with the guy who had called him, but we figured he would still get us to the airport. He knew we were in a real hurry, but stopped and got out to talk on his phone on the way there. Sketched out, we got out and found a different guy. We got to the airport just in time and were sitting fine. During the layover in Delhi, I took a cab to the hotel we left our stuff at and got back before the plane left. Even though we cut it short and overall weren’t in the best moods, in that week alone I saw some of the coolest things India has to offer. The idea of standing in front of the Taj Mahal always seemed soo distant. It still is so hard for me to comprehend how far this trip has taken me from the normal life.

Being back in my own bed in Bangalore was nice, especially combined with air wonderful air conditioning. Not wasting any time hanging around, I chose to join Steele, Mom, and Paps on their trip to Coorg. A friend that dad met playing squash here in Bangalore had invited us long ago to come stay on his coffee plantation. His cousin was getting married that weekend, so he invited us to that ass well. Jensen wasn’t excited about it and decided to stay behind.

We left super early in the morning. Murti drove us four the whole way and with plentyy of stops in between. With a five-hour drive, we figured if it took us eight hours to get there, that meant we enjoyed plenty on the way. We stopped several times for the most massive of coconuts, and went to a surprisingly impressive bird sanctuary. We took a boat out on the water. Across the river, on an island, was a popular rest stop for migrating birds, apparently. The trees were filled with giant sleeping bats, hanging from the branches. The big herons and pelicans and other birds were quite a spectacle. It was also my first time seeing crocodiles, which was pretty crazy.

We got there in the evening. There was a get together that night for the people that traveled to Coorg for the wedding. Mostly older folks and all people I didn’t know, it was hard to completely love it. The free drinks may have helped Steve however. The next morning Jensen decided to join us and took a bus down to meet up with us right after the actual ceremony. I say ceremony, but there is never a passing of vows, “I do,” “I do” type thing. All they do is sit next to each other, and all the guests line up with their cards ad walk up, pick up rice, drop it on the persons head, hand them their card, and go enjoy some more food. After everyone is done, they are married. They then separate for the rest of that day. The guests leave and come back later in the evening right before the bride shows up for her taxing ritual. She gets there and is given a bucket of water. She has to hold that on her head while members of the groom’s family dance in front of her for hours, not letting her move. And she just stands there. And they dance. And after a few hours, they stop and she walks in the hall, and then the night is over and everybody leaves. A strange ceremony by American wedding standards.

The next day we packed up and drove to our new stay, which was Dad’s friend’s parents’ home stay on their coffee plantation. It was a very nice little house and with great surroundings. We took a tour of the grand parents’ plantation and learned about how they harvest coffee, mangoes, peppers, ginger, peaches, grapefruit, jackfruit, papayas and other plants. The next day we went to a really cool hotel for lunch. Each little bungalow at this hotel had its own pool. We then went for an hour and half drive through the jungle to this canopy walk in the trees. The drive was spectacular, the trees and overall landscape was breathtaking. Coolest drive I’d ever been on (Until the drive from Italy to Switzerland, which now takes the cake).  At the rope course, after that long drive, none of the Indian guys even wanted to go on it. They were too scared. The guide that took us along was drunk hahaha.

We drove home the next day, a very long drive. We got out towards the end to climb some massive rock formation at the top of a hill.

We had about two weeks left in India by the time we got back from Coorg. I spent the majority of this time working on my classes. I played soccer every night on the roof. It was strange leaving, it felt like it wasn’t really possible.

When we first landed in Heathrow, I think the culture shock really hit me. It was the first time in six months that I stood in a room full of people and wasn’t being stared at by at least half of them. Crazy feeling.

And there it is. The journey is over. Hope you enjoyed reading, thanks for taking an interest. I hope you ask me questions if you want to know anything else.

Auroville and Ooty

Sorry for the delay in posting! I've really gotten into my online classes and am actually nearing an end in one of them. Nearing. But most of the time I've gotten on my computer I've used to write essays analyzing poems and U.S. Shipyards during WWII instead of my travel stories. BUT! thanks to Maggie, I'm going to try to fill in on the rest of my India trip!
The first week back in Bangalore from Rishikesh, I relaxed fatty style. Not much got done, a few school assignments here and there and some trips into town, did some shopping.
The second week, after feeling the need to try something new, I enrolled in a C programming course. Not that I have any interest in being a software programmer, I just felt it would be useful to know the basics of the way our computers, which have become so important to everyday life, work. Originally, they told me the class was from 10am-5pm Monday-Friday for one week and Monday-Wednesday the next. So when I went for my first day not knowing what to expect, it wasn't a good sign when they told me, after I'd gotten there, that class was to start the next day. I kind of expected some mishap like this. After all, I'd been in India for 3 months already and I understood the way things like this work. So the next day, as we were turning onto the street of the class, I got a call saying the class will start at noon that day. So I headed back home and go back two hours later. Class lasted half an hour. So by this time I'd developed a very bad feeling about the worthiness of this class. Fortunately the next day, the company owner had called his friend, who was a programmer and gave seminars to colleges and companies all over the globe on programming. So this guy was pretty qualified. A day or two short of two weeks later, I finally finished the class. It was interesting. I still don't think I'll be a programmer. I'm just not programmed to work on a computer all day.
Pumping through my classes, I got a month's worth of work done in 3 days. Granted, my classes are a million times easier than at home, but I was still proud of myself.
In mid march, Jensen returned to Auroville, this time for a full-length stay. For the weekend of his birthday, Mom, Murti, Me, and Pa headed for the land of Ze Mouzaire. The place is scorching hot, and wildly humid. We stayed at a beautiful spa in the middle of the jungle. Auroville is pretty amazing. The Portuguese and British, years ago, burnt down the forests for farming, eventually leaving the barren, red soil in the heat. The Aurovillians, starting in the 1968, have since planted over 200 million trees, returning the land to its natural jungle-like landscape. The first night, we went to an organization called Sadhana Forrest's camp for a presentation on how they restored a forrest and raised the aquifer level. We were also given a tour of the forrest, which had been terribly damaged by a cyclone earlier in December (as were their little huts), and free dinner and a showing of a great environmental movie called "The Man Who Planted Trees." Afterwards, Jensen and I went and hung out with some of his friends in their hut. We borrowed the friends motor bike to get back to the spa, met up with another friend for a little while, and went back to sleep.
The next morning Jensen and I had to wake up to take the friends bike back and get one for ourselves. We saw the kid when we got back to our camp. A girl had freaked out that morning when her bike went missing. The friend told her we had probably taken hers by accident. But how?
He had told us the night before to take his bike, which was parked under a tree out in front of the camp, and told us the license plate number and given us his key. Turns out under the tree is where everyone parked their bikes and neither Jensen nor I could remember the number. So we started sticking the key in ignitions, testing them all. We were surprised when the we got it within about 5 tries.
How could we have taken her bike when we took his bike? Well, the answer is unique to India. Instead of manufacturing bikes with distinct ignition holes, there are only a few possibilities for key holes for this model. So in places like Auroville, where bike rental places rent out only one kind of bike, chances are that your key will work for about 1/5 of the bikes out there. hahaha!
We met up with Janny and the three of us drove to a housing area. They have a nice little meditation center there with a pool of fish. Its the same kind of fish as in Thailand's Erawan waterfalls I think. You stick your foot in their, and they eat off all the dead skin, dirt, anything. Feels so strange but good, and makes your feet so smooth haha. Dad was on his way in the car, so we left to go meet him on one of the main roads. After meeting up with Pa, we drove just a little further down to the beach. A slightly cool beach, it had colorful old boats and lots o' folk. Walking in the sand, I just missed stepping on a rusty cluster of fish hooks. You always have to be on your toes in India. If you are barefoot, you have to watch you step every time.
Being the eve of Jensen's 21st birthday, we had to leave the parents to meet up with some of Jensen's friends at their camp. They had a bonfire going and were just hanging around without a real strong plan yet. Nobody really seemed all that enthusiastic about a big celebratory dealy. The time was tripping me out. Since all of India is one big time zone, sometimes the sunsets and sunrises are at times way early or late. It's especially weird because in summer at home, when it is warm enough to hang around at night at dark, the sunset is around 10. Here in Auroville, it was still plenty warm after the 6:00 sunset, so it seemed like it would be later than it was.
Anywho, after an hour or so of hanging around the fire, we slowly migrated to the youth center to get some food. There was nothing really happening there, so Jensen and I convinced everyone to head down to the beach and hang out there. While leaving, about four other folks decided to join us, and our fifteen minute ride down to the beach consisted of a 13 bike gang. Pretty awesome.
The beach party that some hotel was hosting that night ended up being cancelled, so we drove a little ways down the road looking for a random place to head down to the beach. About a kilometer or two down the way, we found a spot and walked down to the beach. Just 100 yards down the beach, loud music and light lit up the palm trees. how crazy that we pick a random place and it happens to have a big dance party right next to it like we were looking for. We hung out at our spot on the beach for about an hour before we got over to the club that was hosting the party. Unfortunately, they wanted 1000 rupees ($20) per person, which none of us had. Being Jensen's birthday, we somehow slowly got more and more people let through the gate for free. It got down to about 6 of the now only 9 or 10 waiting outside hoping they would let them in. Finally they agreed and let us all in for free. The club served free drinks and played the WORST, I mean the WORST dance mix I'd ever heard. It was actually quite funny. Throughout the duration of the night, they played Back in Black by AC/DC four times. FOUR TIMES.  hahahaha!! Of the 100-150 people there, probably 10 were girls. It was a fun party just because it was something new though.
We stayed there for about 4 hours before we got too tired and had to get home. With the rest of the gang dispersing throughout the night, now Jensen and I went back alone. We stopped at the beach to take a quick dip. It got windy and incredibly cold afterwards. The drive back was pretty deep. I was driving, and after about 25 minutes, we were literally within 100 yards of our guest house. I almost took a wrong turn and in correcting it, we lost balance. Sadly, I couldn't pull us out of it and we hit the brush on the side of the dirt road. We fell forwards, me first and Jensen landing on top of me. Fortunately we didn't hit any rocks. But ohh the pain haha. We hobbled back up after a few minutes and got back to our guest house (100 yards away) right after. We took a quick swim and snapped some shots of the pristine pool setting. I couldn't decide if my toe, shoulder, hand, hip or elbow hurt the worst. They all had good competition. Jensen's fractured rib starting really hurting in the morning.
The next morning, Jensen's actual birthday, we had a reservation to go inside the Matrimandir, the meditation center in the heart of Auroville. Right next to a giant Banyan tree, this gold, spherical building is unreal. Inside, no talking is allowed whatsoever. The white marble and breath-taking finish reminded me of the control room of Halo 1. No joke. I was surprised I didn't see any covenant in there. In the meditation room, there is a little hole in the roof, where light is redirected by mirrors into the center of a huge glass orb. That light goes all the way through the center of the building and out the bottom onto another orb outside, underneath it. The place is unreal.
That day we just hung around the guest house for the majority of it. We ate dinner at a dank ol pizza place. They didn't serve beer. hahhaah. Auroville is a dry community, actually. What a place to celebrate your 21st birthday ;) Switched to a different hotel that night and left for Bangalore in the morning.
I was in Bangalore for about two weeks until any other trip. In that time, I worked on my classes, played some soccer, badminton and relaxed smoothly. Met up with a friend from our camel safari for a day before he flew back to London. My guitar teacher taught me a lot of cool stuff. I started playing a whole heap. There was a music festival going on in his hometown of Ooty one weekend, so we made plans to take a bus and go for a few days.
Unfortunately, the day we were supposed to leave, he had to stay to sign some papers for his new apartment. We'd already bought the overly expensive bus tickets and I still wanted to go pretty bad. Steve seemed kind of interested, so he took Mohan's ticket and went with me to Ooty.
Finding the bus was quite difficult. It was waiting right outside this giant bus station. Right outside, but I thought it was inside. So I went through it a few times looking and asking for the bus. When we bought our tickets, Mohan gave the travel guy his number, so about 5 minutes after we were scheduled to leave, the driver calls Mohan and asks where we are. He in turn calls me and asks where I am. Ahh! But we found it right in time!
To get to Ooty from Bangalore, you have to go through a animal reserve and jungle that they close to all cars and busses all night until 6am. There are six busses a night that they let through the jungle. And we luckily, got tickets on one of them. Or so we thought. We got to the reserve around 2 or 3 am and then stopped fro 4 hours. I was too dead and actually fell asleep, but Steve got up and walked around. We ended up getting to Ooty at 10am the next morning, 11 hours after we left on the 5 hour trip. Ay yay yay! hahah.
Mohan had given me a few numbers of friends of his that we could stay with once we got into Ooty to save us from the abnormally expensive hotel prices. So we called his rickshaw driver friend Paneer and set off for Melvin's house haha. We were hoping this was all arranged and expected. Luckily it was. We got to Melvin's and were greeted with open arms. His parents were incredibly nice. His dad was a music teacher for most of his life and was a king on the tablas, which was great to watch. They cooked us the dankest indian breakfast I'd had yet, some delicious egg masala. We left Melvin's around noon for the festival, after arranging with another of Mohan's friends to stay at their place for the night.
The festival was awesome. The music was very surprisingly cool. It was on top of a hill in the woods kind of. Trails through the trees connected the two stages. The festival was actually sponsored by MTV, so the production was very well done. The first band we heard was called Peter Cat Recording Company, from Delhi. Their bassist was the funniest looking dude. We saw them after the show and I had to get a picture with him.
We fell asleep listening to the next group. Not that it was boring or anything, but the solos from Sanjay Divecha's classical guitar were too relaxing after a night of back-paining bus ride. A crazy talented harmony group was awesome to listen to. They basically skatted in harmony, all saying the same syllables incredibly fast, while a man drummed with his hands at lightning speed. Next was a great 5 piece show, combing a violin, 2 guitars, a sitar and some drums and wonderful vocals. I pulled out my camera and asked the security guy if I could take a few pictures on stage for my magazine back in the states. He barely hesitated before saying..yes. Pretty tight. I was walking around on stage, getting pictures of these guys playing from all angles. Not too often you can do that in the States!
I tried the same tactics at the next show at the other stage and it didn't work. O well, at least it worked once. But this group was actually from San Fran, and they combined a Hindi singer with a DJ, and the mix sounded pretty cool. The singer was quite attractive, so even though the DJ just stood there with his computer, it was a great show hhaha. The finale was a Nigerian band, the big singer man had a classic costume, complete with about 15 other people playing flutes, drums, trumpets, guitar, all that jazz. Literally. When the music ended we left. The bar was to stay open until 2am, but we were not about to stay up. We called Mohan, who was still trying to work out where we could stay after our original people wouldn't answer their phone. After waiting a little while, he went us to the middle of town. Thinking we had somewhere to go from there, we just waited longer beacause nothing was fitting together. Finally he called with where we could stay and we met the guy out by his apartment. A couple guys from Sudan who were incredibly nice. He actually gave us his bedroom to stay in, a very gracious offer we thought. We joked about sleeping in really late because of how tired we were, but never thought we would actually sleep until 2pm. We slept all day! haha!
That next day, after thanking Yagout and McDirt thoroughly for their hospitality, we headed out towards the tea hills. Ooty has an elevation of about 7000 feet, so it doesn't get crazy hot like the rest of India. Another beautiful thing about it- the vegetation is very similar to what you see in the Pacific Northwest- big pine trees, ferns, and the like. They also grow tea on terraced hills all over Ooty. So we thoroughly enjoyed our all day hike to the top of one of the hills, which proved to be quite far.
We ended up at the top of a big hill at a mosque. The walk down was surprisingly quick, but the search for a guest house was not. Mom and Dad were going to drive drive to Ooty in the evening, so we only had only the next day to walk around aimlessly. And that's exactly what we did! We walked from one end of Ooty to the other, and stumbled on some cool stuff on the way.
I'd seen little street fiestas (as I like to think of them because they remind me of mexican street party dealies) a couple other times throughout India. This one was exactly what I'd been wanting to find for a while now. There was some important Hindu man coming to town that day, so the townsfolk had a little fiesta. They set up real loud speakers right in the middle of the street (but didn't close the street) and had a Hindi band singing. The men were everywhere, and dancing. I hurriedly found my way to a second floor balcony to get a picture of all the dudes. Steve, not expecting the insistance of the men, got caught in the middle of the dancing for about ten minutes. hahahaa. Dudes grinding up on him hahaha. Steve's on the right side in that one.
We got a sweet pirate looking glass thang in a cool shop. Further down the road was the beginning of the parade. The street cleaner (a truck with a huge tub of water and a big hose that drained onto the road, which then 'swept' the dirt off) to clean the street for the precessions. The horns and trumpets were super loud. We found our way to the railway station, and got tickets for everyone for the little train we were taking a few days later that goes through the countryside and back.
We found a little lake and rented a paddleboat. With the looking glass and an overly frequent 'Yarr!!' the indians in the other boats on the lake were quite amused by us. We met the parents at that place in the evening like we thought we would. They were still in shock from the sketchyyyy drive up the sketchyy road up the sketchyyy hill.
The next day, with the help of the car and Murti, we were able to cover a lot more ground. We took a little tour through a tea factory (which was quite delicious) and a few other places. We took Murti to try bumper cars, which he really did not seem to like in the end. That night before dinner was the first time I felt like home was getting so far away. Sitting next to a fire in an over 100 year old house made of wood (first wooden house I'd been in for a whileee) made me feel like I was never going home. It was weird.
We got the cute little train at 9 the next morning and were on our way home by 2. Right before leaving we ran into McDirt, who's house Steve and I stayed at a few nights before. Weird! Ooty was really cool. Like a little home away from home almost, it was a nice break from the typically overcrowded, flat, hot India I'd gotten used to.
I stayed back in Bangalore for just over a month after Ooty. I got back on April 11th and left again on May 15th. While at home base, I got tons of work done for my classes. Though I could have done a lot more, I'm very proud of myself. When you always have the choice of 'Do I do this today or tomorrow?' it is very hard to say 'Today!' and it's something I've learned to teach myself to do. I met a friend or two while playing soccer on the rooftop of the gym building. I went to a party with Mohan one night. The guy who's birthday it was turned out to be the guy we were supposed to stay with in Ooty. The truth came out a month later! haha. That night when they weren't answering their phones, Mohan had no clue what to do. He was on Facebook and saw an old friend of his, from Ooty, that he hadn't talked to in a while. He randomly asked for him phone number, called him up, and asked if a couple dudes could stay at his place, and Yagout didn't hesitate to say yes. Now that shows the mentality of India. How cool.
And so April came and went quite fast. May, however, was quite a different story. For organizational purposes, I'm just gonna put that in a different post.
YAR!

Rajasthan and then some

I've been back from our 3 week trip up north to Rajasthan for about a week now, but I forgot to mention a few things prior to departure, so lemme fill you in a bit.

When I mentioned going to the lake right outside of Bangalore, I forgot to say it was closed. We got to go in because our friend pulled some strings, but most indians aren't allowed. This is because of drownings. For the most part, indians can't swim. So when an indian dude wades out a little too far and can't get back, there isn't much hope. When his friends (who also can't swim) rush out to help him, things only get worse. So they closed the lake. Except of course, for the little group of soldiers for the indian army that got a 5 hour lecture in the 85 degree heat in full uniform. And for another small group of 8 or so guys that sit and sing along to Akon and similar artists from their phone speaker. Indian guys do this all over actually. Any scenic place they'll sit and relax and listen to music from their phone, its pretty funny. As long as its not hindi music I'm not complaining.

Another day I was walking with the parents into a shop (Jensen and Steve were gone to Auroville for the week) and the security guard for the shop across the street all of the sudden had a seizure and fell back on his head. Foaming from the mouth and bleeding profusely from his head wound, the people around helped him and got him in an ambulance surprisingly quickly. It was a very strange happening. Made me feel bad for my joke about the ambulance a couple posts ago. So don't take that one too seriously.

More about traffic- at a red light, you can't take a free left turn. You can drive without lanes, maintain chaos on the road, but can't take a free left (same as a free right back home). While parked outside the dentist, some chick hit our car with hers, and just backs up and keeps going. When you get hit, you don't exchange insurance or inform the cops, you just say 'oops!' and keep going. Its funny how they have such random rules. Speaking of random rules, to buy a SIM card or get a refund or something else unimportant, you have to fill out very extensive forms of information that has no relevance. Steve signed a paper with a slightly different signature than that on his passport and had to re-do the whole thing. hahaha.

Jensen and I walked through a slum one day in Bangalore just to take some pictures and such. The kids swarmed us. This slum wasn't too desolate, most of the little houses put together from sheets of metal had satellite dishes on the roof hahah. Anywho, we walked into an open area and 20 kids surrounded us trying to get in every picture. After about 5 minutes we kept walking, and we realize that just looking around us, there were 4 kids squatting over, deucin on the sidewalk. Its a strange culture. This also means that since I wasn't watching every step, I was unfortunate enough to step in one child's gift. Stepping in human poop is something I've never really had to avoid before. hahaha!! And about thirty seconds after that, I came a few inches from steeping on the head of a dead dog. Yikes! Anyway, it was interesting to see the way of life they have so up close and personal. An amazing aspect of indian culture is how harmless they are. For the most part, no indian is out to hurt you. We walked through a slum, each holding $1000 cameras and didn't once feel unsafe or unwelcome. I feel like there's not too many places in this world where you can do that.

So there's a little more depth to Bangalore life. The trip to Rajasthan was amazing and I hope I can do it justice in writing.

The morning of the February 13th, I woke up and left the apartment at 8:30 for my 11:20 plane to Delhi. Traffic was slow, and I got there round 10:00. I had to check my backpack since they only allow one carry on, and I'd brought a big sack of food for the first day or so since I'd be on the move the whole time. I got through security on time and sat to wait for the plane. And waited. And waited. And they told us it was delayed a half hour...hour...4 hours. I'd been waiting in the airport all afternoon when I got hungry. The airline paid for our lunch since none of us had planned to be there that long. I'm not sure if it was the food or the water I drank, but something realllly didn't sit well. By the time I got in to Delhi I really wasn't feeling well.

I met Jensen at the train station and since all the trains that night were booked, we were forced to look for a room. Jensen had met a man on a train that had worked at a Sikh temple, where they offer accommodations to anyone for free. We took the metro to check it out and see if it would work to stay there. All the rooms were full though, so the only thing left was to sleep on the floor. As funny as that would have been later, I felt terrible and we wanted to sleep in a bed. We were in Old Delhi, and asked a bike rickshaw to take us to a cheap guest house. Jensen and I have no idea why, but none of the hotels in the area would accept foreigners. They just wouldn't give us a room anywhere. So our rickshaw driver took us superr deep because he thought he knew a place we could stay. My stomach was killing me, and the ride, in the dark, on bumpy roads hurt real bad. But it was kind of funny almost, that we were having such trouble finding what we thought would be a simple guest house. At one point we got pinned between trucks. The trucks, unloading bags of spices and such (which made the air sting haha) had arranged themselves so tightly in the street, they had blocked each other in and nobody could move! After 40 minutes, our rick driver pulled his bike up alongside the only hotel within a good few kilometers. The owner wanted way too much money, and we had no choice. So we settled into our room for the first night, a decently nice room. I fell asleep feeling terribly sick, and that night was not very pleasant.

We took a rickshaw in the morning back to the train station. In this area of Delhi, common to many other cities and such, there were nearly no women on the street. Still many, many men, but no women. Jensen and I started invented the "Find a Woman" game, where we go through the street (walking, in a rickshaw, taxi, etc.) and see who can find a woman first. Our longest game was 42 seconds, on a rickshaw, which means we travelled several blocks, saw maybe 100 or so men, and no women. hahaha! 

We had to wait a few hours until they started booking the train that night at 2:30. We got back at 2:31 and they told us we would have to wait in.......an Indian queue! With no time to wait in a line 1.2 billion people long, Jensen and I agreed it would be worth it to spend maybe an additional 30 cents and book our tickets instantly through a travel agency. An hour later and they send us back to stand in the line. We got our ticket for a train leaving for Jodhpur 3 hours later. We'd seen pictures of some big fort in Delhi called the Red Fort, and with some time to kill, we went towards the subway station to take us somewhere maybe nearby it. On the way to the subway, getting slightly confused from conflicting directions, we looked down the road we were on, about 2 blocks away is a giant Red Fort. Out of all the places in this enormous city, we happened to walk straight there in the short amount of time we had, pretty cool. The price to get into the fort, however, is 10 rupees for locals, and 250 for foreigners, so we decided against it.

The train that night, to Jodhpur, was my first experience with an Indian train. We were in the sleeper car, which means we get fold out little mats that we can lay down and try to sleep on. I still was feeling very well, so I had some trouble closing my eyes. Also, up north it gets a lot colder at night, and my head was right next tot a window that wouldn't close, so I got pretty cold, and the train's horn stayed pretty much in use the whole time. hahahaah!! Even the trains honk nonstop. 

We got to Jodhpur at 5 in the morning and hadn't slept much, so we went to a guest house and got a room to try and sleep. All their normal rooms were full and check out was at 9am so we would have to wait to get a room. Seeing that we were tired from basically no sleep the night before, they let us take a little nap in their nicer room until our room freed up.

Once settled in our own room, we set out to check out this magnificent fort sitting on a tall hill. The fort is 500 years old and built out of the stone they cut from the hill itself, so the hill has steep cliffs on all sides that make it stand out even more. To go in on a tour would have cost us another 250 rupees, so we decided to check out the area until maybe we could get in for free. The base of the walls had a little trail around them on top of the lower wall that we walked all around. We had a beautiful view of the city of blue houses that lay below us until the security made us leave.

So we walked back to the main entrance and snuck into the fort and walked past the entrance to the museum tour they've set up for tourists. We climbed up onto the top of a wall and saw a man with an empty bag of meat. Tons of large birds were circling us, and he explained that he throws mutton off the wall everyday to the birds at 3pm. We walked through a security guards little post while nobody was looking and starting climbing up. We walked around the very outer wall, on the edge of a several hundred foot drop-off. We ended up climbing walls and roofs until we were on the very very top of the fort, on top of Jodhpur, overlooking the endless expanse of variously colored houses. Getting down was trouble because the door we came through to get to the top had since been locked. We tried various other stairways, one of which took us to a very dark staircase covered in old pottery that had been stored there for who knows how long, with bats hanging above us. I walked into a room full of bats on accident and some freaked out and flew out and around. That way did connect back to the main are of the fort where we were trying to get, but the doors had been locked on the other side, for pretty obvious reasons. Eventually a guy saw us up top and came up to see what we were doing. We played it off as innocent, so he unlocked a door and took us back down.

I realize now that if I continue with so much detail, I probably won't ever finish writing this because there is just so much to say. So for the rest of the trip, I'll give a little summary and you can ask me later or something.

The first night in Jodhpur we met a nice man who had travelled all through India that took us to dinner and a bar and was incredibly friendly. He wanted to take us to a lake the next day but the way time worked out it didn't happen. We checked out the palace gardens across the city, and took an awesome hipline all through a canyon beneath the fort. One day we sat at our rooftop restaurant, looking over the whole city, from breakfast through lunch, playing cards, and bumping jams from the speakers they had set up. A nearby mosque had an hour and half long prayer and lecture session over their loudspeaker that drove us nearly insane haha. We stayed in Jodhpur until the 16th, a total of 3 days, before we left to meet mom in Ajmer.

We hopped on a train in the morning of the 17th in the general seating section for free, headed for Ajmer to meet Janny. Crowded and gnarly, we sat in the doorway, writing, reading and listening to music for the quick 5 hour ride. Met mom at the train station, and she was pretty flustered from the reality of traveling. Its very hard to comprehend and accept how many people there are in India, how dirty everywhere is, how loud everywhere is, and basically how chaotic everything is. Its hard for Jensen and me, and for a mom, its understandable that they would have a hard time adjusting at first. But she was ok. We took a taxi from Ajmer to a smaller nearby city, Pushkar.

We stayed in Pushkar for another 3 days. They have tons and tons of shops, with very intriguing and interesting goods and prices. We did loads of shopping and got some really fun stuff for decoration back home and such. We caught a train back to Jodhpur and stayed for another 3 days. We did the zip line again and took a tour through the fort. We even got the chance to meet the mutton man that feeds the eagles. He let us throw chunks of meet off a 550 year old fort wall that stands straight up about 3 or 4 hundred feet above the ground. It was amazing.

Janny was ready to head back to Bangalore and we were ready to get moving, so she flew home and we caught a bus to Jaislmer.

When we got to our perfectly cheap guest house, the owner tried pressuring us into a camel safari for way more than we wanted to pay. He said that he had 3 swedish girls booked to go tomorrow and if we paid now he could still get the licenses and such necessary for the trip, so we could go with them. We knew it was a bit steep, and that we should check other prices, but we didn't want to miss out on a trip with 3 swedish girls, so we decided to just go for it. We walked around the town that night and met 3 really nice guys. One was a shop owner that gave us a ride on his bike into town. The other two were sitting at the place I went to get some chai. They were both indian, but one has really bright blue eyes. He had started an organization locally known as the blue eyes school, that offered school to untouchable children. The other was a camel driver. We sat and talked with them for a while. We told them about our plans- how we were heading out for a safari in the morning with the 3 swedish girls. This was the worst news. We suspected, but now they confirmed that the 'swedish girls' weren't going, that actually, they didn't exist. Its a kind of scam the hotel owners use to get guys to book safaris right away. Pretty clever. They said as soon as we get back to the hotel, the owner will tell us the girls are feeling sick or something. So when we did get back, we asked them about the girls and they said everything was good and ready to go. Not caring too much about the girls specifically, but not wanting to go out into the desert just ourselves, we told them we wanted our money back if the girls fell through. All of the sudden, the girls were feeling sick and there was a chance they couldn't go. Once the argument got a little more heated, the girls couldn't go, and once we were basically yelling at them, there were no girls at all. Amazing how that works haha. The owner we were arguing with was clearly drunk, so we went and talked to his brother and got some money back, and got set up to go with a few guys that were heading out in the morning. Its never easy setting something up in India. No matter what, you always run into some kind of problem, but what happens while working through them is what always makes it some kind of exciting learning experience.

The camel safari was awesome. 3 days and 2 nights in the That desert with just Jensen, me, 2 really cool english guys,  a hungarian and an austrian, and met up with a french man the last night. Turns out Jensen, who thought he wasn't allergic to anything on this planet, has a weakness for camels. His throats tightened up he developed a bad cough. When you experience your first allergic reaction in the middle of a desert in India and don't know why you all of the sudden are having trouble breathing, its fair to get pretty freaked out. But after a while he realized it was allergies and just lived through it. He was in a miserable physical condition the whole trip, but still stayed pretty positive and we had a great time.

After the desert, we stayed in a guest house in a hilltop fort for another day in Jaislmer. It was the same guest house that all our new friends were staying in, so we hung out that night playing cards and drinking at a rooftop table.

We took a bus the next day back to Jodhpur with our friends, said goodbye and continued on to Delhi that night. So in total there, thats about 15 hours of bus rides that day.

We got to Delhi in the morning of the 28th, and set up a bus to Rishikesh for that night, as well as a train back to Delhi the night before our flight home. That day in Delhi, we filled a big sack with more goods we bought from this huge street market. Tons of sick stuff, dirt cheap.

Rishikesh was beautiful. It's in the foothills of the Himalayas, and along the holiest of Indian rivers, the Ganges (which they call the Ganga, but I just don't like the sound really. Plus ganga is the spanish word for bargain, which just doesn't fit.) We explored along the bank of the river and around the town the first day. We sat and played chess at dinner. Rishikesh is the yoga capital of the world. There are lots of white people. It's peaceful, with nice temperatures, and very beautiful.

The second day we were walking along a highway to find a hike to a waterfall, but saw a beautiful beach along the river down below us. We bagged the waterfall and decided to head for the beach. In between us and the beach was a crazy steep dirt and rock slope. We jumped and surfed down the rocks, it was pretty insane. Big rocks would dislodge and fall alongside us and such. Very sketchy, incredibly fun, and it got us right to the beach, where we spent the majority of the rest of the day.

The next and last day of our trip, I was up all night sick. In the morning I had a killer headache and fever that lasted most of the day. We did yoga on a rooftop over the Ganges at sunset that evening. We met a brazilian and canadian guy there that we hung out with for the rest of the night. They were super friendly and nice. The people you meet traveling are always interesting people. It's not everyone that would leave their home and go to backpack through India for several months, so the people that are- the people that we meet- are typically very cool. We had to leave that night to get to the train station an hour away to catch the train back to Delhi.

I feel back leaving out so much from this trip. I got a little journal in Pushkar that I've taken with me wherever I go, so I jot down anything that happens that exciting of funny, so I remember almost all the amazing aspects of the trip. There are so many funny stories that would just take to long to write about, that I would love to tell you if I get the chance. 

Lettuce Leaf

After a month in Bangalore, I finally started my online classes and finished up everything for my Bellevue classes. Yahoo!

We took a day trip to a lake right outside Bangalore last week. We followed one of my dad's friends there- he likes to go almost every week because he's an avid windsurfer and likes to catch the wind as often as he can. Turns out he was the Indian national windsurfing champion back in the 80's. A pretty cool guy. His daughter is the first person my age that I've really met since being here, so it was fun to see how our culture's differ in how high schoolers spend their time, and just to talk with someone my age.

Today, I bought what I need for the 3 week trip to Rajasthan that I'm leaving for tomorrow morning. I fly from the Bangalore scairport onto Delhi, and then meet up with Jensen (who's already there) at the Delhi train station, the depart west into northern Rajasthan.

Steve left last week to reunite with his mountain love, Elyse, back in Thailand. Yarr! Jens left for Rajasthan the day after Steve left. And Mom leaves tonight for Singapore, where she'll meet dad tomorrow to spend the week. So all of us will be gone, leaving an empty apartment. When they leave Singapore on Friday, ma will join me and Jens for a week in Raj.

I'm incredibly excited to start my Indian travels, and hope I'll have plenty of stories to tell when I get back. Hope the boys had a great tolo. These two months have gone by so fast it's crazy to think I'm already 1/3 of the way through my life as an Indian. 

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama Hare Hare

We went through a Hindu temple to the god Krishna, and they chant this 108 times before entering the temple. And I joined them, all 108 times.

Rama Rama Hare Hare!!!!

Yarr!

Madame, sir, only

Now the end of January, I've been in Bangalore for almost a month. Murti, our driver, takes us all over. We are still doing a lot of shopping for things we need around the apartment and what not. It takes a long time to get settled. I've been to this huge market, KR Market or City Market, twice now and it really gives me a flavor of what the rest if India will be like. Its jaw dropping. The first time I didn't have my camera, so when we were in the area a few days later, I walked over to capture the feel. All the Indian guys wanted me to take their pictures. They assume hilarious poses (this other guy was great) and then request to see the picture, followed by a 'thank you.' Most of the time they also want you to get a picture of their friend. They don't get in the picture, just the idea that you took a picture of their friend is good enough. They also know they'll never see the picture again, but they love it nonetheless. The little boys follow you around and the teen moms all beg and beg and beg. They sell lots of produce and fruit, spices, grains, peppers, and even the paint for their tilakas (forehead dots).

The whole fam made a trip about an hour north to Bannerghatta National Park. On the way there, a truck stacked a whole heap of bags into the bed. Trucks are commonly way too full of stuff and people, but this one took it to a whole new level. At the park, there was a zoo and safari and a little carnival-type-dealy. It wasn't the most amazing thing I've seen. The funniest animal was a fat monkey that ate the whole time we watched it. When it ran out of food, it reached its arm through the fence, asking for more. I'm not sure, but I can imagine that the indian government doesn't invest heavily in national parks and such. But it was a fun outing. 

Not surprisingly, sewage in India does not go through treatment plants. It goes to the rivers. And those 'love canals,' as we call them, drain down to who cares where. The smell of these open sewer rivers doesn't seem to bother anyone. Some even hang clothes on the railings of bridges to dry. Another funky aspect of the city is that since cows are sacred animals in Indian culture- they roam around all day, walking on the sidewalks, and eat the slightly edible pieces of garbage on the sides of the streets until they are herded back home at night. The sidewalks are composed of tons of blocks they lay next to each other. Some break, causing cracks, lips, mounds- just about anything worth tripping on. Texting and walking on a sidewalk is almost as dangerous as texting and driving here. 

Our apartment complex is real nice. Once you enter the gate, its a whole new world. But walk back out, and you're in the middle of the loud, lively, bustling Hosur Road. Its nice being in the middle of the city, but still in a way so out of it. We can easily run errands and what not (a few steps from the complex you can get a coconut cut open to drink for 10 rupees anytime), but can still easily lay by the pool, play badminton, or go to the gym. The place even has a card room where we played poker and smoked stogies the other night.

Cut my hair last week- the guy hacked and chopped. I met with my guitar teacher, Mohan, for the second time today. Working on bar chords and scales and what not. Steve found a Kung Fu school wheres he's gonna take 6 classes a week. As soon as I start my online classes (hahah) I can get going on another trip, which we are working on. We'll probably be going to Rajasthan for a couple weeks, leaving in a few days. I'm rather excited to get going again. The food just started to upset my stomach this morning after Lakshmi, our maid/cook, made us some bomb chicken curry last night. Hopefully that doesn't hold anything back. 

What do you call the guy in the back of an ambulance in Bangalore?   .........Dead
May Ganesh watch over you all.

Yarr!

3 Weeks in Thailand

The brothers and myself just got back from 3 weeks in Thailand. This post took about a week to write, mostly because it was done in many sittings. The links are half my photos, half the internets, and a few of Jensen's, but I included them thinking it would help to visualize and feel the country. Anywho here's pretty much most of what went down--

We left without mom at 6pm Christmas Day. Since no flights were available straight to Bangkok from Bangalore, we first had an hour flight to Mumbai. From Mumbai, a four hour flight brought us to Bangkok around noon. With the help of a friendly dutchman, we made our way to Bangkok's south train station and found a bus leaving a couple hours later for Phuket. We got some cheap food and found the bus right in time. The 13 hour ride down to Southern Thailand at first was delightful. Sitting next to the window, I was able to see the countryside before the sun went down behind the line of palm trees on the horizon. The busses- all the busses- have some sort of sound system and TV, so that they can play Thai music videos like this- normally of boy bands. They're quite hilarious. We were dropped off in Phuket at 2:30am and had no way of contacting dad to pick us up. We used a hotel's internet to find an email with the name of the hotel, so we took a taxi over to Patong Beach and arrived around 4, finally able to sleep.

Patong Beach is a major tourist spot for any european coming to Thailand, many of which are big, meaty guys that all wear sleeveless shirts and European short-shorts. An unusual combination. haha. On our first full night in Patong we stayed out and experienced a beefer's paradise. Bangla Road is where most of the action is. Both sides of the street are just clubs, bars, and more clubs, with an occasional massage parlor. We "found" a box of beers on the beach and indulged. Unlike in India, in Thailand the ratio of guys to girls on the street is about 1:1, if not better (in India it's 1:10). However, be weary. One may say that because half of the Thai girls are wearing high heels that it is impossible for them all to be hookers, but really, this is not true- there's just that many. Prostitution is basically legal in Thailand because nobody seems to care. At night, the girls stand outside their massage parlors and yell massaaaaaaaage to any guy walking by (Thai people really emphasize the ahh and ehh sound in words). It's bothersome seeing old white men with young, made-up Thai girls clinging to them as they walk, but it becomes normal after seeing it so much. In addition to that, the Tuk Tuk drivers all try to sell you access to Ping-Pong shows and such. (((A Tuk Tuk is basically a Thai rickshaw. However, the style of Tuk Tuk seems to differ from town to town. An indian rickshaw is quite plain, just like a Bangkok Tuk Tuk, where as a Patong Beach Tuk Tuk is loud flashy, and basically a pimped out mini semi truck- complete with underglow, subs, and the like. The Ayutthaya Tuk Tuk resembles a boat spaceship. Riley, this thing would be the ultimate spaceship haha.))) Anywho, that night we got back to the hotel very late after losing each other and looking for each other for hours. It was very fun, but we were definitely ready for some remote tropical exposure after a long night full of honkeys.

We left for Raya Island the next day via a day tour boat. The dock you climb off the boat onto is made of hundreds of big plastic boxes locked together. So it floats, and curls with the waves like this. Many of the older tourists that visit Raya have trouble not falling. One wave flung an entire boat's luggage into the drink, along with several old honkeys. hahaah. Raya is covered with beautiful palm trees. The white sand is as fine as powder. The island is surrounded by coral reefs, now dead, but over time, the pieces that fall off break down to make such a perfect sand. We swam and kayaked out of the bays with snorkels several times. The fish were beautifully colorful. At one spot, little jellyfish were everywhere, and swimming with them meant tons of little stings. Jensen and I went on a hike around half of the island, over the rocks that jutted out into the water while Steve and pops went snorkeling in a reef. Thirsty from climbing for a couple hours, Jensen climbed a palm and cut down a few coconuts-- much better than water.
At night, as the tide was out, the waves crashed far enough out for us to body surf. On the last night on Raya, tidal waves flipped several dinghies over the dock. The motors and everything in them were trashed. The guys that were renting them ran out to the end of the sketchy dock to try and save them, as the boats literally flew over their heads. They could've easily been smashed, it was sketch.
We left Raya after 3 days on another tour boat back to Patong Beach in the late afternoon on New Years Eve. Steve shaved his magnificent goat before dinner, which really put a damper on things. We made our way to the beach, where the they'd set up a huge stage and the most beautiful sound system. The dance started in the evening and didn't stop all night. All the honkeys from Bangla Road migrated down to the beach for the night to enjoy some great house music and celebrate the new year in a drunk bash. It was great fun. The DJ, 'Wicked Cool DJ' played Riverside and Pon De Floor several times, but it just wasn't the same without my bestest boys. Tired of the loud music and separated from my brothers, I went on a lengthy beach walk, then walked all the way around the town, jumped on the back of a Tuk Tuk for a free ride as the passengers stared at me, and returned to the room for some sleep.
The next day was our last day before dad left for Bangalore. We all got phones with Thai SIM cards and 15,000฿ (฿=Baht, 30฿=$1), which was more than enough for the 10 days we had left to be on our own. We shopped around a little and got hammocks, a shirt and some food, before frisbeeing on the beach. A trip to Thailand wouldn't be complete without a massage, so we all got 1 hour foot massages. I'd spent two nights in Patong walking around barefoot, and man, did that hit the spot. We went to sleep early and said goodbye to Pa.
On the morning of January 2nd, we had 10 days until our plane left for India out of Bangkok at 8pm.

We very easily found a bus to take us from Patong to the bus station. Jensen talked to a guy on the bus who recommended several places on the way to Bangkok we could stop at that would be nice. We wanted to split up the journey back to Bangkok anyway, and Chumphon, which is halfway to Bangkok, become our destination for that night. All the busses straight to Chumphon were full, so we got one to Ranong, a town an hour southeast. We left for Ranong around 6pm and got there at 10ish, with no more busses to Chumphon that night, so we stayed in a cheap, very nice hotel in Ranong and left for Chumphon early the next morning. 15 minutes from Chumphon is a nice, not very busy beach that we intended to relax on for the day, but the clouds and rain convinced us to head on up for Bangkok. We found a bus for later that evening and spent the day shopping, eating and hanging around Chumphon. In Seattle, I'd been looking for sweet buns for about 2 years, and would check for them in restaurants every time I went to International District, but never found any. That search came to an end in Chumphon, in a little bakery where I found the most delicious sweet buns for 5฿. When we went back to the bus station around dinner time for our bus, the folks working at the station told us all the busses were full. I almost punched some Thai lady who kept telling me something different every time I asked her a question about the busses. Luckily, when the full bus came, we were able to get on it, just without a seat. So I laid down in the aisle in front of all the other people crammed into the back of the bus and tried to sleep for the 8 hour ride back to Bangkok. I slept on the floor in the aisle of the bus, with a sleeveless shirt and inflatable pillow. No blanket, no cover, on the dirty floor. When we got to Bangkok at 2am, we had no hotel, so we made our way to Khao San Road, (which is like a lesser version of Bangla Road), because we heard you can stay there for cheap. It turned out to be where all the white tourists in Bangkok come and stay, and every hotel was fully booked, and there were TONS of hotels. We found one after an hour and hit the sack. 

Nocturnal Steve was too tired to wake up in the morning, so Jensen and I went out and left him in the hotel. We got breakfast (we always ate on the street, at little street vendor food carts deals, which usually ranged from 25-40฿), and talked to some Tuk Tuk driver to take us around Bangkok. In Bangkok, the numerous tailors and Jewelry stores and travel agencies pay the drivers commission for bringing their passengers to the stores. Knowing this, we told the guy to take us all around Bangkok to his sponsors, so that he gets money from them, and we get a free tour of the city and a great comparison of suit prices. We got stuck in a huge traffic jam on the way back to the hotel (there are traffic jams every morning and evening), so we got out and walked back about 2 or 3 kilometers. We were considering taking a river taxi up to the Khao San area, but got to the wrong pier and were close enough to walk and not spend our money. The view from the river is quite spectacular, Jensen and I went into an abandoned house to look out during the sunset. Now around dinner time and awhile since our last meal, we stopped to get some sweet, salty soup from a cute old man. Chunks of sweet, gingery tofu-ish dumplings and long salty crouton-pretzel things made a funky combination. We met Steve back by the hotel after about an hour and half of walking. We got fit for suits and found an agency that offers busses to Kanchanaburi, a stop on the way to our next destination- Erawan National Park.

We woke up and got packed, on the street and ready to leave at 7am. Since we forgot to actually book the bus, it wasn't set to come to our location right on time. So we wasted about an hour finding another bus at another spot but fortunately did find one relatively easily. The vans that take you for 2 hour trips like this are the most uncomfortable by far. There's no room to put your bag, and we all had big bags, and the seats are small to begin with. So we were very crammed, but we were getting there. We got to the Kanchanaburi bus station and had 15 minutes before a local bus left for Erawan, another 2 hours away. They had bomb ice cream at the station. When Jensen got a cone for each hand, a lady started crying she laughed so hard. I wish I had a picture because in between breaths she honestly was yelling to the other people to look at him. I guess a long-haired, blonde american double fisting ice cream cones is one of the funnier things she'd seen in a while, but she got us laughing so hard we cried too. The lady selling buns right next to her mockingly offered up some sauce Jensen had previously asked for. By the time we finished the ice cream, half the station was watching, staring, or laughing at us. The bus to Erawan was super ghetto, and I loved it. I got a seat next to the window and looked out at the River Kwai and the thick vegetation along its banks, while bumping some great summer jams from myPod. Even though this bus was probably the most uncomfortable of all, I liked it the most. The bus dropped us off in the park right in front of the office where you rent camping gear, which is exactly where we needed to go. We got a large 2 person tent, 3 pads and a pillow, and set up camp right on the bank of the River Kwai (the same river as in the movie Bridge Over the River Kwai, which tells the story of a Japanese POW camp during WWII. It's a great movie, if you haven't seen it, I would suggest you watch.)

With our stuff locked in the tent, we started up the river, hoping that it would be as cool as everything made it look. And it was. The river has 7 tiers of step waterfalls, each one different from the others, and breath taking in their own way. We only made it up to the 4th tier on the first day because it was too cool and amazing to not take you time in each pool. We spent most our time on the first day on the 4th tier, which actually may be the most common of all of them.  The rocks form a natural slide into the water, which you then swim out of very quickly because the many many fish in the pool actually nibble and suck on your skin- mostly feet and back- and while it doesn't hurt at all, it's extremely hard to just sit there and let them do it. It's pretty cool that they do it though. 

Since Erawan is as amazing as it is, there are tons of people there. The tour busses all leave by 4pm though, so after then it's just the very few people who are staying overnight in the park, none of which stay by the river all day. So in the late afternoon and evening we had this natural wonder all to ourselves. We stayed on the river as long as we could before we got too hungry. In the dark, we headed back up the trail with headlamps and a flashlight to get some cool night pictures, but there wasn't enough moonlight to pick up with our cameras. I also got pretty freaked out when we saw a spider 4 or 5 inches wide. 
The next day we made it all the way to the top, several kilometers up, stopping at all 7 tiers. Here's what they look like- 1st tier, 2nd tier, 3rd tier, 4th tier, 5th tier, 6th tier and 7th tier. There were monkeys in all the trees. This place was unreal. The waterfalls and the crystal clear water filled with fish are like nothing else I've seen in the world. 
We stayed 2 nights in Erawan because we just couldn't leave. The sleeping part really sucked though. We got a 2 man tent instead of three to save money because it was big and figured it wouldn't matter, but with all our bags inside, 3 people was a slight cram. And without any fan or so, it was pretty much like baking in an oven. It was nice waking up with the sun to get going in such a beautiful place, though. 
Our bus back to Kanchanaburi was very fun. My iPod lived just long enough for the trip, so again I got to bump my lovely music, this time while hanging out the door holding onto the rail. In Kanchanaburi we hopped onto a travel bus back to Bangkok. 
We grubbed down as soon as we got there and got a ride to Khao San to find another place to stay. Even though it was only about 9 o'clock, it still took us forever to find a vacant hotel. Walked around Khao San that night for about an hour but got tired and headed back to the hotel for some sleep.
Tired of the Khao San tourist scene, we packed up the next morning and found a hotel further south, right by the Hua Lamphong train station. We just dropped our bags off there and continued on to Mo Chit Market, supposedly the biggest market in Asia. It's enormous. The main outside walkway has shops on either side, and the inside of the semi-circle is a labyrinth of little shops that all sell pretty much the same stuff. I bought something right away and couldn't find the shop later when I realized it was missing a piece. A couple of hours is about all we could take, and Steve and myself weren't feeling incredibly good, so we took the conveniently close subway back to the station that was conveniently close to our hotel, while Jensen stayed and walked through an enormous park. 
The hotel was a little haven. 5 little (and I mean little) maids with little pink dresses mopped and swept and cleaned and walked around being cute all day. The girl that kinda ran things couldn't have been any taller than 4'10", and she had the cutest little smile every time she saw you. It was fun just walking around the halls with these fairies around. Anywho, since most hotels are very small and tight, there's no lobby area. But this place had a nice flatscreen in the corner of a comfortable little room with bookshelves and bean bags all around, where they serve sweet tea with little pretzel-y snacks. When Steve and I got back to the hotel, we were looking forward to a relaxing night of tea, but instead found a big group of Nepalese guys sitting around loudly drinking beer. It was the opposite of what we had in mind, and turned out to be a pretty upsetting night.
The next morning, we caught a river taxi to Khao San to get fitted for suits. A Tuk Tuk took us to the subway station, from there we went on to Lumphini Park, where some Thai production was filming a movie. That night we went to some mega mall in search of lens caps we'd lost and some delicious burgers. We couldn't find lens caps for the right price, but the burgers were a different story. Thank you Mr. Burger.
Jensen and I woke up the next morning to go back to the park, where we heard a lot of people wake up for Tai Chi during the sunrise, which was slightly true. We walked super deep to some mall that we heard sell clothes wholesale, but by the time we got there we weren't in the mood for shopping. We hopped on the subway back to the hotel to meet with Steve and find a place to go that afternoon. 
Jensen found a cool town we could get to by train, so we left our big packs at the hotel, loaded a few things into our day packs, and caught a train for Ayutthaya. The train ride was the equivalent of 50 cents to go 2 hours north. A Tuk Tuk driver took us to a cheap hotel run by an extremely kind and welcoming woman who had us call her mom. ahaha. 
We rented bikes and went around the little town. It's known for the ruins that it surrounds, and buddhist temples. We stopped at a shipyard full of old, asian, wooden boats. At the temple, they throw bread and little bean puffs into the river once or twice a month to feed the catfish in the river, and we happened to stop there on the perfect day. As you can see, there were quite a few fish. We also stopped at this place that raises, breeds and houses 99 elephants. We pet and fed them with the babies, and got to see a mama tweak when her baby got away from her. It was one of the more cool parts of the trip. After dinner, we saw this hilarious looking guy, with an even funnier shirt, who kept insisting on showing us pictures of his girlfriend and what we thought about her. A lot of Thai guys are assholes, a lot are goof balls, and a lot are super (slightly comically) friendly. It totally depends on where you are, but I wouldn't say there is any one way to define a Thai man like you could an Indian. Jensen lost his phone sometime that day, and our train left right before he could get it back.
We got back to the same hotel in Bangkok that evening and watched a few movies- our last night in Thailand was pretty laid back. (The movie was a french film called Banlieue 13, pretty cool action and idea, worth watching). 
For our last day in Thailand, we took another river taxi to Khao San to pick up our sweet suits. The beige and gray are quite studly. We got another quick free tour of Bangkok before heading to the sky train to the airport.
Our flight left at 8pm to Mumbai. The movie playing on the train was absolutely hilarious. You have to watch it just out of respect for Bollywood. We had a 7 hour layover, all night in Mumbai. Steve and I looked back and this was the 8th time in 3 weeks that we didn't sleep all night because of traveling. Whew! 
I'd been wanting to play some poker or some kind of card games ever since we got to Bangkok, but couldn't ever get anybody to join me. In the Mumbai airport, surrounded by the delicious scent of Kentucky Fried Chicken, I finally convinced them to play a few games of Egyptian Rat Tits. In fact, we got so deep into a game that after being in the airport for 7 hours, we lost track of time. The game consumed our attention until five minutes before our flight left... which didn't leave us with quite enough time. Yes, we missed our plane after a 7 hour layover. hahahaha. Despite being insanely pissed, the lady got us on another flight 3 hours later and got 'home' just a little later than expected.
This week in Bangalore has gone by real fast. I played in a badminton tournament in which I got destroyed by two indian men that could snipe with the birdy. I got a guitar, an acoustic electric, and have been chillin pretty hard. News of snow at home makes me want to be there real bad, but I guess I get summer for 8 months, so I'm ok. 
Hope all is lovely and fresh for those in all lands. Hail Atlantis!
Yarr!