Whirlwind of Adventure

Too much fun and not enough time to write about it! In the past 2
weeks we started in Cambodia where we got to explore the temples of
Ankor Wat on cute little beach bikes. We found a HUGE black scorpion
(dead) and fed lots of monkeys. We haggled at markets and started to
develop our obsession with fun bracelets and fake ray bans. Oh yeah,
and we sweat... a lot.

Then headed straight for the coast and spent a few days in
Siounakville. Besides the disgusting old men trolling about in search
of child prostitutes and the used syringe I fed on the beach, it was
really quite nice. Bought more bracelets from adorable Cambodian
girls that were impossible to say no to. Except when we refused to
buy fruit from one girl because she was really mean and bullied
everone... and she cursed us and wished for our boat to sink and for
us to die. The next day coming home from a snorkel trip it started to
monsoon rain and we did get slightly nervous. Luckily, another sweet
little girl made us goodluck bracelets after hearing what the other
girl said so we made it home okay.

At night we partied at some of the bars and met a really rowdy group
of aussies whose age range was 19-22. I expecially enjoyed the 19
year old, Peter's explanation of how age is just a social construct
and doesn't really exist. Then I had my favorite interaction of the
entire trip with his friend Aaron. It went like this:

Aaron: 'Ouch, I just got bit!'
Me: 'Oh no, by what, a mosquito?'
Aaron: 'No, by that guy'

Then when Laura and I hopped on the back of a motorbike to head home
Peter followed us yelling, 'What am I to do now, ladies?? What am I
to do???" with the saddest drunken puppy dog face I've ever seen.

The next day I was reunited with an English friend I made in Siem
Reap, who I had accidentally wandered away from and lost. We had
dinner in one of the beach huts and a storm hit that was so powerful
we were basically huddled in the corner waiting for the roof to fly
off and get swept out to see. After it passed, it was actually one of
the most beautiful things to watch the lightning over the ocean.

Our next stop was originally going to be straight for the islands in
Thailand, but when Laura saw a picture of one of our friends petting a
tiger our plans immediately changed and we rerouted to Chang Mai,
northern Thailand. Thirty hours consisting of a tuktuk, bus, walk
across the border, van, taxi, train, taxi and we were there. Within
two hours we were petting tigers. It was probably one of the coolest
things I've ever done. They were so beautiful.

The next two days were packed nonstop with activities. We ziplined
through the jungle, saw more monkeys, went to an awesome Muay Thai
boxing match (I bet this old Thai dude 100 baht on a match and won!!),
partied, got tackled on the dancefloor by a certain, large aussie
friend, more swimming pools, got groped (for the second time on this
trip) by a ten year old after refusing his request to look at my
boobies, rode more elephants (I got to ride right up on his neck),
went trekking, swam in waterfalls, white water rafting, bamboo raft
boating, met some really fun Americans from Chicago who are aussie
friend Tim claims the volume of our voices went up like 5 knotches as
soon as we started talking to them. Apparently, Americans are known
as extremely loud talkers... not that I'm admitting to it or anything.

We barely had time to sit down (or sleep) before we were on a flight
straight to Phuket (island on the western coast of Southern Thailand).
We took the ferry to Ko Phi Phi when our jaws dropped as soon as it
come into view. So gorgeous. The island is tiny, with a little
central town area with a maze of markets and bikes and 'taxis'
shuffling past you. And by 'taxi' I mean wheel-barrel style carts you
could put your stuff in and walk next to. There were no cars on the
entire island.

We didn't waste much time finding the party on the beach with
incredible ninja-like fire throwers and fun music. They serve their
drinks in buckets... which ultimately lead to me waking up with half
of my front tooth missing. When it happened Laura gasped and all I
could say was, "...well, it was bound to happen eventually..." It
took Laura less than 24 hours to tag me as Lloyd Christmas in Dumb and
Dumber on facebook. Bitch.

The following day we took a boat tour around the islands, went
snorkeling, kayaking, got to see where they filmed 'The Beach'. It's
the most spectacular place I've ever seen. The water ranged from
crystal clear blue to brilliant emerald green and teal(spelled that
wrong). The islands are made up of massive cliffs that soar straight
out of the water. And the new friends we made were so fun... from San
Fransisco, England and Canada. We all ended up at the same beach
party that night and had a blast dancing. Laura and I were in a head
to head sweat off, but I'm pretty sure I came out on top, not to brag
or anything. By the time our dresses were just about entirely soaked
through we decided to run into the water, which was knee deep and
extended out really far.. perfect for running and playing and dancing
in the water. Thinking it was too dark for anyone to see us from the
coast, I of course had my dress off daning in my underwear in the
moonlight. Then once we were fully clothed and running in to the
beach, there was a guy standing there watching the whole thing. As I
ran past him he had a huge smile on his face and his hand up to give
me a high five. I excitedly ran towards him and tried to high five
him back but totally missed and poked his eye... hard. Poor guy
dropped to the fetal position and didn't respond when I asked him if
he was okay. Hmmm,. I wonder if it was worth it.

The next day I went rock climbing and got beautiful views of the
island from the cliff. There were 4 other guys with me bvut somehow I
managed to be the sweatiest one. I pointed out how much of a sweaty
beast I was and the guide just laughed and said, "yeah you are."

We decided to stay in Ko phi phi rather than go to Ko Phangan for the
full moon party in order to find our lost camera. Most distressing,
awful 24 hours ever, but our perserverence paid off when we got it
back! Our extra day there turned out to be an incredible day on a
sail boat with cliff jumping, feeding monkeys, snorkeling, awesome
kayaking and some cold beers with our own choice of music playing.
Ballers!!

Today - en route to the eastern islands - Ko Samui and Ko Tao. Party on!!

~Cat

camera = found!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i got my camera back!!!!!!!!! thanks to the british girls who dance on the stage at slinky's bar who i ran into and i'm pretty sure are the reason word got out enough to get it back. and thanks to all our new friends here on Phi Phi who helped spread the word and look around and who had such positive and encouraging things to say to us.

this situation couldn't have ended any better... not only did i get my photos/memory card back, but my whole camera; i didn't have to spend $40 on printing flyers; and the $170 reward was given to the 7 months pregnant lady who worked at the restaurant and who had been incredibly sweet to us previously. i am happy to give that money to her and her new baby. :-)

worst day ever turned into something incredible!!

 

ok now on to update you all on what's been going on because i have too much energy from being so happy to go to bed....OR not because the lady just told me I have 5 minutes until they close.

 

so quick recap by date: April 28th through may 3rd, we went to Kjahuro as you know, then to the Taj Mahal in Agra, then on to Jaipur (where i bought an emerald!), then back to delhi.

on the 3rd, we flew to bangkok then went directly to cambodia and spent a few days in siem reap and toured the temples of angkor wat by bike. siem reap was AWESOME. met cool people and partied a lot. then we went to sinhouville (i dunno the spelling still). it's a beach in cambodia. it was really pretty/nice but kinda trashy.

it was at this point we heard that the tiger petting zoo was in northern thailand, not near bangkok like we thought... so we rushed everything and traveled 25 hours straight by train and bus to get to chiang mai. it was WELL worth it. the tigers were amazing as you can see, we met some really awesome aussies and had a blast hanging with them and doing the longest zipline in the world! and hiking, rafting, riding elephants, etc. chiang mai is such a cool place to go. the tourism there (as well as the rest of thailand) is SO well organized!

then on the 16th (i think) we flew down to phuket and immediately left for koh phi phi island (pronounced pee pee) because phuket was kinda trashy and filled with lady boys (aka transgender prostitutes)....

phi phi is AWESOME. it is where the beach was filmed. it may just be the most beautiful place i've ever seen. and thanks to finding my camera, you'll all get to see it too when i post pics!!

we were supposed to go to the full moon party tomorrow but when the camera got lost we changed our minds. now that it's found, we haven't decided. we kinda realized that our partying in thailand has only brought bad luck (my camera, our aussie friend's foot got slashed open due to a pool hopping incident, and well... there was another incident with cathy that i'm sure we will blog about soon... it may just be "too soon" right now though). we'll see but either way we are headed to koh samui and koh tao soon to snorkel more and kayak and cave etc. thailand is my favorite place on this trip so far. we've been meeting some really fun people and having a blast dancing til all hours of the night... last night cathy and i got hot on the dance floor (the clubs are on the beach here), so we went into the water (low tide) and danced there for hours... kicking water in the air and getting soaked in our dresses. i DID cut my foot and have to "sit out" for a bit until it stopped bleeding but it wasn't bad! and don't worry mom and dad - i used bactroban (and windex ;-)) and it's fine!

 

ok i gotta go because they are closing here but i'm SO happy we got my camera back and i'm looking forward to cherishing the rest of the trip and taking lots of pics! we only have ONE week left!!!

 

love,

laura

 

 

 

they felt exactly like stuffed animals

this one was one month old!!

i was a little bit of a tiger glutton

hahahaha that was a "roar"

i am SO thankful I got this photographer

for no extra charge i got to pet this lion too... it was actually even more amazing, he was HUGE. his name was johnny depp lol

OMG

4 month olds maybe?

yeah i'm right behind this... they were definitely NOT sedated like we expected

crazy!

no big deal... just rubbing a tiger's belly

ridic

so playful

me and one of the 6 month olds

us and our aussie friends

haha

this was the adult tiger... it was HUGE

it was a bit scary when they just decided to get up and get their sharp teeth right near your face

recent events...

I'm about to post some pictures from tiger kingdom where we got to PET tigers. it was AMAZING.

 

i'm not really in the mood to write any more now. sorry we haven't been updating as much but we've been having such a good time... except that we lost my camera last night :-( SO now i have to spend time printing flyers instead...

 

hope/pray/send good vibes... do whatever you do... if we don't get it back, we will have lost thousands of pictures!

 

i'll let you know if we find it!

 

-laura

Khajuharo

Note to self: avoid booking a morning flight the day after an Indian
wedding. We didn't get to bed til after 4am and the rituals were
still going on! What a blast though!

Next stop after Delhi: the small town called Khajuharo, known for it's
exquisite Hindu temples covered in Kama Sutra imagery. (This was a
week ago... I';m a little backed up on the blog). We got to explore
the temples with our amazing guide, Anu, who turned out to be a
professor with a masters in art history. The whole day was basically
this incredible, private lecture about the history, philosophy,
architecture, symbolism and religion of the temples. I was in heaven!
So now I'm gonna spend the rest of this blog gushing about all the
stuff I learned because my assumption in life is that everyone is as
equally nerdy and enthusiastic as I am.

So, the temples were built about a 1000 years ago by the Candela
Dynasty. They had 2 capitals in order to have one for their spiritual
center and one for a political center... thus being one of the first
great powers to introduce the idea of separation of church and state.
The location of Khajuharo was chosen because 1) it is completely
surrounded by mountains 2) it has thick layers of granite in the soil
that can support the weight of the temples and 3) it is safe from
earthquakes. Geologists figured that out 1000 years ago mind you!

All the temples face the east, because the rising sun is considered a
deity and the source of energy and power. Because the temples are an
expression of the microcosmic world they need its energy too. They
were built to mimic the Himalayan mountains because that's where it's
believed the gods live. Each massive temple houses the image of a
single god. When the statue eventually cracks, it is believed that
the spirit of that god escapes and reunites with the total union of
god. The temple is therefore no longer a place of worship and a whole
new temple has to be constructed. In Khajuharo, one temple of the
original 84 remains active with its statue in tact. The rest are
relics.

The imagery on the temple walls was organized into rows that were
meant to teach lessons. The outside of the temple included images
meant to represent the physical world and the inside represents the
cosmic world. Before entering, it was customary to circle the temple
because it is not possible to understand the cosmic world without
first understanding the physical. The bottom level represents a
creation story depicted through lotus flowers, chosen for their
ability to grow out of the mud with no root system. Then a row a
demon heads about that. It is believed to keep negative forces out of
the temple because when 2 negative come together they transform into a
positive (like the law of adding 2 negative numbers together). The
reason why only the heads of the demons are depicted is because it is
believed that when people are consumed with selfishness, they will eat
up the world and all of its resources and when there is nothing left
it will eventually consume itself all the way up to its head.

Above that is a row of elephants each with 2 masters. Elephants
represent strength and stability and thus the foundation of the world.
When controlled by masters who have only consciousness, there is
peace and beauty. When controlled by masters who have ignorance there
is death and destruction. The artist would depict this by showing
elephants holding lotus flowers with good masters, and crushing humans
with bad masters. Every so often the artist would spice things up....
one example being an elephant watching its masters getting in on
rather than tending to it. The elephant has a woman embraced by its
trunk in the midst of some pretty intense heavy petting. Our guide
pointed out, ""okay, now the important lesson here ladies is that when
you make love in the future, make sure there are no elephants in the
room!"". Noted.

The following levels represent the 4 levels of human experience:
perversion, perfection, sublimation, and enlightenment, depicted
mostly through eroticism. It acts as a guide for how to transform
your sexual energy all the way to enlightenment through the perfect
union of man and woman. The bottom level of perversion is where you
find all the orgies, beastiality, and homosexuality. When you look
further up you see couples in crazy kama sutra poses passionately
embraced in pure love.

When we entered inside the temple we sat down and our guide asked us,
""Why do you think it is so much cooler inside of the temple?". ""Um,
because we're out of the sun?"" ""No! Because there is no eroticism
on the inside!"" We had a blast. It was probably my favorite place
in India.

Next we saw the Taj in Agra and lots of amazing forts and palaces in
Jaipur. Rode an elephant, a camel, got our palms read. (Apparently
my future husband has a ''very strong sex power'... hmmm yeah sounds
about right:)

Then flew to Bangkok, bused to Cambodia. Stayed in Siem Reap for 3
days. Had some crazy nights full of dancing and swimming pools.
Frisked down by fake bouncers in front of many amused onlookers.
Midnight strolls hand in hand with a transvestite prostitute who Laura
told I may be interested in some company with. Incidentally, she
turned out to be very sweet. Many many many offers for tuk-tuk rides
and eventually getting fed up and asking for a piggy back ride across
the street... which was received graciously.

Tonight: overnight bus to the coast! HERE'S TO THE BEACHES!!

~~Cathy

FYI

If you want to buy an elephant, it will cost you $20,000

 

If you want to buy a camel, it will cost you $500

 

At this point in my life, I'd go for a camel.... however, after a few years of work, I would definitely trade in for a used elephant

 

 

-Laura

check off list for cathy!

best picture ever

yes this is real

cathy was embarrassed i made her do this.... but i bet she's happy now because it's awesome

this place was AMAZING

the taj... it looks fake huh??

temples from a distance

these buildings were absolutely incredible

my favorite carving at Khajuraho... according to our guide the elephant, while watching the couple get on it, got turned on and starting "having 4-play" with a woman haha

Me in my saree

Cathy in her saree

Jay and Pam :-) SO freakin' cute!

scarface, the governor, and richard rockin' out at the silent disco

scarface

The country with an insatiable appetite... FOR DANCE

Ok So i haven't posted in what feels like forever... partly because we've been so busy and I was more concerned with either sleeping or getting in a quick workout. Anyway... I apologize that this post is going to be so long because I kinda hate blogs just because everyone assumes you have nothing better to do with you life than read their blog all day.... but i mean.... we arreeeee pretty entertaining,. ;-) BUT I promise you pictures to accompany the blogs (probably tomorrow) so that'll be fun!

 

So I'm going to start from more recent events because they are sharp in my mind, but I do really wanna share some about Goa and Jay and Pam's wedding...

 

 

Ok so right now we are in Jaipur, which is in Eastern Rajasthan. It's in the north and to the west of Delhi. Today we went to this awesome fort (Fort Amber). We rode an elephant to get to the upper fort. There are two forts and they are both HUGE! and it was 104 degrees today... which is much improved from the 112 it was yesterday! But at least it's not humid up here like it was in Kerala. Thank GOD. Riding the elephant to the upper palace made me feel like a queen... even if like 30 other tourists were doing it too. Of course I had to ask about the animals welfare because, well, it's me. I learned for our VERY knowledgable and awesome guide that in the "winter" they are allowed to make 6 trips up and down and have to finish before 11AM. And in the summer, now, they can only make 3 and have to finish by 10AM. So you may be thinking what I was thinking... yea right, like they actually follow that. But I asked about that too and the guide pointed out officials at the bottom marking the number of trips each elephant had made (by their respective numbers). He said Jaipur is very strict on these things because there are so many tourists. I also read about an animal rights group in lonely planet that I'm pretty sure is responsible for these rules. I still felt bad though because it was SO hot and the elphants are just so damn cute! They are the most gentle creatures and are so bumbly when they walk. I hear 'dum da dum da dump da dump' as what is going on in their heads (not sure if that will translate in writing).

 

Jaipur is famous for their gems, especially emeralds. I MAYYY have bought an emerald necklace :-O... I'm definitely done shopping on this trip! We went to a store and tried on all this super expensive jewelry. it was awesome! the owners take all this time with you and give you tea or coffee or whatever you want. they act like they are giving "special deal for you" but i'm sure we are still getting ripped off. I bought a saree today (for you Allison!) and I got it for about 50% of the price he asked... but I still think I paid too much. Damn this white skin!

 

Speaking of white skin... let me just tell you how fucking annoying it is to be white here. Cathy mentioned it quite well (and actually quite literally) in her blog. But it's CRAZY. One of Jay's friends at the wedding asked what it felt like to be a celebrity here and this was before we had toured delhi... but when we went to the red fort there, i realized what he meant. Men will seriously come up to us (2 feet away) and STARE. It's like they are looking at animals in a zoo. They act like it's not weird at all. And then they either ask to take a picture with you (big mistake saying 'yes' once because then EVERYONE wanted one and we had to speed walk away with men yelling "please PLEASE!" OR they pretend to take a picture of their friend who is either 5 feet away from you and it's really obvious where they are pointing the camera or who trys to get close enough to you to be in the same frame. And mind you, we are NOT dressed like sluts or anything... we've been pretty careful about that. It's seriously gross. It disgusts me. The men here are not held accountable for their behaviour or something. It's like the society here doesn't dictate that they in ANY way suppress their animal insticts to want to hump at the first sight of flesh. It's SO annoying. We haven't been groped yet (except a minor incident with Cathy at the silent disco where our Irish friend almost laid the smack down)... but I have this fantasy of being groped (gross guys, not that fantasy part!)... and kicking a guy in the balls SO hard that he can't have kids. Every man that comes within 2 feet of me, I'm very conscious of and already have a plan of how I would inflict serious pain on him (see Dad, I told you you taught me well!). I kinda want it to happen... is that bad??? Our friends we've met that live here (white women) say that if you stand up for yourself, people will defeinitely step in and come to your assistance... which i guess is somewhat comforting.

 

 

Ahhh I'm losing time... we are about to go for a camel ride and dinner....

 

So I'm gonna share one of my favorite things about Goa (even though it was over a week ago)...

 

So Goa,... Cathy put it quite well... it was a BLAST! We went from watching this big group of people hang out outside our lunch spot and being jealous of their rowdy nature, to moving into the huts there and befriending that same group and being rowdy right along with them. It was instantly easy to be with this group... except the accents... British, Irish, French, South African, Dutch... ALL DRUNK - makes for some interesting interactions. And seriously... the Irish and their leprechaun greetings are enough to give you a heart attack if it interrups the scerene sound of the ocran waves during breakfast... even if they are saying something as delightful as "top of the mornin' to ya!".... and even if that "top of the mornin to ya" was a mandated condition to being our friend...

 

SO on to my favorite thing... Getting to Goa (Palolem), we noticed about 30 dogs per 100 yards on the beach. Cute little scruffy things romping around - rolling in the sand, beggin (and getting) food from tourists, chasing birds, chasing each other, and most commonly, lounging under every lounge chair occupied by a person (or a towel) to give it shade. It was SO cute! It was as if each tourist had brought their own pup from home and they were just sitting at their feet as usual... except the dogs were not owned or even known... they were just enjoying the company of a new friend.

 

After the first day of observation (and explanations from our French friends whop'd been there quite a while) we learned that there were kind of dog 'gangs' that each group of 15 or so dogs had their own area of the beach and if dogs from other territories came into their area, the local dogs would beat their asses. They'd all get up and run barking at the tresspasser and scare him or her off. It was ridiculous- especially since they were such mild mannered dogs when it came to humans.

 

We learned from our IBP (international beach possee) that there were two dogs that were everyone's favorites. They named them scarface and the Governor (because he was the head honcho of our group). These were the dogs under OUR chairs and tables. Scarface was my fav and he probably gained 5 lbs in the 3 days I was there because of how many scraps I gave him.

 

I think the ebst example of the pups charm was on our last night when we went to the silent disco. Scarface and the governor led (not followed) us there. Looking back every few minutes to see what was taking their two legged friends so long! We walked about 20 minutes to get there with them along the way (and with us having to scar away the dogs of the local territories so our dogs didn't get beat up). When we got to the disco, the human bouncers wouldn't let our dogs in and tried to shoo them away. But we watched as the governor distracted the guard and scarface went by. then minutes later the governor was in too. We danced the night away with our dogs right by our sides (pictures to come). There were probably 200 people at the disco (an outside large venue on the beach) and our dogs stayed right next to us. Every 30 minutes or so I wouldn't see them, but then a few minutes later they'd be right back there with us... maybe they were gone getting a few drinks... It was crazy how loyal they were! They were definitely living the life too... I don't think they'd go two minutes without being pet or scratched by on of their humans. :-)

 

I'm going to have to write about the wedding later because I gotta go, but one more thing about the dogs (sorry if you aren't an animal person... this probably isn't itneresting to youif you aren't).., But there was one night when I was woken by what sounded like someone trying to get in to our hut from the bathroom (which was pretty much outside... these huts weren't to secure- sorry dad!)... I kinda got freaked out but I heard one of our dogs run around back (again the huts are not very thick walled so you can pretty much hear everything). the dog that ran behind immediately started ferociously barking and about 5 other dogs ran back there and joined him barking. I didn't hear a person run away or anythign so for all I know it could have been a monkey but still... the dogs were totally protecting us and i actually felt completely safe to fall back asleep knowing the dogs would let me know if anything was wrong. Well maybe not completely safe...i still slept with my knife...

 

 

in summary, dogs are man's best friend and probably the best thing every created. off to a camel ride...

 

 

xoxo,

laura

 

Delhi!

I really wasn't expecting how different North India is from the South,
but I'm so glad I got to experience it. The most obvious right off
the bat being the break from humidity... thank god! Everything is
brown rather than green. Architecture looks much more Arabic. Men
tend to wear trousers rather than the white sheet-like things that
wrap around the waist then fold up at the knee. And there is much
less head bobble. Delhi, being as massive as it is, has much larger
highways, but with the same total lack of regard for any/all traffic
laws. That being said, we did notice a significantly less amount of
horn honking. We didn't get the standard 3 honk minimum warning every
time anyone passed a person, goat, bike, cow, scooter, truck, or car.

The city is crowded, even more chaotic and you are constantly
bombarded with a million things or people to look at and an equal
amount of people looking at you. Laura and I spent Tuesday
sightseeing and were constantly approached by strangers with requests
to have their photograph taken with us, or followed persistently by
groups of boys. I felt like we should have been on an episode of
national geographic with the British voice narration... "Notice the
two light colored fertile females slowly being outnumbered, inevitably
backing themselves into a corner as the males close in on their
prey..." Unfortunately, it started to become more than uncomfortable
and we ended up cutting some stuff short because of it... bastards.
In Kerala, it's not like we never got looked at but for the most part
people could care less that we existed. I suddenly understood the
concept of veiling your face as a way to control who has the right to
view you. I guess I never realized how invasive it can be to be
stared at, as simple as that may seem. In fact, I'm being stared at
as I'm writing this... go figure.

Next we visited the site where Ghandi was cremated. It was a gated
park with tree lined walk ways and huge open aired grassy lawns. In
the center there was the black marble platform made into a monument.
You were required to remove your shoes about 20 meters away from the
monument. aThe stone walkway was so hot in the sun you could probably
fry an egg on it, making the no shoe thing seem like a really cruel
joke. But it was worth it.

Between sightseeing we got to partake in a lot of wedding
preparations, my favorite being getting henna painted on the back and
palm of both hands. I noticed after comparing mine with the other
girls how much less intricate my designs were, but then I realized how
overwhelmed the artist must have been when first laying eyes on my
gigantic sasquatch hands and figured he did an outstanding job under
the circumstances.

Dancing machine.

Goa. Im not sure if its possible to sum up our time in goa in words
but ill give it a shot. Too short, for starters. Paradise. Once we
settled in to our beach hut we checked our shoes at the door and
didn't touch them again for 4 days. The sun was so intense that even
though we went through an entire bottle of sunscreen we still ended up
just as tan as after a month in Hawaii. The water was warm but still
refreshing with endless, perfect waves. We had somewhat of a little
community of amazing, crazy fun friends in neighboring huts. Two of
the beach dogs, the governer and Scarface became loyal friends who
would bark at anyone they didn't know walking around our huts at
night. They even followed us to the silent disco and managed to sneak
in so they could hang out while we danced. In the evenings we'd sit w
a cold beer and watch the sun sink into the haze over the ocean. And
in the mornings we convinced our Irish friend, Ger, to greet us w,
'top o the mornin to ya!' every day. Laura nearly had a heart attack
one morning while she was relaxing and waiting for her breakfast and
he crept up behind her. I think for a moment she was convinced that a
leprechan had just sprung out of the bushes. Anyway, apparently, Irish
people don't actually say that...or 'where are me lucky charms?' for
that matter. I don't know why... Id sure as hell use it all the time
if i were Irish.
Our last night there we danced up until the last minute we had
and then left to catch our taxi to the airport. On our walk home, as
we descended onto the beach from a stone path, apparently i got teary
eyed and made everyone stop and watch the ocean in the moonlight
saying over and over, 'its just the most beautiful thing I've ever
seen!'...um yeah i may have had one too many. But it was really
pretty!! As much as i wanted to miss our flight out and end up
'having' to stay another few days, we somehow managed to navigate
through 2 airports and land in Delhi safely. We had a few hours to
sleep and headed straight to an engagement party for our friends jatin
and Pam. Within minutes we were pulled out onto the dancefloor and
taking shots w their friends and family. We were exhausted but the
pure energy and enthusiasm filling the room kept us going. Cousins,
aunts, uncles, grandparents... I don't think I've ever met a family
that loves to dance so much. Its been amazing and a nonstop party...
And we havn't even gotten to the wedding yet!

Cathy

little puppers are everywhere. it's the BEST life a dog could have!

cows chillin' on the beach

to do list

just such a good representation of that night

amazing boogie boarding and new friends!

view from our beach hut hammock in Palolem, Goa

shhhhhhhh

So we are in Goa right now and it is absolutely AMAZING. I've never seen such a dense collection of palm trees and the beach is PERFECT for body surfing/boogie boarding. Cathy's blogging about this too, so I'll just talk about our awesome night last night

We met some dudes on the beach yesterday and ended up boogie boarding for a while. they were super fun and introduced us to their giant eclectic posse (5 french people, one dutch, one south african, one british, one irish, all fun). the french dudes were really excited about the silent disco that night and although our boogie boarding buddies had vowed to make it a quiet night, we quickly got them to change their minds and we all went to the party after dinner (at midnight... when things pick up here). So we walked down the beach (you don't have to wear shoes at all here... our friends haven't worn shoes, even sandals, in 2 weeks) and we followed a sign and a dark pathway lit somewhat by neon lights on the palm trees. we got the to club and it was so weird because it was really quite. See in Goa, they have noise restrictions... the cops really cracked down because I guess it would get so loud and rowdy and all these places had to turn off the music at 10PM. so some genius came up with the idea of having a club where everyone wears headphones. There are still DJs that spin but the music goes straight to the headphones. then in another genius move, they decided to have two channels to choose from. So you can be listening to your favorite house/trance music and your dance partner can be listening to matt and kim or kanye or whatever else is on the random channel. everyone's happy. every now and then you'll take your headphones off and head people signing the words to whatever they are listening to. and then there's the "HEY WHAT STATION ARE YOU ON?" and you take a listen to their set... "OH SWEET ME TOO" (all yelling because your music in your ears in loud but really you're just in a quiet room screaming).

it is AWESOME. supposedly there is an even bigger one tomorrow night. since our flight out is at 6:55AM and it takes an hour to get to the airport, i have a feeling we won't be sleeping... seeing that we left at 4AM last night and that was an "early night."


we are staying in these awesome beach huts for about $12 a night. they are RIGHT on the beach and there's a hammock out front. i can't even describe how awesome it is here. our group of friends (who all came separately and met here) were each supposed to be here a few days, but they have been here two weeks now. they said everyone postpones their trip here. in a way i wish we could, but in a way i'm really glad we can't because we have Jay and Pam's engagement party in Delhi! (and if we did postpone, i feel like we may get stuck here forever).

i'm off to go back to the beach... i got SO burned yesterday. the sun is really intense here, but once the midday heat is gone, we're kayaing, boogie boarding, swimming, playing vollyball, going for a run/doing yoga.... :-)

And so it begins...

We learned a new term yesterday. BIITL. or 'bittle'. It's an
acronym for 'been in India too long'. A week ago I didn't understand
that concept. Having arrived in Goa, it makes so much sense. Goa is
the place were backpacking hippies stop into town for 2 nights and end
up staying 10 years. Within 24 hours of arriving we've made about 15
new friends from all around the world and have all ended up extending
their stays. It's amazing. The waves are absolutely perfect for
boogie boarding and makes you feel like a kid again. The palm trees
are thick and the ocean breeze could not feel any better.
Conversations are always interesting partly due to some of the
mis-communications from all the different accents. Last night a
french guy was explaining to me and an English guy how his dad used to
be a rocker and wear tons of "lazer"... after about 5 minutes the
English guy figured out what he was trying to say and said to me,
"oooooh i see i see.. it's 'lever'.. his dad wore tons of 'lever'"...
then about 5 minutes later I finally realized he was saying "leather"
and then it made a lot more sense. We ate dinner and drank on the
beach after sundown and headed the silent disco around midnight. I'm
totally bringing this concept back to the states. It may have been
one of the best nights of dancing I've ever had. Four days is not
long enough here.

~Cathy

Med School: check.

Our last rotation in medical school is coming to an end. Amrita
Hospital definitely offered a unique experience, to say the least. On
the wards, it wasn't unusual to find Hindu/Ashram style hymns playing
over the sound system, or smell insense burning from a patient's room,
or find one of your patient resting on a bed of bannana leaves. We
had last friday off for the Hindu holiday called Vishu, which is a
celebration of a new year, differenct for every state depending on the
cycle of the harvest. One of the 'sistas' (ie nurses) placed a 2
rupee coin in each of our hands to wish us wealth and prosperity.

We were excited to have a day off but soon came to find that everyone
else had the day off and therefore nothing was open. We decided to
head to the touristly part of town (Fort Kochin) to watch a
traditional Indian play/dance performance called Kathakali. The story
was narrated by a singer who also played the symbols alongside a
drummer. The character's faces were painted with very intracate mask
like paints involving rice paper as accenting. Their only
communication during the play was through gestures and really
exadurated eye movements. To cut to the chase, the grand finale
involved the protagonist eating the disemboweled body of his enemy
while he brushed the blood through his lovers hair. It may just haunt
my dreams for a year or two but no big deal.

Buuuut anyway... on saturday two of my friends flew into town (Greg
and Kate) and we spent our Sunday lounging next to a pool at a ritzy
hotel in Fort Kochin... eating, laughing, eating, swimming, laughing.
The pool, although luke warm and small, was incredibly refreshing
nonetheless and felt amazing. The only drawback was that there were
these odd little beatles in the water that would bite you if they came
in contact with you. Then as the sun set several bats were swooping
down for a taste of the water just feet away from us. Blood thristy
pool beatles and aggresive crazy bats flying at your head
unfortunately only fed into my irrational fear of unprevoked animal
attacks. Later we befriended a pose of really cute (and friendly)
neighborhood dogs that Greg insisted were his 'minions' even though
they flocked to Kate that second she came around. Then indulged in an
assortment of delicious french style tarts. What a life:)

After sundown we walked along the waterfront which turned out to be
beautiful with strong waves popping up onto the rocks during hightide.
The moon was full and breeze was heavy and cool. All the fishermen
had the last of their catch out on display trying insistently to
unload them on anyone walking by. We were offered an enormous 3 foot
fish for 100 rupees... raw, or cooked up on the spot. I mean really,
what did they expect us to do with a 3 ft long fish? It's not exactly
street food.

And as for today.... the heat is oppressive.... oppressive!!!

~Cathy

where are the tiger?! I mean LOOK at this field! How are there not tigers here??

this ballsy monkey was just taking his sweet time drinking from the faucet

i was nervous in this pic bc he REALLY looked like he wanted to jump on me and these monkeys were little bullies... stealing food from people and pulling on ladies scarfs

here's the limit... i'm bad ass

Our weekend getaway

Laura and I decided to escape the heat this past weekend by traveling
inland towards the Wetern Ghats. It's incredible how nice and cool
the air was up there. We had a private taxi cart us around all
weekend which allowed us to squeeze 2 weekend trips into 2 days.

We left Friday evening and drove out of Kochin a way we had never been
before. It's election time now so the street were packed full of
supporters and speeches and demonstrations and weird jeeps with 4 foot
speakers blasting music or political propaganda driving around. We
past a crowd marching in all white carrying red communist flags and
chanting. Pretty bizarre to see, coming from America. The 2 major
parties are the Communist and the Congress parties. Our tour guide
told us that he thinks the Congress party will beat out the communists
this round. Mainly because the communists are very resistent to
change and development. Election Day is today so we'll have to wait
and see!

The sun was setting as we entered the mountains and the smells changed
quickly from those of the city to forest and dirt and rain. The air
was so humid and cool and there was mist everywhere. For a moment,
the drive actually really made me feel at home... driving down a back
road in the woods on a cool summer night after a rainfall. It was
nice.

As we got to Munnar, all you could see were the sillouettes of the
mountains with scattered lights and the stars. I could see the big
dipper perfectly from my window. The scoop was facing down towards
the earth... which I'm pretty sure I've never seen it that way in the
US (but I could be wrong). I told myself it was a unique experience
regardless.

Our hotel was awesome. Except we were expecting to walk out onto our
balcony and see the lush green hills only to find the next hotel 3
feet away looking directly into the window with a couple in bed.
Awkward.

The next day we spent hopping all around Munnar seeing the sights. We
hit up the Tea Museum which showed a cool documentary of the history
of the area. The rooms had all the british influence with heads of
animals that were hunted at the time. "A lovely room of death" as
Laura would desrcibe. Next we went to a national park and took a bus
up to about 1 mile in elevation and hiked around this area where a
really rare breed of goat hang out. We pet one and almost got butted.
At the boundary for where we were allowed to hike there was a sign
marking the area that said, "Here is the limit". So we obviously had
to take pictures dashing across it.

We saw a big damn with a lake and shopped at all the merchant shops.
It started to rain and ended up downpooring. We saw bees nest high up
in the tree tops and people selling huge jars of "honey" on the side
of the road... which we learned was actually just colored sugar water.
Rascals! Then we moseyed around a flower garden and hit the road for
Periyar, a four hour drive on this windy, narrow beautiful road
through the jungle.

Periyar is a wildlife/tiger preserve with a really cute town at its
border. We stayed overnight in the town and then got up at 5 am to
catch the first boat ride out on the river. 2 1/2 hours later... we
set sail. (I could go into the extreme inefficient use of time our
tour guide used, but I'll leave that up to Laura). We got to see some
wild elephants, bore and buffalo from the boat getting their early
morning river drink on.

Then we went on a guided 3 hour trek through the jungle. Our guide
was very nice, but tiny and had no weapons on him. Initially he said
that there wasn't any tigers in this part, and if there were it'd only
be at night. Then about an hour into it he said..."well, actually I
guess there are some tigers that come this way to hunt... but I don't
have a gun... haha". We were like WHAT THE.... But it was okay. We
saw lots of moneys and these crazy big deer that bark at you when you
startle them. Also lots of cool birds, a mongoose, swarms of
beautiful butterflies, elephant tracks and big holes that bears had
dug up to search for terminites.

Then we got to ride an elephant!!!! She was BEAUTIFUL...and 27 years
old, just like me!! Her trainer was soooo nice and said that he had
been with her for 12 years and that they were very good friends. He
would speak to her in Maylalam and she would do exactly what he said.
We asked if she had any babies and he answered, "Oh, she's not
married!" It was a lot of fun.

Pretty successful weekend. Long winded description. Enjoy the pictures!!

~Cathy

she was so sweet!

!!!

elephant!

from atop an elephant

crazy barking deer

waiting forEVER for this trip. god this country is so inefficient!

beautiful tea fields at munnar

rare goats only found at this one place in the world in munnar