i have three freckles

so two days ago an eagle landed on my head. and then it flew away. i dont really know what else to say about that except that it was so funny me and the small child boy that i was walking with fell down laughing.

yesterday i got darshan in the morning from amma, and then got to watch a wedding and help with prasad and then left. i took a taxi to kochi instead of the train because some guy convinced me it would be cheaper if i shared with his friend. ummm.... i think i just paid for the guy. but at least i got free AC and arrived 4 hours earlier than i would have.

with those four hours i went to a hotel, recommended by friends made at amritapuri, but the taxi driver told me it was a very bad area... it was. but i enjoyed it. a different side of india than the small villages and beach towns ive been exploring. i went to a roof top bar where i found myself to be the only woman and only westerner and somehow got several free beers. bought some bangles, watched some men take shits on the street (nothing new... TENDERLOIN!), and got horribly lost in some fabric district but made friends with a female spice seller... bought some tea and she walked me home.
this morning i flew back to delhi... i start panchakarma tomorrow. my same friendly taxi driver from the last time i was here, was waiting to pick me up. but then someone pointed a gun at me. that wasnt really scary, because he was pointing it at everyone and no one seemed to mind. still it made we question what the fuck was going on... and then 6 cars of men with guns out the window rode by and my taxi followed them, and through the window i looked down the barrel for about 20 minutes. interesting.
now i am here... but like much of my indian experience... im not quite sure what is going on. ive gotten good at eating thalis with my right hand, and speaking with gestures. im still really bad at the indian head wobble, but im learning that no one is ever going to say no, regardless of whether they actually know the answer or have what im looking for. but still... here i am. got dropped off at the clinic, went to my room (which is a total upgrade from the last time i was here) and then started to try to find out what i was supposed to do. no one knew. then i asked when dinner was. no one knew. then i walked out and joined the throngs of indian children begging me for 1 rupee and pointing to their infected scabs and waited for a cow to finish eating lunch so traffic could move again.
i found an internet cafe and here i am. i think im going to get a chai. im totally addicted and theyre using some sort of paint thats making me feel high somewhere near by and i cant stand to smell it anymore. oh shit. i just realized thats delhi pollution. man... i forgot about it. but that reminds me that as i was flying here we got close and i looked out the window and most of the clouds were grey. one was orange, and one was close to black.

please, environmentalists.... move to india.

Amma

so here i am at amma's ashram in the backwaters between kollam and allepy. very interesting time ive been having. first off, i took a boat here... which followed a train from varkala that was a bit overwhelming but short. then the boat was easy and long... beautiful though. the backwaters are rivers and lakes that merge and run north south just in from the arabian sea. so you can be sitting on the boat travelling a river while looking at the ocean and surrounded my coconut groves. really rad. however, along with most of india, the backwaters are totally fucking polluted. i mean, yes there are jellyfish every few meters, but there are also floating bottles, tires, bags, shit, blah blah and junk. its truly disgusting. im not sure why they dont have trash cans hardly anywhere in india... but they just dont.




anyway, i took the boat to the ashram and i have been staying in a small dorm room with attached bathroom on the 11th floor of building b. my roomates include an older german woman who came here from a sex ashram up north... and the sweetest girl ever, Antje, also from Germany. She didnt realize what exactly this place was and just stopped here (on my boat) to break up the trip a bit. she is hilarious... constantly talking about how she's not spiritual while surrounded by people in white sari's absolutely living for their spiritual experiences :) she wears black jeans and sketches on the steps of the temple. i adore her. she fell in love in istanbul with an american boy and wrote a comic of their affair... its rad. you can see her blog: www.antjeherzog.de
i havent been yet but im sure its interesting. anyway... she left today which kindof sucks - we will meet again in delhi - , but at least there will be more room on the floor where i sleep. the older german lady took the real bed and sleeps in the nude with her legs spread. yuck.from the tops of the buildings here are the most beautiful views ive seen so far... really magical.





and ive quit smoking. interesting. i probably would smoke if i could but i cant so ive quit :) so in terms of my daily life here on the ashram im not sure ive really gotten the hang of things yet... i met a really great yoga instructor from england who's my age and he's been helping me out a bit, but still... i spend a lot of time wandering from one building to the next. amma returned from her trip last night and tomorrow she will come and meditate in the main hall with everyone... give first timers darshan and then Wed. back to regular darshan routine. i leave on thurs from Kochi so im not sure ill be able to stay on wed. oh well... I am joining in a puja and yagya tomorrow morning at 5 and that should be an experience in its self. ok... ive gotten the 1 minute warning so good bye. more later.

from antje:

holla!

Saturday, February 10, 2007

so this little tally to my left tells me that 123 people have visited my blog this week. ummm where are you? speak to me people.i am having a moment. and indian moment if you will... where dogs come through restaraunts without care and cats jump out of my window as i come home, and right now i am listening to some sort of fighting that sounds like chanting... and yes i just got up to look and some bare chested indian men are yelling at each other while about 100 people watch. however, no fists are being raised. i dont think actual physical fighting is ever an issue here. although men constantly staring at your tits is.

so back to my moment... if i can think of it within the yangwashi sa bu ra fighting... is that i am a bit lonely. but the kind of lonely that propels me to do things i wouldnt usually do... like befriend a 50 year old woman who has been travelling the world for the last 20 years i met sitting next to me at the cafe, or going to morning yoga on the beach, and tearing through travel books i have been trading with the man in the hut next to mine.ok. i just heard a slap. maybe they do really fight.

one thing they definetly do is cuddle. and hold hands. the men that is... i was feeling so san francisco comfortable but alas none of them are gay. the culture just breeds men to be touchy feely with each other, walk around half naked, while the women are god knows where - not out and about here... and if they are they go swimming in full sari's while the german ladies sun their breasts, and everyone else wears normal swimming attire.i am however, getting a bit sick of the electricity going out. nothing sucks more than going to bed with a cool breeze from your fan and then waking up sweating and not being able to sleep its so hot... and then when you finally start to drift away, the chanting from the temple down the way gets going and its almost time for bamboo cake breakfast.

(this is the beach where ive been the last several days... because my camera charger is broken i can take no more pictures until i get back to delhi and find a camera shop.)

Dental Resort

Monday, February 05, 2007

i am sitting barefoot in the internet room of my lovely hotel which consists of bamboo huts.. and most exciting i have my own. varkala is really stunning and much more of a backpacker hang out than kovalam. the beach is below the cliffs where all the hotels and shops are. its lovely. today i hung out on the beach (after an hour taxi through towns posting billboards alternating a sumo wrestler and ammachi above the random elephant chillin on the side of the road) and watched european hippies do yoga while old indian ladies sold chai and pineapples.

jonathon and i just had an amazing fish dinner (every cafe puts their fresh fish on a table in front and you pick what you'd like) and some kingfishers for about $4 total... i love india. some people are having a drum circle directly behind jonathon's hut and im not so sure he's happy about it :) hilarious... thats what you get for talking shit about hippies...

we lost our friend though... saw her last night in kovalam but our taxi driver was driving too fast for us to say hello and so we did not wait around for her to come with us to varkala... however, we did go to the Taj, a 5 star hotel and ate dinner on the beach below the stars and drank indian wine which i had no idea existed. the place was over the top nice and i think jonathon secretly wants me to agree to spend my money staying there.... however, its not gonna happen.
i kindof feel like i could stay just here for a month... maybe do some indexing and decorate my little hut with shells and the weird skirts i had made in kovalam but will never wear once i leave india... but im excited to go the ammachi's ashram. everything here is an amma store... they even have some sort of dental resort... literally. you go there and get teeth pulled. i dont get it. luckily i dont need any teeth pulled.

beachy

Saturday, February 03, 2007

so i am in kovalam now... met jonathon in the airport in trivandrum and headed down. absolutely beautiful. a bit touristy but our hotel is right on the beach, the sun is hot the water is perfect and the fish dinners are a dollar. yes!

met a very sweet danish girl in delhi who came down with us and will travel with her for a bit. i knew she was great when she and i danced to prince with indian boys who thought they were him at some sort of rave in a shack into the jungle. it was a bit mind blowing i must say... some of the funniest people watching ive ever experienced. lots of backpackers here though... so friends.
ive just been spending my morning sitting in the sun drinking chai, listening to my ipod, and eating bananas. we're going to varkala tomorrow. should be a little less touristy and then on to the backwaters.

im hoping to have time to stay at ammachi's ashram for a few days but may just spend a day. jonathon is not too excited about it :) if anyone knows anyone who is there, please let me know.
im thinking i might stay in India a bit longer than planned but we'll see after a month of panchakarma in delhi. im planning on going up north to rishikesh towards the end of march and then down and over to varanasi with several stops on the way. if anyone has any suggestions of places to go on that route holla at me.

enjoy the superbowl! jonathon is seriously upset that there is no where here to watch it. im going to go explore some small lakshmi temple close by after a swim. enjoy! miss you all... please come visit me if you feel like cutting out :)

fuck these pants...

Thursday, February 01, 2007

so im in london... or rather in the dutyfree world that is heathrow and i will be chillin for another 5 hours before i get on my plane to delhi.
but really what i am concerned with at the moment is the pants issue i seem to be having. why did everyone tell me not to bring jeans? i look like a hippy on holiday... or maybe thats what i am. but all i can think about is how lovely 1 pair of jeans would be.

so good bye san francisco... at least for a little while. you would be proud of me. only 12 hours of travel and ive already stolen molton brown samples from the plane and convinced BA first lounge to let me use the net.

holla!

cheating?

so im in india... i left san francisco about a month ago and here i am. i have been posting a blog of sorts on myspace, and now am going to copy and paste what i have been sharing over here. is this cheating? im not sure. i also dont know how i feel about this whole blog thing, but it seems to be a hell of a lot easier than writing individual emails every week right?

pictures will be coming soon too... my camera is finally up and about.

so overview of my trip:
jan 31st - San Francisco to Delhi
Feb 3rd - Trivandrum
Feb 4th - Kovalam
Feb 6th - Varkala
Feb 12th maybe i dont remember? Kollam through the backwaters to Amritapuri
Feb 15th - Kochin
Feb 16th - Delhi for Panchakarma until March 9th

Then Hardiwar, Rishikesh, Varanasi, Khajuraho, Agra and back to Delhi for flight to Bali around April 1st and then back to Delhi around April 18th and then after a very weird esoteric treatment that takes a few days back to San Francisco.... yes.