back to bali

im here. my god. i feel home.

back up a few days ago i was running around in the snow in inappropriate footwear, sopping wet, cold, trying to store my 1 million belongings (ill never understand why i own so many aprons or tapes), and left to kansas city with boxes still in my living room and about 6 bags of trash on the kitchen floor.

my dad drove me the 4 hours to catch a 99 dollar flight. on the way there i threw my little red flats (said sopping shoes from above) out the window and then boarded a plane with my backpack and huge bag filled with medical supplies. finally i was off.

landed in SF to be picked up by sara, found out animal chin is not actually a real person as i hung out in oakland with robin, ian and dezi. ate ethiopian food. drank beer with mara. drove around with emily. ran into excitable andrew at REI. got about no sleep. and danced to my favorite breaks at madrone. re fell in love with the city by the bay, lost my cellphone an hour before i left for the airport, found out my credit card stopped working and gave into the total mess that is my life.

our flight was long and involved sara and i making a sandwich of ourselves (her lap, my head, her head on my back, squashed) sleeping lots of hours, nasty food, weird movies, and then landing in taipei. our second flight included being bumped to biz class. huge seats. too much leg room. bloody marys, white wine and about 6 hours of super mario bros. it was lovely.

finally we arrived to deal with customs for the following hour or so, bribed them, got our medical supplies and drove off with noel through the fucking brightest green dotted with my favorite flowers to the village of nyuh kuning where my heart feels at home. im a total fucking sap and its undeniably true... bali brought out all my happiness last year and though its still pretty much at maximum level, coming back just feels so good.

so anyway, im here in the balmy heat, already sunburned from riding around on the motorbike, curly headed as ever, barefoot, outside while inside, day dreaming about surfing later this week. im hoping to get in some births in the next few days, tomorrow i have my first meeting concerning the youth center project, and a some more days after that i move down to sanur by the beach.

yes.

look and listen

this week i cant stop listening to:
andrew bird
ghosts on tape
chromeo
ween
sonic youth
Nicole Willis and The Soul Investigators
kid sister
the blow
electrelane
murder city devils
liz phair - Juvenilia
shwayze
chow nasty
de buntu
section amour
grizzly bear
blaqstarr
white shoes and the couples company
lay low
heliocentrics

i cant stop looking at:
invisible god


omega: the unknown 1 - Farel Dalrymple's new shit. so so so good


and these guys...



Vic Blue's photographs


and as always polanoid.net



can you tell me some new stuff to look at and listen to please?

catch up

Just a poppy seed in a big bowl: 23.8.2007 mixed with now

i went on a trip. i came back awhile ago and just realized that this never posted on this account, so lets call this catching up with y'all.

Colorado: day one
Train ride. Ottumwa to Denver.
Ahhh. Tutumwa scumwa nasty little mumwa. I had forgotten about the beaten down brick buildings away from target and over by the school. Its yucky really, however the idea of wandering and taking pictures there with film is amazing. Marc drove me and bought me dinner at the Chinese buffet next to the triple x theatre and cracked pavement. It was pretty banging, and then on to the train where I proceeded to index and make a mixtape for the next 12 hours. Again appreciated the green of the Midwest until it got dark and everyone slept and snored and I indexed and was bitter.

Colorado: day two. Actually day one.

Kayla and KT met me at the train station. before I got to them I rounded the corner into the actual station to find the security guard with a smile holding a sign with my name welcoming me to Colorado. This is why I knew those girls would be friends. Yes!

The day involved indexing in my pjs on KTs bed. Being given a 10 minute warning to get ready for the DNC kickoff event. Luckily in the hopes of a fake/real business meeting dress up party with Kayla in rural Wyoming I had packed a dress. Albeit a longer black long sleeved dress, but DNC appropriate all the same. So in our outfits we marched to the parking lot outside of some stadium. Met some man who owns some radio station who hooked up the VIP tickets - minus one, snuck Kayla in and then stood on the concrete in the burning fucking sweating ridiculously hot sun for an hour. Then we left. Good times. Never actually went into the event, however watching the political folks (folks is a good word for people when youre talking about politics me thinks) squish together under one small patch of shade while their makeup and stiff hair melted was pretty funny.

Spent the rest of the day meeting Kayla's dad, indexing (pure hell), thai with the twins and my Katie, drinks at the other KTs wine bar, getting lost in Denver, finding the venue, seeing coolzey's show, loving shang's moustache, drinking too much, telling so many strangers to get lively, finding a bodega that smelled like Chicago, going home and cuddling with the fam on the living room floor. adore my sister.

Next days mixed together: found out my mom was coming to Colorado, stayed and hung in some sort of spa and drank some amazing wine, went to Wyoming, worked worked worked. Kayla and I met cowboys in bars who cooked us gourmet meals and then we slept and did nothing but work.

Denver again. It was kt rice's birthday which involved softball games, reee-dic clubbing, very strong men doing the running man, ayni in rare form, and then buying a ticket to leave for vegas the following day.

Vegas for about 18 hours was incredible and exhausting and we'll leave all of it right there except mention that the drive to LA with ebeth and nards afterwards was spent in silence and then every 5 minutes one of us mentioning how we "didn't feel so hot". Total burnout maneuver but I think worth the fun J

Anyway, on to LA where Zac Sluser hooked it up, fish taco's, air conditioning, pool parties, and maybe some ayni procrastinating going to SF. Eventually though after a killer coffee session with arek reeder I went up to the city I used to call home and had a whiskey filled slumber party with ken, slow beers with britt, keys to sara and jivan's, a little bit of a dance party and moved all my belongings into a trailer hitched to the pathfinder.

Left sf at 7pm. Left my phone in a gas station bathroom at midnight. Realized it at 2. backtracked until 3:45. ran out of gas on the side of the road until 7am. Put on a dress and boots out of boredom. Restarted the trip at 8. engine ceased in the middle of fucking nowhere at 11. stood with dust to my ankles flagging down truckers weird dress blowing in the wind until 3p. got towed to elko's biggest casino's parking lot at 4. gambled my only dollar at the slots. Made an old man buy me a gin and tonic and cried.

All in all it worked out and I no longer have a car but I have bought a bicycle and after falling under my mattress and getting stuck for a bit I managed to switch all trailer belongings into a truck and drove straight the rest of the way.

Im here now. I love it. I love taking my marker box to the park and drawing postcards on pieces of wood someone threw away. Having date nights with Joanna and generally causing a small ruckus. I should be working one of my 3 jobs at this moment but instead letting you know that I may have become one of those people that desires to live everywhere she goes. Thus a poppy seed in a really big bowl.

Going to share now...


WINNER OF THE WEEK! And by winner I mean winning nothing and totally my favorite:



BOOOMBOOOM.
His Polaroids are amazing. Which reminds me if youre not already perusing it you should be: poloanoid.net
if for nothing else then that their tagline is:
This is the slamming comeback of Instant Photo Fun.

night biking

i like being in fairfield. ive adjusted. its green... so fucking green. and the dirt is dark dark brown and things seem to grow pretty quickly. im making friends with a lot of old people and i like it. i like the clouds too... and as always, the long wide iowa star skies are amazing. so are the thunderstorms, and the cost of a beer.

so driving with joanna down the street on a particularly tree filled and garden flowing block there was an apartment for rent sign and i looked at it and then gave them a deposit. the windows are covered in vines and there are 2 bedrooms and its the cheapest rent ive ever paid. im living there mostly however because the back yard matches the iowa indian summer fantasy of blackberry iced tea, thick grass, reading books with music coming out the window, and drinking beers while playing party dress croquet. i am so down.

this is a big deal for me.... HA! 8 years later im coming back for more. so here i am finally with a home base after 7 months of surfing it. i can at least have a craft table and a kitchen. ill be here until january when i head back to bali. there are about 11 trips in the works in these coming 4 months so who knows how often ill actually be sleeping in my own bed. ps that means get your couches ready... nothings changed :)

next up: tuesday evening im boarding a train to denver. gonna meet up with Kayla, KT, katie and go to a coolzey show. then ft. collins, and on to wyoming, and i guess san fran to grab my shit as quickly as possible and get back to farm country for a sustainable agriculture course im gonna take and youth center planning. and working. and playing :)

come visit me if you need some fresh air. otherwise save your money for bali :)



on more visual topics... as you may know, i am and probably will always be obsessed with eggleston. so tonight as i browse around for music to fill my ipod for my upcoming trip im gonna share with you what ive been staring at:

let's talk about it

you know, some stuff like foxes and pictures and iowa and that summer time fun.

came across this today and love it. from a blog i frequent of a girl i spent time in south india with. check it out:


i just seriously enjoy it.

anyway, back to the moment of which i am currently in iowa. to be more specific in my father's basement basking in the a/c listening to matt and kim which is an incredible relief from the humid heat. i mean water literally hangs in the air here which is both amazing and awful and reminds me of every summer of my childhood. makes me want to wear a uniform skirt knee socks and smoke cigs in the grass behind the rec center. i returned from peru a few days ago, and will be here until next week when i head to colorado to meet kayla to go make things happen.

in case you havent yet heard... we (kayla and I) have started a foundation to create sustainable, community based projects in developing countries, and i will spend 2008 in Bali opening a youth center. what this means is that im doing everything in my power to learn about computer classes and organic farming, and setting up a music studio, and putting up drywall, and getting art supplies donated, and learning how to silk screen and on and on. on top of that im of course learning about the legal structure of non-profits, talking about public health studies, and listening to a lot of hip hop. there will be mucho mucho more info on this shit coming your way, but if you want it right now or want to help me please let me know :) all of it is appreciated.

so my days over the last week have been spent indexing for my bank account, researching for the project, drawing postcards for my fidgety fingers, day dreaming about farming mostly because its so god damn green here, lots of yoga, lots of bike rides and occasionally accidentally walking in the rain. the most important activity though has been seeing foxes. like literal red sly beasts slinking around the fairfield graveyard when im talking a puff or dashing in front of the bike light as im racing around in the middle of the night. i love them. i want to wear a fox costume and go hang out with them. actually now that i really think about that statement i realize i dont want to wear a fox costume, because it wouldnt actually be that fun. but maybe id like to wear a better costume, like a space suit, or a business lunch outfit from the 80's and then see a fox and have it come and hang out with me under a willow tree. aaaaahhhh.

ok, im getting distracted. other interesting things have been listening to this guy:
http://www.myspace.com/shwayze



going to various fairfield "dive" bars... can you even call them that? and drinking more coffee than is probably appropriate. things that im missing are my real cameras, the ocean, mara fox, kayla barnes, waniss, and my sister's giggle. also, my guitar.

hope youre well. something more interesting will be showing up here soon.

weddings and alpaca

hola chicos... ahhhh shit. ok so im in peru which is a trip following attending nate and jenny´s wedding in chicago. the wedding was great. an incredibly beautiful ceremony followed by a dance party and cuban food celebration. in true ayni style however, i got confused and was late and ended up having to get ready, dirty and hungover from the night before (i got to hang with adam!), in the bathroom of the church, only to realize i had forgotten my makeup, jewelry and the part of my dress that covers my boobs in chicago. great. but it worked itself out, and besides a brief moment when i was intentionally socked in the left eye by an elbow thrown out in chicken wing style things were bangin.

so i arrived in lima a few days ago... met my sister at her hostel and then bounced around for the next two days. hung out with some surfers from mancorra she knew as well as a writer for a sitcom she worked on a movie with. ate ceviche, drank pisco sours, and generally realized how little spanish i know. lima is interesting but nothing too special, however when we arrived in cusco i fell in love with peru. cusco is at about 10,000 ft, a city built with stones. you can wander up and down hills through small passage ways coming across women in traditional dress, small children selling stones, and alpaca everything. the air is cold, dry, and the sun feels damn good. ive taken to wearing leg warmers with my hiking boots and im sortof loving the winter style after 6 months of hot sunshine. from cusco we took a bus higher to some small villages and did some ass kicking hikes to see cave paintings 1500 years old. along the way we stopped at an artists cooperative high in the mountains. this was actually the place ive enjoyed the most since i arrived. they have a fenced in yard where men and women spin alpaca wool into yarn, weave scarves, bags and ponchos, and small children run around with baby goats. the president of the coop showed us theyre dying techniques and katie and i picked some of the local plants they use for color. i sortof wanted to stay and weave for the next few months but then i remembered i have to hike machu piccu :)

im currently in ollambyantumba (that is not actually the name just sort of close), which is at about 12000 ft. and literally nestled into the andes. i mean seriously. there´s my room and then there´s giant fucking mountains. its a small village based mostly around a little square with stone streets and even colder air. most people dont speak english, so im really appreciating my sisters fluent spanish. its also a major stopping zone for tourists on their way to MP so we´ve been meeting people from all over. last night was spent drinking beers in a little hut-bar with some locals, our guide (who showed some very different personality traits when wasted) and some chilean boys my sister and i may or may not have been on a double date with.
either way, im loving it. the cold however refreshing is definetly hurrying my ass back to bali though :) im a spoiled girl. katie left today to hike the lares trail and we meet in 2 days to trek to MP and then hang out in aguas calientes and then back to cusco and from there who knows.
im currently wearing a lot of alpaca and think i may need to go home and take it off. i feel a bit like an alpaca myself.

holler to me. a small boy is looking over my shoulder. scandalous. i dont think he has any idea what im typing. ha ha. ok he understood that. :)
ciao.

and now im here?

so im back. in the US that is... for what feels like forever and at the same time a day. currently at my mom's in idaho... sitting next to my brother going off on the piano, scanning some drawings and mostly spending my days by the pool :) a real quick relaxation moment before i hike machu picchu. and shit man... what have i gotten myself into with that? whatever, peru will be bangin and i get to see my little sister at 15,000 ft. elevation and that's always fun :)

Going back to san fran was a trip i have to say... almost like i left for 6 months - felt like 6 years - and i came back and in many ways time stood still? does that make sense? almost like i slipped back into life that had been my everyday and was continous without change for the week i was home? nani, travis, ken, and britt hooked it up in the sense that i have about a rupee to my name but still managed to party and eat and sleep and not end up on the street :) although twice i ended up sleeping in cars :) once on the beach in Mendo and once atop a hill in pacific heights. although thats only because i ran out of gas at 3 in the morning, britt passed out and i was too burnt to walk down to lombard for a can :) he he. fucking sf hills.

but things are looking good for the fall... the project kayla and i are working on is coming together... finding more and more people interested in helping. feel like whats in my mind might really be achievable in the coming year, which means several things but the most exciting of which is that i will be returning to bali about january, so all my friends please make plans to come and visit and chill out in our guest room.

two articles ive been working on may be turning into bigger projects than i originally anticipated and of course im back to indexing so things are getting productive. as is the peacock society. keelan and i made a very odd pretty hilarious video the other night for it which he's editing, and k's furniture store installation performance may occur if i can get her to eat enough acid or drink enough coffee. :) hee hee. i think im losing my mind. but just a little. i think its the airconditioning. or maybe the fact that everything in suburbia is so clean. dont worry... ive taken a marker to some of the more offensively pristine places which made me feel a little more at home.

so anyway... this is about nothing. but im leaving for chicago on thursday and then peru on saturday or sunday (probably something i should double check). wonka will have bali items for sale at dlot any day now, so if youre in fairfield go and buy it.
ps. still dont have a real phone number but if you send me yours ill call you :)
love.

and then it was almost over AKA im using free internet

Ok. There are a lot of things that I need to mention. Number one… im coming home! AKA im coming back to san fran for a few days then to LA for a few days, then to the family in Idaho for a few days, then to Chicago for 2 days and then I leave again for Peru. Then I come home… aka to Fairfield for a few days, and then possibly heading to a cabin in the mountains to start a project with Kayla for 2 weeks and then back to the west coast… aka the best coast :)

definitely not particularly ready for it, but I am excited to take a hot shower and maybe even a bath. And to see the peeps. And maybe do a lot of going out dancing, not that we haven't been rocking it out here but there are a few djs that ive been missing ;)

Im also interested to find out what I miss about life in Bali. Bali is interesting in the sense that there is constantly so much beauty in front of you, chillin in the peripheral and coming around the bend, im totally taking it for granted. Ive been living in the village of Nyuh Kuning (yellow coconut) and my neighbors dress in lace shirts and sarong skirts and carry baskets of fruit for offerings and the village treks down the street and over the stream and up to the temple to sing and play music – gamelan – that sounds like a distant house beat. Sometimes after participating in green goodies I like to sneak off to the road that runs between a temple and a rice field and dance to the drummers inside and im telling you… this is no hippy shit. The beats they make could be sampled and played wherever people dance :) maybe I should make a comeback and drop some tracks to follow up the hit "bounce that ass" ha ha. But seriously… music is an integral part of daily life. As are flowers, and fruit, and trees and sun and breeze and blue sky. One of my favorite spots to do an afternoon jalan and juice is called Campuan (?) which is a short hike up a hill between two rivers the hills sloping (slope might be an understatement – you definitely cannot roll down these hills unless you want to die) down either side to the jungle patches that line the rivers. The rivers being dotted with men and women bathing and washing clothes. The hills are covered in tall elephant grass and the views are absolutely stunning. The kind of stunning that I don't know if you can describe and pictures of look fake. But here its normal. No biggie just take a walk, look, drink some fresh pressed papaya juice for 50 cents and then continue to the next amazing place. The beaches Ill miss for sure… white or black sand, blue mixing with green water, brown skinned lovely Indonesian men spearing bright fish, finding octopus to throw at us girls :) and then of course treats to play with like walking starfish, gigantic snails, sting rays with purple polka dots, crabs and ending days swimming in pool size tide pools sitting on a surfboard watching the sun set. Sometimes at the end of the day if youre off the beaten track the monkeys will run off the cliffs onto the beach jumping to the exposed coral finding some dinner. I like this kind of life.

Another thing I think ill miss is the openness. My doors are always unlocked, with Waniss and his other small friends coming in and out of our house all day… riding motorbikes from paved streets to dirt roads, walking through rice paddies and terraces to find those perfect relaxing spots. Driving fast through nowhere until we stumble upon a village with ornate bali wood and stone architecture everyone yelling "Halo" until we see amazing paintings propped against a shed to stop and have some tea and meet the artist. I think ill miss that in my afternoons. The art in general im gonna miss… Ubud is an artists town, but every village around here is some sort of art village. There's the silver village, and an egg painting village, a wood carving village, batik making village, shadow puppet village, stone carving, not to mention the tons of multimedia, photographers, painters, jewelry makers, silk screeners, textile creators, that have imported themselves from Jakarta, bandung, Sumatra, etc. to do their shit in this area. also, older women rock their breasts out in the open which im always a fan of... and you can live in a sarong... which is nice... and sleep with no walls naked to wake up to frangipani smell mixed with the incense of offerings and see nothing but trees and flowers.

The bali dogs I wont miss… barking and trying to eat other all night long. Mange is everywhere. Our dog highway now has it. Although I will be sad to no longer have a nighttime protector when im walking through the dark. Besides my dogs we also have the Pecalan, the village police. They wear their had bandanas tied and take everyone's bribe money but they also make sure shit stays on lockdown and invite me to their houses for dinner.

One of my favorite places in Ubud also happens to be Delta Mart. Delta mart is sortof like circle k? or any small convenience store. The only differences in my life are that they sell durian flavored condoms which is possibly the most disgusting idea ive ever heard of… all the weird asian snack foods, and the 4 guys that work there have become Kayla and I's playmates. And by playmates I mean that sometimes we go in there with our helmets on and smash into displays, them and each other head first. Sometimes, we set up toilet paper rolls to make bowling lanes and all the time we are only allowed to either moonwalk or skate in or flip flops once we enter. You can buy beer and odd objects and then sometimes we wrap our objects (like those sponge things you use to wet your fingers to count money, or fermented yogurt drinks) into presents for whatever friend gets to be "lucky" enough to find a pile of useless gifts upon their pillow. Last night we bought some hair gel for "black" hair (lets keep in mind that K and I are both particulary blonde) and then stood by the door and made every person that entered gel into a Mohawk unless they didn't have enough hair and then they just had to gel and smell like the stinson cowboy. Across the street from delta mart is my favorite pool hall – aka an open area with roof covering where street kids beat me at pool after Flava Lounge closes.

Anyway… im gonna miss bali until I move back here in January. You should come and visit. Its gonna be really fun :)

Ps I may have forgotten to mention that im going back to India. Yes India… in less than two weeks for a bit. Its going to be balls hot and I cant really say I understand why im going there. But that's what im doing.

bands and getting run over by a coke truck

remember where in the world is carmen san diego? not the tv show but the computer game that came out when you said 'macintosh' and they were these really small screens on that sortof yellow off white color plastic? just checking.

anyway, life is good... though my return to the US date is getting closer and oddly enough its freaking me out just a little bit. i guess i just have to wrap my mind around the fact that ill be back for 3 weeks and then on to peru. i dont know that im neccessarily ready to leave bali. i might be back. soon.

so going away from going home and back to where i am... ive been writing a lot recently. working on an article on the bali youth subculture. its been interesting... interviewing bands, skaters, photographers, designers at clothing companies, kids, ill post it once its finished but its a young scene and growing and really interesting to explore.

check out the band 'kaimsasikun' on myspace. they're rad. and on my way to interview them a couple days ago i got run over by a coke truck. thats a lie. i didnt really get run over i just really enjoy saying that... what really happened is that a coke truck hit me while i was just starting to pull out from a red light and knocked down the bike behind me, me, and propelled me into a big puddle. on my ass. so embarrassing but mostly just incredibly funny i hope for the people who got to see it. also i guess pretty fucking painful. anyway, this band is great and i think it will be really interesting to watch them for the next couple years. see how it grows.... focusing on the scene here has also really made me appreciate san francisco in the sense that it is so 'local' and what's local is so strongly supported. makes me want to rock the shit all over.

the thing that im working on that im the most into right now is the english classes im teaching. i cannot tell you how fucking rad these kids are. the little kids class is so fun because i have been able to watch the shift of them being shy and then gaining confidence with the language and now excited to be the one to share or read aloud. plus the fact that i just totally make a fool out of myself probably makes it easier for them to be silly :) the village that the youth center where the classes are is incredibly beautiful. if i ever lived here for a longer period of time, that's for sure where id like to have a little house. its in the sawa - rice fields - but bordered by jungle or forest or whatever you want to call it. if you go behind the building and walk out for about 5 minutes you can hike down a steep ravine into a river and then follow it down to the main bridge and then into Ubud. i just really love the vegetation here. there's this one banana tree near a spot i call my "dark place" thats my favorite tree in bali. my dark place isnt an angst filled hole but rather this little clearing inside a patch of trees thats actually really really dark covered in tall grass so if you lay down you dont actually touch the ground and you can check out stars or whatever. sometimes i draw pictures of peacocks there. since i am still def into my peacock phase and trying to figure out the tat.

so i also have a new best friend. his name is Waniss. he's really cool and speaks great english. he wakes me up every morning by scratching my cheek and then we usually make sweet tea and hang out for a while. maybe sometimes we'll make a kite or snowflakes and then go dance in the street outside. sometimes we just listen to music. he's 5. i sorta want to steal him and take him home with me. he's been coming over every day for weeks and i just met his mom for the first time yesterday. weird. but she was really cool. i realized that its important for me to live somewhere where a kid can wander into my house and hide under my bed and wait for me to get home only to jump out and suprise the shit out of me and i scream. i like these sorts of things :)

anyway... i have to go to the pool now. its hot and i have a class to teach in a few hours. hit me up. let me know if anyone will be in peru this summer. or san fran. or portland. holler.

bite me aka i hate saigon

i dont really have the time or energy to write anything that decribes everything that ive been doing right now but i sorta want to.

i went to malaysia and we hung out with a biker gang that you can view on kaylas page. we also stayed in family room with some guys from a bus in KL which i thought was crazy because it was the most developed city id seen this year. then we took a bus to singapore which turns out to be the most developed place ive ever been in my life. except for our room which was the most expensive place ive stayed all year and at the same time, the dirtiest.

Now, i say that i hate singapore (aka saigon which is what it was called the whole time we were there), which is true, but what is also true is that i had a really fucking good time. sentosa was bullshit, but while we were trying to sneak into the aquarium we found a spa that offers a "special" pedicure. whats special about it is that you put your feet into a tub that is filled with tiny fish and they eat off all the dead skin. gross. except kindof cool. and no i didnt get a pedicure but i did persuade them to let me stick in my hand.

another really great thing was that we were there over ladies night which meant free entry and free drinks at all the clubs. sweet. i also saw a really great exhibition at the singapore national museum which i will post pics of later because the dude was so fucking cool, and the 'far east' shopping mall was incredible. seriously incredible... its a huge mall thats filled with closet sized stores of local designers, limited ed sneakers, and t shirt shops - i may have failed to mention that all singapore is is a bunch of malls strung together, you can access them underground as well. if i already wrote that sorry, im in a really big hurry and do not have time to either stop typing or look up and re read what i wrote...

we also ran into landon who is the orgininal peacocker, and mara's friend, and then for the rest of the trip forgot to tell him but used his name to use the pool and spa at his very nice business trip hotel. hot.

im back now in ubud and loving it. ive been at a whole lotta births this week and my english classes are going well. im adding one more so soon ill be teaching 4 seperate classes and also an art class. tomorrow im going surfing (we hit up dreamland last tues. by the way and i have some things to say about that but now is not the time). this weekend is the new skate park opening and we've got press passes and are doing a story so that should be fun.

speaking of fun i forgot to mention the camera stores in singapore.

ok scratch this entry. my ADD is kicking up and the awful dog bite i got on my hand last night mixed with the accupuncture from this morning is just making me insane.

Holler at me.... i miss you guys!

going abroad

as kayla likes to say... today we are going abroad :) to malaysia that is and before we go im taking a little break from the heat in the aircon of the internet cafe.

So I have settled in to this hill town of Ubud. It really feels like home, and I guess will be for another few months. Today though I have the smallest hint of homesickness which is a first since I left San Fran. I think its mostly for my bed and maybe some blue bottle coffee. and of course my sister, and my mom, and phone calls to my girls :) Although I do have a phone here now. As well as a motorbike, and i'm secretly starting to play guitar again which always makes me feel like im 16 hanging out in howard park :)

I want to post pictures, but everytime I come here I forget my camera and whenever Im at Flava I can only be online for about a minute before I get distracted. So Flava by the way is Noel's restaurant which is absolutely beautiful. The food is delicious and the smoothies amazing and you drink tequila with powdered coffee on the lime. yum. more beautiful than the lounge however is his wife who is my new favorite. Wine!!!! (yes wine im writing about you!). They are having a baby next month (maybe sooner?) and the belly is so cute... i like to kiss it and put my cold beer on it when its hot outside... hee hee. On earth day we painted it like an earth... however wine doesnt actually look pregnant in the normal sense as she's 8 months preggers and still looks like a model... a model who likes to nest :) for those of you who know noel... he could not have found a better partner... and noel's hair is long by the way which is oh so cute and sort of hilarious :) pictures will be forthcoming. ill include one of the bright green car as well.
for those of you on my charades team ive moved on to backgammon, and for those of you still in india ill be back for a week before i go home. san fran peeps: im only coming home for 4 days so you best be ready to have a good time :) im bringing some peeps back with me too and theyre actually not from fairfield. i know... shocking. i say home although i guess i dont really live there anymore but we can pretend for a few days :) Ill be in Chicago for a few days and then to Peru. pretty bad eh?

by the way... ive turned brown and sometimes when i catch my reflection i dont know its me... its really funny since im usually so white to be this dark. maybe ill get a wrinkle now that im getting older. shit :) although all the kids in my english class think im about 12. we drew pictures the other day to practice describing words and every kid wrote something about my hair :) i want to cut out all the pictures of me and make a little album... this might sounds weird that i want an album of my many portraits but if you saw how they depicted my hair you may want a copy for yourself. i love teaching them... one group is 14-25 and the other group 7-9 and they are teaching me indonesian and i get to write on a board with brightly colored markers. I finally gave away my last sharpie the other night (its been a slow process as every time i move locations i meet another person who really wants one... especially in india), so the marker writing is helping me get over drawing on the walls of southeast asia.

If you live in fairfield... i have treats coming :) wonka will be selling some of my bali selections and you should def go and check out the sale. Some really beautiful stuff will be there.
by the way if anyone is coming out here this summer let me know... i need someone to bring me a pair of jeans and some medium format film. you know... the important things in life. maybe a new york times too :)

balibalibali

I don't even know where to begin…. The last month has been crazy with so many changes and adventures. The Gili's. well that's a long story but maybe ill try to be brief. So jenny came to visit for 2 weeks (at the end of which I was planning on going home although now im staying until its time for peru) so we decided to chill in Ubud and then hit up Cinadasa and the Gili's. We stayed at Tania and Lempot's place in Cinadasa which is amazing (they were friends of friends, now are family). They have a hotel of sorts right on the water that is made up so several "lumbongs" (I have no idea how to spell it) which are traditionally where one stores rice. What it becomes however is a little two level hut made of bamboo and grass with a beautiful upstairs bedroom, a downstairs outdoor eating area and seated table, and the most bangin outdoor bathroom filled with plants and flowers and occasionally frogs.

This was where we met out little Gili family (we all headed out the next day) which consisted of Tanya, Lempot, their three kids, Marcus and Kaled (who I had randomly already met in a bar in Ubud), Kayla and Mara. We took a boat and on the way met some French zookeepers, and a man whose name I forget but he joined us with his son eliot. Kayla and Mara have since become my roommates, coworkers, travel partners and mostly are just really fucking rad girls. I mean seriously rad… so anyway, we were a mixed bunch from all over this world and made the Gili's our home for about a week. It was amazing. Our room was shit but I didn't really stay there much, as there wasn't really electricity and the water was usually turned off but it was about a dollar a day and connected to the café we really made home. Kava Café it's called and you walk in to prerolled joints, the cheapest most delicious Indonesian food, raised pillowed platforms on the water, fresh fruit and Bintang. We were in and out of the water about 15 times a day and even when we got hot dancing at the bar we'd jump over the wall and quickly swim before we went back to dancing. There were lots of bonfires and lots of boys with guitars as well as dj's and dancing on the beach and on top of bars, lots of wandering to new surfing beaches and playing pingpong on the beach.

All 3 islands have no motorized vehicles…. Only horse drawn buggies, although you can walk around the biggest one in about 2 hours, so really no need for even that. We kayaked between the islands and snorkled and dove and hung out with turtles and like everwhere I go I met boys from Cambridge, England. Its really so weird. It doesn't matter where I am, even in Rishikesh, even on my birthday, every white boy I meet ends up being from Cambridge. But anyway, that's a side note and the point will be that the water is the most amazing color of turquoise, the surfing is great and the rocket shakes don't work very well J but we did make the peacock constellation we found the mascot of our trip and may appear on my arm someday soon as a tattoo.

So now I am back in Ubud. Been here for a little bit actually, and after a few days of recuperating aka floating in the pool, we're back in action. I have a few jobs although I'm not fully immersed in any of them yet… working on it though J Im teaching English at a youth center as well as at an orphanage and training to be a doula (midwife's assistant). I live in the clinic's ashram, which basically means that we have a house with some other people on my favorite side of the town. I live with Kayla, Mara, Eda, and sort of these guys Kumar and Thor. although Im not sure if Kumar actually lives with us, he's my favorite roommate J so Kayla and Mara… I don't really know how to describe them except that they're the perfect people for me to have met right now. I mean seriously, we do interpretive dance when the bar gets boring and they're adventure seekers and we all like different types of boys, they went to my sister's college and are hilarious and intelligent. It's really quite perfect actually. We are heading to Malaysia on Friday for a week so we can explore and get new visas. Then back for work and play. Yesterday was earth day here and we set up a booth for the clinic where we did face painting – can you believe the first request was a horse? I mean who fucking face paints a horse? The rest were butterflies and tigers so it got easier J - and sold trees for the Ache clinic and mostly I just hung out with tanya's kids and drank beer and explored the jungle setting of the party and mixed a few beats and had a private Michael Franti (he and noel i guess are friends?) concert under the stars and then headbanged to some Italian Jimi Hendrix wannabe and drank more Storm pale ale which is my favorite and then jumped on the trampoline and then danced to house beats and then left on my friends' fast motorcycle only to lose my shoe and then end up at Puri's house with the same old doing the same old that really just makes me so happy. Yes. Earth day. Oh… and interesting to note we also at our booth had a "friend sign up sheet" which means that people could sign up to be our friends? Im not sure about that but we did meet a lot of people yesterday and promoted our upcoming party to the expats in the hood.

Ok. More later... have to go to work.

Ps. This is a flight confirmation number and I am storing it right here as I have no pen or paper…. Unnecessary info but still I felt like sharing J

Y4CFAQ

changes.... going through changes....

ahhh bali. i am going through changes in bali. the dirt and grime of india has been washed off in the outdoor showers and been replaced by motorcycle rides and frangipani. the hindu culture here is going strong with offerings outside of all the house and stores and restaurants all day long. little palm leaves turned into boxes filled with flowers and sweet smelling incense smoke. the people have the most amazing smiles and the $2 meals come prettily plated on tablecloths with fresh organic ingredients.

so many things have happened but ill focus on yesterday while i can remember it :) jenny flew in the day before and we did some swimming in a private stone pool and then explored monkey forest. she crashed early from the jet lag and i ended up hanging on the stone ground with the members of an indonesia rock band, playing charades and drinking homemade vanilla vodka. the vodka left me sleeping in late followed by some papaya and cappuccino and then late to drive south to the beach. we grabbed sarongs and suits only to discover that we werent heading back to ubud that day, although we did end up coming home at 4 or 5 in the morning, after planning to go stay in some bungalows and then changing to shared bedrooms in an amazing beachside compound, that switched again to passing out in noel's bright green car. but anyway.

so we roll down to the beach in kuta, which is bali's version of i dont know where... but somewhere that is covered in clubs and vacationers. i mean COVERED in clubs. all down the beach is just club after club speckled with some shopping and followed by a club. its sort of disgusting and sort of amazing at the same time. we decided to park at some friend named issa's house who turns out to be bizzaro willy shultz and is drunk off his ass in the early afternoon when we arrived. now i had ended breakfast with a margarita so this was fine with me and we grabbed beers and headed to the beach where i ended up not having the patience to change into a suit and stormed the waves in my undies. i love bali :) the water is turqoise and the sand is soft. people come along and offer you pedicures while you tan. i have however been splurging on almost daily $5 massages and spa treatments so i passed. too bad.

after the sun went down we showered at his jungle sprawl - i cant call it a mansion if it consists of about 7 buildings, connected by candlelit paths of stone and jungle but whatever - and made plans to head over to his mom's on the cliffs... but me being me i got distracted by the easter eggs his dad and little brother were dying. his dad by the way was just as hot and like all hot older men here was living with some young balinese girl :) i love it.

so anyway, confused by the beers we headed to his mom's only to remember that robbie (the indonesian rock star) who is lakota noel's sister's boyfriend's band was playing at a mall. so we turned to the mall. the "mall" ended up being an actual mall but actually situated on the actual beach. i mean huge. on the beach. i dont know how they managed to secure such a property but it meant the concert was surrounded by waves and filled with young indonesian punk kids who were so cute mashing around. they killed it and we drank more beer and had a birthday dinner for robbie during which i drunkenly bartered my way into a pair of fake gucci stunners for a couple bucks after repeatedly knocking over all the displays. it was hilarious for me and confusing for the sales lady. embarrassed we headed to the bathroom where a little girl was standing on top of the toilet taking a shit with the door open while about 8 people waited in line. we quickly left there and i found myself in louis vuitton where everything was only about $5 so i think the black market is allowed to have stores in malls which is also confusing, and then back to the beach.

we forgot about issa's mom's headed back to his dad's for a little moonlight skinny dipping. which was actually amazing. of course we all know when im drinking all i want to do is swim but this was one of the most beautiful pools ive gotten to be in. first off its long like a lap pool going from shallow to deep while all along the left side is the width of another pool but shallow for laying around and then rolling into the deep. in the middle of the marble perimeter grows a frangipani tree that drops its flowers into the water and makes everything smell like god. hee hee. bali is the most sensual place i have ever been. it beats italy. so we made crowns of flowers and swam around the floating candles and i felt as though i had had an amazing night and was ready for sleep. however, after getting out and enjoying some "treats" we decided to dress again and head to the club. which club im not sure but the first one was cheesy and filled with what i think were escorts of both the sexes. the music blew so we wandered down to some place where people were wearing indian headresses and the music was much more jump around. so we jumped around... i have been missing going out dancing so much travelling through india - ive had to resort to dancing around with my ipod - so this gave me back all the energy drinking all day drained and then we continued to dance through the late night warm downpour and back into the pool where maybe i passed out for little bit on a couch and then somehow found myself back in the green car heading to ubud.

today we go to a balinese wedding. they file their teeth down the day before the wedding because it supposedly takes the "animal" out of people so they stay faithful. im not so sure i have much faith in the so-called faithful, but i hear there are lots of flowers so i am excited.

the hood

i managed to turn on my camera. snap. die. several times over the last couple months.

here are some snaps of the place that feels the most like home - shalimar bagh, delhi....

these are the rishshaw wallahs.. they ride you in the back at 25 cents for about a 20 minute journey. (thats some trash burning to the side)

mmmmmmm..... chai. the man that works here is the sweetest man ive ever met. he lives in the dirt by his chai stand and yet he has not once let me pay for my tea.

this is my bedside table on the left. on the right is next door. these people are fixing the sewar. i guess they live in this tent until the work is done?

PINK PEOPLE... recovering from Holi festival. the guy in the pic on the right is my favorite in india. his name is rajindra... he's the cook here... he is my friend. the guys in the pic on the left are some of the doctors at the clinic and another kitchen guy. oh! the man on the far left is my new "brother", re the red string.

another friend. i dont know his name, but sometimes i ride on his bike.

on the way to the market.

when i first arrived. note i am a bit grumpy :)

i would like to share one thing i saw in varanasi that i cant get out of my head. i saw a sadhu - naked but for his little orange crotch swatch. well this particular man's hair was just one dreadlock. now of course lots of the sadhus have dreads, many even have odd singular long ones. but this was the whole head... ok what comes into your mind is like a pony tail extending down. no. you are wrong. this was a dreadlock rounded rectangular in nature. imagine the sides extending wider than the sides of his head, the top about 6 inches above his forhead line, then making its way down to shoulder level. blockhead must have been his nickname. in fact, it would be hard to tell it was actually a dread and not some form of helmet hair unless you got as close as i did. i had to. i was transfixed. i still cant stop thinking about it. its like a song stuck in my head, except its something very dirty stuck in my mind.

anyway, just wanted to share :)

ps ive added a few pics to the other posts as well... tonight i go to BALI!!!!

varanasi

so last night i electracuted myself. see i was trying to plug in the rice cooker that i borrowed from dr. raju... but the plug has been taken off, as is common practice in india, and i just stick the three wires into the three holes in the wall. something happened and my hand started bouncing around until the wire dropped out of it and i regained control. it felt odd.

then the top to the rice cooker broke (well technically I broke it) so i couldnt make rice anyway. this whole rice thing is much more inconvenient than one would imagine. today i just ordered it from a restaurant even though ive been given strict instructions to only eat it within 5 minutes of being prepared. fuck it. i needed rice.

so varanasi. it actually breaks my heart that i cant use my camera here. this is a city that is made for pictures and its what i think about as i walk around the alleys - maybe they are roads as there seem to be sub-alleys off of the alleys but no one can drive down any of them. its really very dirty here. not just the water, but everything. more so than the other places ive been in india... i have discovered a new trick though... i pretend to be italian. i mean i am italian, but i pretend to be an italian speaker that knows no english. this has two benefits: i get to practice my italian (which i failed to do before even though ive been hanging out with italians since i got to india), and people stop begging once they realize i dont know what they're saying. i feel a little weird about lying. but truthfully not very guilty.

so back to the dirt... like in the rest of india trash is burned at the end of everyday, so i turn my fan to high and hope the windyness blows the smell away. there are a lot of drugs in varanasi... it seems to be a theme, "hash... coke... blah blah... yes miss?" i try to tell them in italian that i cant even drink juice, never mind smoke weed, but they dont understand. so i listen to this as background music and try not to step in cow shit. well... its actually buffalo shit as the buffallo are hearded through the alleys from the ganges where they are washed. i prefer buffalo because they have yet to bruise me. two cows have headbutted me in the hip so far in india. once yesterday as i climbed over a fence in the middle of the road to escape traffic (true i did get in its way), and once in delhi. i think it was delhi... whatever. there are cows everywhere.

(these are the water buffalo)

so after my sunrise boat trip to view the ghats i think i will be ready to leave varanasi. im not loving it so much as you told me i would joanna! but i am enjoying myself. im just craving seeing some green things growing or something. just one little patch of clean... it can even be a patch of dirt thats not laced with remnants of used toilet paper. just one little patch of pure. :)

this is by my hotel in the evening.

red string and red fort

its a greeeeeeeaaaaat day.... wallah wallah. well thats what my great-grandfather used to say. it has been a good one. im back in delhi after a 3:30am wake up call, walk across the ganges at 4:00 and drive to the train station for a 6am send off. but yes, i came back yesterday. i heard news that my package with camera charger had finally arrived and i began a special ayurvedic treatment.
so the charger. it worked for 30 minutes. now its broken... i dont understand it, and i dont know why. it seems as though i am just not supposed to take pictures.
so the treatment: i eat some special fresh herb mixed with yogurt, after it received vedic vibration, and then i only eat plain rice. for 17 days. oh and i can drink water. and in 7 days add the water from the top of dahl. and 7 days later the water from the top of yogurt. mmmmm. rice.
today anna-lisa and i went shopping where i purchased my bali ticket - going on the 28th!!!!!! - and waaaay too many things at anokhi. jenny, i got the flower ring. i know. on the way back we had an interesting auto-rickshaw ride where our driver drove the scenic route, spoke english, and then dropped us off with some other driver in front of the red fort. hmmm. not on the way. but at least i got to see the fort (and india gate) as ive done absolutely zero sight seeing in delhi. but the second driver was a little sketchy, tried to bring his friend along which i guess is a big no no. the books say its an indication a "groping" might be forthcoming. we shoo'd him off though, and got home in time for rice :)
after rice i began to inquire where would be a good place to get a yagya. the 9 days of mother divine begin soon and i want one during it. well this very nice man, who is in medical school and training here, has not the best english. he decided he would make me his "sister" and took the red string from his yagya off his wrist and tied it to my own. well i dont know exactly how i feel about this... i mean the red string from a yagya for someone else? and now he keeps calling me sister and says he will protect me for the rest of his life. plus the strings really tight. it sorta constricts my wrist.
funnily enough i was with mary rose again for this event... who is the lady that was with me me when i had to search for the cremation ashes hanging in the tree last week. i think i wrote about that. if not, just know it was one of the more hilarious and embarrassing experiences of my life. and that is saying something.
soooo.... i will be leaving for varanasi with my rice cooker in a couple days. for some reason i dont want to go for too long, although im sure ill end up staying longer once i get there. i also really want to check out this textiles farm in Jaipur that sounds amazing. they're "green", use sustainable practices promote women's and workers' rights and stay true to the original craft... and the shit they make is rad and i want to buy it all :)
miss you.

Ganga

so i am in rishikesh. and it has been wonderful up until about 2 minutes ago... i came into the internet cafe next to my hotel and a man started screaming at the owner... screaming awful racist things... telling the man he was going to kill him... to murder him in the shop... all at the top of his lungs while the place was filled with 12 year old white children in turbans on an ashram trip. the man spit on the floor and spit on the owner and gave me sick feeling deep in my stomach.

anyway, glad that's over. so i am here on the ganga... two days ago i was in haridwar. i put the ashes of a mother divine lady in the water after a puja before the aarti. it was incredibly sweet and fulfilling. my hotel was disgusting but now i am here with a lovely balcony where i think i will stay for a week or so. $5 a night and about $2 a day for food... im chillin.

(Haridwar pics)

this is where i put in the ashes...

evening arti in Haridwar

this morning i went for chai and watched monkeys climb around my head.... then headed over to Mataji's. She was a disciple of guru deva with maharishi and now lives here in an ashram. she speaks only hindi but i was with a hindi speaker, so i got to hear so many stories of their days together with guru deva. she was there with him and maharishi when guru deva left his body and told us the story, and has his sandals he was wearing when he left. she does puja to them each morning. she made us kitcheree and we laughed and she played with my hair. as much as im not making it sound very exciting because the keyboard is sticking and i cant hardly bear to type, it has been the hightlight of my trip thus far.

every evening at sunset they perform the aarti in swarg ashram on the river. they do a whole puja to the ganga with about 100 young pundtants. its wonderful... the singing and clapping right on the water, with as many candles burning and being used in the puja. i got video of it on a friends camera and ill post it when she sends it. some of the osho people were there, who try to achieve enlightenment through kundalini energy and such... so basically they have sex and dance. the dancing was great... they just close their eyes and wildly dance about throughout the aarti. i was loving it... but the BO was strong :(

i hope i find someone with my camera charger soon. i got someone to charge my ipod so i finally get to hear music.

(rishikesh pics)

i'm obsessed with my cheeky monkeys

my favorite gate in rishikesh... the ganesh at the top is so dope. this was an ashram i walked through on my way to arti or dinner every night.

same ashram except at night...

bangle 2.19.07

today i moved on to whatever treatment it is where they they take really hot balls of vegetation/oil mush inside muslin and smash you with them and then rub. it was amazing... so im feeling very soft. i am also feeling very sad about my current music situation, in that i have none. who else brings an ipod to india with no charger?
well... today for distraction i thought i would wander on down past the construction and over to what i heard was monday market, filled with fun things to buy and flowers.
no. this was not the case. i followed the construction which turned out to be open sewer lines that they have been working on for three months (most sewage is open here, so i think its a big deal that theyre closing this), and walked and walked and breathed shit and breathed shit, and then finally i came to the end. there were bright colors and laughing children and fruit and clothes but this was not the market.... oh no. i tried to think that it was as i kept walking into it, but really i had entered a slum. i still am not sure how it happened, because later someone showed me on the map and i though i had walked the right way... but no. so i did the only thing i could do to save embarrasment of walking in and then immediatly leaving this filthy poor place where thousands of people live, squashed together in plastic and metal huts and tents: i played cricket with small boys. yes. it was fun. and then the mothers came out and every one started asking for one rupee and i left.
i am amazed at the sense of contentment that pervades india. people have nothing, or everything, or some things, or the possibility for more, or on the brink of awfulness, and still... they dont seem to mind. they just seem to be precisely in whatever moment is now. seriously... from being able to sleep on a chair on the island between lanes with the loudest traffic ive ever heard, to embracing death and problems, and they way they celebrate events, or work 15 hour days... they all seem to be, well at least pretty, happy. its good for me to see... its good for my perspective. its also hard to not give money to everyone that asks, and to go haggle in the markets or with rickshaw drivers over what ends up being a dollar, but you do it. because its india. anyway, im gonna try and find the real monday market so i can buy some really rad wall hangings for my room here.
holla.

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.