Camel Safari December 13, 2008

moo

So Camel Safari’s are pretty cool. We did one while we were still up north (we’re south now). We went off into the desert, played and camped in the sand dunes, and ate fresh cooked Thali that our camel guides made. Did you know you could clean a metal dish by just sticking it in the dirt and rubbing the dirt around? Very exfoliating.

Anyway, the camel safari was cool. My legs hurt after, and camels fart all the time and sometimes make this really cool noise that I could only express in person. Awesome.

The internet is spotty out here in India- and the price and speed is all over the map, so I’m not too focused on updates right now (obviously). But I figure, I’ll have a night on a couchsurfers laptop with high speed internet when I can dump a buncha pics online and fill in a buncha holes. Until then, it’s hit and miss with these updates :p

Currently I’m spending my days in paradise relaxing on the beach. I’d always heard india’s beaches were awful, but who ever said that has obviously not been to Om Beach. It’s perfect. Not crowded, not over priced, no crazy hustling, and amazing scenery. It’s all jungle right up to the beautifulfine white sandy beach and cool blue water. Small waves to bodysurf, but nothing intense. Our hut with fan, electricity, and hammock out front is about $10 a week, and each meal is about $2- and I’m talking pizza, pasta, thali, butter masala, lassi, chai- whatever. Everything is good here.

They have these things called Munch bars- it’s basically indian kit-kat. Tehy make these Munch shakes at this one spot. Holy banana. It’s amazing. We have 3 a day.

Anyways, pics to come, pics to come. This internet and computer and keyboard is rediculous, so I cant be on it anymore. Munch Shake time

Oh yeah, and Goa’s dumb. Don’t waste your time ever going to that trashy played out trap. (go just south of it!)

alive November 27, 2008

just wanted to let everyone know anyone who was worried that I’m ok.

I came to Mumbai (Bombay) the day b4 the terror attack over here. Brandon and I were staying with a couch surfer and got in late after 2 days on busses and trains. Our host brought us to a homies house and we chilled out had a few drinks and a dinner party. We planned on going sight seeing the next day, but we ended up waking up at 2pm and were still pooped from our sleepless travelling the days before. We decided to just meet up with another surfer and relax instead of try to sqeeze a little sight seeing in that day. After getting on the wrong train (which delayed us over an hour from meeting up) we finally got off at the surfers train stop and mixed and mingled for a short time and got some advice about places to see and visit the next day. After picking up a sim card back at the train station, we met back up with our host (and friends) to grab some grub.

They took us to a lively posh area right near the boardwalk. The restaurant was fun and crowded with college kids and hookah smokers… I enjoyed some tastey chicken tikka masala. Mid meal, our friends started getting texts and calls from family informing us that there was just an attack…. on all of the places we were going to visit the next day. It wasn’t long before the restaurant began to clear and our waiter handed us our bill as they started shutting down. Within minutes, our friends were amazed as we walked out the door to realize everyone was cleared out. They were tripping on seeing all the street parking empty- it’d be like seeing no cars parked on Haight St mid day. Apparently the area we were in woulda been high risk as it’s considered a very ‘happening’ part of town and is always busy.

We drove straight to our host’s friend’s house (as it was much closer than our hosts house) and turned on the TV to see the full extent of what had gone on. We then learned that in addition to the attractions we’d considered visiting that day, a bomb also went off at the train station we were just at to meet up with the other surfer. Glad we weren’t running any later behind than we were!

Anyway, the city has been on high alert and a soft of curfew has been in action, so we’ve been staying indoors at our new friends house the whole time. We went to pick up our bags at our other friends house (our original host) this evening, and plan on catching a train down to Goa tomorrow. It’s not like we’re sketched on being here or anything, it’s just that there’s not much to do when everythings closed and the only things worth seeing we’ve been watching all over the TV for the past 30 hours as they still cant seem to get control over the damn buildings for some reason.

This attack was really gnarly. Over 100 dead, hundreds injured, and historic buildings distroyed. Bombs grenades and AK47s- we saw some shit live on the news that they totally woulda blurred in the states, and the special tactics chief was gunned down trying to save hostages- it was awful. They opened fire on a tourist cafe, took over and are burning down 2 major 5 star hotels, did drive-by shootings by live news cameras and police, set off car bombs around the city, attacked the hospitals all the injured were being taken to, and then this morning took over a residential apartment building as well. Weak dude….. weak. 

Anyway, It’s morning already and I havent slept, so I’m out.

peace.

Burning Man- the real one November 12, 2008

So Brandon and I decided to take an overnight bus to India the day I got my Indian Visa. We bought a connecting bus ticket in Kathmandu that was supposed to be for the bus that would be at the border (nepal/india)…. or course, 1600 rupees later we learn that that bus didnt exist and we got scammed…. welcome to India. At least we have the contact info to the ‘travel agency’ that sold it to us, so I can always crash their server as well as get Kathmandu tourist police on their ass. Karma’s a bitch.

So we came to Varanasi first- the city of the dead. Over 300 bodies are cremated and put in the Gangas river here a day. The 24 hour rooftop restaurant of our guest house (hotel) overlooks the 24 hour wood burning gaht. People with no money or no family are burned at the electric gaht, but you dont get to keep the ashes after, so the wood is prefered. Pregnant women, small children, certain holy men, and people that have died from a cobra bite are wrapped up and put straight in the river.  During our evening boat ride, our boat encountered one of these bodies (which was no longer wrapped, and we floating in the fetal position). It was surreal. There are no women at the burning gahts, because they cry too much and sometimes jump in the fire after their loved ones.

This city is crazy- very different vibe than other places. It’s one of the oldest cities in the world and is crammed up again the massive Gangas river, which is dirty as hell, but also very holy, so people still bath in it and drink from it. On the other side of the river is nothing but desert sand, and there’s actually a festival going on here now, so it’s startin to look a bit like burning man over there right now. Death is a celebration, and people come from all around to die here and have the honor of being put in the holy Gangas river. They also have ’special banana lassi’ on all the menus, which we learned is a ‘bong lassi’. Bong is apparently a different plant than weed, but is a similar herb. Basically, it makes you feel a little stoned, but mostly just tired and you sleep all day. They’re cheap in restaurants… probably because they know that if you order one, you’ll then order a bunch of food after.

I got a pretty nasty stomach bug a couple nights ago. I spent all day yesterday in bed sick. Sharp pains in my stomach, couldn’t keep food down, the works. It’s to be expected tho. The guest house we’re staying at is like Lonely Planet centeral. Buncha city hippy travelers- friendly people mostly. Some of them were telling me last night they’ve gotten sick a handful of times in the past month, but it usually only takes a day to pass. I feel alot better today- I can keep food down and I dont feel fever or chills- just waves of stomach pain every 10 minutes or so, but they’re decreasing.

Tonight we take an overnight train to Jaipur over in western India. Varanasi is really rad, but I think we’ve seen all that we can here. I’ll put pics up as soon as we find an internet cafe that isn’t overpriced :p

Overnight train with no A/C…. wish us luck!