India.....

I haven't posted in a long time, but hey absence makes the reader grow fonder....Right? So I left Orcas and spent a week with my bro Nathan and my Dad and did a lil rock climbing in the Gym (more like plastic climbing but hey it does the trick). Then I got a ride from Seattle straight down to San Francisco where I stayed at my friends' Sid and Quinn's apartment for two weeks and had a great time. Sid and I started ice skating alot and rocked it. I ate it alot and still have some gnarly ice scabs but it was well worth it. It was really nice getting to hang out with Hailey, Sid and Quinn. The four of us had a fantastic, gut-swelling thanksgiving together as well.

I finally got tired of my Dreads and they cut them off and Hailey shaved my head with a razor (she did a great job and was very gentle, though I cut myself once pretty bad before she took the razor away from me :)

I left San Fran on Sunday, Dec 3rd and made it down to my relatives on my Dads side that I stayed with last year and went rock climbing (again at a gym) and got good and sore and wound up with plenty of blisters (which were well worth it). I also played a lot of video games, which I don't get to do very often so I played hard. It was really nice to see them again, even though it was only for a short time.

My cousin Ryan gave me a lift to the airport on Wed and I flew out at 6pm and had a 13 hour flight to Moscow, Russia with a 2 hour layover before a 10 hour flight to Bombay (MumBai) and another 8 hour layover where they graciously put me on an earlier flight and took my last flight for one hour to Goa. Altogether it was about 35 hours of airports.

My initial impression of India (from the airport) was one of slight disbelief that I was even there. All outside the airport it looked like a jungle with the other-worldly trees and palms everywhere and the lack of white people. In MumBai I had to get a shuttle from one side of the airport to the other (domestic) side about 7 km away and on that drive along the airport's perimeter was the worst slum I had ever seen; It was a mass of corrugated rusty roofs and tarps and walkways with shack built upon shack and jammed next to each other and supporting one another. My first thought was, there is no way people live there and sure enough I saw people walking around and stringing up laundry. I wish I would have taken a picture as it is difficult to describe the filth and discord that the picture in my mind conveys. After that when I landed in Goa, I got pretty depressed (which is quite rare for me). I had no idea where I was going or what to do so I asked the first white guy that appeared to travel as I do about places to go. He was from Finland and helped me a lot. He sent me to a place called Baga with high praises. But when I got there I found a filthy little tourist ton loaded with fat white people and not a budget/holistic worldly traveler to be seen anywhere. I had to haggle for a couple hours at different hotels before I found a price I was reluctantly willing to accept. All I wanted to do was get out of there. Just being there made me want to get back on a plane and go home and get away from all these Can-Cun parasites (Both the tourists and the "Locals"). The Locals I later found out weren't even Local. They cam from Dehli and other big cities to rape the place and make money, but there are so many of these people that few make any money at all and spend there life saving in the hopes that they can make a good living off the tourists here. The Locals had pretty much all moved away. Goa was at one time a British/Portuguese colony for hundreds of years and didn't become part of India until the early 60s and at that time most of the locals left to England and Portugal when it became a part of India. So the place was now soulless. You cant even walk on the beach without a million Indians screaming at you "My friend, Good morning" "Good Morning my friend" and then adding in what they wanted to sell you and what not. And I quickly found myself thinking "you're not my friend, you just want my money". I am used to that kind of mentality from Central America. Everywhere that's moderately touristic is full of beggars and people trying to make a buck off the "rich" tourists. I am not saying that it is wrong at all. It is only natural that people would think that way, but the happiest people I see live the simplest; they have very little money and very basic lives that are family based and money is but means to a very small end and the love of their family is the important thing to them. All these other people hustling to make a buck seem utterly miserable in comparison. But we are taught our values now from billboards and commercials and entertainment almost as much if not more so than from family structure and it seems to be ever the worse in these third world countries so it's not very surprising.

But even with these annoyances and disheartening aspects, the inspirational beauty and color in this country are astounding. The food is nothing short of incredible and makes Indian food from home seem fraudulent. I can get a massive meal here of epic quality for less than a dollar. Of course I have to be very careful about what I eat and it all needs to be cooked very well since the water here is all heavily contaminated. The roads are insane. They are all very small, probably a foot wider on the average than our one lane roads at home, but they are meant for a two way road. The roads are seemingly one way and you drive on the left side of the road, but basically you drive where you fit and play a perpetual game of chicken with any oncoming cars. Both ways, the road is considered one-way until an oncoming car appears. The most popular way to die here is in vehicular accidents, which is why I will be taking the train when ever possible.

I am currently in Hampi; a little town surrounded by beautiful, sprawling hindu temples that are 700 years old. You can spend days here seeing them all and what you see is supposedly only 10% of the ruins that still lie uncovered. This place in the middle of a boulder-strewn are that is a boulderer's (rock climbing without ropes) paradise. I went bouldering with some friends the other day here and my feet are raw from walking and climbing barefoot all day but it was totally worth it. The Local Legend of how these oddly misplaced-looking boulders got here is as follows: Hanuman (the monkey god) was on his way to build a Bridge from India to Sri Lanka and he and all his monkey minions were bringing these rocks for the bridge but were, for whatever reason, detained here in hampi and have been here ever since. And there are a ton of monkeys here. And I never quite knew how disgusting monkeys really were until now. But the description is far too graphic for me to post so I'll refrain.

Well tomorrow I am making my way to Pondicherry to spend Christmas and new years with Madeleine and then continue my way south.