'tis been a while...

So it really has been a long time, even longer when you think that my last post was actually about something that happened nearly a year ago at this point, what laziness has created this situation? I know I've alluded before that I'm up to things, but I've never addressed what it is that I'm doing.

Changes are difficult and I've been on a journey of changing course. At this point we are nearly at the two year point where things began, I explored new opportunities as apposed to old ways because I had been so unhappy with where my previous path was taking me. I have since the end of August been taking classes as part of a Pre Health Post-Bacc program, taking Organic Chemistry and Biology, along with Labs. This has been something I've thought about for quite some time and after having mentioned it at one point to a friend who was just entering residency and getting their very positive approval I decided to follow through, after traveling that was.

So now I'm quite busy, more busy with classes and such than I ever was before. I still wouldn't say I'm the model student, that would certainly be a big change, but I'm certainly a much better student, and I for the most part enjoy my studies, which though I did at times previously, I don't think it was ever in quite the same ways. There is a new and entirely different viewpoint that comes from being an older and very overly educated student. So much of my time has been focused on studying, volunteering, and other things, including life.

I think my next post, hopefully I will post more often, smaller posts that is, will pertain to what it is like to be a none traditional student. But right now I'm just writing this post to distract myself from studying, so obviously I'm not the model student just yet.

---

I don't know when it happened
I needed to kiss her
I didn't care what she might think

The moments of approach were frightful
What would she do?
Would she reciprocate?

The longest moment's end is finally coming to and end
Hearts are in sync, breathing together
What beauty grows from togetherness

Leaving Melbourne for familiar ground

Nearing the end of my journey, in many way to myself this was the end as I would soon be with familiar people, in a familiar place.

Flights reworked, bus to the airport, Broken bag, and resulting broken laptop.

SF, arriving at my brother's abode, a lovingly familiar place, something that almost feels foreign.

Lot's of sleep and a bit of laziness, perhaps my first chance in a while to do nothing.

So many old faces, how different could this be from just a bit ago?

Road trip up to Portland with my brother, such a different way to travel.

A lovely little house, AirBnB success.

Coffee, Donuts, Pizza, fun people, crazy movies, what a wonderful town.

Driving home through the red woods, weaving through the trees.

In Eureka we learn of a slide, our route is blocked for days.

Quick dark ride home, deep conversation, and some-In n-Out.

A bit more time in SF, and then back to life.

---
Beers, I show my annoying obsession, but choose a delicious beer, creme brulee stout
A burger and fires, one of their specialties, she declines, as well as my brownies
A vegan, but I don't mind, I'm completely taken

A lovely time, with more exchange
Plans for food another day
Vegan Brownies, and vegan dumplings for her, meat for me

A walk over the bridge, a beautiful night, a beautiful companion
Look over the water, weird lights in DUMBO, what could it be?
An artshow, people everywhere, giant bubbles to make

A walk along the water, contrasting worlds in Brooklyn
A stop at a watering hole to rest our feet, and moisten our parched lips
Walk down the dark streets home through Brooklyn

Good Night...

Off to Australia, mother nature can be such a harsh mistress

First off some off topic stuff. My posting rate has gotten really bad, frequency wise that is, lately, at this point most of the people who I believe read this only know things about me that I write here in this blog so such people would have no idea why my posting has been so irregular, as such I'd like to say. So after finishing my trip back in April (what I'm still writing about because I'm so backlogged) I went forward with one of the many ideas for my longterm goals directions. I'm currently now taking Organic Chemistry, Biology, and Chemistry Lab, so a lot of my time has been taken up by that and other various things.

On another note I've been considering doing some blog branching, but if and when I do that it will be clear what is going on.

This time success, no problems boarding, what a relief I must say. In then I probably only lost half a day as my original flight had a huge lay over in China. In the terminal I met a Japanese man from Sendai, to this day I have no idea if they are okay, I hope they didn't make it hope before the tsunami. We just hung out in the terminal and then we each took our own flights. I sat next to an American couple, we went flying in our giant speeding beer can (we were flying King Fisher, same company as the beer). It was really well handled, actually one of the nicer flights I'd ever been on, Namastar to India. We were served food in nice little china trays, reminiscent of what air travel used to be even in America. I have to say though the Indian male passengers were horrible, they kept ringing the bell for more beer, even when it was just ordered a moment earlier, they were also truly harassing the stewardesses. One flight down, two more to go. At this point I can't remember the order, but I slept for about 5 hours in one airport and then got on another flight, finally arriving in Melbourne.

Well apparently I was looking like a sketchy fellow as I was forced into the super express extra scrutiny line, probably because I was as honest as possible about what I had with me. I found some of the questions and requests odd, they made me flip through my photos to show that there weren't any containing child pornography. But in then I ended getting through security faster than everyone else. Quick bus ride over to the city. It was early so I just hung out at the bus station and tried to snooze, but I got screamed at by security. I ended up getting in contact with Cathy's friends and we arranged to meet up after work. I locked up my bag and then wandered around the city. I got some coffee, some food and just some totally different energy.

First impressions of Melbourne, it is actually really quite lovely, the first fun aspect were the street cars, though I've been in other cities, but there was something different about it in Melbourne, the next fun thing I came across were the blue bike share bikes, oh yeah did I forget to mention, the city was damn clean, what an unbelievable contrast. I really just wandered, as I had so much time to kill. Melbourne has a pretty healthy coffee culture, I just took photos, thought, and ate, well I also had some coffee. The sites were quite nice to see, and so were the people, people watching is one of my favorite activities.

Well the day quickly rounded down, and when the work day ended up I met up with Ben and Jordan, and walked back to there place. We got some food, we talked about friends in Brooklyn, and then bed time, after the exceedingly necessary shower. It might have been a couch bed, but I slept amazingly well.

At this point for whatever reason much of australia is a bit of a blur, I think the next day was actually a mixture of laziness and being on the phone trying to work some stuff out, I then went and met up with Ben for a trivia night. All of Ben and Jordan's friends were really cool and trivia night was really fun, I don't think I helped too much, but in the end we won, which was the first time for their group, I guess I was a bit of good luck. I also had some 'Parm', which is what they say for chicken Parmesan. The funniest thing was just how huge the portion was, when I spoke with the Australians and pointed this out to them, they were all shocked that I would think such things as they had heard how large American portions are, this was one of my first moments of realization of just how similar Australians and Americans are.

The next day I used Melbourne's bike share system with a friend of my Brother's. I even managed to purchase a helmet from 7-11 for $5, this is a subsidized price due to Australia's helmet laws. First I did some people watching at their train station, which was quite nice, but all I ate was a chocolate bar, something similar to a snickers. This of course would bode poorly for riding around Melbourne for me, it certainly wasn't quite as exciting and death defying as my riding with Rosie was in Pondy. It really was a fun time and then me and Andrew started to just walk around Melbourne, and guess what Rosie found me... Then we got some drinks. What an odd and lovely day. Me and Rosie made plans to meet up the in two days which was lucky. That very night as I was getting ready to go to bed I checked my email and saw a message from my mother letting me know about the Japan tsunami, which was to be my next destination, couldn't do much that night.

Next day was essentially entirely based around getting ticket stuff handled, which wouldn't be finished handling until more than a month later. This was a terrible day, but the next was quite lovely, me and Rosie got some Brunch, went to the farmer's market and just walked around and Checked out Melbourne some more.

Wrapping things up a bit, bike borrowing around town, museum cruising and cool collective dining, riding street cars and feeling the world while wallowing in my own sadness of part of journey that would never be, but overly distracted by myself over those whom really were hurt. And some Kangaroo.

---
Can I have your number?
Sure... Here you go

What do I do,
do I text her,
do I call her?

Someone tell me what to do
No one answers
It's all on me

Conventions are wise for conventional times
But hearts are fickel
Swells of emotion must be quelled

To hell with it all
Tap out a few letters
to say, "I want to see you"

"Me too" she says
What a relief to my soul
Who cares about anything else

Rushing out of lab,
A quick checking in
Seeing her, feeling my heart skip

A Bagel in Delhi, But it was no bagel or Deli to me

I arrived back in Delhi, this time knowing much of my way, and this time with a pretty solid goal.

Somehow I managed to find Kaz Haus Village, with little to no trouble this time. I had a bagel, which I certainly expected to be horrible, but as a boy from Brooklyn I felt I must try it, my expectations were correct. Little conversation with a fellow New Yorker. Finally great free wifi, where I was able to do everything necessary, most awesome.

Just a few days to do a little bit of what I hadn't done before, but ended up just walking and getting wifi, it wasn't so bad. It seemed nearly idillic, and it was time for me to go, my bag were all packed an I was ready to go, I said farewell to my most amazing and gracious hosts, I made my way to the subway which would take me to the newly completed (literally not even two weeks prior) airport train arrived, which after arriving at the airport I was greeted with a disaster. Let's just say that I ended having not technically a visa issue, but something exceedingly surprising, which ended up causing an incredible stir. The people from the airline didn't actually understand the problem, which made things worse for months and months to come. Well after getting back to Vivek's parents' home, and waiting for a bit out side, his father arrived and told me that he had had a feeling that I would be back that night, I jokingly remarked that things would have been much easier if he had just told me that in advanced. The next day was not fun at all, mostly lots of phone calls, but I did get to see Vivek's mother again, who I must say is a great conversationalist like her husband, but definitely different.

Well back to the airport and most things succeeded this time, I ended up hanging out with a Japanese guy from Sendai before boarding my kingfisher flight, which would eventually bring me to Australia, which we will speak of next time.

---
Walking in circles that are never meant to be
Always going forward while climbing time
Feeling like you've gone no where
Encounters that would never have been
Different way
Different life
---
I saw her on the train
She was looking at her moleskine
Possibly doodling away, maybe writing a story unheard
All I could think was that I somehow knew her
I kept looking up hoping to understand
We exchanged fleeting looks

Who was she, I had no idea
Her presence root in my mind the entire ride
I started to fear that she was worried about whom I am
I could get back to my reading all I could think of was her
I couldn't help myself, I had to keep looking at her
We were nearing nearing my stop

With great resolve I decided to alight with her
She got up, I followed, we walked side by side
I tried to get up the courage, I was about to ask who she was
And then...
She suddenly spoke, she inquired if we knew each other
We shared our mutual sense of familiarity
I walked her home
---

Beginnings of New Branches

Squish, as my boot sinks in the mud between the roadways.
Rattles as I run acros the pebbles lining the track bed.
And a hop onto the platform.

Into a bunk, some dinner and rest.

Morning and the rattling continues.

Evening and the shaking doesn't stop.

Morning and we Disembark.

A quick zip down a road, after bargaining in this sacred realm.

Dropped off arbitrarily, a wandering walk to a temple to find a place to sleep.

Unload my burdens to prepare for wandering.

Walking around, ignoring call for rides.

Chance upon the Zen temple, peace and place found.

A bit more wandering to the Bodhi tree, to bask in the shade where the Buddha found his way.

Hawkers all around, spit and garbage flying everywhere.

Ticket to the beginning is purchased from a man who believes the clammer with a discussion with one whom thinks they are god.

New plans hatched after the evening at the Zen temple.

Sleep silently.

A bit more arguing with the man who listens to the clammer as he was quite the dishonest man.

Auto rickshaw ride to the train, bit of a rush, but no need as the train was delayed.

Waiting longer 5 hours late train.

Crazy people, drove from europe in a VW bus, but friendly.

Train finally arrives, fear that my ticket wont be accepted.

Mostly nice people, no problems with where I sit.

Time for an auto ride, I join up with the friendly crazies.

After leaving them behind, off to Sarnath.

The driver quoted me a price, but one which he would not honor.

Much argument ensued.

Sleeping in an empty dorm for 20, nice.

First thing in the morning off to the Japanese temple, peaceful bliss and familial presence.

At the temple, peace was in the air and children playing.

Lunch with everyone, served by the temple, simple yet filling.

Wandering around Sarnath.

Depressing zoo and park, but ancient ruins all around.

Something special in the air, peacefulness.

Helping to back some bread, attending temple prayer.

Utter silent and peaceful sleep.

Off to the train through the stench of Varanasi, off back to delhi to fly away.

With an argument whether my bill was okay.

Dharmsala

Reformat as usual, mostly due to memory failures.

Sweet air, awoken from the rattling train by the chilling breeze rolling of the Himalayas. A run across platforms in a panic to make the toy train. Cramped quarters, but freshness blowing through the windows, unlike anything I'd experienced in India up to that point. Chugging along through a dark tunnel seeming endless. Moving up the mountain, we finally reach Kangra. No one would take the me, the foreigner, in their packed tight autos, until a kind soul talked a driver to allow me to ride hanging out of the trunk. Apparently 1000 rupees is too much for a 10rs ride, luckily honesty prevailed and breaking was accomplished. Off to the bus, then packed into a tight truck clipping my bag to the roof fearing it would fall at every curve and bump. Finally up in the land of the Dali Lama, McLeod Gange. Before taking anything in an ATM and housing would need to be found, all of which took place pretty quickly. After a bowl of soup, some quick browsing and some momo, I set off to the Dali Lama's residence. I walked down the gauntlet of merchants, and I did not bite, until the end when I got some momo from an old woman. Into the temple I walked around spinning the wheels of time, until I turned around and started to go in reverse, to see the faces of those infront of me. Bed time in the frigid cold and bad movies and tv.

Morning sun shining through, golden shadows on the wall. Yesterday's grey is today's blue, looking out over the foothills below and the snow caped mountains in the far field. Bones warmed by the radient sun, off to make momos the food of the snow capped land. A dark room with light streaming through the air, specs of flour dancing in the light. Our host is there directing us how to stuff and fold little packages. Off to the waterfall, not far away, walking up and down a dirt path. A family playing music, asking for alms. Stretching from home to home all along the mountains, colorful flags fluttering in the air, illuminated by the bright mountain sun. With each step I realize that I'm getting hotter and hotter, a fever seems to have taken root in me, so I turn around prematurely. Soup and Momos, what could be better for dinner on a cold night.

Off to a new abode, conversations with new people with different views and visions of the world. In the evening I went to Lhamo Croissant to watch a movie and to have some traditional Tibetan soup. With strong powerful conversation as a dessert. The next day with a quick stop at Lhamo's I headed off to the waterfall, which I had failed to reach previously. The waterfall was lovely, though the garbage strewn by the Indian tourists was disheartening. On my way down I found my path going through the path of goats and people doing their laundry in the river, the runoff from the waterfall. Another movie at Lhamo's croissant and more bone chilling cold in the evening.

Norbulinka, a research facility for the preservation of Tibeten culture, a lovely site/sight even on cool damp afternoon. Too expensive, and a few miss steps from the bus. A man beating a hammer against a glowing hot blade, an implement to be made, perhaps a scissor. And then I bought my ticket to Bodh Gaya, but then right off to Lhamos for another movie and talk and then sleep.

The next day was just relaxing to explore the vicinity, and it would be my last. Just taking in beautiful weather and sights, and conversation. Then the next day long 4 hour bus ride to my train, which would be about 36hrs, two nights on a train, a not to appealing idea, but appealing in its own way.

Some selections from my original Delhi post:

Delhi Belly

Big Boots,
Black Boots,
Doc Martin's,
Skinny Girl,
Grey Skirt,
Black Shirt,
Leather Satchel,
Tanned Legs,
Dirty-Blond Hair,
Legs Move,
Eyes True,
and a
Reassuring Smile.

Two Naked Men,
In the Dark,
On top of a truck,
Parked in the rain,
On the side of the road,
Lashing a tarp to keep it dry.

No Pastrami in the Delhi

After some breakfast and tea at Rahul's it was off to Delhi. I had to Coordinate with Vivek's parents to figure out where I where they live and when to meet them, but that was pretty quick and easy and then Rahul's driver brought me to Nizamoudin station. Well as with the first time I drove with him it was like a scary roller coaster, but we did get there safe and sound. Well I was going to Nizamoudin station to cancel my original ticket to Patankot, which I had tried to cancel in Jaipur to facilitate my going to Delhi's first comic convention. Well the people at Nizamoudin ended up telling me that I needed to go to New Delhi station to process a credit card return. The endless chase....

Well I wasn't going to Vivek's parents house until the evening so I had a bunch of time to kill, so even though I was completely burdened with my bag I figured I'd walk around the city and just kind of make my way to the new Delhi station. Delhi wasn't like Jaipur, but it also was no Pondy. I walked from the station which was a bit of a jungle itself and started walking down what seemed like an interesting path, I saw some nice people selling who knows what with a stray dog staying in their proximity and when I walked by the dog lunged out at me and started barking, now me with my pack and lumbar bag just bursted with energy and skedaddled right out of there. I then just kept walking. I eventually found myself resting on the wall outside of the courts and smelled all sorts smells, but I still managed to pull out my lonely planet and try to figure out where to go. I decided on the Museum of modern art, which was quite close by. I made my way inside through their lovely artistic entry way. My bag couldn't fit in their lockers, but the guard was super nice and let me put it on top of the lockers. It was really quite nice to no longer be burdened with the weight of the bag. I walked around and they had this really amazing show of orks by Anish Kapoor, which was really quite nice. However I couldn't stay there all day and I was quite hungry and their food was quite lacking and I might add quite expensive for what it was, so headed out after trying to get a good idea of where to go. I decided on a tea shop located in a book shop. It was surprisingly difficult to actually find the place and on entering they wanted to hold onto my bag, and by protesting and mentioning that I had a laptop in it, they relented. They had some really great tea, I had this amazing Darjeeling first flush and as per the books recommendation a muffin.

It was then time to finally make my way to the station. Now I should have known this better by this point, but no one really knows anything in India, but will have no problem telling you something. So following the map I though I was going the right way but ended up being confronted with a no entry and had to completely re route. I then made my to the tourist office and I told them why I was there and they told me to wait online. When it was finally my turn I was told yet again that I was in the wrong place as they could not process credit cards. Finally I found where I was supposed to go and managed to get the credit. I then had to find a place to recharge my phone, which was simply put an exercise in patience. I then called up Vivek's parents to figure out how to get to their place, Vivek's mother told me to take a cab, I would learn pretty quickly that I could have just taken the metro, but whatever. I found a cab stand, which seemed very confused where to go and the driver then seemed even more confused, so I tried to help by using my phone which I had marked down Vivek's house on maverick, well maverick had found the wrong location and I directed us completely the wrong way, well no completely, about a 10 minute walk. The driver then tried to charge me more money than was agreed upon for what was actually a shorter drive than what it should have been, I refused to pay the extra money. Well I gave Vivek's parents a call and luckily his father was nice enough to come and pick me up, well with a little help from a very nice Indian man who walked with me to a meeting point. On the way to meeting Vivek's father the man told me how he walked every day to work I believe 7 miles every day (at this point I can't remember the specifics too well). On arriving at there home after very kindly being driven by Vivek's father I was amazingly well fed, both with food and superb conversation with Vivek's parents. Vivek's father is a mechanical engineer who specializes in renewable forms of energy in many ways and his mother is a former school teacher who now designs the curriculum for much of the delhi school system. Not meaning to cut things short, but after some lengthy discussion I had to excuse myself for a shower and sleep.

In the morning I was fed some lovely food, including toast and cheese, which really is one of my favorite foods, some potato porotta with indian pickles and Dahi. After getting my fill of food I went off to try and find an internet cafe listed in one of the deli books that Vivek's mother had given me, but I couldn't manage to find it, even though it was in Hauz Kaz Village, which seemed to be where I was staying. I then managed to find the metro station and my way to the national gallery, which in all honesty was a bit of a let down, but the metro was amazing. They had some very interesting items at the national gallery, but it was very poorly organized and set up. There was a lovely if not overly ordinate display provided by the Thai government for housing the bones of Sidartha, which seemed most antithetical to the Buddha's ideals. I then went back to the station to try and buy 20 single ride tokens to the cheapest station I could find, they would sell them to me so I bought to, this started my game of trying to obtain as many tokens and cards as possible. I then made my way to the Indira Gandhi arts center, which had an interesting even going on, but honestly it was not that interesting or worthwhile of an adventure. I then made my way over to Khan market, which was a dirty expensive market, where I essentially hoped to simply find some internet. I ended up finding a McDonald's, which I don't even eat in the US, but I decided to try their vegi burger, which though looked very very un appealing was actually one of the better vegi burgers I'd ever had. And that ended up pretty much being the end of my day, well I then grabbed some great dinner and conversation at Vivek's parents' home.

Off to the red fort, I'd say more Pink, but first some internet. After that up to the red fort, which honestly was nice, but not amazing. They charge tourists much more money for tickets, but you get a shorter line, which I suppose is nice. I then went off to the location that Gandhi was assassinated and where he stayed when he was in Delhi. This was actually one of my favorite places in Delhi and it had come highly recommended by Vivek's father. There was an interesting media installation going on as well as some great history about Gandhi. The place was filled with monks who seemed to be making a pilgrimage there. It was one of the most sedate places I had seen in India up to that point. I then went back to Vivek's where I met up with his father so that we could go to an Indian poetry reading. Specifically the reading was all in Hindi as it has become common in India for such pursuits to be done in English. I ended up excusing myself half way through.

The next day was my last day in Delhi and with it came going to the comic convention, I'd been trying to get in contact with Rahul to no avail, but finally I got through to him and he informed me that he had been in a car accident. He was fine as was fine, but his car was destroyed, this was vaguely ironic as I had just complimented his driving especially because he doesn't honk so much, but the honking might have stopped the truck from backing over his front end. The convention was interesting if not more sedate than previous ones I've attended, but you could feel a very positive energy. I then headed back to Vivek's had a quick dinner with Vivek's father and then made my way to the station where madness began. First off I lost a towel, not a huge deal, but I quickly figured out that something was wrong with my ticket as even though it said NDS I was supposed to go to old delhi, well I panicked (always a bad idea) and tried to get a cab, forgetting that I could have taken the metro. I was immediately accosted by a horde of drivers who essentially wouldn't let me leave and gave me no room for bargaining, essentially they took almost all of my cash in my pocket, I luckily had a bit more, but not really much. I ended up getting to the station just by a hair and got on the train in a state of anger, much worse than panic.

Every time dishonesty dishonesty is leveled against me I become a little more disgusting.

Chop>
Chop>
Chop>
...
Chop>
Crash-

How much can a tree take?
Be a tree of Iron

I am but an echo through time and space
Of what I am, what I will be, and what I was

Oh to be a Vulcan
Life would be so much easier
No qualms or hesitation
Only one road to take
But what would be the joy in life?

always in a rush, never there
a little bit of patience, always here.

Jaipur

First off I have to apologize for the massive delay in posting, things simply got crazy and hectic. Historically this is the pattern with my blog, but there were some major reasons, which if people would prefer I can tell them sooner than later, but otherwise I will be doing things in chronological order.

As the train arrived departed at 6:10am I obviously didn't get to sleep the entire journey especially as it was over night. I ended up really only taking a relatively short nap until breakfast was surved (the train I was on had food included in the AC2 class), which was really bad, I started to really see here how variable food can be on the trains. The train ride mostly consisted of either trying to read 100 years of solitude (great book), listening to pod casts, sleeping, eating and getting in contact with Rahul, that really was it. I suppose it was around this train trip that I started to lose a great deal of the romanticism with Indian Rail travel. This was also my first train to be significantly late, but I would learn that this is just normal for trains in India.

So I was arriving in Nizzamoudin station, which is the southern main rail station of Delhi and was to meet Rahul's driver, who was going to drive me to meet Rahul at his factory. This was the beginning of a very surprising and interesting adventure to say the lease. Rahul's driver speaks next to no English and I'm convinced is quite crazy. He was doing chew the entire ride and driving and honking like a mad man. On this car trip I very clearly learned how lines on highways are also used as lanes. By this I mean that on a two lane high way there can be up to three cars next to each other. It seems like almost every time I entered a vehicle in India I discovered a new fear of the roads. Well I arrived at Rahul's factory and was first greeted by his wife, who brought me into his office and I had some tea and biscuits. Meeting Rahul was great, we had a great conversation and then went over to his home where I met his family and had a good shower and some good home cooked Jaine food. After some more conversation Rahul then brought me over to the bus station where I grabbed a bus for Jaipur to spend the night and the next day there.

The bust ride was a very interesting one I guess. At first it wasn't all that special, but there were a bunch people giving me very odd looks, more than usual, and the ticket taker ended up sitting next to me watching my phone. Suddenly there was the sound of a crash and shattered glass and I instinctively ducked and when I look up the windshield was partly broken. After a bit more driving we pulled over and we all got on another bus, but no major problem. When we finally did arrive in Jaipur is was raining a bit and it was late and I had no idea where the hotel was that Rahul had booked me (it would turn out to be an insanely nice one) in was so I grabbed an auto rickshaw after a little negotiating, which was impossible to fully go my way, and which I was a little too tired to even fully carry out. At first the guys seemed mostly nice, with superb english, but then he got into talking to me about illegal jobs that he wanted me to do and he simply wouldn't stop regardless of how nice I was in my entreaties to him to stop. On arriving I told him how much I thought the ride should have cost, which he first agreed I was correct about and then quickly went back on. I probably would have felt more uncomfortable continuing to do this, but a guard from the hotel came to the auto and then I quickly paid and then checked in and got room 212, I thought this was a pretty good sign. Well it was too late to go to the pool, lol, but I did grab a quick bite, the food wasn't the worst, but it wasn't really that great. I then settled into the room, tried to fix a credit card issue I'd been having and then got my phone on the task of downloading maps of the area, and finally a good nights rest.

In the morning I grabbed a quick breakfast, and then brought down my bag for them to hold durring the day. I asked them the best way to the train station (I had some ticket stuff to handle), they told me to take a car, I chose to walk. It was a bit over cast,but one of the nice things I saw when I first stepped out was a large and by large I mean a lane and half wide bike lane in each direction and separated bus lanes with bus level boarding, but it was a bit over caste outside. Walking down the street began not so bad, but the traffic quickly picked up and with that the noise and odors. At one point I turned down the street and was welcomed by the sight of a camel pulling a cart, definitely not the U.S.. For some reason that completely alludes me every station in India have huge complexes of buildings, which are generally arranged in random ways, which means it can often be a long hunt for the reservations office. The reservation office wasn't all that bad, I was able to get a new ticket for heading to Dharmsala (I was changing my ticket ticket Rahul had invited me to Delhi's first ever comic convention), but when I tried to return a ticket that I had bought in Madurai with a credit card I was told that I coud only return such a ticket in Delhi, this is where that learning why not to by tickets with a credit card came into play. I then helped an older gentleman who seemed to be an American Indian who was back in India visiting family. The advice I gave him, was technically correct, but I felt bad giving it as I think it is part of what is wrong with the Indian rail system, but I gave it because it was the correct advice to give. I told him that even if he is unsure of going he shouldn't wait because if he were to they would sell out so he might as well just buy all of the tickets that he might need. He was with a young man who seemed to be a relation of his living in India that he was visiting who agreed with my advice and then he bought his tickets.

On leaving the station I found myself suddenly in the midst of a beautiful day. There were puddles everywhere which needed dodging and cars that needed to be avoided as well as the splashes from the puddles in their paths. I continued to navigate my way around the city taking in its sights, sounds and smells, and as this was just after the rain it was actually smelling and feeling quite clean. After dodging a number of cars to cross the street I decided that I was getting quite hungry so I started to look for sustenance. Suddenly in front of my is a horse coming down the street towing behind it some people and then I notice and an interesting looking restaurant. On walking up to the restaurant I quickly got usurer in, but I didn't let them seat me until I took a look at the menu. The menu was simply scary, it was filled with a huge number of foods from a large number of countries, I felt bad in doing so, but to me such a menu is a bad sign, so I quickly extricated myself from the restaurant. I was honestly just basking in the beauty of a day that it had become. I just started to follow google maps to what looked like it might be a fort.

Well I continued wandering and wondering, and ended up getting what I almost always get, some samosa's. Well I ended up in this interesting looking neighborhood that seemed nice enough. A group of kids asked me to take their photo, I kindly obliged and they were exceedingly excited, especially after I showed them their photos. I then continued down the street where some older guys very awkwardly also asked for me to take their photo, they were both odd and forceful in their request and they really just ended up making fun of one of them after seeing the photos. I then continued down the street and found myself in a nice little market. Suddenly out of now where a whole bunch of kids started asking me for photos, and I kindly obliged and everything was going quite dandy. They then decided to start following me, which made me feel somewhat like the pied piper of hamelin, but such an interesting situation can't last long, and pretty quickly after one rude kid started asking for money they all followed suit. They then started pushing me and pushing each other into me. I decided that I would go another way as the kids showed no signs of letting up, when I passed by a shop on my way out I suddenly got water or some liquid thrown on me. I then screamed at the kids, which probably was completely incomprehensible to them. I then made haste to an auto rickshaw stand I had seen on my way still with the kids following and screaming at me from behind. I found an auto rickshaw driver relatively quickly and hopped into an auto rickshaw and waited for the driver to figure out how to get me to where I need going, but as this was India it took a little while, and durring the time the kids continued to surround me and even entered the auto. Eventually a kind man came to my aid and shooed the kids away and then I was off back to the Hotel to fetch my things.

So after actually having to guide the auto rickshaw back to the hotel using my phone as the driver and his friend didn't know how to get there, they had the gaul to try to raise the price that we had originally decided on. Well after getting payment sorted out I contacted Rahul to coordinate him picking me up at the bus. Well the people at the hotel were super nice and friendly and I fetched my bag and went over the bus station. At the bus station I grabbed some peanut brittle found my bus and sat down. The bus ride was really quite eventful. I told the driver where I was going, but I always get nervous so I had marked on my phone where the stop was. Through great coordination with Rahul and my phone I managed to get off at the right place with Rahul knowing, but I was standing on the wrong side of the highway. In the middle of the night I didn't really feel like it would be a good idea to just run across the highway, but Rahul came across and we then ran across together. Apparently there was an underpass, but it was apparently filled with mud and cow shit, rendering essentially unusable. Well getting into the car with Rahul was a very different experience. He didn't honk his horn once, which was shocking, even when there were a huge number of vehicles driving around in the incorrect directions. Well we got back to Rahul's house had a bite and then I went to bed.

Darkness Driving, Unexpected paths.
Where to is inconsequential.

No Light ahead, only here and behind.

Tamil Nadu

So the bust driver out of Munnar was much much better than the one into Munnar. This driver took the decent very calmly, which made the ride much much better and allowed all those on board to take in the beautiful views. We even got to see monkeys, though they didn't seem to be the trained variety that pick tea leaves for humans, man I would love a helper monkey. Now of course the entire ride was kept company by the loud incessant honking, though it at least seemed logical for many of the blind curves going down the hills. When we finally reached Theni I was in much higher spirits than I had predicted, but this didn't last long as almost immediately the beggars returned. Having traveled such a short distance it was shocking how different things seemed from Kerala. After switching and getting on the bus to Madurai, while being forced to have my pack on my lap, a man immediately started begging at my window and wouldn't go away so I finally just shut the window, which he then smacked. The ride to Madurai wasn't that bad other than the fact that I had my pack on my lap the entire 3 hours. The other problem with both bus rides is that I spent the entire time calling every hotel in lonely planet to reserve a room, but every hotel said they were full, this ended up meaning that I would have to get a really expensive room, but this wasn't that big of a deal as I was only planning on being their for a night and I was actually hoping to get a good nights rest, which has for the most part been alluding me. So after arriving I had a rick shaw driver drop me at the train station, got a room and then I went to the train station to get a ticket to go to Puducherry.

I managed to deal with the whole information part of the ticket and bought a ticket, which I was told would require a tourist quota and to go up to the ticket master's office. At the same time I met a couple from Scotland who were also buying a ticket and had to deal with the same problem, though I finished first. So I went up to the ticket master's office who had me skip everyone as he seemed very happy to deal with a foreigner and said that there was no quota available, but told me I was one of his VIPs and to comeback tomorrow. I then went to wonder around the town looking for food. I ended up running into the Scottish couple and we started looking for food together. We ended up going to a Thali restaurant, which was quite good, though we had a few miss-communications with the staff, but no real problems. We then wondered around and decided to look for some chai. I remembered seeing a place called best coffee in town (I figured they'd also have chai) near my hotel so we decided to head over there. Of course on ordering we found out that they didn't have chai, but rather they only had coffee, so we all decided to get a cup. The server, this was no barista, deftly poured the black coffee mixed with sugar with hot milk back and forth between two cups, cooling and mixing it together leaving a frothy cup to be drunk. On my first sip it just hit me that it tasted so much like canned coffee, now most Americans have never had canned coffee, but in Japan it is super common and this was perhaps a slightly sweeter and milkier and UCC coffee I guess. Honestly most chai in India has way too much milk and way to much sugar, too much sugar for me even when I was a little kid of about 5 or so, with my usual at the purity diner I didn't put sugar in my tea, though I did put milk in my tea to emulate the appearance of my mother's coffee, coffee being something I wasn't allowed to drink at such a young age. Then we all parted ways and went to our respective hotels. This was my first time with a working TV in quite a while so I decided to flip through the channels and put on the news. Almost immediately I was greeted by reports of unrest in Darjeeling due to the police killing three protesters. This was very disheartening news as Darjeeling is one of the places in India that I've most wanted to go to. I then decided that I wanted wash up and went to fill up the washing basin, but found no hot water so I called down to the desk, they informed me that there was only hot water in the morning, but that they would send up a bucket of hot water. Then after watching some more TV, sleep...

The next morning it was off to Madurai's chief attraction, its Hindu temple. Now it was day and the city looked completely different than it had the night before. The first clear thing was that the street was littered with sugar cane juice sales men. These people have carts laden with large amounts of sugar cane and a juicer, which consist either of hand cranks or gas powered engines turning two parallel rollers, which have the sugar cane pass between crushing the sugar can and extracting the juice. There were also lots of bananas, and by lots I really do mean lots, many of them were being transported around the city on the back of these large cargo bicycles, which make up a huge segment for transporting goods cities. Almost immediately a relatively friendly Indian gentlemen came up directing me to where I would have to leave my shoes when I went into the temple and where I could go onto a roof to get a good view of the city. Relatively quickly it became clear that his motivations weren't entirely altruistic. On getting to the place with the roof it was clear that the place was also a shop so that a major aspect would be them trying to sell me stuff that I was in no way interested in buying. The view from the roof was actually quite nice and worth seeing but, then on my way down they started the hard sell. I kept telling the sales person that I wasn't very interested and that the stuff was too expensive as it was a relatively expensive shop. Another sales person was bringing some other tourists up to the roof and after they were out of ear shot he started chastising me for using the word expensive as he felt that nothing was expensive rather everything was simply properly priced. We ended up in a bit of a tiff and I immediately left the establishment. Almost immediately afterwards the man that directed me to the shop started having a conversation with me, but very quickly he started to tell me about how he was a tailor and wanted to make me clothing. At the time I really didn't want to take on any more baggage. So I dropped off my shoes and went to the temple. The temple was nice and interesting, but most of the places that looked like they would be best were off limits to none Hindus. I think this is a little ridiculous as I've been to countless houses of warship through out the world of countless religions and other than some Mosques I've never been denied entry. At one point I got on a line not realized it was only for Hindus when a guard came up to me freaking and out started directing me out, at first I got quite happy as I thought he might be directing me to some tourist line, but pretty quickly I realized I was simply getting kicked out of the area. After seeing everything that there was to see at least for my western eyes I started making my way towards the Gandhi Museum. After getting my shoes a women started to follow me begging. I kept trying to politely say no, but she persisted so I decided to just walk a bit quicker, in India without even thinking about it I out pace pretty much everyone, in the end she first started trying to run to keep up with me and then quickly gave up.

The walk was quite interesting winding and weaving down the various streets. I decided that I wouldn't really check my book and just kind of go the way that seemed to make sense and ask directions. Most everyone I asked was super helpful but they were all shocked that I would walk it and kept tell me to take an auto or something. This is one of those weird of oddities of India, I've not been able to figure out if they tell me this because I am a foreigner or if they themselves wouldn't walk, but all I know is that when they do this it is almost always more than walkable. I then eventually made it to this bridge that went over a river bed, it seemed like perhaps at time the river is a bit higher, but at this time it was quite shallow and there were water buffalo in little pools bathing themselves, children playing and people doing laundry, leaving the large areas covered with laundry to dry, the stench was horrid. I kept walking and eventually a group of kids were super helpful and directed me to the final leg of my journey to the museum. On getting to the museum I was informed that I would only have a very short while as their lunch break was fast approaching. So I went in and made for a quick look. The museum was nice, they even have the bloodied mundu worn by Gandhi when he was assassinated. I then decided to head back to the city center and just kind of explore. A man with a bike rickshaw then started to kind of follow me regardless of how often I told him I was uninterested in a ride. This time I took a different root and walked down a street with a little market where women were selling mostly vegetables. When I went to take some photos most of the people were very nice, but this one women started throwing things at me, so I quickly left. This time I made my way across a much large bridge across the same river bed, on passing this one small segment I had to hold my breath for a minute or so as the stench of urine was completely overwhelming. The sounds were also quite over whelming, but it would have been quite ridiculous and impractical for me to plug my ears while journeying through the city. Pretty quickly I started to realize that I was in need of water and was quite hot so I decided to head back to the hotel very briefly and grab some water. On my way back the bicycle rickshaw driver found me again and started pestering me again, this time he seemed to heed my enteritis to him to leave me be. It really was quite hot and I came a across a church where I found a few moments of respite from the hot sun and finished what remained of my water.

After making my way back to the hotel I cooled off and got my stuff all packed up and then just wandered around town as my train was not 'till 11pm. It quickly became clear that the city was just filling up and filling up with more and more people. Slowly the city was just getting so much louder and louder as with the more and more people came it meant that there was more and more traffic. I honestly just couldn't take the noise and the pushing any longer so I went back my hotel (I had already checked out, but they had my bag) and just went to their rooftop restaurant, which many of the hotels in Madurai figuring it was the only place I could get away from the noise. In the end it was probably my best bet, but I could still hear most of everything, though certainly a more reasonable volume. It was actually quite nice, there were a few fire works and the view of the temple was quite nice at night. The food was certainly only okay, but the rice was actually much better than most of the rice you find in Indian restaurants.

I had a few a hours, but headed over to the station none the less. I decided to wait in the waiting room of the station and found my self next to an Englishmen reading a paper and asked him if he would tell me if there was anything about Darjeeling in there, he told me there was nothing and I started to read. Pretty soon a group of Indians, three men and three women sat next to me. Pretty quickly they started asking to take pictures with me. This lasted for maybe 20 minutes with them also asking me various questions. After they left I went looking for the Scottish couple. I found them and we had a pretty good discussion until they left. Eventually their train came and I was left waiting alone again. My train then came and I quickly got on and tried to sleep. The train then arrived at 6am. From the station we had to take a bus to Puducherry. I ended up asking these two dutch travelers, thinking they were waiting for a train at the station, where the bust stop was, they quickly pointed the way and said they were going there themselves. The two Dutchmen started to do what I had already learned is a stupid thing to do, but as I had somewhat attached myself onto them I couldn't really effect things, so they started to ask cab drivers and auto rick shaws where to get the bus, they all directed us to take a ride to the bus station. I pretty quickly started to suspect that we could just grab a bus at a station, but I went along none the less. We got an auto to the station and I quickly got us onto the right bus. On the bus I very quickly told the Dutchmen that I bet the bus stops at the station, which it ended up doing so. The money collector then came by to get money from us and I asked him how much, he put up one finger and I asked him one what, to which he put one finger up again, so I was about to give him one rs, but quickly one of the two Dutchmen quickly proffered a 100rs note to the collector, in exchange he got a slip saying the cost was 48rs for all of us and our bags. Through the ride we kept trying to get the collector to give us our change, but he wouldn't relent until finally another rider started to pester him for us. Well once the bus arrived I decided when the two Dutchmen decided to get an auto to the the city center to part ways as I knew it was no more than a 15min walk. I then quickly made my way to the town center area where all the rooms are and it was exceedingly clear when I made it to the French area as not only was the grid orderly, but it was also clean.

Well it was too early for any of the places to give me a room so I just hung out with my bag at one place and ended up meeting and just talking with one of the guards who was from Nepal and this German man. I then went looking for rooms again and actually saw for the first time in India a garbage truck and street cleaning crew, truly amazing. Still no luck finding a room. Finally at 9am I found a place that had a vacancy and took the room quickly up after consulting with another place run by Frenchmen and being told by the first place I went to that it was unlikely that they would have a vacancy. After getting a little settled and getting cleaned up I asked the proprietors where to get some wifi. They directed me to a little on the next street over. On my way in I got confronted by a some sort of TV crew doing a show a Puducherry. I tried to explain to them that I just arrived and really knew nothing about the place yet. But they said that they hadn't had a person from NYC yet so they wanted to interview me, well their loss I'd say. After the very awkward interview I made my way to the little cafe with the wifi and got myself a cheese crepe, hold the salad (not wanting to trust how the uncooked greens would have been cleaned). It was here that I first came across my next short term traveling companion, Rosie. On email I started to correspond with a friends mother about staying in Delhi with them and the same friend's friend Rahu who lives near Delhi. I then went off to explore the city and check out their hand made paper making Ashram and various other sites.

Puducherry really is clean and smelling good. It also isn't nearly as noisy, well all of these are true in the neatly ordered grid on the coast, which is part of the French side of town. It really was quite a peaceful pleasure. On getting to the Ashram you hit the outer ring, which is where things start to get hectic and smelly, but still not like anywhere else I'd been in India before. Of course as always the Ashram was out for lunch so I had to walk around and waste some time. Finally I got in and checked out their wears. After looking around I made my way for a coastal walk and saw their nice Gandhi statue, once again every town and or city has one, and even walked by a Basken Robin's. I also saw for the first time very clearly how they do road repair in India. Essentially they have a bunch of men and women in plain clothes lay their re-bar, delivered by bike, down and then page directly on top of the old road. Essentially the roads are just layered on top of each layer, this is essentially a really bad way to repair roads. I then following Lonely planets rough walking tour came across a cafe they have listed and while looking at their very uninspired menu came across Rosie again, who was reading the Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, a good book in my opinion. So we ended up just wandering around the town talking. It turned out that she was perhaps the tenth person I'd met from Melbourne so another in a line of an established pattern. We grabbed some food at the beach and then separated for a bit to get our own things in order then met again to grab some food, but first we went over to the beach and just sat and talked, no sunset to see as we were on the east coast of India, but then made a journey looking for food. Food was harder to find than you might think as most of the Indian seemed very tourist oriented and the rest was simply places that had too much of everything, essentially indecisive menus in my opinion are generally signs of bad food in all areas. We finally settled on an Italian joint and split two Pizzas also continuing a long pattern on this trip. The pizza though not amazing was actually surprisingly good. We then decided to meet in the morning and grab some breakfast and then decide on where to go. I then gave Rahul a call and we decided that we would meet in Delhi and he told me that he would talk to his aunt, but that he thought that the news was probably over reacting and that Darjeeling was safe.

In the morning we went back to the French cafe and quickly decided on going to Auroville and that we would ride bikes out of the city and Into the moving traffic jam. I have a masala chai and a crepe du formage et champagone, this is Pondy's duality in a meal.

Saddled up, and ready to ride into the storm, we don't yet know what craziness awaits us. Beginning the journey things go quite well, for me the only challenge is acclimating to riding on the left, which isn't too much of a problem and the calmness and order of the French quarter is simply like riding in a very quiet suburb in the U.S. but with more interesting sites. Well once we hit the outer ring as I noticed the previous day while walking we suddenly were in a totally different world of madness and chaos. Now instead of feeling like every auto rickshaw driver was harassing me for a fare I felt like they were all trying to kill me. The most bizarre part of the ride was simply how many people in India ride their bicycles against traffic. Now this isn't everyone, but the rate of Salmoning in India is much higher than in NYC. We just kept going and occasionally we would stop to consult my phone to see how much further we had to go, but it can some times be hard to when in a new environment directly translate scales to action. We were looking for a decent sized road, it turned out we should have been looking for a tiny alley. The entire ride we were continuously being honked at passed very closely, at one point a bus that was honking came with inches of Rosie. Well we road right past our turn and went quite a few km well out of our way until we checked my phone and discovered our folly. Well this was quickly remedied and this time I lead the way and we made the right turn. We ended up a on a very nice quiet road that wound up and down through some nice fields and very little other than one bakery with questionably looking goods next to a little resort hotel and eventually we made our way to the main road to Auroville. We then after a brief stop made our way to Auroville. At this point I'll explain what Auroville is, it is supposed to be a Utopian community, but like so many supposed Utopian communities is comes off as being a bit cultish, but they seem to do some good. They also built a huge temple type place that honestly to me was simply ugly and seemed quite wasteful. Such useless structures always seem to make me question any true positive ideals for any such community, but everyone did seem quite nice. Though one observation that I made was that all of the western members seemed to be following very idyllic pursuits, but only a few of the Indian members seemed to be pursuing and thing other than the manual labor related tasks. Well both myself an Rosie were a bit disgusted by what we saw and it was starting to get late so we decided to head back so that we wouldn't have to ride in the dark. The ride back was no better.

On returning we tried to get Rosie a ticket to Bombay, which was unsuccessful, they told her to comeback the next day. We then went to dinner to a place that was recommended as having good Indian food and it did, though for India it was a bit pricey, but it was certainly good. Towards the end of dinner I decided to check my ticket for the next day that for some reason I had convinced myself departed Chenai at 7pm, but on looking at my ticket I realized it departed at 6am. This sent me into a panic requiring me to figure out how to get to Cheni that night instead of the next day. Luckily I was quickly told that I could get a bus at 11 so Rosie and myself part ways and went to the bus station for a three hour ride to Chenai.

On getting to the station I literally kept hopping from Chenai bus to Chenai bus looking for the correct route taking the ECR (East Coastal Road) and ended up hoping onto the correct bus as it was already backing out of its space, I did this while wearing both of packs. The bus ride wasn't too bad though it was long, but I suppose that was to be expected, I pretty much just tried to read a book that Rosie had given me by the Nobel laureate Gabriel Marquez “one hundred years of solitude”, but with the lack of light and with the bumpiness of the ride so I ended up just trying to read some stuff on my phone. Finally we arrived and I got an auto rickshaw to the train station where I would wait 'till my train departed. The station was swarming with insects specifically mosquitoes due to the pools of water due to the half assed cleaning that was currently taking place. The cleaning consisted of a group of women sweeping dirty water around the station and occasionally one women would run through the water with a squeegee. The craziest thing about this whole scene was the large number of Indians that were walking through the mess bare footed and sleeping on the floor while the women were sweeping this dirty water just around them while the insects swarmed. After a little bit a settled down next to a Singaporean who ended up preaching to me about veganism and about Jesus being Indian and how such a truth had been revealed to him by an enlighten guru in the mountains of Kashmir.

Well the train eventually came and I hoped on board and went to sleep, finally.

Serene Path,
Disturbed by desire,
Tainted thought,
No more peace of mind.

Kerala

Stepping off the train into Ernakulum out of my nice 2nd AC train car, the warmth and humidity immediately hit me, this is a different world. Based on the advice of my traveling companions I was off to get a different ticket to Delhi and Pathankot than I had originally planned. So I went over to the ticket counter and patiently waited my turn, India would appear to be one of the few former English Colonies that does not consider the Que sacred. Well after waiting I was quickly informed that I needed the reservation office and not the ticket counter, this would be an oft repeated occurrence for myself. They pointed me on my way, but it wasn't terribly clear where they meant, so I was still a bit confused and I was then more precisely directed on where to go by a kind gentlemen, who later made it clear to me that he had been hanging around me hoping to make me his passenger. After lot's of back and forth I managed to get two new tickets, one of my tickets ended up requiring me to go to the head office to get a tourist quota seat assigned to me, they were extremely nice, and by buying my ticket with a credit card, which would haunt me later on in my travels. It was my intention to walk to the ferry to Fort Cochin and the driver kept telling me how it was too far and that the ferries are on lunch until three, but it was a lovely day so I walked. Of course this was my first time being a pedestrian in a not even too crazy city, but none the less it was considerably more challenging than walking in NYC.

It seems Gandhi is everywhere in India and after walking west to the water I was met by a roundabout with a large Gandhi statue in it's center. This is about when I started to realize that no one was begging, this would actually be constant during my entire stay in Kerala, successful communist government, perhaps. Well on arriving at the ferry, which was both not a very long walk and also quite lovely along a nice park, though I couldn't seem to gain access as all of the gates were locked, but there were many children playing and having what appeared to be worlds of fun, I found that there were two lines, one for women and one for men and that the ferries were running without a problem. The ferry was unbelievably cheap, just 2rs, which is about 5 cents and quite quick with some fairly nice views.

On alighting from the ferry and walking around Fort Cochin I was bombarded every few minutes by a cab or auto rickshaw driver offering to drive me around, they kept lowering their prices and getting more and more angry with me for not taking their offers, seemingly to me because they thought I was too cheap as they found it unbelievable that I would want to walk, but it was a lovely day and I had every interest in walking around and getting my bearings. I made my way past all of the tourists and the Chinese fishing nets and decided to look for a place away from all of the tourists and started walking towards one of the places in Lonely Planet, of course they were all full up, but the owner was exceedingly nice, offered me tea, bananas and helped me figure out where I should try next, she also knew who 'Noah' was, which I would find to be quite uncommon in India, everywhere else people never seem to understand me when I say 'Noah'. Not to long after my arrival and calling another place that said they had room another tourist showed up and was sent on. I decided then that it would be best to get going. On arriving at the next home-stay I saw the person who had arrived after me sitting in an auto rickshaw just out front and up stairs I found their companion negotiating for a room. After being chastised briefly for taking so long, which instilled a fear in me that I would have no room, but luckily they were just trying to have a little fun at my expense and I ended up with a decently nice room, mind you with out hot water, which at first concerned me, but after taking a long walk in the hot sun, I realized that it would be of little concern. Before leaving a arranged to take a cooking class the next day at 11am.

Well never one to let the day go by without some type of accomplishment especially when in a foreign land, I went down for a walk towards Montecherry and had to compete not just with other pedestrians, cars and bicycles but also the occasional cow, not your average NYC road user that's for sure. Interestingly pedestrians in Indian seem to usually walk with traffic as apposed to walking against traffic. This always seems to cause issues for me, because I'm always trying to walk against traffic so that I can see what next crazy whirl wind is approaching, but then I have considerably more conflicts with pedestrians than I would usually expect to have. For the most part Fort Cochin didn't seem to smell to bad, but when I had to cross a canal I was immediately hit by a terrible stench, which made me increase my pace. I made my way finally to what is referred to as Jew Town as historically there was a large Jewish population there, which is thought to have come to Kerala after the destruction of the second temple, but as it was a Friday the synagogue was closed. But I came across a nice Women's Cooperative, which was selling organically produced spices. It was here that I first saw that the spices in India were no better than what we can get in the U.S. and often times they don't have quite the same Q.C.'s that we have, so I got some nice stuff that is slightly hard to find back home, for a little less than it would be there, but knowing that dealing with the co-op meant that the money was going to the right places. I also started to see how big tea, cocoa and coffee are in the south, but after doing some research in the not so distant future my suspicions were confirmed that none of them are really considered to be of too high of quality as it is too hot and wet for tea and too cool for coffee and cocoa.

On my way back to the guest house I made my way back down the road and was looking for a place called Krishna Cafe, which was recommended to me by one of the people at the guest house that I was staying at. I some how managed to find it even though it was getting quite dark and with all of the traffic. I had a good Thali, which is perhaps the main food of the south, some cutlets and some masala chai. I made my way back to the hostel, some how, and said hello to the people running the hostel, who kindly informed me that the cooking class would have to be moved to 3pm, this would prove to be grand providence. I went to my room took a shower and tried to go to sleep. By try, I mean I laid in bed and tried every trick I could think of to no avail. I was lying there in bed with my mind racing over so many things about my travels and I wondered to myself if I would ever fall asleep. At 2am I turned on a pod cast I had downloaded on my Droid Incredible and finally drifted off to sleep by around 4 or 5. Well with going to sleep so late comes waking up late, so I ended up, even though I had set an alarm for noon, waking at about 2pm. So luckily the cooking class was moved and I was able to quickly and very groggily get myself ready and then at three I was picked up for the class.

The cooking class was actually held at another, smaller guest house which had a French mother and son staying as well as a slightly elderly Israeli women and her two middle aged sons. The first thing we did was go over the recipes, which she had me write down in my notebook. We were making Coconut rice, Coconut Pancake rolls, fried potatoes, an Eggplant curry and a lentil dish. She mostly had me do various chopping tasks. For me I'm so used to using sharp knives, it was a little weird using knives that couldn't even cut my finger, this was also exacerbated by the fact that the counters were made for someone who is no taller than 4'6” tall. By the end I had an aching back. There is this habit that I'm sure everyone has observed where people, especially with seasoned home chefs, cut thing with the blade towards their thumbs, I can never do this, I guess I was taught well by the cub scouts. When it came to making the pancakes I guess I misunderstood how much batter to use so I ended up making way too many little pancakes. With all of the food done It was then my job to eat this enormous amount of food. This was simply not possible in one sitting and luckily I was invited back to finish at dinner time. While eating I got into a good conversation with the Israeli family, mostly by asking them what they though about the whole Egypt situation. One of the sons had absolutely no Idea what I was talking about as he had apparently already been traveling for quite a while and I ended up informing them about Jordan's situation.

Well after, my brunch I walked back over to the guest house, took a shower as I was still feeling terrible sleepy and it being so hot in Cochin and after spending a few hours in a kitchen, one really needs a shower. Afterwards I went for a walk, just to explore and made my way back to the guest house where I took the cooking class. This time my hostess' two daughters were playing the whole time while I ate. I some how got the feeling that they were about 2 years apart from how they were playing, so I asked and I was told that they were 20 months apart, the younger was born in April and the elder was born in May. I found this interesting as my brother and myself are 22months apart and I'm born in April, so I informed my hostess of this and asked when her daughter born in April was born, to which she responded the 29th, so by some weird coincidence we were only off by one day. The girls kept playing hide and seek, but seem to always hide in the exact same place, so I'm not so sure that was exactly their intention. By the end I couldn't finish all my coconut pancake rolls, so I offered them to everyone else. I then said my thanks and headed back to the guest house and stopped for a bottle of water along the way. I somehow forgot to take 50rs in change and just started walking off. About 5min later some car drives by screaming to me that I forgot 50rs at the shop so I head back and thankfully retrieve my forgotten change.

On getting back and getting to bed again I was being attacked by mosquito's regardless of how much repellent I used. Again I feared that sleep would never come while I laid back in bed pondering everything around me. Luckily I still managed to get myself up so that I wouldn't entirely miss the day. However I had managed already to cover most of Fort Cochin and Montecherry so there wasn't really all that much left for me to do. Really all that I needed to do that day was to actually see the synagogue, as I figured that through out my travels I've seen pretty much every other religions holy sites and houses of warship, so why not go to a synagogue, and I was having dinner that night at the Taj with my friend Nick's Parents. On getting to the synagogue I ran into the Israeli family and had a nice quick exchange and then I went off to the synagogue. On first glance it was really quite dirty and not like any other synagogue I'd ever been to, but on looking at the floor, which at first glance consisted of four types of tiles, was actually quite complex where every tile was in some way actually completely unique. They also had a particularly nice little museum that told the story of the synagogue and the main population of the Jews of India. I should note that they actually don't allow cameras inside and that on the front door hung a sign informing the residents about a birth right trip, how funny. I decided then to walk through this little passage way, which contained a book store and cafe. I decided to browse the book shop and saw some seemingly interesting books and then suddenly a book about Jesus living in India caught my eye. The books premise was that Jesus during his lost years studied Buddhism, attained enlightenment and then returned to Israel, it then further went on to say the Jesus survived the crucifixion and then returned to India to die of old age in Kashmir, I could help to let out a little chuckle. I then just went wondering around the Island and at one point went by this building with barbed wire and smelled like urine, it was most pleasant.

I then returned to the guest house and I had the manager order me an Auto Rickshaw for 5:30am to take me to the bus station to catch a bus to Munnar. I then had to rush over to the ferry station to make the last ferry to Wellington Island, which I ended up making with time to spare. Arriving at the Taj I realized how different of a world I had been traveling in than the world that Nick's parents were staying in. The place I guess was quite nice from the outside, but according to Nick's parents it actually wasn't all that amazing in the rooms and was in their opinion quite over priced for what you got. We had what was a pretty good dinner, but I would say even better conversation. It was my conversation with Nick's parents, especially with his father, which I would say started to change some of my perception of India and shaped much of how I looked at the country and my conversations with main Indians to come. Nick's dad made some very interesting points essentially about the stratification and segregation in Indian society.

Well as I said I got the last ferry to Wellington island so my only option was to take cab back to for Cochin. In the end I had a very nice driver, but one that really didn't know where my guest house was, but luckily due to my trusty Droid Incredible I was able to navigate us back. Ah the wonders of technology.

I guess I was still not quite adjusted to Indian time as I still could not fall asleep until quite late, luckily this night I was able to fall asleep some time around 3am, and I only had to wake up by 5am, no big deal. As we drove down the dark and mostly deserted roads, we would pass by the occasional cyclist and the relatively frequent person walking and stopping to pray at various Hindu shrines and temples. On arriving at the bust station I was shocked by the apparent chaos, which is apparently what just about all bus stations are like in India, but some how managed to find my proper bus, which was a super express bus leaving at 6:30. On the bust I began by being compressed by my two bench mates, who seemed not all to happy to have a foreigner to sit next to, but after an hour or so the bus mostly emptied out. This seemed to be a good thing at first and I was able to start up a conversation and become friendly with these two Austrian tourists, Roland and Rafaela, who I would later learn are planning on opening their own Yoga studio and were going to be doing an intensive month long course at an Ashram. Roland was a great person to meet as he had already been to India five previous times. But as most good things do, they come to an end and pretty soon I was getting tossed around like a rag doll as the bus sped up mountains and around curves while hitting huge bumps sending me flying every which way. According to Rafaela I was looking quite pale at times and simply tried to lie down on the bench. In the end though nothing to bad happened, I was simply shaken up and a bit out of it for a while.

So it is quite amazing how quick one becomes adjusted to the rupees as the place we ended up getting breakfast was more expensive than most of the places I had been eating at until then. Now the place was definitely a bit oriented towards tourists as they had English menus, but there were plenty of Indians eating there as well. Really the prices weren't so much higher or for that matter too expensive. I had been paying around 50rs for dinners and lunches and this was not even 100rs, 100rs is only 2.50 or so, so really in then end it is really just nitpicking. Well with our bellies full, myself and Roland started calling up various guest houses in the area and we finally found one with some vacancies named Zina. We managed to hail an auto rickshaw, from one of the apparently few honest drivers in all of India who then took us to the Guest house. The road was first pretty standard until we turned off the main road and actually entered a tea plantation and drove up and through the plantation to get to the main house of Zina Guest House. We were greeted by Joseph the proprietor, who was a spry 80 year old who was extremely enthusiastic about everything that had to do with Munnar. In the end he directed us to a secondary guest house on the same property administered by his grounds keeper. On are walk down with the grounds keeper, he quickly pointed out to some people spraying the tea leaves with something and said that they were giving the trees their medicine, Roland quickly asked if he meant pesticides and after a slight pause the grounds keeper with a huge smile replied, 'Yes'.

Well another room fit for two, but this one at least had hot water, which would certainly be needed as the higher elevation made nights quite cool. After quickly getting some stuff in order and talking a bit with the grounds keeper, Rafaela, Roland and myself all decided to go into town, but first we decided to get some lunch. The grounds keeper quickly recommended one of the hotels at the bottom of the tea plantation. At the restaurant I first saw how Rafaela and Roland traveled, they immediately ordered some fresh juice, which I wouldn't dare consume out of fear of contamination. This immediately started a discussion where they both felt I was being overly cautious, they further felt that my caution would spell disaster for me, but I decided throwing caution to the wind would cause nothing good. The food was simply put bad. Not nearly adequately seasoned, which seemed inexcusable as we were in a major spice producing area, if not one of the main capitals in India of spice. We then went off to town and in some ways I would say it was shocking that we neither were killed by a vehicle nor kill by the stench of urine and pollution. After wondering around a bit we came across a little covered market that stank of gasoline as they were all use little gas powered generators and after running away from that we managed to find ourselves in a little food market. The market seemed to a bit a little oasis in the middle of all of the craziness and it seemed to have pretty fresh smelling air. No where near as oppressive as anywhere else. But of course this didn't last long and we quickly found ourselves back in the mess of everything. After wondering around a bit more Roland inquired with a local about where to eat, the local directed us to the hotel Krishna. To get there we had to cross a little narrow crowded foot bridge that reeked of refuse and sewage, but on arriving we found ourselves at a lovely place that served all kinds of food on banana leaves. It was definitely a good choice. We finished the meal with some Masala Chai and then headed back to the guest house. Walking in the dark along Indian roads is not always advisable, luckily it wasn't quite completely dark yet. After getting back we had a little chat with Joseph about what to do the next day and then we went for a little walk through the tea fields in the dark.

Well I had problems sleeping yet again, whether it was due to the jet lag still or if it was due to loud music being played for a wedding at the bottom of the hill, though more likely a combination of the two. I woke up a bit later than we had planned so was not surprised to see that Roland and Rafaela had already left. But when I got up to Joseph's I found them there, they were apparently just a bit ahead of me. Joseph then went through drawing us a map of where we should go in the most flourished and passionate way I had never seen before. Roland and Rafaela ended up heading down to breakfast a bit before me, and when I got down to the hotel that Joseph has instructed us to go to this time they were no longer serving breakfast. I just assumed that Roland and Rafaela managed to get in in time so I decided to soldier on figuring I'd find some place along the walk to eat at, how mistaken I was. Well on the way I saw many a place where I might be able to eat, but each and every one of them didn't have food until noon. Well the walk took us first through some more of the tea plantation (essentially all of the tea in Munnar is grown by Tata, you might be familiar with their tea, in the U.S. the trade name is Tetley), but this part had considerably more dynamic views. Climbing through the plantation I passed many women who were tea pickers and still I can't believe how they manage to weave through all of the tea trees. It was hear that I started to look closely at the leaves and the main thing I noted was how the edges are serrated. I had actually just learned from a program that serrated edged leaves are evolutionarily adapted to colder climates. This is because the serrations allow for greater surface area, which would mean greater evaporation, which in turn means that there would be more force in pulling water through the roots of the plant. Eventually I reached a view point where Joseph had told us would have tea shops, which I had hoped would be open even with the restaurants being closed, however both shops were closed. It was hear that the tea plantation started to be come cardamom and coffee farm. The coffee was at first hard to find, but the cardamom was really quite easy to spot and really quite interesting how it grows in the shade of their leaves right at the ground. By this point I was just starving and every time I came across people I would ask them where to eat. Finally I came across a group, which consisted of a few people from the bus I was on the day before and one of their guides directed me to a place called tall trees. This was a very pricey ritzy looking place, but at this point food was all I needed. After climbing my way to their restaurant I found Roland and Rafaela waiting in the restaurant for some food themselves as they had apparently experienced the exact same troubled situation as I had. Here the food was quite pricey, but once again still cheaper than what I would have paid for the same thing in the U.S. and it was actually really quite good. After eating we ended up coming across a group of four Australian girls. If I have learned anything from traveling it is that there is always an Australian traveling where you are. So now our party became seven for at least a bit.

Roland, Rafaela and I then proceeded onto a spice garden while the Australians went to go into town for some Internet. The spice garden was really quite interesting, though some of the facts told us were wrong (our guide said that Coffee came from S. America, it comes from Africa), it was really cool to see vanilla beans growing as well as other spices as well. But out guide also informed us that essentially nothing in India is actually organic and certainly not in Munnar. They also though seemingly grow great spices, they don't seem to do much sorting when packaging giving them what appears to be bad consistently purely out of poor QC measures. It was after the Spice garden that I made a big mistake and instead of heading straight for dinner with Roland and Rafaela, I went back to my room did a few things, wasted a bit of time and then went walking into town for food. At this point I was really quite hungry again and I just started walking and was rejecting places that probably would have been fine for really no reason. One place I rejected because their table cloths were covered with stains. Another because there simply weren't enough people. In the end I ended up right back at the Hotel Krishna and ate my food way to quickly, but it was wholly necessary. An then I had to walk back in the pitch black dealing with all of the crazy drivers. Luckily I had a flashlight with me and was able to signal to vehicles of my presence.

Finally a night well slept.

Well on waking up I decided essentially on a whim to just head over to Madurai, which has what is supposed to be one of the most spectacular Hindu temples in all of India and is often considered to be the Taj Ma hall of the south. I got some info from Joseph and headed on my way to the bus stop to first catch a bust to Theni, which is just across the border in Tamil Nadu. This bus ride wasn't so bad. The fare collector was very nice and knew just where would be best to put my pack and the ride though very loud due to the continuous honking was actually not so bad going down the winding roads through all of the tea fields, this driver wasn't driving like a maniac.

And then Tamil Nadu...

Silly-Putty
Push, Pull,
Roll, Stretch
Nothing Permanent

On Newspaper
Always There

India-First-Album

Delhi Belly

Not sure why this stuff was never actually posted...

Delhi Belly
---
Big Boots,
Black Boots,
Doc Martin's,
Skinny Girl,
Grey Skirt,
Black Shirt,
Leather Satchel,
Tanned Legs,
Dirty-Blond Hair,
Legs Move,
Eyes True,
and a
Reassuring Smile.
---
Two Naked Men,
On top of a truck,
Parked in the rain,
On the side of the road,
Lashing a tarp to keep it dry.

Inconceivable Probability

Arrived in the airport quite late and decided I needed some food. One of the few things open was a Burger King, which I figured would be a good choice as it was doubtful I'd be having any beef for some time to come. It was surprisingly good, but also really quite expensive. It was then time to hunker down and find a place to sleep, preferably with an outlet. This was actually quite easy, I managed to find a nice place to hunker down and covered my eyes popped in my head phones and tried to sleep. I heard the sound of a floor cleaner coming my way and I then raised my head to watch the operator fastidiously clean the floor and very nicely not require me to get up. There was a woman who kept passing up and down, up and down the hall way in which I was trying to sleep, but they eventually settled down. I then went back to trying to sleep, but the light was too much so I found this little room, which was to some regard the foyer to the bathroom and tried to rest their as the lights would go off. I eventually awoke and realized that it smelled of paint and such and immediately left. It was then almost time anyway for me to check in.

After entering the terminal proper I got a nice freshly squeezed juice and a tuna avocado sandwich. It most certainly hit the spot. I then went to my gate sat down and got a paper, only to be forced out of the gate along with everyone else to wait outside. We all we left standing or squatting just in front of the gate. Half an hour later or so we were allowed to board and the plain took off and landed in Paris without a hitch. Charles Du-Gal is a huge and slightly confusing airport and the customs people aren't too nice. I tried to get them to stamp a receipt for VAT, which they refused. I got a nice big bottle of water and then tried to figure out if I could get my receipt stamped somewhere else. This seemed quite impossible and then some crazy chance would have it, I ran into someone I know from doing Karate at Columbia who was to be on my same flight. The kindly agreed to watch my bag while I went to get my receipt stamped. I managed to get to security and as all I had was my cell phone they kind let me skip everyone as I had just heard an announcement about my flight so I started to freak out. But all attempts were in vain as the security point simply lead me right back to where I started. I decided to just sit down and catch up with Vivek.

For some reason the flight was in the rear completely empty and my two neighbors moved somewhere else, so I invited Vivek to the back. The flight took off nearly one and half hours late and the plain got de-iced. Vevik and myself spoke most of the flight, both catching up and discussing things along all lines of conversation. Eventually we both decided to get some rest and Vivek moved to another mostly empty row and I was left with three nice seats to stretch out on, but I really never managed to get much of any sleep. We arrived not too late, which was quite nice, but after getting through one level of security Vivek discovered that they had lost his Luggage. Me and Vivek then parted ways and I made my way for the rest area, which was surprisingly not free.

In the rest area I met Thomas, when he asked if I could watch his bag while he went for a smoke, I kindly obliged. On his return we got to talking and it turned out he had just finished traveling for three months in India. He very kindly gave me his sim card, which saved me a whole bunch of effort and a bit of money, so thank you Thomas. It was quite difficult to sleep, so we mostly talked. At 8:30 I went to the prepaid cab stand and got a cab to the train station.

Probability says that things that might seem impossible do happen...

Reformatted for India, First Day

Fling open the door to your cab, shuffle in with your bags and you're in another world. Immediately small children and women with babies will come to you, as if you were magnetic and they your polar opposites, perhaps it isn't so far from reality. Money is their first request, but quickly they move onto sweets, and finally they ask for a tooth brush. You must say “No, I'm sorry”, and you do truly feel sorry, but what really can you do?

It is as if even in your cab with its' windows closed you seem to be caught in a cloud of dust, which seems to permeate all of your senses, but your ears with its presence, your ears are rather filled by the cacophony of horns honking. As you look through the vale of dust you can see parts of a highway sprouting like flours in a fastidiously planned garden. But the order extends no further. Below the sprouted stems of the planned highway are cars, pedestrians, bicycles, scooters and motor cycles simply existing moving around in endless chaos.

As you look around you see a young boy in front of his father with the most serene of smiles, flapping his arms and undulating with the wind and traffic. In the U.S. we have family cars, in India they have family motor bikes. All around are people with their families on their bikes, quickly, a bike rides by with a woman in beautiful sari sitting behind its' driver side saddled while it weaves through traffic.

We quickly pull into a filling station. We briefly sit in front of a gasoline pump, which is completely empty, all the cabs and auto rickshaws are filling up with CNG. An opening appears and we quickly maneuver into place. The hood is popped and the nozzle is fixed onto the fueling port and suddenly right behind the sound of the CNG blasting into the empty metal tank behind, causing a slight sense of uneasiness that something with such explosive power sits just behind the cushions of the seat. There is a woman at the station covered by a sari with her face veiled to keep the insipid dust out of her lungs. On first sight her sari seems pristine, but on a second looked it is mottled with holes. All she does is sweep away the ever piling dust and debris from the stations ground.

Pulling back into the flow of chaos that is the street suddenly we pull up to a stopped intersection, which doesn't mean there is a read light, just that the intersecting street's flow has momentarily over come the street that we are on when a series of buses block our way. To our left is an auto rickshaw with it's driver siting on his crossed leg with it's bare foot's sole facing me, while his other bare foot is pressed on the brake peddle, while his passenger leans back insistently chatting on his cell phone, totally oblivious to the world external to himself. Perhaps this passenger is correct and has simply realized that he must surrender himself to this chaos, that his input and anxiety will get him nowhere. The flow of traffic seems to be controlled by simply which way, vehicle or pedestrian pushes hardest, whether through honking or steadily pressing on, allowing their flow to push through. So I just lean back and surrender myself to the chaos and how my taxi driver navigates it.

Moving again in our new sense of relaxation, I still can't help cringing every time we seemingly almost kill a pedestrian, all that the driver seems to do is honk to assert his superior momentum and presence to a pair of men walk side by side, at the last moment that one furthest from traffic pulls his companion out of the way of our chaotic vessel. Nor can I stop cringing every time we are almost killed, whether because my driver passes a colorfully painted truck, by simply holding down his horn and flooring the gas or when some other vessel seems to want to occupy the same space as us, which is physically impossible.

The trucks, often carrying garbage and its' stench with them are brightly colored and patterned to bring some sense of color and joy to everything and everyone around them. The trucks generally carry Hindu motifs on their rear, with requests for drivers to honk at them, such entreaty though is only visible after they almost kill you and pass by. An SUV quickly drives by, it has a special state of India plate and a sign in it's tailgate that implores to call some number if the driver isn't following driving norms.

We drive past some delivery people on bicycles with flat beds in the rear who simply seem totally oblivious to the chaos around them. Then a group of well dressed mothers are along the side of the road with their smartly dressed children in uniform, seemingly on their way to school, they show some sense of agitation with having to wait to cross the street. The only ones who seem to fully understand the whole absurdity of this whole chaos are a pair of dogs who seem to be barking at everything that passes them by.

We turn a corner and I look up and I see a skywalk, a side walk in the sky. Above are us walking on these skywalks are people who have tried to escape the chaos on the ground to the serenity of the sky above. We quickly turn away from this segregated reality.

One thing to say though is that the chaos is never allowed to move too quickly, we never seem to manage of 50km/h even on the highway. Much of this has to do with the fact that on the chaotic streets if there isn't a speed bump, their concave variety potholes, or simply some other road user in your way. On the Highway things seem to open up a bit and calm down, but not completely, it is though enough that my tension seems to drop and I begin to occasionally nod off. I open the window to allow the breeze to blow on my face, but the constant stream of garbage trucks makes this a mixed blessing. I reach up and grab that hand hold above the window and nod off, I'm awoken by my arm slamming into the arm rest after my grip must have relaxed.

Navigating seems to exceedingly difficult, my cab driver after a certain point begins to ask every driver he can find how to get to the station. Eventually he finds a scooter driver who says that he will lead the way, so we follow. Luckily the driver was able to keep track of the scooter and we successfully end up at the station.

Now slightly more wary and slightly shaken, I carefully alight from the taxi, finally with my feet back on solid ground, grab my bags, thank the driver and bid him adieu. I slowly walk to the station, leery of all cars around me. I make my way to the information window at the ticket window and show them my ticket. The woman looks at me shocked, for a moment I'm worried, but all that she is shocked by is how early I am, which is two hours. I ask her which track and she replies “platform 7”.

Having had not eaten yet that day I head over to one of the small kiosks on the platform. Worried about essentially everything making me sick I choose what appears to be a safe choice, crackers. In the end they turn out being rotten egg flavored.

Now I can start to take things in and look for a place to charge my phone with credits. I had luckily the previous night met a German who was finishing their India travels and kindly gave me their airtel sim card. Everything on the station is dirty, there is simply a constant presence of dust. Ahead me is another kiosk with vodafone stickers, so I thought that perchance they would also support airtel, but after inquiring with the clerk, he directed me across the bridge ahead. I couldn't see the best path their, but I saw one way, which seemed most circuitous, but I decided to go that way none the less. On this walk I walk by multiple offices, where the occupants appear to be holding court. In the ticket master's office it even looks like his wife and children are in there doing school work.

As I make my way to the bridge I begin to notice the great sense of poverty and disrepair that the whole station gives off. All around are stray dogs, with people stepping over them while they sleep. I eventually make it to the stairs of the bridge and begin my assent. No one seems to keep to the left or the right, they simply fill empty space, not so different from the roads. Once at the walkway of the bridge more young children are begging. Once again, what difference can I really make? I make my way to then and start down the stairs where an old lady is begging sitting facing the flow of people passing her by going up and down the stairs.

At the bottom I can see what looks like a cellphone store in the town ahead and follow all of the people over their. I have to squeeze by a sleeping dog and then quickly dodge a person coming from the opposite direction towards the narrow passage that I'm walking through. We walk through what appears to be a large empty lot and make our way to the street. I sleep between two scooters and remind myself that I must look right first. I dodge an auto rickshaw and wait on the medium 'till traffic clears the other way and make my way across. I note a pharmacy, but quickly singly mindedly head for the cell phone shop. After a quick back and forth with the proprietor I manage to add 300 rupies to my phone.

On my way back I notice some people frying samosa's, and quickly decide to head back to the station. I make my way back to the street and cross it, but find that I crossed quite early and my path is blocked by what looks like an old concrete bus stop, so I go around it and enter through its front. I'm immediately hit, by a horrid smell and try to traverse the shelter as quickly as possible. My eye is quickly attracted to some movement in the corner of my eye and a notice a litter of puppies. I decide I must move even quicker out of fear of the mother showing up and baring its' teeth.

I make my way back to the station and decide to sit on platform 7 for a bit. Once again I'm bombarded by many young children begging in a addition to a woman with a dog following her. I just sit and think and try to relax. I still have quite a bit of time. Now that my cellphone is charged up with credits I decide to very quickly check in with home, but notice the time and call my Brother to let him know that I've safely made it to India. As my ticket was just changed from being a wait-list ticket to a real one, I conclude that it would be a good idea to make sure everything is on the up and up, so I make my way to the ticket master's office. This time I know the direct route from the bridge. I make it to the ticket master's office and he quickly looks at my ticket, says everything is fine and sends me to the waiting room. I however decide that I need some real food so back across the bridge.

On crossing the bridge this time I notice two dogs fighting or playing, one can never tell the difference without seeing their ears, in front of the bus stop. I decide to give them a large birth and cross the street far down from the bus stop. I decide to first go to the pharmacy and buy some bug repellent. It's called 'Odomos'. In the town I seem to be a bit of spectacle with many people just saying hello to me, which I always echo. Looking for food a man running a biryani shop approaches me. I first tell him that I'm unsure and head over tot he Samosas, but I quickly am reminded of a story I was told about people using motor oil to fry stuff, so I decide on the Biryani shop. I get a simple biryani to go and have a small conversation about nothing with the owner. I head to the waiting room to wait.

After arriving in the waiting room I take my food and start eating. It is quite good with little purple carrots and spicy yellow rice. All of the components are in little plastic bags, which I poor over the rice for lack of any better way to consume them. It is surprisingly spicy, but this is fine and actually quite nice as it helps to wake me up. Not to long afterwards an announcement is made, which I surmise means that the train is coming so after asking a nice looking young couple for confirmation I head over to the platform.

On the platform I find a place to wait and see two little boys showering themselves with water pipes running parallel to the tracks. They seem to be brothers where one seem no older than 2 or 3 while the other is probably around 6 or 7. The youngest keeps filling up an old coke bottle and dumping the contents on himself. Now I'm confronted with a dilemma of whether or not I should take a picture. In the end perhaps right, perhaps wrong I chose not to take the picture, but the scene is forever in my mind. The older brother knocked the bottle out of his younger brothers hands and it fell down into a bit of ditch, which elicited a loud cry from the youngster, who reproached his brother to retrieve it. This little scene attracted the attention of some adults and station employees who started to chastise the children. The older brother cleaned his shirt and then the train pulled into the station making the children disappear from my existence likely forever.

As the trained pulled in a person who I had previously asked for advice on where to board the train told me to run down to the rear of the train. I somehow completely missed my car, A1, and just saw B1 and HA1. I asked people for help as I was worried the train would leave and everyone else was equally confused. They all told me to just get on, making me even more fearful that the train would just leave. So I hopped onto the HA1 car and then was told to get off and to get on at the other end, so I'm racing for the train to not leave. I walk into the passenger compartment, which turns out to be first class, not my class, where I find a helpful couple who seem super relaxed, with perfect English and point me in the correct direction and send me on my way.

I make my way through the aisle of the train, pushing and nudging through all of the other people who have recently embarked onto the train and I'm struck by the harsh blue air of everything, which is caused by the florescent lights above and the completely blue interior of the train. Everyone is also either barefoot or in socks, which I considered, but the train always felt quite dirty and in disrepair. This was actually one of the most surprising things to me as to the trains looked like they were well over 20 or 30 years old, but they were apparently much newer and ever had been over hauled just a few years ago. China I must say has considerably nicer trains, but perhaps the passengers don't all wear smiles. I finally make it to my birth and meet those who will be my primary traveling companions for the course of this first train voyage. There is one couple, the husband is a mechanical engineer who works for oil companies, his wife has amazing English. There are two young men on their way to business training course in Goa and there is a slightly elderly women whose story I never heard, but she carried with her a large blanket in a rectangular clear plastic bag, which she kindly moved for me to sit. I then put my bags up onto my birth and with some knowledgeable advice from one of the two young men put my bag up in the most efficient manner. Quickly while we are still stopped in the station one of the porters comes and asks me about lunch, without think I just assent to what he says and he brings me chicken biryani. A minute later I decide I don't want it and simply want water, I inform him of such and he kindly takes it back and gives me a little hermetically sealed plastic water cup. Pealing the lid away was its own immense challenge, which I was luckily able to over come. The train finally gets going, so all my rushing and agitation was totally unnecessary. Now the cabin is filled clatter of the train and the continual sways. After drinking my water and exchanging a few pleasantries I hope up to my berth and take a nap, which a few of my companions do as well, as if they all wanted to, but were simply waiting for someone else to be first.

After awaking and getting back down we all began to converse and get to know each other. Most of our conversations revolved around my travels, with each person offering their own opinions on what I should do. I've discovered that most people when they hear you are traveling immediately tell you all about their experiences and what they think your trip should be like. Though I'm always happy to hear helpful advice I do at times think people are too forceful in expressing what they think you should do, rather than simply offer ideas. One of people did however offer great advice in a totally none forceful manner and I will likely be follow a large amount of his recommendations. Every few minutes a porter comes by singing “chai, chai, chairichai, chai, chai” over and over again. After a few of them go by a decide to get a chai, these chai will be a continual treat throughout the entire journey.

By 8:00 my stomach was in need of food and the porter was coming by taking dinner orders just in time. I got a vegetable biryani, which unlike my earlier one was quite bland, but it hit the spot. I had this with a nice cup of chai. We continued to talk about my travels, which was quite helpful and helped me reshape my time in Kerala a little better and then it was time for sleep, if you could call it that. One of the my companions snored throughout the night and I just lay there hoping for some sleep. I tried listening to some pod casts of radio lab and hoping that the swaying train would rock me to sleep but no luck. A few moments here and there of sleep, but not until the snorer awoke did I really get any appreciable amount of sleep, what luck, but now I was somewhere else...