Tings

A few things to say:
1. I did the unthinkable......I drove in India with the horn on my bike not in working form. Horns are a neccesity on the roads of India, yet, I was forced to ride without a horn because I had business to take care of.....I conquered the roads and am alive and well.
2. At the beach yesterday I was tackled over and over again into the water by a group of Tamil Boys.
3. I went to Arul's (fisherman friend) house to hang out and bring some kids toys. I took family pictures for them....they were very excited. They all dressed up for the photos; it was very cute.
4. Stew is gone.....back to Germany......thanks for coming.
5. On Wednesday I am going to Delhi.....and on Thursday I will be traveling to Agra (to see the Taj Mahal) and Jaipur....by myself.
6. Here are some of my photos from my travels with Dave......

Tea Plantation in Munnar

Road and Mountain at Kerala/Tamil Nadu Border

Waterfall

Door and Bike

Road in Madurai

Kerala Backwaters

Synagogue in Kochin

Palm Trees

Plantation Worker

Kid Taking Picture of Me

Elephant Bracelets

Fisherman and Net

Most Southern Point in India

Ring Around The Ocean

Ring around the ocean,
Ring around the ocean,
Damnit, Damnit,
My ring is gone.

So a few crazy things happened yesterday......
1. Stew and I went to the ocean yesterday to relax. Things were going great until we went swimming. What happened next is this: I dove once into the ocean, came back up like a dolphin does, and dove again. On the second dive I stretched my arms out and while doing so my wedding ring went flying off of my finger into the depths of the Bay of Bengal. Although I searchesd for it, no luck was to be had by me. Ellyn took the news very well.

2. The man at the local Western Union branch approached me with a photocopy of a $100,000 US bill and the "certificate of authenticity" that came with it. He wanted to know if the bill was "authentic". Me, being the US Currency expert, did some research for him and found out that the bill was indeed fake. The $100,000 bill was made at only one point in history, is no longer in circulation, and it has specific markings such as a picture of Woodrow Wilson and a gold stamp. The bill I was shown had no gold stamp, it had a picture of the Statue of Liberty, and its certificate was from the "International Association of Billionaires". Apparently, an american donated this bill to a charity in Pondicherry and the head of the charity took it to someone else who took it to the Western Union guy who took it to me. I hope the american who gave "the gift" goes to jail. What an idiot.

3. Stew and I went on a clothes shopping spree. Dress pants costed $8, dress shirts were $6, and shoes were $13. Besides the clothes, I had to buy a new suitcase because I have picked up too many things here. That being said, can ANYONE drive me from New York to Syracuse or Rochester on August 10th or 11th? PLEASE! I cannot afford to pay the "esxtra weight charge" on an airline and there is no way I could take the luggage onto a train on my own.

4. In India, you cannot find brown dress shoes larger than size 10. Stew perused at least 10 stores and none of them could help them. Numerous people also told him that the 11-13 category is a special category and you can't really get brown shoes in that category. Good business opportunity here......brown shoes over size 10.

Toodles.

Christians and Communists

The views from Kolukkumalai, the highest tea plantation in the world, were nothing short of breathtaking. The ride to the plantation, however, was the worst ride I have ever been on. I know that I said before that the ride to Madurai was horrible. This ride though, definitely tops that one.

Stew and I woke up at 7:30am to get a jump start on the day. After walking from our relatively sketchy hotel down into the center of town, we found a guy who was willing to take us for a day trip around Munnar. However, we were told that if we wanted to get a "Tea Factory Tour", we needed to get special permission from some office. So, our tourguide took us to the office where a somewhat official man told us that we couldn't get a tour because "today is a holiday". What holiday we asked.....the response was "the factory doesn't run on Mondays". I then took the initiative to tell our tourguide that all we wanted was to go to a tea factory. It didn't matter what factory or how long it took to get there. We just wanted to go to a tea estate and factory. After a quick huddle with some friends (it seems that many decisions in the tourism industry here are made by men huddling together and discussing things), we were notified that we would be able to go to a tea factory. So we agreed on a "tariff", which was too high, and we were off........to the tourguides friends' restaurant for breakfast. Stew and I told our guide we were hungry, so he took us to a "very good restaruant", which happened to be his friends'! Everything we ordered was "not available", so we settled for some eggs and a dosa. The food was "kind of very good". Now, we were off with our tourguide and off-roading jeep. For the next 45 minutes we drove by waterfalls, tea plantations, forests, amazing views of the Ghats (mountain range), and a number of small villages. Finally, we reached the place where we would ascend 1,500ft, then back down 250ft to the tea factory. For the next hour and a half we went up a boulder, pebble, gravek, dirt, and large stone road, and travelled through at least 35-40 switchbacks, some of which could have cost us our lives. (Although I cannot put the ride into words, I can tell you that it was intense enough that my body hurt the next day). The switchback road cut through an enormous tea plantation of at least 3,000 acres and many times, Stew and I found ourselves asking our guide, "are you sure the factory is this way?". It just didn't make sense that a factory would be so high up in the moutains........ Along the drive we took pictures of plantation workers, picturesque views, and cows mixed in among tea trees/plants....it really was one of the most amazing drives I have ever been on....in both a good and a bad way.

After an hour and a half (and after crossing the border from Kerala back into Tamil Nadu, which was at the top of the moutain) we reached the Kolukkumalai Tea Factory. Upon arrival, we were given a sample of fresh hot tea. It tasted........spectacular. Follwing this, we watched women weighing in their morning cuts, learned about and watched the process of tea making, and drank more tea; 5 or 6 different types. Yummy. Following this, it was time to go back down the mountain. It was just as rough as going up, if not rougher, because my butt (gluteus maximus for my medical friends) was killing me! Next it was time to visit a "Coffee Plantation", "Cardamom Plantation", and "Pepper Plantation". When we agreed to the terms of our "tour", we were told we would go to these different plantations. To our disappointment, we were only showed the different types of plants on the side of the road. WTF?

Anyways, in short, that was our "tour in Munnar". Now for the short of what happened next.......

Stew and I decided that we wanted to leave Munnar after our "tour" was over. But, once we arrived in town, we learned that the next bus would not be for 3 hours. So, we decided to have our tourguide take us 3 hours in his Jeep to Coimbatore, where we would catch a bus to the wildlife reserve we wanted to visit. We got into the jeep and were off. The tourguide brought his friend with him. This friend told us that we should go to Pollachi instead of Coimbatore because we could catch a "direct bus to Mudumalai" from there, it would cost us 200 Rupees more though. Fine. Sounded like a better option, until I saw a sign saying that Coimbatore was further than Pollachi. I started to question "the friend" as to why it would cost us 200 Rupees more to go to Pollachi if it was closer that Coimbatore. He told us some nonsense about a "long-cut". I fumbled around in my guidebooks for the next hour trying to find a map of the area we were in so I could show him that we shoudn't have to pay more $$ based on the shorter distance, but, I couldn't find the map I needed because I had thrown it out a few cities back.....I thought. I found the map that evening in the back of one of my books and it indeed showed the shorter distance. I didn't pay the $$ anyways though, and this is why: once we arrived in Pollachi, we were told that there was no "direct bus" and that we had to take a bus to Coimbatore and then to Ooty (a hill station that the British set up during their reign. It was a retreat center, aka vacation spot, which is now a dump of a city) and then a bus from Ooty to Mudumalai, the wildlife sanctuary. I made our tourguide find out all the bus information before we paid him. After telling me this information and that there was no "direct bus" and that we would have to go to Coimbatore anyways, the place we were initially going to, I told him that I was refusing to pay the extra 200 Rupees. So, he said "pay what you wish". I wished 1500 Rupees instead of 1700 Rupees, so that's what I paid. After I paid that, he told me that "I wish you to wish to pay me 100 more Rupees". I gave him 50.

Crazy 2 hour bus ride with really loud music and movie to Coimbatore.

Encounter with really drunk man at Coimbatore bus station. "Where arrrrrrrre yooooou going?" he says over and over for 30 minutes. "Ooty" I say. "Yooo-Yooo-T-Whyyyyyyyy-Youuuty" he says as he follows us everywhere we go. Then we are told we can't go on the bus to Ooty, then we can, then we can't, then we can, then we can't, then we can, then we can't, then we did, with the help of a nice security guard who told us foreigners always get preference.

Side note: people here who speak only a little english here prounounce "eh", "yeigh". For example, eight is yeight, L is yell, h is yaich, and so on. Kind of hard to understand.

The busride to Ooty was 4 hours up a windy switchback road. At one point the driver stalled 3 times trying to reverse and go forward again on a switchback. We drove the whole way in either first or second gear, and we had no personal space. Where I was sitting, there was one guy who had a giant cyst on his face who was sleeping on my right shoulder, a guy who had his hand on my head as he slept in the seat behind me, and a woman who had her head in my face because she was sleeping in front of me with her head hanging back over the seat. Uncomfortable? Yes. Interesting? Yes. Do it again? Yes.

We got to Ooty at 3am. It was dark, and nobody was on the streets. We slept at the first hotel we got to. It took five minutes for the hotel clerk to open the door because he was refusing to get off the couch he was sleeping on, which we could see through the front door. We took whatever room they had. It was gross. Paint was chipping off the walls, carpet was pulled up in places, it smelled, there was a horrible view of mounds of trash from the window which had no curtains, and there were weird sonds through the whole night. We woke up early the next day because of the light coming in through the windows. We were tired, dirty, and hungry. We got on the next bus back to Coimbatore (now our nemesis city) and never went to the Wildlife reserve. 17 hours later, after two bus rides, two train rides, and a taxi ride, we arrived home in Auroville. We are now clean, well nourished, somewhat rested, and ready to enjoy Stew's last few days in India.

Toodles.

PS- In India people cut you in line. Everywhere. All the time. At the train station ticket counter yesterday I was second in line. A guy walked into the station and straight to the counter, cutting me and everyone behind me. So, I put my arm up on the wall next to the ticket window to ensure that I would be helped next. I got cut by the guy behind me from the other side. As I caught him cutting me, someone slid under my arm and cut me again. Now, I was fourth in line.

Getting on the bus, people cut you. They will go over you, around you, under you, and even through you. It is unbelievable, truly.

Toodles again.

Crap. PPS- This entry is titled "Christians and Communists" for the following reason: In the state of Kerala there are far more churches than I have seen anywhere else in India. There are also crosses on hills, on neon signs, and on vehicles. There are also jesus signs and notes on many vehicles. In Kerala there are also many communists. You know because of the communist flags that are hung places and also painted on buildings and signs.

Toodles. Toodles. Toodles.

Hiatus

So, after one week of the blog not being able to be accessed from India, I am back with more stories to tell than can be told in a single blog.

First off, on a psychededness scale of 1-12, 12 being really psyched, Stew and I are at a 12.7. This level has been attained for the following reasons:

1. Stew and I have traveled to 5 different cities in 7 days, ranging from the mountain highlands where the tea plantations are to the most southern point in India (the meeting place of the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, and Indian Ocean).
2. We have been eating like princesses.
3. Stew has attained Rookie Tourist Status (RTS)
4. I have made some great purchases for the 3^rd world market that exists in my house in Rochester.

City One: Madurai

To get to this city, we endured an 8-hour overnight bus ride, which will remain memorable forever. The ride can be described as follows: a bus from the 1950’s which had every nut, bolt, and screw loosened, driven over a gravel and stone road, through scents of human waste, delicious food, flowers, and salt-water. In Madurai, we visited the Minakshi Temple, which spanned almost 50 acres. At this Temple we were given a tour by a “Temple Watchman” who showed us some really interesting architecture as well as a hand made stone organ. In addition, he offered us IV drugs and told us that we’d like them. Lastly, in Madurai, I made another great decision to drink dirty water. This time though, it was mixed with cane juice, ginger juice, lime juice, and dirt, so it was okay.

City Two: Kannyakumari

From Madurai we took an overnight train to Kannyakumari. We arrived at the Madurai train station at 1:30am for our 2am train. There were sleeping people everywhere; in front of the ticket counter, at the arrival platform, on the front sidewalk…….everywhere. Once on the train, I paid a ticket collector 400Rupees ($9) to upgrade our tickets to an air-conditioned compartment. It was worth the 400 Rupsters and Stew and I slept like newborns after a feeding. In Kannyakumari we watched a sunset that was blocked by clouds, watched a sunrise that was blocked by clouds, went to the most southern point in India, and went to the place where Ghandi’s ashes are kept. We were also shown around a temple by a priest (who we had to pay).

Cities Three and Four: Kollam and Allepy

For these two days Stew and I laid around, ate food, told stories, drank water (and some beer), and made friends with the crew of our Kettu Vellam (houseboat). We hired a house boat for two days and traveled a total of about 150km, or 90 miles. The boat was made of steel, bamboo, wood, and a 9.9 horsepower engine and it took us through the backwaters of Kerala where we were able to see Indian river life in its most simple state. We saw moveable iron bridges pushed by men with long bamboo rods, canoe ferries, people making their own “spin cycle” of a washing machine by slapping their clothes on rocks, men swimming to the bottom of the river to fetch sand to use for building, bald eagles and other bird life, rice paddies, Chinese fishing nets, and where we ate fresh fish daily and were forced to eat some sort of lukewarm ginger-rice-sugar mixture from a Hindu priest who we couldn’t understand. The fish was great despite the fact that we knew ALL aspects of life took place in the river from which it came. We saw many other things during these two days but I can’t write them all now for reasons I can’t discuss, not because they’re bad, but because I say what is and is not said on this blog.

Stew is reading over my shoulder right now and he told me this is a one-sided entry. He also said this is a "one-sided bullshit blog" and that he should be "more than a rookie tourist, more like an all-pro tourist". I disagree, because there have been many instances where we could have used those freaking toys!

City Five: Kochin/Cochin

We ate an 8lb tuna for $5. We saw a Jewish synagogue and met a family of Israeli’s in the same day. We saw Kathukali theatre, a traditional form of Keralan art, and we did some shopping. Does ANYONE want to start an import business with me? I have found sooooooooo much amazing artwork here!

City Six: Munnar

The 4.5 hour bus ride that we took here cost $3, for two people. We are lucky to be alive. From sea-level at Cochin, we ascended 6000ft on a series of switchbacks, in a bus that was both rickety and driven dangerously, possibly by a madman. We almost got into at least 70 accidents and at certain points I thought that the bus was going to plunge to our death. For the next two days, we will be exploring tea plantations, waterfalls, mountains, lakes, and possibly some wildlife sanctuaries.

Things I forgot to mention about the past few days:

1. There is a “special price” or “special discount” for anything under the sun which one could purchase.
2. I have purchased 40 necklaces which I am attempting to sell for 5 Rupees each to people who try to sell me stuff in an effort to get them to leave me alone but also in an effort to see what it’s like to sell things in India.
3. We have adopted a coconut-man-god named Edward and who is attached to our backpack.
4. I have trouble not buying things that are really sweet.
5. In Tamil movies, there is lots of sexual tension, and if you go to a movie, you will hear all the men scream and shout at the slightest instance of sex, ie, a woman putting on deodorant.
6. There is a lot of trash here.
7. If someone were to bring any corporation here, they could rule the country. For example, there is a corporation here who sells cars, has cell phones, gas stations, rest stops, and tea plantations.
8. Coconut liquor made in a wood shed and kept in unmarked plastic containers does not taste so good.
9. It’s difficult to do anything in a country where you are not fluent in the native language, but more difficult in India, because each state has its own language, thus, even making it difficult for people from different states within India to communicate.
10. Invest in India. I am not kidding.

I am sorry for not having bloggedededed over the past week, but we've been unable to do so because blogger has been blocked for some reason that the Indian government hasn't informed me of. There more stories of this week to be told, possibly sometime in the future over a chai, or in Stew's case, a cup of sealed mineral water.

Santa Claus for Rich Kids

To recap the past few days of my exciting life....

Stew arrived on Saturday morning and within the first few minutes of his arrival I informed him that we neded to go into Pondi because I had to run some errands. So, we got on my bike and were on our way. Within the first six seconds on the road we encountered a family of cattle, some goats, a swerving rickshaw, and a truck barreling down the highway. Stew seemed a little scared at first yelling things like "Holy shit Jon, slow down!" and "Dude, watch out, slow down!" and "whoa, oh my god, ahhhh, hey-stop!". I told Stew to shut up and to let me concentrate on driving. He did so, and we arrived in Pondi safe and sound. In Pondi I took Stew to a market followed by a typical south Indian lunch consisting of dal, raita, curd, rice, papad, vegetable korma, and a few other dishes. At first, Stew ate his meal like a rookie, fumbling to shove each rice grain into his mouth using only his right hand. By the end of the meal though, he was at least a semi-professional, kind of likethe US National soccer team in this years World Cup.

Saturday afternoon I took Stew out on Arul's fishing boat where we ate fried eel, drank semi-cold Kingfisher, and went swimming in the ocean. At first Stew was concerned that there might be sharks, but after a little coaxing, he was in the water and loving it. After a while out at sea, we headed inland (Stew was a little queezy) where we beached the boat on a nearby beach (not the beach where the boat is usually kept). When we hit land, some Indian tourists came running over to the boat and they expressed that they too wanted to go for a "boat ride". They thought that we were some kind of tourists going on a "boat ride" or something, when in reality, we were just hanging out with some friends. Either way, Arul agreed to a price of 300 Rupees and then took the tourists out on the ocean for 10 minutes. Stew and I layed on the beach and slept/conversed.

Saturday evining we went into Pondi to "a DJ Party" with my friend Vinot and his friend Mani. The "DJ Party" turned out to be a DJ in an empty hotel bar playing music that nobody was really listening to. It was interesting....... On the way home from the party we stopped for south
Indian sweets because Stew was hungry. He splurged and spent 45 Rupees on like 10 different kinds of sweets. After eating them he said he felt "sugar intoxicated". The sweets here are all pure sugar. They are both amazing and gross at the same time.

Saturday night/Sunday morning at 3:30am: I get up and vomit.

Sunday (all day): I vomit and have diarrhea.

Sunday night: I don't feel well but go to a friends place to see a movie called "Loose Change: Second Edition". I reccomend that everyone see this movie. It is about the conspiracy therory and truth surrounding the September 11 attacks. I am not kidding, you MUST see this movie. Look it up on google and find out how to get your hands on it.

Monday morning: We woke up, packed our bags, and went on our way (I feel about 87.62%). After being unsuccesful at the train station we headed to the bus station and arranged an overnight bus to Madurai. It's an 8.5 hour bus ride and it costs 220 Rupees or $5 for two people. Wow. So we had some free time. We dediced that we would go to see a Tamil movie. We arrive at the movie theatre and I go to find out about the movie times. The next thing I know, I turn around and see a crowd around Stew, it looked like he was being swallowed. It seems as though Stew decided to go into the huge stash (a trash bag full of toys) of toys that we decided to bring with us on our travels. The point of the toys was that we would give them to childeren and to beggar-children. Stew took matters into his own hands and thought that he would give a few toys to some teenagers at the movie theatre. In short, a near stampede situation arose where everyone was grabbing for toys. Old men were taking coloring books, women were taking tennis balls, and I was thoroughly annoyed. Did these people who had $$ to go to the movies really need these toys? No. In short: we have no more toys and my friendship with Stew is over. Stupid Tourist.

ehhh

Stew arrived yesterday and we had a GREAT day. We were both psyched and ready to get our travels underway. Then, this morning I woke up and began vommiting and having dairrhea for the duration of the day. Immodium, Ciro, and Gatorade are in full effect. More to come on the past few days and our travel plans.....I don't have the energy for it right now.....I just came to use the internet quick to check train/bus times for us.....

Challenging Me

Everyone knows that if I am challenged, I will accept pretty much any challenge (that is probably a bad thing). Today, I was challeged, but the challengers didn't know that I knew that I was being challenged.

I woke up this morning with nothing to do. I was done with the administration of my surveys and I had nothing planned for the day. Then, I encountered a few friends who are "earth architecture" students who were going to their site which was 2 hours away by bike. They had an extra seat on a bike so I hopped on with both my camera and a really good attitude.

What my friends were doing was going to check on a "project" that their architecture teacher was working on. The project was basically the construction of both an "office" and a house which were both earthquake and tsunami resistant. The project was designed to empower and teach tsunami affected villagers how to rebuild their village so that it doesn't get knocked down again. It was a very cool project and something I was very glad to see. The project is being funded as an UNDP (United Nations Development Project).

So, this is where the challenge comes in. I get to the site and see the construction going on. There are people laying bricks, making cement, measuring and cutting things, fetching water, moving dirt, and doign any other task that could be associated with a construction site. The people working however, had no machines. Everything was done by hand! I was given the job of moving dirt from a dirt pile to the floor of the house that was being built. I was instructed by a villager to pick up the iron saucer of dirt that one man had filled up and put in on my head and then to walk to the house (a distance of about 100 feet) and pour the dirt out. At first the man filling the saucer only put a little dirt in (maybe 10lbs), but by the end of the day, he was putting at least 55lbs of dirt into this saucer. When I would turn my back, he would compress the dirt onto the saucer and continue to put more and more dirt on this freaking thing. It was unvelievable. This guy and all his friends watched me move this dirt the whole day, from 11am until 430pm. and they smirked the entire time. They were definitely trying to break me, yet they did not succeed, probably because I have been doing sit-ups anbd push-ups for the past month. Suckers. You wanna see how much I can handle? I'll show you.............

The whole day people from the village came up to me to say hi, they laughed at me and with me, and they were very welcoming. Someone also gave me a gift of two huge pieces of sugarcane (which I ate and which were amazing!). It was a great time and I enjoyed it thuroughly.

I am returning to the site tomorrow, wearing the same traditional garb (lungy) that the men wear and I plan on showing these guys that I shant be broken.......ever.

PS- I saw water buffalo and pigs in the city of Cuddalore today....that was a first.

PPS- I stopped for beers on the way home from the site and at the bar I took out my camera to take the "urine picture" that you will see in a second.....once my camera was out, all hell broke loose and everyone wanted their picture taken.

PPPS- I drank village water all day today and took a shower in stagnant water.

PPPPS- More happened at the site, but I am too tired to write more. Sorry.

Construction Site 1

Construction Site 2

Urine

City I did Full Moon Walk In (See Temples?!)

Talking Robot at Full Moon Walk

Fih-deen Things

1. I am not near Bombay (Mumbai) and am out of harms way.

2. I didn't know about the bombings until a few minutes ago; I learned from a friend who is from Bombay. He told me that it was "some idiot" who was behind the bombings.

3. More than half the people in the villages don't know about the bombings.

4. Climbing up a 30m(90ft) iron windmill at night is both exhilarating and a little scary.

5. Being on a fishing boat in the pouring rain is amazing.

6. Making an incense holder at the stone carving shop and then dropping it and breaking it is way less cool than it sounds.

7. Corn snacks that are "Hyderabadi Style" are very spicy.

8. 4 biscuits (sweet crackers) + milk = energy, according to a biscuit prdocuer here.

9. It is official, I have now been in India long enough that I get annoyed when someone makes me pay 25 rupees for a soda instead of 20 rupees, which is the equivalent of a 10 cent differnece in price. Wow.

10. My friend Tomas from Germany hit a goat while riding on his bike yesterday. The goat fell down and then got up and ran away.

11. I have finished administering all of my surveys........now analysis.

12. Does anyone know if Hibiscus flowers and/or syrup are available in the US?

13. Neil or Deepak or any other Indian who reads this blog, can you buy Jaggery in the US? If so, what is the price?!

14. I have had an episode of diarrhea only once since I got here. This is far less than I have diarrhea in the US. Processed foods are not cool.

15. Stew Countdown: 3 days

Brokefoot Mountain

It is difficult to put into words the happenings of last night in Thiruvanimalai, but I will do my best (I took very few photos because I didn't think it was appropriate nor did I think it would do the event justice).

First off, I'd like to give a piece of advice: never, under any circumstances, walk 13 miles barefoot on a concrete surface, if you have the choice that is. On the other hand, if you have no choice, try to do it as painlessly as possible. Last night I had no choice. I started walking around the mountain in the town of Thirvanamalai with my sandals on unil someone told me I was disrespecting the gods. So, I took off my sandals and walked the next 12.8 miles barefoot. By the end of the 13 miles, I could barely feel my legs, the arches of my feet were cramped and would not uncramp, and my mind was physically exhausted.

The best desciption I can give of what happened last night is that there was an all-indian half marathon where the racing suits were sari's and lungies, the people were barefoot, and where everyone was a winner, including the people, the gods, the vendors, the temples, the cows, and my friend Sati and I.

After a 2.5 hour bike ride through rice paddies, villages, moutains, and plains, we arrived in Thiruvanimalai at our palace, the Park Hotel, which costed $3 for the night. We were tired and heat-stricken so we took a one hour nap. Following this we headed to a restaurant to eat parotta and dosas with vegetable korma, onion raita, and a variety of chutneys, all of which were spread out on a giant banana leaf. After this snack and a chai, it was time to begin the night. First we went to the main-main temple (there are 5 main temples in the city)and went inside where we saw thousands of devotees who were praying, eating, socializing, and drinking (water), praying, sitting, meditating, sleeping, laying, relaxing, and praying. Next we decided to head outside into the streets and just start following the direction of people. This is where the 13 mile walk began. For the next 4 hours we follwed the 300,000 some-odd people around the mountain. We were shoulder-to-shoulder with people the entire time and we may have been the only westerners there. Every few minutes people would come to talk to us to see who we were and why we were there. "what country sir?", "why here sir?", "what do you do sir?", "married sir?", "sisters sir?", "you look smart sir", "do you know George Bush sir?". Those questions are the tip of the iceberg. Every 50 meters or less, for the entire 13 miles (20km) there was a temple (so, about 400 temples in total) which usually had a huge urn in front of it which was filled with a fire and which continued to remain lit by these styrofoam things (I think they were styrofoam) that people would throw into it. Most people stopped at each temple to pray. Every 10 meters or less there was a sadhu (holy man; search google images for 'sadhu' to see what a typical one looks like), a beggar, or a person with some kind of physical deformity who was begging for money. Every 15 meters there was someone selling chai, idli, parottas, dosas, snacks, drinks, popcorn, sweet corn, pakora, and bhajia. Most of these places also had chairs where you could rest. Along the 13 mile walk there were 6 small trucks with 5 blind men in each who played indian prayer music and who were trying to earn money for their cause. There were weird robots that had headphones hooked up to them and if you paid 5 rupees you could here the robot tell you about your life. There were palm readers, parrots who told fortunes, elephants that tapped you on the head to bless you, there was the smell of incense everywhere, and there were men, women, children, and grandparents as far as the eye could see. There were people selling food to give to the cows. There were shrines, temples, ashrams, and meditation centers along the way. Everyone seemed to have a purpose but also no purpose at all. The situation was surreal yet normal. There were moments or pure silence, moments of song, moments of laughter, and moments of loud cheering/screaming. The moon was full and was high in the sky the whole night. There was chaos but also organization. There were different places where food was being handed out to anyone who would wait in line. There were people selling goods, from bracelets to purses to incense to glass sculptures to I don't even know what. Everybody who was there was praying. The amount of spirit that was around this place last night must have been unbelievable. Everyone seemed posessed by a higher being but also still within themselves.

I mean, imagine 300,000 people walking around a mountain barefoot, praying at different temples along the way with everything I described above and some things I forgot to describe.....it was wild.

Sorry, but that's the best I can do. I may be forgetting things, actually I am forgetting things, but just think of crazy things and they were probably there.......my legs and feet still hurt today. Maybe I should have stretched first........


Stew Countdown: 4 days

Drinking Fishing Eating Sleeping

Yesterday afternoon I spent a few hours out on the ocean with Arul (the fisherman who is 26), his uncle, his cousin, and my friend Vinith from the stone carving shop. Once out at sea, we anchored the boat, cracked a few brew doggers, and enjoyed the afternoon sun. I learned a bunch of new Tamil words, went swimming a few times, and learned how to steer the fishing boat. Overall, it was a great afternoon out on the water and it culminated with an agreement to go fishing again the following morning at 4:30am, but this time, Vinith would come, because he had never been fishing before (surprising since he is the one who introduced me to Arul in the first place!).

Skip ahead 6 hours…………..

I woke up bright and early at 4:30 this morning, hopped on my bike, and went into the village of Kullapalayam to pick up Vinith to go fishing. The previous afternoon Vinith showed me where his house was, but in doing so, took different routes to and from the house, so with my unparalleled sense of direction it shouldn’t have been a problem finding the house. But, you have to remember that this was 4:30am, it was pitch black in the village due to a power outage which was due to a strike by the workers (welcome to India), I was showed the location of the house in daylight, and all of the streets in the village have no road signs and look the same. Final Outcome: I got lost. It took about 8 or 9 minutes, 2 or 3 circles, and 3 encounters with packs of dogs. Side note: the dogs here act in gangs, meaning that once one dog barks at you (all dogs bark at white people it seems) other dogs come and bark at you too, often times surrounding you like you are about to be gang-beaten. So, you don’t really want to stop your bike at night when you are being barked at and followed by dogs (which may or may not be rabid), but this is hard when you are lost and the streets are really narrow and curvy. Final Outcome: I yelled at the dogs to try to scare them off, thus, waking villagers. I eventually reached Vinith’s house and had to ring the doorbell to wake him. Vinith told me to ring the bell to wake him but he didn’t tell his family I was coming, so when I rang the bell his whole family came out of the house….this is 4:30 in the morning. Vinith later told me that when his family came to the door they started asking each other why the white man was there in the middle of the night. Following this encounter we were off. On the way out of the village we passed a cow in the middle of the street that appeared to be sleeping on its side with it’s legs fully erect, in a somewhat rigor mortis position. I thought this was both normal (because cows do what they want here) and a little odd but didn’t think about it again until I dropped Vinith off after the fishing trip, when I passed the cow again and it was in the same position. The cow was dead. The rest of the fishing trip was uneventful; it consisted of another great sunrise, helping out the fishermen collect fish (since I knew what to do this time), and a lot of Vinith sleeping; he couldn’t handle the early morning wake-up!

After a morning nap (10am-1pm) I headed over to Srinivasan’s (my airport driver who has since become my friend) house for lunch. He lives in the village of Edyan Chevady, about a 13-minute bike-ride away. Lunch was great, although I was the only one who ate. I have learned that this form of Indian hospitality is quite common, which is to invite people over for meals but to serve them and make them the center of attention. Srinivasan invited a whole crew of his family over so I got to practice my Tamil a bit and I was excited about that. One thing I wasn’t excited about however, is that I drank the village municipality water that I was given. I knew I was going to the village for lunch so I brought my own water supply, but when the moment of decisiveness came, I couldn’t bring myself to bring out the water, because I thought it would be too disrespectful to my host. Hopefully my intestines are currently fighting off whatever was in the water! The rest of lunch consisted of a chicken leg, some fried fish, rice, dal, some other liquid (sorry, I don’t know the name) that you put on rice, and curd, which to my palate, was gross. The curd tasted like stale sour cream, but I drank it down like a good houseguest. Following lunch we watched a Tamil movie which had English subtitles and which lasted 3 hours. That is how long Indian films are………

Side note one: In south India liquids and dals are put onto rice so that you can more easily clump it together, thus, facilitating its entry into your mouth.

Side note two: Srinivasan had a banana tree, two cashew trees, a chili plant, a lemon tree, and jasmine flowers in his backyard.

OK, it’s time for some fishing trip pictures……..I brought my digital camera this time! By the way, I HATE the quality of the images on this site!

PS- Tomorrow I am taking a trip to Tiruvanamali with a friend of mine. Every full moon tens to hundreds of devotees go to this temple-town to do a 14km walk around a sacred hill. Expect some good stories…..

Fish in the boat

Other fishing boat

Vinith (left) and Arul (right)

Blowfish

Fishes

Arul's father with his catch

Drying fish

Early morning fishing

Prawn resting/dying on net

Stew Countdown: 5 days

Metamorphosis

When I first arrived there was a certain tree in the village of Kullipalayam that seemed a little different. It may be because there were always old men sitting around it or because it was an abnormally giant tree at the intersection of two roads. Either way, it seemed different to me.

Every day for the past month I have driven by this tree and slowly seen it go through a metamorphosis from a tree into a Hindu temple. At first people started painting the tree yellow and red, then they began placing pictures, candles, and incense at the base of the tree, and then flowers were hung from its branches. Finally, last week, over the course of one day, a bamboo and palm structure was put up next to the tree. After this event, people started visiting the tree and makeshift temple structure much more frequently.

The culmination of this process happened last night. As I was eating dinner at a nearby restaurant, I heard shouting, chanting, and a whole other slew of noises coming from the area of the tree and temple. So, I wandered over to see what was going on. The following description is my best effort at a description of what was going on:

The setting was the area around the tree and temple-like structure and it was illuminated by candles. A man was in a trance-like state, rolling like a log, all over the ground around the tree and temple. He was mumbling things in Tamil and each time he said something, the 50 or so people around him would begin yelling and chanting. Water and other things were being thrown on the trance-like man during this period too. Finally, the man rolled into the temple-like structure (with some steering by some men) and everyone crowded into the 5x12 ft space. People began chanting, screaming, cheering, yelling, and throwing more stuff onto him. Then all of a sudden, in a frenzied state, three men come running out of the structure, grab some lemons, take them to various places around the tree and temple and smash them on the ground with their hands. Then, the trance-like man is left alone to lay in the temple while someone else falls into a trance…..

I don’t exactly know what to make of this situation but I intend to do a little research to see if I can get an explanation………

PS- I have become with friends with the guy who drove me to the airport last weekend and I am going to his house for lunch tomorrow!

Stew Countdown: 6 Days

Blowfish Strategies

As I sat on a pile of fishing nets waiting for Arul to arrive at his boat, I watched the fishermen emerge from the shadows of the village like mummies in the night and listened to one fishing boat after another start it’s diesel engine and head out to sea. It was 4:30 in the morning and I was tired, in awe of the situation, and out of place.

After Arul arrived I knew that I was out of place because fishermen kept coming up to him, pointing at me, exchanging some Tamil, and then shaking my hand and saying “hello, what country sir?” (possibly the only English they know). I was the only westerner on the beach and I’m sure most of them didn’t understand (probably like some of you reading the blog, I am not intending to insult anyone with this comment…..just a statement…..) why I’d want to go out fishing with them at 4:30am. Either way, after about twenty minutes of preparation, two shooting star sightings, and a beedie smoked with a fisherman, we (Arul, his father, his uncle, and myself) were on our way.

This was my first exposure to this type of fishing, which entailed slowly releasing a 1000 meter long, 1 meter high net, with weights on one side of the net and floaters on the other, while steering the boat in a straight line and then pulling the net in while pulling off whatever got caught in it. The idea behind this type of net is that the weighted end of the net will sink to the ocean floor while the floating part will remain 1 meter above the ocean floor, thus, catching any fish or other creatures that swim into it at that depth. After the net was dropped the first time, we waited for about five minutes so that there would be ample time to catch the first batch of fish/creatures. Besides this break, the only other time we weren’t working was when we stopped for 3 minutes to eat breakfast, which consisted of lemon rice and fish curry. Considering that this was my first meal of the day and that I don’t really like fish stews/curries/liquids that much, I can say with strong affirmation that it was very difficult to hold the fish curry in both my mouth and my stomach. I was successful in holding the food down by gulping water each time my mouth was full of food! Oh yeah, I forgot to say that somewhere in here the sun rose, which was absolutely gorgeous, and which made me want to get up every morning to go to the beach to see it……

While dropping the net into the water and pulling it back in may sound somewhat easy, it’s not. The first (and definite) reason that it’s not easy is that to do this on a daily basis, your fingers and arms need to be extremely strong and toned. I know this because mine aren’t, which is why when given the opportunity to participate, I had a difficult time pulling the net in! The second reason that this type of fishing isn’t easy is because there is an ongoing turf/sea war among the fishermen. Besides our boat, there had to be at least 60 other boats in the one square mile area that we were fishing in. The problem with this is that when you pull your net in, there is another fisherman dropping his net in the same exact place. In order to get around this, the fishermen only would pull up half of their net at a time. So, what they do is pull up half the net, re-drop the net after pulling off the fish/creatures, and then drive the boat to the far end of the net and do the same thing over again, thus, constantly moving back and forth between the ends of the net. I didn’t completely understand why the boats didn’t spread out more while fishing, as there were plenty of other areas which weren’t populated by boats. However, it my have been the case that the more nets dropped allowed less routes for escape by the fish/creatures, thus allowing for an increase in the average number of fish/creatures caught per fisherman. I guess it’s possible then, that it wasn’t a sea war, but a strategy?! Either way, considering that these guys fish for a living, I trust that there is a good reason behind the strategy of heavily populating the area

So, there is more I want to say about the fisherman’s strategy of beaching the boats, the sponsorship of certain boats by large corporations (who donated boats and materials post-tsunami (this was a village hit by the tsunami)), what it felt like being out on the ocean, a few miles from land affected by the tsunami and what it must have been like being on a fishing boat during the tsunami and coming back in not knowing that it happened, about the primitiveness of this fishing strategy compared to that in “the west” (with machines, big boats and engines, etc.) and how if they wanted, “the west” could a) assist these fisherman in updating their practices by donating boats and/or expertise or b) take over this industry and make a fortune….., and about the amazing physique of the fishermen, but, I don’t really have the energy to type more right now, nor do you have the energy/attention-span to read more (probably….). So, it’ll have to wait until I get home, so ask me about it in a few months if you want.

Fish/Creatures = Blowfish, Pufferfish, other fish varieties, spider crabs, sea horses, conch, sand sharks, prawns, eel, and crabs.

PS- I am going out on Arul’s boat tomorrow with him and some of his friends (just to hang out, not to fish, and I am going to go fishing again next week.

Stew Countdown = 7 days

Mosquito Honks

So, a few comments are in order......

First, I'd like to make the statement that the the variety of horns found on automobiles in India is amazing. In the US, motorbikes go: "dink-dink", cars go: "honk-honk", and trucks go: "hoooooonk-hooooonk". Things are totally different here. All moving objects have different sounding horns ranging from (try to convert the words into a sound): "honk-tweedle-twiddle-twiddly-honk" to "honk-diddy-daddle-diddle-honk-tweedle-dum". This may sound a little far-fetched/wierd, but, it's the truth.

For lunch today I wasn't so hungry for some reason, so, i went with the liquid lunch, which consisted of the following: a glass of fresh mango juice, a glass of fresh watermelon juice, a glass of fresh guava juice, some lemonade, and three glasses of water. It was yummmmmmy!

This morning I saw a marmot and huge scorpion, which happened to be in my neighbors room. So, that's cool to know that scorpions can get in my room too. It makes me a lot more comfortable about getting out of bed in the morning without looking at the floor......

I am 25 surveys away from being finished with my research project.....then comes the analysis, which could take a while!

Every day I get stung by a new type of fly or mosquito. I am not joking, I think there might be an infinite number of species of arthropods here.

Tomorrow I am getting up at 4:00am to go fishing with a village fisherman that I was introduced to. His name is Arun. His boat is about 25 feet, looks like a giant wooden canoe, and has a diesel engine that has a wire that runs from the engine down a bamboo rod to a propellor that is tied to the end of the rod. It is pretty ridonkulous that the engine even runs. Don't worry parentals, Ellyn went on a boat like this almost every day that she studied in Brazil. I appologize but no pictures will be available immediately as I am bringing a disposable camera with me.

Lastly, FYI, I've eaten 6 very questionable items in the past 3 days and I haven't gotten sick, so that is sweet! These items included a street paan, pakoda (aka pakora in America) from a village street vendor, fried fish from a street vendor, more ground legumes, and a few other things.

Here are 3 poor-quality images from today's work in the village.

Women

Hands

Outdoor Kitchen

Stew Countdown: 8 days

Antibiotic Resistance

Antibiotic resistant bacteria will be a problem on the Indian sub-continent. The following are two examples of why:

1. I went to a pharmacy yesterday and told them I had a cold. The pharmacist, not knowing what I had, gave me three different options of antibiotics to take. If every cold is treated that way, resistance could happen.

2. At the village stores (like bodegas and the place where I ate the dirty sweets) f you tell them you have diarrhea or a cold, or anything, they give you one of two types of antibiotics that they have. These aren't even pharmacists, these people know nothing about medicine! If you treat all diseases with only two antibiotics....it could lead to resistance.

I am sweating profusely right now. The electricity is off again, for no apparent reason, and the internet shop is on a generator. I am going to go carve stone now......followed by the beach and soccer. Hooray!

Snake Importing

OK, I have a quick entry after an exciting day in the field......and I need some feedback too....

1. On the way to work today I was stopped in the road by two village men. I was unsure what was going on as I approached the men with their arms outstretched. When I was within 3 feet of them they began frantically pointing to the side of the road. Low and behold......there was a gigantic cobra slithering around. After seeing a cobra in the wild, I can say that I don't want to have a close interaction with one.

2. I met a man named Riaz who practices Siddha medicine (and also owns/runs/cooks/hosts an amazing restaurant called "Riaz"), an ancient form of traditional medicine and the father/mother form of Ayurvedic medicine. I learned something very interesting from him: If you take someone who you think might be dying out in the sunlight and make them stand there for a few minutes, the person will remain still while their shadow will move around. Riaz, said that he has seen it happen and that the person died three hours later. He also mentioned that this experience had changed his life. Lastly, Riaz said that next time I come in to the restaurant he is going to give me a powder that I must consume twice a day which will put the three humors of my body in harmony and synchrony. Any takers?

3. I need some advice.....I am seriously thinking about buying a ton of stuff here ("here" being the villages) and seeing if I can sell it back home....maybe set up a shop at the Farmer's Market or renting a space?(or have Ellyn do it...thanks Ellyn! Ha!) and have the benefits go toward public health projects in the villages that the items come from....I would basically be setting up a public health/handicraft exchange/non-profit or something of that nature. Items would include the following.....hand made wall hangings, handbags, hammocks, stone carvings, jewelry (silver and beaded), ceramics, clothes, textiles (towels, blankets, etc.), handmade soaps, handmade incense, leather purses, watchbands, coasters, and wallets, and other handmade handicrafts.......I have someone here who is willing to help in this process....so..........?

My mind is having a party right now, and everyone at the party is really psyched and you're all invited! Maybe I am just being over ambitious and overly excited about how cheap and how high in quality the things are and how a business like this could have such a positive impact on the people that live in these villages.....it's just hard seeing that the people in these villages work so hard yet have so little and live under such poor conditions (poor from my (the westerners) perspective).....AND I don't want to leave here knowing that I did nothing to help these people besides purchasing their goods (stupid tourists) and telling them to boil their water......

Any advice? Would anyone even buy this stuff? Or, is this another one of Jon's stupid ideas...it's fine if it is, just tell me before I go too far into this endeavor...that would be great...thanks.

PS- Does anyone even know/understand what I am getting at here? Or......

PPS- For the sake of anonymity, don't post advice on my blog, just send me an e-mail to jonathan_d_black@yahoo.com, or just put it on the blog if you don't care. AND, don't tell me that my plate is already full with medical school, that's not cool to say that.

American in Ahmedabad

I'm back from visiting Suresh and his family in Ahmedabad (in the state of Gujarat). It was a good time and a relaxing break from what I had been doing back in Auroville. Upon arrival Suresh and his daughter Seema took me to the most famous Jain Temple in the city. It was pretty quiet when I got there as it was mid-afternoon and nobody was praying. Following this, Suresh took me on a tour of the city, showing me the different places where he works (he teaches business management training and english courses to business-folk). He introduced me to everyone as "my American friend!". It was good to see what his life was like in India as I only knew him from camp. On the first day in Ahmedabad I could tell that it was a polluted city.....there was lots of smog, more trash on the ground than I was used to (there is trash everywhere in all cities in India), and more homeless and illegal squatters than I had seen in the other cities I have visited. I learned later that Ahmedabad is the 10th most polluted city in the world! After the city-tour we had dinner......Seema prepared pizza and pasta because she didn't know if the American could handle spicy food. I told her no more western food and to bring on the heat. She did exactly that for the rest of the meals (I got cooking lessons from her too!!).

Saturday morning Seema took me to a few boutiques and then we had a huge Thali lunch followed by a well-neded siesta. That evening I went to the Law College Night Market with Suresh's grandaughters Shana and Shania. They helped me bargain and I came out with a bag full of items varying from wooden puppets to a Gujarati hand made wall hanging.

Saturday evening also consisted of me being taken for ice cream, to Crossword (Ahmedabad's Barnes and Noble), and to Mocha, an upper-class/tourist coffee shop follwed by a trip to Shana's friends' "farm", which really turned out to be a second house that was located outside of the city, in the "country", and thus called a "farm".

On Sunday I visited the Ghandi Ashram. It was an amazing experience to see his home and the place that he based the Indian independence movement from.....it's hard to put into words what it was like being there....

Sorry this entry is kind of spacey, but I need to go eat because I am really hungry...thus, I am typing fast and not thinking too much!

Jain Temple

Ghandi's Room at his Ashram

Seema, Myself, and Suresh

Picture from village I work in

Picture from village I work in