Travels

News & Politics

Political jambalaya

Shit – how am I going to explain to the JFK guys that all those flights between Cairo and Istanbul was only because I needed to use my miles to get back to the States?

Travels

Atrophy

And it doubly sucks because outside of the jungle, Kumily has absolutely nothing to do.  I've read a couple of books, drank lots of tea, got YupNo to bring food to me, but that's it.  Great scenery, lousy nightlife.

Travels

Tea Time

I love tea fields now.  Green green green, and cut all even so they track the contours of the hill.. rounded on top, they make me think of little gnomes, heads underground while their bushy green hats plop out, a cover from prying human eyes...

Travels

Kerala Koming

I bought some giant crabs and prawns from the local fisherman (about $5/kg) and asked one of the local boys to cook the purchase for me on his makeshift grill.  Had lunch under a shade of banyan trees near some fabric vendors.

Travels

A Most Memorable Massage

What I got was a teste (yeah, that's right, bad pun) session where the slightly effeminate guy (nothing wrong with that!) kneaded my chakras and more with this thumbs of steel. 

Travels

(B)East-Men

So why? Maybe it's the fact that it's such a segmented society – girls and boys don't hang out until marriage.  And this separation causes, what else, repressed emotions, ignorance, and suppressed anxiety about the opposite gender.

Travels

What's there to look at? They're poor.

I'm reading this book called "City of Joy". It's about blah blah blah some priest in Calcutta, more blah blah, and a rickshaw driver... readers have gushed about it since it's publication in the 70s – positively gushed – about how it has changed

Travels

Adjustments

It'll be weird to wake up and not have to plan for bus, train, or plane tickets.  Doubly weird to think that one day could imitate another day so closely.  To wake up and realize that there are no new temples to visit, no new mountains to climb, or new cities to discover... weird.

Travels

Push and Shove

I suppose there is the need to have serenity is more urgent when suffering seems closest at hand. I'm not surprised that this is the origins of the philosophy of detachment, or karma, samsara, dharma and guans. 

Travels

Weird India

Today, a priest grabbed my hand and dragged me to a holy lake (where Ghandi's ashes was strewn).  He sat me down, crushed petals in my palm, chanted lines for my father, fictitious dead mother, non-existent sister and wife and son, and stained my forehead with red dye followed by rice grains. 

Travels

Indi Go

A woman combed her thigh length tresses on the flat roof of her house, while baboons clambered over her walls.  Below, young men bicycled through the narrow warrens of streets and looked up just as she vanishes towards the shadows.

Travels

WithIndia

I'm with India. The cliches are visible and it's hella disorienting. Did I write 'hella'? I must be going crazy. No 'Delhi belly' yet, but viruses and nasty buggers are all around – infections galore.  It's been four days since I&