india

india.
the sixth day.

oh my, what do i say? there is so much! i constantly have new chapters of books i could write playing themselves out in my mind, my eyes open to new images in every moment, new experiences. each moment something different, sometimes unexpected, sometimes perfect, always right. always a lesson, or an omen, or an illumination, or a smell (sometimes spicy, or incense, or urine, or garbage, or exhaust, or?? things i don't know yet)...how to put it into words in this moment? first a flow of images, not necessarily in sequential order!

walking through nilgiri tea plantations yesterday on our trek through the mountains with 2 germans, 2 italians, and our indian guide anthony. seeing the new tender green tea leaves curling up, and the silver oaks growing interspersed (they give the perfect amount of shade to the tea tree's liking)...65 year old trees, but so short as they are harvested regularly. (after working at the tao of tea in portland, now i finally see one place where tea grows!) it is so peaceful and gorgeous up in these mountains, i understand why tea makes us feel centered and relaxed and happy when we drink it. seeing the colorful village homes and the cutest children all running up to our group, wanting their picture taken (sure! i have been wanting to take pictures of people and have felt shy; the children made it so easy for me to snap away! after i took each picture they run up to me and all huddle around the camera to see themselves on the screen, precious!) they all want chocolate or pens, but we have none of those so just smile and say thank you.) we saw a shepherd and his goats, one a small baby that he set down to take some of it's first steps, and the mom goat baaaad away as he gave the baby to erika the italian woman in our group, and the rest of the goats scampered down the hill and the shepherd ran after them, and the mom goat bahhhed, and erika ran after him, and we all laughed. the view of the valley below, and the tea plantations, and the mountains, and the distance, and the sun (ooooh sunburns were our leftover from our day, high altitude makes for a heavy burn, ouch!)....it was truly magical, strolling through the villages, eating lunch in a small little restaurant in the village, a thali plate with south indian goodness.

floating down the keralan backwaters on our second full day, being led by two guides through canals and by villages, meeting suji a 12 year old girl from the store where we were dropped off at in the morning...her dad could see that she really liked the french woman emmanuelle, the german woman dorotee, and i, and so he raced his motorbike to a nearby area and we pulled up on the boat and picked her up! (it was her first journey on the backwaters with all the tourists!) she was so sweet; she sat with us all day. my favorite part of the day was near the end when she and i were sitting in the back, and i shared my journal with her, and then her dad's friend (our hilarious and genuinely wonderful guide) let us listen to the radio through his cellphone...91.9 Radio Mango, bhangra-style keralan music, one earphone in her ear and one in mine, floating along in the backwaters and a lake, both tapping our feet to the tunes....oh it was precious! i had the strongest sense of deja vu in those moments, like i had been there before, or dreamed it more clearly than any other dream i've ever had. like i was in the most perfect place at the most perfect time! for lunch that day, we pulled onto an island and two women cooked us the most delicious keralan thali feast that we ate with our hands on banana leaves, looking out over the backwaters, surrounded in coconut trees and a faint breeze.

oh kerala, it was so hot and humid...our friend at our guesthouse said 100% humidity, and i would not doubt that. after we showered and dried, we were already wet again with sweat. i have never been in such a humid place. it was a nice starting point though, mellow and easy. our guesthouse guide was great, we had many long talks with him learning a lot about the town, about india, about indian people through his experience and perspective. at night we'd walk in after dinner and he had a keyboard set up and was singing the most sacred, heartfelt songs....a german couple sat there too, and the woman couldn't leave because his songs were so beautiful she was nearly brought to tears. we would lie under our fan at night and try to sleep in the dense heat. we found an *amazing* home cooked authentic keralan style restaurant called shala, fish curry, pineapple curry (!!), tomato curry, keralan red rice, ****cucumber mint lemon juice*** the best!...different veggies prepared excellently, papadam...oh my goodness, every bite heaven! we learned some of the ins and outs of rickshaw drivers, and did one a favor by going into a shop (he got a liter of petrol for us doing that) and later decided we would never do that again, as we got trapped in the back of the store in the rug room and had to slowly inch our way out, disappointing our sales person immensely (no, really, we don't need a rug or a big mango wood statue of ganesh! thanks anyways!) later our friend suwash told us that it's okay to just say no and walk away; we western people are so used to and concerned about being polite and find it hard to say no. a good lesson for me, i keep learning. and also a lesson in not saying "maybe"...just saying yes or no, because often people mistake "maybe" for yes. there are many lessons i learned from him, more to come later i'm sure :)

we were happy to head out from kerala, even though there was more to explore south i'm sure. we took off in the morning to coimbatore, jumped off the bus 4 hours later in a bustling city, found an airconditioned restaurant, and learned another lesson: be CLEAR about what food you are ordering, otherwise your server might just take the liberty to order something else for you that is higher in price than the two things you really ordered combined! oh well. we got fueled up and hopped in the queue for the local bus up to ooty (a 3 1/2 hour bus ride for 32 rupees...hmm...that's about .70....70 cents!) carson and i squeezed on the last 2 "seats" on the bus, the back of the bus bench, squeezed with 5 other people. it was crazy! neither of us could move, and carson was half on/ half off the bus ticket man's seat "cushion" metal frame. when the ticket man was done collecting money when people got on, he'd squeeze in next to us and we literally couldn't move a centimeter...we were sweating buckets, closing our eyes when dust came in the open door next to us, but it was really fun actually. i had a wonderful woman next to me with her hands dyed yellow (we deduced from her hand gestures trying to explain to us, that she dyes fabric for a living) and we shared many sweet smiles. halfway up the mountain the bus broke down (as often happens with the local buses, one man told us; apparently they just run them and run them with no maintenance until they bust). we looked at the tires and most of them were bare of tread...hmmm....another bus to ooty came by about 20 minutes later and people from our bus squeezed on that bus until they were hanging out the door. we waited and a little a/c minibus showed up with "Jesus" all over it, on each seat...we were told it would take us to ooty for an extra cost, so we squeezed on their with the other mob who would pay 100 rupees (a little over $2, not bad, but still so much more than the local bus for the distance we had to go.) so literally we were saved by jesus in that moment :) the drive up the mountain was gorgeous, through tea plantations and the like; ooty was too busy for our taste, but we really enjoyed our guesthouse in a more quiet part of town, and the kindest ba'hai manager who helped us book our tour and feel welcome. we slept well that night in the cooler air (much higher altitude!) and went out for our trek the next day.

which was yesterday, which was where i started this entry. circular, out of order, chaotic, but it makes sense somehow. just like india. unlike any other place; it stays it's own no matter what influences come in. i am constantly in awe by the beauty of the women; by their clothes, the colors, their jewelry, their smiles, their eyes. i wish i could sit with them for days and talk to them and learn about their lives (maybe i will get to do that later in the journey..?). carson and i stand out wherever we go; often we smile back to the stares and get to receive warm smiles back; sometimes people do not smile and just keep staring, and i wonder what are they thinking? do they wonder what i am doing here in their country, what i hope to find amongst over a billion people, why i, like so many other people from other countries, am drawn to india? for the spiritual journey? for the rich culture? for the challenges and the lessons? for the wisdom? for the food, sites, temples, relics, history stored in every square inch? yes for everything, and for more that i am still discovering. i find that i am mostly smiling and happy here, even though so much is new and at times overwhelming, it is all perfect in some way that i know intuitively. i am reading "the alchemist" by paulo coelho yet again (it's been a few years) and i must say it's the *perfect* book to read on a journey like this. just yesterday evening in ooty, carson and i were walking trying to find a restaurant recommended to us by our hotel owner and we bumped into a girl that i used to know in bellingham from my women's group nearly TEN years ago! woah! in india! and she too on her 5th day here, and she too her first time here. amazing synchronicity! everything seems to be synchronicity, every conversation some sort of tip pointing you in the next direction, or some little grain of wisdom that will come in handy further down the line.

ahhh.....yes yes india. i am here! there's so much more to share really, but i think we are going to get going and find some dinner. i feel much inspiration from being here, and will write more again when i can! we have been taking lots of photos too, and i will try to post some of those soon! love to everyone from mysore, india!

melissa