On being a parasite magnet, but also a magnet for wonderful people

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Namaskaram!



Really, again I apologize for the fact that there will be no pictures with this blog - internet in small holy seaside towns is not without its flaws, photo uploading on a regular basis being one of the few!



After leaving Delhi I got on the 36-hour train south, which was mainly without incident, other than me beginning to not feel super fantastic and with a suspicious itching on my scalp... I had 2 amazing couch surfing experiences in Bangalore, the first with an Anglo-Indian mother and daughter and the second with a young, super-hip married couple living in the suburbs. The mother-daughter were interesting in that the mother was brought up in what was essentially a British mining community in Karnataka and learned only English, no Hindi or local language, during her childhood. She was from a very wealthy family and when she got married and had children they moved to Kuwait, leaving only during the war as refugees and settling in Bangalore. It was so interesting being there because I really didn't feel like I was in an Indian home at all - the food they ate was all pretty much pre-packaged and ready-made (which would be UNHEARD of in a normal Indian home) and only English was spoken, and the daughter asked me questions like "What do farmers look like in Canada?" (my answer: like people. But I understand where the question was coming from, because in India farmers are generally menial labourers of a low caste who are tiny and dark from a lifetime of hard work).



Staying with Pali and Ryan was also amazingly fascinating. I heard all about their struggle to get married, being from different castes, communities, and having conflicting horoscopes (all legitimate reasons in India NOT to wed). It was so cool hearing about their fight and ultimate triumph and the whole spectacle of the Indian wedding and the different traditions in each community that they wove into their special day. They were really nice and both couch surfing families went out of their way to make me feel at home and help me out, including finding me a rickshaw to the train station that would give me a fair price (hahaha - I hid in the car while Ryan negotiated. The driver was so angry when a foreign girl turned out to be his passenger!).



I took an overnight sleeper train to Hampi, an ancient ruined holy city that is basically just a bunch of hills and ruined temples strewn with boulders that look like the gods stood in the sky and sprinkled them down - and was stunningly, utterly beautiful. Unfortunately for me it was raining the entire time I was there and I had developed a touch of fever so I opted to relax and read, finding energy in my last couple days to explore the ruins and climb the mountains (and rent a motorbike by myself!). In Hampi, at the crest of every hill, you are greeted with the most amazing views - bathing tanks sunken into the groung, Shiva lingams (a lingam is a phallic representation of the god Shiva), giant bulls carved out of boulders, and crumbling pillars that have dancing gods and goddesses etched into their sides. Literally, without exaggeration, you cannot walk more than 500 metres in Hampi without some gorgeous ancient scultpture to greet you.



On my last morning, the day after my birthday, I hiked to the very top of the highest mountain where there was a tiny white Shiva temple and a little old priest to greet me. I was totally alone, and totally at peace. I sat for about an hour, listened to music, looking at the banana plantations, rocky hills, and temple ruins spread around me, and cried my heart out out of sheer joy for where I was and what I was doing. It was beautiful, and I felt this keen awareness of all my blessings just surrounding me and I was filled with so much gratitude and love. I knowwwwww this sounds incredibly cheesy but I made a promise to myself that this blog would be completely honest and honestly, I am almost speechless with gratitude for being able to be where I am right now, doing what I am doing.



Part of what I am doing right now is picking HEAD LICE out of my hair. Yes, in a potent reminder that with good comes bad, and nothing is ever perfect, the itching that I noticed on my head on the train turned out to be a terrible case of head lice (which, I would like to point out, I went an entire childhood without getting - you are very welcome, Mom and Dad!) that I am dealing with right now. I had originally planned to go WWOOF for a few weeks on a farm outside of Bangalore, but after getting a little sick in Hampi I decided to listen to my body (which I am forever urging those around me to do, so I thought it prudent to take my own advice) and am in a little coastal town called Gokarna for some VERY much needed TLC.

I have met some amazing people along the way who have kept me in great company and have been amazingly nice - an Australian couple who treated me to breakfast on my birthday, a nice German boy who I came to Gokarna on a sleeper bus with (and climbed down a volcanic rock cliff with at 4 in the morning and slept on the beach with until the guesthouse woke up), some really nice Canadian girls from Vancouver who I have been able to laugh hysterically with, and some amazing guys from Italy and India who I had dinner with the other night. It is so cool to be swimming in the ocean and having a conversation that is at times in English, French and German, and to be sitting at a dinner table and hearing Italian, Hindi and English spoken interchangeably - really one of the most beautiful things in the world. Of course there are still the weirdos you meet traveling but thus farI have been really really fortunate with who has come into my life and I hope I continue to meet and be open to such incredible people!



OK. Blog is over for now, I have to walk to a sacred spring to get some more drinking water (it comes out of the mouth of a cow's head carved into a rock face!).



Much, much, much love from the motherland!



xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

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