Melting in Mysore

From the onset, I wanted this trip to be different. I wanted to focus on meeting and talking with the locals. I wanted to eat healthy and not drink too much. I wanted to even make some time for exercise.

Well, so far so good.

Since arriving in India I've become a borderline vegetarian without even noticing. The magic these people perform with vegetables just amazes me. I pictured the life of a vegetarian to just be carrot sticks and quinoa, I could get used to this kind of food! As for the exercise, my days have become one big workout routine. Most nights I find myself passed out by 11pm from the sheer exhaustion of a whole day spent walking. I've also boycotted Rickshaws when practical, but this leads to me getting lost almost daily...so it makes for a lot of walking. And beer? What's that? Chai has become my drink of choice. I can probably count the beers I've drank on 3 hands since arriving here (considering my love for the beverage that's a truly astonishing feat). With regards to talking and meeting the locals, I don't even have to try at this one. Every time I stop for chai or ask for directions I'm bombarded with questions and good conversation.

It wouldn't look like I'm having the "funnest" time from the outside looking in. There's no epic nights out on the town or anything thing like that. But it's how I want it for now. There's a lot of nights spent reading, days spent wandering about searching for that perfect photo op, and a lot of tea drinking....oh how I love chai. But there's also bad days just like you'd have at home, mostly it's the honking and blistering heat that really wears me down. I haven't seen a spec of cloud in the sky for over 2 weeks and the honking is just relentless.

I haven't tried yoga yet...it is on the 'to do' list. But I think I'm already using some of it's principles to get me through more than a few lose-my-cool situations. When that scorching sun coupled with the last ear-piercing horn I can stand almost makes me snap, I just think of the dog.

What dog you ask?

I was walking down one of the main boulevards in Mysore the other day and took a detour through a bustling alley way. The alley was filled with hundreds of locals buying/selling fruit and produce, just a big farmers market it was. It had cows, goats, chickens, and one lone dog. As soon as I stepped foot off the main drag into the market the pooch locked eyes on me 20 yards out through the crowd of people and just went hysterical. He did this the whole time I walked through and a handful of shop keepers were slapping their knee with laughter. I too had a smirk on my face, and as I walked back to my hotel I could still hear it going berserk a kilometre away. It makes me laugh whenever I think of it.

It's become my Opposition Thought. When India starts making me lose my cool I'm just going to think of the dog. And if that's not enough, I'll in vision what the shop keepers were saying to each other as they watched and laughed:

"Hey look, that dog hates the funny looking white guy!"

The ruined city of Vijayanagar (Hampi)

I've put beaches on the back burner and headed inland. 9 hours on an overnight bus has brought me to the city of Hampi. It's a pretty surreal landscape here, none like I've ever seen. I've been here for 3 nights and from what I've gathered it's just one massive photo opportunity. Everywhere I look I see things that should be framed or in some travel magazine. Massive boulders in precarious positions, ancient 14th century ruins, lush green rice paddy fields, slanted palm trees, it even has a picturesque river flowing through the middle to top it all off.

Quite a busy place it is though. Every morning bus loads of tourists are brought from their hotels in Hospet on day trips to tour the ruins. But for the penny pinching travellers like myself there's Hampi Bazaar, which oddly enough is smack dab in the middle of everything you want to see. Dozens of jewelry shops, open air restaurants cooking cheap veg dishes, and family owned guesthouses are all scattered around the base of the Virupaksha Temple. But let's just say it's not the calmest place to laze away the 35 degree Celsius days. Cows, goats, rickshaws, beggars, sellers, dealers, and a blistering sun.....sensory overload whenever you step out of your room!

Meat and booze are pretty much banned here, and as pathetic as it sounds I do believe this is the longest I've gone with out at least one beer while on vacation. That being said I've never felt more energised.  When I almost slept in for the Matanga Hill sunrise the other morning I immediately jumped out of bed and ran full steam to the base of the hill a kilometer away. I scrambled up the mountain and was greeted on the summit with about a dozen monkeys, one chai/hash seller, and the most brilliant sunrise I've ever laid my eyes on.

It's not hard to escape the crowds though, which I did the other day by hiring a bike to tour the more remote ruins.  On my way back I rode past a group of school kids who then proceeded to point and laugh at me hysterically while yelling 'Hey Rambo!'. Two of them stopped me and demanded a lift back to the bazaar, perhaps curious if I could find out why they referred to me as 'Rambo' I agreed. The 20 minutes that followed drew laughs from every person we passed - a full grown man and 2 school kids on a fixed gear rusted out bicycle.  Just one of those travel moments I won't forget anytime soon:)

Beach time!

I've traded honking horns and diesel exhaust fumes, for crashing waves and scents of barbecuing fish. The beaches of Goa -the place I had lined up in my cross hairs of travel for the past few years.

Perhaps it's hard for something to live up to the expectations of a near 1/2 decade of daydreaming, but I've never left a place so quickly than Palolem Beach. It could be that I forgot to pick up a carton of smokes, pair of speedos, and heavy Eastern European accent before I left Mumbai, but more so that I just wasn't feeling the place. One of the most beautiful beaches I've ever laid my eyes on no doubt, almost as if a landscape architect designed the thing a hundred years ago. It's palm trees stretch out like umbrellas over it's perfectly crescent shaped beach...quite jaw dropping when you witness it in person for the first time. But being surrounded by Russians playing beach ping pong just kind of turned me off the whole thing. Luckily Agonda beach was a 20 min rickshaw ride away and as soon as I told the driver where I was headed he told me "Much better choice my friend".

So I'm here, the beaches of Goa. I rented a moped and scooted over to Pantem (which so far would be my favorite of the three I've seen). But I don't think I have to worry about these beaches entrapping me with their charming, laid back lifestyle for months on end. To spend a whole month smoking hash and sipping Kingfisher beer from a hammock would seem like a waste to me. But with all that being said, sipping Kingfisher beer from a hammock is on the agenda. Just not for more than a week or so.

 As for the hash? Weed makes me too paranoid.....but I'm not ruling anything out just yet.

The generosity of total strangers.

Words can't describe what a Friday evening north bound train ride can feel like, nor could a picture if you're able to reach for your camera.

"Don't stand there sir unless you're about to get off!"

The last thing I heard before the onslaught of bodies swarmed and invaded every cubic inch of available space in the train cart. Every time my lungs sunk in for a breath, someone's arm or shoulder would replace the space where my belly once was.

After stating my terminus station to the fellow across the cart, I was directed with the help of him and a small team of locals to a miniscule patch of real estate in the very back. They took my belongings, crowd-surfed it towards the storage rack, and then began to do the usual thing that the Indian people do so well.  Smile using every muscle in their face, ask personal questions about where you're from and why you're here, and basically just be the most considerate and friendliest person they can be.

Through out my close quartered conversation with an older fellow named 'Shiva', I told him how surprised I was at how everyone is getting along so well when considering the borderline violence that occurs at each stop. He told me he rarely ever sees people get aggravated, it's just an everyday thing for them. Sometimes card games are played with both arms stretched into the air, sometimes entire train carts start singing at the top of their lungs; 70 plus men singing in unison to a popular Hindi song.

I didn't witness the card games but I did see the latter on a passing train the previous day. It gave me one of those tingly feelings through out my body and reminded me why I travel. To experience how different cultures adapt to everyday adversity, and to hopefully take a bit of that "such is life" attitude home with me.

I think I'm starting to like this place:)

The hardest part is over.

The hardest part of traveling is getting off your ass and doing it. I've been through a lot of stressful situations in my life, but none more anxiety filled than the night before (and morning of) this departure date.

The morning of the flight I simply did not want to leave, at all. I just wanted to lie in my cozy, familiar bed for a few more hours. Perhaps go for a walk to my favorite coffee shop by the beach, hell I even would've rather gone to work. I just wanted this trip to still be weeks away. Far enough away to avoid the pre-trip jitters yet close enough to get those butterfly feelings in the tummy. But alas, you can't have one without the other. You got to put up with the sour to get to the sweet (so to speak).


I'm still a bit nervous as I sit in my hotel lobby in Mumbai waiting for check in time to arrive, but I know the hardest part is over and done with. The sun just rose and I got my first glimpse of the skyline.  I'm here, I'm free, and I don't "have" to do anything tomorrow morning. Nope, no more travel preperations....just travel.

Riding the morning rush hour rails; Vashi to CST station.