Where the heck have we been?

Oh, my. Sorry we sort of fell of the planet this past month. After our last post we were sucked into the intensity which is India, then found ourselves in a 10 day silent meditation course, and later, deep in the remote west, where we were so foreign (alien, really) that families would mob us for our picture, and entire streets of people would stop to point and giggle at us. "Name?" and "Your country?" they would shout, those being the only bits of English they could mange. Somehow email and uploading files felt far far away.

We're thoroughly enjoying ourselves, and are becoming quite seasoned travelers here in "Incredible India" as the posters say. We can hold our own with even the most pushy rickshaw drivers – the true scoundrels of India. We can successfully navigate the public transportation systems, and I have managed to endure the public bus stand toilets without retching. We know the fair price for bananas, tiny and sweet, is 1 Rupee a piece (about 2 cents), but you have to bargain. We've learned that Anything Is Possible here in India. Some of the sights, sounds, and smells that were so shocking two months ago now seem rather normal…a large bull meandering into a beachside restaurant…a young boy sitting cross-legged on the back of his friend's bicycle as they bounce along a pot-holed road…a large, six foot deep man-eating hole on a major sidewalk in the metropolis of New Delhi…a herd of goats stopping traffic on a major highway, and the public bus driver swerving off the road and passing on the wrong side… The list goes on – we could fill pages of these crazy sights and experiences that are part of everyday life here. We love the richness and intensity of life here – the colors, the smells (wonderful and horrible), the textures, the tastes. It is easy to see now how people come here and never leave…or come back again and again.

Next on our agenda we're heading south to the state of Kerala. The landscape here in Goa is green, lush, and tropical; Kerala should be more of the same. We hope to venture into the mountains of Kerala as well, where beautiful tea plantations stretch for miles. We leave India from Kolkata (Calcutta) on December 28^th, and head towards Thailand. We're not sure what our plans are after that, we're still formulating them. We're not sure when we're coming home…but we will, we miss you all horribly.