The Islands

When we arrived in Bangkok I was exhausted. At customs we discovered Wil had been detained because of links to drug smuggling. Not really but it sounds more exciting, he was detained though. We did, however, find that the people had stolen things from our bags. Nothing to important but it still sucked.

On the way to the hostel I fell asleep in the cab and slept for most of that day. I was just so tired that I could no longer keep my eyes open. The next few days were a blur of massages, tourist shops, and curry. We booked a bus to Ko Tao and waited for Laura (LD) to arrive. The night she arrived we had gone out for buckets (island drink of sangsom, coke, and soda water served in a bucket). When I got to the hotel to meet her I was drunk. She commented on my being such a good friend that I came drunk and late to meet her.  In response I suggested we go down for a beer at a street stall. We talked and then she got a foot massage at 1 am on the street and then went to bed.

The next day we left for Ko Tao at 8 pm on a bus and arrived in to Chumpon at 3am and had to wait 3 hours for the ferry. None of us were that happy. We thought we would get into the ferry dock when the ferry was leaving and we could sleep on the bus and not have to wait. That was not the case we had to camp out next to the ferry and try and sleep. When the ferry did come we almost missed it because we had all fallen asleep. Luckily Christina happened to wake up just in time to notice everyone else was gone and quickly woke us just in time. Then there was a never ending ferry ride where we did not have seats. Let’s just say that there were quite a few people who vomited over the side before we arrived. We got in to Ko Tao at 12 in the afternoon, 3 hours later than they had told us. We went to the nearest restaurant and sat down for a late breakfast and tried to get some energy back and discussed our options. With the New Year fast approaching we decided to make a move to the other side of the island and find a hostel there. It was calmer and quitter but just a five minute walk to bars.

New Year’s Eve we bought a bunch of beers, a bottle of rum, and snacks and started drinking in the room. We played some drinking games and when we were all buzzed we went to the town to see were the parties were happening. I don’t know how it happened but we ended up thinking that hiking up the mountain to a 3 day trance festival and breaking in would be a good idea. Everyone was intoxicated at this point and hiking up dirt roads in the dark. When we got there I think everyone had just about sobered up but we still weren’t in the party. First we tried just walking in…that didn’t work. Then we thought we could sneak around back and walk through the jungle until we got to the party. Magically it worked and we were in (they need security like this in the States). It was a great idea. Though I think at midnight we were stumbling around in the jungle following our fearless leader Wil. The party was so much fun and crazy trippy with glow in the dark decorations of various neon colors. We danced and danced and after a while everyone was worn out except Shalom and I so they left and we stayed. This is where I made a big mistake. I should have gone home with everyone else but I decided to stay and had a great time while I was at the party but when we left we missed our turn to go back to our hotel. In a sense, you could say that we were lost. So for an hour we wandered around in the dark and at one point Shalom wanted to head into dense jungle with no path and had I not put my foot down, I think that we would have been lost until the morning had I not forced him to go back to the road.

The next few days were spent relaxing and eating. LD went diving one day and had an interesting experience in true LD fashion.  Then Shalom left us to go to a 10 day Thai Yoga massage course. Now it was just Christina, LD, Wil and I headed for Ko Phi Phi.

Ko Tao

Me on one of the buses to Ko Tao, approximately 3:00am

Our lodging for New Year's in Ko Tao

Fire show on the beach in Ko Tao, NYE

LD, Lulu, Christina, Wil, and Shalom at the Trance Party, NYE

Ko Phi Phi is the opposite of what we were looking for. Yes it is beautiful and yes there is great snorkeling and diving but it is over crowded with tourists and tacky souvenir shops. There was no space to relax, plus there weren’t any rooms available. We searched all over one entire end of the island and there was nothing. We made a snap decision and got on a ferry to Phuket. It was the best decision we could have made. Phuket was what we were looking for, despite the large amount of prostitutes, it was perfect. We found a great guesthouse, Kata On Sea, and a charming little restaurant down a side street with delicious food. I can’t remember the name of it but it was French owned and played American and Thai music videos.   We will see how the rest of Phuket goes, but as of now it looks good.

Limestone cliffs of Ko Phi Phi

On the ferry, headed to Phuket

Rishikesh

The Ganga

After our parents left we decided to make a quick visit to Rishikesh before we headed to Rajasthan. When we arrived, after a night train and a freezing cab ride, it was still dark out. The streets were deserted and everything was closed. Even the cows were sleeping. After searching for some time, we managed to wake up one of the guesthouse owners and he gave us a room. It wasn’t the best room but it was a bed to sleep in. We managed to find a more suitable one the next day.

Another part of the Ganga with a few of the local cows

Cow love

Walking through the streets and along the Ganga, I fell in love with the place. There was just something special about it. I had a feeling I wouldn’t be leaving in three days as planned, and in fact when the day came to book our train tickets, we couldn’t do it. Sofi and I were at the travel agent’s office seconds away from booking when we looked at each other and confessed we didn’t want to leave. So we didn’t. We stayed for the remaining three weeks right there in Rishikesh. It was one of the best desicions we made. I know I would have loved Rajasthan, but there will be more trips to India. I know I am not done with India just yet. We spent the rest of the day running around the streets smiling and laughing like little girls, happy as could be.

Yet another view of the Ganga

One of the many monkeys

Where to start…so many things happened in Rishikesh. There were sunset artis, and yoga sessions on the roof, lazy days reading and writing at our favorite café, Little Buddha, reiki, great food, walks along the river, finally having a kitchen to cook in, amazing people, great parties, bungee jumping, and of course, Christmas. So many things…too many things….so I will just tell you about a few and give you pictures for the rest.

Partying with our Indian Friends

Laura and Arjay

Sofi turning heads with her Bollywood moves

Arti (fire ceremony for the Ganga)

Arti with Shiva in the background

Some of my most memorable moments come from Rishikesh and some of the most memorable people. Puneet and Prateek are two brothers who have many gifts. Puneet is a gemist and a palmist and his brother Prateek is an astrologer. In fact he is the astrologer. The astrologer that Sofi has been talking about for two months that is. After hearing so much about him Laura and I were excited to get our own readings from him. We both went in being complete skeptics and came out believing that perhaps there was something in the stars guiding us. We at least felt that Prateek had been surprisingly accurate and specific, in ways that proved he had some sort of abilities. His brother Puneet read our palms as well and told us many of the same things. No, he did not know we had spoken to his brother at the time. Well, regardless if you believe in astrology and physic powers, you can believe that Puneet was a very sincere and kind man who was very wise. We would spend hours at his gem shop visiting with him and mostly just listening to what he had to say. So thank you Puneet for all your wise words. It seemed like you could see into our souls and know exactly the right words to say, and the right lessons to teach.

When we had decided to stay for the next three weeks, we also decided to upgrade our guesthouse. If we were going to be there that long we were going to be comfortable! There was an amazing little place that was colorful and had a lot of character. It also had big rooms with giant bathrooms, a roof for yoga overlooking the Ganga, an outside common area with tables and a swing, and the main selling point was our room had its own little kitchen! It was perfect…except it was twice what we wanted to pay. We had lunch and thought it over. We all really wanted to stay there so in the end we splurged and took the room. Oh it was perfect. We were so excited we went into town and spent the day at the market buying all sorts of things to cook with. Our home cooked meals were so comforting and they went great with all the Indian wine we bought in Delhi. We had some great, giggly meals in our outdoor dining room with the Ganga and the monkeys in the background. We didn’t have many plates and such so we had an inspiration to cook one pot meals and just all eat out of the same giant pot. It was so much fun! I felt slightly barbaric though. I guess we were just trying to fit in with the monkeys.

Our fancy "one pot meal"

Enjoying our one pot meal in our outdoor dining room

Yuuuummmmm!

Being silly in our crazy painted room

Cooking in our colorful kitchen

Indian wine and Indian bottle opener

Sofi reading on the veranda

There were two American guys staying at our same guesthouse. Turns out they were there working as jump masters for a bungee site. Come again!? I was definitely intrigued. They were both really great guys who were so much fun to hang out with and we had several great nights drinking Cuba libres and mojitos. Yes, we were in a holy city, but we smuggled in our own liquor. Should we feel bad for that? Maybe, but It was good fun. So this is how I was able to bungee jump in India. The guys were nice enough to let me jump for free. I have always been interested in jumping but never really had the opportunity. Well I couldn’t pass it up. I did question my sanity though when I was at the edge of the platform looking over at nothing except a river….and it was a long way down. Luckily for me at that moment I remembered that I already knew I was crazy so jumping wouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary. I took a deep breath, spread out my arms, and jumped. ….I loved it! It was scary, exciting, liberating, and all together a rush! As soon as they had lowered me down to the ground I wanted to go back up and do it again. Like I said earlier, I am already aware of my mental instability.

Sofi and me being silly

Sofi, me and Zach(one of the american guys)

Laura and Toby (the other american guy)

Zach prepping me for bungee!!

More prepping

Christmas! I love Christmas. It gives me an excuse to buy presents for people and to act silly with excitement like a little child and only get a few strange looks (mostly from Laura). We were sad that we weren’t able to spend it with our family at home, especially since it was our niece’s first Christmas. But we made the best of our situation. We had our own little travel family. We bought presents and wrapped them in Indian newspaper (They looked a bit ragged). We all drew Christmas trees, including the boys and a Dutch girl we kidnapped and forced to draw a tree (we did give her a cookie as a reward though). Then we taped them all to the wall and put our presents under them. It was pretty funny, but it made it feel more like Christmas. We invited the boys over for a Christmas feast. We made cookies, and Swedish Glogg (spiced wine), sweet potato casserole, beans, and we bought some Palak Paneer, rice and roti. We needed a little bit of India at the table as well. Plus I can’t forget the giant bowl of mojitos I made. We had a little bit of everyone’s home, Miami with the mojitos, sweet potato casserole from Mississippi, Sweden with the Glogg, and southwest US with beans, and our new and current home with the obvious Indian additions. We ate and drank and opened presents. It was as good a Christmas as we could have had away from our families.

Our fancy Christmas decorations

Our Christimas tree drawings

Crazy Christimas Dinner

Christmas dinner

Only a few days remained and we were sad to leave. It meant saying goodbye to India and goodbye to our new but very good friend Sofi. Since we all didn’t want to say goodbye we spent the last night eating popcorn and watching movies till 4am. We stayed up till we couldn’t keep our eyes open anymore. Granted we had to wake up in an hour to catch our cab to Delhi. We had a plane to Thailand waiting. It’s off to a new country, with new people, a new language, and new cultures. It’s scary and uncomfortable, yet exciting and reenergizing. I can’t wait! However, I will be back to India for sure. I left far too much unseen.

Christina