Arambol - Day 2

Greetings friends,

Yesterday provided Mel and i a day full of adventure. we woke up with what has become somewhat of our morning routine - ooohing and ahhhing at the sun as it lifts the morning fog from the roaring Arabian sea, while reading our respective books that we trucked along with us. after that, we do our "research reading" for the day which helps outline our day. we then lazily made our way down the narrow dusty path lined with merchants selling fabric purses, colourful clothing, precious metals and other natural resources from the land, including spices! this dusty path leads us to our cliffside breakfast place where we eat for about an hour or so, sipping on freshly squeezed fruit juices and masala chai tea. fantastic. did i mention that i havent' really stopped eating curries, including for breakfast? :) what i pay for about $15 (shahi paneer with naan/roti) at home, i can get for about $1.00 here!

we decided to wander over to neighbouring Querim Beach - about a 45 minute hike along yet another narrow dusty path...this path, however, was carved into what appears to be a mountain made of rock...so i guess you could say we went rock climbing! methnks Mel will be elaborating more on that part of our adventure so i'll leave it to her...

After lazing for a couple of hours, we caught a taxi back (by far the most entertaining cab ride yet...our driver seemed to know everyone in the neighbourhood honking and waving hello to children and adults alike!) to Arambol where we began our walk down its "shopping strip". now, this isn't your typical shopping strip like Robson St. in Vancouver. it resembles more... a back alley crammed with stalls selling clothing, pottery, jewellery, offering ayervedic massages, yoga, fresh fruit stalls...the laneway is suitable for...one car and maybe a bike...but somehow people still manage to fit 2 cars on the laneway, along with dozens of motorcycles, scooters, dogs, and pedestrians. it's a nice agreement that everyone has in order to function well on such a cramped street[s].

we found a henna stall where Mel proceeded to get some beautiful henna on both of her arms. while she sat, i wandered off into a nearby shop where i chatted with the shop owner, Amin, for about a half hour. while our conversation initally began with my interest in a silver bracelet, it soon turned into a fascinating sociological conversations about arranged marriages. Originally from Kashmir, and the youngest of 3 siblings, Amin works in Arambol about 8 months of the year, when it is good weather ie NOT monsoon time... he shared that his sister is due to be married this year and once she is taken care of, it will be his turn. we got into a discussion about the difference between "arranged" marriages and "family" marriages. it was a little bit difficult to understand but the heart of the conversation centered on the family aspect of marriage. Amin shared how early on in life, the parents of a woman and man begin their search for a suitable mate for their son/daughter. while money plays a role, Amin emphasized that "money is not everything, but neither is love". along with those two important elements in a marriage is responsibiity. and so, each set of parents begin learning about the person for their son/daughter...then learn about their parents and family history, then learn about them thru other references such as friends, colleagues or teachers. what a lengthy process. at the end of the conversation, i was left speechless and thankful for this conversation that gave me a face-to-face understanding of how the family unit operates differently here than in north america.

after Mel finished with henna, i brought her back to meet Amin where we began another conversation about bartering. the key thing in this conversation was the word "respect". Amin shared about other cultures walking into his store, asking him how much such and such is, and then responding with, "are you crazy?!" with no idea how something should or does even actually cost, the consumer usually offers 1/5 the price that he begins with. he began to break it down for us...there's rent, there's paying your workers, there's purchasing the actual raw materials...and there's profit. and this is were it becomes adjustable...a merchant needs to cover at least the first 3...and can use discretion on the 4th...but really, it's a business and a business is meant to make a profit...why should a consumer be determined to strip every possibility of profit away from a business owner?...what Amin pointed out, however, is "you can make more profit, or you can make less profit". but the point of bartering isn't to rip each other off. it's an interaction where both parties respectively go back and forth until there is a mutual agreement. i like this way...whatever is "fair" is relative to each culture... so using my North American consumerist lens to assess how much a piece of jewellery is worth here does not prove to be helpful...i need to begin entering into the local's perspective and operating from that place.

i think im just blabbing now...sorry. i just really enjoyed that conversation, and we hope to visit him again this afternoon before we take off in the morning back to Mumbai.

thanks for all the comments, everyone :) we love reading them, every single one of them!

we are now in Mapusa, where we will have our day away from the beach and in the "city". more posting to come!

much love,
dL

In Goa

Hi everyone,

It was observed that my post was shorter than Deb's so I'll try to make this a little longer to even it out. :) Goa - it's amazing. We both feel that we've been here longer than we have because it has this ability to just slow a person down and force them to relax and enjoy the surroundings. We woke up yesterday morning early, and surprisingly with no jet lag at all. We chilled on our front porch, reading, listening to the ocean, and eating chocolate :) and it was wonderful. When we finally got ourselves motivated by the smells of the wonderful food wafting up from the cliffside restaurants, we dropped into our local restaurant, just below us. We sat on their lower patio, just above the rocks, ordered our masala tea and some fruit juice smoothies (so good), and watched local fishermen fishing off the rocks just in front of us. After breakfast, we headed off the other direction from our hostel to a beach on the other side of Arambol. Took 5 minutes and we were on a much more secluded beach with a neat lake tucked in the far corner of the mountainside. From there we took off and over the small mountain to see where this path led us and ended up on a 45 minute hike to another beach, even more secluded which was our unexpected adventure for the day. Our hike took us literally walking paths that were on the edge of the cliff, and we didn't find the path we were supposed to take so ended up getting "lost" and got creative. We tried one rockclimbing option that didn't work and Deb was able to back out easily butI wasn't so I had to pull out a few rockclimbing skills from my memory to get me out without scrapes and bruises. :) We finally got to the beach, got ourselves some drinks from the local illegal beach restaurant (as we found out later), and rented two reclining chairs under a straw sunshade hut. It was picturesque...Deb chilled out and fell asleep under the shade while I tried to get some colour so I'm not so obviously white. :) Sitting there listening to the waves, lying in the sun, with no agenda, it was unbelievably relaxing. Also, it helped there were probabyl fewer than 30 people on the entire beach so it wasn't the scene some can be. We got some fresh pan fried calamari that was served with "cheeps" :) and for our after snack compliment, we were offered weed. lol We were also offered pot while we were hiking on the trail earlier..."hi, do you want some marijuana?". I had to find a washroom and the restaurant guy told me to follow him...and he takes off on this 10 minute walk off into the bushes..have to admit - it seemed a little sketch but in the end it's where he informed me that the restaurants were illegal and that's why they can't have toilets attached. I was led to a hippy community with a typical Indian toilet (dirty and gross but still...something. :) We caught a taxi from there back to Arambol and realized that Holi celebration had been in a town just near the beach we were at (Kerim). So everyone we passed was all covered in festive coloured face powder. It's been great people watching in the taxis as we go through towns and just are able to observe the local life...on our way, there were two "road blocks". It was odd - still don't know what they were but these local kids blocked the road for the taxi and demanded payment to cross. It seemed sort of cute until he had to pay, then it seemed like they were little mini guerrillas, or a little local gang. Punks. :) We got back, I unknowingly entered into bartering for henna and agreed on a price not realizing that I agreed to purchase something. So I now have henna on both my hands. It's gorgeous - took over an hour and a half for the detail. Deb wandered off while I was getting it done and made friends with a local silver guy. Once my henna was done, I went to check out her potential purchase and in the end, I ended up practicing my bargaining again. I bought a bracelet and combined with Deb's purchase, we were chatting away with occasional discussions on price (it seems that's how it works..discuss price, suggest cost, counter with another cost, then discuss life again without acknowledgement of the countered price, then back to the price discussion and repeat). So all that to say, I got a ring thrown in with our stuff for the original price he suggested (which was apparently a friends discount). :) We stopped at a local fruit stand after to buy a lemon from a kid who quite enjoyed our adventures in my robot arms due to the henna drying (I couldn't move them - henna on hands and fingers halfway up my arms!). So he cut us a lemon and deb poured it all over my arms (sticky!) and he laughed at us. We laughed too. :) I got more attention with the henna than I have so far being blonde. Funny. :) This morning, we woke up and there was cracked tile on the floor that had fallen during the night from the roof. We were told there was a monkey on our roof and trying to get coconuts from the trees above so they were there replacing our tiles. Such a cool experience. :)

So far - I love the smell of the incense here...and I love Goan hospitality. And Deb's hospitality. :) She's paying for everything since I don't have cash yet so it's nice to turn to the BOD (Bank of Deb) and get free access to money. :) I don't feel on my guard here, and everyone is so friendly, from our local travel guide Tilou, to the silver guy who we're going to go have tea with later today, Amin. We're in Mapusa today, checking out the city here so will experience a bigger city in Northern Goa. that's it for me - think my internet time is running out...

ttyl - mel

I forgot to add. :) I'm officially the person who barters between the two of us, so I'm learning slowly but surely. yesterday while getting henna done, I was trying to give Deb the few tips I know on how to barter a price and since you never know how much english is spoken here..we switched into spanish to talk about it. :) It was hilarious. We had a great conversation in spanish, understood each other and it was such fun to pull that out here, in India. :) Tips on bartering? Anyone anyone? usually I'm dividing in half and working from there but in some cases it's still highly inflated. However, comparatively to Canada...still cheap and not a bad price..but for here most likely really expensive. I'm trying to come to a place of knowing how much I'm comfortable to pay here, even if it's expensive, if it's still cheap to me. although, my bartering yesterday...still makes me smile. to have gotten my ring thrown in for free essentially. So great. :)

Arambol, Goa

Greetings friends,

I write (type) from a beach front in Arambol, in the north end of Goa. The internet cafe is situated about 3 meters from the sand which stretches out into the ocean. Just outside the window sits Mel. We smell incense and the ocean. I hear a drum and another percussion instrument...and a lot of tying going on, haha. The temperature right now seems to be about...oh...23 degrees? it was 31 when we flew in. it's warm, but with a steady breeze - a nice compromise for Mel and I as she likes the heat, and i like it cool. What a day it has been! Five jet plans, many disturbed sleeps, a couple of miscommunicated airport conversations and a 2 hour cab ride, and Mel and i arrived in Arambol around 2pm this afternoon.

Arambol is known for its laid-back hippy lifestyle. Relatively untouched by the tourist world (well, ok, there are still souvenir stands, and the typical touristy sorta stuff, but not nearly as much as i've seen in other places), it prides itself on the various cliffside beach huts/accomodations...one of which we scored for ourselves.

Upon picking up our baggage, Mel made friends with a fellow female traveler who happened to be heading to Arambol as well - so we split the cab ride 3 ways. The cab ride offered me a few initial observations:

-speed bumps are referred to as "speed breakers"
-while the official traffic rules are that you drive on the left, it seemed like we
were on the right-hand side of the street as much as we were on the left! strangely, though, i trusted our efficient cab driver. it didn't really phase me that we were driving into oncoming traffic at least a dozen times. i'd smirk, cock my head over at Mel who sat behind me, and we silently chuckled.

After connecting with a guesthouse we learned about in Lonely Planet, we quickly unpacked, changed into our skirts and headed out for a much needed meal. Um....it was delicious...Mel had a vegetable pillau, while i downed a methi paneer masala with roti, and a hot cup of black tea infused with a fist full of mint with a hint of honey. it was delightful...just what we needed after traveling for almost 36 hours... we sat as an array of children, stray dogs, lone cows, women carrying large amounts of sticks on their heads... and everything else in between passed us by. i think we spoke maybe 10 words to each other as we mmm'd thru our meal, soaked in the warmth, and recognized that we had made it.

stuffed, we wandered along the beach catching the sunset. in awe, once again. except at one point, we couldn't figure out which to watch...the wicked wind surfer who consistently got air, one of the most orange sunsets i've seen in my life, or the impromptu soccer game being played by young boys adjacent to us. it was all beautiful. what we didn't catch today...we'll catch tomorrow.

alright, well...im pooped. Mel's prediction was that we'd sit on our beds and i'd be in out about 5 minutes...we'll see if she's right.

peace,
dL

HELLO INDIA!!!

We made it. :) And so far its amazing. We flew to Goa, took a taxi up north to Arambol and then found a place to stay. Our room is on the cliff side, has an ocean view and is costing us $4 per night each. :) My few impressions so far...driving is serious entertainment. There is one line indicating the center of the road but its a suggestion and not a rule. Sometimes the road is wide enough for 3, sometimes 4 depending on if both direction are insisting on passing at that moment. Also, the horn is used for everything. "Im behind you", "I want to pass", "move over", "you"re an idiot let me pass", "move faster", "hey there", "I want to backup", "dont clip my mirror". I havent quite figured out in this one adventurous taxi ride if the double honk is different from the single honk though. Im sure youre curious also so I will keep my ears tuned....What else...I had to get my malaria pills from our room after dinner so I was heading along the path to our place and I got stuck...behind 2 big lazy cows just moseying along the fairly narrow path ahead of me. They turned around and decided to go chill on the beach instead so it eased the traffic jam. This seems to have been the best plan - to chill in Goa initially, relax, get into the rhythm of India then upgrade the intensity bit by bit. Our plans tomorrow include chilling on the beach, eating great Indian food, doing a little shopping, sleeping, reading and generally relaxing. What a great start to our vacation. :)

Mel

the rick mercer sketch...

for those of you wondering what rick-mercer-body-scan thing Mel was talking about, check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZfbTlYpKYo

alright, i got nothing else to say... i'll write something more meaningful when im a little more awake...

two more flights to go! :)

dL

Travel

Deb and I are here in Singapore airport having completed leg 2 of our journey there. Phew-so far it's been 20hrs flying and we've got an additional 6 or so left (Singapore to Mumbai - Mumbai to goa). We've been able to sleep a bit so while tired it's not too bad. Deb has this amazing ability to fall asleep within 5 seconds no matter where she is - I'm impressed. I'm still clearly on Pacific time as it's 4am and I'm wide awake. We're hanging out in a sleeper lounge in the airport - it's mostly quiet except for this one snorer. :) This airport is pretty nice - we arrived and found an area with a massive entertainment system all set up with speakers in the sides of each chair - so we sat down and watched the Ireland/Brazil soccer game. Pretty sweet system - be nice to get that at home. :)



Singapore airlines is the swankiest airline I've been on yet. Great food..we got emergency exit row seats so tons of room, 120 movies to choose from, and fantastic customer service. I'm going to be spoilt returning to Westjet and Air canada after this...



My favourite question of the past 24 hours had to be going through security on YVR. The lady asked me if I wanted to go in the full body scanner or if I would like a full body pat down. I'm pretty sure I laughed at my options at 5am when I'm half asleep. I chose the pat down - the Rick Mercer sketch was all I could think of in relation to the body scanner. :) Then I had my bag searched...



But I should try to sleep...again...



Mel

Heading out...

hey all,

If you are reading this, then you've probably heard that my friend, Mel, and i are headed to India for the month. many of you have asked, "why India?", and i'll seek to answer that question in the next few sentences.

My interest in India first began in 2005 when i was in Ecuador, actually. I discovered a band called Caedmon's Call who embarked on a CD recording of a lifetime. The band set off to explore and shed light on the degree of poverty and injustice in the countries of India and Ecuador. as they traveled, they wrote and produced music that incorporated local musicians into the recording. The final product was a musical mosaic CD of stories of real people with real struggles that still managed to somehow live life with hope, and joy. that was the beginning of my journey in discovering India...

followed by that was a heightened awareness thru the word of International Justice Mission and Dalit Freedom Network of the devastating occurences of exploitation, and human trafficking in the world, but specifically in South and South East Asia.

then, my bro went to South India for some time, and the pictures captured my heart...

my heart was burdened, and i didn't know what to do. i didn't know what i could do. and really, to this day, im still trying to figure that out.

along the way, i met a lovely soul named Mel when i was in Calgary. both originally from Vancouver, we connected in Calgary where we were both at an interesting point of transition in our lives. we soon discovered our common interests and passions and continued our friendship after i returned to Calgary. then, Mel came back, and well - we've continued to grow together in our friendship, but also for the things that burden us...the things that make us cry.

early last fall we began talking about doing a weekend trip to Tofino to get a way from the city for a bit to have some space to think. well, that idea some how turned into this very trip to India. it made sense.

we find ourselves once again at arguably transitional points in our life with the same, though perhaps more intense, passion as before.

and really, let's not forget how we both enjoy the food, the beauty of the land, the unique attributes of the culture etc. i mean come on - who doesn't love a samosa, or dosai, or a big bowl of muttar paneer?

im privileged to be on this journey with her, and im looking forward to sharing these experiences with you.

some of you have asked me how you can pray for me. well, for those of you who practice this as a part of your daily life, here are a few requests:

- safety and health
- good, respectful communication between the both of us, with an extra dose of patience, love and grace
- an openmind as we interact with the people of this beautiful country
- that we would process and take in as much as we can, and not return apathetic to the sensory overload we are anticipating and have been well warned about!

peace,
dL