Meredith leaving me, Dathan joining me, back to bangkok meeting up with my little English lass and heading north for adventure after surviving death.

My last night on the islands, Dathan (who Meredith and I met and got along with a few days earlier) met up with us for a big night out. He was going to stay and do a scuba class for a couple of days on the island and spend in total another couple weeks. I suggested he head north with me and extend his trip. He said "I make my best decisions after some drinks". So after some drinks he bought a bus ticket to join me the next day.

The next day I found myself waking up in a hammock on the beach, Meredith and Dathan had to break the screen to the room and broke a couple of chairs in the process since I had the key on me.

We said goodbye to Meredith when our bus finally pulled into bangkok. Meredith-you were great fun to travel with; always a smile and a laugh no matter what the situation.

I found myself asleep and worthless for the next 3-4 days, sick as a dog. I had night sweats when the air was on in our room and then would wake up colder than a slurpee on a snowy day.

I had terrible headaches, body aches and couldn't keep anything in my stomach. After a few days of this I went to the hospital where the doctor had me get some blood tests and told me to give a stool sample. I told him that I hadn't eaten for some time and had nothing in me. He told me to go and try. It's like sending a brother into battle without any preparation. Trying, my headache got worse and I had practiced going in a hole in the ground during this trip, but never in a small bag. I needed a new plan. I went to the cafeteria and ordered some real spicy food and some other things so I could make the doctor happy with my sample. In the end, I had a very high temp but nothing showed up being too serious.

Dathan and I ventured out of bangkok on a day trip to see a floating market, where you cruise around on a little boat through these little venice like roads and can buy foods, trinkets, or even a coke in a plastic bag.

Sarah, who was one of the two English girls that I met up with a couple of times in India came and met up with us in Bangkok. We spent our day on a river taxi, going around the city and taking in all the sights from the view of a boat. We tried to catch cat fish with our hands (very difficult), and we saw a wide variety of houses along the river, along with a variety of plants and gardens.

That night we headed on another overnight bus up to Chang Mai where we settled in, went on a temple walk and later on in the night met up with Michelle (the other english girl) and went out for a night where we found ourselves at a bar playing pool and connect four.

The next day in Chang Mai we spent by the pool of a hotel that we payed about $3 each for. I got my clothes cleaned and cannot tell you how happy I was to have this bag of clothes with one of the nicest smells I smelt in a long time.

This night, while Dathan ran up an impressive tab while drinking at least 40 gin and tonics (I didn't drink since I was recovering from being sick) I went out and bought a bunch of cooked bugs from a vendor in the street which we all ate. Grasshoppers, worms, and a large variety of others.

We headed north the following day to Pai, which is this little town on a small river. It is so laid back and chilled out. I will write more about Pai later.

I read a fantastic book that I would recommend to anyone. I started in in India. It is called "Shantaram" and is based off a true story. It is great at explaining the Indian culture from a westerners perspective.

"For this is what we do. Put one foot forward and then the other. Lift our eyes to the snarl and smile of the world once more. Think. Act. Feel. Add our little consequence to the tides of good and evil that flood and drain the world. Drag our shadowed crosses into the hope of another night. Push our brave hearts into the promise of a new day. With love: the passionate search for a truth other than our own. With longing: the pure, ineffable yearning to be saved. For so long as fate keeps waiting, we live on. God help us. God forgive us. We live on."

-taken from a part in "Shantaram"

#59 Koh Tao-a bit tanner, still not superman, but getting better at snorkeling.

Meredith (aka-Megadeath) and I left Koh samui and headed on a boat trip for a few hours to Koh Tao-well known for it's diving and snorkeling. When we arrived after a full day in the sun on the boat it took us a while to find a room. We finally found a fairly cheap bungalow where we settled in before heading to the beach to watch a beautiful sunset and drank our no-name, cheapest bottle of Thailand liquor that we could find; not so bad...but no so good either.

The next day we got snorkel gear and a floating raft and spent the day going from the beach to snorkeling to lying on the raft, and back to the beach to read while people walked by trying to sell fresh grilled ears of corn, or a fresh chopped pineapple. (no ear cleaners here, thank God!!)

We found a cheap, local place where we have consumed the majority of our meals; yummy!!!

There was a bar that had a big screen TV and would show new pirated movies, and all you had to do to watch was buy a drink and settle in for the show. We chose to watch "Blood Diamond", which Mega didn't mind much and I couldn't stand it. Some horribly cheesy parts and for the most part I just can't take Leo D.

The following day I decided to get some exercise. While everyone on the island rents mopeds, or 4 wheelers, I decided that I was going to rent a good old do it yourself bicycle. "The island is not that big, I can see most of it in a day and get a little exercise" This is what was being thought in my head. As it turns out, Koh Tao is a VERY hilly island, and not with paved roads either. As I headed out I found myself getting tired fairly quick (this may be due to the lack of real exercise for the last I don't know how many days, or is it weeks, or possibly months). I saw a sing pointing across the middle of the island that had three destinations; my choice was the nearest one. In the end, since I passed without knowing the first and second destination I ended up at the third beach. This is after multiple hours of walking my bike up these steep roads barefoot because my sandals were to sweaty for my feet to stay in them. There were a couple times when I stopped on the side of the road and sat under some shade wondering if I should just start trying to make somewhere to live out of the brush and trees on the side of the road. When I did finally arrive I was exhausted and after a short nap went for a snorkel where I saw some of the most beautiful groups of fish swimming in huge groups, weaving in and out of other types of fish swimming together.

(don't let the smile fool you. This was at the end of my trip when I arrived back and showered-notice the bright red face is gone)

After some time at this beach I found a guy with a truck who agreed to drive me to the top of the mountain (it's really a big hill, but it felt like a mountain) for 50 baht (about $1.60), best money I've ever spent!!!!

I then went and checked out the first beach, which is the one I originally planned on going to first.

Anyways, my point is: if you find yourself on Koh Tao, the only reason you may want to rent a bicycle is to go down the street to the 7/11, which you won't want to do because they don't have slurpees!!! So, just give in to the fact that you won't be doing much exercise and if you really need some, throw the snorkel gear on and head out for a swim.

Today, we hired a boat and a driver to drive us around the whole island and check out all the different beaches and best snorkel sights. We went to a smaller, local island that is 3 little islands connected by sand bars; oh, how beautiful!!!!

We did the trip with a couple that I met the day before from France.

I'm tired from the trip right now so I can't think of too much to write about it, except it was a great day and thing to do after the bike ride yesterday.

Nobody gets to live life backward. Look ahead, that is where your future lies. -- Ann Landers

#58 Fighting hard, driving fast, sunfilled and threatened by a barber.

Thailands color is yellow. Yes, like the coldplay song. Why? If you walk around the streets on a weekday you will see 90% of Thai people wearing yellow shirts. It is their uniform. Any government job, big company job, or smaller businesses that want to think they are big and important, so pretty much everyone wears a yellow shirt. The hookers do not wear yellow, however they may pull a yellow ping pong ball out in the middle of the act.

Meredith and I traveled to the Thai islands together, we took an overnight bus and watched movies with english subtitles. No matter whether the movie was horrow, action, drama or thriller, the subtitles made them all a comedy. In a crucial part in one movie, the character yelled "there's nothing I can do, my hands are full" In the subtitle below they replaced full with free changing the message completely in the movie for those who didn't speak english. This didn't happen once, it happened every line.

We spent a couple days in the sun, just enjoying the water and weather, reading our books and listening to music.

One night we ventured out to see thai fighting; similar to kickboxing.

There were 6 fights, 3 were knockouts and the other 3 decisions.

The first fight was between two 12 year olds who really went at it. I found myself after deep thought lean over and tell Meredith, "I think I can take them!!!" Thinking about this after, I realized all the traveling and learning I'm doing, I'm still thinking about beating up a 12 yr old, and I wasn't even sure I could. It wasn't too violent and quite enjoyable to watch. Meredith and I bet on two fight with each other and found ourselves at a draw. After that we stopped because we felt bad betting on others pain. After 5 more fights of pure excitement, we were out of there and walked the stretch back to our place where we had to fight off all the girls (maybe underneath guys) who wanted us to visit their bar or massage parlor. (by the way, we passed a place today that was a karaoke bar/massage parlor-possibly one of the best places I could ever imagine)

Today we rented a truck/jeep and drove around the island. We went to lots of waterfalls, where we went for dip in one of the big pools at the bottom of one. We checked out the different beaches and small towns along the way as Meredith practiced driving on the opposite side of the road. It was great to have some freedom and get a chance to explore and see some other places on our own.

At the end of our day tour, we went and checked out some famous rocks on the island. The story goes something like a husband and wife went out on the sea to collect the woman who was to marry their son and they got lost at sea. In their memory the sea carved a man and woman genetalia out of some big rocks, we could really only see the man's clearly.

(warning- objects may appear bigger in picture)

I ended the night getting a shave at a barber shop like I did so often while in India and the barber cut my face up a bit. I was disgusted more than halfway through, told him I had enough and with my face bleeding and in pain he told me that he would find where I slept and finish the shave. "where do you stay tonight?" (like I was going to tell him after his threat) "where did you learn to shave?" I asked. I think he had some builtup anger and just decided to take it out on my face. (don't worry, I'm still as beautiful as ever, and if that still worries you, look at the picture above again!!)

"Be picky when choosing someone to shave your face"

-a new quote by guess who?

#57 One night in Bangkok...don't eat the banana.

In the first 10 minutes of my arrival into Bangkok I was struck with both complete excitement and then a complete letdown and dissapointment. I saw that there were 7-11's everywhere and couldn't wait to touch my lips to a slurpee, but when I went inside there was none to be had. Bangkok however, does have just about anything that you want to buy with street vendors of every sort. I found my favorite thing to purchase. For just over a $1, you can pick a cd from a large list and they can transfer it directly onto your ipod. The fist day I bought over 20.
In the night everwhere turns into a bar or massage parlor or both. As you can see above, they turn the front of 7-11 into a bar. There is also a gas station on the main corner that they make into a bar/restaurant/massage parlor, the bar being at pump 2.
I am staying on the bourbon street of bangkok with all the hustle and bustle, called Koosan rd.

I decided to get my first thai massage and see if they could outdo chacha.
Talking to some guys on the street they told me about the areas to find the little cute girls to give massages. Little girls? I wanted a big girl, with big forearms and strong hands. I found her, she was awesome, pushing on my back while her knees were on my hams, as I lay there drooling on myself. She could kick chacha's ass anyday. One hour was about $5.50.

I haven't tried yet, but plan on doing it soon. In the street besides all of the fresh fruit, pancakes, and thai food you can buy, you can also purchase fried grasshoppers, worms and such.

When I traveled on the truck through africa I met a girl from the US, Meredith who was traveling around SE asia now as well. She just met up with me in Bangkok and we will head down to the thai beaches tonight. Yesterday when she arrived we walked around the city until we found these guys playing a sort of volleyball with a small harder ball and only using their feet and heads to send the ball over the net. How high these guys could kick their legs was amazing.

We then headed to a different part of town to see the infamous ping pong show. Here, girl would stick things up their you know what such as ping pong balls. They could open a beer bottle. They could blow horns, shoot darts and smoke a cigarrette all with...yeah that's right. It was quite disturbing and my stomach hurts just thinking about it. We didnt' want to spend much money and it's true what they say "you get what you pay for". We had to have been in the raunchiest bar that exists in thailand and possibly the world. When she brought out the banana, the guy sitting next to us leaned over and said "never eat a banana at a sex show." Point taken.

After that we had to clear our minds of this and so we went and saw a great live band and let the music absorb our minds in hopes to push out the disturbing pictures we had in our heads.

I've always enjoyed playing ping pong growing up, but I fear that my game will be thrown off everytime I see a ping pong ball again.

There is a saying "don't put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear".
I think they need to come up with one about not putting foreign objects, ESPECIALLY razorblades in certain places.

Sex. In America an obsession. In other parts of the world a fact. ~Marlene Dietrich

#56 Final days and thoughts of India.

If I had to describe Indian very quick to anyone, I would say it is complete chaos, but a very systematic chaos.

My last stop in India was to Bangalore where I visited Kiran and Vibha, friends that I met while traveling in Egypt.
They showed me a new side of India. I ate my first meat since arriving in India, including sheep brain. We went out for some drinks and I saw 50 drunk Indians singing along to Ozzy Osbournes song, "mama, I'm coming home".
Bangalore is one of the most industrial cities in India, however by the night life you would never know it. Bars and restaurants stop serving at 11:30 on all nights. There are however 2 bars in the whole city that have bribed someone to serve alcohol until about 2am, but since they have little competition you can imagine that the prices are quite steep.

Sidenote: when I was leaving India I saw an Indian guy who looked like Rick James +50 pounds, it was awesome, I just wish I had gotten a picture.

On my busride from mysore to bangalore I talked with 4 older men for most of the 4 hours. One of them could tell you the day of the week you were born if you told him the year and date of your birthday; pretty damn cool if you ask me. They were great though and it made the journey go by quick.

Fresh fruit juice is like heaven to me, realizing my days were numbered, I drank a ridiculous amount of them in my last few days, with grape leading the pack. In those last few days my stomach was going nuts, but I didn't care, the juice was just too good when it touched your lips.

I don't remember what it is like to have a hot shower, it has been so long and you just get used to the cold shower which really wakes you up, and of course, that is if you shower at all. Also, many showers are a bucket that you fill up from the tap and then poor on yourself.

Imagine yourself on a bus and you aren't controlling your head, in other words, just letting your head sway side to side with the rock of the bus. Now, imagine a bus that is driving in quick zig-zags back and forth. Your head would sway back and forth. It is a mix between this and a bobble head to describe the number one action in India. If someone is talking to us and we agree with what they say we will nod to them. In India they do this head wiggle. Agreeing is not the only meaning, it also can be a hello or just acknowledging. There are also many degrees of the head wiggle. The more happy they are, the faster the wiggle which usually accompanies a big smile. I practiced and practiced and think I have it down a little, but it still throws me off to see, especially when someone asks a yes or no question and the reply is a wiggle which to me looks like it's in between yes and no, so I have no idea what the answer is.

It was great to see Kiran and Vibha for the last couple of days. Just familiar faces and being able to relax and enjoy their company before heading off to the new destination. They are preparing to move into a new house which has an extra room for when I come back (I thought of this, I have to run it by them again).

India was by far the most culturally different place I'd ever been. Take most things you know and turn them around and there you have India. It was a great experience which I feel I gained a lot from. I met some great people and consider myself quite lucky for opportunities I had while there. Some part drove me crazy and others I quite liked, but as I spent my first day out of the country, I feel like I will miss both equally; it is the beauty of the place.
Where else can you go to major cities and see cows and monkeys roaming the streets in the mix of the many people?

On my flight I sat next to an Indian who had never been on an international flight. When they showed the video of the guy telling people to have a good flight, wear your seatbelt and all the safety rules, he asked me if this was a tape or live? Then during the safety speech when they showed the yellow live jacket that you put on and blow to fill up with air, he exclaimed to me, "that would be useful if we land in the sea". He was dead serious. When the food and drinks came he passed because he thought we had to pay for them. He was happy we were sitting directly even with the wing so that if something happened at least we could climb out onto the wing. I felt bad bursting his bubble when I told him we couldn't fit through the window, we'd have to use the exit door. I was completely ignoring the fact that if we need that exit door, we are all gonners. I told him I was going to sleep and he told me he'd wake me. When I asked why, he said "just a kindly wake".

"Civilizations have arisen in other parts of the world. In ancient and modern times, wonderful ideas have been carried forward from one race to another...But mark you, my friends, it has been always with the blast of war trumpets and the march of embattled cohorts. Each idea had to be soaked in a deluge of blood..... Each word of power had to be followed by the groans of millions, by the wails of orphans, by the tears of widows. This, many other nations have taught; but India for thousands of years peacefully existed. Here activity prevailed when even Greece did not exist... Even earlier, when history has no record, and tradition dares not peer into the gloom of that intense past, even from until now, ideas after ideas have marched out from her, but every word has been spoken with a blessing behind it and peace before it. We, of all nations of the world, have never been a conquering race, and that blessing is on our head, and therefore we live....!"

Swami Vivekananda, Great Indian Philosopher

#55 Traveling with my little friend who thinks Ghandi is a place and seeing statues of who? and safaris of ?

So after I sucked back all my tears due to the fact that I had to leave the beach world, more specifically, chacha, I headed on an overnight bus to Hampi. Traveling in India is like this: my bus ticket said to arrive to check in at 10:30 and the bus departs at 11:00. Sitting at the pickup point until 12:30 and asking the people that work there every 10 minutes, starting at 11:00 where the bus is, only to have the constant reply of "very soon, don't worry, do you want chi?" No I don't want any more chi, I only want to get on the bus. So when the bus finally came one and a half hours late I boarded and got into the seat I paid for which was called a "luxury seat". Luxury in India I found is a VERY loose term. It can mean anything from comfortable to my legs, back and neck are breaking and if I get through this ride I will never book anything in my life that says luxury again. I was sat in a first row with my knees up against the metal wall in front of me so that every bounce my knees would collide and shake a little. After about 20 minutes of this I decided to sleep in the aisle of the bus on the disgustingly dirty floor that turned my once blue tshirt into a light brown. When I asked the bus driver what time we would arrive, he told me 7 am. "Are you sure?" I asked to so I could have an idea in my head when this nightmare would be over. Yes, 7am I think. When we finally pulled in at 10:00, I dragged my aching body out of the bus and looked for a 70 yr old, one eyed man named chacha which was no where to be found. I did however within 10 minutes of getting off the bus get offered the standard Rickshaw, taxi, tour, cheap room, anything to smoke and just hands that wanted money (they figured I was rich since they saw luxury on my ticket). What I had heard about Hampi was that it was great, there were rocks everywhere. It was recommended, so I went. Honestly it was great, and there are rocks EVERYWHERE. They aren't just rocks though and I really don't know how to explain it. There were some good hikes which lead me to temples up and within all the rocks. I rented a bike for what I planned to be a 4 hour bike ride but after about half an hour I parked next to a school in the center of town, watched people go by and interact and watched the children play before returning the bike after half the time. In the river the people of the city were washing there clothes next to the people bathing, next to the buffalo bathing. When the day was finished I headed back to my room, ordered some food (rice and vegetable curry-the easiest things to make here) and then waited 2 hours for it to come before eating it in 4 and a half minutes.
The next day when I was walked and toured out I headed out of town at about 5:30 pm only to arrive at my final destination of Mysore at about 12noon the following day, two buses and two trains later. I got a bed on the long train. (when I say bed I mean something about the length of an ironing board, maybe twice the width and just as hard)
I arrived in Mysore to find an email that the two girls, Sarah and Michelle who I met about a week before in Palolem where in Mysore so I went and met up with them and we decided to take a tour of the city in a Rickshaw (a miniature car). The first place our driver took us was to a catholic church. Our driver decided with his broken english that he was qualified to be a guide as well. In the church he pointed out 3 different statues of Jesus for us and then pointed to one statue of an apostle and told us that that statue was of Jesus's father. (This threw me, because I always had thought that God was his father, oh well, maybe not in India). He then pointed to a statue that said in bold print underneath "Saint Philimino" and told us that that was Jesus's mother. We walked down a hallway where there were hundreds of names engraved on the wall, something where if you donate a certain amount of money to the church they put your families name up. Well, our "guide" pointed to all of these names and told us that they were Jesus's cousins and mothers. This part of the tour alone made it worth the price of the trip. We then drove around and didn't see anything else because everything was closed due to the fact that it was a holiday. "It's tuesday, nothing is open, because it's a holiday". This is what they told us as if everyone in the world knew that it was a holiday. We just wanted to know if today was the holiday or was it the fact that it was tuesday?
We finally got dropped off and then had a few drinks got some dinner and awaited the next day which was when we would depart to Bandipur in hopes to see a tiger on a safari.
We took the bus to Bandipur and got dropped off on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. We found a small place that had dorms, but we couldn't rent the beds, we had to rent the whole dorm. They asked us if the 3 of us wanted the 6, 10, or 20 bed dorm. I think we'll take the 6, thanks. We had a room boy who would be outside our room if we needed any food, drink or had any problems with anything. When we finally went on our safari tour called "Plan Tiger" we got to see not only deer, chickens and peacocks, but we also saw a family of pigs walking around. We decided that the tour was called it's name because everyone who goes plans to see a tiger, but then are obviously much happier when they can see the same animals they could have seen from sitting on their front porch. (From our front porch we saw no only these animals, but many monkeys and also elephants, old and young.)

I am now back in Mysore and heading to Bangalore, my last stop in India to visit friends I made back in Egypt, Kiran and VIbha.

I quite enjoyed my time with Sarah and Michelle and was so happy that they could discover the magic of the "Plan Tiger" safari with me.
Sarah by the way who is the short one in the picture, we are the same height when I am sitting in a chair. When Michelle was reading from a guide book to her and mentioned Ghandi, she thought for a minute and then asked where in India that was. The first night I met Sarah she asked me if the U.S was one country. You'll never know if you don't ask. They are both as nice as can be to me so they can say any ridiculous thing they want. When I walk around with them I feel like I'm with celebrities. It is what I would imagine life for an NBA star or something. Two pretty white girls with a little cleavage and if they stand somewhere in public for more than 10 minutes they will have at least 50 Indian men staring at them. People in India don't try to hide it when they stare at you, they may be 10 ft away standing and facing in your direction and their eyes won't leave you for as long as you stand there.


"For every traveller who has any taste of his own, the only useful guide book will be the one which himself has written"
-Aldous Huxley an English Writer.

#54 Watch your hands with that eye chacha!!

My last day in OM beach and at the Indian beaches for that matter I figured I needed a massage for the buildup of stress that spending weeks on a beach can cause. Above is Chacha, he is in his 60's or 70's and can only see out of one eye. He was my choice for a massage. He had been doing it for years and others at the beach recommended him and said he had strong hands and was priced better than the rest. He told me to lie down on this big bench seat that was inside of the main room which also served as a restaurant. I was situated so that my middle section was even with the older swiss couples heads who were enjoying their lunch. I started off by telling chacha to focus on the back, neck and shoulders and not worry about the lower half of the body. "ok, ok, no problem". He started off on my back after oiling me up and when he asked if I wanted harder I told him harder is good. I could then feel every rib in my back flexing as much as they possibly could. After a few minutes he stood up, put a thin blanket on my back, grabbed the rafters in the ceiling and began walking on my back which was quite nice. When the back was concluded he began rolling up the bottom of my shorts so that the swiss couple could look at some big, white hairy legs while they ate their meal. Chacha started with the feet where in the end he would grab a couple of toes, lift my leg off the ground and shake so that I could feel everything crack from my toes up through to my hips. He then moved further up the legs and was using the palm of his hands to push on my upper leg when I thought, "wait a minute he's getting very close to...yep, that was my testicle that you just pushed on." (If anyone is going to massage my nuts it's going to be me) When that was over and I recovered from the whole thing he began going at my shoulders and neck, but while leaning over me I couldn't help to feel chacha's chachas on my lower back. 2 things crossed my mind at this point. 1st- I was picturing in the movie Garden State when the guy wakes up with balls written on his forhead. 2nd- I couldn't help to think that there were thousands of guys all around the world getting massages from beautiful girls and here I was with a one eyed old man massaging my balls with his nuts(covered of course) on my lower back.

I then had to sit up so that he could massage my neck and head. He started by taking the bottle of water I was drinking and had sitting next to me and poored the water on my head. Chacha also decided that he was a chiropractor as well and while massaging my neck, did that thing where you rock the head slowly back and forth before twisting with a quick thrust. When he did this I was happy just to come out of it alive. He told me I needed to relax so that he could do it again. I told him that I wasn't going to relax so he didn't need to bother and then, crack, he did it the other way.

In the end it turned out to be all in all a good massage and I was quite relaxed. He told me not to shower for a couple of hours and to let the oils settle in. How could I shower when he just gave me a bath in oil and chacha love.


"Be cautious about getting a massage by an old one eyed man named Chacha"
-Me

#53 Rupees lessons, don't trade your passport and the quietest beach yet.

This is Rupee. In Palolem Rupee became one of our good friends, everywhere we went Rupeee would follow. To town, to swim, at dinner he would lie under the table, at night he would sleep at my door. We began discussing how sad Rupee would be once we all left since he is so attached to us all and most people just tell the dogs to get away. I think a good lesson can be learned from Rupee. He can't speak with us but there was a general bond between us and a comfort knowing each other was around. In our time spent together Rupee flourishes, he doesn't spend each day worrying about when we will leave and begin loving us less so that the blow isn't so hard when the day comes. While we are there he loves us as complete as he possibly can so that nothing is regretted and no opportunity is passed while the chance was there. Maybe Rupee thought it was us that needed him by us which could possibly be the case. I may completely forget about Rupee in a year or at sometime in my life even after all the quality time we spent together but nothing can rid me of the great time that we spent together in the few days in Palolem.

I've given up with many of the rules of traveling.
Rule one: don't eat vegetables or fruit because they wash them with "the bad water"
This may work if you are traveling for a couple weeks but I have been on the road for more than 6 months and dammit I love fruits and vegetables so now when I want a salad I order a salad. Sometimes my stomach will feel it and for a day everything will be flushed out. Why is this a bad thing? This just makes room to eat some more delicious food.

My last dinner in Palolem I wanted to try a new restaurant. I headed by myself down the beach until I came to two guys playing a guitar and mandolin on the beach to people sitting at candlelit tables on the water. Here I went out and picked out my fresh caught tuna that I wanted to eat for dinner. As I enjoyed my $5 meal and listened to the live music with the sound of crashing waves in the background I saw fireworks begin to go off in the distant sky. This is the kind of last meal that I would want to have anywhere, the only thing missing was Rupee, who stayed with the bigger group.

When discussing vegetarians and meat eaters, Anthony who always tells everyone that it is "gin o'clock" came up with an argument that made me speechless. He said "If God didn't want us to eat cows, then why did he make them out of mean?"

I am traveling for around 9 months. Before I left it seemed like a lot of time, but when you are at these places it is soooo short. I know that I have been able to see many things but even what I see just barely scratches the surface of these countries. I could spend years trying to see everything which many people I meet try to do. I was talking with an English man, Stanley who I met yesterday who must have been in his 40's. He has been traveling for the last 10 years of his life, working here and there. When I asked him if he ever wanted to marry, he told me that he was married once to a Japanese girl but then in the end it just didn't work out. He said "she wanted kids and I bought her a cat; it was a great cat, but she hated it". (I think she may have hated the fact that she wanted kids and you bought her a cat)

I hear people explaining places they have been and they often say, "through my experience, this is the best way to do it." Of course this is the only experience they had so they have nothing to compare it to really. If they had a good time then in their mind they want to think that they didn't miss out on something else so what they did was the best choice. Alternatively, maybe they say they wouldn't do something that they have already done. However, you never know what brought this dislike up, it could have been bad weather, they may have been sick, it could have been anything that your visit to the same place could be completely opposite of their feeling. It is good to listen to other travelers to get an idea but don't believe everything they say.

Most people traveling on the beaches in India are from the Western culture. Basically the sellers are Indians, the buyers are white with a few exceptions thrown in of course. I can't tell you how much it bothers me to hear people from England or the U.S complain about their country. How it is all materialistic and they would be happier living on a beach in India where things are simple. What they don't take into account is that they worked in the Western culture saving up enough money in short time so that they can come and live on a beach in India with nothing to worry about. One girl I heard telling a guy who lived in one of these small beach villages is, "you're so lucky to have been born here and live here your whole life". He replies, "thank you, yes it's beautiful". He should have told her however, "Oh, you're right, I'm so lucky, because I was born here I can't get a passport to your country because even if I could buy a ticket to come over, my money wouldn't last me more then 3 days as opposed to you being born with a passport that advances you to go, collect $200, allows you to work for 2 weeks in order to come and live on the beaches of India like a queen for two months before leaving just in time to miss the Monsoon season which is when we pack up and move inland to do manual labor for half the year."

I met one girl who was from L.A. with a mexican look. Someone in the hostel said we have two americans here and pointed to her and myself. She quickly said "I'm Mexican." I asked her, "You were born in Mexico?" "NO." Do you live in Mexico? No, but my parents were born there. Ok, so you have mexican heritage. No, I am mexican. Do you travel with a mexican or american passport? American.
Did you go to schools in the US and speak english? Yes, but most of my friends there are mexican. They were born in Mexico? NO.

All I'm saying is if you take advantage of everything your country offers you then don't be hypicritical and talk bad about it. Every country has good and bad things, that's the beauty of traveling, trying to figure out which part of each culture you want to adapt in your life.

Enough of this thinking talk.

I'm in a little, quiet beach called OM beach. It's hot, more cows on the beach, good food, finished a book, "The Zahir". I wouldn't give it such a good rating.
I leave tonight on an overnight bus away from the beaches to a little village called Hampi.

"It's time to move on, time to get going, what lies ahead I have no way of knowing, but under my feet baby, grass is growing, yeah, time to move on, time to get going."
-Tom Petty