Bananaphooone

Hello again children, Leanne is back!

Okay so here's a wrap up of what Ryan and I have been up to since my last entry. Well, we spent a day more in Palolem I believe, and I spent a whole lotta money in one day...I got henna done on both my left hand and foot and an Om on my right hand. At the same time, the henna lady's friends decided to swarm me with their "shops" (which means they whip out a blanket and spread pretty things out in front of me and coax me into buying things). I bought a lot of gifts but for way too much. Ah well, half my shopping is done now.

We went to bed really early so we could get up at 3am to take a taxi to the Panjim Airport to fly to Cochin, Kerala. We were a little hesitant to get on the plane, since according to my pilot friend Indian Airlines has the worst safety record of any airline in the world or something like that, but we made it alive. The new airport in Kerala is really beautiful and marbly.

This whole taxi/plane ride I felt really ill. My skin was on fire and my persistent cough turned into a swollen throat. We decided to get a comfy hotel in Cochin and not really go out so I could rest. We did manage to catch a Kathakali performance, which is a tradition Keralan art form. It is kind of like a dance but mainly composed of intricate costumes and makeup/hand gestures and facial expressions. It was very interesting to watch. Sadly, I only had two pics left on my camera and I used them at the very beginning. The good news is you can see similar pictures of Kathakali shows everywhere. I bought a postcard.

We arrived on Thursday in Trivandrum (aka Thirvananthapuram, say that twelve times fast, I can!) and we went straight to my friend Suma's parents' house. Their house is new and all the floors are marble. It is really beautiful. Even though hardly anyone speaks English in this state, and in this home, everyone is communicating rather well and Im eating some great home cookin'! Ryan is not able to eat a lot of the food right now since it isn't sitting well, which is too bad because the home food beats the resto food anyday! Also, since I havent had any digestive problems so far (for which I am thankful) I dont think Ill lose a pound here (for which I am angry) ha ha ha! Whatever! I am fat and happy and tan!

We learned that the monsoon season is still going strong in Kerala so we havent been able to enjoy their beaches the way we would have liked, but there are some really beautiful beaches here. The coolest is this reeeeaaallly long stretch of orange sand at the Vali Tourist Park where the waves crash hard but they are orange!!! We took lots of photos, and Mitch, I stole some sand from this beach for you since it is the coolest sand I've seen here. We also saw Kovalam beach and we will see Varkala beach soon too. We went to a great zoo also.

Last night I had dinner at Suma's brothers' (Sasi) house and though I get stared at for the way I eat, it was very nice. They even gave me a wooden elephant as a gift. I got lots of sweets too! It's amazing how things I would have hated at home taste soooo good here. Today, Ryan and I are headed to Kanyakumari. For those who dont know (which included me until yesterday) Kanyakumari is the southernmost peak of India and you can watch the moon rise and sunset at the same place/time. I am looking forward to this.

Well I'll have to stop here since this entry is long, but I want to let you know what I'm up to after Kerala since the next few weeks we wont have frequent access to a computer. Tuesday we are taking a 16-hour train to Chennai (which sounds very unpleasant according to our books, but it the only way to get to Pondicherry). Pondicherry is 3.5 hours from Chennai and we will likely spend 1-2 days there. After Pondy we return to Chennai to catch a 35.5 hour train to Delhi where we will hire a driver to take us to Agra/Rajasthan/Varanasi etc. From there we will attempt to cross over to Nepal...Ill let you know how that goes. After all that, with whatever time we have left, Ryan and I would like to try to spend another week in Goa before we leave. So that's the next 5 weeks covered, wish us luck!

Miss you all! A bientot!
Leanne

Pics I teefed!

Hey People!
So maybe this is unethical or something but since we lost the digital camera I am taking someone else's pics that were saved on this net cafe computer. The pics are of Mumbai, and are things that we saw that we didn't take pics of. Shows you some of the craziness.

Read this, you'll learn a little sumpinsumpin!

Hola!
I want to tell you about Diwali, at least in my experience here in Goa.

Diwali is kind of like the Hindu version of Christmas, meaning it's the pinnacle of all Christian celebrations (unless you're really hardcore and consider Easter a bigger deal). It goes on for a week and the concept as I know it goes like this: It mainly consists of prayer, spending quality time with family, and offering/eating sweets.

I had noticed this week that everywhere I looked I saw children building these massive papiermache busts and I was confused. I found out from our taxi driver, and from seeing them later at the beach, that these are massive kind of mascots that have glowing eyes and get blown up with fireworks. Fireworks were constant last night. Unlike Canada Day fireworks, these ones are on the ground (dangeroussss) and sound like bombs going off outside on the street. They also had some they flew into the night sky later on.

The coolest thing I saw regarding Diwali celebrations was this: About a hundred people take candles that are lit inside bottles with oil in them and bring these candles out into the ocean. Once they get far enough they let them float away. There were probably hundreds of candles floating in the ocean really far out, and you could see them gently drift away all night long. Imagine looking at a flat, black ocean and seeing stars, that's kind of what it was like. Stunning.

That's all for today Children, next lesson, using squat toilets...heh not really, I haven't even figured that out yet.