Living Well in Panajim, Goan Coast

We hope that each of you had a very merry Christmas and the brightest solstice!
On December 23rd, Luke and I hopped a short flight from Chennai to Goa and spent Christmas here. We sprung for an amazing room in a 200-year-old Portuguese house and happily got what we paid for. This city is easy, quiet, clean and painted in yellow, blues, whites and pinks. It is a city on the ocean and because the Portuguese were here for 100s of years, before the Brits came and still after they were forced out by Gandhi, the architecture here is described as old-world Lisbon. This makes for a beauty city with many small, ornate local Catholic churches, as well as a cathedral and an enormous Basilica 10km away that holds the mortal remains of St. Francis Xavier. We have some great photos to share and Luke will put them up soon. For midnight mass, we first went to the city cathedral, but nobody sang along during the pre-mass carols and there were nearly 10 soldiers arming the outside of the church since the attack in Mumbai, so we made the call to head down to Saint Thomas' Church was is a little, sweet little chapel whose proud parishioners who we had seen spending the day decorating and setting up chairs outside for the overflow for the holy day mass. It was really great to be here at midnight with this parish of people. Everyone was all dressed in their best and the kids were all nodding off into sleep---it reminded me of midnight mass at the church in my hometown in Michigan.

On Christmas day, we opened some (excellent!) gifts, had breakfast and walked the city a bit. In the heat of the afternoon, we took in our first cinema Bollywood experience: Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. It was 3 hours long, with an intermission that was perfect for grabbing some Baskin Robbins from the lobby. These theaters are much nicer than anything Boulder had until recently. The film was so fun, with great dance numbers and catching songs. Even though it was all in Hindi, we understood most of it because they are so dramatic! Indians are suckers for romance and high drama, and I guess I am a bit too, so nan nan nan... *giggle* Since it didn't have subtitles, we are going to rent a version with subtitles once we get home so we can fill in the blanks, especially around all the staring-off, crying scenes.

My family is gathering in Michigan over these next few days and I am missing each of you so much. Next year, let's meet in Colorado for Christmas and skiing! (Everyone reading this is welcome to come too=)

oxoxoxo

Kicking it in Pondicherry

Today must have been one of the strangest days
Some would say that you won't find love that way
The best days are not planned, by common sense, by lack time
You just happen to be where everything feels fine
It's a new secret I have found...

Pondy photos

Photo update time...

Not a lot of news to report. We've been really taking it easy the last couple days. We got a scooter yesterday and are now able to get out of town a little. Really nice!

We've gone back and added photos to Bodhgaya, Kolkata and Chennai, so I think we're finally all caught up!  Whew!

The back of our Hotel taken from the boardwalk

We laughed with this boy's parents as he begged to go completely into the waves. He was very sweet and asked us to take this photo of him.

Good Luck, Love India

And Exhale...

Landing in Pondicherry has felt like an exhale and we are feeling better already. We watched the moon rise over the Bay of Bengal last night and watched the moon tides of the ocean crash (!) onto the shoreline. Last night we sat in our hotel's beautiful, beautiful seaside garden and watched the lotuses opening up in the cooling air. We settled into our clean, quiet hotel room early and slept so well. We filled our bottles with the free, ultra filtered water that is on tap just outside our room. We had a yummy breakfast complete with all homemade toastbutterjam. We wandered the city a bit and looked into a few shops. Luke even got his mosey on which is too slow to walk for me, but I am glad that he is moseying yet again. Pondicherry is so nice and laid back and the food is really good. We paid for our hotel through December 17th and we making plans for where to head to next. We had planned to go to Kerala, but we cannot do it up right with us needing and wanting to be in Goa for our December 23-27 reservations, so we are going to do Kerala up, backwaters and all, on our next India trip. We may spend a few days in Mysore and head to the enormous Sera Monestary or we may go to Mt. Arunachala to do the kora there and to Sri Ramana Maharshi's ashram also at the mountain. Roger, our friend and Kailash guide, said that this mountain is a brother to Kailash. On the full moon days, over 500,000 people do the kora at Arunchala---full moon was yesterday for us, but we were glad to be here to celebrate that gorgeous moonrise.

Points of pure loveliness:
• We have not heard a single Christmas song here.
• I had mashed potatoes last night at dinner and they were so good.
• The sky is blue here and you can see the stars.
• We can hear the ocean crashing from within our 800 rupee seaside room
• Delicous coffee
• Being madly in love and traveling with your best friend
• Sharing a big laugh with the Indian cycle rickshaw rider who had to push the one in front of him because that guy was going too slowly
• Hearing the bells ringing at the Immaculate Conception of Mary Cathedral
• Feeling better already
• Not keeping a grudge against India
• Letting it all go...

Pondicherry

Well, things have changed. We disliked our too expensive hotel in Chennai, and we were only staying there because it was the only one in the neighborhood of my school. I also began running a low-grade fever and my now lingering cough became bronchitis---pooh. I attended a day of class at my school and then lost my voice due to the bronchitis, so Vedic chanting became impossible for me. We felt like we were trying so hard to make Chennai, and my time at KYM work, but it just wasn't flowing with any real grace, so we decide to head to Pondicherry to rest near the ocean and to heal my pollution-aggravated lungs. Our last morning in Chennai, we were woken up, again, by the loud boyish staff of the hotel. This time they were buzzing (and buzzing again) our door, until I finally crawled out of bed to look through the peep hole to see what the hell was going on---the bellboy then waved to me through the peep hole. It was then that I thought I should maybe get myself dressed! When I opened the door, now dressed, he said, "You check out today?" And I said, "No. We check out 3 days from now." After closing the door, Luke and I looked at each other and agreed that indeed, it was time to check out. With this decision, we perked up and began to pack up our things. We headed out for an excellent breakfast at the EcoCafe and some shopping too. Then I went off to school to have my lessons, where my adviser told me to skip the chanting and to instead get a consultation with the doctor because I was obviously sick. It is was very sweet of him and I needed him to do this because I was having a hard time not pushing myself through the lesson because I was enjoying them and because I had waited so long to get to KYM and now, terribly disappointed to be sick. After leaving my school and arranging to come back on this trip if our schedule allows, we headed to Saint Thomas' Cathedral which sits on the Bay of Bengal. It is only one of three churches in the world that sits atop the tomb of an apostle of Jesus. It is was beautiful church, but even more impressive was the chapel and tomb room of St. Thomas. What a potent place and a true blessing to have the chance to experience.

We caught a locals' bus to Pondicherry last night and found another too expensive hotel to crash at before heading out to find a the perfect, lovely and much cheaper hotel right on the Bay of Bengal. It is part of the Aurobindo ashram and it is tranquil and beautiful, as long as you are not interacting with anyone at the reception desk. I am feeling better already, in this much smaller, less polluted city on the sea. Luke, my poor sweetie, ate something our first night here that made him puke on the street this morning. He rested all day long in our great hotel room and then we sat in the gardens this evening together before heading to dinner and now to the computer joint. I am putting him to bed soon enough.

We are pooped. We were both saying how weary we felt in Chennai when we remembered that we hit state similar to this at about the same time on our last big trip. At that time we were in Australia with Luke's family for Christmas. There we slept and ate and played and not much more. Now that we are in Pondicherry, we are thinking to stay here for a week or maybe longer. We can't be moving around so much because we are tired. Plus, Pondicherry seems to be quite lovely and I think we are going to be happy here next to the ocean in our sweet hotel. We can also rent a scooter and this means a break from those nearly always horrible rickshaw drivers.

I was visiting with a couple today at lunch while Luke slept. A Swiss woman and her husband, now Swiss, who was born in Argentina. It is their first time in India and they have been traveling since September; they too are weary. David told me that he felt like India would be so perfect if it wasn't for all the Indians here. Ha! To this, in my weariness, I guiltily agreed. For most of these least last few days, Luke and I have been secretly feeling the same way, certainly not entirely, but man, oh, man...We have had some trying situations since leaving Varanasi, so it is that and also that we need to rest for a bit. We are going to rest here on the ocean, eat yummy foods, heal up our bodies and rest our weary traveling feet. Ahhh, that all sounds so good right now and I am so pleased that it is us that I am talking about here *wink*

Keep on rocking in the free world,
Nichole

Chennai

We had a smooth flight down from Kolkata to Chennai this evening. Even an American pilot!

We'll be here for a few days while Nichole attends some classes, then we'll be moving on south to Pondicherry (which should be familiar to those who have read Life of Pi). Even though Kolkata was a cool city, we're ready to spend some time in smaller towns.

More later...

Luke

Nichole at St. Thomas' Cathedral

Hottie saints in St. Thomas' Cathedral: hottie St. James

and hottie St. John whom I think they fashioned after Patrick Swayze. *giggle*

Luke in the Bay of Bengal

Nichole outside her amazing school

Heading to Chennai

Luke and I are leaving for the airport to fly to Chennai and feeling much better about the situation here. We've got a hotel close to my school reserved and I should start my classes tomorrow, though I am still waiting to get the final word on that. The trip is now flying by and we are planning our days out a little more so that we can do as much as we can in the last few weeks. Where does 4 months go??? Ha! And 4 years for that matter!

More from Chennai!
besos*

Luke has added more photos from Darjeeling and Varanasi. Click here for Varanasi and click here for Darjeeling

Little Superstar

More photos

OK, we're catching up on photos!  I've added photos from Lake Manasarovar (here), and Everest Base Camp (here).  And if you missed it, I added photos of Kailash (here) the other day as well.  Soon we'll be all caught up.

We're getting clearer about our plans, and are thinking we'll stay in India and head on down to Chennai and other parts south.  We'll leave Kolkata in a couple of days.

It's good to see some snow back home.  I hope everyone is enjoying some good turns for us.

Love to everyone,
L&N

Kooolkata

Happy Saint Nicholas Day! It is my patron saint's day and we celebrated by getting out around the city on foot and trying to go bowling. We found the great Italian restaurant we were looking for, but the MegaBowl was MIA. Tomorrow, we are going to look for the other bowling alley in the city because I am looking forward to seeing ladies with bowling shoes and saris on---I promise to get lots of photos!

We really like Kolkata. We didn't know what to expect. The few images I had were from that movie, City of Joy, that starred Patrick Swazey and of Mother Teresa caring for the poor and dying people of Kolkata. Yes, there are man-pulled rickshaws, but these men don't lack the dignity that westerners would suffer in this job and therefore presume of them. The rickshaw wallahs we have seen are strong from their hard work and carry themselves with respect. They are glad for a fare and share a smile when parting ways. It is how the side streets of Kolkata move and it may also be why the air is little bit cleaner than other cities its size too.

We were supposed to be in Chennai this afternoon, but we canceled our flight yesterday after reading the Times of India. (Mom and Midra, please don't worry...) We choose a flight from Kolkata to Chennai to avoid the 30-hour train ride but the story in the paper said Indian Government Intelligence (a bit of an oxymoron there) had gotten information that domestic flights into Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore may be under threat on December 6th, the day of our flight, and we didn't feel like dealing with the airports or risking any danger, so are staying put in Kolkata for now. If you had spoken to us yesterday,we were heading to Thailand and then back to Mumbai on January 6th only to catch our flight out to Frankfurt and then home, but today we are still staying open to being in India for the rest of the trip. I am feeling angry and heartbroken at the thought of leaving India early because of all of this, but we can't continue to make plans only be forced to cancel them because of threat of more danger here. It is the reason we are in Kolkata to begin with, to avoid Delhi, which we thought may have some backlash, if only anti-Pakistan protests. We are keeping tabs on the papers and the up-to-the-minute news here and trying to make a decision about staying in India or going within a day or two.

Yesterday we went to Mother Teresa's home and mission. It was really wonderful and quite fortuitous for us, as they only have open mass and Eucharist once a week, and it is on Friday afternoons when we were also there. We were able to share in the gathering in the little chapel. We got to see Mother's spartan room where she lived most of her time in Kolkata and also many personal notes of hers, her sandals and many photos of her throughout her life. Her prayers and thoughts and utter devotion to the Lord was really moving for both Luke and me. After accepting her mission to work with the dying of Kolkata, she had to wait years before being given leave by her bishop to fully devote herself to this work. She spoke of her dark years of loneliness she suffered and her prayers to help her bear the suffering, never to have it taken from her, as she thought of it as a gift from the Christ that was to help shape her. Her notes were most intimate and she always spoke with the deepest gratitude and absolute faith.

We have a bunch of photos chosen to load: from Everest Base Camp to Bodhgaya. Luke has to do that though with his computer and we'll let you know when he puts them up.

More of the same blessed synchronicity for us in Bodhgaya; we just happened to run into two friends, Roger and Chris, whom we met in Bhouda, KTM. Roger was the man who took us to Tibet and Chris was a happy Australian whom we shared laughs and apple pie with at the Double Dorje. On my birthday, which was really wonderful day, we were able to get blessings from the other Karmapa, Trinley Thaye Dorje. We went to a stand to get khotas to offer him before bounding up the back stairs of the Karma Kagyu Gompa to wait for a turn to meet him. It was just us, several large groups of monks and Tibetan pilgrims there that night. When it was our turn, he welcomed us up warmly and blessed us each. He blessed Luke's mala and spoke to us in his excellent English. He has such a sweet presence and we both left feeling like we had met a truly extraordinary person. Over the next two afternoons, we gathered with 100s of others under the Mahabhodi tree to hear him speak about the Buddhadharma. We sat with the monks who shared their sitting mats with us and who enjoyed the TicTacs we shared with them. It was quite funny to see Luke and the fun-loving monks mime out the cool, mintiness of the TicTacs to each other!!

On the night of my birthday, as we walked our last few koras of the day, we were smiled down on by the planets Jupiter and Venus that were in a rare alignment with a waxing crescent moon. They set just behind the Mahabhodi Temple and it was quite a sight to take in!

Watch for the photos and we'll keep you posted on our plans.
So much love from Luke and me both!
oxo

sugar cane juice man

tailors (note the almost TBJ menu on the right)

downtown Kolkata

tana (human drawn) rickshaws

Kolkata flower market

On the Road Again...

We leave for Kolkata on a overnight train tonight. We are spending 2 days in Kolkata, visiting Mother Teresa's home and place of work. It wasn't our first plan; our first plan was to head back to Delhi and to spend a few days in the city before flying to Chennai for my classes. We haven't felt completely safe heading back into Delhi in light of the recent attacks in Mumbai. Most of the time, it seems a horrible thing that happened so far away from us, so far from where we are geographically. Other times, when reading the papers here, it seems to us that it could happen anywhere in India and we don't care to be frightened in the light of other people's madness. We are checking into flights from Chennai to Bangkok now. To leave India after my study and then to fly back to Mumbai to catch our flight home on January 6th. At least Bangkok is getting back on track now and the airports are now open.

I am not sure what we will do in the end. As always when traveling in Asia, being flexible enables you to enjoy your travels, regardless of the shifts and changes, at least for the most part *wink*

Thailand is also such a gogerous place to be and we have wanted to return, so perhaps it will be for the best at this time.

We should arrive in Kolkota at 7:00am (7:00pm at home) tomorrow morning and I may be able to post again tomorrow. We'll see then, but for now, much love from Luke and me.

ps Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes and love from home! The messages here, on my facebook page and the emails all meant so much to me! oxo