northern karnataka tour

Sooo we made it back! Two twelve hour train rides, tooooo many multiple hour death defying bus rides, many a sweaty "walk" (although perhaps "drag", "trudge", or "cry" might be more accurate), some serious bushwacking and a WONDERFUL, wonderful trip. I have no idea where my brain was when they were prepping us for this thing, but not knowing what on earth was going on made each day a gift and an adventure. We got to take a sunrise hike to some 500,000 year old cave paintings, swim in a sacred pool in the middle of a temple, haggle with strikingly clad gypsys (who by the way, if you ever find yourself haggling with a gypsy the immediate tactic is to take two zeros off the first price they quote you and then go from there), ahhhh just so many crazy wonderful things I would never have seen myself doing. Since the director of the program Dr. Rao was once the head of the Archaeological Society of India (!!) we got unlimited access to all of these ancient temples and buildings and stuff which was so amazing. And by unlimited access, I mean they would like have a bunch of eager guides waiting for us and open up places that were supposed to be closed to the public and serve us coffee and cookies every second becuase they wanted to be on Rao's good side! That part I did NOT mind....the only downside was that since he was so into it he wanted us to see eeeeeveryyyyyyyyy possible thing made of stone in the entire region which got kind of out of hand. By the end the tour guide would be pointing to some breathtaking 13 foot high 1500 year old sculpture of a dancing Siva or something and our group would be racing the other way toward the far more intriguing plot of shade we saw near the entrance of the temple. Overall though, so cool. I definitely got into thinking I was the relic hunter of the century and even tried pushing on walls in hopes that they might shift and reveal a hidden inscription or city of gold or something (yes, national treasure was on at one of the hotels). I'm not sure how to sum up the whole thing so here are a few excerpts from my journal:


"and the kicker--A SACRED POOL. Is there anything that could be better?!? A natural spring enclosed in stone, THOUSANDS of years old full of laughing old ladies in sarees holding hands and dunking, young guys swimming racing eachother, little half naked kids running around and shrieking with the thrill of being wet--I'm making it sound like utopia because that's because it WAS"

"Theeeen we went to some crazy temple place that was just kind of overwhelming because it was a million degrees and like, every one of the best temples you've ever seen in one place to the point that you don't really care about anything anymore. Plus I didn't want to wear shoes and was trying to act cool like I wasn't hot but my feet literally felt like they were in hot lava and I thought I was going to throw up and die."

"We sat up atop the cave on rocks and I felt the most content I have yet. Breeze, silence, peace, staggering view..."

"I was getting ready to sit down and write this great positive India entry and then the power went out, I spit toothpaste all over the floor, and Elli tried to pull open the curtains and the whole rod flew off and gave her a black eye!! What a perfect fucking example of India...I love it here."

"dripping sweat forging our way around holding hands and screaming. I lead the way into a dark cave, suddenly an animal (OR DEAD GHOST) moved and full on chaos ensued"

"I am fully here and content and grounded and alive. Went to Aihole this morning, which was kind of a bust except for the fact that we were in a place that could potentially be pronounced A-Hole..."

"So happy. HAPPY! I am happy :)"

"AMAZING"

"I am blessed"

"Yeeeessssssssss"

and then an assortment of doodles of smily faces and spirals and hearts.

I think this trip was great for me. I was able to practice patience when it felt like it was too hot or too long of a day or too anything and I wanted to snap, I got to practice being assertive haggling at markets (turns out I am great at it!!! people were asking me to come haggle for them cuz I drove such a hard deal!), and practice JOY and AWE on the largest of scales.

Less than three weeks til our independent travel! I CAN'T WAIT. I am doing it all alone (1 month!) and can't wait to just stand on my own two feet and figure things out for myself.

Hope everyone is doing well! Update me! Oh and getting pictures on this thing is a crazy hassle so for pictures check out my album from the tour on fb--apparently you can see 'em even if you don't have an account click hurrr http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029750&id=30901124&l=6772c6fc60