Sri Lanka

Hello again! As promised, I'll finish up with a post about the end of my trip. And yes, sorry, this is another long one.

But first, incidentally, one of the reasons I decided to start this blog was because I got into reading one of my friend's blogs who was studying in Europe last spring - I remember studying in the library and getting so excited to see if she had posted a new entry with some pictures about whatever country or city she had visited the previous weekend. I really looked forward to reading her posts, especially as I was in the middle of a Green Bay, Wisconsin winter. With his, I hope I can create the same feeling for you since I'm not able to tell you in person about my experiences at the moment - that's also why I try to write every week, since hers were a bit sporadic, and sometimes I would be so sad if she hadn't posted when I thought she would. So bear with me if you're not as much as an armchair (or library desk) traveler as I am - since I really enjoy reading travel blogs I tend to include a lot of detail.

So, without further ado, please allow me to tell you a bit about my experiences on the beautiful island of Sri Lanka. I think I've used the word beautiful a little too often on my posts, but there's really no other way to describe Sri Lanka - every which way I turned there was a picture perfect scene, and nine times out of ten it involved a palm tree. I really didn't know much about Sri Lanka when I was planning my trip, but I have to thank my stepdad Brent for suggesting it to me - he had been there on a previous trip and really enjoyed it. I only had five full days there, which was much too short, but again, I'm glad I at least got to spend some time there instead of miss it all together.

I landed in Colombo, the capital city, before noon and was out of Colombo by 2:30 on a southbound train. My reasoning was that because I had a late night flight out of Colombo on Friday (I landed on Monday - Valentine's Day) I would have to come back anyways, and could explore more then. Even as I landed, however, I still wasn't quite sure where I was going to stay that night - I decided to see if there was a train to Galle I would take it, though I would have to turn around and leave the following day, (why I was hesitant in the first place) and if not I would just stay in Colombo and explore a bit before heading to Kandy the next day. The guy at the train station made my decision for me - not only was there an available train a half hour from my inquiry, but also it only cost two bucks. It turned out to be the best train ride ever: three hours of beautiful coastline, right next to the train tracks. I gazed out at the ocean, white sand, and palm trees, while leaning my head out the window to catch some fresh air (no AC in these trains...and it was 80 plus degrees out.)

Galle intrigued me because it was an old Dutch stronghold, complete with a defensive fort, when they occupied the island in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, after the Portuguese (but before the British.) Because it was a spur of the moment decision, I ended up not having much information on the city itself, just on the fort, but it looked like the perfect place to stay for the night. People have been living inside the fort walls for centuries, and though it no longer has any military significance, the stone walls are well preserved and provide a quiet, secluded, sleepy little area of town that was perfect for exploring and walking around...plus it was lost-proof. I checked into a cute little guesthouse, then headed out to catch the sunset from the fort walls. The wind was blowing and the waves were crashing on the surf below - I could see kids playing cricket (the baseball-like sport that came from England during colonialization), families out walking around, and a small number of tourists out walking and enjoying the evening. I had the second best meal of my trip that evening: calamari curry, made with coconut milk and such a delicious blend of spices that I could taste each one individually. Heavenly.

The next day I had all morning to hang out, as the train to Kandy didn't leave until early afternoon, so I woke up early for the sunrise, then walked along the other side of the fort walls that I had missed the night before. People were out and about quite early, to beat the rising heat, and I ended up walking straight into a herd of schoolgirls in white dresses and red ties, all giggling and staring at me - I smiled back and quickly detoured to a smaller street. I got used to the staring but wasn't ready for that much attention that early in the morning. I noticed some men and women out jogging and walking along the fort walls - in all my trip I hadn't really seen anyone out for exercise, but it made sense based on my first impression of Colombo in the taxi from the airport: Sri Lanka seemed slightly more developed, more modern, and better off than India in terms of overall standard of living. Of course, there were still slums and poor living conditions, especially in the middle of the country, but not nearly as large a number as India, based on my observations.

 By the time some of the restaurants were open I was ready to try some Sri Lankan cuisine. I found a cute little porch restaurant and tried the 'Indian breakfast' option: a plate of fresh fruit, a pot of tea, and rotti, (not like Indian roti - a little different) a type of flatbread that you eat with sambol - a spicy peppery blend of coconut, sweet onions, and other vegetables. (I took the picture before the sambol...you'll just have to use your imagination.) It was spicy and a strange breakfast choice to Americans, but it was delicious - I spent a happy hour eating, drinking tea, reading, and writing (by now you must have noticed how much this combination of food, beverage, scenery, a book, and a notebook pleases me.) I smiled at the people walking by as I feasted, noting how wonderful it was to exchange greetings with strangers who weren't trying to sell me anything.

I wandered around the fort area (it wasn't very big - about four streets by four streets) and poked around in some gift shops, walked through a restored Dutch house and museum, which is now a gem shop (I learned about Sri Lanka's lucrative gem mines) and chatted with my friendly hostel owner for a bit before packing up and heading out to the train station. Here is a picture of the streets - cute, narrow, clean. Very pleasant. Perhaps not the most accurate representation of the rest of the country, but it was a nice introduction.

So, let me tell you a bit about the geography of Sri Lanka. Colombo is on the west coast, kind of towards the south, Galle is kind of at the southwestern tip of the coast, and Kandy is pretty smack dab in the middle of the country. I figured okay, I'll do Colombo-Galle, then Galle-Kandy, then on the way back to Colombo ride the Kandy-Colombo train, which is supposed to have spectacular scenery. Makes sense, yes? Well, it would have made sense if there was a train from Galle to Kandy, as I assumed there was when Kandy was listed on the railway schedule. But no, there was not - we ended up taking the same three hour train ride back northwest to Colombo before turning and heading east to Kandy. If I had known this I would have taken a much earlier train to Colombo in the morning, so that I could have caught a more frequent train to Kandy and arrived by sunset...not dark! I had gotten spoiled by the Indian train system, where there seems to be a train everywhere from everywhere - as a result I missed the view as we got closer to Kandy. On the up side, I read an entire book on the six hour train ride, so at least that was something. Luckily, I had prebooked a hostel room for Kandy back in South Korea, so I had an address to head to from the train station, and the cook even whipped up a plate of vegetables and rice for me, as I hadn't eaten since breakfast.

The next morning I enjoyed another balcony breakfast - I was disappointed to see they didn't have Sri Lankan breakfast as a menu item, but I had to admit that I did miss eating scrambled eggs and toast with butter and jelly. I also had the best glass of fresh pineapple juice of my life, so I guess it was a win win. After breakfast I headed down the path to Kandy Lake and enjoyed the short walk along the lake to the city center. Kandy used to be the capital of the Sinhalese kingdom up until the nineteenth century, when the British took over. About eighty percent of Sri Lanka is Sinhalese, (an ethnic group) while the minority percentage is Tamil, originally from Southern India. These two groups were the main players in Sri Lanka's recent civil war, as the Tamils fought four a separate ethnic nation of their own. The war officially ended just last year, but most of the fighting and devastated were located in the north, not in the southern area where I was traveling. I picked up three books at a bookstore in Kandy written by local authors about the conflict and what it did to the country (sadly there was no book exchange, but at least they were cheap,) so I was able to learn a lot over the next few days on my bus trips.

The most important landmark in Kandy is the Temple of the Sacred Tooth, which is home to a tooth relic of The Buddha himself, said to have been stolen from his funeral pyre during cremation, and smuggled into Sri Lanka sometime around the fourth century AD. The tooth has been moved and carefully guarded all across Sri Lanka, as the kingdom capital kept moving around until finally settling in Kandy a few centuries back. I toured the temple, the museum, (view from one of the museum balconies - the lion is the Sinhalese national animal and emblem) and the palace grounds (the temple was in the royal residence of the Kandyan king) and found it all extremely interesting and of course, beautiful. Hundreds of Buddhist pilgrims were in Kandy to pay homage and give offerings to the tooth relic, which you couldn't actually see since it was supposedly kept inside a small golden stupa-like structure - we were shuffled through so fast because there were so many people that I only caught a glimpse of the tooth holder thing - it was under pretty high security. Much of the temple area was decorated with paintings and gifts from other Buddhist countries like Burma, Thailand, Japan, and of course, Korea. Acutally, Sri Lanka was responsible for spreading Theravada Buddhism to the rest of Asia, compared to the other sects of Tibetan and Buddhism, as they made and kept copies of the Buddha's teachings and spread them across the ocean due to their lucrative spice trade. Because my plans to go to the museum fell through (it turned out to be a holiday, therefore some of the attractions weren't open) I came back to the temple at night (pictured) for the puja ceremony. If you remember from Nepal, I attended a Tibetan Buddhist puja ceremony in Pokhara - it was interesting to note the differences between ceremonies.

I only had two full days of Sri Lanka left, and since that wasn't enough time to make it to all of the ancient cities, as they were too far away and too expansive to do in a short amount of time, I narrowed my plans down from four locations to two, both of which I could hit in the same day, and one of which I had heard was the most impressive out of all of them. I left Kandy early that morning, after a breakfast of string hoppers - funny spaghetti like blobs of noodles (not quite noodles but close enough) that are eaten with sambol, dhal, and fish curry. I'm pretty adventurous when it comes to food, but even I couldn't do fish curry for breakfast. HI also ordered coffee, forgetting I was in the tea capital of the world, and they served me a cup of hot water and barely mixed in Nescafe grounds...live and learn, right?

My morning bus was a hot, bumpy, two hour long trip to Dambulla, which I shared with many staring males, but also with a science teacher lady who I sat next to - we had a nice chat and she helped me get off at the right stop. Dambulla is home to the famous rock temple, which is actually a Buddhist temple inside a cave high up in a hill that just sort of rises up randomly from the landscape. After climbing about twenty minutes up a rock step path, you have to take your shoes off before entering the caves (actually a series of five caves, but there's one big one that's the most famous.) I encountered more Buddhas than I have ever seen in my life within those 200 meters of caves - Buddha paintings, small Buddha statues, huge Buddha statues, some reclining Buddhas, and some Buddha carvings - some were very very old, some more recent. As always, I shared the location with Buddhist devotees, so I tried to inconspicuously take pictures and not disturb them as they made their offerings, which was interesting to watch (from a respectful distance.)

After descending from the caves - this picture is at the bottom of the rock path, of one of the largest Buddhas in Sri Lanka, I walked back to the bus station and caught a 45 minute bus ride to my next destination: a tiny little village called Sigiriya. Sigiriya has absolutely nothing going for it...besides a really big, famous rock. Here it is, in all its glory. The rock is a bit of a mystery, as there isn't much record of what it is or what it is used for - debates go between an old kingdom and an ancient place for Buddhist worship...or that the kingdom came first and then the Buddhists used it for worship. Either way, it's a really, really old rock that has been revered as a holy site for centuries, and it is surrounded by ancient rock and garden structures that provide evidence of human occupation and maintenance, possibly from prehistoric times.

So, what do people do at Sigiriya when they go visit? They climb it. After checking into a guesthouse that someone at my previous hostel in Kandy recommended to me, (by the way - you can rely on Lonely Planet all you want, but sometimes the best way to travel is just by talking to fellow travelers for tips and advice) I dumped my stuff off, grabbed my camera and a bottle of water, and headed off down the dirt road that led to the entrance. After paying a hefty fee of 33 dollars (it had just been raised from 25 dollars to 33 two days before...I was not happy), I entered the garden complex - said to be one of the oldest gardens in the world - and stared up at the 1,200 ft tall rock that lay before me - I was ready to climb. And also very hot. The climb was good - a series of small rickety rock and metal steps that took you up the side of the rock face, then a few extra spiral stairways straight up the side to see the ancient cave fresco paintings - estimated to have been around since the 4th century BC. They were really beautiful, and really well preserved. 

After about 20 minutes of climbing, I reached the Lion Gate - in ancient times the entrance to the palace complex was supposedly a giant lion, and you were supposed to walk into the lion's mouth - now all that is left are the two gigantic paws on either side of the stairway - but they were still incredibly impressive. After taking a short break at the entrance gate and doing some people watching of the tourists posing for pictures, I was anxious to reach the top, but ended up in a long line of people on their way up - traffic jam on Sigiriya Rock. I was so excited to see the view from the top, as I had been restraining on taking pictures the entire way up, figuring the best ones would be at the top and I still had the return journey to take more.

Being on top of Sigiriya redefined the feeling 'on top of the world.' It was amazing to look out over the immensely green landscape, dotted with palm trees, jungle, and small hills here and there. There weren't any lasting structures from whatever used to be on top of Sigiriya, but there were still remains of the stone wall foundations, so I spent some time just walking all along the edges and through the paths, taking pictures and viewing the area from all angles. As I walked around, taking pictures and avoiding some groups of young guys while pretending not to understand English, I had a clear, definite feeling: "I'm done."

 I was so elated - I would be on a flight back to Korea the next evening, I had survived three and a half weeks of travel on my own, I made it through the trip, I was standing on top of this amazing rock on a perfect afternoon on a beautiful island - I realized that I was completely satisfied with my trip, and also completely ready to go back to Korea. I think I reached this point because by then, while I loved the travel experience, I hadn't realized how emotionally grating it would be to see such abject poverty, to deal with all of the tourist hawkers and staring, to continually answer what country I'm from and 'no thank you,' to keep telling people I had a boyfriend so they would stop hassling me, to negotiate prices for everything since everyone (taxi drivers, hostel owners, shopkeepers) tries to ridiculously inflate prices for tourists, and I had just had enough. It was time to return.

 After surprising myself with that thought, I sat on the rock looking out over the palm trees for a while in peace and quiet - I realized how much about the states and even Korea I had taken for granted, and how my perspective on how fortunate I have been in life had really changed, to embrace even more of an understanding of how lucky I am. Also, I was proud of myself for having made it through the trip on my own, living out my travel dream exactly the way I had wanted to, and I was so excited to begin to make plans for my next one. Life was good on top of that rock.

After my little personal Hallmark session, I practically skipped down the rest of the trail, taking pictures and stopping here and there to just take it all in and make sure I wasn't rushing myself off. When I got back to my room I rewarded myself with a much needed shower, then settled down with my journal and book to wait for dinner - the guesthouse owner made meals family style at his nearby house (with his wife, I assume) and then brought them over to feed his guests - there were seven of us total, and we all waited in anticipation for our homecooked authentic Sri Lankan meal. We weren't disappointed, as we were fed an amazing yet simple meal of rice, four kinds of curries, and a plate of fresh fruit for dessert - YUM. I couldn't wait for breakfast. We ate out in this little treehouse like hut, with a perfect view of Sigiriya Rock behind it. I chatted with the other travelers for a bit - all European - and realized how much more there was of Sri Lanka to see, as most of them were on two or three week trips. Shame on me for not doing better research. I'll go back someday to cover the rest. I went to bed extremely full, but excited for my final day of Sri Lanka, which would culminate on a plane trip to Singapore, where I had a full day layover before leaving for Seoul the following day. I had a choice between long layovers in Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, or Singapore, and I chose Singapore because it was the longest and I had heard marvelous things about the airport and how easy it was to get into the city center - I was sold.

So, the next morning, after being fed another round of fresh fruit along with some bread, jam, and tea, I packed up and headed out, ready for another day of: bus. I could have taken the bus back to Kandy and then taken the train, but as I figured that would be backtracking a bit, and since I hadn't really spent any time in the capital city, I should get to Colombo as soon as I could and do some exploring before catching the train to the airport for my 11 30 PM flight. Well, this turned into about five hours of bus time, and I ended up sitting next to some young guys who were all too eager to give up their seat for me...so they could try to chat me up. Now, if you recall my feelings from before, I was just so ready to be left alone that the last thing I wanted to do was chat. If it was a woman, like the teacher I had met on my way up, or a family, that would have been different, but at that point I had spoken to so many young guys, trying to be friendly and not the mean, snobby tourist, that I was just plain ambassadored out - I whipped out my book and stuck my nose in it as soon as I sat down as to not be disturbed, figuring if they couldn't talk to me they wouldn't know what country I was from, so at least I wouldn't be giving America a bad name. This was a bit sad because I wanted to look out of the window to see the scenery, but as soon as I raised my eyes from the book one of them would ask me a question...luckily the bus was really loud so it was feasible enough to pretend I didn't hear them. So I played my little game most of the bus ride back to Colombo - the good thing is that it was actually a really good book about the civil war that had happened not even five years before, in the exact same area I was traveling through at the time - there is nothing like reading about history in the place it actually happened. I was able to finish it shortly after my overly friendly seat partners left (I hopped into an available seat as soon as one opened up, book still in hand.) I was able to sneak some pictures in then, such as this little roadside hut, complete with fresh papayas and bananas for sale.

I arrived in Colombo about an hour before sunset, so I had just enough time to catch an autorickshaw over to Galle Face Green, the one destination I really wanted to see. It was really neat - an open lawn area, right on the beach, with a boardwalk and tons of food vendors selling savory snacks and treats. There were lots of families, tourists, kids flying kites, and schoolkids hanging out - a fun public atmosphere. I said goodbye to the Indian Ocean with one last walk in the surf, and then after checking out the famous nearby Galle Face Hotel, I turned around and walked my way back towards the railway...or at least I tried to, until I ended up not taking the correct turn and found myself in the middle of the Sri Lankan military headquarters complex...oops. At first I thought there was just a lot of high security...so I turned around and got myself out of there pretty fast, cursing my inner compass. Unfortunately, by then it was getting dark, so I gave in and got myself an autorickshaw, paid a dollar more than what I should have, but made it back to the train station in time to wait around some more for my train to take me to the airport.

It was a good thing I had one more book left, because it occupied me on my final train station wait and train ride to the airport - however, the 80 cent cost beat out all discomfort, so that was fine by me - more reading time. I actually freaked out for a moment because my internal compass was off again, and I thought we were going south instead of north towards the airport on the train, but then someone reassured me we were going the correct direction. The train ended up taking an extra hour than I anticipated, so I made it to the airport about an hour before my flight - by the time I checked in and went through security (by the way - Colombo has a surprisingly nice airport) I was hot, tired, but relieved. Then, like an oasis rising out of the desert, I was greeted by a wonderful sight: a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. Call me a coffee snob, call me a tourist, but I don't care because my latte tasted like the best thing in the world at that point. It was a fun treat, and I even had enough time to spend my last remaining rupees on a few small souvenirs in the gift shops. When I was waiting to board the plane, I watched the Grammys live on the TV playing in the waiting lounge and remember thinking 'hey, those are MY celebrities! I know all about who they are dating and I can even understand what they're saying!' I never thought watching Katy Perry sing "Teenage Dream" would evoke such happy feelings inside of me, but I did feel glad to see such a familiar sight as American TV. I was also especially happy to be on my final leg of my trip: I just had two plane rides and a couple more buses to go. But first I had a fun day of exploring Singapore to look forward to.

I arrived in Singapore around 6 AM local time, which put me at about 2 hours of sleep total. My next flight was due to take off at 2:25 AM that night (morning) so basically I only had two options for surviving the next 20 hours: sleep in the comfy lounges provided at the Singapore Airport for that very purpose, or just drink a lot of caffeine and occupy myself enough so that I didn't think about being tired. Which did you think I chose? Yes, you were right - pulling all nighters in high school and college prepared me well.

It turned out that I would have probably been too excited to sleep in the Singapore Airport anyways because it was just so exciting - it was really fancy, clean, and full of fun shops, cafes, restaurants, and even some pretty gardens. There were free Internet kiosks everywhere, comfy chairs, duty free shops, clean bathrooms, well marked signs and information desks, and lots of happy looking people: after spending three weeks in South Asia it was nothing short of heavenly. However, one of the best parts of that airport was that I was automatically anonymous - no staring whatsoever, or at least none that I noticed or that creeped me out. Oh, and the Starbucks. Of course that added to my traveler's heaven. 

I had three things on my Singapore agenda: coffee, a free airport personnel guided city tour, and meeting up with Corrine, a former English teacher in Thailand that my aunt put me in contact with. Since I had planned to meet with Corrine later in the afternoon, I sought out the airport tour kiosk - there was a choice between the cultural tour or the historical tour - both about an hour long. I'll let you guess again which one I chose. Since my tour (yes, of course the history one) wasn't due to meet for another three hours, all I needed was coffee and I was ready for action.

My airport tour was great - the guide was a cute little Singaporean lady who works for the tourism board - she said the reason they give airport tours is to interest people who are passing through Singapore on layovers enough to want to come back and spend a vacation in the city/country (/island.) I must say, she did an excellent job - I learned about how this British dude showed up in Singapore back when it was nothing more than a little Chinese fishing village in the nineteenth, and he turned it into one of the most successful trading ports in the world. Singapore is made up of three major ethnic groups: Malays, Tamils, and the Chinese, plus all of the other foreigner expats. The architecture is outstanding - they are constantly creating new structures, building on top of things, and trying out innovative new designs. This submarine like looking thing is actually a casino and swimming pool (infinity pool) and I have no idea why it is on three pillars. Most of these pictures were from a bus, so I apologize for the quality. We also had the chance to walk around the historical downtown district and take some pictures.

After the airport tour I plopped my much-heavier-than-when-I-left-due-to-God-knows-what backpack down in the luggage storage area and took the metro from the airport into the city center to meet up with Corrine. She has lived there for about a year now - her husband is in the Singaporean navy, and they met while she was teaching in Thailand. We hit it off right away, glad to finally meet in person after about a year of e-mail exchanges, and she was a wonderful tour guide for me. She actually had a yoga class to attend shortly after we met up, and her yoga lady was nice enough to let me use the studio's shower, (probably more for Corrine and the general public's benefit than mine) before I went out and wandered along the riverbank while waiting for her to finish class. This picture is post-shower, with the location of the original fishing village where modern Singapore officially started behind me, and the skyline beyond.

After meeting up again with Corrine and eating at a delicious Thai restaurant (she said you can get just about any kind of food you could ever want in Singapore) we headed to Orchard Street, one of the most famous shopping districts in the world - mall upon mall built all on one main street. I was in search of one final book exchange bookstore (I found out about one while inquiring in local bars during Corrine's yoga class - the local patrons were very friendly and helpful, which I'm sure didn't have anything to do with the fact they were at a pub at 4 in the afternoon) to turn in my Sri Lanka books for one or two on Singapore and its history. This mission was successful, and after wandering around in the shops we walked outside to see the strip. I was blown away. In the dark the malls lit up like Christmas - it reminded me of about twenty Times Squares put together but all on one long road. She taught me a lot about living in Singapore (and yes, chewing gum really is banned for sale in Singapore) and even took me to a local hawker center for a late dinner. 

Too short of a time later, I had to head back to the airport to check in for my flight - I had successfully been so busy I forgot I was supposed to be tired. Back in the airport, I had a nice taste of home with one final coffee while reading an entire People magazine in front of the magazine stall, then wandering through the new English books at the airport bookstore - just like a typical day for me at the bookstre. After a little final perusing at the gift shops and saying goodbye to the incredible airport and its gardens, it was time for me to board. Spending the day in Singapore was enough taste of modern life to get me back in Korea mode, and I was extremely excited to be back at my place the following day. Luckily, the seat next to me was unoccupied, and I was able to sleep for a solid four hours before waking up to the flight attendants serving breakfast. It was nice to hear the Korean language again. I was almost back, and I wrote my final journal entry on the plane (in very very small handwriting, as I was just about out of pages.)

I was back in one piece, I was safe, I had no major disasters, and I had an amazing trip - I scrolled back through my pictures, starting with my first morning in Kathmandu, and relieved my experiences - the trip was so much more than I ever could have imagined, and I knew I would always treasure my memories. I felt like I had been gone for the perfect amount of time - long enough to feel like an adventure, and long enough for me to start missing my Korea home, but not too long that I began to resent and dislike the places I was visiting - I was glad I had a home base to return to before that happened to me. My batteries were fully recharged, and luckily I've had the past week and a half to settle myself back into Korea - I see it in a whole new light now, and appreciate the modernism, the development, and even the kimchi.

I've passed my halfway mark here in Korea, and though I'm already busy planning my next adventure, I want to make sure that I make the most of my remaining time here - there is so much of the country left to explore. I hope you enjoyed my little travelogue, and feel free to look at more pictures on Facebook. I'd love to hear how you are doing and touch base - shoot me an e-mail or add me on Skype. I hope you're having a wonderful week and staying warm, especially if you're home in snowdumped-upon Minnesota or Wisconsin. I'll update you with some back to school stories next week - bye for now!

India

Hello again, here comes some more trip coverage. Since I was in a new city pretty much every other day I'll do a brief day to day description, but I have to warn you - it's still super long, and you will encounter some history and fun facts along the way because I just can't help myself. It's an epic blog post, but I'll forgive you if you only scroll through and look at the pictures. Here we go.

The first city I arrived at was Varanasi. Due to a mishap of getting to my hostel from the airport (turned out it was in such an old part of the city that taxis don’t go there…) I missed the sunset or time to walk around the city, so instead I spent a pleasant evening on the rooftop balcony of my hostel looking out over the river Ganges and the city. It was dark, but the view was still spectacular – I was so thrilled to finally be in India! I enjoyed a delicious rice and curry meal and did some writing and picture taking. I found out that my hostel offered free boat trips at sunrise and sunset, so I headed to bed early.

Bear with me: a little background info. Varanasi is the holiest Hindu city in India– the Ganges River, or mother Ganga, is supposed to be the physical manifestation of the goddess Ganga, from which the Hindu human life cycle begins and ends. Every Hindu tries to make a pilgrimage to Varanasi at least once in their lives to bathe in the Ganges River. As a result, the heart of Varanasi is centered on the western banks of the Ganges, where there are dozens of ghats, or steps, leading into the water. Varanasi is also the most auspicious place to die, so when Hindus pass away, ideally their families will take them to Varanasi to be cremated on the riverbanks, and the ash thrown in the water for good luck in their next life. My hostel was near the cremation ghat, and when we were out walking around in the streets we were passed by about five funeral processions, with four men carrying wrapped dead bodies on little cot like things on their shoulders while chanting on their way down to the riverbank.

The next morning I was up bright and early for my boat trip, with three other guests. Our boat guy doubled as a guide, so he taught us quite a bit about Varanasi and its importance for Hindus, as well as explained what it was we were seeing in front of us. Even at 5 AM in the darkness there were people on the ghats bathing, praying, and giving offerings – either setting little floating candles or flowers in the water. The boat trip was awesome – I had never seen anything like it. Luckily, I happened to be there on a festival day, so the ghats were packed with people of all ages dressed in their bright clothing, dunking themselves up and down in the river, eating, and praying. After the boat trip I walked around with another hostel guest, and tried to absorb the sights, sounds, and colors – it was so interesting to see how powerful the Hindu faith and religion was to the hundreds of people who made the trip that day, and to think about the millions of Hindus who have been making the trip for the past two thousand years. I spent a wonderful morning walking around and observing, taking pictures, and getting introduced to India – it was even better than I imagined, once you sidestepped (quite literally) all the cows in the street, the pollution, the noise, the beggars, and the poverty. Again, you have to take the good with the bad. The old streets of Varanasi, the ones too narrow for cars, right along the ghats, were fascinating to walk around as well.

Next stop: Agra. Home to the famous Taj Mahal, built in 1632 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. The Taj Mahal is actually a tomb, built for his wife Mumtaz after she died in childbirth, so the legend goes. I was due in Delhi that evening, so I had most of the day to spend in Agra after arriving from Varanasi on my first night train. I had a bit of a cold from Nepal, and though I was able to sleep on the train it wasn't what you would call a sound sleep, so I wasn’t feeling the greatest. Of course, I wasn’t going to let that stop me. When I got off the train I ran into a Lithuanian couple that I had been chatting to at the train station – I ended up spending most of the day with them, since we shared a taxi ride to the Taj Mahal from the train station and then made plans to meet up for lunch later.

What can I say about the Taj Mahal? It was magnificent – the pictures honestly don’t do it justice. I couldn’t stop staring – to actually see it in person was unbelievable. It is located on top of a high platform, for which you have to remove your shoes or wear shoe covers before stepping on, if you want to go up close or inside the Taj Mahal. After paying the 15 dollar foreigner fee (locals pay about 40 cents) we were led through security, and then entered through the West Gate. We arrived nice and early, just after sunrise, so it was still relatively quiet and not too busy, though we all waited here and there for people to get out of the way for pictures – at least everyone understands the importance of having a really good picture in front of the Taj Mahal, even if it takes a couple of tries on the digital. Unfortunately, I was on my third day of not showering due to my hostel’s questionable bathroom and the night train – please forgive my pictures...
We (the Lithuanians and I) actually had a guide with us for the first hour or so, since after refusing about ten times he dropped his price for us by about four times and we figured having him around would fend off other hopeful guides (plus there were three of us – I think we paid him the equivalent of four dollars total.) He walked us in through the gardens, taking pictures for us and explaining a bit about the history and architecture. Fun facts time: 1. The tombs are false, and the bodies are actually kept in a vault underneath the building. 2. The Taj Mahal is identical on all four sides, with the backside facing the Yamuna River. Of course, the front is the most impressive as the gardens, reflecting pond, and walkways are all in front of it. 3. There was originally one mosque built to the west of the Taj Mahal, and Shah Jahan ended up building another identical building to the east for symmetry’s sake. After our guide left us in peace, we split up and I was on my own, free to wander at will before meeting up later for lunch with the Lithuanians.

One of my favorite parts of the Taj visit was getting up close to look at the beautiful inlays of semiprecious stones in the white marble – nothing is painted, it is all done by hand carving and inlay technique – absolutely beautiful. The Arabic script is also inlay work, with quotes from the Koran, the holy book of Islam, inscribed on the walls. (The Koran inscriptions are to the far left of the flower inlay picture.) I walked all around the outside, the inside, the mosques (my first mosque) and the gardens, enjoying the view from all angles. We did some photo shoots out in the gardens, and then I spent some time just sitting on a bench watching everyone take pictures. It was great because just about every kind of person was there – the rich and fabulous, the classic American tourists with fanny packs and tennis shoes (the southern accent was a dead giveaway too), the cute elderly couples, the families with kids, the hordes of European and Asian tourist groups that looked like their necks were about to break from their heavy cameras, and the Indian tourists. However, it was busy with all of the people, so I went back up to the platform to sit in a quieter location while I waited to meet up for lunch and ended up finding a secluded bench behind the Taj Mahal looking over the river. The sun was nice and hot, I was tired, my cold was kicking in, and my marble bench was so inviting that I ended up laying back and taking a nap for about 15 minutes. What a sight to wake up to.

After lunch we walked the short distance down the river to Agra Fort, the emperor’s old palace. Agra was actually the capital of the Mughal Empire a few hundred years ago, in between Delhi – I wished I had had some more time to explore some more of the earlier architecture. Next time. Anyway, Agra Fort was a wonderful leisurely location – huge, green, very impressive grounds, not too many tourists, and fun to explore. An interesting story about Agra Fort is that in 1659, Emperor Shah Jahan's son Aurangzeb ended up revolting against his father for control of the empire – Shah Jahan barricaded the fort from his son and his army – he held Aurangzeb off for three days, but his son had sneakily cut off the water supply to the fort, so Shah Jahan was forced to surrender. As a result, Aurangzeb imprisoned him in Agra Fort, where he remained for the last six years of his life. Rumor has it that he died in one of the tower balconies that overlooks the Yamuna River and the view of the Taj, where he longed to join his beloved wife for six long years. Poor guy!

Agra was a short but necessary stop – my next destination was to India's capital city, New Delhi. I took a short three hour train to the capital city, where I was greeted by my host for three days, Immanuel. Immanuel is cousins with a friend of my mom’s back home, who I am still so grateful to for helping me out on my India plans. He drove me back to the apartment to meet his family and settle in – I was pretty tired out. After meeting his family (his wife Anu, daughter Tabitha - 15, and son Silas - 8) I was fed a delicious curry meal, while we discussed the next day’s plans. Anu was kind enough to take the day off of work to be my unofficial tour guide. I went to bed exhausted, but well fed, clean, and excited to explore New Delhi the following day.

New Delhi was fantastic – there are so so many sights to see. Anu was a trooper and took me to see Qutb Minar, (below) which is one of the first Mughal structures in India, built in the 13th century to commemorate the Afghan victory, the Red Fort, (pictured below, also built by Shah Jahan, the Taj Mahal guy Jama Masjid, (India’s largest mosque) Humayun’s Tomb, (recently made famous by Obama’s visit) and even a cute little market area with goods and foods from all over India (vastly different depending on the region.) The next day we hit up some of the more recent structures of the city – the British constructed tons of Neoclassical architectural structures for their official government buildings – today used as embassies, meeting halls, and the President’s House. We also saw India Gate, which was built by the British in the 20th century to honor all the Indians who had died fighting overseas in British regiments, Connaught Place, a shopping area where I happily purchased some souvenirs, the National Museum, (we actually only made it to the steps – by that point I was so tired of paying jacked up tourist entrance fees I decided to pass, as we were also tired and running out of time) and even the Baha’i Lotus Temple – very impressive and indeed, lotus shaped. Luckily, New Delhi just recently installed a metro system throughout most of the city, so all of our traveling around was greatly aided by the subway, which interestingly has separate male and female compartments. I loved scoping out all of the beautiful saris, while also noting the contrast between the more modern dress (jeans and t shirts) of the younger generation of girls. Last, Anu took me to one of Asia’s largest shopping malls – I was blown away by how modern it was (actually a series of three malls put together – I only saw one small part of it.) It was fun to be in a shopping mall again.

As interesting and fascinating as all of these sights were to me, one of the things I enjoyed most about Delhi was having a family to stay with, a family who knew the city, knew the country, and were happy to answer my endless questions. As a tourist, it’s easy to just see the bad parts of India: the poverty, the dirtiness, the smells, the tourist hagglers, the noise, while missing out on all of the good parts. India actually has one of the fastest growing economies in the world, and more master’s degrees holders than the entire country of France. The Indian people especially value the importance of education, something many of us Westerners have always taken for granted, and when given the opportunity to access this education, they take it and run with it. I learned a lot about India’s education system from my family and some of their neighbors – it is quite similar to Korea’s actually, with many children going to extra tutoring sessions in subjects like math and science in order to do well in certain entrance exams. I learned that in the majority of schools the subjects are taught in English, as it’s one of India’s national languages, which goes to show how Indians have used their time of oppression by England to their advantage – the combination of being forced to learn English and tendency to excel in math and sciences has led to their extremely successful call center businesses.

Of course, staying with a family meant I received amazing hospitality and was treated with wonderful generosity. I ate so much delicious homemade Indian food and drank many cups of chai tea – a sweet, milky, cinnamon and ginger tea – I was spoiled. Anu taught me a lot about the difference between South Indian food and North Indian food – in the North it is more typical to eat the flat, pancake like bread with curry, while in the South it is primarily eaten with rice. India has twenty eight different states and seven territories, but I now tend to think of India like Europe, with many different small countries stuck together – each state has its own regional food, languages, dialects, customs, and even differences in clothing. It would take many many weeks of traveling, as in Europe, to visit and learn about each state and its traditions!

Delhi was a wonderful learning experience, but of course, I had to move on. My next stop was Jaipur, capital of Rajasthan, the land of kings. Rajasthan is in west India, on the edge of the Thar desert, so the landscape is flat and well, desertlike. I left Delhi early on a morning train to make the five hour journey, where I was to spend the day in Jaipur before departing on a night train that evening to Jodhpur, another Rajasthani city to the south. That suited me just fine, and after storing my huge backpack at the left luggage room in the train station, I set off to explore.

Jaipur is a fairly large city, but after taking an autorickshaw to the Old City, I ended up just hanging out in that area, as it was the most interesting and manageable on foot. The Old City is still surrounded by the old walls, so after entering through the beautiful pink gates, I walked around and observed the sights – tons of little shops lined the roads – not all tourist shops. It actually reminded me of being in an old downtown area in some of the cities in the States – except all the signs were in Hindi and there were quite a few more cows hanging out on the road. I entered my first tourist destination after walking around the Old City – the Hawa Mahal, or Women’s Palace, also known as the Palace of the Winds (I learned from my audioguide that it is called the Palace of the Winds due to all of the open holes in the windows and walls to let the air breeze through the palace grounds, for relief from the hot desert sun.) In Rajasthan there was a strict traditional custom called purdah, which basically means segregation – the palace women and royalty had to live separately from the men, and were kept in confinement in the palace – special windows were built with screens so that the women were able to look outside at the streets below…but no one could look in and see them. The palace was very pretty inside – the picture by the windows is another example of Rajasthani tradition – due to the desert landscape Rajasthan typically used bright colors such as greens, reds, and blues, for decoration. The outside façade, pictured above, though it is actually the backside of the palace, was impressive as well.
After viewing the palace, I got some help from the audioguide guy, who told me about visiting Amber Fort. I could see one fort from the streets that I planned to visit, but then I found out there was actually a bigger, more impressive fort just beyond the hills, out of view from the city center. I took the local bus (my first in India!) and paid about twenty cents to ride about 5 km north out of the city and up a hill to Amber Fort.

As I stopped for a minute to take in the view, I was asked to be in a picture with two girls - I asked them to return the favor...not realizing that I would end up posing for about ten minutes with other groups of people...and that was just at the entrance. Because it was late afternoon I didn’t have time to see both the palace and the fort, so I elected for the palace – bigger and more impressive than the city center palace, which was used for city municipality – Amber Fort was for defending the entire state of Rajasthan a few hundred years ago, which explained its prime location along the top of the hills. The palace was my favorite in India – beautiful carvings, architecture, gardens, and halls, including my personal favorite, the Mirror Hall. In Indian palaces I noticed that typically everything is open and accessible just by walking up the steps into the open rooms – no doors or closed areas like in European palaces, most likely due to the lack of chilly weather. I especially enjoyed the predominant elephant motif of the Jaipur palace, as elephants used to be a main mode of transportation and preferred animal to take for battle – I’d probably rather have an elephant too if I were heading off to fight…I’d let him do all the work and just stomp on people. There was supposed to be an elephant viewing session or something at the base of the fort, but when I reached the area I found out I missed the viewing time – I was disappointed, as I hadn’t seen any elephants in India yet.

Lo and behold, what do I see tromping down the street as I rode the bus back to the city center not even twenty minutes later? Yes, an elephant, with some dude riding on top of it like it was a Sunday stroll. I was thrilled, and wanted to get up close to take a picture. I hopped off the bus at the next stop – I was maybe 100 yards from the elephant and figured I could catch up.

So now I have to ask, have you ever tried to catch an elephant? Let me warn you for future knowledge: those guys are faster than they look. I stopped to take a quick picture as I entered through a pretty gate into the city walls, and when I looked up I thought, uh oh – how did he get that far so fast? I power walked nearly a mile to catch up to him. However, I was greatly rewarded when I finally did because the guy riding him stopped him for me (it could have been a girl elephant, as he or she was painted with pretty flowers…but I chose to believe it was a boy elephan) and some of the kids on the side of the street – I got to pet him and take some pictures. We bonded instantly. It was a sad goodbye.

After my wild elephant chase it was nearly dinnertime, so I spent the remaining daylight walking back through the old city (luckily the elephant didn’t get me too lost) and heading back to the train station area, where I had a delicious meal, wrote in my journal, and did some reading – the perfect end to a fun and busy day. I had been traveling for about two weeks at that point, and I was looking forward to my next destination, Jodhpur, a small city to the southwest, where I would have two full days to explore yet relax a bit.

Relax? Me? Yes. That's exactly what I did in Jodhpur. After some hassling by some overfriendly guys at the coffee shop I was hanging out at before my night train in Jaipur, I was really in a nonsocial mood, and didn’t really want to work up the energy to walk through the streets and fend off all of the tourist hawkers or answer “what country from you madam?” a million times, so when I arrived in Jodhpur the next morning and saw that it was cloudy, which meant my pictures wouldn’t be as nice, I decided to designate a ‘chill’ day and hope for a cloudless sky the next day. I checked into my hostel, walked around a bit to orient myself, (it was nice and small – no autorickshaws needed) found the city center, and then plopped myself down on the second floor of a cute little coffee shop/restaurant attached to a guest house. I chose the seat by the window so I could at least do some people watching and still get part of the Jodhpur experience, so I would feel a little less guilty. On my way there I also found a great bookstore that I was able to do an exchange with the next day, so I had an extra incentive to read and finish up a couple books that I brought along from Nepal - the more I finished the more new ones I could get! So, I spent the majority of the afternoon reading, writing, and sampling some Indian snacks with my coffee. On my way back to the hostel I detoured a bit and wandered into the old part of the city, where I was rewarded with my first spectacular view of the exact reason I had come to Jodhpur: the houses were painted blue. Yes, blue. And not just any blue - all varieties of bright, beautiful blue. I had read about the famous 'blue city,' when I was researching for my trip, and I knew, though it was pretty far out of the way, that I had to go see this city for myself. More information on this to come, don't you worry.

It turned out that my reasoning regarding the cloud cover was a good decision - the next day was sunny and bright - perfect for heading up to the fort for the afternoon. I spent the morning on the rooftop restaurant of my guesthouse, finishing up my book while enjoying a pot of tea and fresh fruit, then walked the short 20 minutes up to the fort, enjoying the peace and quiet outside of the city. As soon as I walked through the gate I was able to get a much better view of the city below, in all its blue glory. The most accepted theory I read about for why the city is blue is that when people first settled here (Jodhpur is only about six centuries old) the Brahmin priests, the highest caste in the caste system, wanted to have a distinction between their houses and the lower castes, so they used indigo to paint their houses, then some time later others followed suit. By the way, the caste system, which is technically not in place anymore but still a traditional mindset for many Hindus, is composed of four social castes that can't intermarry or sometimes can't even associate with others. The highest caste is called Brahmin, the priests, (associated with the head of Brahma, the creator god) then there is the warrior caste, (they came from the heart of Brahma) the merchant caste, (the hands) and finally the artisan caste at the bottom (though sometimes untouchables are included at the bottom - it is such a complex system it's common to hear or read about different explanations. The untouchables are below the artisan caste and were restricted to work in polluting, dirty, or unhealthy jobs, like the bottom of the feet. In Varanasi, I learned that the man responsible for burning the bodies at the cremation ghat is one of the richest men in the city and has a huge house, but as he is an untouchable (since his job deals with dead bodies,) traditionally he has had social limitations.

Anyway, whatever the reason was for the blue city, I'm a fan. Another idea is that the people wanted to use the cool blue color of the houses to simulate the ocean in the middle of the desert - both are valid, but I think I read the Brahmin theory to be the most commonly accepted. Lonely Planet had recommended the free audioguide tour, so I strapped on my headset, got my notebook ready to take notes (yes...I'm one of those people) and set off to explore. Mehrangarh Fort was built in 1459 by Rao Jodha, a Rajput king (Rajput is a state to the south of Rajasthan.) The first thing I learned when I walked inside the fort gates was that the handprints on the wall were actually sati handprints of all of the widows who had last walked through the gate walls. Sati is a custom that wasn't outlawed in India until the 19th century - when a husband died and was cremated, the widow was required to burn alive with him on the funeral pyre. Slightly disturbing, no? Anyways, inside the fort was the palace museum which had an impressive collection of royal regalia such as elephant saddles, cradles, jewelry, and weapons. The Rajputs were famous for their vicious and fierce fighting skills - after seeing some of their elaborate swords and weapons, I'm not surprised. It was a beautiful afternoon - after the museum I walked along the fort walls, taking in the view of the seemingly endless stretch of little blue houses. It made me so happy. But as always, I had a train to catch much too soon, so I had to say goodbye, pick up my bags, and head to the train station in the early evening for my night train to Mumbai.

I arrived in Mumbai two hours late...(this tends to happen when you take night trains) and there ended up being a miscommunication with the family I was staying with - when I called her for directions she said she would come pick me up, but I told her I would wait at the booking office...turned out I was at the wrong part of the station, and there was a much bigger area just down the tracks that I wasn't aware of, where my host was waiting for me. By the time I called her again we both tried to locate each other, and after about two hours of waiting and searching through the hundreds of people and calling at random pay phones it turned out she had to leave to attend a meeting, and she would have me stay with a friend of hers who lived near the station until she could come pick me up. It wasn't really either of our faults - just bad luck - but it happened to be when I had my heavy bags, I was hot, tired, hadn't eaten all day, and really really needed a shower. All part of the experience!

However, as soon as I walked into her friend Rosie's apartment (about a five minute walk from the station - she sent her son to come pick me up once I finally figured out where I was) my anxieties were relieved as she welcomed me, the very unexpected and probably very smelly houseguest into her home with a big smile, a tray of food, and a hot mug of tea. Rosie's husband, who I actually didn't get to meet, is a pastor, which is how she knew my host Jasmine, whose husband is also a pastor. She and her three boys were great fun - we had a good time chatting and getting to know each other - and after my glorious shower we went out for a walk and delicious dinner in the nearby shopping district. I didn't know too much about Mumbai, but I noticed the difference between the north Indian cities right away due to the many palm trees lining the sidewalks. There was also a hint of sea breeze in the air - I could tell I was going to like Mumbai.

Jasmine and her family ended up getting back from their out of town event quite late, so she and Rosie arranged to have me picked up in the morning, after I was fed a delicious breakfast and, of course, more tea. I had a nice chat with her oldest son, who was beginning junior college - this starts a little before the end of our high school, and it is sort of like taking generals in college - the students take a variety of courses for three years, and then when they attend senior college they focus on just one particular major. He had worked in a call center for a brief time, and I found it extremely interesting that during his training, he was taught to 'dumb down' his English to make it easier for American customers to understand. For example, when his mom asked me "so, you are from Minnesota?" he said at work they would be trained to pronounce it like "Minn-uh-so-da," with more of a slur and less annunciation. Try it - say Minnesota like you would normally say it, then with an emphasis on the 't!' I also found out one of the only reasons North American English still has a good reputation, even though it is viewed as more of a 'dirty English' by other countries is because of pop culture and American movies...at least we have that going for us.

The next day I was picked up by Jasmine, and after she finished up some work at the house, we walked a short way to Victoria Gardens, now a zoo, and then we went down to the city center to see the port, the Gateway of India, (pictured above) the Taj Hotel, the former Victoria station, (two of the scenes of the recent terrorist bombings in 2008) and all of the other fantastic examples of British architecture - I have to admit they looked slightly out of place surrounded by palm trees, however. The next day we went to the other side of the coast (Mumbai is actually made up of a series of islands, but it is basically like a mini peninsula) and saw Chowpatty Beach, walked along the beach boardwalk, and rode the intercity train, which was fun to see the city from. I was fed so much delicious rice and curry that I thought I was going to explode. My hosts were wonderful - I had fun chatting with their two adorable daughters, who were busy studying and going to tuition classes, and Jasmine even taught me how to make chapatis, which are thin, crepe like breads that you eat curry with. Again, I was so lucky to have the opportunity to talk with and learn from them - I also met a friend of hers who was an English and history teacher, so we compared our experiences teaching English. It turns out students are the same all around the world.

I'll spare you some of the history here, as I'm sure you're eyes are bugging out if you've read this far. If you think you can make it three more paragraphs, I'll finish up my India experience with my final destination, Goa.
Goa was, in a word, awesome. I was really really looking forward to it, and I felt that by leaving it until the end I would really deserve to have a beach day to end my India trip with - I was correct. I also realized when I got there that it was good I didn't start there and plan to go north, because otherwise I probably wouldn't have left. After my night bus to Goa (I much much prefer trains, I decided) I had to catch a couple other buses to get to the southern part of Goa (which is a state, not just a city name,) where there was a small, beautiful beach with my name on it. The trip down there, however, was one of the most scenic trips in India, as the landscape was bright, fresh green populated with thousands of coconut palm trees - absolutely beautiful.

I arrived in Palolem, a tiny one street 'town,' and with the help of a woman who had been staying there for the past five months (again, I had really good luck asking fellow foreigners for directions) I found a cheap and reasonable guesthouse just a couple of minutes from the beach. I dropped my stuff, changed my clothes, and nearly bolted through the trees to catch the last few hours of afternoon sunshine - and then I saw the beach. My jaw almost dropped - it was perfect. Crescent shaped, palm trees lining the sand, white sand, little beach hut restaurants and shacks all along the edge, and beautiful sparkling blue water. It was all there - I was so happy! I began by staking out a spot on the beach - there were quite a few foreigners there, but with Goa's recent fame in the past few decades this didn't surprise me - and taking a nap in the sun. The beach was the perfect reward after nearly three weeks on the road. After my little beach nap I went back to my room to take a quick shower, then I walked down the beach perusing menus in search of the perfect beach dinner: seafood curry. I wasn't disappointed - it was probably the best meal of India - and I ate it watching the sunset over the beach, listening to the waves, (all the restaurants were open air - you just walk right up to them in the sand and sit yourself down) and smelling the ocean breeze.

I spent the majority of my last day in India on the beach: I woke up early for a sunrise beach walk, which was lovely, and then after fresh fruit, fruit juice, and a coconut pancake (a spicy coconut pancake! Goan specialty) for breakfast I set out to finish my last India book: The Mahabarata, kind of like the Iliad of Indian culture - about an epic war between two clans, with gods intervening and random stories here and there meant to illustrate good behavior and how people should live their lives. They say you can't understand India until you've read the Mahabarata and the Ramayana, so I read them both on my trip - I learned a lot about the Hindu pantheon of gods and their roles in mortal lives, as well as learned about the importance that is stressed on karma, good behavior, the Hindu life cycle of being reborn into different lives, and especially Dharma, which is kind of the underlying yin and yang-like philosophy of how life should be lived, in accordance with good character and morality. It was really interesting - I had to take notes to keep all the names and terms straight - and I was determined to finish it while still in India, so I spent the morning and early afternoon reading on the beach, with little naps and even a swim in between reading. After I was thoroughly toasted and finished the book, I stopped at a little bookstall on the way back to my guesthouse and successfully traded a few more books for the rest of my trip. I had a morning flight out of Bangalore the next day (the cheapest place to fly to Sri Lanka,) so sadly I had to say goodbye to Goa that evening and hit up my last night bus of the trip to get me to Bangalore by 7 AM - I was terribly nervous the bus would be late or something would happen so I would miss the plane, but I lucked out and made it to the airport by 8 AM. I said my goodbyes to India quickly from the airplane, as I passed out even before we took off. I was proud of myself for making it through the past three weeks - it had been a pretty demanding trip, but I don't think I would have liked to do it any other way - I kept saying a short time in one place is better than no time at all. As the plane took me south to the tiny little teardrop shaped island, my next destination, I turned my thoughts to what lay before me: my next to last stop, Sri Lanka.