Bindu's Repose

Dwight D. Eisenhower

An amazing quote by an X president:

I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.

more quotes from quotationspage.com

Changing Etiquette

I thought you were supposed to whisper if you talked in the library... Apparently I'm way wrong with respect to cell phones... I have been in the library for 10 minutes and already overheard 3 cell phone conversations at full volume...

Road Warrior

I had a lovely time in Boulder, and visiting my mum in Albuquerque. Got my 2002 taxes squared away, saw lots of friends, danced, went to men's group, enjoyed being home :) yay! I arrived back in Taiwan this morning, after a pretty grewling (time/routing wise) trip from Albuquerque. About 23 hours flying and about 31 hours total travel time... Shesh... one flight LA to Hong Kong was 14.5 hours! Strange routing Albuquerque to Dallas to LA (go figure)... then LA to Hong Kong and back to Taipei... But it was cheap and the comfortable...

I'm planning on hanging here until the 21st. Will probably head down to Toroko Gorge for a few days before heading out. On the 21st, I'm flying to Bali through Bangkok... I'm planning on a couple weeks in Bali then back to Bangkok to hang with Jess and Wade... hope to dive the Similans with the crew from New Way (now working for Coral Grand in Khao Lak) that I learned to dive with! YAY!!!

Hope everyone is well!

Peace,

-- Bindu

Kenting to Boulder

So in just under two days, I made it from the SCUBA diving at the beach in Southern Taiwan to walking around chilly Boulder, Colorado... No problems at immigration. Wonderfull place to stay here in town. Walked around the hill (university area) last night before bed. Then hit the Dushanbe Tea House for breakfast and then walked around the Pearl St. mall.. Had to goto the Army store for gloves... damn it's cold here! Just wanted to send out an update, to let everyone know that I made it :) I'm heading back to Taiwan on the 13th of Dec, so should have plenty of time to sort out Taxes and visit friends etc here... Yay!!!

Ouch!

Ooops... Apparently I have to be back in the US before Nov 28th... If not, I'll loose my resident alien status (Green Card). I figured this out at 3pm on Nov 25th on the very south end of Taiwan. I'm now set to arrive in Denver on the evening of the 27th. I'm planning on staying in Denver for a bit over a week, then heading to Albuquerque for a few days to visit my mum before heading back to Taiwan. I'll have a week in Taiwan to finish my interrupted tour here, then I'll be going to Bali to spend Christmas with my brother Wade.

So that's the present. I spent my first few weeks in Taiwan with a cold and then looking for teaching work alternatively. I also did lots of exploring the city. There are lots of really cool night markets, great food, good museums, friendly people, excellent local transportation. Taipei is really quite a cool city (dirt and all :) Once I finally found work, I realized that I didn't really want to spend 6 months here so I gave up on teaching and headed out for a tour of the Island.

My first stop was Alishan for some great hiking, some good tea, a really lovely train ride up the mountains, sunrise hike...

From Alishan I headed down the mountains to Kenting (pronounced Kun-ding) which is on the far south of Taiwan. I stayed in a hostel in a Catholic Church... First few days with a couple nice guys (one from Italy, one from Mexico.) Then had a few days on my own in the dorm... Did some diving, lots of reading Gibson in Starbucks :) walking on the beach... was really relaxing until yesterday afternoon, when I happened to check the Department of Homeland Security... I mean immigration website... for Green Card requirements. It used to be that you could stay out for 2 years... still can if you apply for a permit BEFORE leaving the states... Yikes...

BTW, the diving in Taiwan was nice. Not many fish and most of them small, but quite a few I haven't seen before... Cool trumpet fish, puffers, jet black triggers, lots I don't know the name/type of... Mostly it was really nice just being back in the water... Most of the rest of my trip is dedicated to diving, which I'm totally psyched about!

Hope to see some of you soon :)

Loads of Love,

-- Bindu

Goodbye Japan, Hello Taiwan

I have had a very full two weeks in Japan and am now heading to Taiwan. Just wanted to post this brief note so folks know where I'm at. Will post more about Japan from Taipe.

Peace!

Hangzhou and Li Shui

From WuYi Shan I had a really horrible night train ride to Hangzhou. Was a night train and I was issued a standing ticket! Yikes... Sat several different places, but ended up in the food carriage... I may have slept for an hour or so on the 14 hour journey... Watching the sunrise over really lovely mountains and fields was a bit of recompense...

But the real treat was one night in a REALLY nice hotel (most hotels would have charged two days since I checked in at 7am) so it wasn't terribly expensive for one day/night even got two breakfasts with cornflakes out of the deal :)

In the afternoon I went for a walk around West Lake which is very famous around China. It's really lovely even though it's prety developed. Along the way I met a Chinese guy (Allen is his English name) and his "Sister" (Candy is her English name)... we walked and talked for a while and then had dinner. Allen is quite an amazing man. He is a Bilogigy teach in the North East of China. He had two weeks off work and was in town visiting his "sister"... His American (I would say English, except he speaks American :) is exceptional. It's really hard for me to understand how someone could develop such an amazing vocabulary and ease with a language without having spoken with foriegners more than a handfull of times. Anyway, they invited me to Li Shui to stay with Candy's family for a few days. What an absolutely amazing experience! I spent the afternoon of my second day in Hangzhou in Candy's shop, wich is a sports clothing shop in a huge building full of mostly Shoe stores... Then we took the bus (3 hours) to Li Shui.

Candy's hubby, Da Liang (means big Liang, which is his family name), was at the bus station to meet us with their car, which we had to push start because they were having problems with the battery. We went out to dinner with some school friends of Candy's. Allen convinced me to try Cicadas (sp?) looked like beatles... Was hard to eat the first one, but easy to eat the send, third, fourth, etc :) The restaurant was very sparse dirty concrete with plastic tables and chairs, on the edge of a really lovely little lake with neon animal signs all over the place :) We had some spectacular fish!

The chinese way of eating is really great. You have a big stew in the middle of the table and lots of dishes that everyone shares. Then there is the drinking. Lots and lots of drinking. Mostly ale.. You make as if to knock glasses with someone except you just touch your knuckles, you say "Gambe" and shoot the whole glass. Then fill it and go again... Generally you don't take a sip without engaging someone in this ritual... And you can't say no! At leat it's not poilite although, very luckily I received some leeway on this point as a foriegner...

After dinner we stopped at a family friends house. Candy is involved with Amway and had some business to do with her friend and I got the vague impression that I was being shown off :)

The first day, Allen, Da Liang and I took the car to be repaired and then went sight seeing. The chinese seem very civilized about this. We would walk around for half an hour then stop to eat or drink something... Take lots of photos (I have millions to post and finally a place to post from so expect loads of photos in the next few days)... then repeat... We had another group dinner, at which I tried snales (again, thanks to Allens encouragement ;) The taste was quite nice, but I don't really like the texture...

The following day we all (including Candy) wen't to visit Candy's mum, sister and brother. Had a lovely lunch with her mum. Then visitid big brother and then big sister. I didn't quite understand this. We didn't seem to settle anywhere. WE just sort of jumped from house to house. Got to tour some really extravagant (by Chinese standards) houses and drink a little tea. Then whisk off to the next house. We all (except big brother who rode is motor bike) crammed into the car and went to a community college where Da Liang had been a Phys Ed teacher many years ago. We visited the local leaning tower of... not sure what it was called ;) ... then drove out to a farm house in the boonies for a rather wild goose dinner... Was very good... I even liked the blood Tofu made with Goose blood... although again, the texture was a bit strange... This dinner did my head in, because big brother took significant advantage of his position as head of the family to induce a lot of drinking :) Again, I had to play the foriegner card after a small bottle of wine (more like sweet whisky)... Got drunk for the second time on this trip... and paid for it the next morning!

Day three, was introduced to one of Candy's associates who owns a kindergarden and offered a job teaching english. I really wish I had not been hungover for this meeting! Everyone was very understanding, but I still hate feeling like that! We had a big group lunch and headed out to the University that looks brandspanking new (with loads of empty dorm rooms.) for a bit of a tour. Part of the job there if I take it would include teaching at the Uni. It's all a bit nebulouse, but also sounds like a very good deal... Business is conducted in a very round about way here...

Then back home, I packed and got the bus back to Hangzhou. Had a really hard time finding a good hotel, ended up paying more than I wanted to, but that apparently is just how Hangzhou is...

After a really good nights sleep, did some chours, then got the tourist bus to to the Dragon Well. Probably my favorite Chinese tea is Dragon Well (Lung Ching) which got it's name from the local well. Part of the mythology of this tea states that it tastes best if you brew it with water from the dragon well. The well apparently got it's name because the riples on the surface of the well look like a dragon... I was rather dissapointed that the well is now too pulted to make tea with :( but I washed my hands and face with the water and tooks ome photos. I also met a Taiwanese couple on the bus (Esther and Allen are their English names) who I hung out with for a few hours. We went to a local tea house and sampled the tea... and watched a guy making the tea in large wok. Unfortunately all of the tea I tried here was not very good... although it was very fresh, which I enjoyed experiencing.

From the well we headed to a place called Tiger-Leaping (I think) which is another well surrounded by a large garden. This well is not poluted. They demonstrate this by filling a bowl so full that the water raises about half a centimeter above the rim (due to surface tension) and then they float coins on top of the water! This is now supposed to be the best water to make dragon well tea with... The water was very fresh, but the tea again was mediocer.

Allen, Esther and I went our seperate ways after the Tiger-Leaping. I headed to the China National Tea Museum, which is incredibly informative. Lovely grounds and everything is in Chinese and English. I took about 100 photos mostly of the descriptive text in the exhibits :)

Was a really lovely day despite not finding any good Dragon Well tea. The following day I wandered around town, met an American guy and English gal in the Foriegn Language bookshop and wandered around together for a while. Got some tips about teaching English in China. Then hooked up with Allen and Cindy for dinner and a stroll down a rebuilt classical chinese shopping street... Said sorrowfull goodbyes and went to bed...

This morning I took a double-decker train to Shianghi. Spent the afternoon walking around town. It has been a really action packed few weeks and I'm ready to take it easy for a few days before heading to Japan. I expect I'll hit some of the tourist sites here in Shianghi and try to ferret out some good tea houses. But also take a break from all the input :)

Loads of love to you all!

From China with Love

Let's see, where did I leave off? Raoping... Well, from a purely tea perspective it was a dud. I did see some tea growing along the road on the bus trips there and back, and I'm pretty sure that after an hour walk to get out of town I was able to look at some tea bushes, they looked like tea, but did not taste like it... Go figure...

On the other hand I had a couple of really cool experiences, I got there at about 2pm and had not eaten lunch so I found a road stall and had a lovely time phrase-chatting with the folks their... After about an hour of fried vegies, very basic tea and really good humored company, they refused to let me pay even though I begged them several times... So that was a really nice intro to the town.

From lunch I made my way to a nearby hill... it was a strange piece of city geography a very steep quite high hill in the middle of town. It seemed like a great vantage point to scope which direction I should head for my tea adventure... At the top were several large (10 meters in diameter) concrete domes... they were only about 3 meters high. On these were painted disney characters donald duck was really good! There were also three young guys who were lounging in a bamboo hut (they looked a little like friendly thugs)... I tried to figre out if the area was a bar, tea house (there were a bunch of tea pots and heaters laying around) or a dance scene... They were more interested in their game of cards, but they did offer me some really nice tea (the best I had had in China so far.)

After not very long, I got bored with watching these guys and their card game and headed down the mountain and in the direction that looked to provide the closes vegitation. After an hour I managed to get to the fields and had a bit of a stomp (carefully) around, and possible even saw some tea. Seemed like it was mostly salad greens though. On the way I had my first moon cake, which to my delight did not have an egg yolk in the middle and was really delicious!

That's the high points for Raoping, the next day I headed to Xiamen. I stayed on an island on the west edge of the city, called Gulang Yu. This island, is was where many of the foreign consulates were for this part of china. Lots of european architecture and they have recently done quite a lot of really nice landscaping on the northern edge of the island.

I spent about 5 days here and in Xiamen proper. The island was lovely, I'm not sure about the dimensions, but it took about 2 1/2 hours to walk around. The north is mostly landscaped and the south is mostly beaches. I finally found tea (which Fujian, the province where Xiamen is located, is famous for). Lots and lots of tea. Every 3rd or 4th shop seemed to be a tea shop and I had some very nice Tiguanyin (Iron Godess of Mercy Oolong).

I also visited the local aquarium and did a day trip to the TenFu Tea Museum in Zhan'Pu (sp?). I had an amazing time at the museum. Since it was in the middle of the week, I pretty much had the place to myself. According to them, it's the largest tea museum in the world. We (myself and 5 chinese business men who were the only other guests there) watched a presentation on traditional Chinese tea ceremony and one on Japanese tea ceremony. The Chinese one was simple and very nice. The Chinese one was put on by about 8 girls with very new looking period costumes who did the whole thing coriographed (sp?) to a rather nice classical Chinese folk sound track. They served us 3 types of tea, all of wich were delicious (well at least two out of three were delicous and one was really interesting, if not quite delicious - it was bitter tea.) My guide who spent the whole time with me at no extra cost was very helpfull and informative. She showed me the cave where they age their Pu Ehr teas and we walked around their lovely lake that is fed by a local mountain spring.

Unfortunately I missed the last bus back to Xiamen (mostly because I was too obstinate to accept a taxi-motorcycle ride to the bus station and just had to walk.) I got there and watched the last bus leaving :( So I paid $25 for the 2 hour ride back to Xiamen in a Taxi... My credit card went into fraud mode, which it seems to do with each new country I reach, and I had an unbeleivable horendous time trying to call the credit card company to get the card re-enabled.... I don't want to remember what else, but there were a few other things, that evening and the following morning. Definately got me in the mood to leave dodge.

From Xiamen, I headed up to WuYi Shan, which is where I am now. It is a very famous area for Chinese tourists, because of the lovely scenery, local Buddhist sites, and some really good tea. I had a guide (who had excellent English skills) show me around today. We went to see the King of Tea plants (as far as I can tell this is a little like King Arthurs grave or Billy the Kids final resting place... i.e. there are quite a few of them;). And walked about 6 or 7 kilometers through really lovely craggy mountains and tea fields. Then ended up at a Tea Factory where I enjoyed some very fine Rock Tea! So named because it grows out of rocks :)

That about brings me up to-date. Internet connections are hard to come by here, although they seem to be fast and cheap when I find them (if not completely reliable.) Also a quick note about my hotel. I'm staying in a really great hotel for $10 a night. It's a little funky, and definately looks like it has seen better days, but for some reason it has a large amount of charm! I love it, cold water and all ;) The view of the tea garden and the lovely sound of frogs and crickets out the window don't hurt either :)

All the best to all of you wherever you are!

The road to China

OK, it was the rail to china, but it doesn't sound quite as nice!

Had a bit of a hecktick time replying to emails then getting to the train station at the last minute to check through customes and get on the train to Zhaoqing (pronounced dzow-ching). I ended up with a 6 person compartment to myself. Was a really nice clean train. There were quite a few pretty young Chinese girls in uniforms, sort of stewardesses who came around and served tea and checked tickets, etc. I ended up having long chats with a few of the passengers and one of the "stewardesses". The journey was over in no time (4 hours felt like half an hour.)

I'm incredibly glad I have a Mandarin phrase book with me! It is very exciting communicating with people with very few words in common (maybe 4 or 5 words)... It is also very tiring!

I spent the first day in Zhaoqing drinking tea and exploring town, lots of big modern shopping centers, lots of really run down 60's ish concrete attrocities that seem to be how the Chinese are able to have populations of 4-6 million people in a town that is maybe twice the size of Bouler (130K people last time I checked) and lots of older maybe early 1900's brick buildings... All sort of tumbling on top of eachother.

It took 2 hours in the tea shop to finally explain that I wanted to try Zhaoqing tea, not Fujian tea or Taiwan tea, since I'm going to Fujina in a week and Taiwan after that. I have to say that although Zhaoqing tea was interesting and I did eventually find one that's quite nice, most of it is not at all to my taste!!! One of them tasted almost exactly like the Alfalfa hay Jackie and I used to feed the rabbits. One of them tasted like tea that was brewed in a coffee pot (with residual coffee...) Yuck! :)

In the evening I discovered a rather cool fountain near the hotel that squirts synchronised with classical and marching music. Had lots of colored lights too. My guess is that the show was in honor of the Mid-Autumn festival, which is going on at the moment. In Zhaoqing, everybody and their mother's brother's cousin was out buying moon cakes, which must be a seasonal delicacy. Actually today is the official day for the festival, the only thing I've seen today is people burning "money"... Sheets of paper with fancy gold writing on that I believe is supposed to reresent money to pay of the spirits or something...

The following day, I went to Dangu Shan (a really nice local mountain/nature preserve.) Bumped into two really sweat brits who were in town with a group of university students on a photography course. Nigel, Penny and I ended up spending the afternoon walking through the wood and saw a bunch of realy nice waterfalls (none quite as spectacular as the one in Luang Prabang though :)...

Yesterday I took the train to Shantou (pronounced san-tao -- not dao). I got in at 11pm and took a room in the first hotel I found down town. It was pretty grotty and there were lots of business men with pretty young women checking in at 11pm... So I spent this morning looking around for a different hotel. I ended up in a much nicer place that's run by a Chinese/Thai couple. For only $12 a night... Totally worth it!!! I guess I should wait and see tonight, but it feels much nicer and the staff speak more english and are more willing to work with me messing up my Mandarin :)

I also purchased bus tickets to Xiamen (pronounced shamen) for the 13th. And sussed out how to get to Raoping (pronounced Jow-ping... go figure) which is where most of the local tea here is grown and processed. I don't have any contacts so it's quite likely that I won't get see in any factories, but I figure I'll go snooping around and see if I can charm my way into some tea estates and factories... it's really a bit of an experiement. The other option is to call folks and tell them I want to purchase tea, but I need to see things first... I don't really want to do that though.

My time at this cafe just ran out, so I'll check out now.

Lots of Love!

Update from Luang PBang

So I've been in Luang PBang (Laos) for just over a week. Turns out that many of the shops are closed on Sunday so things livened up quite a lot the day after I got here. I've seen lots of museums, temples, been hiking, biking and motor cycling around. One expedition to a big local waterfall was worth the whole trip to Laos! The view from the bottom and the opportuity for a swim was really nice, but a 15 minute hike up the mountain and then into! the waterfall revealed a couple of really lovely pools for swiming in, with water falling from above then going over the lip of the pools and falling down bellow. Very dramatic and really just wonderfull!!! (Thanks Jewels for the tip!!!!)

That being said, I'm feeling quite mixed about being here. I'm not taken by the city as much as I had expected to be, and I'm really not sure what to do about my trip into China, which is both a thrilling prospect and a daunting one. I think I'll leave for Vian Vieng on Wednesday and spend a few days there. Then head down to Vientien. I can then fly to China directly or head back to Thailand and use my existing Bangkok-Hong Kong ticket. On top of the trepidation I'm feeling about going into China, I'm also not sure about my itinerary once there. I have been planning for a long time to go to Yunnan province, Hong Kong and up the east coast to Shianghai, however after reading a bunch about Yunnan, I'm less inclined to go there and instead I think I'll focus my time on the east coast, as it contains the major tea producing reagions I'm interested in visiting. This may also give me enough time to visit Bajing, which seems more interesting now than when I started the trip. The confusion I'm feeling has to do with breaking my existing plans which were pretty arbitrary for another set of plans which are still pretty arbitrary and not having a good mean of getting a sanity check (Other than just telling myself to jump :)

Much love to you all!!!

-- Bindu

My Chaing Mai

Chiang Mai has been really lovely! Spent a couple of days roaming the city, then 4 days learning to cook Thai food... yum! I've also been to the zoo, several markets (including a buffalo market this morning... thanks Caroline!), have visited several temples (including Wat Suthep), went to a Monk Chat and got Laos and China visa sorted out... A really great eight days!

I ran into a couple of the beautifull people from Koh Tao (Jamie and Kathy, hope to see you both in Laos!) Also met two women from England who are working in Thailand teaching English (Caroline and Niki, I really enjoyed meeting you!)

I'm still missing all the folks from Koh Tao, I definately appreciated meeting up with Jamie and Kathy here... What a small world! I've also been jonesing for diving, so it was really great to hear that the weather has been carp on Tao since I left :) Just kidding... Congrats Marie on becoming a DM!!! Hope the 6-way snorkel test is a blast for the current DMTs! You are all bastards for seeing turtles and leopard sharks, but I forgive you ;) Ahem...

Tomorrow afternoon, I'm flying to Luang Prabang in Laos. Not sure if I'll travel around much or just hang there for a couple of weeks. Sounds like there are lots of lovely day trips... and the town sounds like a great place to just be for a while... If it's anything like Chiang Mai I'll be really happy!

I'm also thinking about going into China overland from Laos and not using my flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong.. Will probably head up to Yunnan for a few weaks then wind down to Hong Kong, then up the east coast to tour tea estates. Dragon Well, here I come!

Loads of Love to you all!!!

Phoenix Rising

Just a short update: I'm nearly done with the divemaster course. Expect to be done sometime next week. I feel like I have learned so much over the last few weeks. I have quite enjoyed the diving and the school here and I'm really looking forward to diving in Australia when/if I get there.

Will probably head for Laos and the Chang Mai for a few weeks each and then for Hong Kong and the rest of China (having deja-vu, did I say this in a previous post? :) Had a really nice chat with some other travelers last night who highly recomended china and gave me some good advice, yay!

I finally got hold of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix today, so am working my way through this humungous volume! On this account I may not be checking email for the next few days :)

Tons of Love to you all!

-- Bindu

China Oh My

Yipeeeee!!! Just checked and the US state department has officially removed the travel warning to Hong Kong and China!!!!

The dive master course is going really well. I could probably be done in about a week, but will probably stretch it out for another two or three.

Really enjoying being here now.

Lots of Love to you all!!!

-- Bindu

High tide for an update

So I'm still on Koh Tao (turtle island) in Thailand. I completed a bunch of scuba courses, wasn't sure if I was going to do the dive master course or not, so went and dove some. The visibility has been really bad for the last couple of weeks, so I have been focusing on skills rather than the lovely life under the waves (most of which I haven't seen while diving.) I have been out snorkeling 3 or 4 times, it's lovely! Much freer than scuba in someways... and less free in others ;) and I have been able to appreciate all the fishes that are not visible when scuba diving.

I have to figure out my visa situation, but assuming I can get it sorted, I'm planning on doing the dive master course, probably starting in the next few days. I have been mostly doing nothing (reading, watching movies, eating, sitting on the beach :) and I finally figured out yesterday that I'm waiting for something, but don't know what... and that pissed me off... Had a few ideas about what I might be waiting for... passion seems to be the most obvious thing... Other things too... mostly it feels like a habit... So, I'm going to sort out some stuff to do. Still leaving myself time for reading, movies, hacking, etc... just want to get a little structure around my time... seems like as much as I don't like structure, some is good...

I feel like I'm rambling... not just in this email, but inside... In some ways I feel really lucky to have space to ramble inside :)

I have a small photo gallery of my first week here to which I will add some footage of my open water course (up top and underwater) and I promise (really) that I'll get it posted in the next few days (I'm not really promising any of you, I'm promising myself so I dont' have to think about it anymore ;)

A couple of Nancy's friends were on an island near here and came to visit for a couple days. We had a lovely time! (Props to Zoe and David!)

I've been thinking about Nancy a lot, 'cuz she's revising and I know how much that sucks. Lotsa love to you darlin!!!

Internet here is super expensive, but I finally found a reasonably priced place near my hut so will try to keep in touch a bit more. Although I'm not posting here much because there isn't much going on...

Advanced Open Water + Nitrox

So I finished my Advanced Open Water and Nitrox certifications. Had a blast for a week diving, and learning. Now I'm feeling pretty worn out so am taking a day or two off from diving.

It's quite an amazing experience being underwater for an hour. I was a little dissapointed that there weren't more fish, more corals, more color... My fantasies about the unknown can get very wild :) On the other hand, seeing and being in the real environment is amazing, and different each day. I have been to a few dive sites more than once and they seem very different each time. Because the visibility, currents, animals, etc are different every day.

So far I've seen some pretty cool stuff: Some 2.5m reef sharks up close, A giant (actually wasn't technically a giant, but was quite large) turtle, box fish, 1.5m groupers, moray eels, rays, tiny neon blue jelly fish, foot ball sized jelly fish, schools of baracuda, a sea snake, my buddy even got attacked by a couple of trigger fish on our first solo excursion... Then lots of small fish that hang around the reefs.

One of the Dive Masters In Training graduated a couple of days ago, and as a consequence, he had to complete a snorkel test last night. It was quite funny, they put a dive mask and fins on him then put a snorkel in his mouth. The snorkel is rigged up to a big bucket into which is poured a nasty concoction of hard liquer and beer... He drank the whole lot! and managed to stay standing for a few hours!

Even though its gorgeous here, I haven't been in a photo taking mood, so I grabbed a bunch of photos from my dive buddy, Gray, and I'll post a gallery in the next few days.

Lots of Love to you all!

-- Bindu

Quick First Update from Thailand

Several people have emailed and asked if I'm OK, since it has been a while since my last update. I'm in Thailand on Koh Tao, doing great. I spent my first week here in Bangkok with a nasty cold... which gave me lots of opportunity to watch movies and shop, but did get old after a while. I flew to Koh Samui and then took a boat over to Koh Tao. I just finished all my dives for my open water certification and have to go take the written test in about 10 minutes. I'm planning on going straight into the Advanced course so that I can try some different skills, like deeper dives and nitrox ;) I'm having a really good time, learning a lot. I haven't had much time other than school, eat sleep for the last 4 days and expect the next 2 or 3 to be the same. Then I hope to be able to catch up with folks a little more.

Hope you are all doing very well!

Blessings,

-- Bindu

Delhi Belly

So after months of good health in India. I finally sucumbed to Delhi belly... In Delhi of all places... Kept me in bed for a couple days. I got better and then.. Somehow tweaked my neck and spent today on anti-inflamatory drugs with lots of hot packs... Shesh...

And for some reason I don't feel down about this... Not sure why... Maybe it's because I don't have any plans or anything else that needs doing and taking care of myself is actually a really nice thing to do... (despite having to.)

I spent a day (a few days ago) doing a Delhi tour. Mostly it sucked. Not very interesting things to see (Indira Gadhi's House for example.) I think most of the sites were geared towards Indian tourists. The Lotus Temple was really lovely!!! First time I've really felt the power of a pyramidal structure... and it isn't really a pyramid... Just has that magical sense of space inside... Other than that we drove past most of the other interesting places (Red Fort and the tall phalus thingy... ah... tower.. I don't remember the name)

Other than that. I've been reading, watching TV, being sick, walking around markets, surfing the net, eating good food. Has actually been really relaxing.

I'm very excited to leave for Thailand in a couple days. I just confirmed my flight and although the time has changed, the flight is still supposed to go. Yay. I'm esp. excited about learning to Scuba dive. Anyone out there know a good Scuba school on Ko Tao?

As for SARS, I expect I'll extend my stay in Thailand for an extra month and I really hope that a cure/treatment has been found. Because it will be very hard for me to miss Hong Kong, China... Will see as the time comes.

Much Love!

-- Bindu

Temple Tour

After several days in Delhi dealing with my Indian and Thai visas, I headed off to Agro..... I mean Agra ;) Mostly a horrid town, although I discovered on my second (last day) that the warrens around the Taj are pretty cool... Still major hastle from the Touts... Shesh... Anyway, I did a proper tour of Fateh Pur Sikri, The Taj Mahal and The Red Fort. Quite amazing... Esp. the Taj which did not fit my expectations at all, but felt so magical inside... Amazing... Hard to put into words. There are all these inlaid flowers that are made with semi-precious stones. The ones outside are nice. The ones inside are breath-taking. They use the grain of the stones to create wonderfull textures. Too bad there is no photography inside (although I have a big photo gallery, from this trip, that will include some shots of the outside in the works.) I stayed at the Red Fort so that I could see the view of the Taj and sunset. Alas they close half an hour BEFORE sunset :( On the positive side, the guard that gave me the bad news took me into one of the fenced off areas... Aparently the guy who comissioned the Taj was imprisoned in the Red Fort by his son. Since his eye sight was bad, one of his daugters put a huge diamond in one of the walls of this fenced off area. Apparently the diamond projected the Taj into the room so that papa could see his monument to love. Very cool! Too bad the diamond wasn't there anymore ;)

From Agro, I headed to Orchha (near Jhansi which is a travel hub for Khajuraho) for a couple days. Very nice small town with some great old palaces. Not anything like the fancy stuff at Agro, but you can climb around and find secret passages and there are some nice mosaics (pictures in the works.)

From Orchha I came to Khujaraho. The temples here are AMAZING... At least the sculptures. There are a lot of erotic sculptures, and many many more that are not erotic, gods, nymphs, etc. I went on a day trip today to see a Tiger Reservation (not very exciting really, no tigers today ):

Tomorrow I'm off to Varanasi, I hope to take a boat ride on the Ganges at sunrise. Chill for a couple days and then head back to Delhi. Not sure if I'll just hang in Delhi for the following couple weeks or make it up to Simla and Manali which should be cooler and mellower than Delhi... I really want to do that because it is DAMN HOT here (no I TOLD YOU SOs please ;) Just not sure I can handle the train ride up there.. Will see if there is a good express.

More Galleries

I just uploaded two more photo galleries (since the two earlier today :)

Munnar 2 has some really lovely landscapes.

Kerala 2 has more interesting stuff from the last few days.

I think both of these galleries are really worth a look, I hope you do too :)

Lots of Love,

-- Bindu

God damn that mother fucker!

My god I'm pissed off! I’ve known for some time that war with Iraq was a real possibility. And yet I still feel totally taken aback at the declaration today. I have hoped desperately that Washington has been strong-arming Saddam because that gets some level of cooperation - not because they want to go against the majority of the western world (including the US population) and actually start a war with Iraq.

I fear that this war will fuel major religious fanatics the world over (Christian and Muslim initially) to commit atrocities upon atrocities. The issue for me is fear. I fear what will happen to the world in the next few days. My god, how must the people in Iraq be feeling right now? As most of the world sits back and watches yet another war with massive media coverage, we become desensitized to collateral damage. Why? Because we fear thinking about the mothers, brothers, children, grandparents, cousins, uncles of the devastated… Because we fear our lust for victory… Because we fear that our moral position stinks… How many innocent people will we kill this time? How many guilty people? Who’s really guilty here? We, as a world, loose even more of our humanity inch by inch with this one.

Tonight I pray for peace. In my heart of hearts I wish that we could fire the negotiators (the ones that actually make the decisions) that have failed rather than the innocents that elect (or put up with in this case) the negotiators. I’m trying not to visualize a procession of the dead Iraqis and Americans that will not come home after this struggle… the thing is, I can’t… The procession feels endless…

Goan Awal

It's been too long! So much to report and yet another full day... at least a day away from the computer... full with the beach and swimming, and poi, and motorcycle rides up the coast to find a restaurant run by a German lady :)

My last few weeks in Pune were quite intense, had short and sweet relationship. Worked on my friend, Dilip's, internet cafe and had my last two wisdome teach pulled, one at a time, one week apart. Also tried to go for a tandem Paragliding flight a few times (with Dilip) but the wind wasn't right.

After being in the commune (resort) for a while I definately started feeling how much I create a daily schedule... I started getting very bored...

I took a bus from Pune to Panchgani (sp?) for a few days at an realy sweat Eco Camp... Tents overlooking a beautifull ravine! It was quiet a magical experience. I got to the bus station early and hoped to get an earlier bus, but that didn't happen so I ended up sitting arround for two hours watching the life of a metropolitan Indian bus station... Heh... Then 3 hours on the deulux bus (yeah right)... And get to Panchgani... I started on the 10 minute walk to the camp, halfway there someone calls my name. A paraglider I had met a few weeks before was driving into town in the Eco Camp Jeep for grocaries... So I hitched a lift to camp and we caught up with good home made chai on their porch (what an amazing view!!!) The wind came up and we rushed off so I could have a tandem flight... WOW!!! It was amazing... It wasn't very long, but was enough to pique (sp?) my interest in learning to Paraglide... Afterwards, Gerard (french tandem pilot who took my up) invited a bunch of us to dinner at a fancy local hotel... Or should I say the fancy local hotel... He had given the managers free flights and in return they gave everyone dinner and a movie... James Bond in comfy leather couches... Somehow, not very Indian... but it was a blast...

The next few days were relaxing... The trip to Goa was a bit of a fiasco... Took a Taxi for 3 hours over the mountains to Khed. Then waited for two hours for my train. No trains went through the station until the exact time of my train. I was so impressed with the timelyness that I got on the train... Ooops... wrong train. Four hours later on the slowest train in the world I got off at Ratnagiri, so that I could call the cab driver I had booked so he didn't drive the 1 hour to pick me up and then not find me... Wasn't sure if I would have to stay there overnight or not. Ended up getting a ticket for 6:20pm... The train finally arived at 8:20pm... Shesh... The rest of the journey was short and sweet... I slept the whole way :)

Spent the night in Panaji and then came to Candolim. Have been here for a couple days... More levels of relaxation... Playing poi on the beach. Eating yummy food. Went for a lovely moonlight walk on the beach last night... Then the moon dissapeared... not sure how that happened. At first it was bright white and then it just got oranger and oranger (is that a word :)... Then it was gone... The stars were still out, and we could still see the lights of the boats out on the ocean... It was back when I woke up in the middle of the night...

I have some pictures, but am finding it hard to find somewhere where I can upload them. Will keep trying to get them posted.

Tons of love to you all!

-- Bindu

Remember Shakti

I went to the Remember Shakti concert (John McLaughlin - Guitar, Zakir Hussain - Tabla, U. Shrinivas - Mandolin & V. Selvaganesh - Kanjira) a couple nights ago. Totally amazing you should all go see them if they are in your neck of the woods :)

The previous week I saw Prem Joshua, who also rocked! The laser show was a bit much since the thing kept shooting in my eyes, but the music was great!

Getting the tickets for the Remember Shakti concert was a lesson in what India is like. My roomate (more on that later) and I went to the local spice market where they were supposed to be selling tickets, but they were closed (at least the ticket office was)... "Come back in 45 minutes" we were told... So rather than taking both of our time, I decided to get tickets for the both of us. An hour or so later I walked back there and they said, oh sorry we sold out yesterday... Damn... So as I'm walking out I hear some people in a rickshaw talking about tickets and I pop my head in and tell them the tickets are sold out... No problem they say, we just have to go to The University Of Pune where the concert is being held and we can buy tickets, do I want to share the ride? How cool is that, so 30 minutes in a rickshaw through what I think would pass as pretty main roads here, and we get to the Uni, buy tickets and ride back for another 30 minutes.

Now about the room-mate situation. Pretty soon (following day maybe) after my previous post I got fed up with dealing with the rental agents here and went out on my own. I found a posting in the welcome center at the "resort" that was recent and suggested that interested parties should stop by before 11am.. It was 2pm already. I figured I stop by just in case. Amazingly Kish (the owner) was there for 2 minutes and we happened to be there at the same time. He has a really nice two bedroom apt. nearish to the resort (at the Woods for those of you in the know :). I took it on the spot, and have been really happy with the whole setup.

A few days ago, Kish (Avalon) and his GF Neera (Michele) left for Goa and they rented their second room to a woman from Italy. She's here for a 21 day training, so is not really going to be arround much.

So I have this really nice apt. with a modern kitchen, washer, dryer, TV, etc... mostly to myself!!! Yay!!!

Kundalini continues to be good, more silence and less fantasizing about romance :) I have also tried the AUM Meditation a couple of times. It's quite intense, but so far I haven't found it "meditative"... 12 stages over 2 1/2 hours... The initial ones take lots of energy!!!

The first time I did AUM, my glasses broke, so I had to go buy new ones (I'm sooo glad I brought a spare pare with me :) $100 for glasses that would have cost at least $300 in the states... Definately some benefits to this country!!! I'm having the old ones mended, but doubt they will last long since the bridge snapped.

Now for something completely different. Have you ever heard of an Ego Search? If not I bet most of you have done one, and if not you will :) The idea is that you go to one of the big search engines Google or Altavista for example and put in your own name. Search the net for yourself... it's called an Ego Search... I think I have discovered a new height to this ego searching phenomena ;) One of my roomates from college (Crosby) came across an article about those infamouse "orange people" written by an old friend of mine... Anyway Crosby mentioned it because the article makes some brief reference to me... If that isn't enough reason for you to read the article ;) it is a really interesting and worth reading. What's more, Tim (Yogesh) is writing a book about the whole life of a commune kid so there should be more eventually.

Oh and did I mention that Crosby is getting married!!!! My good friends Eric and Heather are also getting married!!!! Congratulations you guys!!! I'm so happy for you!!!!!!!

Wishing lots of love and peace to everyone out there!

-- Bindu

Meditation Resort

OK, so I was going to go to a wedding in Delhi, but the wedding is tomorrow and I only just got in touch with Gopesh (my friend who invited me) this evening. All trains are booked and the flights cost way too much $$$... In a way I'm really bummed, because I would have really enjoyed meeting Gopesh's family and also, I imagine that Hindi weddings in India are huge affairs. At least I'll get to meet his wife since she is comming back here with him in early Feb. Also, I will visit Delhi later in my trip as that is my departure city for Thailand.

Last night I was walking to a friends house for a Japanese party when I ran into a wedding procession. Holly crap!!! It was night time, but there were all these guys with huge lanterns on their heads (too bad I didn't have my camera.) Very loud wonderfull music, dancing in the street (totally screwing up traffic.) and very loud firecrackers!!!! Yikes... Fun though.

So I'm still in the cheap ($18/week) apt near the commune. Lots of people were here for the death day celebration (Jan 19th) and are leaving now, so I hope to find a much nicer place soon. I have an apointment with a reputable agent tomorrow. I'm currently thinking that I'll spend a month more here and then head out to Goa. I have heard that a really nice apt will cost between $100 and $200 per month! (Which I'm happy about :)

A couple people have asked via email about my dialy routine, so far it looks roughly like this:

Get up between 9:30 and 10:30 in the morning.
Head over to the "Resort" for some samosa and tea
Goto Teartha Zen Garden and read
Have lunch
I started playing with Poi (colorfull spinny things, the guy that was here with juggling clubs left so I'm taking up a new sport until I can find something to juggle :) today, so I will probably be doing that for an hour or two in the afternoon.
Kundalini
Snack
Shower and change for white robe
White robe
Get changed back into streat clothes
Dinner (maybe in the commune or maybe out.)
If something is going on at the resort (like dancing) then hang out
Usually get to bed by midnight or 1am (just like home)

I usually find some time to do some emails in the middle of all that hard work too :)

Kundalini is really good. Although I seem to be fantasizing about romance when I'm supposed to be in inner silence :)

I have another Core Alignment (massage) session tomorrow which sounds like it will be really good (will be doing deep abdomen work.)

Have been spending some time with Vardhan (used to be Ben -- of solstice fame) and his japanese GF, Hansa. Hence the japaneese party last night :) It is strange to sort of know someone for a long time but not really know them and then meet and hangout half-way around the world... Pretty cool really.

Peace and Love to you all!!!

Dance Party

Had a great massage today. Lots of stretches... I feel soo limber! Did Kundalini again... Lots of mind today then silence for the last 15 minutes... yum! Skipped White Robe because I have developed some sneezing (which is not allowed)... :( As soon as I got home, my nose stopped running for the first time in 3 or 4 days and no more sneezes... go figure... now there is an awsome techno dance party!!! I'm in here "cooling down" :)

Peace and Love to you all!

Pune

I'm in Pune, I've been here a little over 4 days. The first day, I arrived in the afternoon and got checked into my hotel. The first thing I did was to try and get in touch with my friend Gopesh who lives here. Unfortunately we missed eachother. We finally conntected yesterday evening and had a really nice time together. Ahh, but I'm getting ahead of myself. So I went to the Osho Meditation Resort and proceeded with the whole sign-in process, HIV test and all! Part of the process was getting signed up for a welcome day (day 2). This was good since I haven't been here in a long time, and things have changed significantly. I ended up paying admision for the day and strolling arround (un-welcomed :). Was really interesting seeing how the grounds have changed and expanded.

I am still having this experience of seeing double. Like I see how things used to be and how they are now. I keep trying to fit places together, old memories rush back when I see something I wasn't expecting... The really strange part is that today I started having a similar experience inside myself. So being aware of who I am now and who I was then and how things have changed... It feels a little clostrophobic having two of me in here ;)

So bright and early the next morning I was at the resort in my freshly purchased maroon robe (requirement for daily entrance) waiting to be welcomed. Turns out that the guy who meets us was the doctor at Medina where I lived when I was a kid. How cool is that! Asanga (the doctor) and an Indian woman gave us a bit of a tour of the grounds and then took us into a group room where we had a really good intro to the resort and Osho meditations (we did several short versions of meditations and got info about how they were created etc...)

My plan has been to move out of the hotel as soon as possible so as to reduce my burn rate :) and so that I can be closer to the commune.... Arg... so there it is, great pains are made to point out that this is no longer a commune/ashram but rather a meditation resort. But I still have my double vision :) It kinda interesting. I guess it doesn't help that the Ricksaw (taxi) drivers still call it the Ashram. In many ways this feels like a resort and not a commune/ashram, there is a whole recreational facility and guest house. The workshops, classes, trainings etc are really clearly offered in a central location. However, there is also the meditation part of the equation which still feels like an ashram to me. In the evening many folks come together for a meditation called "White Robe". I still feel a strong communal energy at this time... Everyone changes from there (requisite maroon) clothes to the similarly requisite white robes. Sounds kinda like an Illuminaty (sp?) event or something... Heh... Not knowing much about the Illuminaty I couldn't say how much resembelance there is, but my guess is not very much.. heh...

Ahem, back to my plans to get out of the hotel and into cheaper accomodations. I met up with an old sannyasin who had a room to rent and we aggreed to meet the following morning.

Day 2 1/2 (Jan 12th), we met outside the main gate and agreed (I thought) to go see the room at 4pm. I spent a lot of time being pretty mellow and a little time juggling with a really funny Itallian guy! At 4pm I was at the gate, but Santosh was not... We ended up meeting on the way to the White Robe meditation in the evening and got things sorted. I was to go by his office the next morning.

Jan 13th, Major cold (or is this allergies?) today. I spent the day in bed then went out for dinner with Gopesh in the evening. Also spoke with Santosh and postponed our appointment.

Which brings us today. This has been my first really productive day. Met with Santosh and checked out the apt. It is very basic, but is cheap and I only have to commit to 1 week (I'm still planning on going to Delhi for Gopesh's brothers wedding on the 22nd so will probably be away from Pune for a week or so.) The apt is walking distance to the resort and 90% less than my hotel!!! I checked out of the hotel and moved all my stuff to the apt. Then came to the Ashram and signed up for a massage tomorrow. Then I did Kundalini meditation (for those of you who don't know you can read all about it on the resort website above... it's basically a very mellow movement/dance based meditation.) The last 15 minutes were really lovely for me. Very mellow, very present. After the meditation I had some dinner, and then got ready for White Robe. Went to White Robe and then found the resorts Internet Cafe so I could send this update. :)

Oh did I mention that the food here is really good? It is... And because things are very hygenic, you can eat raw fruits and veg.... yay!!!

Bowling For Columbine

After seeing Bowling For Columbine, I feel violated! Not by the movie itself, but by the parts of our society (USA) that are brought into laser focus in the film. I feel outraged! Mr. Moore must have intended this response... well done!

While watching the film, I became aware of many analogs between the movies structure and critical writing techniques. I had a sense of the movie being a very carefully crafted argument that backs up a single strong thesis: the violence in this society can be completely explained by the institutionalized fear we are bombarded with. This single mindedness leaves me with some mistrust. I feel persuaded by the argument, and yet I’m left wondering if this "single bullet" theory isn't too simple.

Mr. Moore attempts to rebuke the idea that our problems come from a history of violence. He does this by pointing to other countries with histories that are even more violent than our own. He proposes that these countries are much less afflicted today (Germany and England for example.) I'm left with questions about the spiral nature of violence. How violence breeds violence and also how these cycles can be broken. I feel hope that there is a way to break the cycles (using England and Germany as examples) and some fear that the violence in these countries is just in a more dormant state at the moment.

Mr. Moore has provided a very substantial context for discussion about violence in our society, but he has not offered a vision about how we can stop the insanity. Once we understand the causes of violence, how do we break the cycles? Who will come up with solutions that we can work with? How will these solutions be implemented? Is there a way to break these cycles in a democracy that is governed by fear? Not many answer from me either, just more questions.

Does anyone have a good sense of the difference between the meanings of the words society and culture? I would be grateful for clarification. (The definitions appear to be recursive in my dictionary.)

L.S. Asekoff

My horoscope for this weeks says I'm supposed to put the following poem by L.S. Asekoff in my journal. Since this is the closest thing I have to a journal, and I like the poem, here it is:

Technomad

My intentions with this trip revolve around three key things: self-discovery, tea and technology. Obviously there is also a good dose of wanting to see the world and it’s inhabitants in the astonishing diversity that exists.

I believe that Steven Roberts came up with the term Technomad to describe his wandering life at the controls of a net connected bicycle. In January of '97, I heard Steven talk about his Winnebiko and the beginnings of the Microship project at an annual sales meeting for Aspect Telecommunications.

My fantasy about traveling around the world started way before that. Early on I was going to do the whole trip on a motorcycle. Now, just the thought of that much time on a bike makes my butt hurt! Lugging 20lbs of electronics (in addition to all the other necessities that made it into my pack) around with me seems to pail in comparison to trying to figure out how to get a motorcycle out of China and into Japan for example... And yet I still feel some trepidation about lugging that much gear (Laptop, PDA, GPS, Digital Camera) all the way around the world.

I was looking through an old friend’s website when I came across a technomad reference and realized that I had rediscovered a cultural paradigm that begins to describe this crazy obsession with lugging around gear.

As I read through Steven’s site I noticed one really interesting quote:

So there you have it. I’m heading off on a technomad trip. I wonder if I’ll pack up all my gear and ship it back home or if I will be able to sustain my sense of glee…

Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse

One of my favorite haunts in Boulder is the Dushanbe Teahouse. Part of my weakly ritual is to head over there on Saturday mornings and enjoy a leisurely breakfast and a pot or two of tea.

Sometimes I read or talk with other customers I really like looking at the painted ceilings too. But what I seem to like most of all is sitting at the tea bar and chatting with the bartenders and waitstaff. What a cool bunch of folks!

I took some pictures when I was there yesterday, but they didn’t come out very well. Here's the best one of a bad bunch: