Liver river diver

We have arrived in Krabi and waiting to get on the boat to Ko Lanta. The bus ride last night was strange, we got on at 6:30 and they showed a preview of a movie then turned the TV off then the lights off at 7. We thought they were fixing something but the lights didn't come back on until 10 when we stopped to eat. It was a complimentary dinner which was rice in goopy water and some dishes to put in and eat with the rice. There were 4 Thais on the table and all of them barely touched the other stuff and just had their rice. We found this very peculiar because the rice dish didn't even have salt in it. The hole thing was pretty tasty but they wanted none of it. We also noticed that the people on our table left before anyone else, it was sort of a twilight zone affair. Thais also don't seem very big on finishing their food so we thought Walt ought to come here and give them a lesson, maybe he can even convince the King to sponser a nationwide campaign.
alp

coming from india, thailand seems a remarkably organized and prosperous country. its tourist base is greater than that of any other country i have visited, yet very few people speak english at all. alp and i utilized almost every mode of transport in bangkok, including canal boat taxis, tuk tuks (high-octane versions of the rickshaw), bus, skytrain, subway, and river boat. as admitted by miriam's former exchange student guest Goy (who we met our last night in bangkok and ate a special chinese dessert with), the main entertainment in the capitol is shopping. despite never going to Fashion Square Mall at home in charlottesville, alp and i went no less than three times to a seven floor megamall called MBK and watched movies, looked at cell phones, and desperately tried to join in the extravaganza. interestingly, most of the food we have eaten in thailand has been from street vendors, who are everwhere and each specialize in something. the main problem is we often just don't know what that something is (unless you point) because their signs are all in thai. nonetheless, our favourite place thus far was a fish/tom yum soup stall down the road from our guesthouse, which was open until the wee hours and allowed us to sip beer chang along with our fish niblets. and for your information, thais are the world masters of two domains: iced beverages (shakes, cold coffee, etc.) and takeaway food. it is perhaps funnest when these two talents are combined, like when one gets a mango smoothie in a plastic bag with a straw!
swimmingly yours~
ingie

One couple, couple of plans

So I will understand if some of you out there might stop reading our blog because we say we are going to do something and almost never do, but isn't it more exciting this way with all the twists and turns? We have been in Bangkok for a week now and have eaten many a different things, seen many a beautiful things and at the same time we have been doing rounds to the Indian Embassy for our employment visas. The first day we were told to bring back financial documents and when we did the main-dude told us to come back in four days as he had to do some research into what kind of visa he might be able to give us. Since we were not going to be paid and even though we had no financial trouble, he said it probably wasn't possible to give us an employment visa. So this morning when we went there he had done nothing in the last four days and did't even remember what he was supposed to do. Were we hurt? Not really, because when he hinted that we were probably not going to get an employment visa our little noodles again started to fantisize, so by the time he crushed our plans by saying he could if we wanted to send our documents to the ministry in delhi which would take 3 months or more we already had another fantasy ruling our lives.
The new plan is to extend our flight until May while we travel in South-east Asia, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam you name it we will go! Afterwards returning to India with another 6 month visa and attending yoga school then for a few months. Then heading to China and taking the train through Mongolia to Moscow. From there heading to Turkey passing the Turkic republics. The last leg of the journey depends on me being able to lose a few kilos so I can dogde the military by being "unfit to surve". Either we do it or not it sounds cool right now. But I'am with the help of Yavuz trying to figure out if this is really possible. Other then that we will try to apply to paid military in every embassy on our way. I do not qualify but maybe we will find another incompetent that will not know.
Ecological disaster, political insurgance, bureaocratic incompetence we have seen it all and have not suffered anger nor dispear. We believe fate is showing us the way and we are easily being blown around by it. I should thank here our parents who support us and make us feel that there is comfort waiting for us back home. Yet for now we feel we can get a little more ruffed up!
alp!

ps thailand anyone? click the coorg title to link to the pictures.
ps2 for those of you who have juicy thoughts about travelling but think they will not afford it, our 5 months in India cost us $600 a month for two of us, but we did stay 2 months of that with friends and family.

Transnational Valentines Day

We are recovering from the most exciting Valentine's Day in the history of Alp and Ingrid's lives. A few days ago, Esin sent us off from Mysore and we sat on a train for 42 hours, hurtling towards New Delhi, with the final destination in mind being Kathmandu. However, ten minutes into our two day ride we found out that February 13th was the joyous 10th anniversary of the Maoist insurgency and they were most probably planning on celebrating the occasion with some old-fashioned civil war violence. We arrived in Delhi on a beautiful Sunday afternoon and enjoyed the perfect spring weather that the capitol enjoys for about three weeks a year while waiting for our Korean friends, the Shins, to come home. They are the most delightful hosts and we had a thoroughly tasty Korean meal at an excellent restaurant with them later in the evening. We also discovered that night that Kathmandu was under blockade and virtually no traffic was coming in from the south-east, precisely the direction we would be coming from if we took our final leg of the trip to the Nepali-Indian border in Gorakpur. The next morning we decided to scoot over to Mr. Gupta, my mother's travel agent who specializes in executing last-minute travel plans seemlessly and who also deserves to be called "Mr. Magic" for that reason. After one hour in his office, our breathless anticipation was rewarded with two (cheap!!) round-trip tickets to Bangkok Thailand that very night at 7pm!!! We squealed, we giggled, we were jealous of our own good luck! Following our fateful triumph, we made a trip to Khan Market, the expat shopping center in south delhi, and bought ourselves chocolate and cheese for Valentines, paneer tikka roomali rolls for our intestinal worms, and a Lonely Planet Thailand (though, believe us, we tried our best under the time constraints to NOT support that backpacker mafia publication company). After hastily packing and substantially lightening our packs (including tent, hiking boots, and mats our bags are 22lbs each), we made it to the airport and our flight on Myanmar Airlines went first to the sleepy airport of Yangon (formerly Rangoon), where we ate complimentary cake at a hotel and finally continued onto Bangkok, arriving here at 6am, both without any sleep and Ingrid with a headache. Blearily we made our way to a quiet residential area and a guesthouse, and slept for a few hours. We awoke and finally it sunk in~ we are in thailand, yaaaysss!
scoobydo!
ingrid

Coorg, Curd and Kurds

About two weeks ago we set out for the Coorg region on our Enfield and the Yezdi that Esin rented. In the first ten kilometers the Yezdi was stopping frequently and we called Hari and said we were bringing the bike back and as if the bike heard this and stopped to stop. So we turned around and headed again towards Coorg. After we passed the bamboo and teak forest area it started to get hilly and chilly. There was coffee and pepper everywhere and it smelled like honeysuckle on the road and roasted coffee in the towns.
Coorg is a small region with a distinctive language, culture and landscape. There is speculation that their ancestors were the troops of Alexander the Great. Also theories that they might be related to the Kurds in the middle east. I don't think there is a real anthropologic study about this. Well now that I have shown you that I read a few pages from a book while we were there what we were really busy doing was eating good home cooking and hiking around. The first place we stayed at was expensive by Indian standards but really beautiful. We stayed in our tent for the first time since there was only a single room available and we didn't want to open the mouth of the sack too much for a double as it was almost ten dollars. Upon coming to the conclusion that we had giardia we started on antibiotics, but it was really the best place to have it since we had fresh water and good food. After finishing the antibiotics we tried to replenish our bacterias by eating yogurt but they have this curd in Coorg that is really not very good which could be a clue to the fact that the Coorgians are Alexanders soldiers since everyone knows the Greeks can't do yogurt right. It was quite a scene at the estate where all the guests were served dinner and we ate and thrashed American and British politics and politicians. As the only American present for miles around, Ingrid endured the lambasting valiently (amidst blushes galore) and tried to be an example that all of Bush's country brethren are not as evil and culturally chauvanist as he. After a week at that place we followed the bumpy road to another estate close to a national park where we stayed a more humble accomodation for the same price and have home cooking consisting mostly of rice and potatoes for the same price. From there we ventured to a waterfall, of which there are many in Coorg. The first day we didn't realize was a Sunday so there were more Indians than water droplets, but then we went there again next day and even managed to bathe naked! And about the national park, we went but were not let in because we were on two wheelers and there was a chance that we would get trampled by wild elephants. We were up for the challenge but they weren't and we just didn't want to rent a jeep and pay money and see nothing that you can't see on the street already. So we didn't go in. On the way back the Yezdi ran out of gas. Here come closer, listen up, never never never run out of gas on a 30 year old bike!!
We are back in Mysore, right in time because our sandalwood soap was just finished. My elbow is a little screwy from the bumpy road but the bike is running great. Tomarrow we head for Nepal and Esin is taking the bike and heading for Kerala.
All the best to you out there and pray to Ganesh for luck and Laxmi for wealth and Shiva for ganja and Krishna for booty.
alp

I know what you all are thinking~ did Alp just say he and his lil lady were heading for NEPAL? but wasn't there just a total governmental overhaul there? didn't the king just dissolve the parliment and cut off international communication for a number of days? And i would say~ yes, indeed. We are going to Nepal. Probably. Our Indian tourist visas expire in one week and we have been mourning the fact that whenever we decide to go to another country, disaster befalls it. All our planning ahead is no match for killer tsunamis and Maoist rebels and insane kings. the final decision for today rests at our taking the train for two days up to New Delhi and leaving the option for other flights out of the country. Uzbekistan? Burma? Mongolia? Let's take an internet poll everybody! Where should Alp and Ingie go next? Or, more aptly, upon which poor country should God next strike down his wrath? Stay tuned for the next exciting episode!
love~
ingrida

ps~ click the title to look at our new lovely pictures~ we is three now! triple the beauty!