Ayubowan friends~
It took us only thirty minutes to fly across the channel between India and Sri Lanka, allowing just enough time to swallow the pizza puff offered by the hurried Sri Lankan airways stewardesses wearing peacock-patterned saris, so it was difficult to believe we really went anywhere, much less to a different country. It took no time to get through immigration and pick up our luggage (which was over our allowance by 10 kilos already~ ouch!) and be met by a driver whom Helaena had arranged to receive us. But driving into Colombo, we were immediately impressed that this is a different country from its big sister up north. The first, and most shocking, piece of evidence was: brilliant orange coconuts. In India they are green, sometimes yellow, sometimes brownish, but never orange! Second, the ladies are allowed to show a bit of leg, if they desire... sometimes their skirts actually came up to just below the knee, which I found fascinating. The signs written in the local script (which I am not certain is Sinhala or Tamil) looked like a parade of little animals. There are pickups and cross-bikes here, a feature that reminded me more of South-east Asia than India. It was a full moon holiday, so the streets were extremely quiet and all the shops closed. Evidently, Sri Lankans have more holidays than anyone due to their civility in having every full moon day closed for business.
We are staying with our friend Helaena, who has the fortune of living in a very posh flat in the Hilton Colombo Residences due to her industriousness in actually having a job and being a junior diplomat rising in the ranks. She has been away in Delhi though and we are anticipating her return along with her three cats, who love to be petted. We are backpackers in disguise here and enjoying the amenities fully (sauna on the third floor, etc.). The view from the eleventh floor is lovely and we can see the Indian Ocean stretching out beyond the city and ships in the seas. We have gone to the US Embassy, which is right on the ocean and smells like saltwater, to get things rolling with Alp’s visa interview. At a shopping mall, we discovered one can buy excellent-quality DVDs for $2 a piece. Most of Colombo seems rather tame and business-like compared to the frantic cities of India but walking up and out of the Fort area, we went into the Pettah district, which was surprisingly intense. It is the main shopping area of the city and it seemed like at least half of the men we passed said hello or were trying to get our attention. The streets were packed with people and, as one shoe salesman pointed out to us, many of them were Muslim women come shopping for the day, not having cooking responsibilities with it being Ramadan. There are so many things to enjoy about being here and I will leave it to Alp to describe some more of them. We feel so lucky to have such nice friends, here and there and everywhere, and are missing all of you~
love~
Ingrid
Howdy?
It is a different world here not only because of the yogurt but the Hilton Residence is not an experience that we have been used to lately and Helaena’s house is very nice plus has very friendly cats. Our place in Pune was luxurious but of course not furnished and when you stepped out the door most of the construction was not finished around us. That was a different feeling. Here everyone is paid extra to be friendly to us so there are lots of “Hello sir and good evening Madame”. Funniest part for me is going down to the sports complex in my faded clothes and sandal look while everyone around are sporting synthetic and nike look. We have not been able to start working out as we planned because of our lack of shoes. But today after shopping around I managed to find a $4 pair of school brand tennis shoes which are my ticket to pumpin iron. And I can’t wait to see the reaction when I finally summon up to courage to use the pool in my longita (the Indian underwear that I have been using at the beaches). So far we are making excellent use of Helaena’s library and learning about detoxifying among other things, and creating a schedule for detox. One last thing I had wanted to do in this trip was to detoxify and in Kerala they had the Panchakarma, ayurvedic detox method, but we kind of didn’t have the time for it and also it involves a lot of throwing up and other uncomfortable things. Of course there is the tourist version where you get massages and hot oil dripped on your third eye. Well instead now we are going for the old trusty sweaty.
Among the novelties that we found in the grocery store number one is the yogurt that is excellent and the cheaper variety comes in clay pots; fresh shitake and oyster mushrooms among others, cheap good stout and Belgian white, sapid ginger beer and fruit and fishes. It is marvelous of course to have flat to enjoy these things.
On the visa front there could be a wrinkle, but I won’t bore you with that before it is certain.
All these wonderful things still don’t keep us from missing everyone who is dear to us. No beer better in the world than the company of family and friends, but the two combined is an experience on a higher dimension. –audience “wah wah”
alp
Friday, October 21, 2005
Sunday, October 16, 2005
From the Shark Tooth to the Pearl; Pir Melinge
I have marvelled lately that all it took to get from the northernmost brushstroke of India, the Line of Control in Indian Kashmir, to nearly the southernmost pencil point of Kannyakumari (or in our case, Trivandrum, which is 60kms shy) was three harried days on the Enfield, and a total of four nights on the train divided over three different journeys taken over three months. When detailed in those terms, perhaps it does seem like an important stage to have nearly reached the end of India, both geographically and literally for our time left here. It seems, alternately, like we have floated here or crawled. And we are disbelieving that we are truly flying away from this vast place tomorrow morning, as we were expecting somehow that our lives would always carry the daily possibility of buying more Mysore Sandal Soap, seeing albinos that look more like they belong to Ireland than India's billions, and being harassed by young men selling drums in tourist areas who insidiously whisper "hello my friend, you like to buy drum?" and expertly run their fingers along a drumskin to produce an unmistakablly annoying psychedelic wooing sound. But we have been blessed with a mission that makes our eventual return less anticlimatic and are boarding our plane to Sri Lanka expecting to leave after one month, triumphant with a fresh new American visa in Alp's impressively arrayed passport (a visa that, I might add, will say officially "To marry Ingrid Hakala Millis, of Falls Church, Virginia"). Our wonderful friend Helaena is going to allow us to be her guests in Colombo and we are anticipating wildly and silently all the great small glories of a new nation, not to mention more passport stamps and stickers.
As for our last few weeks in India, we have confined ourselves to a small area of Kerala. Trivandrum is a busy, sunny city with many varieties of bananas and only thirty minutes from a beachy place called Varkala. We spent slightly over a week there, eating fresh tandoori fish every night, doing yoga in the mornings, breathing deeply after what was far too many months in assorted cities. It took us a while to find the beach, as the main one was far too rough for swimming and full of Indian families staring at the sea, munching on snacks and not knowing what to do with themselves. The northern strand was small, but offered continuous wave action that left me exhausted trying not to lose my bikini and Alp smiling like the little Turkish boy he once was playing likewise in the waves of the Black Sea... that is until we noticed that the surf was foaming with jellyfish carcasses and were unnerved. We gathered drinking water from a spring that flowed beneath the small rust colored cliffs of the seaside and took naps in the afternoon. Back in Trivandrum, we have visited the Botanical Gardens, a very nice wooden palace of the Travancore royal family, and nearly twenty footwear shops looking for replicas of my sandals. I have gotten over my original preconception that South India is terribly different in ambiance and mores than the North... Nearly everywhere in India south of Himachal is hectic, hot, and fun in a similar way. But the men here do wear lungis instead of pants underneath their western-style shirts, leading to a fashion look that Alp and I have described as "business on top, shower on bottom." And there are more curry leaves, mustard seeds, and coconut in the curries. We are sure to tell you all about what we find in Sri Lanka and until then, I wish we knew how to say farewell in Malayalam (the local language and an awfully long pallimdrone) but I imagine it sounds like this: bpoooluuuyuttappam (try saying this with marbles in your mouth).
Ingridkutty
As for our last few weeks in India, we have confined ourselves to a small area of Kerala. Trivandrum is a busy, sunny city with many varieties of bananas and only thirty minutes from a beachy place called Varkala. We spent slightly over a week there, eating fresh tandoori fish every night, doing yoga in the mornings, breathing deeply after what was far too many months in assorted cities. It took us a while to find the beach, as the main one was far too rough for swimming and full of Indian families staring at the sea, munching on snacks and not knowing what to do with themselves. The northern strand was small, but offered continuous wave action that left me exhausted trying not to lose my bikini and Alp smiling like the little Turkish boy he once was playing likewise in the waves of the Black Sea... that is until we noticed that the surf was foaming with jellyfish carcasses and were unnerved. We gathered drinking water from a spring that flowed beneath the small rust colored cliffs of the seaside and took naps in the afternoon. Back in Trivandrum, we have visited the Botanical Gardens, a very nice wooden palace of the Travancore royal family, and nearly twenty footwear shops looking for replicas of my sandals. I have gotten over my original preconception that South India is terribly different in ambiance and mores than the North... Nearly everywhere in India south of Himachal is hectic, hot, and fun in a similar way. But the men here do wear lungis instead of pants underneath their western-style shirts, leading to a fashion look that Alp and I have described as "business on top, shower on bottom." And there are more curry leaves, mustard seeds, and coconut in the curries. We are sure to tell you all about what we find in Sri Lanka and until then, I wish we knew how to say farewell in Malayalam (the local language and an awfully long pallimdrone) but I imagine it sounds like this: bpoooluuuyuttappam (try saying this with marbles in your mouth).
Ingridkutty
Sunday, October 02, 2005
Off of the Shelves, Into the Bags
Greetings confreres~
We have been a long time without blogging but the sedentary life does render fewer tidbits to share. We have settled into our little pied-a-terre and its quotidian comforts; with no other flatmates, we have the entire place to ourselves to walk around in dishabille, cooking and lounging to our hearts' delight. Our day begins at six, after a few blissful dilatory snooze button pushes, and Alp prepares his sapid ginger honey tea to warm our bodies before heading out the door, across the "highway," through the park, and to the yoga institute. It has been raining extremely regularly so we are usually muddy and squigy when we arrive. Our beginners' classes are taught by a different teacher everyday and they do different things as they please; some yell, some chat, some explain aspects of the postures with particular luculence, but all make for copacetic classes. Iyengar yoga is active and the teachers require punctilliousness in their students to perform the asanas correctly. We are only allowed on the top floor for classes but as we travel up and down the stairs, we can catch glimpses of the general class dangling from ropes, hanging over chairs, and contorting themselves in exciting ways. The redoubtable Iyengar himself is still alive and commanding respect, as we have seen his followers fully prostrate themselves in front of him, and will soon be leaving for America for a five week yoga tour. From photographs in the lobby of the Institute, it seems clear that he was a yoga rock star during earlier tours, teaching hundreds in auditoriums. We walk home and prepare breakfast, alternating daily between a highly evolved version of porriage and eggs with toast, and become acquainted with the world with some minutes of postprandial BBC watching. Then I buckle down for some GRE studying, which I am beginning to enjoy entirely, as it gives me the oppurtunity to learn vocabulary and to shake off some of the effects of the hebetude occasioned by nearly one and a half years outside the realm of academia. The rest of the day is devoted to errand-running, as we always seem to need something or another, or relaxing. And before I bloviate for too long, i will pass this onto my partner in amour~
with love~
ingrid
ps~ if you would like to learn vocabulary like me, go to http://www.dictionary.com and maunder through the word of the day files.
salaam namaste
As the days passed here in Pune I felt a great sense of accomplishment for all the dreams we managed to fulfill, at the same time feeling uneasy for all the more dreams that have been dreamt while we have been in India that are waiting their turn in the future. I have learnt that dreams do come true but never in the way you imagine them, and I can say we didn't worry about the seeming obstacles in our way and our dreams came true in a way better than we imagined. The bike has got a new owner, and with only two days left in Pune it was a close one but no worries, no wrinkles. It is very exciting that we are going to Kerala as we hadn't in February even though we came very close when we were in Coorg. It is fabled to be very beautiful yet at the same time it is the most crowded state in India, which makes me happy that we avoided it on the motorcycle. Ayurvedic tradition is the most alive in Kerala and we might take a class on massage when we are at the beach there. Also very exciting is the new cuisine and the fish that we will find there. I am thrilled to go there as this sedentary lifestyle without work is not the most alluring. Hope all is well with all of you, love you and miss you, and you are all smoking in my nose.
alp
~p.s. go to the photos link, then to the Pune Revisited folder, to see our newest photos of domestic life!
We have been a long time without blogging but the sedentary life does render fewer tidbits to share. We have settled into our little pied-a-terre and its quotidian comforts; with no other flatmates, we have the entire place to ourselves to walk around in dishabille, cooking and lounging to our hearts' delight. Our day begins at six, after a few blissful dilatory snooze button pushes, and Alp prepares his sapid ginger honey tea to warm our bodies before heading out the door, across the "highway," through the park, and to the yoga institute. It has been raining extremely regularly so we are usually muddy and squigy when we arrive. Our beginners' classes are taught by a different teacher everyday and they do different things as they please; some yell, some chat, some explain aspects of the postures with particular luculence, but all make for copacetic classes. Iyengar yoga is active and the teachers require punctilliousness in their students to perform the asanas correctly. We are only allowed on the top floor for classes but as we travel up and down the stairs, we can catch glimpses of the general class dangling from ropes, hanging over chairs, and contorting themselves in exciting ways. The redoubtable Iyengar himself is still alive and commanding respect, as we have seen his followers fully prostrate themselves in front of him, and will soon be leaving for America for a five week yoga tour. From photographs in the lobby of the Institute, it seems clear that he was a yoga rock star during earlier tours, teaching hundreds in auditoriums. We walk home and prepare breakfast, alternating daily between a highly evolved version of porriage and eggs with toast, and become acquainted with the world with some minutes of postprandial BBC watching. Then I buckle down for some GRE studying, which I am beginning to enjoy entirely, as it gives me the oppurtunity to learn vocabulary and to shake off some of the effects of the hebetude occasioned by nearly one and a half years outside the realm of academia. The rest of the day is devoted to errand-running, as we always seem to need something or another, or relaxing. And before I bloviate for too long, i will pass this onto my partner in amour~
with love~
ingrid
ps~ if you would like to learn vocabulary like me, go to http://www.dictionary.com and maunder through the word of the day files.
salaam namaste
As the days passed here in Pune I felt a great sense of accomplishment for all the dreams we managed to fulfill, at the same time feeling uneasy for all the more dreams that have been dreamt while we have been in India that are waiting their turn in the future. I have learnt that dreams do come true but never in the way you imagine them, and I can say we didn't worry about the seeming obstacles in our way and our dreams came true in a way better than we imagined. The bike has got a new owner, and with only two days left in Pune it was a close one but no worries, no wrinkles. It is very exciting that we are going to Kerala as we hadn't in February even though we came very close when we were in Coorg. It is fabled to be very beautiful yet at the same time it is the most crowded state in India, which makes me happy that we avoided it on the motorcycle. Ayurvedic tradition is the most alive in Kerala and we might take a class on massage when we are at the beach there. Also very exciting is the new cuisine and the fish that we will find there. I am thrilled to go there as this sedentary lifestyle without work is not the most alluring. Hope all is well with all of you, love you and miss you, and you are all smoking in my nose.
alp
~p.s. go to the photos link, then to the Pune Revisited folder, to see our newest photos of domestic life!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)