Too much good

Picture yourself on a motorcycle passing though strawberry fields and over ochre mountains... and you would have been alp and I one week ago as we left pune with our horse packed and our newly decorated helmets on our heads. Once we got out of the urban areas, the road was perhaps the best kept in india (as good as that scene in dil chahta hai) and we sped 500 kilometers down to northern goa. We arrived in Arambol (what was a semi-sleepy town three years ago) and started to panick because we could not find anything but a single bed, thanks to the 300,000+ tourists that come to goa for new year's eve (including us). The next day however, we scored an idyllic beach shack on the northern end of the beach, complete with romantic/annoying mosquito netting and since then we have been drinking our goan beer or port or cashew fenny as more tourist roll in and ask for room, but we are full. Yes the port is very good and the fenny since drived from palm sap or cashew fruit does not threaten to blind or kill us. However we have only swam once in the last week which is a situation we want to fix. There were minor problems with the bike but because we couldn't ride it to go to the place to get the stuff things were long. It is really nice to have our own transportation and we are thinking of going down south still since Esin's coming is delayed ever further we dont expect to see her before we leave India. But she has travelled in Iran and now is below K2, so she is having a good time. We hope all of you are having or at least trying to have a good time. For us, all is too much good.
alping

ps there are new pictures in the pune album and a new album for goa, click the title a few posts back, and comment for krysts sake, we want to hear you

safe by the sound

The terrible tsunamis of Sunday have fortunately not effected our plans but certainly have made us upset. we are in northern goa, in a beach hut surrounded by palm trees, having perhaps too nice a time. Happy new year to you all~ we love you!

Quiet Moments are Life's Rewards

the title of this blog comes from a picture of a waterfall with these words emblazoned across the top that hangs on the wall of our hotel room in Mumbai. it is ironic of course because our room is separated only by a lattice window at the top from three other rooms, all of which were full of laughing, joking indian men last night. we fell asleep to their cackles and woke to their giggles. bombay is the most expensive place to stay in india, so we are paying dearly even for this sort of accommodation. nonetheless, alp and i are having a fun mini-break in the big city and have walked and found our way around like the hardened travellers we have become. there are beautiful and romantically crumbling british building left from the raj-era and it feels much more cosmopolitan here than other indian cities in the north, like new delhi. we have become intrigued by the parsi community in bombay and pune, as they are actually followers of the ancient element-revering zoroastrian faith and have placed fantastical symbols (like men with horse bodies and wings) about town. traditionally parsis leave their dead on the towers of silence to have their bodies picked apart by vultures and birds of prey. sadly, these places are kept off limits but i suppose that adds to their mysteriousness. we have heard the bad news about the tokyo rose closing and hope that final blow to the coolness of charlottesville will perhaps inspire some of all you to head over here. scoot~ ingrid

Yes we are in Mumbai right now, the only reason being the finding of a metal rigging to go on the back of a 1973 Enfield. We had a meeting on Wednesday in Pune with Bhargavi who is the head of Bapu Trust (click title), an organization helping women and the mentally ill. And the news is that we will stay in Pune for a year working part time with them. Our request was that we work part time so that we can write our book, and ofcourse we will not be getting paid. Finding a job is much easier when you dont want to get paid, because they cant say no. Well we observed that poor Bhargavi was traumatized by another german volunteer. apperantly she was more trouble then she was worth, asking by the hour what to do. We assured Bhargavi that we are pretty laid back and are happy not doing anything just as much as we enjoy doing things. At the same time we will attend the prestigious Iyengar Institute of Yoga four times a week. To the rock climbing enthusiasts out there let me tell you this, Pune is a heaven. There are beautiful cliffs and Iam sure many caves all over Maharastra. So we will be buying a bike tomarrow, and we had to come to Mumbai for the luggage rack because without it we cant take our stuff with us, but being a tourist implement it is especially hand made welded metal. Really grungy but it will do the trick. We are planning to head for Goa on Monday and spend the new year there. Hopefully on a more quiet beach and we will party with the crowd elsewhere. Then we are planning to head further south to Kerala, everyone beit Indian or foreigner seems to think highly of Kerala and we might spend more time there. All of this of course on our bike. We plan to go to Sri Lanka in February for a month where we will apply for the employment visa. So that is the outline of the plan. We feel that all of the things we wanted to do in India or in Asia came together in Pune and are very happy of the outcome of all our previous trials and failures. It is never a failure if it opens another door and who knows if you are heading to where you want to be by failing. Important thing is not to lose motivation. So high-ho to you all,
Alp!

Pheeling Phun in Pune

After a week in Pune, with and now without Manish, we have decided this would be a wonderful place to stay. Manish has gone off to Goa for a film festival and allowed us to further take over his hostel room. It is quiet and extremely peaceful on campus because the school is out of session but the guards are starting to become wary of us, traipsing in and out of the school with no chaperone. We spent four days intensely reading the Illustrated version of the Da Vinci Code out loud. Pune has many charms unique to itself. All of the apartment buildings have names scrawled on the sides and there are delightful old British-looking stone and wood buildings. We have found fresh figs, tasty papayas, and a beer store yards away from the entrance to the school. Walking around the Muslim section of town, we came to an old church-cum-chicken slaughterhouse where nearly one hundred hawks were gathered, swooping down and bombarding trash dumpsters filled with scraps, flinging dissattached chicken feet across the streets. Otherwise, Pune is extremely modern and progressive. Women abound (which is unusual for most Indian cities, where men certainly outnumber their counterparts) and ride around the town on zippy motorscooters, wearing mujahhadin-like headdresses to keep out some of the pollution. Pune also specializes in desserts and we have tasted wonderful creme caramel, chocolate mousse, and homemade ice cream (real reason y ingie wants to stay in Pune). There are several Iranian-style places around too and we have recently shared, over an apple-flavoured hookah, fantasies and thoughts on our upcoming, highly-anticipated novel. Most of the restaurants are outside, with patios, furthering the feeling like we are on perpetual vacation. When we realize some of our plans (i.e. motorcycle purchasing, etc), you all will be the first to know!
There is a new ablum of pictures on Pune, click the title!
I and A

Osho, for shau!

We are here in Pune. Four hours from Mumbai, it is a suprisingly pretty and hopping town. Well four hours on train, three on bus or six on a bus full of people and goods. Our bus yesterday filled the rack on top so mush with goods that on the slightest of incline we wee going 10km/h. Not to mention the Walt like scare I had about the brakes failing. But at the end we arrived then got hussled by rickshaws but at the end we met Manish. He is our friend who is attending FTII, Film and Television Institude of India, and is letting us stay in his hostel room. Very nice guy. He doesn't have it very bad either though since he is letting us stay in his room he gets to stay with his pretty girl friend. The school is out, everyone is in Goa for the International Film Festival so we have the campus almost to ourselves. These kids are funny, they live and breathe cinematography it seems like. We will certainly be smarter when we leave Pune, so watch out! There are lots of pretty banyan trees and I feel this is only the beginning. The south is going to be great and we will write about it. Gorusmek uzere,
Alp

Parting From The Weary Dehli Land

So at last the day has come, we are leaving Delhi this afternoon. After almost not being able to find a ticket to Mumbai, we had to dish out $60 for 2 express aircon 3A tickets and a 17 hour ride. We still consider ourselves lucky though because if we hadn't used the tourist quota we could be in Delhi for another week waiting for a place in a train. We are not sure if we will stay in Mumbai at all or head directly to Pune, where there is a good friend named Manish. Other than all of this, there are grimmer news. I have not been able to penetrate through the buraoucrscy for the turkish military so I am in bad standing, or an escapee as they call it, so back on track with business plans. Perhaps all the better, it seems the best kind of business to be had in India is exporting so I am looking into creating a connection in Istanbul, hopefully with my unlce Yavuz. At the same time Ingrid is looking into ESL courses. We are still predominantly having fun, or faving (new word for having fun). There is another word that I commisioned Ingrid to make which is thwilling, thwurling hair. So is the status quo. If any of you all have made new and useful words lately please let us, and everyone, know.
Alp!

The most beautiful war; Diwali

Just a quick post about Diwali. Indians know how to have fun and as a result there are a lot of burn victims. It was Diwali here a few days ago and staying at the American Embassy while it was going on gave us the sense that we were in the middle of a war. There were sounds of exploxion everywhere, it wasn't like watching the fireworks in US. It was happening all the time and all around. The air was full of smoke even a km away from the nearest fireworks. I also got a minor throat infection from the air. And I of course suplurged $8 on a butt0load of fireworks meself: rockets, flower pots and most fun and crazy of all the hitler ground wheels, which is four rockets mounted on a swastika that spun on the ground. Well it was fun, made me want to learn how to make fireworks, which I will and include on our upcoming novel.
Things are slow here, we hope Esin leaves soon and waiting for documents from US for my stuff, but dont lose faith in us or in our blog as the adventure will take of on two wheels in December. Pir Melinge

Alp!

Answe ring self que stions

We r in Delhi and trying to fix my problematic situation in the world. We posted new pictures, so you can look at them by clicking on the pictures link a few posts back. We have also recieved some critism for not answering our own questions, so we would like to do so. Alp's prefered method of execution is being drowned in freezing water while Ingrid just doesn't want to be executed (and is going to make it part of her life's work to make sure Alp doesn't ever have to actually brave his preferrence). About the answer to one question, y did bush get re-elected? As for what color of poop is prefered that one had a correct answer which noone got ( well only walt answered ), white. poop, as it stands now, is everything that we eat swirled together and thus, can only be the amorphous colour of brown. what if instead of being all the colours, it simply lost all its colour and became pristine white. we would all have a very different relationship to feces then (seeing them as a symbol of purity rather than filth). Also I would like to add that in Ayurvedic science food has three parts, lowest part becomes excrement, middle part becomes body, and higher part the mind.

Alping

kabhi khushie kabie gham (sometimes happy sometimes sad)

So our friends, we are sorry about the outcome of the election, as all of you I am sure are. If you are not, you are reading the wrong blog, this is not Hickbillmcgee's weblog. Well I leave it all to those who can do something about it figure it out. But a leaving thought on political issues; if you consider Osama to be evil because he has commanded the death of at most 5,000 people so far, where is Bush's tally at?
Some good news though, there seems to be an offer from the Turkish government for my paid military service so it is very likely that I will not have to go to military service. Again, if you think this is bad news, you are looking at the wrong blog! So to celebrate we decided to move into a nice room. After leaving our room in Rishikesh at 10 we started for Haridwar. It was Bengali season in Haridwar so all the hotels where full. We had hoped to get a room in this art deco style hotel that used to belong to the king of Nepal, ooohh. Well the ganga in Haridwar was also not as roaring as in Rishikesh, so we decided to head back. After six hours we moved into the Suite at Green Hotel, 50 yards from our previous. There we enjoyed ourselves much. I took a bathe in the ganga so all my sins were washed off but today it is me again.
alp

let me add an admission of guilt. it is my own judgmental attitude that caused me to make my puerile remark regarding the "hippies." for the record, i apologise to all those folks out there and those who identify themselves with this group.
ingrid

ganga ganj

brothers and sisters~ hail from rishikesh, the yoga capital of india. after waking up at dawn on saturday morning for our obligatory ganges boat ride in varanasi, we spent a solid 24 hours on the train heading west to haridwar, then another hour on the public bus to rishikesh, and finally another hour searching for a room in a guesthouse. we were stared at on the train by villagers in the morning, chatted with a college student painfully excited by being able to talk about our foreign culture with him in the early afternoon, and finally proceeded to our correct compartment and met a south indian family on a pilgrimage tour of north india in the evening. alp witnessed one of their compatriots doing early morning yoga in his berth and shrieking like a monkey... and felt great admiration for him.

as for rishikesh itself, it is quite clean and well-planned out for an indian town. it has two large pedestrian suspension bridges over the ganges and countless ashrams with large colourful religious sculptures on the banks. we plan on doing some watercolours in our new colouring book, perhaps by the river, and probably will not avail of the limitless yoga, acupuncture, reiki, massage, etc,etc, oppurtunities available here. by doing so, we would run the risk of meeting too many hippies. eww!!!

i have been a little ill lately, feeling tired and the like. we have availed of all the ayurvedic pharmacies in town however and last night i got some nose drops for my sinusitis that smell/taste like mango chutney! and by the way... that blog entry entitled "the runs" was metaphoric rather than literal. we have fortunately escaped a major case of the runs...