Maui - December 2010

Return to Esalen

Almost exactly two years after my first stay at Esalen, I went back for a five day CranioSacral 2 workshop. My first visit was for CranioSacral 1 and I came with two great friends. One of those friends, Jerry, lives there now!

Last time, I was attached to someone and detached from just about everything else. I wasn't sure what the immediate future held. It was at Esalen that Jerry and I decided it was time to look for jobbie jobs when we got home -- put entrepreneurship on hold for a while. This time I wasn't attached to anyone, but I had a job (coincidentally returning to the same company that hired me two years earlier) waiting for me when I got back.

Esalen seems to attract those in transition. Between relationships, between careers, between moves. It's a great place to hang your hat for a while, re-charge, rejuvenate, reevaluate, and be yourself. Maybe more yourself than you've ever been. It's a place to strip down to who you really are, literally and figuratively. I don't think its a coincidence that the monarch butterflies call it their home for the winter.

And when people get real, they get huggy. At least the kind of people that Esalen attracts do. Like seriously huggy. I have never seen such hugs! I wanted to do a series of photos of people hugging. The only reason I didn't do it was sheer laziness. If I didn't have my camera handy, I had enough time to go back to my room and get it. That's how long these hugs often were. There's a lot of love at Esalen.

I had a bit of an emotional release when I was there. My last full day was a big roller coaster. It started out with a 7:30 am yoga class which was great. By breakfast I was in tears. I was pulling out of it by lunchtime when one of my classmates offered to give me a massage. I soaked in the tubs after lunch and received a wonderful, much needed Thai massage before returning to class in the afternoon. By dinner time I was feeling great. Jerry left that afternoon. Up until then, I had mostly been socializing with him and his friends or the TAs from my class. I hadn't really been mixing with my classmates. That all changed at dinner. I had a great meal with four of my classmates -- the beginning of an adventurous night. It was Wednesday which is didjeridoo night at the baths and we didjeri-did it. I had an amazing night that I will not soon forget.

I'm heading back to Esalen for the next class in December. Jerry will still be living there and my new friends from class are almost all returning. Can. Not. Wait.

Maine - Part 2

Maine - Part 1

Vancouver Olympics

Kerala - Day 10

Yoga again this morning. We are supposed to have it every other day, so it was a special treat to have yoga again this morning. Today, we covered several pranayamas (breathing exercises). Quote of the day from class: Pranayama purifies the mind. If you don't know, now you know. He also went over the sixteen bioenergy centers of the body, one of which is the prepuce or foreskin. I asked what happens when the prepuce is cut off as it is in circumcision. He said that energy center stays open all the time. Interesante...

In our morning class, we covered bastis (enemas). I took a walk with Monica at lunch to pick up her clothes from the dress shop. Wasn't planning to buy anything...do I need to say it? I got some pants. I did refrain from buying a whole outfit, but then I do have to go back to pick up my pants so there is still time.

In the afternoon, we did the whole henna hair treatment. I had to leave it in my hair for an hour or two, so I just hung out and talked to people. It was a nice, lazy afternoon/evening. I washed it out after dinner which wasn't easy given the bucket bath situation and the amount of hair I have. Our bathroom looked like someone had been brutally murdered in it after the first bucket. Went for a motorcycle ride to get some sweets, had dance practice (we're going to perform our routine at graduation on Friday), and retired for the night.

Amen

The Bucket Bath

This afternoon, we learned how to do a henna treatment for hair. In addition to coloring your hair, it cools the head (palliating Pitta), removes and prevents dandruff, promotes hair growth, prevents hair loss, conditions the hair, keeps the scalp healthy and prevents/treats premature graying. I had it done to me and I currently have a helmet of hair full of dried henna paste. I'm about to take a bucket bath to rinse it out. What's a bucket bath, you ask? I can tell you because since January 22nd, all I've had are bucket baths. A typical bathroom in India has a toilet, a handheld sprayer (in lieu of toilet paper), a sink, a faucet that comes out of the wall, a plastic bucket and pitcher, a shower head (that as far as I'm concerned is just a big tease), and a drain in the corner. The shower pan is the floor. Toilet paper dispensers are optional.

My cousin taught me how to have a bucket bath when I arrived in Chennai because her shower head wasn't working, and so I had my first one. You fill the bucket with water at the desired temperature (if available -- it wasn't in Tangutur), and use the pitcher to pour water over your body. That's the rinse. You soap up and rinse again. Voila! Bucket bath complete. Water gets all over the floor, and the toilet and walls depending on how big the bathroom is. If the faucet is high enough and/or you are small enough, you can put your head/body under it and sort of have a shower. Bucket bathing has made me realize how much water I waste at home when I shower. Having said that, I will have a nice long, hot shower when I get home.

As my cousin put it, Americans shower, the British bathe, and Indians have bucket baths. I'm not not knocking the bucket bath. It's just not what I'm used to. I'm an American and I like to shower.

Kerala - Day 9

Started the day with yoga. We got through all of the "selected asanas to maintain the general health of the body and mind" and learned some pranayam (breathing exercises). I'm learning how yoga can cure disease which is incredibly fascinating to me. I just found out about a yoga university where they do scientific research on yoga and it's physiological affect on the body. I love the idea of an inpatient hospital where you are taught specific yoga poses and breathing exercises to treat your disease and you go home and heal yourself. It's teaching a man to fish. The university has a month long program that I plan to do. Quote of the day from class:

The Gestalt Prayer (misquoted, which is just so India)
I am me and you are you
I do my thing and you do your thing.
I am not in this world to live up to your expectations,
And you are not in this world to live up to my expectations.
And if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful.
If not, it cannot be helped.

We had a very busy day of class. I can't quite remember what all we did, but I know we gave each other facials using fresh fruit, herbs, olive oil and almond oil. We did netra basti which is a treatment for the eyes which would benefit me greatly except that I'm contraindicated because my eyes are so jacked. We also learned nasya which is something I felt a little weak on and I'm glad we went over it in depth.

After lunch, a few of us received the head covering treatment we learned yesterday. It's good for premature graying and I don't know if anyone does it in the US, so I had requested to experience it. Then, it was back to class for the afternoon to finish in time for a field trip! We went to see a Kalaripayattu demonstration and on the way, our auto rickshaw driver asked if we wanted to drive! Shannon drove there and I drove back at night. The demonstration included a massage done mostly with the feet holding on to ropes that hang from the ceiling. I didn't know anything about Kalaripayattu, before I got there. It's really cool! I was told the word "karate" comes from "Kalaripayattu" and it pre-dates east asian martial arts. Does that make it the original martial art?

We got back from the field trip to a late dinner. We were spoiled in Tangatur by our wonderful chef, Srinivas, who not only made us amazing South Indian vegetarian meals three times a day, but almost always made some dessert. We haven't had any here, and people have really been missing it. I don't usually eat dessert, but I do like me some gulab jamin. While we were waiting for dinner to be served, we decided to go out and get some after dinner. When the food came out, there was the gulab jamin we'd been craving! Manifesting is fun.

After dinner, one of the staff members needed to run an errand in the closest town, Mahe, and wanted some company. So, Shannon and I hopped on the back of his motorcycle and went for a ride. That goes on the list of things I'd never do at home, but am somehow ok with in India.

Last night, Monica and I discovered that one of staff members does Bollywood style dancing. Of course, we told him we wanted him to show us some moves, so after the motorcycle ride, Saheer gave us a little lesson and a big workout.


I was pretty wired after that, and I hadn't had a chance to really practice my head massage. I've been trying to get some of Rigesh's time to practice on him, but he's been really busy. He turned up after we were done dancing, so I practiced on him. I didn't get any clicks and he seemed mildly satisfied by my massage overall. When I asked how it was at the end, he said "More better." I'm ranking that above "better" but below "ok" and the elusive clicking sound. He told me what I had to work on. I'm hoping to get some time with him tomorrow evening. I'll get that click and a head nod yet. Subtlety is one of Rigesh's strong suits.

Kerala - Day 8

People were getting kind of stir-crazy around here, so Dr. Shekhar arranged an outing for the afternoon and evening. This meant starting class an hour early and eliminating our siesta. Today we covered two more sudation treatments -- a wet one with lemon and herb boluses and a dry one with powder boluses, a Talapotichil - a native Kerala treatment where you cover the head, and how to make a medicated ghee (with brahmi).

I was the demo body for the powder bolus treatment. That was interesting. It's a heavy tapotement (percussion) treatment that reduces Vata. Not very intuitive, especially since it's dry. I should probably explain that, but it's almost midnight and tomorrow is a yoga day! It was nice to not be oiled up for once. I do enjoy the oil, but the cleanup is kind of a pain. Especially, when you don't have a shower. More on that later.

The Talapotichil was interesting and I want to experience that one before I leave. It's good for insomnia (and insanity) and I know a few people who could use it. I also learned some other treatments for insomnia that require some special herbs that I plan to bring home.

We made the Brahmi Grita with Karuna Vaidya -- one of my favorite people here. He always gives us treats and today it was licorice root. It was yummy! It's sweet and I liked the earthiness of it.

After class (and lunch), we went shopping. I, once again, declared that I didn't need to buy anything and was just going for the ride and ending up coming home with a bunch of stuff, including two cooking pans! Fortunately, the rest of my items were small. We always tease my mom about having a shopping disease. I think it's for real, it's genetic. and I have it.

The day ended with a nice group dinner at a restaurant. The staff at Greens is amazing. They are so sweet, friendly and big-hearted. A few of them chaperoned us on our shopping excursion and a few more joined us for dinner. They take really good care of their guests. I believe they've arranged a movie night for tomorrow, but I think I'll skip it to practice my massage with one of the senior therapists. And now I'm off to bed...

Kerala - Day 7

It has been an eventful day. We had yoga this morning! Yay! And we actually got through about half of the long-awaited "selected asanas to maintain the general health of the body and mind". Quote of the day from class: "Real love is emancipation."

Next, we had a class on Shastika Sali Pinda Sweda which is a bolus sudation treatment using njavara rice. I happened to buy some of this rice from the organic farm we visited the day I ditched class. Well, we found out today that this rice is great for diabetes, people that need to gain weight and is very rejuvenating. In other words, it's perfect for my dad! I hope he likes it. We visited the pharmacy to learn how to cook the rice and made the boluses and performed the treatment on one of our own.
For lunch, we were invited to an engagement party. One of our teachers got engaged and invited us all to a party at her house. We all got dressed up and walked over there. The food was great and it was an interesting experience crashing a party in India.

After the party, I took a nap in the hammock with some tunes and then we went to the beach to practice massage again. Dinner was mellow. I started typing up some of my notes. After dinner, most of us did Sneha Bastis (oil enemas). They were administered to us by some of the staff here. We were asked to go down to our rooms and wait. There were two teams of people (one pair of men and one pair of women) going from room to room shooting people up with oil. I call them the Basti Patrol. I got the call and went down to my room. There was a knock and two women came in. One of them had a rubber gloves and was holding an instrument like this one:

Kerala - Day 6

We learned how to make a taila (infused oil) today! After a short lecture, we went over to Karuna Vaidya's place (the medicine man in the house out back) and made a taila together. He is a very sweet man and really good at what he does. These are qualities you want the man making your medicines to have. We tasted amla (amalaki) fruit fresh (Monica and I tried dried amla the day before), sampled some pinda taila, and got another taste of his amazing chyawanprash before we left.

Next, we had a little cooking class with Dr. Asghar's wife at their home a few doors down from the center. We made khichadi and and a coconut milk dessert. After lunch, we practiced Abhyanga at the beach hut. We took turns being the body, so I got another oil massage! After dinner, a few of us took a short shopping trip to Mahe, closest shopping area (a Rs. 30 tuk-tuk ride), and I bought some bindis. (Trying to limit myself to items that don't take up much space.)

Yoga tomorrow morning and an engagement party in the afternoon!

Kerala - Day 5

We had our third yoga class this morning. Still haven't done any yoga. Last night, I asked my roommate if she thought I could wear my muumuu* to yoga. She said, "Probably. Every morning we have class, I put on my yoga gear thinking we're going to do yoga. I don't know why I keep doing it." It was more class and less yoga. Still love it. It goes something like this: he talks about what we're going to go over in class for the first half of class, he tells us to relax while he changes into his yoga clothes (shorts and a t-shirt), he tells us about a pose, asks if anyone knows it, makes them do it, occasionally does a pose or two himself, does this for four or five more poses, asks us how long we have with about five minutes left, tells us he'll show us "selected asanas to maintain the general health of the body and mind" the next time we meet and closes class. Quote of the day from class: "Fritz Perls defined maturity as transcendence from environmental support to self-support. Yoga matures you."

Our morning lecture was about Udwartana or dry powder massage. We had to wear masks and hair caps for the practical portion of the lecture so the powder wouldn't get into our hair and lungs. It's a vigorous massage and not relaxing by design. It stimulates catabolism (breaking down of cells), rather than anabolism like a relaxing massage would.

We were done a little early, so Monica and I decided to take a little walk around the neighborhood. Dr. Shekhar said we had to be crazy going for a walk at that time. He was right. It was too hot and I spent the reat of the afternoon trying to cool off -- on the floor, in the hammock.


Our afternoon session was Abhyanga review. I worked up a sweat practicing the sequence, so it was hammock time again once we got back from the beach hut. We had a very nice dinner cooked by the wife of the main doctor here. There was much rejoicing. People have not been digging the food. (I didn't mind it, but I did welcome the variety of a new chef.) She did not disappoint.

* The first day we were here, a lady came around selling dresses. A European woman who had been staying here a while before we got here was wearing one and said she loved it. They are very muumuu-esque, cotton, come in brightly colored patterns and cost Rs. 130 (about $3) each. By day four, almost all of us had purchased at least one. I'm practically living in mine. The locals laugh at us when we walk to and from the beach hut in our muumuus because they are actually "nighties" and not meant to be worn outside the house.

King Tut Toilet

A word about toilets in India. There is the Western style and the Indian style, pictured here. (Note: This is not a men's urinal -- it's unisex. Your feet go on either side of the hole and you squat. Sometimes the footprints are raised above the wet floor.) If you're lucky, Indian style isn't the only option and if you're really lucky there's toilet paper in the Western style stall. That's why you choose your rest stops wisely and always carry your own toilet paper. If you find yourself saying, "Surely this place will have toilet paper," and you don't take it with you, that's when you'll need it most. Until the other day, I didn't realize that there is, in fact, a third kind of toilet -- a hybrid toilet. I came across this toilet the other day. Isn't it special? Monica thinks it looks like King Tut.

Kerala - Days 3 & 4

It's been a full couple of days. Yesterday morning, we had our second day of yoga. (We have yoga every other morning.) We covered nine asanas (poses), five exercises, and Plato's Allegory of the Cave. Quote of the day from class: "He who controls his breathe, controls his mind. And, he who controls his mind, controls his breath." After yoga, we learned how to do Shirodhara which is one of the treatments I want to include in my practice. One of the main reasons I'm here is to see how these treatments are done traditionally, and this one was high on my list.

I ditched afternoon class yesterday! I didn't mean to. It just sort of happened. I was on my way up to lunch when I was invited to go up to the mountains with a couple from our group and a guy who grew up there. Our afternoon class was mostly review, so it was a better day to cut. It turned out to be a very serendipitous trip.

This morning we covered Pizhichili, a treatment that originated here in Kerala. It is the pouring of oil all over the body. I got to be the demo and my body needed it. My skin is very dry and my tissues just soaked up the oil. This afternoon, we covered Abhyanga which is heated oil massage. As part of our afternoon sessions, we each get to experience the treatments, so I had a full body heated oil massage in the afternoon.

We got out of class early and seized the opportunity to finally leave the building and do some shopping. Eight from our group including our fearless leader, Dr. Shekhar, plus one Ugandan who checked in today and was just standing around until we stuck him in a tuk-tuk to make nine of us took three crazy tuk-tuks into a nearby town. We only ended up going to one shop. I enjoy sari shopping in India. It's a process. You walk up to a counter and the first guy you talk to becomes your guy -- until payment do you part. There are stacks and stacks of saris neatly folded on shelves in the wall behind the counter. You point at something behind him, he points at something, you direct him up or down until he lands on the right one. He pulls it out and unfolds it. You look at it. If you seem remotely interested (and this is my favorite part) he very matter of factly models it for you. They'll pull off and unfold every single sari from the shelf if you want them to. There's chaos on the counter and order on the shelves and they manage to restore order perfectly re-folding each sari when you're done.

At one point, after my salesman had draped himself in several saris whether I wanted him to or not, to get him to crack a smile, I told him it was a good color for him. By the time I was done shopping, I had almost the entire sales staff "helping" me. They were trying on scarves and picking out saris for me. An older salesman even tried to get me to take an 18-year-old salesboy back to the States with me.

I wasn't planning to buy anything and came home with two saris and twenty-two scarves. Oops.

A sari I bought.

The 18-year-old showing me that same(!) sari.

Showing me scarves. My sales guy is the one on the right.

Kerala - Day 2

This morning's lecture was on Patra Potala Sweda (massage with hot herbal boluses.) After a short lecture on how the boluses are made, we got to make them ourselves and practice using them on one of our own. There is literally an old guy out back that prepares all the decoctions, oils, and other herbals formulations.
He let us sample some of his chyawanprash and it was delicioius! I would like to bring home a barrel. We chopped herbs, cooked them up and wrapped them in cloth to make the boluses.






Then, we heated the boluses and used them to massage Monica, our courageous demo body. Patra Potala Sweda is good for stiffness and pain. I was experiencing some muscular main in my shoulder (probably from carrying all my crap around). I got to try a little local Patra Potala Sweda on my shoulder at the end of class and I experienced immediate relief. This stuff really works!

In the afternoon, we reviewed the head massage and learned a facial massage. Rigesh is my new punching bag, so to speak. He's a therapist and gives good feedback, albeit subtle. "It's OK" with a head nod means your doing a satisfactory job. "Better" means you've improved vastly from the shit job you were doing earlier. As best as I can tell, when you're doing a great job, he just makes a clicking sound with his tongue. I've only heard the click once. I have to work hard at getting him not to multi-task and help other groups while I'm working on him, though. I like to think I'd get more clicks if I had his undivided attention.

Another beautiful sunset at the beach to end the day. The soccer boys wanted me to take their photos again. When I asked why, they didn't seem to have an answer. I appeased them by telling them to go play soccer and I'd take photos of them playing. Dinner was chickpeas and fresh chapati! Mmm...



Yoga at 8:00 am tomorrow. I better get to sleep!

Kerala - Day 1

It's the end of my first day of classes at Greens Ayur Centre in Kerala. The day started with a phonecall home to my grandmother who is in the hospital. She seems to be doing well after some heart palpitations. It was good to hear her voice. I haven't spoken to her for a month! Then, yoga at 8:00 am. Our yoga teacher is this sadhu-looking Indian guy who quotes Gustave Flaubert and recommends books like "The Function of the Orgasm" by Wilhelm Reich. He's awesome. The class was more talking than doing, but that was great because I've wanted to learn more about yoga.

Classes started at 9:30 am. Our first class was an introduction to Panchakarma. It was a good review and I learned a few things I didn't know. We broke early for lunch around noon.

Lunch was great. We had khichadi with a lot of vegetables in it and raita. The food here has been great. More on that later. Let me just say that I don't think I've eaten this well for so long in my entire life. I look forward to every meal and they've all been amazing.

Our afternoon session goes from 2:30 to 5:30 and is held in one of the beach hut treatment rooms. It was so nice to see the ocean. We learned a head massage sequence. I didn't realize that would be covered and I'm so glad it is! I love Indian head massages and don't know any place in LA that does them. Should be a great addition to my massage menu.

We stepped out of the treatment room to see a beautiful golden sun over the Arabian Sea. Some boys were playing soccer on the beach and asked me if I wanted to play, which I did. Pretty soon half my class was playing. It was a lot of fun and nice to run around for a while.

The night ended with a great dinner (hot chapatis and vegetable curry) and salsa dancing! We hooked up an iPod to some speakers and had our own little night club in the common room. After dinner I had a chance to catch up with my nephew and sister-in-law on Skype and my parents and cousin on my Vonage phone. Yay internet! This is the first place I've stayed at on this trip that has had free wifi. It's very much appreciated.

Looking forward to what tomorrow brings!

Free Medical Clinic - Day 1

Waking up on the wrong side of the road...

I was only in Chennai for a day. Stayed up almost all night catching up on a lifetime with my cousin. We'd only met once or twice previously, most recently in 2004(?) when a mutual cousin of ours got married in Norcal. We are third cousins depending on how you define that. Our paternal grandmothers were first cousins; their mothers were sisters. After we sorted out how we were related with the help of her father, we spent the rest of the night filling each other in on our love lives with the help of Facebook.


As per usual, I had a busy day scheduled for my one day in Chennai before joining up with my Ayurveda group: the tailor's to get measured, the OFERR headquarters to sort out my mobile internet situation, the farm to see how they make spirulina, and at breakfast, my cousin got a call about a movie premiere that evening to which she invited me. I was to meet the rest of my group at the Chennai airport when they came out of customs or I'd be left behind. Their flight from Newark was landing at 12:05 am.


All of those things happened. The tailor was unhappy that I slept in and arrived late. She was waiting to measure me before she took her daughter to nursery school. Oops! Good thing it's just nursery school. The farm was awesome and I got to see how they made ghee from raw milk as well as spirulina. I also had a glass of fresh spirulina with lime and sugar. It was delicious and nutritious! I went to the Tamil movie premiere with my cousin and her friends. It was not subtitled, so my cousin translated the entire movie for me while we watched. I don't think she realized it, but she even described what they were doing. ("He told him to go look in his trunk. Now he is going down to his car to look in his trunk.") On the way home from the theatre, we rescued a dying kitten from the street.


I met my group at the airport (under construction, extremely crowded and chaotic) just as they were exiting the building. Before I could even look for them, I turned a corner and heard my name. "Neha!" It was my good friend, Monica, from my Ayurveda program, the only person in the group I knew. She had decided that they were going to find me within 10 seconds and there I was!


We had a 15 person van with no interior luggage space for 12 adults, 2 kids and a driver. In addition, Dr. Shekhar (our slightly neurotic but very sweet leader) had about 10 extra suitcases filled with donated medicine, clothing and toys. After strapping more than we should have to the roof, we piled into the van filling the aisles and our laps with the rest of the bags.


Turns out that whole "be there or you'll be left behind" thing was for real. One member of our group was arriving on a later flight. We gave her two hours to clear customs and then...we left without her at about 2:30 am.


The first stop on this Ayurvedic journey was to Dr. Shekhar's hometown, Tangutur. He built on clinic on the site of his childhood home and we were holding a four day free medical clinic "for the poor". He had doctors of all kinds coming in from all over to donate supplies and their services.


Tangutur is 310 km north of Chennai. The journey took about six hours with pitstops and toll lines. I was able to sleep for most of it thanks to a window seat and my airplane pillow and blanket. I woke up at sunrise, driving on the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic.

Arriving in Chennai

Upon arrival in Chennai, bumped by a luggage cart re-opening the blister created by ill-fitting fins that was just starting to heal.

People are pushy here. I started to notice the difference boarding my flight. The people look the same, but the attitude is totally different. Everyone was up before the seatbelt sign went off. I had to force my way into the aisle to get my bag and get off the plane. Getting from the plane to the immigration lines was like a freakin' foot race with luggage where the old ladies were obstacles. I was completely annoyed with people by the time this happened. I had just picked up my bags and spotted my cousin in the crowd of people waiting for arrivals when I got rammed in my nearly open wound. I hopped up and down and screamed silently mouthing curse words in front of the throngs of people waiting for their loved ones.

Maldives - Days 3 & 4

My Over Water Bungalow and Dives 1 & 2

Cinnamon Grand & Diving in Colombo

My mom took off very early Thursday morning. I've had three very full days since she left. I guess that's not really different from when she was here. The difference is, I'm no longer staying at a five star hotel and my agenda isn't dominated by lunches and dinners with her friends. That's not to say she dictated my agenda. She has a lot of great friends and I enjoy spending time with them which is why I accepted their invitations. However, there are a lot of them and they love to entertain.

I'm now staying with some of the aforementioned friends, and they are taking great care of me. I do, however, miss a few things about the hotel, Cinnamon Grand.

I miss the amazing breakfast buffet - the egg station, the waffle station, the McDonald's style hash brown discs, the fresh fruit juice bar, the Canadian Cricket team, the hot chocolate, and the great service.

I miss the powerful, hot showers. Boy, do I miss the showers. Especially now that I'm diving everyday. The shower I had when I arrived in Colombo after 26+ hours of traveling was easily one of the best showers I've ever had.

I miss the mall next door with it's grocery store, food court, Dialog store (where I get my phone and internet cards), ayurvedic product shops, foot massage place, and the Dilmah store.

I miss Chagall and the people that work there who did my hair, makeup and dressed me for the wedding and homecoming.

I miss the lobby which is like Grand Central Station. If you sit there long enough, you'll see everyone you know in Colombo. It has great food and live music and it was just downstairs.

I miss the really cute shoe shine boy that my mom tried to feed everyday who always had a huge smile and would call the elevator for me.

I miss being next door to friends that live in the neighboring apartment buildings and running into them in the lobby.

Mostly, I've been diving since she left. I decided to get re-certified while I was packing to come here. I did some research online and found a diving school in Colombo. To make myself feel better about spending the time and money to do something I already did, I decided to get my advanced diver certification at the same time. I did nine dives in four days.

Tuesday was my first day of diving and it was one-on-one with my instructor Paris. Paris is Greek and has a dive shop in Greece. He spends his winters working some place warm. This year it's Colombo. It was a good day of diving. I did peak buoyancy and underwater navigation exercises. The latter required me to do some arithmetic at the bottom of the ocean in my head because the pencil broke which proved to be more challenging than one would think. I saw some pretty fish, but I also saw a lot of plastic bags and a very large adult diaper.

Thursday was the crappy day. Literally. My mom left at 4am and I had my last Cinnamon Grand breakfast (sigh) with the Canadian Cricket team and rushed off to go diving. There were four of us diving, two of whom had never dived before. Things were off to a bit of a slow start, but we finally got in the water and were getting ready to go down when we noticed that we were floating in swirls of brown foam and particles. Paris urged us to go down, so we could get out of the shit. Yes, shit. My dive buddy was having issues with her equipment, so I had to wait with her at the surface until it was sorted. We finally started our descent and then she had problems equalizing. So, we had to come back up to the surface -- the last place on earth I wanted to be. I was avoiding the swirls as best I could and trying to unsee the particles sticking to peoples hair and suits. I can be a bit of a germophobe. I'm not at the can't-use-a-public-toilet level (ahem - Dilini) or I would have imploded here, but I can be a little unreasonable about what touches my pillow. What I learned from this experience is that I have the ability to shut it off in extreme conditions. I am very grateful for that. One of the other divers couldn't handle it. She got so nauseated and grossed out that she couldn't do our second dive, which thankfully was in cleaner waters. At the end of the day, I took a cold, low pressure shower at my new home. Oh, how I missed the abundance of hot water and the Grohe shower head at the Cinnamon Grand.

On Friday, I did three dives including underwater photography. That was a blast. It was just me, Paris and Jehan, one of the guys that works at the dive shop. At the end of our second dive, we came up to a solar eclipse. The clear blue sky was dark in the middle of the day. The solar eclipse creates strong currents and visibility wasn't that great.

Today was my last day of diving in Colombo. Our first dive was a deep wreck dive. We went far out to sea and the seas were rough. I got seasick when we stopped the boat. I was fine when we went under and the dive was great. It was my first wreck dive and my first time diving to 30m. But, I just wanted to go home and we had one more dive and needed to spend an hour at the surface on the boat before we could start our second dive. That was a rough hour let me tell you. I vacillated between staring at the horizon and holding the acupressure point for nausea and staring at the water trying to make myself throw up. In the end, I didn't throw up and I decided to do the second dive because being on the boat was hell. It was a great dive and I'm really glad I did it. I felt better when I came up, but I was freezing. I was very thankful to be back on dry land in warm clothes when it was over. Afterwards, I met Aunty Mano, Aunty Rohini and Aunty Premilla for lunch at the Mt. Lavinia Hotel which is quite the setting and the food was great.

Now, I'm packing for the Maldives -- I leave tomorrow morning! Dinner plans at the Cinnamon Grand and will probably go out afterwards...

Sunset at Galle Face Hotel Verandah

Today's Agenda

8:30 am - Breakfast with Uncle* Lucky

9:15 am - Coffee (Pineapple juice) with Pradeep**

10:00 am - See off Aunty Kumu & Uncle Lucky

12:00 pm - Pre-lunch Drinks at Aunty Rohini's

1:00 pm - Lunch at Gallery Café hosted by Aunty Rohini

3:00 pm - Coffee (Lime soda?) with Vidhi*** & Aunty Rajes

4:00 pm - Tea (perhaps actual tea, maybe another juice) with Buddhika****

7:00 pm - Dinner hosted by Aunty Mano

Post dinner drinks?

I need to cancel my plans to go to the Colombo Zoo after lunch. There just isn't any time! Somewhere in there I have to get in the hotel pool with my new scuba mask and snorkel so I'm ready for diving tomorrow and start reading my PADI book for the exam I'll be taking on Thursday.

*A note about the terms "aunty" and "uncle". South Asians call all their elders "aunty" or "uncle". None of these aunties are blood relations, though a few of them are practically family. Most of them went to Ladies' College with my mom. They all grew up together here in Colombo.

**Pradeep is Aunty Padma's son. He's a really sweet guy and always takes good care of me when I'm here. Four years ago when I was here last, he was engaged. Now, he's married, their daughter will be two on Thursday, and their son is due in about six weeks!

***Vidhi is Aunty Rajes's (real) nephew. I just met him last week at Aunty Padma's dinner. We were the only two people under 40 and they made us talk to each other. Not that we wouldn't have ended up talking to each other, but Aunty Rajes didn't leave anything to chance. She asked me to come over, sat me down next to him and told me to "tell him about all the interesting things I'm doing because he's doing interesting things, too". Fortunately, he is actually doing interesting things and we've had a good time hanging out. He also has a lot of interesting friends and family that I've met over the past week. It has been nice to have someone to make my own plans with.

****Buddhika is a documentary filmmaker that I met at Heathrow checking in for our flight to Colombo. He was carrying a big camera case which naturally caught my eye. He bought me a Costa coffee at the airport terminal, his favorite coffee in the world, and we had a good chat. He's here for a month shooting a documentary on the aftermath of the war. My cousin is also doing a documentary in Sri Lanka, so it was great to talk to him about his experience. He went to Jaffna when I was in Trincomalee. I would've liked to go with him. There has been a lot of talk about Sri Lankan politics and the current and future state of this country since I've been here starting with that Costa coffee chat. I'm not too into politics in general, mainly because I don't keep up on it, but it's been interesting to hear all the different perspectives.

Mosquito Bites

I try not to scratch.
Once I start I cannot stop.
But it feels so good.

Back in Sri Lanka

I'm back in Sri Lanka after four years. My mom asked me to accompany her on this trip. She's mainly here to attend the wedding of her good friend's son. She's still really close to her friends from elementary school, and most of them are here, too. There are lots of people to visit and functions to attend. While she is here, I'm pretty much tagging along. Since I was making the trip half way around the world, I decided to go to India as well and get some hands on Ayurveda experience. I had been planning to go India to further my studies at some point this year anyway. I found out after I decided to go that a friend from my Ayurveda class was already signed up for a 3 week course in Chennai and Kerala that started about a week after my mom was planning to leave Sri Lanka. The timing was right, I have family in Chennai, and it seemed like a good program, so I signed up! That's how a trip to Sri Lanka for a wedding turned into a six week journey. With a week to kill between my mom leaving and my program starting, I planned a trip to the Maldives, a destination that is on my list and is disappearing. Speaking of the list of places I want to visit, here it is:

Never been:
Cuba
Brazil
South Africa
Antarctica
Thailand
Singapore
Maldives (gotta be Over Water Bungalow)
Pune, India
Goa, India
Cross-country drive (US)

Events:
Austin for SXSW
New Orleans for Jazz Fest

Always on the list:
Chicago
NYC

Cortona

I arrived in Colombo on the 30th of December. It's been a whirlwind of road trips, lunches, teas and dinners since about the minute I landed.

It's Day 10 and I'm heading out to a dive school this morning to meet the instructors and hopefully sign up for a course that will finish in time for my trip to the Maldives (Jan 17-20). I couldn't find my certification card before I left and I want to make sure I'll be able to dive in the Maldives, so I'm getting re-certified. It's been a while and I need a refresher anyway. The dive school is in Mt. Lavinia which is where my grandfather died saving someone from drowning. I can feel the fear about going into the water there, but it's not mine.