El Última Día

We just had our last full day in Mexico. Falling asleep listening to the pouring rain and rolling thunder, flashes of lightning light up our room like a strobe light. It's been a great couple of days. Yesterday we booked a downwind paddle and snorkel at Marietas Islands through Punta Mita Expeditions. We saw some pretty fish, swam through a cave that opened up to a little beach, and worked up a sweat paddle boarding around the islands. We cooled off with a swim in the deep sea, floating in shivasana for a bit. We saw blue-footed (and green and yellow) boobies. The only other place they can be found is the Galapagos. And on our way back, we encountered a pod of dolphins. They came to greet us, swimming alongside us darting from one side of the boat to the other and chatting with us. One even jumped out of the water for us just a few feet away. That was definitely one of the highlights if the trip.

Today, we rented a car. It's nice to finally be free to move around as we please without relying on others. We had our last dance lesson with Tony. Hit some balls at the range during the hottest time of the day. Drove to Sayulita for lunch, one more Ginger Punch at Choco and some souvenirs from a cool little shop we frequented. Then, we played 9 holes at the Pacifico course in Punta Mita. It started out unbearably hot and ended up storming. Somewhere in the middle of it all, Sean made par on the world's only natural island green which was actually closed because the tide was in. He waded out to the green and finished the hole. It was pretty amazing and I'll never forget it.

We went into town and had dinner at Sí Señor. Sean surfed the Cove with Gustavo, the owner, in the morning. He is all about fresh food, bringing the catch of the day to each table before ordering. We had some of the best ceviche of our trip and some guacamole made table-side. Gustavo gave us a few little treats. We decided to save room for dessert and have it at The Four Seasons. Since we had our own wheels and a newfound freedom, why not? We ended up having chocolate souffle with ginger ice cream. It was amazing and the perfect way to end our sweet day!

Surf Report

"What up brosef its Sean! Surf's been decent. shoulder high. dewd neha has been ripping! one day she took all the waves away from everyone!!! LOL one guy said it was destroying his confidence to watch her take every wave ahahhahaha. mexico is trip."

Salutations from Sayulita!

We have arrived today in México. We took the bus from PVR to Sayulita, where we are staying for the first part of our trip. We arranged a surf package with a surf instructor I met here last year. He will be taking us on 6 surf trips and we're staying at a house he manages. The house is nice -- a little rustic. (Water pressure leaves much to be desired. It's more like a trickle.)

The view is amazing (as you might have noticed.) The cost of the view is a very steep uphill hike home if we decide to venture out on foot. It's a 5 min walk into town and there are enough shops & restaurants in the small town of Sayulita that we won't need a car while we're here. We have a full kitchen and bought some groceries last night, so when it was pouring rain this morning, Sean made us breakfast and we stayed in and read. The internet is down at the house, so we won't have email access at home until that is fixed (hopefully today.)

I'm eating well. (That's to answer my grandmother's perpetual question.) Mexican seafood is delicioso! I have a favorite cafe that I discovered last year, as every tourist does on their first visit to Sayulita. It's called Chocobanana and it's on the square right in the center of town. It was started by a British woman who used to sell chocobananas (chocolate covered bananas) on the beach. They serve some American food and healthy Mexican food, good coffee, and fresh fruit drinks -- our new favorite is the Ginger Punch which is mango, orange and ginger. Yum. They are one of the many places that have free wifi and one of the few places that take credit cards. There are no banks in Sayulita, no bank-owned ATMs and there has been a lot of ATM fraud here recently, so being able to use a credit card is a big deal. 

It seems like everyone here speaks Californian. I've never had to use my broken Spanish less in Mexico. There are many expats and some tourists. When I told our host, Beto, that everyone had California English accents, without skipping a beat he promptly replied, "all the girls are from California." Sayulita is a small village far from home in Mexico, but it doesn't feel too foreign. Lots of surfers, fresh organic food, massage & yoga. And not too touristy! We've only been offered silver jewelry from a man on the street one time and he moved on without any hassle.

Eating lunch, we've seen 3 different police vehicles drive by. No drug lord sightings yet. Although, we did see a gang of little surfers.

Esalen: Home Again

http://m.soundcloud.com/michaelkiwanuka/michael-kiwanuka-home-again
I've returned to Esalen! It's my fourth visit and it feels like home. It helps to have a great friend living here to welcome me. This will be my shortest stay at only two nights. The others were five. It's a short time to make that drive twice! The drive from LA to Esalen/Big Sur is just short enough (at about five hours) to enjoy a weekend here, and just long and treacherous enough to make you not want to do it too often. It's definitely part of what makes it so special. It was a gorgeous day and I found myself falling in love with California all over again with its luscious, green, rolling hills, hypnotic rows of vines, the occasional herd of cattle and some gorgeous stallions grazing, dramatic ocean vistas, and the endless blue sky.
If I had $100 for every shiny, new convertible I saw with the top down, I'd have about $600. That'd be sweet.
I noticed a real deal drive-in movie screen just before the Madonna Inn and made a mental note to stay at the Inn and check out a movie. I've never been to a drive-in (a bucket list item) and there don't seem to be too many left.
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/7784
I had some car trouble (nothing major) that took me through the cute little town of Los Olivos -- another spot to revisit.
http://www.losolivosca.com/
That detour took me through Sideways country to Solvang where Jimmy of Jim's Service Center got me back on the road sans the large piece of plastic dragging under my car.
Continuing up past Pismo Beach and Hearst Castle, Highway One makes it's way to what feels like the edge of the earth. It's those last 35 miles that make me think twice about shooting up to Esalen on the regular. Especially driving alone. Falling rocks, crumbling highway, hairpin turns around deadly cliffs, slow drivers who won't use the turnouts(!), speed demons who cross the double yellow on a blind curve to pass (who you have to let back in), pedestrians and cyclists, and absolutely no cell signal should you get into trouble keep you on your toes every single second of the drive. I have a glorious thirty-six hours in one of my favorite places on Earth before I have to do it again!

Epic Day!

Sort of saw the sun rise. Breakfasted with mom in our room before she took off. Delicious and healthy lunch and juice at Dijon. Guy with a colorful parrot also has an eye patch. Buried in compost up to our ears. Acupuncture session by a famous-with-the-locals Balinese doctor. Another delicious + healthy dinner at Manik Organik. Home to the resort and our executive suite!

Sunrise -- Check!

Well, I sort of made it. The sky was light by the time I got outside, but the sun wasn't quite out when I got to the beach. It was above the horizon, but behind a haze. So, I saw it rise from the haze! And, that's good enough in my book.

Turns out, at some point, watching the sun rise just becomes staring at the sun.

Sunrise

I've been waking up by about 6 AM here. I haven't been getting up, though. It is my typical mode of operation to want to watch the sun rise over the water whenever I get the chance. (Living on the west coast, it's a novelty for me.) The sun rises at 6:21 here. And, from what I can see from my room (pictured) it appears to be rising from the general direction of the beach. The thing about sunrises, is they happen everyday -- knock on wood. The procrastinator in me says, I'll do it tomorrow...

Hairy Balls

The closer you get to the equator the more interesting and tasty the fruit gets! Fresh pineapple juice replaces my fresh lemonade habit and I get to eat some of the fruits my parents get excited about whenever we approach the earth's mid-line. The hotel gives us an assortment of fresh fruit in our rooms daily. We've been getting passion fruit, apples, green oranges, what my mom calls 'kolikuttu' bananas and something that looked suspiciously like durian, but turned out to be an Indonesian fruit called 'salak'. This morning, on our way out, my mom asked the front desk if they had rambutan. In 2003, when we went back to Sri Lanka for the first time in several years, the first fruit mission my parents went on was for rambutan. My dad gave our driver 10 rupees and told him to buy a bunch from a fruit stand on the road. The driver was embarrassed to tell him that it wasn't enough. In fact, it would have only bought one small fruit. My parents were shocked to find they cost 6 rupees each. Not sure why rambutan became so expensive in Sri Lanka, but they're giving it away here...

When we got back to our room in the afternoon we had a bowl of spiky, round, red fruit waiting for us. My mom was like a kid on Christmas morning opening those things. When she finally handed one over to my sister, almost under her breath she pointed out that "they look like hairy balls" in an attempt to dissuade her from eating it. That's my mom. They are pretty delicious, but I think the appeal for my mom has a lot to do with the memories of eating them as a kid in Sri Lanka.

Bali's Not Bad

We arrived in Bali about 24 hours ago, and I gotta say -- it's not bad. In fact, the resort we're staying at is pretty spectacular, we were upgraded to a sweet suite, and the weather is delightful. The complimentary high tea (which is about to commence again) is better than several high teas we've paid for. (My mom is always in search of a good high tea.) The Balinese style massage is the perfect combination of acupressure and deep tissue and I had the fortune of sampling it last night. Waking up at 7:30 AM in Sydney and Melbourne translates to waking up at 5:30 AM here in Bali. This resort has free wifi everywhere (I'm writing this from the beach!) though it's only intended to be free on the lobby, so I was able to catch up with a friend in California over IM from bed instead of staring at the ceiling when I woke up. The "Total Body Workout" class at 7:30 turned out to be a personal training session for me since no one else showed up. Shannon turned up after I ate breakfast and she took me out for my first dip in the water. There was a pretty strong current, the break was really far out, and I was already fatigued from my total body workout so I turned back before we got out to the waves. I ended up getting to know Shannon's friend, Tony, over my second glass of fresh pineapple juice for the day. Tony is here from Florida for a month visiting Shannon. He was supposed to come on our India trip last year, but he had a bad accident and couldn't make it. I would have gotten to know him then, but here we are, over a year later, sipping drinks at an out-of-the-way beach restaurant in Bali!

And now it is tea time again.

Cheers!

Makin' your way in the world today takes everything you've got.

Takin' a break from all your worries sure would mean a lot.

Wouldn't you like to get away?

Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name.

And they're always glad you came.

Cheers is on in our hotel room. I haven't watched Cheers in YEARS. Remember when Woody was the new guy? I think I should be too young to remember that, but I do. The last time I watched Cheers on a regular basis was my freshman year of college when I stood by and let a good friend get the Cheers sign tatooed on his arm. Ah...good times.

Just got home from visiting with family -- a second cousin on my paternal grandmother's side and my maternal grandmother's cousin's family. A really good bunch of people. Growing up I didn't appreciate having family or family friends wherever in the world we went. It meant we stayed at people's houses instead of hotels and had homecooked Sri Lankan food instead of local food. Our trips to New York were really trips to a suburb in New Jersey. "SF" was really Lafayette, Cupertino, Fremont, San Ramon and Daly City. We have visited or stayed with family or Sri Lankan friends in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Sri Lanka, India and Dubai. From my perspective, we might as well have been at home visiting with some uncle and aunty I'd never met. Since then, I've...well...grown up. But, I've also gotten to know a lot of my parents' friends and my second cousins and more distant relatives. They've come and stayed with us, we've visited them before or we've met at weddings. And being with them is like being home. The reception I got from my grandmother's cousin was so warm and loving. You'd think I was her long lost grandchild. And it was great to see her. I've gotten the chance to spend some time with her over the years and she is like a grandmother to me. But I don't think I've ever met her husband until tonight and he seemed just as happy to see me. I also met her son and his kids for the first time, and we got on instantly. Now, I truly appreciate that I can travel to the other side of the world and walk into someone's house and...well, everybody knows my name.

Oh Sunny Day in Melbourne!

Flew in to Melbourne this afternoon from Canberra. Checked in to our hotel (the Westin again -- it's a Starwood trip on account of all my mom's points). After a night in the Crowne Plaza In Canberra with the whole fam in one room, it was really nice to be "home" again at the Westin.

It's a beautiful day in Melbourne and there seems to be a lot of fun stuff going on in the city! Grabbing a late lunch/early dinner (supper?) on Degraves St at one of the many little cafés lining this tiny walk street. The center of the street is packed full of tables, chairs, umbrellas and heaters. There is a constant stream of pedestrians on the sidewalks. It reminds me of Maiden Lane in San Francisco...repeated.

After refueling, we're going to head out to explore the city. The Westin appears to be very conveniently located in the heart of it.

There is a Michael Franti concert tonight that I might venture out to. Not sure yet as tickets are $60! We'll see...

Angry Birds

I have never before today wanted to dropkick an animal. I crossed that threshold thanks to the seagull that stole my finger sandwich at The Opera House. It wasn't just that the dollar at an all-time low coupled with the already ridiculously high prices here in Australia made my sister and me deliberate far too long about spending $7 AUD on four finger sandwiches to share. It wasn't that today was the wettest April day Sydney has seen in a decade and we had just found a warm, dry spot with a nice view of the bridge to enjoy said sandwiches. Or that we'd just trekked up to the Opera House in the pouring rain to find out that this was the one day a year they give free tours and...wait for it...they were all booked up. It wasn't even that we were both pretty hungry. It was that this was an act of terrorism.

This bird was mean and calculating and it targeted us long before we became aware of it's presence. If I didn't know seagulls were equal opportunity scavengers and I didn't think they were idiots, I'd suspect this was a hate crime the way we were singled out amongst several other diners around us. We had just sat down and split the first of our four sandos when it came out of nowhere (i.e. it's sniper's perch) and popped up staring me down first with it's cold, beady eyes. Then, it flew up directly over my sister's head flapping it's wings wildly kicking up her hair and distracting us from it's intended target. Before we knew what had hit it us, it swooped in making a surgical strike at our sandwich tray snatching up two neighboring halves, effectively stealing a whole sandwich from us. Spattering my bag with sandwich guts it disappeared as swiftly as it had appeared leaving a trail of mayo and carrot shavings to verify to us that, "Yes, that did just really happen." Descending upon the ground next to our table -- not nearly far enough away from us given the offense committed and the huge advantage we have in size -- the robber may have been subsequently robbed of it's loot before it hit the ground. It's not clear. There was a flurry of activity as one seagull suddenly became many, scrambling for a piece of the prize.

What happened next is what sent me over the edge from highly offended and irritated to violently murderous. One of those flying a-holes, and it may have been the original culprit, flew back up to our table. Landing on the seat back of the chair between us, sitting almost at our eye-level it squawked -- no, shrieked at us threateningly flapping it's wings as if -- as if to shoo us away from the rest of our sandwiches! Insult to injury. And I was still sitting there in shock.

Terror begets terror and I really and truly wanted to kick that bird's ass along with the rest of it's cohorts. The birds in Sydney are aggressive and angry and someone needs to remind them just how small they are and how terribly humans can behave.

It's BANANAS!

Ok, so this is an extreme example of how jacked prices are here. But it really is bananas how expensive things are. For added fun, the US dollar is at an all-time low. This is probably what it feels like to visit the US from a third world country. Tables totally turned. Sucks. I remember on my first visit to Australia back in 1993 being shocked that CDs cost $20-25 AUD. And even the relative strength of the US dollar didn't temper that, but now it's weaker!

Keeping in mind that 1.00 AUD = 1.057 USD, here are some prices in AUD:

Gala apples - $5/kg

Small bag of potato chips - $3.80

Baskin Robbins single scoop - $4.90

Fresh blended juice - $7-9

Cup of tea - $4.50

McDonald's Sausage McMuffin meal - $6.90

10 ride single zone bus pass - $16

Pay-per-view in-room movie at Westin - $17

Besides the strength of the Australian economy, there are some good reasons things cost more here. The minimum wage is high. It varies based on the industry (imagine that!) The national minimum wage for "award/agreement free employees" is $569.90 a week (based on a 38 hour week), or $15 per hour. Because people that work in the food industry are paid a living wage, the service cost is included in the price of your meal. You are not expected to tip and the average cost of an entrée (by my estimation ~$25 in downtown Sydney?) reflects that. In the case of the bananas, the store chose to support local growers during their crisis rather than import cheaper bananas.

Overall, good for the world! Right now, bad for US tourists.

Downtown Sydney

First stop -- Sydney! My mom had a ton of Starwood points, so we and we are making the most of them. In Sydney, we're staying at The Westin in the Central Business District or CBD. We've got a pretty nice view from our 26th floor room (pictured right). For whatever reason, I keep thinking I'm in Canada. I guess Sydney reminds me of Vancouver, the last Canadian city I visited. It feels like Vancouver did. The newness of the city, the overcast sky, and the diverse population. I have to keep reminding myself I'm on the other side of the world. Or someone opens their mouth and does it for me.

My first evening in Sydney, I met up with a good friend from college. I hadn't seen him in about 10 years, even though we both live in California. It's another Facebook success story for me. We became friends on Facebook a while ago and talked about meeting up, but never made any concrete plans. He happened to post something about going to Sydney (he doesn't post often) and I happen to see it. I realized I'd be there at the same time and we made a plan to meet up. My first weekend in Australia is his last after 5 weeks here. We communicated via the Face and met up at The Opera Bar at sunset. I got to meet his family and we caught up in a pretty amazing spot at the most beautiful time of day. A great way to kick off the trip!

Oz/Bali 2011

I'm in Australia with my parents and sister. We came here for...wait for it...a wedding! Another of my mom's classmate's kids is getting married. It's my dad's first big trip since he got sick and I wanted to join them. We have family in Melbourne and Perth, so we're doing a little tour of Australia. I decided if I was coming all this way, I had to go a little further and drop in on my good friend, Shannon, in Bali. (We were roomies in Kerala.) So the itinerary is: Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Bali, Perth. This is my third visit to Australia, second time to Sydney & Melbourne, first time to Canberra, third time to Perth, and this will be my first trip to Indonesia! I'm excited for Bali, looking forward to spending some quality time with my family and generally not having an agenda.

Maui - January 2011

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