aNdaMaNia!!!!
vancouver--> beijing--> calcutta--> andaman islands!--> calcutta
time to shake the dust off the blog! egads, it has been so long. i'm not even going to bother with beijing- not that it didn't have lovely moments, but it just feels so long ago. i had a wonderful family christmas with tristan and the dobie clan, and that was the important part of that leg of the journey. so nice to be included for such things.
besides, how can i think of anything else, anywhere else, when i'm in beloved india? it's difficult to do, especially after only being here for a month and "the weariness" hasn't had it's chance to make me dream of wet, grey, west coast skies. so.
the andamans. an area that fascinated me from early on in my india adventures, mostly from hearing federico's stories regarding them. somehow they always managed to seem exotic, even in comparison with the wild whirl of the subcontinent herself. 700 km or so off the coast, they are in fact a weird floating oasis of indian-ness. blue water. white sand. crazy jungles. with samosas and chai. nice. i learned to snorkel, which was thrilling! most of the coral is dead at shallow depths (they're not sure why... the tsunami?) but there is still an amazing variety of fish of every colour imaginable. so yes, the andamans are beautiful, that i cannot deny. of course a myriad of problems (rubbish, over touristing, abuse of tribals) plague the islands, but hopefully they can keep the truly special things of that area alive. we shall see.
and now calcutta, city of Kali Ma. we were supposed to be just passing through on the way to munger, but bacterial dysentery had other plans. so here we sit. eating porridge. and there are those moments. reading the bhagavad gita on the rooftop of a very old building, the azan from a nearby mosque, crows and hawks circling above in the hazy sunlight. those moments... tropical beaches are of course gorgeous, but calcutta has her own beauty as well. (and at least calcutta doesn't have sandflies that give you horribles sores! thanks for that, butler bay.... poor tristan's legs, luckily on the mend now!)
i've rebooked my train ticket and hope to leave for munger tomorrow. tristan will remain here for a few days and then he begins his journey towards home, wherever that may turn out to be. om.
time to shake the dust off the blog! egads, it has been so long. i'm not even going to bother with beijing- not that it didn't have lovely moments, but it just feels so long ago. i had a wonderful family christmas with tristan and the dobie clan, and that was the important part of that leg of the journey. so nice to be included for such things.
besides, how can i think of anything else, anywhere else, when i'm in beloved india? it's difficult to do, especially after only being here for a month and "the weariness" hasn't had it's chance to make me dream of wet, grey, west coast skies. so.
the andamans. an area that fascinated me from early on in my india adventures, mostly from hearing federico's stories regarding them. somehow they always managed to seem exotic, even in comparison with the wild whirl of the subcontinent herself. 700 km or so off the coast, they are in fact a weird floating oasis of indian-ness. blue water. white sand. crazy jungles. with samosas and chai. nice. i learned to snorkel, which was thrilling! most of the coral is dead at shallow depths (they're not sure why... the tsunami?) but there is still an amazing variety of fish of every colour imaginable. so yes, the andamans are beautiful, that i cannot deny. of course a myriad of problems (rubbish, over touristing, abuse of tribals) plague the islands, but hopefully they can keep the truly special things of that area alive. we shall see.
and now calcutta, city of Kali Ma. we were supposed to be just passing through on the way to munger, but bacterial dysentery had other plans. so here we sit. eating porridge. and there are those moments. reading the bhagavad gita on the rooftop of a very old building, the azan from a nearby mosque, crows and hawks circling above in the hazy sunlight. those moments... tropical beaches are of course gorgeous, but calcutta has her own beauty as well. (and at least calcutta doesn't have sandflies that give you horribles sores! thanks for that, butler bay.... poor tristan's legs, luckily on the mend now!)
i've rebooked my train ticket and hope to leave for munger tomorrow. tristan will remain here for a few days and then he begins his journey towards home, wherever that may turn out to be. om.
posted by natalie at 3:36 AM
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