Seasons of mist and mellow fruitfulness
The scent of jasmine wafted through the mosquito netting and hung about my pillow in a thick miasma. Somewhere, a songbird started chirping. Chickoooooooooooo! Chickooooooooo! Chickoooo! ChickoooChickoochickoochickoochickoochickoooo!!!!!!!!!!!!! The sun was just rising and I glanced wearily at my watch. It was 5am.
CHICKOOOOCHICKOOOCHICKOOOOO!!!!!
"Alright you barmy bird. I'm up!" I grumbled and crawled out from under the mosquito netting.
I went to our disgusting cement bathroom and watched as a giant millipede writhed around on the wall. Mosquitos rose in a huge black cloud from the toilet as I opened the lid. I relieved my bladder and reached up for the toilet paper. We were out. I sighed and reached for the tap on the wall.
An hour later, Ronalee was up and the servants had brought our customary morning tea and buiscuits out to us. We were back in a little university town just a few hours from Calcutta. Its the country home of sorts of the rich old man in Calcutta and we are staying in one of his little compounds here. There's jasmine everywhere and on one side of our residence is a giant jackfruit tree while on the other side, a giant jamun (black berry) tree rains blackberries on us all day.
As I sipped my piping hot Darjeeling tea, Ronalee was peering out our wrought iron veranda window at the abandoned stone house beside us. "The evil monkey has moved in next door!" she whispered.
Yesterday, a giant group of langurs had caused quite the ruckus in town. We were having our usual afternoon post-lunch nap when suddenly, Armelia came to find us. "Shhhh! come quick!" was all she said. We followed after her across the yard and out hte gates to a field across the street. We oculd see a giant group of langurs hanging out in the frangipani tree across the way.
They were bigger than any of the monkeys we'd seen before and they had black faces and big white teeth which they kept baring at us.
We got within a few metres from the tree when Armelia turned around in her sea-green sari and motioned us to come close to her.
"Keep your voices down. Hide all your purses and bags!!! And for goodness sakes, don't make eye contact with them."
She approached them first and offered them some buiscuits from her hand. They took it suspiciously and scampered back up into the tree. She motioned us to go forward a few more steps. SEveral mother langurs and their babies regarded us with deep suspicion and chattered and grinned at us.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a giant male ran up, almost knocked Judy over and scampered right past us at lightening speed. We sort of screamed but managed to stay composed. These were like the evil monkey from the Family guy but in flesh and blood. And there were at least 5 of them in the tree right in front of us, ready to attack at any moment.
MEanwhile, a few cows had wandered in to see what was going on and a few stray dogs came by on the off chance that they would get some buiscuit crumbs. The monkeys chattered away and from nowhere, a little black stray goat came by and licked a rock. It was like a zoo had collected around us in 5 minutes flat.
Armelia dragged us back to the house and explained everything. Apparently, this was the resident group of langurs in the neighborhood and today, Armelia had come out of her house to see the usual male leader langur sitting in her yard shivering in fright and bearing his teeth and sort of pointing at the tree across the road. Turns out another male came and attacked him and has replaced him as the dominant male in the group now.
They gave some treats and mango seeds to the defeated male and he was still shivering and cowering, but I guess he got over it cus now he's living in the abandoned stone house beside us and threatening all who come near.
So aside from the monkey business, we've also been busy shopping and lazing around here. We're supposed to be working but the people hosting us here won't let us! We were expecting to be cleaning kennels, giving vaccinations, scraping cow sh*t with our bare hands, etc. like we did at the last place, but instead, we're getting treated like royalty.
We were joined by a lady from PETA today from Mumbai and she's very interesting. I'm starting to find all animal activists in this country (and I guess in Canada too) very contradictory and interesting people. I like them, and I share most of their opinions, but something always puts me off about them.
Whatever the case, we are at least going to be visiting school children here and preaching about loving animals to them. We'll finally get our Saskatoon-India school children pen pal project set up and we're probably going to donate all the money we raised in teh school year to the tiger orphans in the jungle.
Speaking of the jungle, I forgot to metnion that we've been breaking out into these weird scabs/lesions all over our bodies since we came back from there. They don't itch or anything but they hurt like a b*tch. They're shaped like comets and start out as a greenish flat scab, slowly blister up, pop, get a big red ring of infection around it, dry out and then scab over again and go away. I've got them all down my left leg and I could barely bend my knee the other day it was so painful.
Otherwise, I've just been fighting off mosquitoes, giant spiders (look like little crabs), millipedes the size of my finger, fleas, bedbugs, biting midges and these little black things that keep latching onto my open sores on my body every chance they get. They swarm all my wounds and I have to brush them off and it's disgusting! What if they lay eggs and I get maggots in my wounds?! EW!
Anyhow, I should stop before I make this sound all awful again. We've been doing lots of shopping here and enjoying the sights. They have various woman's and tribal cooperatives here where tribal people and woman with low incomes make handicrafts and sell them in markets at fixed prices so they can make some money to survive. Judy almost bought out the whole market yesterday and I was almost as bad. But everything is so cheap! They're like "FIVE HUNDRED RUPEES!" and I'm like "NO WAY! THAT'S SO CHEAP! I'LL TAKE SIX!"
Bartering is sort of beyond a shopaholic like me. I've only managed to make them lower the prices by 25 rupees for me and I as so proud of myself until I realised that's like 50 cents. And 50 cents means a lot more to these people than it does to me. And I felt so ashamed of my self so I've almost stopped bartering. Surprsingly, we had Armelia with us and she said the people weren't ripping us off at all! They had been giving us all local prices. This place is so off the usual tourist track that they don't know how to con us yet thank goodness!
Our next stop after this is the ghats on the Ganges river. The we go to see the Taj Mahal and work with various organisations along the way (dancing bear rescue centre, wildlife institutes, etc). Then it's off to Amristsar (with the golden temple and good food!), more Punjab, and Rajasthan which apparently gets to 50+ degrees celsuis and is pure hot desert. Sarah and I want to go horseback riding there. We're crazy. Then we head to Goa, a tourist resort type place (remember where they were partying on the beach in Bride and Prejudice?) and work with their spca or animal shelter there.
WE're almost half done our time in India here but it's like I'm just starting on my adventures. IT sounds crazy but I feel like I haven't even experienced the tip of the iceberg here. I am still a bit homesick at times, but it almost seems like Canada is another reality which doesn't exist here. Same planet, different world.
I had more to say, but this is getting out of hand.
Take care everyone. Please write me e-mails as it keeps me in touch with reality. It also helps me remember what a life with toilet paper and western toilets is like. And also a world where if you feeling like something is crawling on your skin, it's mostly your imagination and not some killer bug out to suck your blood.
Anh, have fun in London and bring some rotten vegetables to Joanne's gig. Joanne, bring a change of clothes.
Lynda, I'm sure you've got some killer bug stories of your own by now. We can bond over them when we're both back in Canadia.
Gabe, you're off the hook for now. But you'd better have a good excuse or I'll seriously set the evil monkey next door on you!
Salima and Feroza, are you still alive?
Thinh, hope you feel better about your grown up life soon. You and John sound so grown up now with your jobs, aspirations for marriage and house-buying. Freaks me out!
Hugh, how's China? People keep thinking I'm from china or somewhere else like that. They all go "ALL of you are from Canada?" and look at me expectantly. Or they look at me first and go, "So are you all from China?" at which the girls in my travel group start giggling. Or I've gotten, "Where are you from? Canada? are you a tourist there?"
Actually, they all keep thinking I'm from Japan here still. It's "Japaney" this. And "Japany" that. It's either that or "Small eyes." It's kind of funny actually and the girls I'm travelling with have taken to calling me Japani or Small eyes. But I digress.
What's weirder still is that the Chinese food here is awesome! Or maybe it's cus I'm just so happy it's not a fish curry with lentils and rice. I'm getting so sick of the food. I could happily live off mangoes ehre for the rest of the summer and not touch another curry.
And I've digressed again.
Best be off. Another fish curry lunch is awaiting me. Hard to think I was starving just a few weeks before in Viezag and now I'm poo-poo-ing a fresh, hot homecooked meal that's served to me. Spoiled!
Seriously miss you all! Especially after reading Ngoc Anh's blog. It sounds like you guys are having so much fun in Calgary! Ngoc, keep blogging!!! It keeps me sane.
Toodles all!
-Japani/Small eyes Lau
CHICKOOOOCHICKOOOCHICKOOOOO!!!!!
"Alright you barmy bird. I'm up!" I grumbled and crawled out from under the mosquito netting.
I went to our disgusting cement bathroom and watched as a giant millipede writhed around on the wall. Mosquitos rose in a huge black cloud from the toilet as I opened the lid. I relieved my bladder and reached up for the toilet paper. We were out. I sighed and reached for the tap on the wall.
An hour later, Ronalee was up and the servants had brought our customary morning tea and buiscuits out to us. We were back in a little university town just a few hours from Calcutta. Its the country home of sorts of the rich old man in Calcutta and we are staying in one of his little compounds here. There's jasmine everywhere and on one side of our residence is a giant jackfruit tree while on the other side, a giant jamun (black berry) tree rains blackberries on us all day.
As I sipped my piping hot Darjeeling tea, Ronalee was peering out our wrought iron veranda window at the abandoned stone house beside us. "The evil monkey has moved in next door!" she whispered.
Yesterday, a giant group of langurs had caused quite the ruckus in town. We were having our usual afternoon post-lunch nap when suddenly, Armelia came to find us. "Shhhh! come quick!" was all she said. We followed after her across the yard and out hte gates to a field across the street. We oculd see a giant group of langurs hanging out in the frangipani tree across the way.
They were bigger than any of the monkeys we'd seen before and they had black faces and big white teeth which they kept baring at us.
We got within a few metres from the tree when Armelia turned around in her sea-green sari and motioned us to come close to her.
"Keep your voices down. Hide all your purses and bags!!! And for goodness sakes, don't make eye contact with them."
She approached them first and offered them some buiscuits from her hand. They took it suspiciously and scampered back up into the tree. She motioned us to go forward a few more steps. SEveral mother langurs and their babies regarded us with deep suspicion and chattered and grinned at us.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a giant male ran up, almost knocked Judy over and scampered right past us at lightening speed. We sort of screamed but managed to stay composed. These were like the evil monkey from the Family guy but in flesh and blood. And there were at least 5 of them in the tree right in front of us, ready to attack at any moment.
MEanwhile, a few cows had wandered in to see what was going on and a few stray dogs came by on the off chance that they would get some buiscuit crumbs. The monkeys chattered away and from nowhere, a little black stray goat came by and licked a rock. It was like a zoo had collected around us in 5 minutes flat.
Armelia dragged us back to the house and explained everything. Apparently, this was the resident group of langurs in the neighborhood and today, Armelia had come out of her house to see the usual male leader langur sitting in her yard shivering in fright and bearing his teeth and sort of pointing at the tree across the road. Turns out another male came and attacked him and has replaced him as the dominant male in the group now.
They gave some treats and mango seeds to the defeated male and he was still shivering and cowering, but I guess he got over it cus now he's living in the abandoned stone house beside us and threatening all who come near.
So aside from the monkey business, we've also been busy shopping and lazing around here. We're supposed to be working but the people hosting us here won't let us! We were expecting to be cleaning kennels, giving vaccinations, scraping cow sh*t with our bare hands, etc. like we did at the last place, but instead, we're getting treated like royalty.
We were joined by a lady from PETA today from Mumbai and she's very interesting. I'm starting to find all animal activists in this country (and I guess in Canada too) very contradictory and interesting people. I like them, and I share most of their opinions, but something always puts me off about them.
Whatever the case, we are at least going to be visiting school children here and preaching about loving animals to them. We'll finally get our Saskatoon-India school children pen pal project set up and we're probably going to donate all the money we raised in teh school year to the tiger orphans in the jungle.
Speaking of the jungle, I forgot to metnion that we've been breaking out into these weird scabs/lesions all over our bodies since we came back from there. They don't itch or anything but they hurt like a b*tch. They're shaped like comets and start out as a greenish flat scab, slowly blister up, pop, get a big red ring of infection around it, dry out and then scab over again and go away. I've got them all down my left leg and I could barely bend my knee the other day it was so painful.
Otherwise, I've just been fighting off mosquitoes, giant spiders (look like little crabs), millipedes the size of my finger, fleas, bedbugs, biting midges and these little black things that keep latching onto my open sores on my body every chance they get. They swarm all my wounds and I have to brush them off and it's disgusting! What if they lay eggs and I get maggots in my wounds?! EW!
Anyhow, I should stop before I make this sound all awful again. We've been doing lots of shopping here and enjoying the sights. They have various woman's and tribal cooperatives here where tribal people and woman with low incomes make handicrafts and sell them in markets at fixed prices so they can make some money to survive. Judy almost bought out the whole market yesterday and I was almost as bad. But everything is so cheap! They're like "FIVE HUNDRED RUPEES!" and I'm like "NO WAY! THAT'S SO CHEAP! I'LL TAKE SIX!"
Bartering is sort of beyond a shopaholic like me. I've only managed to make them lower the prices by 25 rupees for me and I as so proud of myself until I realised that's like 50 cents. And 50 cents means a lot more to these people than it does to me. And I felt so ashamed of my self so I've almost stopped bartering. Surprsingly, we had Armelia with us and she said the people weren't ripping us off at all! They had been giving us all local prices. This place is so off the usual tourist track that they don't know how to con us yet thank goodness!
Our next stop after this is the ghats on the Ganges river. The we go to see the Taj Mahal and work with various organisations along the way (dancing bear rescue centre, wildlife institutes, etc). Then it's off to Amristsar (with the golden temple and good food!), more Punjab, and Rajasthan which apparently gets to 50+ degrees celsuis and is pure hot desert. Sarah and I want to go horseback riding there. We're crazy. Then we head to Goa, a tourist resort type place (remember where they were partying on the beach in Bride and Prejudice?) and work with their spca or animal shelter there.
WE're almost half done our time in India here but it's like I'm just starting on my adventures. IT sounds crazy but I feel like I haven't even experienced the tip of the iceberg here. I am still a bit homesick at times, but it almost seems like Canada is another reality which doesn't exist here. Same planet, different world.
I had more to say, but this is getting out of hand.
Take care everyone. Please write me e-mails as it keeps me in touch with reality. It also helps me remember what a life with toilet paper and western toilets is like. And also a world where if you feeling like something is crawling on your skin, it's mostly your imagination and not some killer bug out to suck your blood.
Anh, have fun in London and bring some rotten vegetables to Joanne's gig. Joanne, bring a change of clothes.
Lynda, I'm sure you've got some killer bug stories of your own by now. We can bond over them when we're both back in Canadia.
Gabe, you're off the hook for now. But you'd better have a good excuse or I'll seriously set the evil monkey next door on you!
Salima and Feroza, are you still alive?
Thinh, hope you feel better about your grown up life soon. You and John sound so grown up now with your jobs, aspirations for marriage and house-buying. Freaks me out!
Hugh, how's China? People keep thinking I'm from china or somewhere else like that. They all go "ALL of you are from Canada?" and look at me expectantly. Or they look at me first and go, "So are you all from China?" at which the girls in my travel group start giggling. Or I've gotten, "Where are you from? Canada? are you a tourist there?"
Actually, they all keep thinking I'm from Japan here still. It's "Japaney" this. And "Japany" that. It's either that or "Small eyes." It's kind of funny actually and the girls I'm travelling with have taken to calling me Japani or Small eyes. But I digress.
What's weirder still is that the Chinese food here is awesome! Or maybe it's cus I'm just so happy it's not a fish curry with lentils and rice. I'm getting so sick of the food. I could happily live off mangoes ehre for the rest of the summer and not touch another curry.
And I've digressed again.
Best be off. Another fish curry lunch is awaiting me. Hard to think I was starving just a few weeks before in Viezag and now I'm poo-poo-ing a fresh, hot homecooked meal that's served to me. Spoiled!
Seriously miss you all! Especially after reading Ngoc Anh's blog. It sounds like you guys are having so much fun in Calgary! Ngoc, keep blogging!!! It keeps me sane.
Toodles all!
-Japani/Small eyes Lau
posted by Viv at 12:22 a.m.
2 Comments:
Hey Viv,
I finally just read your 2 most recent blogs and have emailed you, so I hope you receive it. You're totally gonna be tough like Kumar, with those cryptic statements and mysterious eyes. As much as I feel your pain and suffering, I know you'll get through this and scoff at everything we have to "face" back home. And keep blogging. Vicarious living really is the best when you're a wuss like me!
I was a bit confused, did you have the run in with the mean Langurs prior to the male been outed? If you encountered the bad langurs after the male had been outed, then why did you guys call him evil, since he was not a part of the gang. I think you should let them take your purse, it would be funny, a monkey with a purse...heeheeehaaa.
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