That Time Again

It's that time again. Time to wander and let my senses and the world around me take the lead so I can sit back and enjoy the ride. In less than one week, I'll be hitting the road again--this time with a boyfriend by my side (how's that for a change?)--to Tokyo, Nepal, India and mainland Southeast Asia.

In the meantime, I'll stay busy packing up my life of over three years here in Korea and saying my goodbyes to dear and darling friends I've had the luxury of making during my time here. Bittersweet, indeed. BUT, I'm ready for yet another adventure.

Four months on the road, here I comeeee!

Let Me Come Home

(Love the song "Home" by Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeroes)...

After a semester of teaching at the university in Jinju, a mid-semester week-long wander to Japan and several more weekends of Korea outdoor awesomeness, I've pounced on the opportunity to wander home for six weeks before returning for another semester in Korea. SIX WHOLE WEEKS! This was perhaps the most exciting thing in my life for the weeks leading up to this trip... You wouldn't believe how often my mind wandered to thoughts of cheese, micro-brews, my kitty Luna, family and friends, new babies, bike riding in the sunshine... Ahhhh. Home.

Being home as been a true joy. I feel so lucky to have this place and these people in my life, to feel so attached to home. How have I spent my first two weeks being back?

Making sure I'm home in time for dinner. Dad's cooking is still out of this world (and, there's always good beer and wine to be had).

Loving the people in my life. And what better way to start off my first week than by witnessing my brother propose to his girlfriend? I gained a new and amazing sister in a matter of days after my arrival. Mom and dad always make me happy and, as it's always been throughout my mid- to late-20s, I always enjoy our ever-evolving relationship. My two longest-standing friends have beautiful children (one of whom was just born two weeks before my arrival) and being with them is a beautiful thing and lights up my life. Next up: the out of town friends!

Being a gym rat at the local climbing gym. Okay, so I only go about twice a week, but still. It's a great way to kill a few hours mid-day and I've never had the chance to experiment with bouldering ceilings!

Enjoying the beautiful Willamette Valley summer weather (until three days ago). My first week and a half brought perfect weather--sunshine, blue skies and NO humidity (a rare treat in my life these days). Bike rides, runs (or, attempts at a run), driving with the windows down and the music up, reading on the back deck in the evenings as the sun sets... Makes me smile just thinking about it.

Picking berries from the yard! Neither Ohio nor Korea could offer this to me--that's 5.5 years out of the last 6.5 years I've been missing out! Strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, oh my!

Talking with people from my second home in Korea. When you call a place home for 2.5 years, no matter how good it feels good to be back in your original home surrounded by all its beauty, you can't help but miss it. And, of course, the people. Thank goodness for facebook! :-P

Being inspired--and proud of my home. It's US Track and Field Olympic Trials time and Eugene is shining as the host city. Watching athletes in their finest moments and feeling the positive energy from those around me also witnessing such greatness is an amazing feeling (and makes me miss sport and competition immensely).

Enjoying the moment. Relishing place. Being present. Loving home.

Money, Money, Money!

In case anybody's curious (because I know I usually am)... I want to write about money. I want to write about the money I spent (and what I spent it on) because I for one was a bit surprised at how little money one could actually spend in India. And, cost of living is always interesting when compared across the globe (I think now about a book that fascinated me when I was a kid, a book that my dad brought home from the library called "Material World" that had families across the world lay out all of their possessions in their yard, or on their roof, or in the street... I'm sure you can imagine what the American family's collection looked like compared to a family from Ethiopia). Anyways, I'm always interested and curious, so...

I don't necessarily like to talk about money specifics (I am, after all, American and we don't ask THOSE kinds of things), but I'm going to here anyway. And because I plan to return to India next year for a longer duration, I kept track of everything I spent during my two months so I could have a better idea of how to budget for my next trip.

Starting with the biggest numbers... My grand total (including all airline tickets) was US$2,136 (that's with the exchange rate of US$1 = 50 Indian Rupees) for a 58 day trip.

Airline tickets: $750
Malaysia total (5.5 days): $114
Malaysia daily average: $20.73 per day
India total (52.5 days; NOT including shopping): $872
India daily average: $16.61
India shopping and shipping: $400
*(I shipped a package to the US and two to Korea, for $35, $17 and $22, respectively)

Not to bad, I'd say!

Food Talk

Let's talk India. Not the interesting story-telling type of India talk, but the run-on sentence, spastic, stream of consciousness type of talk. About everything. Anything. Just, India...

Let's start with my absolute favorite thing: food. People this past week have often asked me about the food in India. My immediate reaction, without fail, has been to first answer non-verbally by throwing my hands up and demonstrating my pure excitement in my face. "AMAZING" is usually the word that comes out of my mouth next.

To describe the food in India (and give it any justice at all) would be like me asking you to describe the most beautiful sunset you've ever seen, or the 360-degree view from the top of a mountain you've just spent all day climbing, or anything else that you've ever experienced that has made you actually--and I mean actually--stop and say "wow." That's what most Indian food did for me. It made me stop and say "wow."

Most memorable meals and favorite dishes:

Chicken korma: A simple dish of a cashew curry gravy and chicken over rice. Korma curries are very thick, and cream-based (with yogurt, coconut or nut paste). But this dish, which I ate at a beach-front restaurant in Patnam (Goa), was heaven in my mouth. I asked somebody one time about the Indian "gravy" as they call it, and apparently the majority of them get their heavy, creamy richness from cashews. Cashews EVERYWHERE. Mmmm.

Coconut Veg Curry: The particular one I'm thinking of was a to-go meal, as a matter of fact, in the hill station of Munnar. It was my last night and I knew I had to return to this little street vendor who sold the most amazing coconut veg curry and parottas (a type of bread, see below). This was one of those classic cheap and delicious meals, which put me back a total of less than US$1. When you get anything take-out, it comes in newspaper. So, my coconut curry came in a little plastic sack and was wrapped inside newspaper with my two parottas. The curry was light colored, sweet from the coconut, but with a little heat, and full of carrots, potatoes and onions. Heaven in my room that night, eating from my newspaper place setting...



Idly: My first idly was my second meal in India (and I continued to order idly until my last day in India). Idly are little spongy, savory white cakes made from fermented lentils and rice. Sounds delicious, right? Well trust me, when you dip them in the coconut chutney and sambar (oftentimes spicy, a vegetable "stew" made from tamarind) that always come with the idly. Idly are generally more for breakfast, but can be eaten as a snack. Sambar is delicious, but OH, COCONUT CHUTNEY, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE?! One of the things I enjoyed most was sampling all the different styles of coconut chutneys at different restaurants. They vary so much, but when you get a good one, WHOA.





Speaking of coconut chutney and sambar...

Dosa: This is a fermented 'crepe' of sorts, made from rice and lentils. It usually comes out paper thing and a bit crispy. There are several variations, but I usually stuck with just a plain dosa, or a masala dosa (which is stuffed with spiced potatoes). One of my go-to dishes, when I was feeling indecisive.





Parotta: A layered flat bread, eaten mostly in South India. In fact, it was impossible to find parottas once I left the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu (and wow, was I sad about THAT). Parottas are a different texture from nan, or roti, or chapatti, which are flatter and dryer... They are much softer, more moist and just delicious to eat. The dough is such that the parottas are a bit stretchy when you try to pull a piece off. Parottas were the perfect complement to any kind of gravy--veg curry, palak paneer (cheese and spinach), aloo gobi (potato and cauliflower curry), tomato fry (spicy tomatoes), dal and more.



Sheera: Unfortunately for me, I discovered this dish quite late in my trip, but I am SO glad that I discovered it at all. Sheera is a breakfast food. It comes out as a molded scoop of yellow... Looking similar to cous cous or saffron rice, but it's not exactly a grain texture. Think Cream of Wheat, or corn meal, I guess. It's sweetened with honey and coconut, flavored with cardamom saffron, and mixed in are cashews, almonds and raisins. After discovering this dish, it was almost a daily thing to hunt down a restaurant serving it.



Uttapam: Uttapam is a thick, savory pancake, with things cooked into it. My personal favorite was onion (perhaps mainly because they use red onion, and in Korea it's so hard to find red onions!). They usually come with some herbs sprinkled on top, and that famous coconut chutney and sambar! A great snack OR meal...



Curd: Fresh, unsweetened, thick, creamy, homemade yogurt. Need I say more? It's everywhere. A great thing on its own OR mixed in with curry on rice.

Indian sweets: They use a lot of milk and A LOT of sugar. That's really all I can say... Do me a favor and scroll down the page on this link to Indian Sweets, and then you might understand why I had NO idea what I was eating when I'd point to something in a glass case for all those times I was craving sugar. I had little doughnut balls, the beautifully designed orange things (PURE sugar), sweet rice pudding, little squares of fudge-like sweets (but in pistachio or cashew flavor), milk cake... And more.

A box of sweets I got in Mysore:



Gadbad, the local speciatly dessert in the Dandeli, Karnataka area:



Chai: One of my favorite things in India, because it was everywhere. Chai is a mixed spice tea made from cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and pepper that is cooked over the stove with water, milk and black tea. When I left for India, I planned to drink chai and nix coffee from my life. I did it (with the exception of a few times just for fun--and, naturally, coffee is very much a part of my life again now that I'm back in Korea). Chai ranged from tiny five rupee (US$0.10) cups to larger 25-30 rupee (US$0.50-0.60) cups in more expensive, touristy areas. Chai was in restaurants and all over the streets. You could often find a chai at a little shack on the side of a country road, that looked more like a person's house, but apparently operated ALSO as a mini chai stop. Some chai was deathly sweet, some was brought out without sugar and you could add your own (it's better with at least some sugar). Some of it was quite bland, some quite milky, and some quite spicy. My perfect cup of chai was heavier on the spices and lighter on the sugar and milk. Sometimes your cup or chai hits the spot and all feels right in the world, and sometimes it's not so much a satisfaction as it is just a running through the daily motions of life in India. One time I even had smoke-flavored chai (though, I'm not sure it was intentional), when my friends and I were in Dandeli on our jeep safari tour and had our drivers stop for chai. It was one of those little side of the road shacks and came to us tasting like smoke. Smoky chai. That was one of those going through the motions chais :)

Anise: At most restaurants, when the waiter brings you your check he brings it with a little bowl of anise seeds. Sometimes it's just the seeds, sometimes they're sugar coated in white or pastels. They're used as a digestive in India, but I just loved having the taste of black licorice in my mouth :)

Lassi: The famous Indian lassi. Who doesn't love one of these? Plain, sweet, banana, mango... They're all delectable.

There's so much more I could say (as always) about the food in India, but I'll just go ahead and leave you with this: sweet papaya, fish curry, pickled mango chutney, spicy chicken curry, cucumber yogurt salad, cumin, cardamom, anise, black pepper corns, samosas and other fried street snacks, cloves, masala (spice) flavored chips, savory banana chips with a hint of coconut flavor, coconut, coconut and more coconut, fresh pineapple, bananas galore (of the larger and smaller, mini variety), purple garlic, new fruits, lentils and chickpeas, chapatti, roti, tandoori, mango shakes...

Chikku (a very sweet fruit):


A random edible plant that was given to me one day by a shop keeper:


A typical dish all over the country (but which varies depending on region) called "thali" and generally consists of rice, curd, chapatti or roti, pappadam (crisy bread), sambar, chutney, dal, curry, pickled mango... And other things:



Well apparently food took up a lot more time and space than I'd expected (silly me, I should have known)... More "India Talk" soon!

Between Two

Back in Korea! I have so much to update on this blog about my trip through India, so expect posts and photos to pop up over the next month or so. So, I'll between my two blogs--the "Wandering Edition" and "Korea"!

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Okay, well, maybe not the bears. Aaaand fine, not the lions, either. BUT, I continue to consider myself one incredibly lucky person because this afternoon, while driving through the Indian jungle, I saw a tiger.

Let me repeat: I. Saw. A. Real. In-the-wild. Tiger. Tiger. TIGER!

Right now I'm in Dadeldi, still in the state of Karnataka. Three friends and myself made it up here yesterday on our way toward Goa so we could stop at a wildlife reserve for a day or two in hopes of seeing some animals. Definitely some monkeys. Most likely some bison. Possibly a sloth. And most likely NOT a black panther, leopard, or tiger.

We spent our morning today shopping around for a good jeep safari tour and settled on one for early tomorrow morning (by far the best deal in town!!). So, with an afternoon to spare, we headed to the local bus station to see if we couldn't just hop on a bus somewhere for the afternoon. Turns out our options were limited, but we did end up paying $3 each for a 64km round-trip in an auto rickshaw out to some special rock in the river. (Turns out, though it's an incredibly beautiful spot, the actual attraction is some rocks that create a mini waterfall where, if one--human and animal alike--meets an unlucky fate and slips down the rocks, they will be pushed down under these rocks and churned and churned for three days before surfacing. Thirteen people have died in this spot; the 13th only a few days ago and witnessed by our rickshaw driver. So tragic.)

Anyways.

We saw the sights, took some photos, and headed back. We were all in the middle of conversation when I saw something up ahead. An animal. But, it's not unusual--it's really rather common, in fact--to see animals all over the roads here. Cows, dogs, goats, they all spend ample time in the streets in India. So, you might understand why it took my brain (as well as my friends' brains) a few seconds to register that this animal up ahead was no cow or goat, but a large feline. We all reacted almost at once, the driver included, shouting out sounds that I really have no recollection of due to my immense excitement. We watched it cross the road, but when we got to the same place it had already disappeared into the forest.

The funny part was... You know how they do experiments to demonstrate how we see what we want to see, or our attention to detail is really quite crap if we'd ever have to describe a suspect? Well, we all saw something a bit different. We were all certain that it was a large feline. That much was obvious, given that unmistakable cat-like walk and long, thick tail waving in the air behind it. Between four of us, though, we saw spots on the body and stripes on the tail. We saw a light-colored coat AND a dark-colored coat. We saw a small leopard-sized head, or no head at all. And all of these amazing details came out of our mouths all at once, once the initial shock was gone. It took about ten minutes to clarify with our driver/guide that it was indeed a tiger... An animal that this young man had only seen twice--TWICE--before in his entire life.

Apparently there are about 87 leopards in the area, 27 black panthers and, according again to our guide today, ELEVEN tigers in this area. If he's correct, then we saw one of ELEVEN tigers out here.

Yes, allow me to repeat the one thing I have said oh so many times in my recent years: I am one damned lucky woman.

Travel vs. Vacation

My first month in India was spent traveling around to a new place every three to five days; now, on the contrary, I've split the last three weeks between only two places, Hampi and Kudle Beach in Gokarna. During that first month, I was primarily on my own, with only a few fleeting friendships here and there that lasted no more than three days, and more often than not only an afternoon or evening because the other person and I were never moving on in the same direction. So, most of the time I was a true solo traveler and often only one in a handful of foreigners surrounded by Indians. It was novel, exciting, stressful, frustrating and fascinating all at once. I was eating $1 meals, drinking $0.16 chais, snacking on $0.10 samosas, relying on myself for everything and simultaneously fighting and embracing the beautiful chaos that is India. Buuuuut, I find that oftentimes, one needs a vacation from their vacation.

So, the past three weeks have been just that. My first month was traveling the "real" India, and my last month has become indulging in a real "vacation." Hampi and Gokarna, though very much India, are places that are full of foreigners. They are completely different from Mysore or Munnar in that, despite all being tourist destinations, the former are comprised almost entirely of guest houses, shops and restaurants that cater to foreign visitors. Menus go from including only Indian fare to ALSO including Italian pizza and pasta, Israeli hummus and falafel and much more very non-Indian food. (And, admittedly, I have since allowed myself to indulge in the occasional falafel plate and veggie burger from time to time)

Real India or not, my 45 days in this country have offered me more than I could have asked for. Though, they leave me with only wanting more...

Eleven more days in India before flying back to Korea. Hopefully I'll get more pictures up and write more before that 11th day comes--there is so much that I HAVEN'T shared!! So, so much!

Love to all!