Happy 2013 – My Resolution: I’m staying here

The week before Christmas on the project was special.  I had some friends arrive and we taught the kids Charleston (Indian style – vid coming soon!).  The volunteers were also brought to tears as my visitors bought a bottle of wine from Europe.  We shared it between 8 people in metal cups.  Rock n Roll!

I sponsored this little girl, Sujata.  She is one of the most cheeky and funny girls in the school with a continuous smile just like the one below.  Her family have nothing and she would have ended up working as a domestic helper to bring in funds at the age of 7 if it were not for this school - long may she smile :) 

Some highlights from this blog:

• I leave India for a while and go to Goa - The Blackpool of India
• How to get spiked and still enjoy yourself - we got very lucky
• How to have a moped crash and still enjoy yourself
• I get a candle lit shave and a very odd finger gesture
• I miss my friends 

So for my Christmas break I headed off with friends to Hampi.  Leaving on the 0630 bus from the local village is a treat, walking through the morning mist with all the kids playing music.  The bus was unlocked as the bus driver had just woken up and on his way back from morning prayers.  He walked through the bus with his hand oozing incense smoke, a refreshing change from the usual morning odor on a bus.  We then set off towards the sunrise with the wind pushing the incense back through the bus and the driver impressing us all by obliging to the ‘no horn before 0700’ notice. 

7 hours and 3 buses later we arrived in Hampi, former capital of the Vijayanagara Empire.  With the World Heritage Site sticker came the Tourist prices and majority of punters in the town laden with dusty sunnies and white faces.  With the tourists comes a whole new retail focus; us white folk prove how simple we really are by walking like zombies towards the signs that say Internet, Massage, Real Coffee, Pancakes, Fresh Juice, Jewellery.  

The temples are very impressive and even the organisation and maintenance (special for india). However, even I got caught out by a tourist trick.  I was on my own in a temple and a young local girl came up and asked for a photo.  You usually ignore this as it’s a play for money but I gave in pretty quick and took a quick snap.  After which, as predicted she asked for 10rS and I walked away.  She then said “give me more or I’ll scream RAPE”.  I called her bluff and I screamed “Rape” and she ran off J

Being the travel snob that I am.  I decided to have some fun and categorise the tourists:

• The White Sneaker Brigade - People with Northface gear from head to toe and a camcorder glued to their hand, an EOS with a telephoto lens in their slingshot, a rehydration pack on their backs and a scared look on their face that they ain’t in Kansas anymore
• The Peace pipe crew – Arrive in a town, find a café they like to read Shantaram and are still there 1 year later having gotten dreds and ‘OM’ Tattoos all over their body
• Jewish Flip Out – The traditional post service gang from Israel.  Seriously pretty people on a mission to spread Jewish love at the same time as drinking the country dry and causing some serious damage.    
• Finding Emo - The people who walk around with their index finger and thumb joined all the time and sink into Lotus position at every photo opportunity in search of a life changing ray of light from the sun.  Oddly these are the group who smile the least.  Smile up Yogis!
• Daddy Paid Yay – Toni and Guy style dreds and Lonely planet app on their iPhone 5 with no stress as Daddies AMEX is hidden up their arse 

One of the locals in Hampi.  From his confused face I guess he's trying to work out whether I fall into any of the above categories!

In India cows are King.  And in Hampi that's his Temple!

Being a religious site in India Hampi is Dry.  However, despite the strict no drugs/drink policy this town is full of white folk many with bulging wallets so the friendly people at the restaurants have numerous special cocktails and Lassi which have some extra ingredients J.  After only a few ‘specials’ we did Yoga every morning on the roof terrace facing the Temples.

I  have to admit, I’m yet to touch any of the spiritual side of India.  From my experience so far that’s all in the North.  Yoga in the south is really for those who also want a suntan (I’m doing it in the south ;) )  However, with my gaze focusing on a temple I couldn't help but love yoga here every morning.  I also touched on my spiritual side (Mr Flack has more than just emoticons he has emotions!).  One sunset whilst walking through a temple we were invited to join a Rama worship and sat singing and playing the bells for quiet some time.  Music is indeed food for the soul :)  

On the same subject, as one morning after Yoga, whilst drinking a fresh juice, real coffee and pancake whilst checking facebook my yogi friend took a long breath and said ‘this is paradise’.  I had to admit, they were all things I’d missed but I get to wake up every morning in the jungle with happy children running past me through the morning mist of india so I disagreed (let's forget about the monkies stealing my food!). 

Next Stop Goa just a quick 9 hour train ride away :).  You know you are in sleeper class on the train when your neighbour wakes you up by using your head as a ladder rung.  Then when you walk to the toilet in a daze concentrating hard not to breathe through your nose you ignore where your feet are until it’s too late and your Havianas are in a pond of wee.

I was looking forward to my hotel in Goa.  I’d booked it 3 months in advance as the town where the Sunburn festival was on had 50,000 people arriving and was booked out.  Giving up all my luxuries at home to volunteer here in really basic conditions I’d ended up paying 20 times the amount I’d being paying for a room in Hampi per night as I wanted a treat.  Welcome to the Hotel from Hell.  I'll post my review up next time but let's just say I was surprised not to find a dead body floating in the swimming pool.

I was in the epicenter of Goa’s tourist zone and to me it really didn't feel like India at all.  Everywhere you looked were fat sunburnt English, Germans and Russians.  My favourite sentences overheard were:

“We don’t like Thailand as it’s too expensive so we come here”

“I’ll just have some tomato soup love but none of that spicy stuff”

“Oh Toni love, it’s too hot here.  I can't bear it”  Phone rings “ah hello love, yep me and yer dad are just sipping a beer in the sun, I tell ya love it’s perfect”

We took the moped for a spin up to some of the northern beaches where there were less Stan and Lesleys and more Kate and Wills on display.  Anjuna beach serves up a nice Balearic beach feel with some of the most aesthetically pleasing sites I’d seen in India.  Seriously – what are all these travellers eating to maintain such perfect bods?  I’m a yoga addict but I cannot refuse the Indian cuisine which means my six pack is now sponsored by Kingfisher Beer. 

Seeing as I was getting a bit ‘Robinson Crusoe’ again I decided to scrub up and go to the local Barbers before Sunburn.  As soon as I arrived there was a power cut.  So there I was with the guy hodling a blade to my neck under candle light.  

To top it all off he then gave me a free head massage which normally I’d have been pleased with but this involved a small generator on the back of his hand and him sticking his finger in my ear.  

I went back the next day to have a photo with 'chief fingerer'

Christmas morning arrived and I opened pressies on the balcony in the sun with a friend.  We then headed for the beach for some Kingfisher and pancakes for brekkie.  Christmas Lunch was fresh Shark with the Irish gang at our friend’s restaurant in Baga. I haven’t had such a funny Chrimbo lunch in a while so my spirits were still high when I later was knocked off my moped whilst heading back to see a friend in Candolim.  My leg got carved up and friend who's a nurse suggested I had a broken big toe as it came up like a golf club.  However, for the first year in a few, after all those mountain running breaks, 2012 involved no breaks just some crazy bruising which a full night of dancing cured :)

The Christmas Gang in Baga - Good Times!

Festivals are a funny one.  I grew up on raves and always remember it was all about the anticipation and the afterthought. Similar with festivals in Ireland.  Too much mud or tents being used as a toilet meant I’d never really gotten into them.  Sunburn was special.  The last time I went to a gig on the beach was a Radio 1 Roadshow at Skegness in the 1990s.  This was better.  So much better.  Asia’s biggest dance music festival, dancing to the world's best DJs, smiling friends by your side on warm sand with India's most beautiful people and not a Ketamine kevin in site.  Getting a foot massage on the beach after just a few hours of dancing whilst sipping a Cuba Libre watching the sunset.  This festival, however, had one especial ingredient.  Me and my friends got slipped a mickey finn.  Normally a very bad experience and not something I would condone; people get seriously messed up.  However, we got very lucky.  We lost the guys who'd done the deed and skipped around on night having a ball.

On one of the smaller stages I found one of my old fav DJS MIDIval Punditz

I don’t remember that much from the night apart from laughing till I cried and dancing on the floor at the front pit of the main stage (infront of c 20,000 people!).  

As I've said before 'once a raver always a raver' and when those old breakbeats kicked in I could have danced forever.  If there is anyone out there looking for a festival which does what it says on the tin then leave your wellies behind in Europe and come to Goa.  After a few days of Sunburn and big smiles on the beach I headed back to the Jungle for the monthly Arts programme.  

One of the school kids dressed up for a drama performance at our monthly arts programme

Despite serious fatigue I was delighted to be back.  My little jungle hut felt like an upgrade from my room in Goa with newly laid cow manure on the floor and an open roof showing the clear starlit sky (second of which thanks to the Monkies).  On my first day I was still so tired that I passed out with a snake on the floor (it slept in my yoga mat and was gone the next morning).  

Next morning I did my yoga class by the lake and got high-fives from all the smiling children walking back.  Happy Days :)

Every high has it's low and New Years was an odd one for me.  We were supposed to have a fire but there was a monsoon.  So instead, the kids celebrated it in style with all 200 of them running around in a state of hedonism for 3 hours to live drummers.  I left after the 6"5 school security guard demanded he give me a piggy back then through me to the ground.  I landed on my big toe (the one that only a few days earlier was under my moped!).  You couldn't take away from the fact that it was all hilarious though.

Despite +2,000 social media friends who like and comment all the time I only got one phone call from home.  I know a lot of you think I’m on one big adventure and I’m not denying I’m delighted to be here but it is also very frustrating.  I walked away from a lot in Dublin.  I miss my friends, I don’t miss my luxuries (although I’ll be glad to see both ;) ).  And being Captain Efficiency I miss stuff ‘getting done’.  I work with a team who say “Yes Sir” to everything and then don’t deliver meaning I have to babysit all the work they do.  The internet is so slow in the office that sometimes it takes 10 minutes just to open an email and most of the time Outlook just locks up.   I work in a dark office whilst the other volunteers work with happy smiling children all day.  I chose this, and have no intention of leaving but if it weren't for the buzz of the project I might think otherwise.  I'm on skype alot but the internet is so limited here I cannot make calls and there is no 3G here so forget mobile phone chat apps.  I have a phone number so call me if you get the chance :) 

+ 91 97 417 22 362

If you are still looking for a good New Years resolution why not sponsor one of the amazing children here?  Click here for more details
    

So my New Year’s resolution?  Well 2012 was very good for me with friends, family, health and career.  I’m starting 2013 in a country that is waking me up to something even bigger and for now I’m staying.  Happy 2013.   

I hope you enjoyed my blogs and photos in 2012.  Let's hope my camera survives the New Year!