Long time, no write...

So now I'm back at home. It's been a while since I punched those keys in frustration venting about my loathing of these machines. But I'm back - to fill you in on those last few weeks, and some reflections of my time abroad - throughout the year.

United States, England, Greece, Israel, India.
Wow. What an adventure.

Where to start...

I'll backtrack a little, and catch everyone up on my magic last couple weeks in India.

The Magic of Hampi

My first afternoon on the "other side of the river" (as labelled on the menus, apparently its close to official) took me to visit a nearby lake. We had met a friend of Nechama's close friend in an internet cafe (My, it's such a small world out there) who invited us both to swim at sunset. Nechama wasn't feeling the greatest and had a snooze, but I felt like some exercise and walked the four kilometres through massive antiquated pillars and isolated villages and fields dotted with labourers and herds of sheep and cattle and stray dogs and girls with short haircuts wanting to slap me high fives with blue ribbons and school uniforms and there i was in my thongs and aladdin pants and john legend pumping on the ipod and a bottle of water for the cool.
This walk was one of the most picturesque and calming walks I've ever experienced. Everything was so beautiful in the late afternoon sun - all was golden. By the time I arrived at the boulders lining the lake, the local police were ushering the few Israelis lapping up the sun to leave, as once the sun sets the Indian men frolick at the lake and cause disturbances for other tourists. But Daniel (our new friend) and I took a short dip in the green water, enough to freeze our socks off and become scared of the potential crocodiles smacking their lips hungry for their next meal. (I recounted the crocs Nech and I saw in the lake at Ranakpur, Rajasthan, which made us both a little nervous). After drying off I was offered to ride on the back of one the group's bicycles - I refused, for having the back of a bike up my ass isn't on the list of things I'd love to experience - I also wanted to walk home in the pink dusk (my favourite time of day).
I was halfway home when I was offered a lift by a fellow Australian girl I had met the day before, and, since it was near dark, I hopped on the back of the scooter as it wheezed throughout the hills back to the guesthouse. But, alas, I have the greatest luck, and thinking that I had already done my exercise for the day, had no idea what lay ahead.

Her scooter broke down. And we had to push it up hills back to the shop. Fun.

I suppose now that I remember my time in Hampi, I did quite a lot of exercise, it kept me quite fit. I like it. Walking to the lake, pushing scooters up hills, cycling through the hills on the other other side of the river (I'll get to that soon), walking up the million steps to the monkey temple... phew! The most exercise I had done the entire year!

That night out new Aussie friend of a friend Daniel invited us to a party he was hosting, and we met a new group of Israelis who became our pals for the rest of our stay in Hampi. Two of the group are Indian Israelis, two play guitar, and they all play Yaniv, a card game which is quite addictive. And one looked like a gay sailor during our shabbat meal (he was wearing a blue and white striped top and white pants. White pants people - in INDIA! How did they survive?) They were all so lovely. We ate Hummus and drank Turkish coffee with them and argued philosophy all through the night.

One day during our stay in Hampi Nechama and I rented bicycles to ride throughout the green hills and explore the 500 yr old ruins and temples along the way. Well, we didn't realise how much work it was going to be! This time we pushed our bikes up the hills (even the rickshaws had trouble with the steepness - it wasn't just our unfitness!) and took some breathers in the shade of the temples. They were incredible structures.

We had just gotten off the small boat from the main side of the river when we notived that it was just near sunset. We quickly scrambled to the Monkey temple to get prime veiwing and happened to meet the Israelis from the previous night. Together we schlepped up the millions steps to this supposed gorgeous vantage point. But not without some excitement. We were on our way to a monkey temple, for Christ's sake!

At the head of the contingent was a random Israeli hottie (whose name eludes me) who began to shriek. What the? A grown man shrieking at... a monkey. The monkey was sitting there having all the time in the world to nibble on his banana. Now, why on earth were we frightened of the monkeys? Rabies, of course. I had already been in one Indian hospitcal, and I had no intentions of returning to another one. The Israeli hottie ran down the stairs, past us girls and hid behind Nechama. Then Kobi, a typical arrogant and wonderful Israeli, grabbed a tree branch (complete with leaves and insignificant twig branches) and climbed up the stairs to confront this monkey who was in our way. Kobi hissed at the monkey, and the monkey looked at him for two seconds, dropped its banana, bared its fangs, opened its mouth wide and hissed back... ARGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

We ran for our lives.

What to do?! We wanted to go up to that temple, quick, before the sun set. The only two guys in our small group, Kobi and Nameless Hottie, stupidly thought that more bananas might appease this rabid monkey. DUH! I don't think so! But no, nobody would listen to two Australian girls... We don't know anything. After taking the plastic bag of bananas out of a backpack the feral monkey lunged for the bag and we all yelped and ran down some more steps. Let's just say we were scared shitless.

We were soon rescued by an Indian boy perched on a higher rock who shooed the gathering group of monkeys and allowed us to complete the exhausting climb up to the temple. Whoa.

So that was a little bit of Hampi, people. Hope you liked it. xxx (more's on the way...)

Mental note - Sarah is fabulous!

You see, I did write a post. A wonderful post. An update in a most atriculate manner detailing the magic of Hampi. Oh yeah. That was a couple days ago, before I lost all patience with computers here in India.

There I was, happily typing away, pounding so damn fast on those keys to the sounds of John Legend, remembering my times back in Hampi. On and on and on and on - wonderful post, if I may say so myself. But then again, they always say that about things that are 'lost'. And so, suddenly, the computer switched off. It just went brain dead. The power was still working - it was only my computer. Problem computer.

And I wanted to kill it.

All lost. Everything. I could try and write it out again, letting you know about the peachy pink sunsets we enjoyed perched atop a monkey temple, or relaxing with a guitar and card games with our Israeli friends, or hiring a bicycle and huffing and puffing about the temples strewn amongst the hills of Hampi. I could tell you now about the trance scene in Goa, the constant doof doof, aging hippies twisting out on drugs on the beach on lazy sunny afternoons, spending Shabbat meals with Chabad.

But I don't have much more tolerance for computer around here anymore. So i'll write a longer and more descriptive post later on. Peace.