As Things Would Have It

Greetings to one and all from Mumbai, India!!!

I last left everyone when I was in the middle of my stay in Koh Tao with Ella. We stayed on Koh Tao for a total of 4 nights, and Koh Pangang for two. All in all it was beautiful. We did a half day trip around the island of Koh Tao and snorkeled five different sites. The next day I went scuba diving in a couple of local spots and it was beautiful. We left back for Bangkok on a Friday, with Ella's departure scheduled for the following Monday. We chilled, watched movies, did some sight seeing at the Royal Palace and Wat Pho where the shrines are spectacular and the photo opportunities endless, and we walked around crazy Koh Sahn Road. Ella left early Monday (or perhaps it was a Sunday) morning. We said our goodbyes, and I was grateful to have had a friend come out to join me on a leg of the trip.

On Monday morning I headed straight for the Indian consulate to apply for my Visa. By this point I had more or less decided that India was going to be my next stop, and that Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia would have to wait for another day. I seem to be leaving every region with a reason to come back, which I suppose it good. After a brief detour I made it to the office for visa applications. After paying an exorbitant fee to apply, I was told I'd have to wait five days to pick up the visa. Five days without my passport. Five days just hanging out in Bangkok. By day number two, day five couldn't have come soon enough. I don't know exactly what it was, but I was feeling really done with Bangkok. I stayed close to my two guesthouses (switching things up a bitfor a change), and just read, walked around, visited more temples - not to mention the biggest Buddha there is to see, 23 meters tall and 45 meters long - absolutely huge!!! And I went to the Bangkok zoo, which actually was amazing for it's reptiles and primates. Fantastic monkeys and apes live there. All the pics are on Facebook.

By the time Friday rolled around I was itching to leave Bangkok. A few things intensified the itch - the heat, the grit, perhaps a few too many angry Thai guesthouse employees, or all the European tourists smoking up a storm. Sadly, with chronic fatigue syndrome, sensitivity to chemicals in increased, which makes tolerating cigarette smoke all the most difficult. Maybe it was a combination of all things. I cabbed it back to the Visa office, was second to be called, and had my passport, with my India visa in it! I felt alittle freer again. That night, I again took the overnight bus back down south, except this time I went Phuket, which didn't have me arriving until 2pm the next day. Screw that - 20 hours on a bus! I decided I would definitely be flying back to Bangkok for my flight out to Mumbai on the 11th. Not knowing much about Phuket, I ended upgetting a place in Patong Beach. I hated Patong Beach! It was wall to wall bars, massage parlors, European men walking around with Thai girlfriends and wives, and far too many street girls soliciting for massages and other services. It was the cleanest, and simultaneously seediest part of Thailand I had visited up until that point. It's just as well, I was sick again, this time nursing a fever and low energy. For the second time in just about as many weeks, I convalesced in a hotel room, just watching DVDs, napping, and drinking plenty of fluids.

I stayed in Patong for 4 days, and finally feeling just well enough, I hopped the ferry an hour and a half over to Koh Pi Pi. Koh Pi Pi was one of the hardest hit islands by the tsunami in 2004. Much of it is rebuilt, but the memory of the event still lives strong with the locals and tour operators. Not to mention that it was absolutely beautiful. A real gem of an island - one of my favorites in all of Thailand. There are only walking paths through the main town, which is more a tourist village than anything else. But you don't have to deal with the noise of traffic - just long strolls from your restaurant to your hotel. After being sold a room that looked nothing like the brochure, I settled on another place, and finally gave in and signed up for the advance open water diving course. The advanced course gives you skills in under water navigation, marine life knowledge, using a diving computer for more efficient diving, and night time diving. I'm glad I did it, though it certainly wasn't cheap. My new Danish friend Morten was my instructor. He was a veritable encyclopedia of diving, but more importantly he was a good guy who was just stoked on diving. He knew his stuff, and I felt happy to be back out in the water, doing what I've so grown to love.

For an extra 45 bucks, I decided to do my first two dives at a dive site 60 kilometers from the island, called Hin Daeng and Hin Muang. Because of it's location, it required a speed boat to get out there, which cost more because of the fuel consumption. The reason for the choice - manta rays. Hin Muang is a renown cleaning station for mantas, where they come to have the sea lice, bacteria and other hangers on eaten off by littlefish. There was excitement in the air as we sped off for the site. Several mantas had been spotted the day before. We arrived, and true to our hopes, after 10 minutes in the water, we were joined by no less than 5 huge manta rays, gliding graceful through the water. The experience was beautiful, to say the least. Mantas are docile, curious creatures, who, if not disturbed, will fly directly above, beside and below you. They like to swim through the bubbles of divers, getting a little tickle on their bellies. For two dives and nearly two hours, we swam with these beautiful creatures. It was a gift, truly unforgettable.

I finished my course the next day with two local day dives and a night dive. Diving at night is, well, different. If not for the ambient light of you and your buddy's underwater torches, it would be pitch black. Given that, you have to focus more intently on what your flashlight illuminates. More crustaceans, more predatory fish, and the phosphorescent plankton. Not my favorite, but good to have the experience. The following day I did a half day cruise of the island, which included some more snorkeling of a site which a I had dove the day before. From above or below, it's all beautiful. Thank God for the ocean, nature's best playground by far. On the trip I buddied up with an international school teacher from New York named Terri. Terri was over on Koh PiPi for the weekend, taking a break from Phuket where she teaches. We hung out into the evening, taking in a fire twirling exhibition at one of the lively beach bars. The next morning, Sunday, we ventured by longtail taxi boat to another part of the island where we went for a nice long snorkeling swim to take in the reef and catch a fleeting glimpse of a passing reef shark. Later that day we left for Phuket, Terri heading home and me heading for the airport. India, I was finally on my way.

A couple of very long periods of waiting later - 5 hours in Phuket airport and nearly 8 hours in Bangkok airport, I was finally on the flight to Mumbai. I arrived yesterday to discover the new airport which I've heard so much about. After an extra step of going through a survey screening for swine flu, I was through customs with my bags in less than 15 minutes. I don't know what the hell happened, but that sure was not the Mumbai airport I used to know. I hopped in a cab and headed to Bandra West where I turned up at the doorstep of my wonderful friend who I met in Argentina, Aparna. Aparna opened the door with her usual smile, and welcomed me into her home. I have had a good 36 hours here with Aparna and her husband Roy. We have dined, drank, and done some touring of Mumbai together. I will head for Ahmednagar, and Meherabad, on the weekend, where my father, and the retreat center of Meher Baba await. I will write more of Mumbai in my next post.

That's it for now for this world stepper. It's good to travel. It's also good to be in a familiar place with good friends and just chill out for a while. It's funny, on the surface Bangkok and Mumbai have similar qualities - hotter than hell right now, gritty, dirty in places, congested, noisy, polluted, and did I mention hotter than hell? Bangkok I could not wait to get out of, Mumbai I am thrilled, and even relieved to be here. You never really know what's moving you from the inside. Suffice to say, in some ways I feel very much at home in India, as I know many of you do as well. And if you've never been, you simply must come at least once in your life. I describe India as the photo negative of pretty much everything you know - something to be experienced. More on it later.

That's it for now. Much love to you all. And, GO LAKERS!!!

Jonathan