Trip update

So things are going great.  We have been so busy it seems that we leave the house early in the morning and get back in the later afternoon and we are all exhausted.  I have walked more here than I have at any time in my life – and that is saying a lot since many of you know I am a BIG fan of walking and do it a lot at home.

We have been hitting different neighborhoods and checking them out.  Shopping is fun and exhausting at the same time.  My favorite has been Kiddy Land – a giant toy store with a whole floor of Hello Kitty stuff *gush*.  My 8 year old self just about died.  Of course the actual kid, Rowan, also loved it.  

Eating has also been challenging.  Jason has his paleo diet and we also don’t want to overload on the multitude of bread items.  Plus – you have no idea what most stuff is.  It has been fun though.  I had a seafood gumbo the other day that had things with heads in it.  Interesting indeed…

Jacob has been babysitting a lot for us and Rowan is loving that.  Jason and I have been able to go out a few nights and have dinner alone – nice.   Jacob has finally found some people to hang out with too and so he doesn’t feel beholden to us at all times.  He leaves tomorrow to go home.  Then it is back to just the family.   Rowan will going with me to yoga the next couple of days once Jacob leaves.  She is pretty good and entertains herself while I practice.   

Things to do before we leave:  Hello Kitty land on Tuesday ; go to the local sento (bathhouse); hang with the man since he won’t be home for a couple of more weeks.

Here is a link to my pictures so far.  I was getting too many to post on this site.  

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8Acs27Fy5atWIy

When we were planning our trip to Tokyo I called my brother to tell him and found out that he was also randomly planning his own trip to Tokyo at the same time to see the Tokyo International Film Festival.  We decided to combine trips in a way – he is staying with us sleeping on the living room couch and in exchange he is our personal babysitter.  It works for both of us  

Rowan LOVES her uncle and he is getting smothered under her attentions, but is hanging in there quite well.  For those of you who don’t know my brother – he is quite a bit younger than me at a youthful 21 years old!  I feel kind of bad for him because we are so laid back and go to bed early and wake up at the crack of dawn.  He took a crazy flight here with 3 layovers and a total of 30 something hours travel time and stayed awake for the whole thing!  He is a champ though and was able to sleep through the night on his first night here.  Of course Rowan woke him up at 6 am.  He is a musician for a living and couldn’t believe that it was 6 o’clock in the morning – in his words “this is not an hour that I am familiar with”.  

Last night – Friday night – he was determined to hit the town.  He was solo though because Jason and I rarely see it past 10 o’clock.  When we got up this morning he told us all about his night out.  Apparantly he spent over $100 on 4 drinks.  Needless to say he is quite bummed and won’t be hitting the town for the rest of his time here.  Looks like he is stuck hanging out with the family…

Here are some pics of the past couple of days – at a temple/shrine we visited; going out to eat; and one is of Jacob on his first night here.  We went and got some food from some vendors and sat in Shibuya square eating and checking it all out.  He kept giggling.  We also had tea with some yoga students after class one day and there is a picture of that too.  There is a mother /daughter here who practiced with our teacher in Encinitas a bit and they have been super nice and sweet with Rowan.  Also, a woman from Mexico who brought her tablas and wants to have some kind of jam session with my brother in a park.  Wonder what the Japanese will think of that?

We have arrived

So we made it to Tokyo.  Jetlag has not been so bad.  The first 3 nights Rowan would knock out at 5:30 and wake up by 4am, but now we have her back on schedule and she is going to bed at 8pm and gets up around 6:30 or so.  

We got here on a Friday afternoon and Jason did not have to teach that weekend and the studio he teaches at in the mornings was closed on Monday – so basically we had a nice long weekend to just hang out and get settled in.  We have done a lot of walking around – thanks Nicole for the use of the stroller because I can’t imagine doing as much getting around as we’ve done without it!.  Once again I can’t stress enough the use of a sturdy umbrella stroller when traveling with small children.  Although Rowan does do quite a bit of walking on her own and in those instances the stroller sort of becomes like a pack horse for us.  Today it carried both mine and Jason’s bags, yoga mats, sundry food items we had picked up on the way, and jackets.  Nice.

Japan – clean, orderly, quite.  India is an assault of the auditory and olfactory senses.  Japan is an assault of the visual senses.  Lots to look at and see.  One thing that has surprised me is the lack of attention to Rowan.  In India we can’t walk two feet without people touching her, talking to her, picking her up and walking off with her to show their friends or family.  But here people almost go out of their way to ignore her on the streets.  However, she has been going to the yoga studio with me the past few days and the students there have been really great with her.  She is a real trooper – she gets up very early with us, makes the trek down there and then amuses herself for 2 hours while I do yoga (okay I do bring a laptop with a movie and she has toys and stuff, but still she keeps herself busy).  

What else?   I like the neighborhood that Tarik lives in which is where we are staying.  We get out and walk around a lot every day.  We go to the market to get groceries for the evening meal and their is a small playground across the street from his house that Rowan likes.  She LOVES the uniforms that the kids have to wear to school here and has been BEGGING me and Jason to send her to a school that has uniforms.  If only she knew…

The yoga has been great so far.  Rowan started school this year so it has been challenging for my practice to find times to do it around her schedule and then there was that whole injury thing that wrecked half my year but it has been really nice to practice every morning in the studio with everybody.  There is a really nice energy and it gets freakin’ hot and sweaty in there.  Eka Pada Sirsasana is back!  I’m not pushing Dwi Pada though.  Patience is a virtue, right?  My brother arrives tomorrow and since he will be my personal babysitter while he is here I can leave Rowan at home to sleep in and take a leisurely practice if I want

Well, I will leave you with some pictures I have taken so far.  Most are of the family tooling around the hood – I like the one of Rowan standing with Colonel Sanders which means that, yes, there is KFC here.  

 

Kawaii = cute

Jason will be teaching in Tokyo for 6 weeks for Tarik and Rowan and I will be joining him for 3 weeks of that.  Jason has spent some time in Japan and absolutely loves it and wants to share all of his favorites with the kid and I.  Should be interesting, plus we are going to Hello Kitty Land! Anyone seen the BBC show Japanarama?  That is what I imagine Japan to be like

You can take direct flights to Tokyo from Portland – how awsome is that?  We will get on ONE plane in Portland and only eight hours later we will depart in Tokyo.  The flight was just as cheap as all the other flights I looked at except that one flight on some random asian airline that had 2 layovers and a total of 23 hours travel time.  It was a few hundred dollars cheaper, but for the FIRST TIME in my life I chose convenience over price when purchasing a ticket.  I feel so grown-up.

Rowan started school this year which is why we are staying less time than Jason, but we are looking forward to it and I am excited to practice at Tarik’s studio.  I hear many good things about the Japanese students and can’t wait to do some hanging out.  If you are in Japan, get ready for some awsomeness in the form of the Steins.

Here is a pic from Rowan’s birthday in August – she just turned four!

Last week in Goa

Okay, so since I have last posted we have moved to another place to stay.  You can see Jason’s blog for reasons why (rats).  We are staying at an Indian resort, and things are going much better since we moved.  In India, the word “resort” after or before a name does not mean what you might think.  It still has many of the defining characteristics of an Indian lodging – marble everywhere, hard beds and pillows, scratchy sheets, shower/toilet combo (which I absolutely don’t get by the way), power goes out all throughout the day.  But it does have a pool – which is a luxery – and Rowan and I have been using it daily.

Just so you don’t think we are living it up in some westerner travel lodge – I think we are the only westerners staying here.   This is a “resort” that Indians come to on vacation.   What does that mean?  Groups of men openly stare at me.  I try to move through quickly to get to my room.  They leave their hotel doors open and televisions on full blast and talk at high volume all the time.  It is like being on an Indian street but in a resort.  Everyone calls out to Rowan “Hey baby” and wants to take her picture on their cell phone.  No matter what it says they have on the menu in the restaurant they only have about half of it.  For example – last night we called to get some food, “Can we get the paneer tika?”  “Not possible” was the response.  We asked for a few other things and they were not possible.  So then we just ask what they have, they tell us, we take it.  That is the way it works

Other than our new digs, not much else has been going on.  We go to yoga, eat breakfast for hours , go back to the room and nap or swim, eat lunch, ride around a bit, do internet maybe, eat dinner, go to bed.  There is alot of talk about what we are eating, when, and where to get it.

More later.  We have to go and get the kid from her last day at her nursery school.  We only have 2 more days in Goa, then we go to Mumbai for 1 1/2 days, and then home!  Yeah!

Things I don’t hate about Goa

I haven’t posted in a bit because I have not felt the muse strike since I have been too busy feeling sorry for myself and plotting my escapt to Thailand for the rest of my trip.   However, I thought it might be a good exercise to try and not think so much about what I hate about Goa and instead write some about the things I almost like.

Well, we can start with the food.  I am not a huge fan of Indian food on the whole.  I like a good Indian meal occasionally, but in Mysore I was so tired of thali meals that I couldn’t wait until the  Pizza Hut opened which it finally did three days before I left.  Goa, on the other hand, has variety.  There are so many nationalities that vacation here that there is a cafe/restaurant just waiting to cater to them.   My favorite is the French Bakery because they have the best croissants I have ever tasted.    We also eat at Bean Me Up alot – they have good salads and yummy tofu dishes.  The Saturday Night Market has a food court to rival any and I saw everthing you could imagine there – even sushi!

I also really like Rowan’s preschool – the Yellow School House.  It is run by a very nice British lady and all the teachers are these amazing Indian women.  The school has a great play yard and the classrooms inside have so much to offer.  They take kids for as little as a week and then there are also kids there that live in Goa.  It is a bit pricey though.  In Mysore Rowan went to a preschool Mon – Fri from 9am – 12pm and we paid TWELVE DOLLARS A MONTH.  I paid $100 for a month in Goa from Mon, Wed, and Fri from 9am – 1pm.

I also like that some restaurants/ cafes have catered to families by offering kids activities.  At Bean Me Up they have a “kids corner” with a box of toys and a television that plays cartoons from the Indian version of Cartoon Network.  At the French Bakery they also have a kids toy box and a great place to hang out and chill upstairs.   In Little Vagatore there is a trampoline on the beach in front of on beach restaurant where all the kids gather and jump while the parents sip cocktails in peace while watching the sunset   The other night we went to an Italian restaurant in Chaporra and they were projecting some Mickey Mouse cartoons on the wall and about 8 kids were all sitting watching – again so parents could eat and talk .

I like Rolf and Marci and doing yoga with them.

 Okay, and that ends my feel good post.

For pictures check this out…

For some colorful pics and even more colorful language you can check out Jason’s blog at:

www.leapinglanka.blogspot.com

Still here…

So we have been here for over a week now and settling in.  I am enjoying practicing with Rolf and Marci a lot, but could honestly do without Goa   I would much rather be in Thailand right now. 

Rowan is doing good.  She is dirty constantly and is loving her nightly bucket baths.  Note to parents who have kids with curly hair – it dreads easily when not brushed for days at a time.  I have had to cut out two so far because they could not be salvaged.  I don’t know where she gets the curly hair from since we don’t have it, but it is interesting to deal with here.  The humidity makes it even curlier and she hates to have it brushed – therefore tight curls and no brushing for days makes dreads – who knew!

She has not been sick at all, but I was very sick this weekend – like Exorcist sick.  Projectile.  Not pretty.  Jason was on daddy duty all day Saturday as I lay motionless on the bed.  It passed though, thankfully, but I am still not convinced I want much to eat but bread and water

What else?  I hear it will be very crowded soon at Rolf’s as the Mysore crowd migrates over once the shala closes.  It will be nice to see some friends we hope.  There is not much mingling of the students here so far – which is a shame – not at all like the social banaza of Mysore.

Still no pics because we have not found a good place to load them from our laptop.  Soon I hope.

Goa – where all the old hippies come to die

Okay, we have been here for almost a week now and here are some obervations of Goa:

There is alot of dirt.

It is really, really hot right now.

What else?  Oh, the white man has definitely made himself home here.  There are foreigners everywhere!  It is like Panama City Beach, FL with Indians and dirt.   Except instead of pasty southerners you have pasty Brits, Germans, etc. – and there are the hippies.  This is the mother land if you are a hippie looking for others like yourself.  Jason calls them “krusty hippies”.  Let your imagination wander…

Also, there is a ton of stuff catered to all these foreigners.  Internet cafes, restaurants, etc.  all catering to my needs.  I haven’t actually eaten any Indian food yet.  I have had falafel and hummus, salads (you can eat the veggies at some places), croissants (yummy), crepes, etc. 

Yoga is good.  Rolf and Marci are great.  Very authentic in their relationship to the practice in a way I always admired about Tim.   The room is full and I think Jason and I are one of only a few Americans.   There are two shifts and Jason takes the first one and I come later around 8am to practice and we switch off with the kid.  We haven’t found anyone to watch her yet so we can practice together. 

Rowan started  preschool at the Little Yellow House Preschool this week. She goes Mon, Wed, and Fri from 9am – 1pm.  It is run by a British Lady and they probably have about 30 – 40 kids there – all foreigners.  Rowan loves it and it gives us a nice break

 We met another lady practicing with Rolf from the Canary Islands who is traveling with her two daughters alone – the girls are 4 and 2.   We watched them for her this week for a few hours so she could have some time to herself (she needed a break – if you can imagine being alone with 2 kids for 3 weeks in a strange land).  They all had fun playing together even though the girls do not speak English – only Spanish.  Rowan couldn’t figure out why they didn’t talk like her but she sure kept trying

Pictures to come later.

We have arrived

First – 5.5 hour flight from Portland to JFK leaving at 6am

Second – 7 hour layer at JFK – we took the train to the city, walked around, got lunch/dinner, went to a book store, took the train back to airport.  3 hours travel on the trains…

Third – 14 hour flight to Mumbai from JFK arriving at 11pm

Fourth – 1.5 hour delay searching for a hotel in Mumbai.  Someone, not me, decided it would be a good idea to not book a hotel before we arrived but instead try and just “wing it”.  From now on we are not going to “wing it” – we will book in advance.  Also note that when you try and “wing it” you get charged way over price for a dumpy Indian hotel in the middle of god-knows-where.   Note some more that so called hotel is in sketchy part of town and there is nothing to walk to which means we are sort of trapped in so-called dumpy hotel until noon the next day watching Indian cable until I feel like I am going crazy!!!!

Fifth – leave for airport at noon for our1 hour flight from Mumbai to Goa. 

Sixth – 45 minute cab ride to our apartment.

Total time elapsed from the time we left our house in Portland until the time we “arrived” – 42 hours

Number of meltdowns on my part along the way – 2

Number of meltdowns from the kid – at least 20.  These are mainly from jet-lag and being tired and in unfamiliar surroundings.  Oh, and bug bites of which she has many and is profoundly disturbed by   We are having to put soothing lotion on them at least 15 times a day so she doesn’t meltdown…

More later when I have showered (from a bucket) and had a good nights sleep…