the end of the shower boycott

after an estimated 78 hours of train rides, 25 hours of bus experience, 20 kilometers of walking with all my belongings, countless hours in a rickshaw, and 3 hours on the back of a camel named gopal, i have returned to hyderabad 5 kilograms less and one heavy beard more. i have seen northern india and will forever remember the experience.

the stories can start anywhere a dart lands on a map of the subcontinent and the stories end at precisely the place one think they should not. it was a perfect experience for someone who has never traveled outside of the the united states and canada, making a barefoot hike on crutches around the circumference of the lunar surface laughable. in truth the travel arrangements got to be pretty easy and once i was able to decifer india's trains at a glance magazine i felt i could decode dolphin echolocation and view the task of translating War and Peace into morse code with my toes managable. apparently perspectives change under the influence of chai and himalayan air.

to clear up any confusion of the title of this post, i did actually perform a shower boycott somewhere near the spot buddha attained enlightenment. i refused, after careful contemplation, to forego yet another ice cold spicket shower-aided in justification by the protective layer of grim spared that i deemed necessary for survival on a government bus.

and before i enjoy a soft slumber and another episode of lost, season one, i must reveal the great intensity of travel chaos also allowed me to see the wonderful clarity of peace and calm in arenas only recently removed from my thickest daydream. i may never walk with monks again at the home of the dalai lama or watch a family of men cremate a loved one on the banks of the ganges or see a sunrise sniff out the regal peaks of everest, kachenjunga, and lhotse (3 of the 4 highest peaks in the world). i may never see these intoxicating sights again, but my vision is now a little sharper as a result. thank you, lauren.

with only two weeks left to go in india, i've got to get some of these stories out to make them "authentic". plus, the pictures need to be published because i promised grandpa a snap of the taj mahal...