Cody Montgomery

nyc

2008-04-10T19:15:00.000-07:00

Bought a ticket immediately and flew out to la gaurdia the next day…warning…don’t buy tickets and try to fly within 24hrs…the vendors don’t pay the airlines that fast and its like showing up without a ticket…this sort of shit doesn’t really get to me at this point…but maybe your not over it yet. Ian picked me up at the airport and it was back in new york…glad to see bromaster again…back in familiar queens…eating at the old falafel stand…hanging at flux…listening to tapes from india. It was nice.
Me and ian didn’t have place to stay…but gabs took us in and warmed our hearts with a little whiskey and it was great to feel loved for the first time in too long. Got right to it the next day and started in on building ians new house/art project on the flux roof. The deadline was about four days so we busted some major ass hauling pallets from the back lot hand over hand by rope up four stories, across the roof, and up another two where we laid the foundation and put up some walls. It was hard work, and cold and raining, but it was satisfying building my bro a house and we're both hard workers so things progressed along nicely and it was fun being a part of the last flux show with ian after all the years of our projects together…making it happen despite our exhaustions and fatigues.
In the mean time I made it to dr cahill for a little colon/blood/poo exam and came out sportin some stylish worms, an amoeba, and an infected red colon full of puss…I was riding the high of healthy livin and headed over to the met to see some art…but the whole time I felt like I was about to fall over and barf up blood…so i ditched outta there and treated myself to a hotdog and later on a pretzel…lost myself in the park and nearly frozen signing leonard cohen songs in my head and thinking what the fuck…this is death.
Met up with jameson that night and we wrapped over some beers and bukowski and his new photo series on the Mexican border. We blasted off into china town where I really lost it and started machine gunning innocent civilians with some giant tube of paper that looked like a joint…I was way gone…kicking all the garbage I could find…living like I was back in America and didn’t give a fuck…even Jamie thought I was loosin it and had to pull on the reigns a little. We ended up in this dive bar by central booking signing karaoke…don’t you want me Jamie…don’t you want me now…and you don’t have to rich…while jameson macked the bar tender and got verbally abused by some crazy bitches gone mad with karaoke fever wanting him to sing…china towns never seen it better…and its still my favorite place in nyc. We wound down over some baby bock choy and tea…I was so wasted I couldn’t tell how hot the tea was until the next afternoon when I was like…what the fuck is wrong with my tongue.
Anyways, the construction project was heating up and it was the last few hours before the opening…me and bromaster were breakin it down, choppin it up, and nailin it back together…hung over…starved…and homeless to top it off. I was feeling pretty flimsey…having only eattin a few pieces of bread and beer all day when ian came down to the kitchen …something was wrong…his shoe was sawed through the middle…he got it off and had ended up nearly sawing his toe in half…it looked nasty…it was the jigsaw that kick back on him and those aint nice… we cleaned it up the best we could…reloaded the nail gun…and ian headed off to the er with some flux help and I stayed to finish the house for the opening. I busted ass like mad for the next three hours nail gunning the fuck out of the roof, putting up the center beam, attaching the tarp roof, hauling up the bed, and cleaning everything up…jumped in the shower and ran off to the Gregory crewdson opening that I was supposedly in.
I arrived at the opening so late after the most hectic as shit abusive day and my brother sawing his foot up to find that my image wasn’t on the wall and Gregory wasn’t to be found and I was like fuck it…looked at my shot in the book for about two seconds…meet up with Robbie, jen, Jameson, and jojo, went to one other opening where I gobbled up some more bread and headed back to flux for their last opening...the buildings getting torn down by the mta.
On the way back over in a taxi, ian called up and we swung by to get him …he had to spend six hours in the er…the stupid motherfuckers were so retarded that they sewed up his toe with the wrong stitches…took them out…re-sewed it back up…took those out…and then glue the fucking thing back together….there just lucky I wasn’t there cause I would have murdered every last stupid one of them on the spot. ian was miserable…and exhausted and bummed for sure…but we got him back to flux and everyone was stoked to see him and he made it up to the roof where the house was finished and waiting and we all hung out and partied and lots of people showed up…we read hilarious passages from some book…and I passed out in the bed…more beat than life has ever dealt it. Jameson broke out of statue to come snuggle with me and gabs and the rest of the gang and it was good times for sure. We sobered up enough to make it back down the ladder and Robbie baby came to the rescue at three when I texted him I was lookin for a bed…it was a desperate hour sitting there on the concrete…but I made it over and brother mayhem had cooked up some soup and sandwiches and we went to bed around five and woke up the next day at two…thanks baby...thats what im talking about.
Saturday…what was left of it…was gorgeous…and headed over to flux via the cemetery and soaked up the weather and played cow headstand out on the porch we built from some left over pallets and it was real nice. we basked in the sun, content with the satisfaction of making it happen…despite it all. Hung out with lexicon that afternoon and snuggled it up that night with Adrian in the ice cave…that’s my nickname for the house we built…and had radical dreams about shrinking cars and important stuff like that.
Sunday was my last day…made it over to lei’s to catch up…got back together with jameson and we wrapped over philosophies and traded some music and insights into foreign cultures and got one last bite over in china town. Met up with kimberton, mic, colin, butter, and jojo at some club and bounced around the floor and yelled at each other in attempts at conversations…parted ways around two…made it to gabs by three…woke up at six…went to robbie’s to get the last of belongings and taxied out to the airport…landed in Detroit…had lunch with grampa…jumped the car…made a four hour semi suicidal drive back to the north woods of traverse in time for dinner and unpacked before bed.
woke up the next morning to a rooted to nature meeting where we talked about commitment and the realities of starting a business that might fail. Today, I started the meds to kill my worms and filed my taxes and tried to get some fraud charges sorted and started paying my student loans…tomorrow I go back to work…and that’s the story of my crazy fucking life…i never planned it this way...but somehow its all worked out...so I hope you’ve liked it. amazingly I survived and endured on less food and sleep and more diseases than I could have ever imagined possible…turns out im a lucky guy…in a lot of ways ill probably never know...and its good to finally be home. code

home coming

2008-04-10T19:07:00.000-07:00

Sorry to leave it on such a downer note…it can just get like that sometimes…but i make it around just fine regardless of my heart aches and the absolute chaos of the delhi airport. I literally stood in lines from the second I got there to the second I sat down on the plane…but hey, made it…and time and lines and standing around aint shit after trip like this one.
The paris airport was amazing…such a stark modern contrast to the unruliness of delhi…it felt like a whole different cyber planet…full of neon modernism and highspeed rails through futuristic landscaped of spatialness at sunrise. I pondered the sleek sexiness of the modern world in all its racy French magazines, progressive looking women, and ergonomic arm chairs…even got to wince at the seven dollar water bottles and walk into the bathroom and drink out of the faucet…I never drank from the faucets in india…it would be fucking suicide…like sip…ka blammm…vaporized. So yeah, it was nice not to worry about that for once.
On the plane they served decent free red wine…not a drop of which I had in india…I didn’t care it was breakfast and i felt like shit…time and feelings irrelevant at this point in the journey…and im ready to taste the bloody berry of love and say fuck it…lets watch margot at the wedding twice and cheer ourselves up a bit. Anyways, The landing in Detroit was brilliant…they had this live video feed running from the nose of the plane so everyone could see just how sketchy landing one of those motherfucking mass coffins can get…we landed safe though and everyone burst out into applause…dry humped…collected their belongings…made it out to immigration. welcomed to Detroit…the city I was born.
Stayed there for the weekend…got picked up by my lovely parents…and went straight to grampas to sleep in the bed that my father was raised in…it always gives me nightmares. Had the rest of the gang over for a family dinner welcome back that ended up being more about politics and grama swearing and grampa disowning people then anything pertaining to my trip….but it took the pressure off…and we had some good laughs and ate the amazing food I had been dreaming about getting back to.
It was power out hour that night so we lit up some candles like back in the good old days…it brought me right back to india, sitting by the flicker with my bro, playing cow headstand, forgetting power was ever an option. After the hour, we turned all the lights back on and it was like here wait a second…did we learn nothing from this experience…we don’t need all this fancy shit to have a good time…and I mean come on…how fucking selfish are people against their own planet…a whole hour once every year…what a sacrifice…what a leep…I mean god bless the human spirit…turn the lights on…lets trash this fucking heap.
Next day went to the Detroit inst of art….they have one of the best newly restored collections ive ever scene…if you go to Detroit, appreciate it for yourself…mad compliments…art is the only redemption. Code

mental status

2008-03-30T13:36:00.000-07:00

Life isn’t easy you know, especially when i try to make the most of it all the time. Traveling really fucks with my head and im at the point now where nothing’s clear...whats up…whats down…I haven’t a clue…I don’t believe a thing. People are always so jealous when tell them im going traveling, but they don’t even know…it aint no fucking cake walk out there…especially not in fucked up, poor as shit, super over populated countries like India, where its hard to even find something decent to eat. Its like going to these places and seeing how messed up and doomed the world is and then having to carry that burden around for the rest of your life isn’t easy…its down right fucking depressing is what it is…and then you have this guilt on top of it…cause everyone’s so jealous and you feel like you owe them something for all your misery and burdens and sicknesses.
I mean sure, I had plenty of good times traveling and im going to keep traveling cause im a curious person and im a photographer, so im always looking for something new, but it doesn’t mean im a happier person because of it or that its won me any friends or anything like that…in fact the opposite…I don’t think have more than a dozen left anymore…I mean real friends…people that actually fucking care…with all these vanishing acts and seemingly selfish ways…no one even knows who I am anymore…and especially not me.
Sure, im still a nice guy, and I always try to act cheerful and optimistic when people are around and say everything is great and all, but on the inside…the lake is drying up…ive lost my appetite…but at least im honest. My bodies been abused, my minds all confused… the only thing left to do now is try and keep on keeping on…maybe ill write a song and just keep moving along…life is really short and the end keeps getting closer…and the more I travel the faster ill find out where that is. You know i saw my reflection the other day…and seriously, i looked mad…sometimes its scary how close I get…looking over the edge…into the great expanse…its tempting…but im not there.
Its like, the people in india have no respect, they’ve trashed everything they can manage and nobody even cares…seriously…nobody…not even me…and I cant wait till were gone. learning all these things and seeing all these places just makes me callous…cause you have to be when your traveling or your not going to last…its like the greatest lesson ive learned is indifference…and how depressing is that. Its hard you know, meeting all these amazing people, seeing all these amazing places, and knowing youll never see them again…and its all just empty and its all just a memory and some pictures and a new more dismal perspective on the whole stinking mess of it. So speak to me not of jealousy…and figure it out for yourself…in the words of john lennon…”I found out”…and you can too. code

delhi...again

2008-03-30T13:35:00.000-07:00

We left chandigar after two days, a long stay at this point in our journey, and took our last bus ride of the journey back to good old delhi…my least favorite place in India by far. On the way there we passed the delhi dump that was absolutely disgusting and reeking of India…one of the worst smelling places perhaps in the world…I generally refer to delhi as smelhi. Anyways, we ended up getting food poisoning on our last day in chandigar so we were feeling pretty fucking shitty as you could imagine after all the traveling and mayhem that we had endured over the last few months.
The delhi pollution, chaos, and heat didn’t make things any easier, but we still ventured out to the red fort for some last minute sight seeing…non of which I enjoyed cause the whole time I felt like was going to fall over die. We bought one more mini guitar in old delhi so cow headstand can keep practicing while were apart and ate nothing but fruit and water for the last couple of days cause everything else made us want to barf. I lucked out and had a flight home a day before ian, who had to endure one more miserable day in delhi. The only nice thing about being back there was the place that we stayed, the first place that we stayed in India, where we had become friends with the guesthouse boys and could go up on the roof at sunset and thank god that it was finally over…and we had endured…and saw some of the most amazing things of our lives and had taken some big risks and made it out okay.
It was awesome getting to spend three months with ian, my only and dearest brother …something we haven’t been able to do since he graduated from high school and moved to new york almost a decade ago. Its funny that it took all the way to India to bring us back together, but it finally happened, and were closer than ever, and for this I am most grateful, and if nothing else, the trip was worth it for that alone. Love you bro, thanks for all the good times. code

Chandigar

2008-03-30T13:34:00.000-07:00

The next day we headed off to chandigar, the capital city of Punjab, and an interesting place because its was a planned city from the ground up, designed by some swiss architect or something. It was unlike any other Indian city that we went to, it was organized with huge outdoor shopping malls and redundant architecture that made it super easy to get lost despite large maps everywhere with breakdowns of each sector that were organized numerically…it was like out of some science fiction novel or something…a little impersonal to say the least.
There were lots of western corporate stores like nike and shit and girls that wore tight pants and modern fashions and good book stores and all that. The largest rose garden in asia was there, and was very pleasant and romantic being spring and all. It was a great place to go to reacclimatize to western living right before the end of our trip and I think it worked, considering how smooth the re entry was on this occasion compared to my southeast asia trip.
The most note worthy thing about chandigar though was this colossal rock garden that some nut started building over fifty years ago all from salvaged materials. The place is enormous and intricate and bizarre, with beautiful waterfalls, narrow passage ways, massive mosaics, swings, thousands of sculptures, and about a million pounds of concrete. It was a real fantasy land…nothing like ive ever really seen…insane and genius and fun, all at the same time.

amritsar, the golden temple, and the border

2008-03-30T13:33:00.000-07:00

We packed up the following day and bused off to amritsar in the Punjab province to check out the golden temple and the only border crossing between India and Pakistan. We arrived unknowingly to the largest Sikh festival of the year called holla mohalla and a city fully booked with pilgrims. It seemed hopeless, but we eventually came across a room after hours of searching and nearly reaching the point of killing the next person who asked what country we were from. Things chilled out though, and we walked through the crowd over to the golden temple to check it out.
The place was absolutely amazing, Sikhs are some of the most beautiful and enchanting people ive ever met. They broke off from the hindus in the 17th century to escape from the caste system and were nearly wiped off the planet by the Indian government when their numbers reached a mere ten thousand. Today their number are back into the millions, but they haven’t forgotten their bloody past and to this day still carry weapon such as daggers, axes, and swords with them at all times. There an wonderful looking people, straight out of another era, carrying ancient weapons, wearing turbins and colorful robes, huge beards, and hair that they never cut worn in buns on the tops of their heads.
To enter the golden temple, the holiest place of the Sikhs, one must remove all socks and shoes and cover their heads with a turbin or hat. Upon entering the temple everyone walks through foot pools to wash their feet. I witnessed the act of many people drinking the foot water as they walked through, as the water is considered holy…more like disgusting if you ask me. What is it with holy shit that makes people go fucking nuts and do the most retarded things.
Anyways, the complex itself was magnificent, and made almost entirely of white marble, blinding in the mid day sun, and revolved around a large central square lake used for bathing. Pilgrims would walk around the lake clockwise, stopping to bath and pray along the way, or drink more of the nasty water, bathed in by millions. The golden temple itself jutted out into the lake, and thousands of people would stand in line waiting to get in. along the outside of the lake there were many different shrines and where monks read from scriptures and conducted elaborate ceremonies. There was an amazing and gruesome museum also on the premises depicting the brutal history of the Sikhs with rooms filled from floor to ceiling of amazing portraits of bearded men in turbins, often wearing sunglasses.
The golden temple feeds an estimated 40,000 pilgrims a day in a huge industrialized kitchen that we tried out. We stood in line with everyone else and collected our plates and bowls and whatnots and then squeezed through the doors moshpit style and sat cross legged on the ground in rows of hundreds of people, we were the only tourists in the place jammed with easily over a thousand and it made for a very unique dinning experience. Servers would walk down the rows efficiently slopping out dahl, handing over chapattis, and throwing rice down with their hands…it was quite delicious actually, and we were starving, so we appreciated it immensely and it was totally free and without a doubt the strangest dinning experience of my life.
The following day we hung out at the golden temple some more and then in the afternoon caught a microvan out to attari, the only border crossing between Pakistan and Indian, where thousands of people show up everyday to watch a hilarious ceremony conducted by the soldiers and cheer for their countries. The ride out I sat bitch with the stick between my legs, the whole time trying not to get my nuts jammed by the drivers fierce motions to get it in gear. The place was real zoo, with more moshing Indian men and flag wavers and kids selling dvds of the event and popcorn and shouting and whatnots. The tourists got “vip” seating which kept us out of the mobs, but wasn’t that great of a view. We also had to sit facing into the squelching hot sun the whole time and really couldn’t tell for shit what was happening…but occasionally we saw the clownish soldiers go flying by in full on speed walking spazz, mocking towards the border before promptly stopping and throwing the most hilarious straight leg high kicks ever…and that was pretty much that. code

holi

2008-03-30T13:23:00.000-07:00

Holi is the famous festival of colors in India where people buy bags of powdered paint, get wasted, play music, and cover each other is clouds of pigment. We decided to leave Buddhist dharamasala for the hindi occasion and headed to the small city of kangra a couple hours away. It was great little town with one of the most amazing temples weve been to…it had a giant banyon tree in it covered in ribbons and bangles, an assortment of shrines devoted to various deities, a crap ton of monkeys, checkerboard marble flooring, and a spectacular view of the snow capped Himalayas.
On the actual day of holi we put on our worst clothing and headed to the streets with our stash of red, green, and yellow paints. It was only a matter of minutes before the first group of men kindly accosted us over breakfast, applying paint to our faces, making for a colorful meal. We were two of the only tourists in kangra, so once we got hit, and they saw our stash of paints, they knew we were game, and it was a pretty much nonstop barrage of men covering us in paint for the rest of the day…women don’t pariticipate in the festival so much caused the men get too wasted and end up groping them…gross, I know. Regardless, it was still fun, and most of the people were respectful, and things were conducting in a friendly manner. I had brought a waterproof camera for the event, which worked out nicely, I think, none of the images have been processed yet, but it would have been suicide bringing out my expensive camera, which I attempted for the first few minute, before realizing its uselessness.
There was a fort a few k out of town that we decided to walk to for something to do. Along the road, motor bikers covered in paint would pass by and wave, often stopping to cover us in more paint before sending us along our way. There were lots of parties with people playing music and joining in on the festivities and begging us to come join them. We made it to the fort, that was geographically spectacular, it was basically built on the cliff side of an island surrounded by rivers and more cliffs and beautiful mnts. From there we wandered back through the village and passed though some more rowdy parties where we were basically forced to dance around and play music for their entertainment…but it was fun anyways.
We ripped ourselves away from the crowds and eventually made it back to town as the festival was starting to die down covered head to toe in paint that started out as beautiful streaks of colors and ended in one giant smeared purplish pink tone. We got some pictures back at the room and packed away our clothes to remember the occasion. There wasn’t any hot water at the hotel, so we froze trying to clean ourselves off, washing off layer upon layer of endless pigment away the best we could, but it still ended up dying our hands and hair and got stuck in our ears for the next week to come.

Dharamsala/mcleod ghang

2008-03-19T07:21:00.001-07:00

Mchleod gang is the town outside of dharamasala where the dalai lama lives in exile from Tibet. It just so happens that the Chinese have been occupying the country since 1949 when they waged war against Tibet, breaking an ancient peace code that lasted over a thousand years. Since, Tibetans have been fleeing the country on foot having to climb over the Himalayas to do so…many suffering from frost bite and dying along the journey. Many Tibetans are still fleeing their homeland and seeking refuge in countries such as India, Nepal, Bhutan, and some westerns as well. The summer Olympics in china have heated up the tensions between Tibetans and Chinese and mass protests have been conducted in the last weeks that have ended in bloodshed in Tibet…a country known for their peaceful protesting. China is denying that they have used any force, but they’ve been conducting a genocide of the Tibetan people for almost sixty years now so don’t believe it.
Here is mcleod gang, large scale peaceful demonstrations have been going on for the past couple of days, and last night a press conference was held with the dalai lama discussing the situation. The people here are really pumped up, chanting we want justice, we want freedom, long live the dalai lama, no more torture, no more killing, china china china out out out…and so on. It was a real thrill to see the crowds of protesters stomping up the streets at us last night and trying to get a video clip and not get knocked down…people were being careful though and no one was hurt and all that…but it was no joking around, and I wasn’t about to get the way.
Its mostly young people marching the streets, but there’s a lot of monks and a few elderly and babies and whatnots, including a handful of tourists. The young men were the most intimidating, often shirtless, with their bodies and faces painted with statements and fake blood. Some had even shackled themselves to look like tortured prisoners, but most just wore whatever and carried flags and banners instead. It’s a small town, so I can still hear the chants and protests that have been going for the past few days…the people are very dedicated and some are even on hunger strikes staked out in front of the dalai lama’s compound… waiting for answers.
At the press conference, the dalai lama didn’t seem to have any. He commented on the weather to start and spoke of his retirement…I think he’s just as fed up as the rest of his people with the whole mess…he said this is wrong history, wouldn’t it be nice be somewhere else…and I agree…the way things seem to be working out. Tibetans are perhaps the holiest, most peaceful, and beautifully cultured people on the planet…but on a planet like this, those things don’t seem to earn you much respect with your neighbors…and what does the rest of the world do…sit around and worry about their time and money…the two most worthless things in history…it’s like a fucking joke…but nobodies laughing…cause it already too late…and its obvious… so why don’t we do the earth a favor, and never have children. There, I said it…so shoot me…it could be nice. code

mandi

2008-03-19T07:20:00.003-07:00

Mandi was a sweet little city on the confluence of two rivers…in India these are always holy places so the town was filled with great temples and bridges and sunken shopping centers and scissors big enough to chop your arms off. We took a day trip out to this holy lake town that was mostly Tibetan and had so many fish in the lake that im sure youd be drown upon falling in…that or have your eyeballs sucked out…they were carp…not very dangerous realistically speaking…but whatever.
Our neighbors back at the guesthouse invited us over for tea and ended up being amazing middle agers from Ireland. They had bought a motorbike upon arrival and were getting around just fine despite all the mad truckers in the mnts and their outstanding 900lbs loads…they were big. Anyways, the guy was one of the og members of mutated waste…some legendary art group from London…whose members I tend to meet in exotic places. The lady was very sweet, and makes a living designing tea cozies…sounds gay right…but she showed us some pictures and they were fucking amazing…all hand knitted and intricate with depictions of heaven and hell and all sorts of other crazy ideas and colors and bangles and whatnots…brilliant beyond words. that’s gotta be one of the best things about traveling…all the crazy motherfuckers you meet along the way…I love it…I have friends all over the world now…it’s a life goal to travel around and visit them all…till then, it’s a lonely road and the unknown. code

shimla

2008-03-19T07:20:00.001-07:00

Loaded our bags on the roof of yet another bus shortly after sunrise for another seven hour tour through the mnts…sound nice…but only for the views…my back hurt the entire time and the seats weren’t big enough and every corner I had to hold on so I wouldn’t go flying out of the seat…the kid next to me barfed and in got on my pants and I thought ian was going to loose it there for a second…but he held strong like champion and we finally made it to shimla…where I sit now in a crows nest of a room…over looking the colonial buildings and the steep mnt valleys that they occupy. Its pretty European feeling here cause of the architecture, established as a vacation spot for the brits to escape the heat of the plains in the summers…the season hasn’t yet hit and today was cold and rainy…but that beats hot and sunny in my book…as long as we can hold onto our health…which weve been managing…somehow…miraculously, to maintain.
Theres this tripped out good old boys coffee house here straight out of some movie set that we like to go to and draw and munch…it’s a real nice scene…intimidating if your self conscious…but we blended right in, cause I copped one of the local wool and velvet caps that all the old guys wear….weve been experimenting with the local fashions along the way…and picking up some nice souvenirs and gifts and shit to give away when we get home with hopes of maintaining some friendships that disappearing acts like these tend to erase.
Anyways, the hills around shimla super spooky…big old trees…half abandoned crumbling colonial houses still occupied…barbed wire on everything to keep the monkeys back…and Christian churches…always freaky in themselves. Our room here was amazing though…and I got some of the trippest shots of the valley at night with reflections mirrors smoke candles ladders stars and blood red crosses…I think I stepped in a little too deep and all these demons and ghosts started popping up in the images…it was some sort of portal up there to another world…but a creepy one…so we left it the following morning for yet another town…but good night and sleep as long as you can…I have a mattress head…use it for free…thanks for the dreams…and all the codes…in every head is another universe…and were bending spoons with our brains. Code

paonta sahib

2008-03-19T07:18:00.002-07:00

We stopped here cause it was on the holy yamuna river, and it was a good traveling distance for what we could tolerate of the local bus dance disaster shimmy shake honka honka tree tunnel extravaganza that weve become so accustomed to by now. The town was tourist free and filled with Sikhs because of the famous mosque in town…it was a unique visit…Sikhs are pretty burly and tuff looking compared to the hindus…not to generalize to the point of killing myself…but the Sikhs have big beards and worship weapons and stand around chopping massive trees into pieces, cooking with pots large enough to boil a half dozen people…but really…it was very pretty and mirrored and surreal inside with live musicians and people praying and stuff like that.
After unwrapping our heads, we headed over to the local carnival consisting of a man powered Ferris wheel that we rode for the equivalent of a quarter, or ten rupees, and shot the beebee guns with the kids and drank mango juice. Then we headed down the dam on the river and hacked it up. At dinner we meet some lovely local friends who invited us over to there apartment and we hung out and drank tea and looked at their photos and made jokes and whatnots. Puja, their neighbor came over and confessed she wanted to marry me and go to America…so yeah, actually the day after I wished for a girlfriend I got one…that’s fucking amazing! That crazy temple did work…but then we left the next morning…next time ill have to be more specific I guess. code

haridwar

2008-03-19T07:18:00.001-07:00

Haridwar was awesome…like varanasi in many ways in terms of it being a holy city on the ganga where the kumbh tours around to every twelve years. It was smaller and quieter than varanasi though…with basically no tourists and little hassle on the streets. There were tons of amazing sadhus along the canal and pilgrims bathing in the raging freezing cold holy ganga river…it was amazing…lots of bridges over the canal and temples and cotton candy and sadhus lumbering about…very colorful with monkeys and blue water and a giant shiva statue.
There was even this theme park type temple where these cute gandalas carted us up the mnt side to a temple…it was like half shopping mall half amusement park of shrines strewn about. It was a visual and cultural masterpiece to say the least. supposedly whatever you wish for here comes true…well see…I asked for a girlfriend…maybe ill even get lucky… found out today Katherine is living with her old fling from new york at their new place in Chicago and she doesn’t want me to visit her when I get back…even though it will be the closest weve lived to each other since we meet…heartbreak from a millions miles away just feels that much softer…and that’s why I thank the world for India…but who writes the stars anyways…its all make believe to me…and I don’t believe a thing.
Anyways, the food in haridwar was good…even though it made me sick…if that says anything about how India can warped your perspective and make you hard as nails…or soft as silly puddy, but somehow resilient. We left the next day on yet another bus, with plans to return to haridwar for holi, the paint throwing festival, and took an easy five hour jaunt to the next nowhere town of ponta saib to break up our travels into the mnts and the tortures busing round the bends. code

western terrai

2008-03-19T07:17:00.001-07:00

We parted with our dear meriam…and did a bit more roof riding through the western terrain of Nepal. It was one of the best bus journeys of my life…beautiful mnts…very few people…plenty of trees and indigenous people and the most gorgeous mud houses if ever seen. It was a high standard of living in my mind…peaceful… farmy…and full of enchantments…tree forts…and 100% organic. We passed through countless checkpoints along the way and through a few refugee camps filled with nepali’s booted back from Bhutan…the terrai is considered dangerous…but we had no problems and didn’t see a single other tourist which added to our feelings of remoteness and adventure.
Our financial planning was at a loss and we found ourselves traveling from sunrise to sunset with less then a dollar to our names. It was a rough day…all we ate was bananas and water and for dinner could only afford small plates of rice and dhal and more water…our room was filled with misquitos and was filthy disgusting…but it made for some interesting photos and the next day we wandered around town, finally found some cash, hoped the border, and jumped on a bus to haridwar…we didn’t arrive until after midnight…exhausted after another day of full bus rides with minimal eating; missing Nepal and all its charms…my new and old…my back to India…and its night long noisy streets…leaky faucets and sleepness nights. code

lumbini

2008-03-19T07:14:00.000-07:00

Toast a weenie in lumbini…buy a bikini and go to the birth place of the Buddha. Near the Indian border we traveled by bus top…until the police pulled us over and made us get down…but for a second we had control…we could see it all…it was brilliant…and dangerous, so we made appropriate this could be the end cheers playing cow headstand and the drums…picnicking in the face danger.
Picked up a new friend in pokara on our way out.…meriam from the uk and new Zealand …the architect noemi from Budapest dumped us and went to Katmandu after things didn’t work out between she and bro…so we left with our artist friend who was a great companion and a funny uplifting young lady with an entertaining accent and an interest in drawing and sculpture and artists and other nice things…it was a treat.
Lumbini itself is currently under construction with Buddhist temples being built from countries like china, france, Thailand, India, Cambodia, and such…most of the buildings were new…we stayed at the Korean temple that is currently underconstruction…and made for an interesting aesthetic. The food was excellent buffet style Korean cooking…everyone washes their own dishes and the water from that water runs outside to water the garden through small canals made for irrigation…quite practical indeed.
We rented bikes and peddled around to the different temples. The thai temple was all white and I couldn’t tell whether they worshiped Buddha or their king more. The Chinese temple was perfect…it was like one giant sculpture…everything was painted…very colorful…and uplifiting. The Buddha birthplace itself was a series of small ruins and large trees cover in hundreds colorful peace flags that draped from banyon to banyon…in fact there were so many flags that they were strangling the trees…kind of sad but poetic for imaging. More necklaces than people a thousand to one…I have a pretty good collection going at this point…im wearing fourteen at the moment.

nepal

2008-03-01T03:54:00.001-08:00

We had had it with India and all the fucking chaos and decided to escape to Nepal with hopes of at least some food that wasn’t poison and some air that wasn’t smog. It was the right choice for sure, despite the hellish two nights and one day it took us to get over the border and through the mnts to pokara where weve been chillin out for the last week and a half, resting up from India, eating good food, and adventuring around outdoors. Pokara is like fucking Disney land compared to India…its so surprising what a difference it makes going from one country to the next…the lakeside where were staying is like a little paradise…with streets filled with good food, friendly people, discount outdoors stores, great art, shopping, and live music. What a relief.
Coming to Nepal was almost like going home…in the sense that it’s a lot like southeast asia…where is spent eight months last year, and got very comfortable. The people here are cute and little and look asian…the women are actually allowed outside of there houses and run stores and talk to strangers on the street and all that normal stuff that doenst apply to sexist racist north India. The streets are clean, the air is fresh, the lake is blue, the mnts are green, its like being back on a normal planet again. i can actually sleep at night and enjoy the food.
Since weve been here, weve gone on some great biking adventures to waterfalls, swinging bridges, spectacular valleys, and lakes. We rented a boat and paddled around for a day and fed the pigeons and stuff like that. Its been relaxing and rejuvenating. Weve also been inspired to lay low cause there are political strikes and demonstrations going on in Nepal between many factions leading up to the elections. Parts of the country were running out of petrol and even food in some places and people were getting hurt and stuff was getting burned everyday for a while. But now an agreement has been made between some of the parties and things seem to be improving…there really wasn’t any action in pokara except long gas lines…so now we feel safe starting to move around more and check out some new spots.
Here in pokara, where weve been for ten days, the longest weve stayed anywhere so far, by far we trekked to a village outside of town and stayed for a couple days with a local family that had one extra room on a mnt top with a spectacular view of the annapurna mnt range…the second highest in the world…and a series of holy mnts that are forbidden to climb or fly over. The family was very sweet and had two little kids that loved to draw, bang on the drums, and play games. We got an authentic look at rural nepali living and got to eat delicious fresh local foods grown right there on the mnts. Every meal in the traditional dhal bhat fashion that is like nepals version of the Indian thali. We lucked out on the timing and were on the mnt top for the full moon followed by super clear morning views of the mnts…rare this time of year.
I made up songs about thes holy mother mnt at night and banged on drums on the mnt top so all the valley could hear us. We wrote down a lot of the track titles too so we can play the songs again if anyone makes a request…there are silly and stupid…except for the one about mother mnt, which is sad, because of all the billions of savages that polluted here holy fountain and the boy that left his mother for the cave inside the mnt and so on. Sitting on the mnt top overlooking the spectacular annapurna mnts was really powerful…the mnts are just so enormous is hard to believe…and there presence is something energizing. Its crazy to think how far weve come, I remember when I was just a child eating at annapurna dinning hall in Fairfield iowa everyday, and then somehow im sitting here looking at the real mnt never even knowing it was a mnt…but it turns out it is the holy mnt…it is my mother mnt…and lifes giant circle wanted me to find her…coincidences never happen.
Leaving the mnt was terrifying but fun, the local bus was full, so we had to sit on top of it with all our stuff ducking under branches and power lines, looking over the edge of cliff thinking…well, at least if the bus goes over we can make a jump for it.
Since weve been back in town weve meet a wonderful local family that invited us over for dinner tonight. Their son arun has a skateboard…the only one in pokara and that’s how we met…not skating for months then getting to shred Nepal is like getting laid…only better. Aruns sister jasmine is a funny one…shes nineteen and really cute and super tiny and she wants me to marry her so she can go to America…shes pretty convincing too…but its not gonna happen…shes to strict…she only just met me but shes already laying down the discipline and telling me my business and such…not exactly my style…but she pulls it off like a champ…and I love her anyways. It hard…traveling to new places, falling in love with people youll probably never see again…feeling this compassion to help them fulfill their dreams…but not knowing how to make them happen. Life is such a mystery…the way things go…ill never figure it out…if only I could forget my life and remember my dreams…then id have all the answers. Words are shit…and im the fly. code

varanasi

2008-02-17T21:03:00.001-08:00

That night there was a big saraswati festival where elaborate puja’s were performed at sunset and groups of kids would march down the stairs carrying giant statues of women made from cow dung and hay all painted up. They would dance around for a while on the stairs, drumming, and throwing paint before launching the massive statues onto little boats and parading them off into the ganga and throw them overboard. It was hilarious and amazing…ive never seen so much action and music and holy shit going down in one place at the same before…it was insanity…all I could do was smile as yet another group of party boys would almost bite it coming down the stairs with an even bigger statue and theyd all be battling it out with the drums and dancing like maniacs while two sets of groups performed elaborate traditional pujas and music blaired over the load speakers.
Indians really know how to take the party to the streets. They rent these wall of speaker sound systems on wheels and then follow it with a generator on wheels and just creep down the road with gangs of dancing boys making ragging party on parade…its enchanting to say the least…and that pretty what the saraswati festival was all about.
Since, weve just been hanging out in varanasi trying not to get sick from the food and walking around the maze of backstreets in search of edibles and photo ops. Varanasi is truly an amazing place…its one of the oldest cities in the world, very lively, colorful, and filled with culture and temples and music. The trippiest thing ive ever scene was here just the other night. It too complicated to explain, but it included a river that melted into the sky, floating boats in outerspace, welding blue stobes lights, and cluster of ancient temples and seven bodies burning in fire towards the heavens.
In fact, varanasi is the place that all hindus bring their dead to cremate them and spread their ashes in the ganga. The most poplular burning place is only a hundred yards from our guest house and there are at least five bodies burning there right now…I don’t even have to look. But I have been, and it’s a bit disturbing to watch bodies roasting up in flames and hear the sound of their blood sizzle. Imagine if it was your job to stand around burning dead bodies all day, beating them with a stick, trying to get them to turn to ash…its some kind of hell over there, that’s for sure. code

the ceremony continues

2008-02-17T21:01:00.000-08:00

The day after the cremation we went to varanasi and waited till the next day when everyone showed up, crown and all, on the banks of the ganga, to rent boats at assi ghat and motor up stream to sprinkle maharishi’s in the ganga at kedar ghat. Once again it was split up between men and women, separate boats for each, and we said fuck that, and rented our own and had a mixed crew of me and bro, noamy, and our friend Gabriel who we rescued from another boat on the way.
So the men all motor up stream and all the women got stuck on this one huge boat with nothing but oars…it was the saddest thing ever going up stream and watching all the women fall farther and farther back…they didn’t even arrive at the spot until the ceremony was half over, if at all. We made it fine though, and joined up in this floating island of boats where the scattering of the ashes took place.
I jumped off our boat and got a better view on a boat that ended up being right in front of the ceremony by the time it was all over. This part was cool actually, it was trippy floating around in circles out on the ganges with all these blown rues and devotees of maharishi…it was pretty fun, but not exactly spiritual in terms of the crowds demenor and everyone wanting to get pictures and video and all this…but the puja that everyone sang at the end was very sweet and I love that song and it made me cry cause I couldnt sing along and its so beautiful. We all got back to our boats and went ashore after a five minute meditation. I saw a few more friends, but most of them vanished and made plans to meet up with us in a few days…who knows. But kanoa stayed, cause hes the man and didn’t leave his bag in allahabad like all the other amateur travelers. code

all hella bad

2008-02-17T21:00:00.000-08:00

We had a hell of a time getting back to our guesthouse sangam where we parted with kanoa. We had to take three rickshaws all of which tried to rip us off…one tried to make us pay for there gas and then wanted 5,000 rupies, we jumped out of their ride into another rickshaw that told us a price and then tried to charge us ten times as much when they dropped us at cycle rickshaws that tried to charge us five times the prices…while on the bicycles another driver rolled up and told us our driver was a thief and get on his rickshaw and then followed us the rest of the way and demanded more money for his friend…it was fucking insane and scary and a rip off. Allahabad is by far my least favorite town in India so far…dangerous, expensive, rude, ugly…sometimes I wonder why people think India is such a holy place…it often just seems like a crowded stinky scamming money hungry rip off…but I don’t know everything…its just exteme that’s all…like the best of the best and the worst of the worst…but theres more bad than good and that’s pretty much gaurenteed. code

no more maharishi

2008-02-17T20:58:00.000-08:00

This past winter Ian and I decided to go to India. It just so happened that upon arriving in our first holy city we read in the paper that maharishi had died. Its funny how things work out…with timing and all that…we managed to get ahold of a paper that day…which was rare…and got the news. It was such a shock really…all cut and dry…just another standard reporting…but not to us. Its hard to even write about it really…i was there, and so many weren’t, it was a special time to be in India, and we witnessed a historic event…the funeral of our childhood guru, maharishi mahesh yogi.
So, we immediately contacted our parents who told us when and where the ceremony would be and left immediately for delhi. The next day we got on a night train to allahabad after spending the whole day trying to book a ticket. It was rough…we arrived at four in the morning to a city booked for a mini kumbh mela and drove around for two hours in a rickshaw looking for a room just before sunrise. We ended up in the worst guesthouse ever where the people were rude and charged way more than our crappy room was worth…basically shit.
We sharred a mini taxi out of town through some small villages on dusty little roads with some other meditators staying at our hotel, and made our way onto the grounds. Maharishi was on display in a flower decorated room on some chair for people to see…his body had already been carted off by the time we got there…but I guess it was a bad scene anyways, with people taking flash pictures and crap like that. There was all sorts of snobbery and unfriendliness from the beginning…even from people that we knew…and I was surprised at how few actually showed up for the event…and the vibe was way different then I was expecting.
As the ritual began to get underway, the group was split up between men and women…the women stayed where maharishi’s body was on display to watch via video link up while all the guys walked down the road to the actual cremation location. I mean what a dis…to have traveled half way around just to get locked in a room at the cremation of your spiritual master for being a woman…the movement is so sexist it kills me. The whole thing was rubbing me the wrong way from the start…we were traveling with our girl friend noamy from Budapest at the time who knew nothing of the movement and it all just seemed so fucked trying to explain to her what was going on.
Anyways, we split up and walked out to where the cremation was held on a large slab of concrete overlooking the sangam…where the ganga and yamuna rivers meet…it is supposedly the holiest place in India…where the full kumbh mela happens every twelve years…40million people went to the last one…so the location was pretty powerful, and we could see thousands of people bathing at the holy point in the distance.
The slab itself was about 250ft square and in the middle was a small decorated concrete stage covered in orange flowers and roped off…it was nice…but nothing spectacular. The outer perimeter was lined orange flowers as well and was guarded by policemen who had been hired to keep the locals and women out. There were seats reserved for vip members like purusha and dudes that donated way too much over the years, aswell as a huge lifted media stage crowded with giant cameras and videos crews. The majority of the space was just dusty covered concrete where the majority of people were left to fend for themselves. There was no shade, food, or water available.
It mush have been a couple hours that we sat around just waiting for something to happen…conversing with people that we knew and getting told to fuck off by purusha and other snobs in the vip seats when we’d try and talk to our friends. We quickly began to realize how bad things had gotten over the years with the hierarchy of king arthurs court and the stupid gold crowns and creamy attire and all that shit…I mean you’d think that all these enlightened dudes would at least be nice or understanding after dedicating their lives to meditation. We were expecting a friendly supportive crowd…but it just wasn’t that way…at least not for us…who had already been traveling in india for a month and were looking very unmovement…so we just kept to ourselves after that.
Then maharishi’s body finally arrived, surrounded by a parade of a thousand or more people, mostly Indians, all of whom stormed the barricade to join the ceremony. It was a super sketchy stampede of sorts like ive never seen …with people making human chains by holding hands to chorale the crowds and we just tried to stay out the fucking way and not get trampled…not the serine peaceful meditative experience we were expecting.
People threw garlands and flowers as maharishi’s body made its way to the stage and the crowds slightly calmed down while people clamored for a glimpse. Inside the perimeter around the stage about a dozen Indian men carefully constructed a bonfire once the body had been placed. A horribly redundant chanting blared over the load speakers from some guy that couldn’t hold a tune saying like ram ram over and over for eternity while the fire began to blaze and maharishi went up in smoke…it all just seemed more like a big media frenzy than anything actually spiritual or respectful.
The big fucker stunt of the event was some asshole hired a helicopter to fly overtop of maharishi’s body raining rose petals from the heavens…however grand that may sound in some retards imagination, it was a fucking disaster…dust was flying everywhere, flags got ripped down, and all I could do was duck and cover like it was desert storm or some shit. They finally flew off only to come back again and do it all over despite everyone waiving them off…the holy flowers were heaped out in plastic bags…its like who the fuck rains garbage from a helicopter on maharishi at his funeral and thinks hes somehow contributing to “holy” celebration. I swear some of these jokers in charge must be retarded.
Despite all the madness and the fact that Ian and I had only eaten shit for the past three days on no sleep, we sat out in the sun for six more hours without water until the end of the ceremony. The end of the ceremony was the most powerful part though, when all the crowds thinned out, and we walked around maharishi’s body and bowed down and touched our heads to the ground…it was hard not too cry really…and its hard to write about this too…but there were only so many honest people among the crowd…and I feel its necessary to report on what actually happened. Anyways, we found bobby roth in the inner circle and we sat down on either side of him holding hands…the sensation was very strong…bobby taught me how to meditate when I was five years old and he’s like our godfather…I couldn’t help but cry…as I do now, in this room, in varanasi, sitting on the bed, with bromaster…struggling to cope, with India, and eating and life and everything.
But who gives a fuck about that…after we meditated we walked out with bobby through the north gate and meet his good friend david lynch who is also a devotee of maharishi…nice to finally meet him…had some food and saw more friends and we all walked to sangam and hired a boat and bathed in the holy ganga…three times dunked under is the tradition…I still have a nasal infection from it…got off easy…turns out the sangam has some unique water born diseases that just straight kill people. But maharishi only dies once…and we didn’t go through all that just to wimp out on the dunks…even though in retrospect we probably shouldnt have.
We left the sangam and got some really sketchy rides back to town and that’s my story of the cremation of maharishi. With all that said, and with maharishi’s army of retards aside, I still respect his tradition and teachings to the fullest…im sure he taught me more about life than ill ever realize…and even though the ceremony was far from perfect or even what I was I expecting…im still glad I went…if for no other reason than to report on it from my own perspective…without having to hear it from some watered down movement news letter about how perfect it all really wasn’t. code

pushkar

2008-02-08T03:52:00.000-08:00

Pushkar was an entirely different story, it’s the holiest city in all of rajasthan and was really small and cute. touristy for sure…but wasn’t bad for a change…it just meant better food, more nice people to meet, and great places to stay. At the center of pushkar is a small holy lake surrounded by 52 ghats…temples of worship…all built by different kings. It was wonderful to go down to the steps of the water and hang out with all the local pilgrims who would come down by the hundreds to bath in the lakes and make pujas. There were plenty of monkeys, cows, pigeons, and dogs in the mix too so it made for some great visuals…however the rules of the holy lake are no pictures allowed, so I followed the tradition and took zero…I think it was the right decision.
Anyways, we meet up with our friend celine from the amla farm and pretty much just kicked it for a week…didn’t do much sight seeing or photography…just chilled out flying kites on the roof, played lots of music, ate tons of falafels, and meet some other sweet kids from Switzerland, Israel, Australia, and Portugal.
The vibe of the city was great…everyone was super friendly and laid back and the town was so small that you could walk everywhere. It made a huge difference not having rickshaws around and all the noise and pollution and hassle that comes with big Indian cities. The city was filled with music, especially around sunset, when each temple would take turns rocking it for the gods. One night a cow snuck into the hotel lobby and was eating all the plants…chhagan killed us with this whole sneaky cow routine…his English was pretty bad…but he had mastered a sense of humor about it and was a very funny man like…secret cow, always sneaky, waiting, always hungry, plotting, patient cow, clever, always sneaky. That night we came up with name of our gypsy traveling band…COW HEADSTAND. For all this and more…pushkar is my favorite city thus far in India…and I recommend to anyone coming for a visit. we stayed about a week and then said goodbye to our dear brother chhagan who we sent back to his family in jaisalmer as we headed onward to delhi to meet noemi who was flying in from Budapest as planned. code

jodhpooer

2008-02-05T03:52:00.000-08:00

Jumped from jaisalmer to jodhpur…more like jodpooer. Chhagan joined the brodown forces last minute as we were leaving his families village where they made us brothers signified by gifts and bracelets…its nice to have family in india. He was a sweet guy in his early twenties who joined us on the safari and was an excellent cook. It was fun having a local boy on the tour…but in a way he was an outsider too cause he came from a tribe and had very dark skin and people in India are super racist it turns out…a product of the caste system that is still in full effect, dividing classes through marriage and such, with tribal people falling at the bottom of the heap…often times not even allowed to own land.
Anyways, when we got to jodhpooer we had a hard time finding a room cause no one wanted the three of us staying together…some guesthouses don’t even allow Indians to get rooms…doesn’t make for very authentic experience…so we told them off and eventually found a kickass spot filled with art, handpainted walls, and enough room to play honkey da donkey…aka hacky sack.
Jodhpooer was just another busy smelly congested poo ridden Indian city…the only good thing good about it was the massive fort on top of a cliff 100m high where the views were spectacular, but even here we got harassed by the tourist police and weren’t allowed to walk together with chhagan through the fort…it was crap. The view was worth it though…its amazing how all the building fit together in some chaotic order and one alley leads to the next and things somehow have worked out architecturally in India with very little apparent planning. Anyways, after having random people on the street come up and tell us that chhagan wasn’t our friend and we should stay away from him cause hes dangerous and all this, we decided to the fuck out of poo town, and left the next day to pushkar. code

camel safari

2008-02-02T01:56:00.000-08:00

Camel a safari...Dahl and chapatti…was the safari theme song with many variations originated from the leader of the our posse…praga. it was me and bromaster with five camel boys and three camels plus a cart. We were treated like kings…I mean maharajas…but its was still life on the range…which really only gets so fancy. We safaried for seven days outside of jaisalmer in rajasthan near the Pakistani border…the scenery was gorgeous…like a giant desert garden. It was mostly shrub desert with sand dunes dispersed about. The wild life was very rich with many animals…deer, goats, sheep, mice, lizards, beetles, snakes, scorpions, and many exotic birds.
We were outlaws for the weekend it turned out hiding at in the dunes so we could enjoy the national park. We were alluding the police from the beginning so we didnt have to pay for a permit that only lasted for four days when we planned and staying out for seven…like one night for every boy. The cart came in handy when out of the blue came the rains of night…we tried to stick it out and sprung out of bed soaked in the middle of the night dashing under the camel cart…all seven of us with all our stuff and we slept like babies and had the trippiest dreams…that was vulture dune….crawwwcaw.. so the next night we built a fort out of desert shrubs so we wouldnt have to all sleep under the camel cart again…it was fun the first time, but like the potentest camel chocking smell ever and the axel was my head rest.
Most nights, when it wasn’t raining, we’d sit around the fire making disca disco with sicko drum chang guitar riffs…fucking awesome…got some recordings of it even and the shit sounds like all fucking disca disco and were loosing it like crazy monkeys drinking desert whiskey and beating the shit out of all the pots and pans playing slide guitar hollering at the moon.
When we weren’t jamming out or feeding our faces, we’d go hunting for wild deer. like the secret native boy attack strategy was “the rattle of death”…the idea was run around the desert before the moon came up blinding deer with a flash light, rattling all these marbles in a metal jug as loud and fast as possible, until eventually, the deer would get tired enough to stop or freaked out enough to freeze and then whamm! Stick to the fucking head…never actually happened though, maybe its cause they were using the rattle of death marble jar instead of the bait and wait technique…I don’t really get it either way. the deer are really gorgeous though, and im glad we never killed one, but it was pretty fun running around in the desert like wild animals on the hunt.
Hunted some lizards one moring and cought a couple that fried up for breakfast…chapatti anyone…no really though, I cant believe how many roti/chapatti ive already eattin. Oh that reminds me of this lassi we had today that was like a milk shake with Indian sweets in it…very tasty and the oil sells for the price of gold…very healthy…just rub some on you cock…or so I hear.
Camels are officially my new favorite animal…they get these bad wraps of being stinky and spitting on people and bitting and this…but really, there like big friendly giants. The camel is the king of the desert though, and you have to respect there size. But swear, theyre cuties for sure. Camels are triple jointed in there legs so they fold over twice…twice is nice…right. there was Michael Jackson that was one of the camels…the other two were booboolou and desert boy…all fucking awesome.
More on camels….well, like freaky camel sex happens like a third of the year and at this time male camels like barf up this nasty intestinal sack out the side of their mouths and in sounds like someone making bubble in the pool with there mouth hole…this to the female camel is very sexy…the man camel also growls a lot…but actually they sound exactly like chewibaca…very cute. The camel boys are even more cute when there all talking about how much they love there camel in broken English and how very strong camel very good camel is being. So like riding camels can get pretty soar no doubt…like joggin on the camel was pretty torturous but who gonna complain about shit like that…not on this camel safari at least.
Anyways, ive never really been in sweet desert dunes before…so that was a unique and beautiful experience for the old memory banks…dunes are like trippy slow motion waves…so soft and so delicate yest always changing and still remaining…poetry in motion…that’s what they are. Poets used to be so alluring…now they no longer exist. So the dunes trap you in there silence and blow your mind back in time. Mind ripple keep on rolling and up the dune the sand keeps strolling with the rapid slow motion and unsung commotion till what is smaller and what is taller is all but a grain of sand.
The whole time we had a portable guesthouse with five helpers…who cooked and cleaned for us and took care of the camels and were our friends…very nice boys…ranging say 15-27. the luxury treatment for sure and it was less then ten dollars a day for the whole shabange…me and bro were definetly outnumber by the native boys from the surrounding villages…bhil people…a tribal group considered the lowest caste in India…but that made for an authentic experience and they treated us like kings. many of the camel boys work as stone breakers when theyre not on safari…so theyre very strong and very sweetie.
The first night we went out we visited praga’s village and it was the poorest village ive ever been…not only did they have no money, but they were stuck to live on barren desert land covered in stones…it was very sad not only poor in dollars but also in resources. The kids faces were all cracked and covered in grey powder from the stones…they turned out to be lovely sweet people after I got over all my germaphobias like boogery fingers and baby goat asses in my face and two year old girls giving me kisses and holding my hand, but that was like the sweetest thing ever…we made a party around the fire and the locals came around and banged on buckets and drums and guitars and we drank whiskey and danced and slept out under the stars with goats…the king of goodtimes…but really really poor.
The magificient seven camel boys out on the range. Proweling the deserts and the dunes for something…maybe it was the piece and quite…or maybe it was that special piece of shit…ive never seen so much shit in all my life…like the desert is giant poop cemetery…cause like theres usually no rain and so it just bakes in the sun and turns turns to stone and stays forever. Side note…I stepped in poop today and it got on my pants and im still wearing them. Did about a heap of laundry today and it not quite crunchy dry yet like my sunburned little lips on camela safari. .
I think the sand got to my brain…but one thing ive learned in India…when to breathe and when to hold your breath…the smells can be so bad that they’ll make you barf. also its really hard to get good sleep in here so im pretty freakin tired…shits always going down…and when I say down I mean right from the cows ass to the curb side…and the crap is still on my pants. code

jaisalmer

2008-01-24T22:06:00.000-08:00

After walking around bikaner for like ten hours we cought the sleeper night bus. It would have been tight, but of course I had to eat some nasty cold dahl dish and it turned into the all night diarrhea butt barf rocky swayathon blow it out my ass and pop all the meds I have and just hope and pray I make it too the next stop…then we arrived at five in the morning too a dead cold empty town with no rickshaws and I felt like barfing the whole time…but eventually we got a spot and got some real sleep. Today we toured the world famous jaisalmer fort up on the hill in the middle of a town straight out of Arabian nights. Its about a thousand years old stone city with narraow alleys and more mindblowing carvings covering some of the buildings many which have been converted to hotels and or are still lived in by brahmans. Tonight we met our friend susanna’s daughters father praga who is a native from outside jaisalmer and tomorrow we embark on a four day camel safari out into the deserts near Pakistan. Praga is a funny little guy and he has lots of great stories about like abandoned cities with lost treasures and thieves and getting stung by scorpions and eating lizards and camels that kill their masters by sitting on them and all that fun stuff to get us pumped up…should be amazing. Code

camel fest

2008-01-24T21:58:00.000-08:00

The camel festival was fucking fantastic…it was like 50k from bikaner in the middle of the dusty thar desert. There were tons of camels and thousands of locals…id say only one percent were tourists. It was pretty hot and dry…as you might imagine but the scenery was truly surreal. The best part was the camels…there all like burping and foaming at the mouths like ten feet tall but then they dress them up all retro futuristic glam goddess disco balls with neon bead work, fake flowers, banners, and swords. It like taking the most alien mammal on the planet and then being like all my pet pony about it on acid. The camel racing was a real hoot…running camels is like the goofiest thing ever…the camels just start going it full out, not always in the right direction, and some would vear off into the crowds at top speed and spectators would be running for there lives and diving out of the way…it was fucking hilarious. There was also sand wrestling, gypsy dance circles, and a bunch of air shows. Some parachuters even dropped in and its was insane when thousands of kids starting running after them across the dunes and they were like waving them out the way with there feet and shit just before landing getting totally mobbed. There were all these stage performance with traditional dancing and singing that made for some pretty awesome sound bites. Anyways, the pictures are pretty crazy too and ill get them up soon…at least on myspace.com/iamcode after I get back from camel safari. Camels are my new favorite animal…gotta get one…if only they came in mini. code

cow town

2008-01-24T21:48:00.000-08:00

Left the organic farm and headed to cow town to check out the camel festival…we were in the last row corner and the only whities on the bus for eight hours…one thing that’s nice about being a traveler in India is that your never going to outnumber the locals…theres just too many of them. Like we tried to go to the rat temple on the bus and they jammed it so packed with people in the rows that I just couldn’t stand it and we had to bail out and catch a ride back after like ten minutes…the irony of the rat temple is your forced become one in order to get there.
India is a place where pigeons and parrots share the same meal and dogs and cows snuggle on the streets. Strangers share your blankets and fires warm us in the streets. It’s a friendly place…maybe a little too friendly even. The big question on the streets is what is your country and to this we say America…Canada…Michigan….new york…Africa…neener neener...or nothing, cause were tired of answering it. I have no idea what day it is and I don’t care…time is stress…forget about it. Its pretty cold here at night so we wear lots of scarf and shall to stay warm…the locals just walk around in giant wool blankets like slumber party on the streets and slumber party dinner.
Anyways bikaner we coined cow town cause theres literally thousands of cows living in the streets wandering around the city. There like giant garbage disposal eating whatever they can rummage up…the market vendors all have sticks to keep the cows from eating the produce…the cows got ahold of some union skins and cause a traffic jam...but its nice to have their slow demenor its such a busy country. India is always keeping us on our toes like walking the streets tonight it went piss, shit, cow, horn, moto, waste, gutter, dog…all with distinct maneuvers in a matter of three seconds. But its doesn’t always have to be like that…like in bikaner we walked for eight hours through the residential and commercial alleys of the old city…the building are magnificently carved out of stone with detail and beauty that is hard to imagine…its like walking around a museum that people live in...very special and ancient indeed.

amla bomb

2008-01-24T21:37:00.000-08:00

We learned the importance of propagating organics at the amla farm resort jolly old binod. Had a live folk band come to entertain and we danced like possessed idiots till we would almost die and then dance some more…got some good sound bites and a clip of me dance battling little boy for the title. Swam every day in the pool and collected amla from the many thousands of trees for harvest in boiling, deseeding, drying, and crushing for powder for go selling at market. played music with the children did a photoshoot for the farms website and read from the ancient texts of organic farming. Learned of the many uses of cow dung and urine…mainly for burning, building the houses in which we stayed, and fertilizing the plants. Found the ancient recipe for fertilizer is gathering scraps from the butcher mixing with poopoo and peepee and fermenting for a few months before distributing…imagine being the lucky chap that gets to wear the sewage of death backpack sprayer unit… its like when does organic reach a point where death and poop is nectar…"at least its organic" has a whole new meaning.

organic farm resort

2008-01-18T01:37:00.001-08:00

we finally escaped the claws of indian cities and we laxin and maxin at the saharia amla organic farm resort in the country near jaipur. its fucking fantastic...we eat amla berries all day and sip organic teas grown in the himalayas. we also work...chopping wood to boil the amla berries, collecting berries, catching chickens, drying fruit, doing photoshoots, and whatnots. its lovely to be out in the country away from the nightmare of indian city living...its absolutely absurd, the poverty, dirt, hassle, harassment, pollution, noise, smells, you name it...india is the mother fucker! getting out to farm is perfect though, we were both starting to get coughs from the pollution and now were just chillin in the country, swimming and eatting heaps of amla berries...one of the key ingredients in ayurvedic medicine also know as gooseberries. salvation at last! code

run...get to the shopper

2008-01-18T01:25:00.000-08:00

went whole sale shopping for rooted with broman. it took about six hours and we absolutelty destroyed the shop...it looked like a textile typhoon. got tons of blankets, shalls, scarfs, bags, and wall hangings for the shop and all you crazy consumers back in america. the prices are bottom and the quality top...everything is natural fibers and made by hand...should all be there in less then two weeks...its funny how the world works. stop by rooted and check out the new digs or wait a bit and it should all be online...i suffer for your pleasure...appreciate it...and just leave me a blanket or two for the archives. i thought ian was going to kill someone by the time its was all over, we had origanally planned on going to get some necklaces and ended up sorting through mnts of textiles untill we both had fevers. anyways, im excited about our first big purchase and you all are too! code

jaipur

2008-01-16T07:49:00.000-08:00

Rajasthan is sensational, its dizzying and fuming too. Jaipur, our first destination after delhi, an ancient city with a huge wall surrounding the oldest section. Its crowded as fuck though...even more blairing and chaotic then delhi by far...but it makes every rickshaw rides full of excitement and close calls. we lucked out and found meet an awesome driver named rafik at the train station, he's very friendly friendly and smart and has six kids. We had him give us a full day guided tour of jaipur which was superb. We went to see a mandala park. Mandalas are basically huge three dimensional sun dials used for astrological reasons with many shapes created for each month of the year and so on. Supposedly viewing them realigns your mind with the universe…this is a good thing cause india is making my mind spin.
We also, visited many temples and the craziest fort on a mountain side just outside of town that was like the great wall of India or something like this. The interior of the fort was amazingly complicated with hundreds of staircases and small passageways to explore and get lost in. In fact the fort was such a maze we did get lost inside and it took a lot of manuvering to get back out. I think the king had something like 108 wives, weighed 400pnds and would eat 100 chapatti with each meal.
Hey, why not. code

railride

2008-01-16T07:42:00.000-08:00

Rode the train for the first time. Leaving delhi was quite an experience. Typically the poorest of peoples live along the railways and in delhi, poor, means fucking god aweful poor. Small shanties built of mud and stones surrounded by garbage and reeking of waste. However mind boggling the poverty was, the people maintained presentable appearances and mostly clean clothing. The splashes of moving color among the wreckage of slum living is beautiful and sad at the same time. Riding the train is pretty nice, get to chat with the neighbors and get travel tips while drinking a sixth cup of chai. during our five hour train ride we rolled through constant fields of blooming yellow mustard...gorgeous indeed, but why all the mustard...im not really sure...must be the worlds supply or something.
in general, so far, the people of India are remarkably kind and friendly...even if its in a scamming sort of way. I say hi to everybody here our at least aknowledge them when ever possible, this makes them very happy. Often people just want to say hello, shake hands, and find out what our country is. One family even had me stand with them for their portrait and people on the street often ask me to take there photos. it seems the poorer a country, the nicer the people. code

delhole

2008-01-16T07:35:00.000-08:00

Saw the softer, or should I say sane side of delhi on our tour of the national museum and the india gate and some big ol tombs. It was nice to finally have a relaxing day of normal tourist destinations in some of the less chaotic parts of delhi. The structures are enormous and the architecture remarkable in some of the modern buildings and the more classical temples and masques. Went to a famous tomb with multiple building somewhat reminecent of Angkor but more like 15th century. On the first story of the main tomb there was a series the closed gates leading into dark cave like tombs. We navigated to the back of some of the corridors and found wonderful skylighting and thousands of small bats sleeping in massive clusters on the ceiling. were blasting out of delhi in the morning...thanks god, im starting to smell like a donkey cause the hot water just aint hot. the streets of india are like everything all at once...motorbikes, richshaws, cars, horse drawn carriages, elephants, gramas, bum fires, piss, and food plus a much much more. ive never rubbed shoulders with so many strangers in all my life. Code

the eman cometh

2008-01-12T06:31:00.000-08:00

yeah, so eman, my bro, arrived last night. went out to meet him and hit the rock bottom i hate india moment when we were two hours late because of traffic. think the fumes got to my brain a little, but theres nothing like a massive traffic jam to get me going off on a i hate humanity rant. anyways, made it there, found the bro, and everythings been pretty golden ever since.
delhi is still a pit of noise and bustle but its a lot more fun when big brothers got my back. we went out and bought a little guitar and some mini bongos today and walked around town wowing the locals with our massive talent. people love music...even when it sucks.
anyways, india is mindblowing and exhausting. the pollution and noise is unreal, not to mention the massive infestation of people everywhere you look. actually the folks here are really sweet, like the guy that runs the internet shop just gave me some delicious chai...thanks bro.
taking pictures here is a trip, just sit back and see what happens...gaurenteed something interesting will roll by. like sitting outside the masque today i got a shot of chipmunk eatting a nut while a dude slept on the stairs and some kids played cricket in the back ground all perfect...wow, like my fucking hero or something, maybe just show the picture and stop talking about it already.
anyhow, on a more positive note, theres a great view of the city from the roof top of our guest house and eman and i ended the day jamming out and sharing some tea over the sunset chatting about carbons and how wasteful america is...here wait, was that supposed to be more positive...i know...lets all move to australia. code

settle on in

2008-01-11T00:00:00.000-08:00

yeah, so things are mellowing out just fine...meaning im getting used to almost being run over every three seconds and the blairing horns. i keep hearing this lady every night who has the nastiest cough ever...she started hacking it up so bad that she actually started barfing at one point...is that nasty or what. anyways, had a monkey on my roof earlier, that was pretty cool except the thing was so skanky it was actually more terrifying than anything else...it had a swollen red ass and was covered in wounds. ive been sleeping like twelve hours a night...having crazy dreams...i went to some party last night and pretty much everyone i know was there to wish me off on my travels...thanks all. got to make out with some ladies ive been wanting to for a while...thanks ladies...and went surfing with kanoa...actually i do that a lot...shaka bra. not much else to report except the shower finally got hot enough to take a shower and i found some adapters so i can charge my shit...lighting turds from now on...promise. its so easy to get lost wandering around here...ill have to leave a trail of turds to find my way back...oh wait there already is one...bonus. code

welcome to india

2008-01-10T01:16:00.000-08:00

what up bitches...i actually made it to india! got my visa the morning i flew out...ummm close one. the paris airport is amazing...go there and rock the modern tranny. new delhi is pretty nutso...dirty, smelly, crowded, noisy, and full of scams, but hey thats what i signed up for so bring it. got some sketchy taxi driver upon arrival at two in the morning. he monkeyed me around to all these bogus travel agencies where one guy threatened to "bash my head in" after i figured out his game and made a few bad jokes...whose jealous now!
the driver ended up taking me to some random hood where the only place to stay was a rip. in the morning i got carted around to some more craphole travel agencies and started wondering if id ever actually figure out where the fuck i was. whatever, figured it out...heard some lectures about america and got told its my skin color thats the problem. okay, not much i can do about that...everythings workin out fine now, i got a nice little spot in paharganj and my bro arrives tomorrow. hopefully i can rescue him from my same fate at the airport. wish me some fuckin luck. code

on the way

2008-01-06T20:44:00.000-08:00

well, ive made it as far as detroit...i fly out tomorrow night if my visa arrives in the morning. had a sweet little going away party last night...thanks for comin gang. did some reggae sledding of course and threw in some snowballs. my dad jammed out on the electric guitar for everyone and we had a good five people shreddin the strings. special thanks to all the ladies that made it out...thats whats up. its gonna be hard to say goodbye to traverse, rooted, snow, the luxuries of living with me rents, copper aka little bear, the woods, and all you down to earth up north folkies. keep the fire blazin'. miss yall. code

visa

2007-12-30T20:01:00.000-08:00

whoops...no body reminded me that you need to get a freakin visa before you go to india. turns out i have exactly enough days left to get one rushed delivered in nothing messes up. well see if this trip even happens...so dont get too jealous or excited for me yet. code

code

2007-12-18T19:18:00.000-08:00

i fly to india three weeks from today. 12/18/07. code