One last goodbye

I'm back in Port Blair again... the capital of the Andaman Islands. Once again I'm here specifically for the airport, and the internet, I suppose.

In a few hours I'm flying to Chennai. Then I have ten hours to kill at the airport, and I'm off to the blood-stained city of Bangkok! Apparently the protests are not violent, but they sure are bloody. People are throwing blood-filled bags at the Prime Minister's house. All the streets are stained. It's a bloody mess.

The past few days have been some of my favorite in India. Oh but first! I wanted to write about my last few days in Pondicherry. I guess there is something about the last few days that makes you liveeverymoment.

So rewind three weeks. Juliana and I have about five more days until we're leaving Pondicherry and Prime Trust behind, with dreams of blissful islands ahead. One evening we decide to have dinner and a drink at L'Espace, this chilled-out restaurant in the French Quarter. L'Espace is where we and most ex-pats, it seems, end most nights in Pondicherry - at 11 o'clock, sharp (Pondy's curfew). So, we go to L'Espace with hopes of litchi martinis but ... it's closed. Thus begins a string of events that lead us at an open bakery with our French roommate Ly (whom we ran into on the street). The three of us our enjoying warm apple tarts when an ex-Prime Trust volunteer, French Canadian Anne Marie rides by on her bicycle. She invites us to join a beach bonfire north up the coast a few kilometers. We can't really decide on the spot, as we're tired and Juliana has to give a presentation in the morning... but after a few Westernized Indian guys with motorbikes show up we start to come around. One in particular - who we started calling "Blue Shirt" as we couldn't remember his name - was the most convincing. He was full of life and dancing in the street with an infectious smile and kept saying, "Tomorrow never comes! Maybe tomorrow never comes! We will go see the moon on the beach! Come!" Juliana, Ly and I decide he's right. So we all get on the back of a motorcycle an jet off into the night.

A few days later Juliana and I find ourselves, once again, on the back of a scooter, unsure what's ahead. Perhaps a theme is developing here.

This time we're heading to Auroville with Michael, a Canadian guy studying Sanskrit in Pondy. We have lunch, sit at the beach for a while, attempt to watch a frisbee game but fail, I drive a scooter for my first time, we find a real Italian person making pizza, and then we drive back to Pondy while [literally] howling at the moon. It was glorious. It was a "dry" day in Pondy because of a Muslim holiday so we investigate the black market situation to try and get some beer and are told to talk to the guy "at the pakora stand across from the theatre." What? I mean, we found him but didn't actually feeling like drinking. I think it was more the chase to find it. Instead we loitered in a posh hotel for an hour reading scandalous magazines about the Bollywood stars we are now versed in.

The next day there were two holidays celebrated in Pondy. The first was the Hindu celebration of color - Holi. Holi is mostly celebrated in the North but the guys we had the bonfire with a few days before invited us to celebrate with them. Some of us Prime Trime volunteers were enjoying lunch at a nice cafe in the French district with the band of Holi celebratees rush in, covered in paint. Purple and blue and fluorescent pink stained their clothes, hair and skin. I immediately settled my bill and ran outside, to see a group of about twenty people doused in color. It was quite a sight as they all stood by the motorbikes shouting, "come on! let's go!" I found the guy who drove me to the beach last time and instantly felt hands smearing my cheeks, hair and arms in paint. In two seconds I was covered. The rest of the volunteers come outside with the same expression I wore... of "ohhhh my god...." and jump in the fun. And once again, we hop on some motorbikes and wind through the busy Indian traffic. We were quite the sight to see. About ten motorbikes full of painted people just driving into the wind. We all went to some house and had a little party of Bacardi Breezers, bhang, and Bollywood dancing. Around 5 in the evening it was time to head out... and shower. Juliana and I were celebrating our 4 months of travel that day, so we had a delicious meal where we toasted our travels and walked home after the city's 11 o'clock curfew. I loved walking the forty-five minutes home after curfew. The city is quiet, for once. The air is cool, for once. And! This was an indeed special day to walk home at night, because we saw the tail-end of the day's Tamil festival, where floats of gods are taken through the streets and dipped into the ocean. They are taken back to their respective temples at night... and we ran into about five or six floats of dressed-up gods on our walk home. It was such a sight! There were men walking with the floats playing instruments, sadhus sitting on the floats taking donations of bananas and people standing outside of their houses paying respect to the gods as they went by. Twas indeed a good day.

I'm running low on time an just wrote a LOT more than I was expecting to about Pondy. Maybe I'll just list some of my favorite moments on the islands...
-Renting a scooter and driving through rice fields and palm trees to a beach to watch the sun set over the west coast.
-Skinny dipping under a blanket of stars.
-Hopping among sand mounds in the ocean during the low tide.
-Philosophizing about existential issues with a group of Frenchies I met on the beach one night... and singing "Under the Bridge" with them.
-Realizing how happy/content I am by myself and knowing that I can travel alone.
-Dancing the night away with Israelis.
-Drinking at least three cups of mango juice a day... at 10 rupees each! (25 cents..!!!)
-Starting my morning with yoga under palm trees.
-Walking among tsunami ruins with my favorite Swede.
-Snorkeling. Tropical fish. Corals.
-Spending hours in hammocks... reading, writing, napping.

Good god I love island life.

And now I'm off to Bangkok. Thank you, India. See you next time.