Sedentary

“Once again I am leaving home, turning into a traveler. Travel isn’t just a passion for me; it’s an identity that has wrapped and tangled its branches and tendrils around me so intricately that I can’t see through the thicket sometimes. I don’t stop to think about why it’s so important for me to be able to move around from place to place. I just do it: I pack up and go.

"There is probably nothing more disconcerting, more terrifying, for hard-core travelers to contemplate than the life of a tree. A traveler is by definition footloose; trees send down deep, abiding roots. They don’t stay put because they are timid or incurious or on a budget, or because they have demanding jobs or family obligations. Trees stay where they are because if they abandon their point of origin they will cease to exist.”

Daisann McLane, Nat Geo Traveler March-April 2012 Issue

Intoxication

I have just returned from an unexpected weekend-turned-ten-days trip to visit my friend Jocelyn in Tampa, Florida. On the day before I was supposed to fly home, it was off-handedly suggested to me that I just stay. Immediately, the flame in my spontaneous spirit was kindled and the less influential logical crank in my head started turning. I could not find a single reason not to stay.

I was intoxicated with the power of my freedom.

While Joce and I did occasionally enjoy other means of intoxication, this was the moment that most filled me with a sense of invulnerability and exhilaration. The lifestyle I have chosen allows me to act on my impulses without consequences, and I really couldn't ask for more.

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

Robert Frost

Live art show

Davis Island beach

baby sister

my wonderful host for ten days

Bay Shore Blvd

Tampuuuhhhhh

One way ticket on a westbound train

I have some exciting news: I have been offered a six month job as Assistant Restaurant Manager at an elite ranch/resort called Mountain Sky Guest Ranch in Montana! I have long been anticipating this news and am so relieved and ecstatic that I have been accepted. I will be living and working on the ranch from May to October, surrounded by purple mountains majesty. Here is the website to the ranch so you can check out more details. http://www.mtnsky.com/

Part of the interview process required me to make a video further introducing myself and explaining why I wanted to work on the ranch. Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwnbyWrmYhM

I am beyond excited to begin on this next adventure in my life. Thanks to everyone for supporting me and reading my blog!

Final India Video

Final India Video

Unrest

In Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes tales, the great detective is praised throughout London and Britain as being the energetic and brilliant mystery solver, fueled by his desire to prove that simple logic and rational thought will prevail over any mind boggling conundrum that arises. It's not that he takes pleasure in catching a criminal or setting a citizen's mind at ease, but his brain craves the challenge of a new puzzle. Until a problem is solved, he will not rest. His analytical mind reviews every logical explanation until the only possible solution is revealed. His mental prowess, greater than the blundering buggers at Scotland Yard (London's police force) are what give him purpose to his life. In between mysteries, Holmes is quite a different character. During these moments of ennui, he is often found by Watson brooding in silence in a cloud of opium smoke, cocaine coursing through his veins. Without any stimulation, Homes allows himself to succumb to a listlessness that frustrates Watson to no end.

While I have yet to resort to drugs or any other illegal activities, I do understand how Holmes feels. In between my travels, I crave the the stimulation of new sights, new smells, new adventures. I cherish my time at home, but my mind is always wandering to my next destination and the means to get there. Luckily, I am able to find a bit of solace through a less debilitating way than Holmes' method (though, in the 19th century, the danger of cocaine was not well known). I read. Copiously. Reading both ignites and satisfies a never ending curiosity about the world, the past, and the way people live. The following is a fairly apt explanation of how I feel towards my beloved books.

“She entered the story knowing she would emerge from it feeling she had been immersed in the lives of others, in plots that stretched back twenty years, her body full of sentences and moments, as if awakening from sleep with a heaviness caused by unremembered dreams.”

The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje

My Worst Nightmare

"Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota"
By: James Wright

Over my head, I see the bronze butterfly,
Asleep on the black trunk,
blowing like a leaf in green shadow.
Down the ravine behind the empty house,
The cowbells follow one another
Into the distances of the afternoon.
To my right,
In a field of sunlight between two pines,
The droppings of last year's horses
Blaze up into golden stones.
I lean back, as the evening darkens and comes on.
A chicken hawk floats over, looking for a home.
I have wasted my life.

Homeward Bound

As a frequent and passionate traveler, airports exude a certain charm and allure. Entering one sends fingers of thrills down my spine and sets my stomach swirling. It’s an amazing place, where an eclectic group of people are all gathered to do the same thing: travel. I love being in the presence of people who are going places I’ve only read about. My friend Mariana says her favorite thing about airports is the loved ones waiting for you at the airport at the opposite end.

But for all its attraction, its airplanes that I love the most. When going through a dry spell of travel, in which I can usually be found working and saving as much as possible in order to embark on my next journey, I sometimes look longingly to the sky at a tiny jet slinking away. I wonder where its going, and wish I could be on it despite its destination. Taking off and landing fill me with an unparalleled exuberance, whether I am going away or coming home. 

Here's some final quotes that sum up some of my experience:

“India is just like a big, juicy fruitcake, and you must limit yourself to a slice at a time. It is killing, trying to tick off all the places [that] people and guidebooks talk about.”   

Fodor’s India Guidebook

“Foreigners were stared at in India. Somewhere in the five or more millennia of its history, the culture had decided to dispense with the casual, nonchalant gaze. By the time I came to Bombay, the eye contact ranged from an ogling gaze to a gawping, goggle-eyed glare. There was nothing malicious in it. The staring eyes that found and followed me everywhere I went were innocent, curious, and almost always friendly.”

Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts

“There are four things motorist needs in India: good brakes, good horn, good reflexes, and good luck.”

Chasing the Monsoon, Alexander Frater

“My anger and disappointment began dissipating at once. India was teaching me a passive acceptance of the inevitable that had begun to make me faintly uneasy.”

Chasing the Monsoon, Alexander Frater

Radhika on the way to the lake 

All the kids on my last day

saying goodbye

Kavya

Kavya and Roja