Out of the frying pan

So the magical mystery tour has come to a quiet close......in other words I just left India. It was so hard. I really feel in love with that place. I can't explain it....and perhaps I shouldn't even try. I've been accused of simply being in a state of culture shock, and I can say that's true of the start of my trip. But at that point I didn't really know what to make of it. I didn't love or hate it, I just didn't know what to make of it. It was all so different. It wasn't until that shock began to fade though that I really began to love the place. I can't compare my experience there to any other country I've been and it really wasn't just India it was the way "my trip" went in India, and the way I was treated and just the syncronicity of it all. It was so deeply intoxicting and left me in a such a sanguine state, I will always return. And I can't say that of anywhere I've been.

My last stop was in Mumbai, which is a city I could, and may easily move to. I did a yoga course there that was so exquisite. It was at the yoga institute, which is the oldest yoga center in the country. My lovely best good mate Jon recommended it to me. He took the 6 month course there and is such an inspiring person in every way, he's quite the poster child for a yoga center, so I had to check it out. I learned so much about living life, so I think I may go back for a 6 month course they offer. I could think of nothing more inviting then spending 6 month under the teachings of these debonar women, which 95% of the teachers are. But no plans, because life is a cameleon of possibilities.

The day before I entered the yoga center I spent the day in Mumbai. I went to Leopold's, which was the restaurant that was used as the main stage in Shantaram. I sat at a table and pulled out a brand new book, Karma Cola. One of my favorite things is to have an opened afternoon, a good cafe, and the promise of a new work of art unfolding in the pages before you. With Shantaram still lingering on my pallet though, there was a bit of sketicism on my part as to how this book could compare. Just as my mouth began lapping up the first few pages in walks a couple, of the young and daring assortment. They ask if they might join me, and I willingly ablidge. We begin to chat about what else but our travels, and I come to find that the gentleman, from England, has been bopping back and forth between Bombay and England for the past 17 years. The woman was a yound aspiring Indian DJ, and she had a big gig later that night so was a bit nervous, but I senses this was her character in general. I come to find that these are friends of Greg, the author of Shantaram and he, though currently in Thailand, should be stopping into Leopold's some time in the next week. They give me a bit of history about the book and Greg and I can barely contain myself. The book I have been gushing over! My beloved Shataram, so close. Again my timing in India has made another peek around the corner become a masterpiece. Well, needless to say I never meet Greg, or that would have been my story. Though, this brush with my new found hero was enough to tide me over. The trip 16 hours on the train to Mumbai was well worth it. God I love that city.

So after the yoga course, which had the main theme "mindfulness" I hopped in a cab, and when I hopped out I realized my bag was no longer with me........ My bag holding my cell phone, camera, plane ticket, clothes, and books. Let's see what lesson..lesson's could I ascertain from this experience, at the moment too many to think of. But the entire catclysmic circumstance lauched me onto a plane into the air and now I have landed in Bangkok......

And this is a whole new ball of wax. I'm in L.A......except in Thailand on Monday everyone wears yellow in honor of the king......So from the highway there are thousands of little yellow bodies filling the pavement. I miss India, I miss home......I'm going to the beach. Ko Phangan to be exact.

Things I miss about home: NPR, The Lighthouse Restaurant, the Oakland A's, Sunset, Ladonna's laugh, rocket the alien dog, Tommy's piano and everything else, Watching TV with Jason, Austin's jokes, singing with my Dad, Hopes intoxicating spunk, Dennis playing music, Mom gluing it all together, and the Babe laughing at all of us.....I miss my clan. I miss my friends and I will always miss India when I am not there too. My heart is growing as a Baynon tree....leaving roots all over the forest floor......