the times they are a-changin

somewhere between the two countries, time changes..
I, completely oblivious,made a reservation for a hotel and aiport pickup in Dakar, Senegal for the day before I was supposed to arrive :) thankfully an apologetic email from NYC works like a charm.

after having spent 2 consecutive nights on red-eye flights, my feet swollen, eyes droopy, i check in to a clean, austere room on the tiled terrace of a pretty little guesthouse. Wine, lattes, espressos are in abundance - the owner being Belgian. Exquisite art from all over Africa adorns the walls here and there is wi-fi!!

i sleep in most of the day and get up just in time for dinner at a friend's friend place. Curt and Nicole have worked in Senegal for almost 3 years now with the peace corps. A lovely home-cooked meal of quiche and salad with Rose ensues. Tomorrow I will be moving to their place for a couple days before i board the bus to Bamako, Mali or the train or the set-place (7 seater minivan).

now off to see africa.. stay tuned

the dangling conversation

in the cradle of your arms
i hide a smile
and then i let go

another time, another place

next on my list is the final frontier, a place almost at the other end of the world - i am headed to timbuktu in Nov-Dec!

a taste of true african culture is in West Africa, so thanksgiving turkey and pre-christmas cookies will be in Mali, Senegal and Burkina Faso :)

not enough time

there isn't but below is a list of some countries and the best times to go there (live list)

Asia
Laos - Nov and Feb
Cambodia - Dec and Jan
Thailand - Nov and Feb
Vietnam - dry (Dec to April)
Philippines - Dec to May
Sri Lanka- Dec to March
Mongolia - May to October
Bhutan - March- May
Nepal - Feb- April
Tibet - May - November

Middle East
Egypt - March to May OR September to November
Turkey - before mid-June and after Aug (late June - Sept)
Israel - April/May or Sept/Oct

Africa
Madagascar - July to August
Mali - November through January
Burkina Faso - mid-October to December
Senegal - November through February

Caribbean
Trinidad and Tobago - april to june or oct to dec

Central America
Guatemala - no bad time to go!


to fly away, i use one of the following

kayak.com
orbitz.com
travelocity.com
expedia.com
hotwire.com
cheaptickets.com
lowestfare.com
onetravel.com
lastminutetravel.com
smartertravel.com
priceline.com

RTW tickets
airtrek.com
statravel.com
www.star-alliance.com
www.oneworldalliance.com
skyteam.com

other side of this life..

i want to collect
my thoughts
and watch them
disappear..

same situation

at the gym, i am handed keys to the same permanent locker i had, before i left (and they don't keep a history)

its like i never left. time is standing still.

tell me what you see

i roam the streets of San Francisco dazed and confused, drive around the bay area, eyes wide open, level of consciousness unnaturally enhanced, experiencing all things mundane and not.

i sing at the top of my voice on my way to work on chilly mornings, with Karen carpenter, trying to wake myself up.

i wonder at the new treadmill in amazement and can't help smiling- remembering the children who imitated me running in Laos.

i browse through 600 MBs of email trying to sift out the ones i can make sense of.

wine seems heavier, the grocery stores seem too well-stocked, too well-lit. the roads seem too wide, the offices look too clean, too artificial, the ever-present toilet paper in the bathrooms too unreal.

at night i slip under two down comforters, cosy in a huge bed, in a room with sap green walls- a welcome basket by my side- filled with shampoo, conditioner, lotion, a headband- a trivial but very important detail and a big bouquet of bright orange smiling sunflowers-my favorite - i wonder how nadia knew the little things that make such a big difference.
in the morning, i interrupt dreams of me building a house and volunteering in the middle east to get up and do it all over again..

over the last 9 months, i have experienced a world so different that this seems like an alternate reality- where I have lived in the past like a zombie. now i am taking it all in- the similarities, the differences, things as they are.

its almost like i have a new set of eyes, and they came free with a new perspective- something i acquired somewhere along the way in my travels, something i hope is here to stay, unlike the love handles i acquired during the same time :)