This is it

The poet Amir Khusrau once wrote, inscribed on the walls of the Red Fort in Delhi,
"If there is a paradise on earth,
this is it, this is it, this is it!"
(Agar firdaus bar roo-e zameen ast,
Hameen ast-o hameen ast-o hameen ast.)
Now he may have have been talking about the breathtaking marble wonderland in the country's capital, but the same can be said for where we are at right now.
Yes me, cassandra and now nick, have not been keeping up with our posts lately, but surely not because there has been nothing to talk about. We have travervsed the northern half of the country now, having been to Delhi, Rishikesh, Chandigargh and Udaipur these past few weeks only now to find ourselves in the picturesque paradise, heaven on earth, of Goa.
We spent our time in Rishikesh with Gary and Marika (cass' parents who joined us for a week long holiday) meditating on the peaceful surroundings, doing yoga, tuning in and tuning out at classical sitar shows and a rafting adventure in the Ganga with Gary. We had such a blast with them and it was truly sad to see them go. I cant tell you how nice it is to see a familiar face after such a long time.
And being here with one of our best friends, the incomparable Nicholas Luchak, has been a dream for me and cass. We've been doing a pretty good job in my opinion in not driving ourselves nuts, but having Nick around has kind of brought us back to real life. And its truly great just having another set of wide eyes and an open mind to see all the wonderfully crazy things we have the past few weeks.
And seeing the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Ashram in Rishikesh, where The Beatles visited in 1969, was the perfect way to start it off.
We spent the following weeks introducing nick to the indian railway system and general way of life. The Nek Chand Rock Garden in Chandigargh was like being able to walk through ones weirdest dreams and taking in the serene surrounding of Udaipur, the setting of the 1983 Bond-flick, Octopussy. Mixing with locals, taking art classes and being invited over for dinner,it was really just a swell time.
But now we are in Goa and have been for the past week or so. Its paradise. We've become friends with an unreal indian jam band, truly the most legit cool dudes in the entire country, who love 12 minute full out jams on classics and hate bollywood and typical mainstream india. nick even got the chance to jump on stage with em and pound out a couple zeppelin staples.
i also got treated to lobster dinner for my birthday which was pretty excellent.
We'll tell you more about Goa soon enough though, today we've embarking on a trans Goa scooty adventure. We'll show you what life looks like next time, the cameras already packed up. till then
love love love
this is it, this is it, this is it

Delhi to Goa

I have been advised to write a new post for this aging travel blog I have now become a part of.

There is apparently lots of ground to cover since the last post here, so i'll just add a fine story:

Whence i was dropped in Delhi, merely two days later i was shipped off to a beautiful highly religious tourist hippy city known as Rishikesh (also known as the Beatles' Indian stomping ground and home of Transcendental Meditation). Cassandra paired off with her parents for the majority of the week we spent there. Stef and I got into our own escapades dodging monkeys and fresh, frequently made prairie oysters. The amount of cow excrement in the streets was astounding.

I digress. One eve during our supper, within dusty one room restaurant, we were approached by a man who had been sitting next to us, also eating and previously trying to sell something to someone, which is in no way unheard of. He began to introduce himself as Mark Metcalf and ask where we were from, as we were obviously. He told us of his time spent in India, and how he had been living in India for quite some time (i forget exactly how long), and had lived in Canada, as well as the states, as well as Germany (playing in the Nina Hagen band which apparently made him millions of dollars).

After all the formalities, he began talking about his books. One which he published in the United States, and two which he published in India. The first was about his ingenious science experiment with ionized silver in water, which apparently solves nearly all disease and mental illness. He then ordered a glass of water, poured pure silver into the glass, and hooked up batteries to metal rods, which ran into the water. He insisted on drinking this every day.

As a side note, this man looked as if he had been smoking opium for 42 days on end, and spoke the like.

After the water experiment, he tried to sell us on his new book, which he wrote entirely based on information given to him by God through meditation. Because of this, he wrote it under the moniker of "St.Mark", because it would have been self indulgent of him to put his own name, since it was the word of god. Because calling yourself a saint is not self indulgent.

Long story short, i bought his books that he had burnt to a CD-R in microsoft word files, and had a sip of ionized silver water. Stef and I googled him the next day, and the only information on him was a faded image of him from the Nina Hagen band (he's the guy in the back right of this photo), and an online cease and desist from an ionized silver research group in the States, revealing that he had been accused of fraud and various other money making offenses. Also, apparently he used very very unhealthy amounts of silver in his drinks. Cool, huh.

India Rulz