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Home Perro de La Semana: Marley Returns

Perro de La Semana: Marley Returns

Turner April 6, 2012 Travel Job Tips

Last Updated on January 18, 2013

80worldjobs

🌏 Award Winning Travel Blogger
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📍 Currently: India
✈️ Next: Nepal
⇣Weird Jobs, Animal Rights

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Varanasi thug life. And by thug life I mean me, crawled up in the fetal position sick with a fever. Getting sick whilst traveling is an awful experience. But in India with a festival going on Hindi music blaring and shaking your room like the a tornado — it’s wonderful. But for real, Varanasi is crazy. One of the oldest cities in India, it is also one of the holiest. Bodies are cremated on the Ganges with sticks and loved ones say goodbye to their loved ones to embark on their next life. Unlike in the West—No tears shed. They believe in reincarnation after all. So this is just a send off to the next life. Next to the fires people bathe, drink and swim in the Ganges. For me with my fever, I stumbled around. Getting lost in the old town. Winding streets. Dead ends. Cow shit. Shooters running you down. It’s Wild. I have yet to see so much traffic anywhere. So if you are looking for something mystic, wild, interesting, challenging — Varanasi is your spot. Buddha preached 20 minutes north in Sarnath. That is google maps 20 minutes, India traffic 1.5 hours. 🤣🤒😂🤷‍♂️🤔

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Not gunna lie. I really like sitting in the little cut outs in all these Indian Palaces. The nooks and crannies are so ornate. Getting a serious design heart throb going. This Palace is known as baby Taj, as in baby Taj Mahal — except it’s us way more decorated.

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Not one to take pictures with ‘holy men’ as there is often money changing hands for the tourist shot but he seemed so jolly. My five day fever ended and I’m back in the game. Alive and feeling the vibe again. Amazing how we ‘want this’ or that all the time. It’s incessant. The chatter. But when your health goes - all you ‘want’ is to not feel awful. Well cheers to you jolly ‘holy man’.

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Feeling the spirit of the Buddha. Sarnath is where Buddha preached his sermons after he got enlightenment. You can feel the energetic in the air. There was a group of Tibetans on pilgrimage, singing and paying respect. Powerful stuff. India has stressed me out and is utter chaos, but when I get back to all things Buddha, peace seems to follow.

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In love with the Stepwell’s in India. They remind me of these pictures of never ending staircases. These real life stepwells are by the palaces and are def a highlight. Could spend hours there.

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Jodhpur— the blue city in Rajasthan India. Cool palace. Blue building. And yet I can’t manage to shoot a picture to save my life. Regardless, I’m in love with the old doors in these cities.

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The largest sundial in the world. What a pleasant surprise. Most ‘sites’ are places or forts or old buildings. Never have a I encountered an entire area with celestial measurement tools. This happens to be the largest sundial in the world.

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Merry BudMas! That’s a Buddhist Christmas in these parts. I decided to forgo Xmas this year with the fam. No eggnog, college football, golf, presents under the tree and lingering thoughts of yesteryear. I forwent ‘thoughts’ altogether. Or rather, tried to notice them and let them go In the Malaysian jungle. We do weird things in our 30s. Anyway, I missed Christmas and went on a silent retreat. 5 days. Malaysian jungle with nothing but me, my wild mind, bugs and monkeys. The jungle is loud. I worked on a different kind of mediation. Open Awareness. Eyes open and you just allow everything thing you see. You ask, ‘what am I aware of right now?’ And with a jungle as alive as this one — you get gibbons, bugs, hawks, monkeys, monks etc. The idea is to anchor your mind when it wanders to your 5 senses. And you keep moving. Overtime your thoughts becomes more spread out. You can use this style in your everyday life. From the loud Starbucks to annoying office colleagues bragging about their kids finger painting. Anyway, it was an eye opening meditation session. Literally. But onward I march on my quest for spiritual enlightenment. To the top of the mountain - Only to realize I didn’t need to climb the mountain in the first place. Doh!

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Oh these famed Instagram shots. I forgot my ball gown. It was a nice view, despite the heat and 1000 steps. Parts of Indonesia really give me the Galapagos vibes. Which makes sense since, you know, volcanoes and lizards lurking about and all. Looking forward to going back someday and exploring more islands, farther out. Incredible diving and instagram shots for all!

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Not sure why I have a Gandolf stick but it seemed appropriate when some of these Komodo dragons are 3.5 meters long. Biggest lizard in the world they say. You can find them on Komodo island and Rinca island. There has been a lot of talk about shutting the islands down to tourism and making it a $1000 entrance fee, so I wanted to jump in to see them before. Not sure if that is true or it is worth it to be honest. Visiting middle of the day in extreme heat, the dragons are mostly just lazying around, avoiding the sun and moving. Basically me in tropical countries after one beer these days. Anyway, apparently all it takes is one bite from these guys to kill. They have poisonous bites and their prey will eventually die. They then consume the prey without too much hassle. They have a funny waddle when they run too.

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It’s easy to get captured by Indonesia’s blue and turquoise waters, but it really has the whole package. Mountains, clear waters, and incredible pink skies at sunset. A little faint rainbow even made a cameo.

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Not a bad day out in Indonesia. Can’t really go wrong no matter where you turn it seems. Surprised it took me so long to come here.

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So many touristic spots in Bali...but for good reason. Even so, you can turn anywhere pretty much and snap some cool pics. Here is a waterfall sans the 20 other people.

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To be honest I didn’t know much about Singapore, but going from India to here is like stepping into a time machine. Pristine malls, crazy lights, modernity — it’s like stepping into the future.

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Getting my Zen on at Bodhizendo. After exploring Tibetan Buddhism at Tushita in northern India near the Himalayas, this Zen center in South India is the perfect spot to explore Zen (Japanese) Buddhism. Typified by less guided meditation sessions and koans (wisdom through perplexing questions/riddles from masters) it is pretty different. The gardens are incredible but the monkeys up to thievery are the same. Cheeky buggers. The setting is perfect in the hill station near Kodaikanal, mist and greenery abound.

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Cruising through the backwaters in South India (Kerela). You can rent huge houseboats and live on the river. Seems like a romantic idea but it is hardly as adventurous as it once was. Such is the way of tourism. But it is fun to tour around the backwaters. People actually live on them. You can see women doing laundry, family gatherings—life. I got violently sick two days prior so I lounged like a lizard for three hours. It’s incredible to see how large these house boats can get though.

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Cracked open the doors of my first mediation retreat. 10 days of silence and Buddhist teaching overlooking the Himalayas 💯. Before the retreat I got to hear the Dalai Kama speak. He speaks in Tibetan so there are translators. You need a radio to tune into your language. I haven’t used a radio in 20 years. Anyway, not sure how it happened, but I got pushed into the VIP section as the talk was ending and I got to shake the Dalai Lamas hand. Pretty amazing, although the Tawaianese, whose section I found myself in, did not appreciate it as much. Sorry. Regardless, inspiring to be around an exiled people making the most of a tough situation. Anyway, 10 days of Buddhist teaching in the cold Himalayas surrounded by cheeky monkeys and silence. Won’t be my first or last. Giving yourself a life break that doesn’t involve drinking yourself into a coma on a beach is an amazing thing. Be good to yourself. Check out a silent retreat, you don’t need to trek to India or some distant land to find stillness. It’s within you. You beautiful little sashimi.

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Nothing better than exploring ancient civilizations’ ruins. It’s humbling and hot AF during the day usually. Dusk is where it is at. Hampi India, where I took this sweaty, daring photo of white guyness, was the NYTimes #2 ranked place to visit for 2019. It is kind of like a mix of Turkey’s Capadoccia meets Cambodia’s Angkor Wat. The place is massive, but you can’t take your own scooter bc the tuk tuk mafia lobbied the government against it. This I had a tuk tuk driver for the day. But to be honest, to do it again, I would have just gone slow and alone. First the morning and again at night. Beat the heat and get the actual feeling of stumbling upon an ancient society. You don’t get that feeling being chauffeured around. Take your time. Go slow.

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I sat here in the country drinking chai tea with some locals. Country is where you meet people. The ones who want to meet you and know why you are there. In America it is easy for city folk to look at the country as a blip. A stop over. People without something to add to the convo. Maybe I am speaking to generally. ‘We all don’t do that!’ Yeah, you do. Maybe. Anyway, back to India. People are curious. And in the country away from the touristvilles you drink chai tea and speak about cultural things: pre-arrangement marriages and fidelity and love were what I focused on. The words translate here but I am not sure we mean the same thing. Anyway, I ramble and am off point. But I like the real, weird points of discussion.

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