Monsoon

I randomly approached someone with a Lonely Planet because it is the badge of a traveller, and so far the people who want to talk have been cool. If they didn't I would leave them alone. The guy is called Ferris (like Beuhler?) and he's half Palestinian and half German. A crazy little thing we found out while hanging out yesterday was he was an exchange student at Grand Haven High, which is about an hour from Grand Rapids, where I grew up. He also knew Grand Valley State University, where I went to college. It's crazy what a small world it can be.

I thought I had witnessed monsoon rain. Yesterday while walking around Panjim, nature decided to show me what real monsoon rain looks like. Ferris hadn't seen the big market yet so we went to check that out. It was raining pretty good, so water was gushing out of the market. We headed in anyways.

It's basically an open air market that's been covered up to protect it from the rain. Water was still getting in, so the paths I walked the previous day were flooded. We were ankle deep in water, some areas were worse.

As Ferris and I made it out to the open street, the rain decided the open act was over and it was time for monsoon to come out. Eight inches of rain fell from the sky in less than an hour while we watched the street we were on flood. Locals with long sticks were trying to clear debris from the drainage pipes. It didn't look like they were clearing it fast enough. Either that or pipes were just too clogged. We had no choice but to do what the locals were doing, wade into the water to get to a non-flooded street. I don't want to think about what was living in the water we walked through.

We had to be careful stepping off the curbs because of the gaps between the high curb and street that is meant to drain the water. Since the water wasn't draining, the gap filled with water and you couldn't tell where the gap ended and street began.

After maybe an hour the rain turned into a light drizzle. We continued to wander a bit more, and headed to a restaurant near the guesthouse where I stayed. As we were walking, it sudenly felt like someone was pouring buckets of water on our umbrellas. The monsoon rain decided to come out and play again.

We found some shelter under an awning, and waited. Again we witnessed the water level of this street rise. It was at least six inches of rain in half an hour. I thought about the other street and what might be happening over there. They might be knee deep in water at that point if they didn't manage to clear the drains.

Once again the rain subsided, and we waded our way back to Ferris' room so he could change his pants. We had dinner at the restaurant attached to the place he was staying, and around seven last night I set off to catch my bus to Mangalore.

Just as I headed back to grab my bags the rain started up again. By the time I set off for the bus it was pretty dark out, and the rainjust kept coming. I wasn't quite sure where the bus left from, but I had a general idea of the area.

I had to wade through anle deep water again, and work my way through traffic to find it. It's a harrowing experience to be walking inbetween cars, motorcycles, buses, and autorickshaws in the rain and darkness. Somehow, I made it across the street. Then I found out I had to cross the street once more.

When I found the bus, I happily got on and out of the rain. What I found on the bus was not better. I had booked a sleeper, not knowing exactly what that meant. THey basically built little bunks into the bus, not bad unless you wnat to sit and read. Also as I was getting on, the guys told me I would be sharing the bed, not the bunk, but the bed.

I took that information in stride, and wondered why the fuck they booked it that way for me. If anyone books with Paulo travels, make sure to get as much info from them as possible.

I changed my pants, and took everything out of my day pack. Everything was wet. My bed mate wasn't at this stop so I laid everything out so it could hopefully dry out a bit. In the meantime, the non AC sleeper was getting on my nerves. The road was insanely bumpy, I could smell fumes from the engine, and it was uncomfortably hot and damp. Some of the other beds were just straight up wet.

As I was close to losing it, I had to concentrate, I won't use meditate because I'm not sure that's what I did. I had to focus on the good things in my life. I thought first about my nephews. My sister told me their cousin from Germany was visiting them and Stefan was telling her a story about me. We were playing Spider-Man once, and I told him when I was around his age, I tried to get a spider to bite me so I could become Spider-Man.

I could just imagine him telling the story in his coy manner, his smile, and just the sound of his voice. I thought about Alex, Jacen, Chris and Steven and the rest of my family and my friends because they are the only thing that could help me get through that hell.

I'm in Mangalore now. I'm ok. It's raining and I'm wondering what the hell I'm doing here. I should just bite the bullet and head back north, but I'm hoping to find something in Hampi.