G'Day mate! How you goin'? I saw heaps of roos! No worries. Ta.

March 18th, 2013 - Fremantle, WA, Australia

PERTH:

DAZED.  NEED SLEEP.  BLURRED.  DIZZY.  

DRY.  INSTENSE SUN.  EMPTY.  

VISIBLE SKIN.  (AND LOTS OF IT).  

COLOURS.  $$$.  NO PEOPLE.  HEADS DOWN.  

WIDE EYED.  JETLAG.  HOMELESS.  

MODERN.  RICHES.  CLEANLINESS.  A/C.  QUIET.  

HELPLESS.  COLD SHOULDER.   

FRIENDLY.  "MATE."

AUSTRALIA.

Some of these thoughts may seem commonplace to you all, but we were utterly overwhelmed.  Upon arriving in Perth we gazed at the "normal" sights with sleep crusted eyes as big as saucers.  We sat in the arrivals area of the airport for a while getting our bearings and then withdrew a whopping $600 from a nearby ATM, an amount that would last us very little time, and prepared to face the furnace.

We left the A/C of the airport and headed for the insanely expensive city bus stops.  We floundered around for a while but eventually found out which one to take.  Lugging our huge and unconveniently packed bags (we didn't have time to repack as we wanted to get to the city before sunset), we collapsed into the immaculately clean and foreign vehicle.  The bus ride was uneventful save for a meeting with an American traveler who somehow managed to tell us SO MUCH, and SO LOUDLY about how much he knew about Australia while not actually answering any of our pressing (and somewhat desperate) questions.  We wanted to know where to go and what to do and how to survive.  Instead, we got the stereotypical loud-mouthed American show-off.  We stopped asking him questions when we realized that we were getting nothing out of it.  But we must remember to love our Yanky neighbours despite their often apparent social ineptitudes.  We thought it would be better to just roll with it.

And roll we did!  We also took out many rolls of bills, and spent them.  We made it to Fremantle, the hippy arts and culture suburb, and started looking for rooms.  It wasn't easy.  Most of the five or so backpacker hostels were full, but we finally found one.  They were pretty much full too, but somehow they made room for us.  We were so exhasuted by this point and only wanted a room to ourselves to collapse and sleep for a day or two.  Unfortuantely, we were split up into separate dorm rooms.  Grateful at least for a place to sleep, we ditched our bags and paid 28$ each (!!!!!) for the beds.  

We sat in the "quiet area" and talked for a bit before bed, trying to get our bearings.  The rest of the hostel was basically a gigantic house party 24/7, and as we talked doors would slam, half naked people would run by double fisting strong Aussie beers, cheering would erupt, and the music pounded.  It was not an ideal situation, but at least we had a room.  We said goodnight and sadly parted ways.

The next week was really hard.  We learned to cook again though, which was a fun experience!  We had been seven months away from any kind of kitchen in India, but luckily the useful skill came back fairly easily, with some exception.  With our small purse we came up with some interesting dishes: for example, fried onions on toast.  That one was a winner...

We stayed in Fremantle for a few more nights.  All of the travelers at the hostel were really nice but they were all rich and didn't really understand how urgent it was for us to get work.  They all said that the best way to get a job was to party all day and night at the hostel and talk to people and ask them about jobs.  It made sense, but getting wasted was the last thing on our minds!  And we were so overstimulated by even hiding out in the quiet room that entering the party seemed like too much.  We met some nice people of course, but the whole situation wasn't working out for us.  Sitting out in a park late one night we decided that it was time to leave Fremantle.  We were spending all of our money on this terrible room, the jobs looked doubtful, and we needed change.  We made up our minds feeling like homeless people in the middle of the night and the next morning we left for Northbridge, an area in downtown Perth City.  

Our time there wasn't much better, but we managed to get a decent room for only a few dollars more than the sketchy dorm situation in Freo (abbreviated Fremantle) which was nice.  (Keep in mind that "only a few dollars more" amounts to a whopping $65 a night for a dingy cave!) We also met some more cool people who gave us some leads on jobs.  We spent around another week in limbo.  Our daily schedule was to wake up early, eat, and then hit the pavement looking for jobs for several hours.  Then we'd come home late and eat a small dinner before heading to bed feeling drained and alone in the world.  This got super tiring after a few days straight.  But we kept our morales up and tirelessly worked at it, knowing that something would eventually present itself at the right moment.  We did start eating considerably better too, as this new hostel had an amazing thing.  A "free fridge!"  There wasn't much, but every day there seemed to be new goodies that were exactly what we needed to stretch our cash and keep our bodies reasonably happy.

Then one morning we had an idea.  We could do dreadlocks!  We posted an ad on Gumtree (Australia and the UK and other countries' less shady version of Craigslist) and made a cardboard sign advertising our services as "The Rasta Masta."  Within 24 hours we had a client.  Woo hoo!  With the money in our wallet almost gone, this was amazing.  Suddenly we were self-employed and had a means of supporting ourselves.  We took the train to our first customer's house and not only did we make some kick ass dreads, but we also made a couple of friends.  Our client also told his friend about his new hair and got us another client within a day or two.  Things were looking up!  The traditional jobs that we were hunting for still hadn't been snared, but at least we had some income to bide our time. 

Then one day we did some calculations and realized how much we were spending on our room compared to renting.  We realized that for the same price we were paying for our terrible, dirty, tiny room, we could be renting an entire luxury apartement ON THE BEACH in a prime location.  $65 a night amounted to $455 a WEEK and $1820 a month!!!!!!! Do you have ANY IDEA how expensive this is?!?  I'm sure you do.  We decided yet again that it was time to go!  Everything lined up perfectly.  We spent hours and days at the free wifi park down the road on Gumtree looking for places to rent, calling people, booking viewings, and viewing places, and finally we found a place.  We decided we wanted to move back to Fremantle because Northbridge (where our hostel was, just north of central Perth) was a gnarly party town and on weekend nights the streets became the belly of hell.  Drunk people yelling and stumbling everywhere, beer and cigarettes filling the air.  But we managed to make some good money busking outside of bars! Haha!  Drunk guys want to impress the ladies by generously tipping.

Anyway.  We found a place!  What a relief!  It worked out amazingly.  Our first dread customer had a friend out of town who wanted his hair done too, so he drove us a few hours out of the city to his farm and we did an epic 11 hour job on his golden locks, spent the night at his place (we checked out of our hostel and brought all of our stuff), and then got driven straight to our new house the next morning.  It was fantastic!  He also tipped us super generously for the hair-do, so we were thankfully in the clear again for another week or so.  

HOME!  You have no idea how grateful we were to have a place to ourselves after almost two weeks of uncertainty and essentially poverty.  It felt like FOREVER.  We were SO happy.  Suddenly we had our own space where we could build up an energy and get our thoughts working even more to our advantage.  We realized that having a positive space to be in to ourselves is so important to our sanity.  Some people can thrive in the middle of a house party and sleep on a different couch every night, but that's not for us.  Yeah, we can do it, and we did it, but we focused INTENSELY to get out of there in such a short time.  I can tell you honestly that during those first few weeks, the thought that took up 90% of my brain was, "I want security, privacy, a routine, and enough income to feel safe."  And for those of you who know me, you know that I usually like a bit more adventure in my life!  But all I wanted was a simple 9-5 job and a place to call home.  We got the home, and my dream changed soon after, but man were we grateful for our own space.  The freedom!

Another thing we learned is how easy it is to survive while spending almost no money, and how if you're resourceful and fearless, you can make cash pretty easily.  With dreads and busking, we survived for those first three weeks without ever having to go back to the ATM, which was good because there wasn't much in it to withdraw!  It's reassuring knowing that even if we did end up nearly homeless, we could make do and get out of it relatively quickly.  And now that we've got some street cred, I'm sure that we won't be in a situation any more difficult than what we've tackled before.  It's sad thinking of all of the people in these developed countries who are so afraid to give up some of their material comforts that they would rather rack up their credit card bills and keep what they've got.  Take away all of their "things" and put them on the streets for a week or two and they would learn really quickly how to survive.  There is really no reason for anyone to go into debt besides their own fear of giving things up.  At the end of this lifetime you're forced to give EVERYTHING up.  May as well learn how to live without all of it now.

Things are obviously quite different at this point!  We've been here a month and a half, and we are loving it!  We're still in the same house, which is perfect.  We live with a super nice lady who is really similar to us (vegetarian, musical, artist, etc).  Her kids are there half the time and the other half with their dad, and we all get along great.  The house is a five minute bike ride to the beach, and Nadja (our housemate) gave us bikes for FREE, so we're free to roam!  We're a ten minute ride from downtown Freo.  Funnily enough, we both got jobs in Perth City!  So when we work we cycle to the train station and take the railway downtown, which we both actually quite enjoy.  It's nice because you can't rush, it's nice and cool, and it's a great time to write and listen to talks and music every day.  Marina is working at a fancy coffee shop as a barista (they're all super fancy in Australia) and I'm working at an outdoor store.  Wages are double Canada's (that means the minimum wage is $20 an hour!!!) so the money situation isn't a problem any more.  Perth is the most expensive city in Australia, so we're breaking ourselves in the hard way so the rest of our time will be a breeze!  Rent is high ($210/week for us, but that's super reasonable for Perth) and so is food ($5/Kg for non-organic bananas! What the hell?! They're 69 cents a kilo in Canada and we can't even grow them there!!!), but it's easy to make plenty to get by and save heaps.  We're busking and doing open mics and things a fair bit and lining up a few shows for OM while we accumulate the needed gear which is great.  We just got a FANTASTIC djembe;  once again, an amazing gift from the Gods of Gumtree.  We're still doing dreads, and word is getting around!  Check out our work at www.facebook.com/TheRastaMasta .  I found out that while traveling in India I lost almost 15 pounds, so I've been focusing on eating really healthily and getting in shape.  We're doing lots of yoga and our daily routine is back intact!  Of course, we leave lots of room for variations to do fun things though.  

Perth is a wonderful city!  I would say that Australia is a wonderful country, but we haven't seen it yet!  Everyone is so welcoming, the accent is a blast (we try out Aussie-isms and accents at work and see if customers notice to practice), everything is chilled out, the music in the big city is booming, and we're just loving it!  John Butler lives in Freo and he actually started out busking on the streets and in the weekly market playing "Ocean" and his other old tunes.  Our housemate actually used to live with him, and her fiancee's band used to have John open for them.  Small world!  It's cool because everyone here just treats Butler as "the young kid from down the road," not the worldwide touring professional musician.  No creepy papparazzi here!  It's such a great, laidback vibe.  It makes total sense how the Aussies came about: put a bunch of uptight English criminals on a beach for a loooong time, and this is what you get.  The accent and the pace of the people are definitely very beach and surf inspired.  It's awesome.

So that's it!  It's been a crazy adventure, and there will be more to come!  We'll be writing less frequently from now on, but we'll still keep in touch.  The internet in Australia is about 15 years behind North America, so unfortunately we don't have any way to post youtube videos or things like that, but we do have access, albeit limited access, to the "World Wide Web."  It's actually worse than India's internet though.  Pretty sad.  But we'll do our best!  We're planning on buying a camper van and taking it across the outback to see all four corners of this country that is still steeped in mystery for us.  There is so much to see!  Don't fret, I'm sure that many more tales will come of this journey...  We miss you all, and send peace and love in your directions.

Cheers mates! 

Orion (& Marina)

The End of an Era

March 4th, 2013 - Fremantle, WA, Australia

Hello all! This is Orion, informing you that this email may be a wee bit confusing.  Bear with us, try to understand that half of this was written over two months ago, and sort out the time changes in your mind.  We tried to edit it to be as simple and enjoyable as possible.  We apologize for the inconvenience. I'll now "pass the pen," as they say, to Marina, to continue with our well-overdue tale...

Well hello.

The winds of change are a blowin'.  That's all I can say for sure these days.

Marina here this time! Here to fill you in on the latest and the greatest of the adventures of OM across the world!

Where did we leave off? ... Ahhh  yes.  Amritapuri, Kerala.  So that was lovely.  But after 3 weeks there, it was time to leave.  But before I can fill you in on what happened next, I must relate a tale that happened many moons ago.  (3 to be exact)

Once upon a time in Nepal, OM applied for Indian visas.  Our plan was to get 6 month visas that would expire April, 2013.  We would travel around and enjoy, I would take my yoga teacher training at a reputable yoga ashram studio in February, and then we would come home.  I paid a decently large non-refundable deposit on my yoga course.  THEN, we went to get our Indian visas and we found that Nepal is only authorized by the Canadian government to give out 3 month visas!  GREAT.  That means they would expire at the end of January.

We did some quick decision making, and heavy thinking.  Our original thought was to fly to another country and travel, reapply for Indian visas, and then fly back.  But India has this ridiculous little rule that if you exit the country, you MUST stay outside for 2 months before you can re enter again.  It would basically be IMPOSSIBLE for us to fly out, travel, reapply after 2 months, and make it time for Feb. 4th, the start date of my yoga course.

Not to mention, Orion's parents, Caren and Doug were flying all the way from Canada to travel with us in India, and it seemed unfair to completely ditch them and fly to some other country that we couldn't even really afford.  (I'm sure you all remember our adventures with Doug and Caren... Ahh the memories!)

So the yoga course in February was off.  Luckily, the non-refundable deposit was transferable to another course, so I transfered my membership to the next course in July, 2013.  So then the challenge arose: How to stretch our meagre funds all the way to July when we HAD to be outside the cheapest country in the world? (Or at least one of the cheapest).  The answer came: By finding a job and making more money!! The conversation in our minds thus followed:

"Where could we possibly find a job?"

"There are two most logical options: 1) Fly to South East Asia and get a job teaching English.  The pay is pretty good, not amazing, and it should be fairly simple to find a job. 2)Fly to Australia on the popular Working Holiday Visa and get any sort of job available.  The jobs all pay amazingly well, they're pretty easy to find, BUT the  country is blow-your-mind expensive."

(Having both been to South East Asia before, we naturally felt more inclined towards Australia, which also gave us an opportunity to share our music with a more appreciating, supportive culture.  Thus more questions arose:)

"If we go to Australia, we have to pay for expensive flights AND the $300 visa.  Not to mention, the first 5 seconds in that country will probably cost us more than we spend in a month in India!  How will we be able to travel for our time in India with Doug and Caren AND pay for Australia without running out of money?"

"Hardcore DIRTBAG it," seemed to be the only logical answer we could think of.

Luckily, many Aussie-experienced traveler friends supported us by telling us how easy it was to get a job, how well they paid, and how quickly their visas got approved.  So we went ahead, fronted the $300 for the visas and applied.  We expected to wait a week, MAYBE two for our applications to be approved.  (CUE SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC...)

The first hurtle arose:  Since we were applying from Nepal, and we had been outside Canada for more than 3 months, we were required to get chest x-rays to make sure we didn't have tuberculosis.  Silly, right?  Oh well.  We went ahead and did that, and got our x-rays sent in to Aus.  We were warned that it might take a little longer for our applications to be approved now that the Health Department was involved (they had to check over the x-ray and make sure we weren't diseased and report it back to the immigration department).

So a week passed.  And another week.  And yet another.  I sent an email asking about the wait time and why it was taking so long, and we were told it could take up to 6 weeks to be approved.  6 WEEKS!!!  That would be exactly on December 26!  We didn't have enough cash to travel that long!!!

So fast forward to boxing day, Amritapuri.  Thanks to some gracious Christmas gifts of money from our family and the Government of Canada sending cheques of "Low-Income Tax Refunds", we were still surviving!  We expected our visas to magically come THAT DAY.  We were excited, we were thrilled, we were STOKED.  They didn't come.

Fast forward to my birthday, January 7th.  Over a week later.  Orion dropped a massive pot lid on his toe, slicing it wide open and I had to put pressure on it for over 2 hours to get it to stop bleeding.  It probably needed stitches, but our diligence and Steri-strips did the trick.  Despite his persistant bleeding, he managed to get me a nice little birthday present and a note.  Lovely!  However, still no visa.

Suddenly we decided.  We were ready to go.  Amma was no longer here, and our days in India were drawing to a close.  We might as well find one last awesome place to be and enjoy.  But where to go?  I immediately thought of my favorite beach in all of India: Agonda Beach in Goa.  My DREAM of DREAMS!  My paradise on EARTH!  15 hours by train suddenly seemed like a short do-able distance.  

But this is India, and nothing ever goes perfectly according to plan.  There were absolutely NO train tickets until AFTER our Indian visas expired (January  29th).  Taxis, flying, buses were all out.  Taxis and planes: WAY too expensive.  Buses: HELL.  Way too long on a bus. 15 hrs on a trains means like 24 hrs on a local bus.  If you've ever ridden an Indian local bus for 5 minutes, you know you don't want to do it for 24 hours.  But.  There was one last option.  Something I had said I didn't want to do again.........

GENERAL BOARDING!! I'm sure you all remember our lovely description of "The Battle of General Boarding" many moons ago in Jammu.  I was swallowed by a sea of stampeding humans and at the last possible second before my impending demise, was hauled to safety on to the train by Orion.  Terrifying!  

But, I REALLY wanted to go to Agonda, so we said, TO HELL WITH IT.  Let's spend 15 hours in General Boarding, without even having our own seat, riding through the middle of the night, forcing ourselves to stay awake so we don't miss our stop.  And that's just what we did.

Saying goodbye to the peace of Amritapuri, we took a rickshaw (fancy for us! But we didn't want to wait for the local bus) to the train station, and hopped on the train to Margao, Goa.  To our pleasant surprise, it was fairly empty!  All morning, we stretched across empty seats, hung our heads out windows and doors, and dozed peacefully.  But our comfort was short lived.

By nightfall, the train was getting increasingly full.  After sitting on a hard, flat, wedge of a seat for about 6-8 hours, my butt was getting pretty sore.  But it was getting so busy I knew if I got up, I'd lose my seat.  At about 8 oclock, I saw my opportunity for a more comfortable position.  Two men left the train, taking big bags off the luggage rack.  I ditched my seat and bolted up to the luggage rack with my yoga mat, spread it out, and lay there pretending to sleep so no one would make me move.  Score!  

(Yes, it may have been a small shelf made of metal bars stuffed next to the roof of a sweaty, stinky train, but in a full train on general boarding class, I was sitting in the king's THRONE of comfort.  I will now describe Orion's situation, and you will understand.)

Orion was not so fortunate.  I mentioned after 6-8 of sitting on a hard flat surface my butt really hurt.  Orion was no exception.  Except, after 6-8 hrs, I got to move and lie down, but he had to keep sitting.  He had it OK at first, his own seat, his own window, not so bad.  But slowly, slowly, more and more people came.  Then, an entire drum troupe of young men, rowdy and gangly and stinky, filled our compartment.  They brought drums and noise, and sweat, and many limbs, and a party.  Safe on the luggage rack, I pretended even harder at my sleep.  (Sleep was impossible in the amount of noise there was, except for someone FROM India.  Indians are able to sleep ANYWHERE, ANYTIME.  Its amazing.) Orion suddenly found high demand for his "spacious" seat, and was soon forced to share it with 4 or 5 of the large stinky men.  At one point I looked down at him, and he had a look of grim determination on his face, headphones in his ears.  There was one large guy sharing the one- person seat with him, and what looked like hundreds of limbs draped across, over, and under him.  It looked like a bucket of spiders.

I felt bad, and asked if he wanted to trade with me.  But we both knew that it was far better for him to be down there sharing his seat with a hundred men, than for me, a young white girl.  So we stayed put.

Afterwards he told me he felt he had turned over a new leaf in rising above bodily discomfort.  I wasn't surprised.  He told me there was a point when he felt like he might explode from how uncomfortable he was, and then suddenly it passed, and he was able to just sit there without moving or complaining, picking out the positive things to appreciate and being completely unaware or unfazed by the discomfort.  I too felt like I had learned something about being uncomfortable, but I hardly feel worthy of describing my thoughts here, compared to Orion's.  

Then, an amazing stroke of "luck."  We had read that our train would land in Margao, Goa at 2:45am.  We set our alarms for 2:00 just to be extra careful.  By that point, most of the people were asleep, and I too had somehow managed to drift into some kind of stupor.  Poor Orion was still wide awake, struggling with mental vigor.  He just HAPPENED to be looking out the window, totally aware at 1:20am when the train rolled into Margao station.  He woke me up, and after a brief panicked shuffle looking for my other shoe, we bailed off the train.  It left the station at 1:30am.  If Orion had fallen asleep, we would have completely missed our stop.  So perhaps it was all for the better!!!

So after the general boarding car, even the concrete floor of the train station was like a deluxe giant bed.  We set up camp in a dirty corner (where birds pooped on our stuff we later discovered.  Thank God they missed our heads!) and I fell asleep until 6:30.  Orion wandered the train station, thinking, too mentally charged to sleep.  At 6:30 we went to the bus station, (we thought we could walk, tried for a while, when I had a memory flash from my last trip and realized how far away it was, at which point we hopped on a local bus heading there) and boarded a local bus to Agonda Beach.

After a transfer, and another long walk (like actually half an hour carrying our heavy packs, sweating in the tropical heat) we magically arrived in Agonda!!! WOW.  I was so excited and happy!  I wanted to head straight to "Harmony Hives," the cheap, friendly, amazing-viewed beach huts I stayed at on my last trip.  We walked and walked searching for it, and to my broken-hearted surprise soon discovered it was GONE.  GONE FOREVER.  

The beach huts so famous in Goa are rebuilt and taken down every single year.  When the monsoon comes here, it literally rains for 3-4 months STRAIGHT.  Some friends told us everything is moldy and constantly wet and stinky and its just not a nice thing.  The beach huts are all made of woven reed and bamboo mats and they would just rot in the rain.  I guess my beloved Harmony Hives had just decided that it was too much of a pain to rebuild their huts this year.  Not to mention, the corrupt Goan government charges the hut-builders a ridiculous tax per hut, and the price just keeps going up every year.  Harmony Hives, being so cheap, probably decided the building hassle and the cost just weren't worth the income they were making.  They were only 300Rs. for the best huts!  That's less than 6$!  Amazing!  So sad though.  

And then we discovered, EVERYTHING had gone up in price.  The perfect hut I had in my mind suddenly was costing from 800 to 1000Rs. for the low cost, and several thousands of Rupees for the fancier ones!  OUT OF THE QUESTION!  I felt doomed!  We had travelled so far, and endured so much!  Only to be thwarted by inflation!  It seemed unfair.

Feeling a tad grumpy, I thought it best to unwind a bit before looking on.  Orion was being the cheerful, supportive one and kept saying, "We'll probably find something even BETTER!  It'll be a GOOD thing!"  I put in some happy music and enjoyed the ocean for a little while while Orion walked the scorching beach in search of a hut.  I felt like I could find truth in Orion's positivity, so when he returned we went off together to look again.

And we found something AMAZING!  After what must have been 3 hours of searching, we found a decent honest guy with beautiful little huts who gave us a very fair price of 500Rs. (almost 10 dollars...  Still WAY over what Orion and I would normally pay, but this is my FAVORITE place in India, and this is our last 2 weeks here!  Might as well enjoy it!)  

Our hut is PERFECT.  It sits directly on the beach, has a simple little porch where we sit and play music and read while enjoying the view of the tropical beach.  There's a simple comfy room on the inside, a little fan, one outlet for our laptop, a small table, and thats IT!  (The bathroom is a shared one just a few metres away from our room.  Always clean!)

So.  Agonda.  How can I describe it?  There is long stretch of empty, CLEAN, white sandy beach.  All along the top of the beach are cute little beach huts overlooking the perfect turquoise ocean.  Waves constantly wash in and out, making that perfect rolling ocean sound that puts you to sleep at night instantly.  The waves are big enough, at certain points in the tides, for body surfing, but calm enough that if you just want to float, and flop in the warm water, you certainly can do so.  My favorite thing is to lie on my back floating, with my ears underwater and my eyes closed.  All I can hear is the sound of my breathing inside my head, and all I can feel is my body being softy rolled around by the gentle, flowing waves.  Relaxation!!!

Here's our daily routine: Wake up around 8:00.  Do our morning routine, including yoga on the beach.  Go for breakfast at the cheap little hole in the wall restaurants packed with travelers around 10:30.  Come back to our hut.  At this point we might go lie in the sun (gotta get a tan!) or play music for fun, or write or arrange a song together, or read a book, or some other enjoyable relaxing activity until we get too hot.  Then we'll go for a swim in the ocean.  We'll ride waves, float, swim, do handstands underwater, and our later endeavour: our attempts to learn acrobatics. Orion squats underwater and holds my hands for balance.  I then climb on his shoulders, and he stands up.  From there I try to fully stand up straight.  The goal is to both have our hands out straight and be perfectly balanced.  So far we've got it so I can stand up straight, but I still need to hold his hands to balance, and I usually fall off at some point. :)  After our swim, we have a quick shower to rinse the salt off our skin.  Then we repeat everything that happens after breakfast (music, sun bathing, reading, etc.) up to the swimming and showering.  By that point, we're usually hungry so we'll go out to our favorite Thali place.  70 Rs. for the most AMAZING, veggie and bean packed thali.  So nutritious and delicious, and the perfect amount of food.  Then we'll oft grab an ice cream from a nearby store and walk home along the beach.  THEN, we watch the sunset.  Oh, sunset on the ocean!!  Perfection!!  On the clearest nights, we watch the sun til the last possible second as it seemingly slips behind the horizon of endless water.  Beautiful!  After dinner we'll hang out with friends, or play more music, or whatever.  Then we'll go to bed to the sound of the sea, and do it all over again!  Its PERFECT.

But there was always a small shadow of doubt on our blissful existance in Agonda.  AUSTRALIA.  The clock was ticking for our time to leave India.  Our Indian tourist visas expired on the 29th and we were approaching only one week away from that date and still no plane tickets had been booked.  Not only were we feeling slightly sketchy, but the costs of flights were skyrocketing.  Forget whining about a 10$ a night room, a cramped seat with a cheap airline was now costing us over 500$ each!!!

With our cash funds low, we were forced to set a date to when we would make up our mind not to go to Australia.  We decided that 5 days before our travel date we would draw the line.  If there was no Aussie visa, then we'd come home.  I began to think we were definitely going to come home.  What were the odds that after 3 months it would magically get approved in under a week?  I came to terms with that.  I thought of all the fun Indian things I would buy and bring home: beautiful patterns sheets and pillow cases, comfy ali baba pants, brass statues of Hindu Gods, fun stuff.  I would get to see my family and friends again!  I would get to see my cat again!  We could start gigging again!  We could take OM to Montreal and play our music in Canada's big cities! It would be lovely.

 Then one evening as we were watching the sun set on the beach while sipping banana lassis after a day of swimming and slacklining (we met a guy from England who just happened to have brought his slackline to India and found the PERFECT spot to set it up on the beach: RIGHT outside our hut! Woohoo!) Orion decided to check his email.  HIS VISA WAS APPROVED!

Hi!  It's Orion now.  Since this email has to cover a ridiculous amount of happenings, we decided to share the writer's load.  So my visa was approved!  Amazing!  I rushed to tell Marina that we were going, but I stopped myself, saying, "My visa is approved!" instead of, "We're going!"  When we checked Marina's email, it was empty and bare.  Our situation became even more confusing!  The "stress" levels weren't being lowered, they were being raised!  Now instead of us simply going home or to Australia, we had to decide if I should go without Marina and wait for her, or if she should extend her "cut off date" to book flights home, or.... The variables suddenly exploded with possibilities!

Time passed.  We waited.  We enjoyed the perfect peace of Agonda.  Marina spent many hours writing frantic emails titled "URGENT" to the Australian Immigration Department despite their lack of replies.  And FINALLY, the day before Marina was going to book a flight either home or to Thailand (one of our other confusing plans), at the last possible second, her visa got APPROVED!  We immediately got on the internet and started booking flights.  We were met with a few more challenges, but overcame all of them swiftly, and suddenly we realized that we were going!  We were actually going.  It seemed too crazy to be real.  Marina had an easier time believing it than I did...I don't think it hit me until we were on the plane.  But we were GOING! 

We enjoyed our last week in Agonda and cowrote a few fresh new OM tracks.  We continued our blissful routine, and on our last night on that wonderful stretch of sand, we played a gig with our friend Efi at Simrose Restaurant.  Everything went smoothly and it got us so excited to go to a land where music is appreciated by pretty much everyone.  We made a list of gear to buy, and got super stoked to get to Perth.  The land of opportunity! 

Marina: I must interupt the story hear to add another side story.  Months ago, our friend Jordan (from Vernon) had told me she was planning to come to India with her boyfriend Javier right around the exact time that Orion and I would be there.  We attempted to make plans to meet up, but she wanted to go north, and we were going to be going south.  Plus we definitely thought we would be in Australia ages ago, and possibly not even be in the country at the same time as her. So we soon forgot about our plans, and wished each other luck on our journeys.

So imagine our surprise... One day after a thali at Fatima's, we were walking back to our guesthouse.  As we passed the couple of rooms behind ours on the beach, JORDAN AND JAVIER JUST STEPPED OUT.  We all just stared at each other for a minute, and then started FREAKING OUT.  Questions like "HOW DID YOU GET HERE?" and "WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THIS GUESTHOUSE?" flew between us as we tried to understand this freak "coincidence" that the universe had presented us with! They had arrived just that day, having no idea we were here, and had magically chosen to stay at the exact guesthouse we were at!!!!  They might have shown up in Agonda and spent a week there and we never would have seen them, but since they picked our exact guesthouse, we were able to meet up right away.  Amazing!!  We were so thrilled.  

Jordan and Javier and just arrived for their first trip in India, and Orion and I were just leaving after our second and very extensive time.  So we imparted some hard-earned wisdom to them, and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company for the rest of our time in India.

Now back to Orion to continue the story.  :)

On our last night we stayed up far too late saying goodbye to friends and enjoying the tropical moon.  We slept, and then before we knew it we were in a taxi to the airport, saying goodbye to the peaceful madness of India.  The cab ride was surreal.  We looked upon sights that we came to know as ordinary with fresh eyes as if we had just arrived in India, and felt a hollow feeling in our chests to be leaving.  But it was a healthy sadness, like saying goodbye to your best friend for a while.  We knew that we would be back.  

We stopped the cab in Margao and rushed to a music shop that Efi had recommended to us to get some gear for Australia.  She said that the Indian music brands were cheap, but good enough for what we need it for.  I wouldn't take some of it into my studio, but it's fine for performing.  The shop was closed, (we somehow lined it up accidently that we were leaving India on their Independance Day, and arriving in Australia on Australia Day!) but there were some people inside.  We barged in and begged them to let us buy some things, explaining our unique situation.  We walked out with a bunch of cables, a darbuka (turkish drum), a melodica (mini keyboard that sounds like an accordian), and a solid mic.  

But maya continued to thwart us!  Upon arriving at the airport, we were beset with difficulties.  Our packs were over twenty kilos each!  Due to our travel hardened bodies we we unable to guess the REAL weight of our packs properly before leaving.  Air Asia would only let us take 15 kilos each under the plane, so we hurriedly offloaded various items into our whopping carry-ons.  The carry-ons were supposed to be under seven kilos, but no one ever checks that.  I think mine was about 22 kilos by the end of the transfer.  But alas! As we arrived at the desk and our bags were weighed, the combined weight came to three kilos over.  We had no option now that we had done our transferring, so we asked the price.... And we got charged a ridiculous $100 for 1.5 kilos on each bag!  Believe me, we did EVERYTHING we could to avoid paying that, but the scummy airline won.  NEVER fly Air Asia if you are carrying lots of baggage or plan on eating meals or want to watch a movie while flying or are doing anything at all slightly unusual.  The flights are cheap, yes, but we worked out that with all the extra hidden scummy scam fees that we ended up paying, we could have flied Singapore Air, a luxury airline with huge baggage allowments and tons of amazing free food (and movies/personal interactive gaming centre!) for CHEAPER.  But we had no choice, so with another dent out of our bank account, we went through security and sat down in the waiting room with a sigh...

But there was more to come!  Haha! Marina will tell this part of the story because she was present for these bizarre happenings.

Marina:  The minute we collapsed into the waiting room after security, exhausted after the battle to save our money and repack our bags, a friendly looking lady came up to us.  She said, in broken english, that there had been a "problem" with Orion's check bag in the security check and they wanted to "ask him some questions..."  So I sat down to get comfy and watch, mystified, as Orion walked away with the lady.  I saw from a distance as they approached a security gaurd, had a brief conversation, and then turned around and came right back.  What was going on?!  Apparently it wasn't Orion's bag that was having the problem, it was MY BAG!  So we traded places, Orion watched the stuff and I walked away with the lady towards the security guard.

From there I got the rare experience of seeing the belly of the airport!  We passed the security guard, took the elevator to some hidden secret floor, and got off on the tarmack where the planes took of.  Then we walked for awhile until we came to a random door.   The lady knocked twice, and a security guard opened the gate.  We walked inside and I found we were in the baggage scan room for checked baggage.  I had only a second to look around, as I was quickly led into a much smaller room where I came face to face with a threatening looking man, looking as if to challenge me and my terrorist activities, standing over the bag on the table.  It was Orion's bag.

I pointed this fact out to the lady and said that it was actually Orion's bag.  She was too chill and she said just to go ahead and open it and she was sure Orion wouldn't mind.  So the angry man started asking me questions and it was at this point I snapped.

I was already in a seriously grumpy mood after the fiasco with the 100$ charge for 3 bloody kilos, and I was NOT a terrorist, and I was NOT guilty of carrying anything illegal on to the airplane, and I did NOT need some angry ass security guard scowling at me while I unpacked Orion's bag in front of him.  

I then adopted a strongly sarcastic, condescending tone as I pulled each item out of the bag.  Although I was actually feeling rather terrified and weak at the knees (I had never before in any sort of interrogation situation like this and was feeling the pressure), I did my absolute best to appear fearless.

"These.. are UNDERWEAR!" I said, sticking the bag under his nose, "Shall I open them for you?"

"No. No. That quite alright."

"These... are SHIRTS.  See! Shirts!"

"Yes. Hmm. I see."

"This.. is COCONUT OIL.  You know? From the coconut? Its good for you skin, your hair-"

"Yes. Yes. And this?"

"This.  OHHHH.  This!  This is.. A TOOTHBRUSH! Wow."

After a short period of time, this conversation going back and forth, I could tell the security guard was starting to feel stupid.  Desperately, he began digging for SOMETHING illegal I could be doing.

"Do you have any alcohol in your bag?"

"NO!"

"Any illegal drugs?"

"This is ridiculous! NO!  Here I'll take the rest of the stuff out and you can see for yourself."

"No. No..."

They then took the half unpacked bag and put it through the scanner again.  Finding nothing, he was forced to admit his mistake and he actually apologized, though looking quite pissed while he did so, and told me I could go back and there were no more problems.  My escort lady led me back through secret passages to where Orion was sitting and we were finally free!

One may see that as a very negative situation, but I was almost glad it had occured.  Feeling grumpy about losing that 100$ had completely vanished the minute I was forced to tap into "power woman" mode and own that security guard.  I emerged feeling almost empowered, and the mood was definitely gone.  I was now ready to tackle ANYTHING anyone dared to throw at me.

Not to mention that, but after all the time spent dealing with the baggage "problem," our long layover time had suddenly shortened into only half an hour!  Almost immediately after, we walked to our gate, boarded the plane, and took off.  AUSTRALIA!!!!!!

Orion again: So we mentioned before that Air Asia is a rip off, scam of an airline, but besides the really packed together seats with no leg room, and the lack of ANY sort of movie (not even a screen, haha) to watch, it really wasn't that bad of a flight at all.  Though we had to pay for our meals, they were actually really good, and the service was really great and the staff very friendly.  We hated to admit it, after we were so angry about their hidden fees, but once we were ON the airplane, it was all in all a pretty good experience.  After a brief stop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, we touched down gently in Perth.  We collected our bags with no trouble and prepared to face the city with no plans, no people to help us, and a very small budget to support us.  We choked a little bit as we withdrew 600$ from the atm, and we were forced to adjust quickly to Western Prices...

TO BE CONTINUED... Duh, duh, duhhhh.............

Orion & Marina