Aleppeylooza

Off to Aleppey. Hoping to find our way on to a house boat.

Alisa: We heard about the glory of the houseboat adventure and figured that we should partake. As we sought out prices, however, we discovered that our budget might have to be compromised a bit. Eventually we were able to let that concern go...we were going to indulge ourselves.

Tessa: We had one of those boats to ourselves. Just us, the river, and a three man staff.

Alisa: And that we did. Before we boarded the boat, we decided we should stock up on drinks and a few snacks. Just so we could set the mood. This seemingly simple task turned into quite the memorable affair. We went to purchase the gin in a back alley. We were some of the only females making a purchase. We then decided to grab a bite to eat and entered a halal restaurant for a little breakfast. Someone (I won't say names) may have accidentally dropped the newly purchased bottle of gin. It exploded everywhere. I don't think I have ever seen Tessa more embarassed.

Tessa: First, it is important to know that Kerala is a conservative part of India and drinking is looked down upon. Especially drinking by women. Second, we were definitely the only women buying alcohol in the back alley through a caged window and all the men were stuffing their paper-bagged goods underneath their shirts. I put the gin in my purse. Keep in mind that this was the only time our whole trip we bought a bottle of alcohol like that and it was just to celebrate.

Then we go to breakfast at a little Halal restaurant. Halal=Muslim=Absolutely no alcohol. My purse is on my lap and then somehow tips forward and since the zipper is broken all the contents crash onto the floor. The bottle of gin shatters. The family with small children seated next to us screams and jumps back. Everyone glares. The staff moves all the surrounding table and chairs out of the room so the floor can be thoroughly mopped.

Oh, yeah. It was 9am Sunday morning.

Definitely our most embarrassing stupid tourist moment of the year.

Alisa: So we eventually bought another bottle. Thank goodness. That gin served us well.

Tessa: The Kerala backwaters really are serene.

Tessa: Water taxi!

Tessa: One of our crew members took us to visit his home which sat right on the water, and might have only been accessible by boat.

Tessa: This was the inside of the home. Notice the cabinetry - the son is in the "alumonium fabrication" business.

Tessa: Eyes!

Alisa: We had our own personal chef...

Alisa: and our own personal dance sessions.

Alisa: and our own personal sunset, which we used to contemplate the beauty of our joint adventure.

Tessa: Insert Monk theme song.

Varkalacation

While in southern India, we decided to take a little vacation because, as we all know, traveling can be hard work. We set off to the state of Kerala, heralded by many as one of the most beautiful places in the world and referred to by locals (and the tourist industry) as God's Own Country.

And since neither of us can necessarily remember a lot, from now on we're just going to post individual captions of whatever we do remember.

Alisa: Our first night in the town of Varkala we were asked to help promote a dance club/restaurant. We jumped on the chance! (They offered us half priced drinks!) Within seconds we transformed our hair into cones and were actively trying to get others to join the club. Hours later however, not too many people had joined our crew. Nevertheless, we made it out to the dance floor and danced, danced, danced.

Tessa: I can't believe we failed to draw a crowd. At least the employees (pictured above) were perhaps a little less bored than they would've been otherwise. Although, by how seriously they danced, I think this was a typical night for them.

Alisa: "True Love is True Hearts."

Tessa: So . . . true.

Alisa: "A Positive attitudes create a chain reaction of positive thoughts." This is the philosophy we live by.

Tessa: Auto rickshaw decorations never fail to provide invaluable wisdom.

Alisa: I don't remember this but it reminds me of "The Lion King."

Tessa: It reminds me of dinosaurs.

Alisa: This reminds me of Kansas.

Tessa: Minus the mountains.

Alisa: Florence, Oregon.

Tessa: Especially the palm trees.

WE'RE BACK!

We're back! After months of saying we would catch up on the blog, we are finally getting caught up. We decided that if nothing else, it will nice for us to be able to look back on this blog and see a bit of representation from the whole journey. We have 17 posts almost ready to post and over the next few weeks, we will post a couple every few days. So, keep checking back in!

This first post, however, is dedicated to our friend, Tina. We met Tina in Laos last November and last weekend she came to visit us in Eugene, Oregon on her way back to London after a year of travel.

We decided immediately that we would have to spend all our time together in "fancy dress." Luckily we throw our fancy dress outfits together really fast.

Our first fancy dress was 80s . . . ish.

Then at 12:30am we decided that our true selves were fairies and that it was really important for us to make wings. With a few pairs of nylon and a couple hangers, we were in business.

To reconnect with our fairy selves we spent some time communing with our natural environment.

After driving up the Oregon coast and meeting lots of wonderful locals like this family:

and this guy:

and these folks:

and this glass jeweler:

and this kid who gifted us with beautiful flowers:

Well, after that, we were in a rush to get to Portland so we pulled over in the Thriftway parking lot and gave our wings the final touch: glitter.

Masterpiece.

We found a bar with a really big bathroom so we could change into our outfits and attach our wings. We spent the rest of the night spreading fairy love and gifting lucky individuals with fairy power-infused seashells that if placed under one's pillow will grant you a wish.

The next day we snuck into the northwest reggae fest. However, we did not incur bad karma because we were dressed as rastafaeries, which officially deflects bad karma.

To bring it all full circle, we went out to dinner with both our parents - just as we did before we left in January 2008.

On our last morning we sported Alisa's special business suits and went on a walking tour of Eugene.

A special little place on earth.