in our haste to get out here we never checked one part of our electronic wizardry. unfortunately it failed and we must resort to finding internet cafe's with usb ports. not quite as easy as you may imagine since most of the cafe's have computers out of the mid 90's. but ok, it's working now.

i've spent most of the day on the beach and developed a bit of a sunburn. 80's-90's for temp, sun on my face, not a cloud in the sky, the warm ocean around me, waves breaking on me, me gagging on salt water. it's pretty awesome.

grant just came over and told us this funny story about some girls that just arrived from somewhere and are trying to find a hotel with no reservations (good luck). one of them went to the toilet and then came back and asked the people working here for some toilet paper. the lady working said they had none. the girl asked where she could get some and the woman working looked completely befuddled and stated she didn't know. she got all pissed off and stormed out. noobs. really funny though.

lets see if i can upload a picture of our rickshaw pre-pimping (which we will be doing later).

not working, damn, maybe later.

we had a test drive of a spare rickshaw last night and grant was first at the wheel. when we returned we were immediately voted the team most likely to blow their motor. awesome.

this place has AC and i don't want to leave, but our time is up.

tonight is new years and we plan on celebrating crc style. we have a spare bottle of rum, will be getting several red bulls, and for sure will be the loudest at the party (we are the loudest at every bar depending upon how much we've drank).

anyways, more updates will follow!

-mark

Pondicherry: Give time a break
this is what is written on the back of the rickshaw driver's shirt as four of us squeeze daily into the tiny rickshaw that takes us into town. And how true it is. Our breakfasts and lunches usually last about two hours because of the laid back lifestyle. We have walked the streets of Pondi several times over and have already found our favorite local hang outs. We have made several new friends already from around the world. The joys are boundless. I would have to say the most difficult part so far are the bathrooms. Showers are basically a water spicket and a bucket and washing clothes is done with the said bucket and some pantene pro-v. mmmm. our beds are the equivilant of a board with some hay on top so you can imagine how well we've been sleeping. But who needs sleep when you can hang out at the beach anytime you want right?
Yesterday we were able to see our rickshaw and test drive one. it is a glorious masterpiece. I can't wait until I know how to upload photos. If anyone sees Erika tell her that they have hand painted her logo right on the front and we have all decided that bill murry's face looks like young caddy shack murry. Tonight we head to our grandeous new years party that they have spend two days preparing and decorating for. Energy is very high and we are looking forward to hitting the road and not getting killed by these buses from hell. Oh and we have not had a case of the Dheli belly yet (knock on wood). I think Grant will be the first to get it, well maybe mark because he keeps buying tap water to drink. Hope all is well in the good ol' states of america. love, britt

Day 2 started mellow. We woke at 7 am and went to the beach. Laid on the sand until 8 am when the Beach Cafe across from our room opened. Had french toast and some pretty amazing coffee. Afterward we'd noticed alot of traffic and foreigners driving in and out of a side road that led away from the ocean so we decide to walk up it. What an excellent choice. First we come upon a handmade clothing store, where Mark and I pick up some nice light weight local style pants to wear instead of jeans and some lightweight shirts. I also got a pretty amazing blanket and still spent less than $20. Everything here is so inexpensive. Our meals have averaged around $8 total for all four of us. We continued about 3 kms up the road stopping at amazing shops making and selling on site hammocks and drums and wood carvings and more. Ended up in a little one block district that had an ATM and internet. Hung around there exploring shops, having tea with shop owners, and just enjoying the relaxed atmosphere. It's a small village so it was much more peaceful than the city and the people were great. Found some comfortable handmade on the side of the road sandles, which all three of us guys ended up buying a pair of. Meander back down to the room and decide to go swimming. We go down to the beach and swim for a few hours and just enjoy the lovely temperature of the Bay of Bengal and the warming sun. It's been in the mid to high 80s everyday and while it feels hot, considering it was -20 just two weeks ago in Denver, we're all loving it. My fear and anxieties have been fully replaced by adoration and amazement of this country. I find myself exited to see more of the country, but at the same time I almost just want to buy a plot of land here, build a little hut, buy a rickshaw and become a taxi driver. Words can't describe how amazing it is. We've been eating much less than usual, but never feel hungry. We've been walking about 8-12 miles per day, but don't really feel too tired (except Mark when he hurts his foot). Anyhow, so the beach gives us a great time to relax and contemplate on what we are doing and our lives. We head back from the beach and go into Pondicherry to look for somewhere to eat and I want to drop into this bar we found to see if we can meet up with any other Adventurists. We walk around for about an hour, buy a bottle of rum to drink on the beach later, and finally head into the bar. We order three big Kingfisher beers to share and just as we are about to finish them, in walk Ben and Peter our friends from Portland and LA that we met at breakfast yesterday. Order more beers and in walks Robin, another Adventurist that I met in a hotel lobby while looking for rooms yesterday. Needless to say, we all decide to drink more beer and order some food. Have some really amazing lemon honey chicken and we go through about 20 or so beers. Midway through this group of brits that we saw at lunch time walk in. This is a group I want to talk to as it's one guy and 5 or 6 cute girls, including one brunette that looks like Diane from Train Spotting. But end up just saying hi as we're leaving as we're all tired and maybe a bit drunk. Brit falls asleep in the Rickshaw ride home and we all crash out pretty quick. Sleeping has been a bit interesting as the mosquito nets kill most of the circulation from the fans and the mattress is slightly better than the ground. I've found that I've been having some of the most vivid dreams of recent times though oddly enough, and Brit said she's experienced the same. I usually wake up when all the prayers and music fill the air around 4 or 5 am. Today I got up and went and sat on the beach and watched the sunrise over the ocean. It was brilliant. I can't wait to see what the rest of this adventure holds for us! - Grant

India is nothing like I imagined. I awoke excited at 2 am in London and was never able to fall back asleep. When we arrived in Chennai I was exhausted and exhilarated. We found a cab and I managed to get the front seat, which was a bench seat. Immediately as we ripped through traffic, swerving around anyone and everyone, driving wherever there was space to drive, seemingly ignoring all the traffic lights, I thought, "We are in way over our heads. What the eff were we thinking." We find the bus terminal and the first room we walk into is about the size of a football field and all but about a 20 ft wide aisle to get across the short distance is full of people sleeping on the ground. We find a place to sit and Mike and Mark set out to find out where to buy tickets and what bus we want. They come back about twenty minutes later and the found the ECR Express which takes us to Pondicherry 200 kms away and should be leaving at 7. It's 3 am now. We decide to walk over to the area where the bus we'll be taking will be leaving from and luckily there was one pulling out just at that point in time. We jump on and go to the front of the bus. The four hour ride to Pondicherry is best described as harrowing. No visibility out the windshield, thick dense fog, oncoming buses, rickshaws, motorbikes, and pedestrians. Out the side window are shanties and tent cities and a level and extent of poverty that I had mistakenly thought I was prepared for. But at the same time so much beauty. The amount of people out at the time was insane. We made it to Pondicherry and walked about a km to the city center and went to one hotel. They said, come back at 9. So we went to another and they had no rooms, but were serving breakfast. Ran into two guys from the states and in talking with them discovered that rooms were scarce. So I decide rather than lugging around four people and a bunch of bags that I should down my coffee and go find us a room. So I run around to four or five close hotels and have no luck. Grab a rickshaw driver and say, take me to hotels. He and I rush around town and nowhere has rooms. He says, I know a place that is about 8 km out, but is nice and is right by a swimming beach. The woman takes me to the room she has available and it's about 12 ft by 12 ft with a double cot and a 3" thick pseudo mattress. The walls are a plethora of strange colors, the floor are nursing home white tile, the ceiling fan is frightening, the flickering flourescent light gives the room the ambience of a horror movie flick. Then I notice it. Sitting just inside the bathroom is a regular toilet. We have four of us and need it for four nights, but it's okay, we'll sleep on the floor. She says, 'four people!' And I say, yes but it's okay, how much. 850 ruppees she says. My brilliant math mind quickly realizes that's around $16USD. Okay, I say, we'll take it, I'll be back in 20 minutes. We go pick up the crew. Four of us and all four bags pack into the rickshaw and back to the room we go. In the end the landlord ended up getting us another room for 250 ruppees for the four nights, so our whole stay is just over $20. We decide to walk down and check out the beach, which turns out is amazing. The water is refreshing. We come back to the room and decide to take a nap, which was good since I haven't slept at this point in about 32 hours. That night we catch another rickshaw into town, have a nice tasty meal at a rooftop cafe, spend about 2 hours walking around looking for an internet cafe, then call it a night. So that pretty much concludes day one. By the end of the day I was slightly less overwhelmed and feeling more comfortable with what we are doing. Day two coming soon. - Grant

i don't know if grant has said anything about this but hopefully he will have his phone up soon for more immediate updates of what's going on. till then though.....

i am going to write in a journal and post up stuff later. it seems more efficient since this is costing me something like 1rup a min. go do the conversion on that and you'll see what i mean. hahah.

till i find some cohessive writing ability, i'll just leave it as it is.

much love to all those back at home.

-mark

Yes, we're in India. Yes, there are cows roaming around. Yes, there are motorcycles, scooter, and people everywhere. In the rush of people, which is overwhelming at first, there's actually a strange calmness. When we first arrived, I was completely overwhelemed, wondering what we had gotten ourselves into. After being here for a day, though, I feel like I get it more, and I'm not overwhelmed, scared, or worried. You just have to take India for what it is. So far, it's amazing, and it's just day two. - Mike

India India India!

Here I sit in a Humid room the size of my pantry, my shoes waiting for me at the door with pictures of Hindu gods surrounding me. This land is encredible. I wish I had enough time to write it all. Instead I will give a brief overview of what its been like. We took a 10 hour plane ride from London to Chenni. After a long wait in customs and a first experience with the "hand baday" we made it outside where at 3am there were hundreds upon hundreds of people either waiting for their family or to taxi us somewhere. After finally finding a taxi driver we hop into a car that looks like it was made in 1950 who took us to the bus station at a terrifiyingly quick rate. We were somehow able to find our way on a bus to Pondicherry. As I hopped on the moving bus the energy of something exciting really hit me. And we almost hit a car/bus/scooter/rickshaw/human/dog in the process of getting to Pondi. The four hour bus ride really gave us the ablility to the culture of this beautiful country. As I watched the sun rise over the misty tropics and see the Indians building their morning fires all around I realized that this is where I am suppose to be. After about a five hour bus ride we arrived in Pondicherry very early. We walked from the bus station straight to the ocean. All of us beaten and worn we sat at the oceans edge and soaked it all up. We found food and sent Grant off on an expedition for a hotel. After about an hours wait he came back and said "Okay, I've found us a place for four night (total cost $19, for all four nights)" So all four of us loaded our gear in one rickshaw with a man who smelled like Maha and he drove us 8k to a small part of town with a short walk to the beach. There was only one bed in the room and luckily the owner was able to rent us another room at 250r. Thats about $4 for four nights. We have just been walking around everywhere and enjoying everything. Tomorrow we get our Rickshaw and get to enjoy a festive new years party!

-britt

I forgot to activate the worldwide roaming on my phone, hence no Twitter updates yet. But we should be up and running by the time we get to India. Our last night in London is much tamer than our first. It's barely 7:30 and we've already gone back to the hotel. 5:30 am wake up to catch the tube to the airport, hangovers from yesterday, and the endless walking around checking out the sites today wore us all down. Saw Big Ben, Parliament, House of Guards, Buckingham Palace, and Westminster Abbey today. It was awesome. - Grant

We have the BEST friends in the world! Mitch and Alissa sent us a Christmas surprise that we recieved this morning. It was with out a doubt the highlight of my very hung over day :)
Thank you guys so so much! How did you know where we were staying?
-Britt

we arrived in london safely.

nothing at all was open and we had a devil of a time finding a place for a pint. ended up at someplace called the fox and the pheasant were a family was celebrating their xmas. apparently that is more normal than we thought as the next place we stopped in also had that. after a pint or two we continued on our walk/exploration of the city and ended up in a massive old cemetary which was also next to the chelsea football team stadium. unfortunately the match was sold out. later in the evening we again continued our quest for more beer and after about 10 miles of walking ended up finding a pub half a mile from where we started. quickly we made friends and before long we were singing music out loud. the pub got close to close so they turned down the lights and closed the curtains. apparently here closing time means different things compared to denver since no one stopped drinking and people started smoking inside. having reached our limit though we left and headed home only to be intercepted by some random guys who invited us for an after party at someones flat. turned out the party was earlier in the day but that didn't stop anyone and before long we were again drinking and talking with our new friends. this lasted till about 5am local time when we decided to stager back to our place a block away.

today's plans are to hit up the underground and try and see things like big ben and such.

our flight tomorrow leaves at 9:30am and then it's off to india!

-mark

Well we just discovered our first minor issue. London has no public transport open on Christmas Day. It's about 12 miles from the airport to our hotel yet a cab ride is around $70! Stupid church holidays and the lack of separation of church and state. You'd think they'd at least have something from the airport to the city center or something, but no. The two nights in London will probably end up costing more than the three weeks in India! - Grant

Mile High...Not The City

So, here's an IM conversation I just had with Mark talking about the seating situation on the plane to London.

me: I'll make sure you get a window seat by yourself sitting next to a fatty.

Mark: nice

Mark: mile high club - Mike

Actually, only Mark and Grant are frantic with last minute preperations. Britt and I are ready to go. Only 9 minutes left in this day of work, then one more work day. I'm so ready. - Mike

Only two days to go. The team is frantic with last minute preparations. International Driver's licenses are being secured, last minute purchases bought, laundry being done, 8 hour Rock Band sessions being had. Anyhow, time to embed an easy to update blog onto our site and try to finish up with all the last minute work related things that need to be completed before I leave.
- Grant