lions & tigers & bears, oh my

yesterday we went to a national conservation area outside of bangalore.  they have a rehabilitation program there to take care of wild animals.  we got to see the aforementioned ones, plus a couple others.  it was pretty cool to see the tigers, especially a couple of white bengals along with their 6-month-old cub.  but for the most part, the "safari" was pretty lame.  the little vans traveled caravan style around the same track all day, and the animals were lured close to the road by food.  it was not a very natural setting--much more like a zoo (which i hate).  the fun part about the whole thing is that we took our tuk-tuk driver's son in with us.  he must have been about 6.  his reaction to the animals was more than worth the admission price, even if the rest of it was pretty lame.

for the last couple of days, morgan and i have been staying at our friend puneet's house.  so great to see him!  it's been so many months since meeting at the ashram.  morgan and i really did very little while visiting him...  laundry, next leg of the trip planning, email catch-up, etc.  and this after doing nearly nothing while we were in arambol.

the beaches there were spectacularly beautiful.  we had a bungalow on a path between two gorgeous ones.  from our front porch, only the path separated us from the ocean.  our view every evening was the sun setting as a brilliant red orb over the water.  besides lounging on the beach (would you believe i managed to not get tan in 10 days there...?), we took yoga every day.  well, morgan did when he wasn't running to the toilet.  otherwise, what a beautiful vacation.  interesting that when one travels for so long, one needs a vacation from traveling.  sounds so extravagant, but truly it's necessary for the sanity.  anyway, we got our vacation.

now, for the first time in almost 11 months, morgan and i are spending a little time traveling separately.  there was a day during our time back in the states in december that we didn't see each other, and it was LITERALLY the first time since march 5, 2008.  now morgan has just arrived this morning in hampi, a great sounding town in the south with amazing boulder & rock formations.  i'm headed back up to see friends in pushkar, the beautiful little place where i spent my birthday.  we're looking forward to our week of independence, and i think we'll also look forward to reuniting when our time is up.  so, traveling alone in india-- not something i really ever expected to do.  and yet, i'm not nervous about it at all.  helps that i'm headed back to someplace familiar, and that once i'm there i won't really be either traveling or alone.  but it is still a good thing to go through, i think.

this morning i arrived in delhi (a city i'm not very fond of), and tonight i'll take an overnight bus out of here.  one day in town is plenty for me, and i'm actually just planning on staying in this area today and finding a nice little cafe to spend some time reading or something.  so that's where i'm off to now, dear friends.