When the Goan gets tough, the tough gets Goan…to the bathroom!

We have spent the past five days here in beautiful Palolem, Goa, India. The crescent beach, surrounded by swaying palm trees, is blessed with unforgettable sunsets and utter relaxation. The beach is gorgeous, yet undeniably purely Indian, as cows saunter along the sand, dogs and children chase each other into the waves, and locals hawk their cheap wares to you (seemingly every two minutes until you learn to either completely ignore them, pretend you’re deeply involved in some marvelous novel, or look at them with such complete and utter contempt and scorn that they are afraid to approach you  once more) after finding their own nice little spot in the sand to go ahead and sneak a quick little urination in before getting back to work harassing you. Ahh India….


rickshaw ride in the rain

After a seemingly endless 24-hour period of transporting ourselves by every means available (like seriously, we took a  rickshaw through the pouring rain to the airport, then an airplane from Udaipur to Mumbai, a rickshaw from the airport, a train to another spot in town, walking for miles, a 16 hour overnight bus ride to Goa, then another two hour bus ride to Palolem), tensions were understandably high. We headed to the beach with all our stuff and found a seemingly nice little place to get some needed food and relax for a minute (and get Kaitlyn a drink…or two). We then found a decent little place to stay for the next four nights, unpacked our stuff, and headed back out to the beach to watch the sunset and enjoy a “sunset drink” as Kaitlyn has dubbed it. Everything was just fine and couldn’t be better! After drinks, we headed out to the “town” (a dirt road with shops and restaurants) to try some of the famous Goan cuisine.
With my taste buds having not matured since the sixth grade (I’ll take some chicken nuggets please), I was proud of myself for deciding that I once had chicken vindaloo while in Tallahassee and I liked it so I was actually looking forward to trying some authentic Indian chicken vindaloo, one of the most authentically Goan meals available. “Good for me,” I thought, “I am growing up!” One of the restaurants we passed along the way just happened to be called “Casa Fiesta,” specializing in Mexican food, which is something that Kaitlyn just loves. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity for some “Mexican food” while in India after eating curry after curry (and noodle after noodle for me!) so we decided to have dinner there. Plus, being the schemer that I am, I figured that Kaitlyn would order something Mexican and that I could dazzle her with my new found courage in trying an Indian dish. I could, for once in the past month, be the one to rub it in HER face that I ate Indian and she, in fact, did not.

The waiter came and we placed our orders. “I’ll have some guacamole and chips and quesadillas,” she said, as I held back my elation at what was about to follow. “I’ll take the chicken vindaloo my good sir,” I proudly declared, “Take that Bagnato!”

Our dishes came and at once, I knew something was awry. Call it buyer’s remorse over not selecting the chicken fajitas or call it a sixth sense about what was going to happen over the next three days, there just wasn’t something right about my chicken vindaloo. I ate it all anyway (mostly because I just couldn’t bear to eat the alternative of crow!). 

I woke up in the middle of the night several times. I will spare you the details of my life over the next few days. Needless to say, it was not pretty and my “vomit streak,” as Jerry Seinfeld would say, came to a very unfortunate demise that evening (and I can’t even blame it on a black and white cookie!).

Kaitlyn was the absolute best nurse I could have ever asked for, which makes me wonder just how amazingly good her sister Brittany must be since she actually is a nurse! Her dad was also a life saver in helping us determine what  prescriptions we needed to help piece me back together again. After two days of taking care of me, unfortunately, Kaitlyn then started feeling ill herself. We spent Sunday cooped up on our bed inside our little beachside shack underneath the fan, too lazy and sick to move, playing games of Phase Ten in between drifting off to sleep.

Now, Monday, we are both feeling great again though my appetite, and the weight I could already barely afford to lose, is far from back. After two trips into town to the pharmacy to get some drugs as prescribed by Dr. Bagnato (I don’t really understand the concept of a pharmacy anymore. It seems that overseas, anyone can just walk in and get whatever medication they want, no questions asked, and for really cheap. Kinda makes you wonder about what sort of pharmaceutical cabal goes on in America), I think we’re back on track to continue our journey into the world, and just in time too as tomorrow morning we are off to Chiang Mai, Thailand!

Jaisalmer

Before we got to Goa, we of course hit up several other Indian cities along the way. We tried to see as much as possible in a short amount of time. Unfortunately, we were both also getting very sick of India and Indians in general so my descriptions and recollections of each place may seem like a blur. Nevertheless, I will try to briefly recount each place for you below:

Jodhpur, “the blue city” – Pretty crappy, overrated, don’t waste your time in ever going, and, to top it all off, not even very blue at all!

Jaisalmer, “the golden city” – Very cool, especially for India. It’s a desert fort with a living city still inside of it. We were less than impressed however after being to the Middle East and inside countless medinas, all older and more enchanting. A very cool place for a change of pace of India though.

Pushkar, a visit to the infamous “Camel Festival” – India in a nutshell. A crazy swath of humanity intermingling with animals, walking around barefoot, pushing and praying to countless gods. For us, it was a bearable eight hours before getting the hell out of there!

Udaipur, “the city of lakes” and dubbed India’s most romantic city – Definitely worth checking out! It was still real India, but at a far more relaxed and manageable pace. It was pretty, definitely, but I’m not so sure about anything in India being “romantic”….other than proposing at the Taj Mahal, of course!

Mumbai – We literally walked through it en route to Goa. It was definitely much more bearable than Delhi and shows promise of a future, i.e. there weren’t many cows wandering around aimlessly.

Joe had been grooming himself as the next winner of the moustache competition at the Pushkar Camel festival, but...

after seeing his competition, he kinda chickened out!

After more than a month of being here in India and finally being able to visit the places I have wanted to the most for all my life, I can honestly say that I’m spent and I’ve had quite enough. I really can’t describe this place whatsoever. It’s chaos incarnate, a flurry of flamboyance, and the safest place in the world to be a cow. You’ve personally kicked my ass India, albeit the chicken vindaloo or of sheer exhaustion. You’re a sweltering place in November and I can’t even imagine what you’re like in the “hot” months. You’ve taken our pictures for God knows what reason, told us “good price” one too many times, spit incessantly, stared at us, touched us, and made us sleep atop what were surely filthy sheets all too often. You’ve bobbled your head in an ambiguous manner for the last time. You’ve made me hate my life at times but then gave me the capacity to understand just how lucky I am to be alive and to be American. You’ve shown me the power of faith in something bigger than myself, something greater than the here and now. You’ve made me appreciate cleanliness, expectations, manners, courtesy, good service, safe food and potent water.

You’ve taught us the same lesson Ralphie's kid brother learns in “A Christmas Story” when he decides to lick the frozen pole outside his school. We were always curious about doing it, were told what to expect, but wanted to try it out anyway, the consequences of which we will still feel for months long after we’re freed from your grip…

You’ve been an incredible experience of which neither of us will ever forget!

Take this upcoming holiday to think about just how much we really do have to be thankful for and how lucky we are to have been born as Americans. We definitely will be! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

Head Bobbles and Marriage Proposals

What an incredibly eventful past two weeks we have had here in India. After spending a few days in Rishikesh, the "yoga capital of the world" where Kaitlyn was able to get her stretch on twice a day while I  made friends with the resident monkeys surrounding the ashram we stayed in, we next stopped off in Haridwar, one of the holiest cities for Hindus located on the Ganges River. Aside from the indescribable chaos that is India, we have recently been joined (at last!) by Kaitlyn's parents. Their arrival has come at an opportune time as well since both Kaitlyn and I were nearing our wits end in dealing with the Indians. Our patience (mine especially!) was wearing thin with the endless honking of mopeds and rickshaws and harrassment by storekeepers. In fact, my frustration toppled over one day as I "accidentally" kicked a guy on a moped and Kaitlyn "inadvertantly" pushed a bicycle rickshaw out of her way. This whole country is truly a crazy ass place where nothing makes any sense whatsoever. So needless to say, the arrival of the Bagnatos was impeccable timing. Aside from the incredible hotels they were treating us to and finally being able to sleep in a comfortable bed without having to wonder if the sheets were clean or not (or even present at all), it was definitely refreshing to get a taste of home and family life once again, not to mention being able to share in all the squalor and craziness of India together...and if that meant having to see it from plush hotels and resorts while being served tea, well dammit, it's a sacrifice we were both willing to make!

We spent our first day together touring the sights of New Delhi, all of us still in a slumbered state from our middle of the night awakening upon their arrival. Early that morning Kaitlyn and I headed to the U.S. Embassy where she completed the final steps of paperwork to officially become a lawyer and was sworn in by a notary at the embassy, something I'm sure not too many lawyers can brag about! The next day we boarded a flight to Varanasi, one of the oldest living cities in the world and the holiest place for Hindus. Our guide was fantastic, taking us to Sarnath, a nearby town where the Buddha first began his teachings, and to the Ganges River where we were able to watch a Hindu ceremony taking place along the river's edge.

The next day we were brought back to the river for a boat ride offering amazing views of the bathing Hindus just in time to see the sunrise and see two bodies being burned in the crematory pyres along the banks. It was definitely an unforgettable experience! From there, it was back to Delhi and then onwards to Agra to see the Taj Mahal...Oh, and also to ask Kaitlyn to marry me!
 

The Proposal
Back in Istanbul, I had snuck out of our room one night when Kaitlyn was fast asleep (aka snoring) to Skype with her parents. They just happened to be online and thankfully, both happened to be sitting there together,  naturally expecting Kaitlyn to be on the other end of the call. Instead, they got me...shaking and awkward. I asked for permission, they granted it (thank god!), and then I told them my plan. Kaitlyn's sister, Brittany, had already been in on it and helped me out by being the caretaker of the ring since our departure. I asked if they could bring it with them to India where I planned on popping the question in front of the Taj. I had no idea what to expect once we got to Agra, nor how it would happen or when it would happen. I just knew I wanted it to happen and that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Kaitlyn. I was freaking out for the better part of two days prior to our arrival in Agra, gradually becoming shakier (and gassier!) as we got closer and closer to the evening. We were only in town for one night and one morning so it had to be done sometime in there. I knew that she would kill me if I did it in a public forum so I knew it wasn't a smart move to do it in front of the thousands of people visiting the Taj the next morning. I only had that evening, Friday November 5.

After a visit to the Red Fort and an introduction by our tour guide as to the history of the Taj Mahal and its founder Shah Jahan (as our tour guide repeatedly pointed out), imprisoned by his son in a tower, forced to live out the rest of his days overlooking the memorial he built for his beloved second wife, we headed back to our rooms to shower and get ready for dinner that evening. I took the shakiest shower in my life and put on some of the nice clothes the Bagnatos brought us for all the fancy times we'd need them for, and then headed out to our gorgeous balcony that overlooked the Taj Mahal to wrap my head around the logistics of what was about to happen. Fireworks were going off all around the land below as this was Diwali, the Hindu new year, the festival of lights, and the absoultely unplanned perfect and memorable evening for an engagement. Kaitlyn finally finished getting ready and joined me outside to watch the fireworks and try to capture one going off behind the sillhouette of the Taj. I jokingly handed her a grotesque black leather bracelet, complete with dangling skulls and crossbones and asked her to wear it that evening since it matched her dress. [The bracelet itself was given to me by a woman at a store in Cappadocia, Turkey, who wanted to give me a souvenir after seeing my armful of bracelets from around the world. I, in turn, gave it to Kaitlyn, since it was obviously more her style than mine. She hasn't worn it at all really, because "it's just too special" she says, so it's been an ongoing joke between us since we acquired it.]

She laughed at the notion but indulged me in putting it on since it was black and did, in fact, match her dress. Upon strapping it on, she noticed something peculiar dangling from the silver skulls and brought it closer to her face for inspection. At that moment, I dropped to my knee, with trembles in full force and tears in my eyes, and managed to piece together a few coherent phrases of which I assume added up to be something good enough to have her say yes, but only after I had asked if she had "given any thought to my proposal."

The ring itself has tremendous meaning behind it as well. The setting is from the first ring my dad ever gave to my mom some fifty years ago combined with the diamond from her engagement ring. She told me that he would have loved Kaitlyn and wanted me to have it. I'm sure that he's smiling down from heaven right now, along with us on every step of our travels, happy to welcome such an amazing girl into the Statile family. Now, here we are...engaged!....and with a pretty cool story to remember it all by!

We next headed to the most incredible tent ever on the outskirts of Ranthambore National Park. We went on tiger hunting safaris and on our second morning there were one of the fortunate few jeeps to actually spot a tiger roaming the forest, yet another amazing experience we had and were treated to by the Bagnatos. There is no way to describe just how lucky and grateful we are to them for everything they have done for us and allowed us to share in alongside them over this past week. We got to see the luxurious side of India, something I never in my life thought I would ever have the privilege to see. We are going to miss our fancy dinners and comfortable beds of course, but we will mostly miss just being with them and all the laughs we shared in and chaos we endured together, memories we'll have forever.

After a final stop in Jaipur, the “pink city” at the heart of the Indian state of Rajasthan with all its palaces of maharajas and a visit to the breathtaking hillside Amber Fort aboard an elephant, we said our final good byes and we were once again off on our own to explore the rest of India.

We now have about two more weeks left in India to tour the rest of Rajasthan with stops in Jodhpur (the blue city), Jaisalmer (the golden city), Pushkar (to see the famous Camel Festival!), Udaipur (the city of lakes), Mumbai and Goa before heading to Thailand. Internet here is atrocious so please bear with us and we will try to post whenever we can. It will be a hectic couple of weeks as we try to see everything we can. Plus, we just love overnight bus rides, especially aboard the glorious Indian buses. Thanks for still following along with us....We'll be arriving home on December 18 just in time for Brittany to pick us up from the airport and all head to Albany for Christmas!