YIPPEEEEE!!

so excited to have you come visit matt!!! a rockin' good time will surely ensue! we'll start in gokarna, which is south of goa. goa sounds good for a coupla days, but a bit cheesy as well. gokarna's meant to be chilled out and beautiful. i have a recommendation for a shanty with no running water - that's cool right?

after leaving varkala, a gaggle of 4 girls went up to allepe and cochin. we went on a backwaters tour in allepe, the "venice of india". all these little waterways connect the villages and we stayed in an indian family's home. the food was amazing, the hospitality was stupendously superfantastic...we had a wonderful time. we rode around in a canoe all day, staring at the villagers, and they stared at us. it was funny.

the people in cochin were super friendly and it was definitely a "western-friendly" town. i reverted back to childhood with this group of 4 girls and a few local indian guys. shennanigans included (but were not limited to):

playing M.A.S.H.
singing row, row, row your boat (while rowing in a boat)
playing duck, duck goose. (yes, we did)
playing slap-dilly-o-so
making a pinky promise 4 ways (to share our pictures)

now kate and i are in mysore looking for yoga. it's not as abundant as we'd hoped, but i'm still scouring the town.

our place here comes with complimentary pigeons in the bathroom.

oh, i almost forgot about our stopover in kalpetta! we went hiking through the forest and saw bison, deer, and ELEPHANTS!! apparently elephants can get incensed by the color red. this is whey the village men were doubled over laughing when kate and i showed up, both wearing bright red pants. we made it out stampede-free though, phew!

kalpetta was the cutest little town! we were local celebrities. at this restaurant people kept walking by to stare at the white girls. and we went shopping at this one place and before we know it, 12 men were helping us. i then ordered all 12 to line up on a staircase so that i could take their picture, which they were happy to do.

that's all the news that's fit to print for now - hope you're all happy and well! and in the mood to post comments, too!