an early monsoon

Hi Everyone!

Well after over 36 hours of being in transit from London to Cochin, I made it! After some severe culture shock and a lot of sleep, I have awakened to an absolutely wonderful place. To begin, my host, Benson, it just wonderful. He has set me up with all sorts of things to do. Yesterday I went on a boat exploring the backwaters of Kerala. And when I got home he had a massage waiting for me! Today I'm exploring Cochin and going to a Kathakali performance. Tomorrow I am headed off on a three day trek through an Elephant training center, a wildlife preserve, and Kerala's famous tea plantations.

Similarly to what Jaki said in her last post, the people here are so kind. Since I stepped off the airplane and a man said to me, "Relax, try to enjoy it. Worrying will get you nowhere," I knew that I would be well taken care of here. And I have been.

Last night was Benson's wife's birthday, and they insisted that I join. I walked in the house and their entire extended family. ages 3-80 were all praying together in Malayalan, the beautiful language of Kerala. I sat with them and closed my eyes, just listening to everyone in harmony, singing and praying. It was so moving. Occassionally one of the youngsters would take over. There are four young boys in the family, who are so fun. The youngest, Rubin, was painfully shy, hiding his face until he found hid dad's camera phone and started giggling and taking pictures of me. By the end of the night we were buds.

Oh, and everyone stared at me throughout the night, impressed with my right handed eating skills. The only things the grandfather said all night was "Have more," while heaping more food onto my plate, and "Good job!" when he noticed me mixing all my food together and shoveling it in. He also made me eat two desserts.

The monsoon came early this year. It usually comes on exactly June 1st, when all the kids go back to school. But it is here now. The power goes off every night in the storms, and I just walk around during the days with my camera in a drybag, enjoying being cooled off by the rains.

So much love.
Oh and I have a new phone number in India: 9633134605 call itttt. i miss you all.

udon thani

this is udon thani looking like a dream which it is

this is mon.

last little bit in udon thani-this city is amazing, and i keep hearing that its not even the coolest part of thailand-i'll be exploring that in about a week. felipe and i rented a motorbike again today because it is too much fun and wandered through temples, markets, parks.

of the 12 people i know here, 4 have gone to the hospital. 2 for weirdo skin diseases, 1 for being bitten by a wild dog, and franklin has been in the hospital for 2 days with what the doctors SAID was swine flu, which was really scary, but is instead a bacterial infection of some variety. felipe and i are somehow still in miraculous health, despite our continued insistence on drinking unfiltered water, eating off the street all day every day, and trying every freaky thing passed our way, from snake to frog to mealworm to eel to cricket to beetle to durien (the fruit that smells so bad, its illegal to bring it into our hotel).

yesterday i climbed in some caves and ate MORE bugs. sicknasty.

today i went to this place, called the sarnelli house, which is for hiv+ children that have been adandoned by their families. and i would just like to say, everyone (big statement coming up) that i RETRACT how much i hate kids. these kids are awesome. amazing actually. they immediately ran up, screaming laughing putting white string around my wrist making wishes sitting in my lap showing me dances they made up to american pop songs. it was really overwhelming and, like a total soft-heart, i cried in the seegathew home, wishing i had something more to give them then stickers and the parts of the macerena that i remember.

it is really hard to be in a place where people are KIND, kinder than the states even though they have less, much less. i think a lot of it comes from having a society rooted in buddhism, which something like 95% of the people in thailand practice. people here just dont seem to feel entitled. they are grateful. and really really really kind. it is wonderful but it makes me sad when they tell me how much they want to learn english, or come back to the states with me, or when i see the drugstore counters littered with 'whitening' creams and the advertisments covered with blonde women. when i see how they see america as an ideal and themselves inadequate.

on a minor note, i was looking through my lonely planet today, and saw that my mom, who highlighted major points in the 'thailand' chapter (and 'X'ed out the section on hitchhiking), specifically highlighted the section saying 'make sure to get off motorbikes on the left side, so as to avoid searing your flesh off on the exhaust pipe on the right.' thanks mom, i guess i should have read that before i gave myself a gnarly scar not 3 hours after arriving in udon thani...? damnit. moms actually really know best.

oh yeah. i put just a couple pictures (the internet connection in these cafes is puhretty sloww so there are only about 4) on my flickr account; the account name is jaki.bradley. check them out if youre so inclined.

this week, im building more, finishing the house, then trekking through northern thailand and staying with a hilltribe village for a while. that said, im checking out of internet world for a couple weeks. ill be back in june. BUT i would like to talk on the phone. mines still acting weird, it can text but apparently people are having problems calling it. im going to work on getting it fixed byt given my thai it may be hard... BUT i will be with felipe so call him atttt

FELIPE 919 491 6938

hes my roommate at the moment, so im with him alll the time ohmygaw, and he knows im giving out his number so dont feel weird being like 'nah man im trying to talk to jaki.' the best times to talk are probably like 700, 800, 900,1000 am, states time, and like 800 900 1000 pm. yeah. angel wont you call me?

lovejaki

can i please direct your attention to this photo

http://picasaweb.google.co.th/lh/photo/BMNfb7STIofnZov__141tQ?authkey=Gv1sRgCJvHlOy50f3Oeg&feat=directlink

because that is a beetle.
we went to the market, saw eels and turtles, lipstick and fish being cleaved. we saw a bunch of bugs, the woman scooped us up a bag, refused to take any money, so we ate mealworms and beetles and crickets in the street with her.

i still have not seen a white woman here. there are white men, and they all stay in hotels with mail-order bride young thai women and avoid eye contact with me in elevators.

also, we built a house. A WHOLE HOUSE. now, outside of udon thani, there are four walls and a floor and a ceiling and windows for this amazing family who cook us AMAZING food.
i dont know how to blog when so much stuff is happening and everyday something crazy goes down; a drunk tuktuk driver follows us and crashes into us, i almost step on a scorpion, i see more things i have never ever thought were real. yeah. it is neat.
lovejaki

Tomorrow:

7 a.m. checkout from hostel
11 a.m. flight to Mumbai
12:25 a.m. arrive in Mumbai, get driven to Panvel
5:00 a.m. arrive in Panvel at the train station
4:00 a.m. the following day, arrive in Cochin.
Benson picks me up. I don't know Benson yet but I love him.
I sleep at Costa Gama Homestay and explore Cochin for a week - then to VKV!

I saw three really good shows, explored the TATE and the National Gallery, gardens, parks, etc.
The low point was seeing R & J at the Globe today. Note: Just because it's in the globe does not guarantee good Shakespeare. It made me really sad.

London has been a wonderful way to ease into the flow of travel. I feel very at peace, taking it all in, wide-eyed, excited and exhausted all the time. Can't wait for the next stint.

TO LET

Yall.

In the UK "to let" means to lease/rent. the economy sucks. thus, it looks like there are hunderds of huge signs for toilets off of which the "I" has fallen.

Also, in my portrayal of the ultimate tourist, I have been approached by SO many of those people on the streets who ask if you would like to be one of the ten lucky people to be in their photoshoot/on their TV show. I stopped and talked to one guy for a while and tried really hard to convince him that I KNEW it was a scam. He finally grinned and said, "no it's just not your thing, is it?" and let me on my way. Another girl said she really need someone with my haircut to model for her teacher at a studio nearby and begged me to come by tomorrow. I asked her enough questions about the nature of her fashion school and how she spotted me until it was clear to her that I KNEW. I was interesting though, I walked away with a bit of guilt over the fact that I had perhaps let down a student, even though I knew better. More guilt than when I was just letting down the capitalist angels on corneres pulling in passerbys. It has been a fascinating little game, though.

Tongiht I saw an AMAZING show called War Horse. Best theatre I have seen in a long time. They had life sized horse puppets (which they rode) and really amazing projections. I cried a bunch. And then I ran into Julie! Actually, I spotted her across the mezzanine and asked the American sounding students behind me if they went to UNC. Small small world.


My legs are sore. I walked today until I could no longer wonder where I was and then tried to find new ways to get back to the theatre by 7. Never retracing my steps. Walking quickly even when there was no need. Tomorrow I think I'll slow down.

Love to all.

REI in London is not cute.

Hi Friends,

I am safe and happy in London. It is rainy and cold here and I refused to pack my bag with things I would only need for one week. SO, because it is in the 50s, I am among the least fashionable individuals in London...IMAGINE: Socks and Keens. I am wearing my quick dry pants that should really never be worn in a city but it's too cold for a skirt. I am wearing my raincoat for warmth even when it is not raining. To combat my feelings of fashion inferiority, I have taken on the mentality of super-tourist, REI-ing it out. I am going on free tours and plan to see at least one musical before I leave. I will stalk TKTS and continue to miscount change. It's sort of nice not trying to seem like a savvy city girl in a city I know literally nothing about. I'm thinking of it as a warm-up for Mumbai. Oy.

All that said, London is such a lovely city. I somehow managed to sleep for the entirety of the flight here, but am still sort of groggy. Today I walked around Kennsigton Garden and Hyde Park for hours, listening to books on tape, feeling a little to out of it to do anything that required planning. Tomorrow: the TATE!

I have a phone if you need me in the next week: 07796545777. It will change once I get to India though, so only try this number until Friday.

lemme give you my digits

hi guys i got a phone-

just dial
1-66-0871012446
and we can talk real-people style.

felipe and i rented a motorbike today and have been jetting around udon thani; but then we parked and somehow accidently 'locked' the bike and now we cant get the key in it... so more on that later...

also, on the train to udon thani from bangkok, a guy came up and starting talking to us, saying 'oh yes you all...like hollywood...american pie...its just like you.'
there are really a million stories like that, because people here are very nice and friendly and everytime i try to speak thai they laugh, but in a nice way, and they ask to take pictures with us.

ive got to go google 'honda airblade' now and figure out how to get back to our hostel- we start building tomorrow, so i may be mia for a bit, but call me if you wannna. lovejaki

seewadekaaaaaaa

1st thing i really like about thailand: the word for cat is pronounced mairrrrrrr which sounds, yeah, like a cat meowing.

im safe and in bangkok and was on a flight that moved with the sun so i didnt see darkness for about 30 hours and ALREADY i have brushed my teeth twice and swallowed water in the shower. could anyone deserve the inevitable dengue fever that comes from drinking dirty thai water more than me??

hey guys. i really miss you. im getting a phone today then getting on a 12 hour train to udon thani. wowza.

inspiration

Brokedown Palace.

This is what we're avoiding.

adonde

SALL HAPPENING YALL