I'm going to be a movie star in India!

I'm at the slowest connection cafe in Mumbai right now so I can't respond to any emails today. The zoo in Singapore was great! I hate to say this to my San Diego friends, but it was better than the San Diego Zoo! The animals all have open pens instead of cages and at the night safari we had the antelope and deer and TAPIRS walking around the trolly. The guide nicely asked us NOT to touch the tapirs as they can "become quite aggressive very quickly." No kidding, I was glad no one tested this theory. I made Alison walk through the fruit bat enclosure and she had enough after the first one nearly decapitated her as he flew by. I hadn't realized they are so large! I joined up with the Lion City Singapore hash our last night in Singapore and met up with Anna, a Stockholm hasher I met back in June. She was there on business. What a small world! Alison joined me for the run, but then took off for a Cantanese opera. One of us had to make an effort to be cultural!

Now we're in India and it's been surprisingly very pleasant. The locals are friendly and helpful and are so pleased to see us there. They obviously have suffered from the lack of tourism lately. Right away we ran into several hashers we knew from our travels so it feels like we're all hanging out with family. Mumbai is not as bad as Cairo, but I will be glad to get down to Goa in the next few days. The traffic and pollution wear me out. The most interesting things we've seen so far have been the Tower of Silence, where the Parisis leave their dead to be eaten by the vultures. They believe soil, fire, and water are too sacred to use to bury the dead. We also see cows along side the road, just like you would imagine. They are incredibly healthy looking and I wonder who is responsible for their care.

Tonight Alison and I are going to WORK! We're going to Bollywood to be extras in a movie. They are going to feed us and pay us 700 rupies which covers 2 nights at our hostel and a few meals. Then movie industry is mostly funded by "alternative sources" ie the Mob, so I imagine the money we make is probably laundered.

Don't know when I'll log on again, but Mom, Dad, and Andy, please don't worry about me. India is wonderful!

Love, Carla

Hashing in Singapore!

That means running, not drugs in a country where they are not afraid to use the cane! We got here by bus from Malaysia and just a few hours later, met up with the Singapore Harriets for their weekly run. It was a huge group, mixed of locals and foreigners who are here for work or school. They were a fun group to hang with, and their style of running a circle reminded me of our home Boston H3. I miss all you guys!

We had such a good time with the harriets, we're going to join the Lion Club Hash on Friday as well. Other than those plans, we're heading to the zoo today and the night safari tonight. Meric tells me the zoo here is BETTER than the World Famous San Diego zoo. I have to see that for myself. So far, though, what we have seen of Singapore is just beautiful. It's so clean and well organized here. I even got chastized by the cab driver for trying to tell him how to get somewhere. Apparently they know the city well and take their job very seriously.

Not only did we get all our photos online for you all to czech out, we developed 2 rolls of film as well. There are hilarious pics from Turkey. Too bad the scanner here is broken. Marnie, Karla, Brigit, Karen, Pete, and the Aussie boys...you will love seeing the shots I got of us that night in the club and at the eternal flames. I promise to scan them all next chance I get.

Please go czech out the updated web site and photos. We're off to India on Saturday. It's all about Goa!

Love to you all,
Carla

More rice anyone?

We're still in Southeast Asia but had to leave Thailand and our friend Meric behind in Krabi beach 'cause a typhoon came through and made the beach no fun at all! We headed down to Malaysia, with Penang being our first stop. We slept a lot, at first. Meric just wore us out with his sightseeing energy! We did drag our lazy asses out to Penang hill on the evening of September 11th, for some quite reflection. The guy selling us tickets to get the train up there expressed his sympathy, then tried to convince us to join him and his friend at the disco that night.

The next day we were determined to do some sightseeing, and made it out to the Tropical Fruit Farm on the other side of the island. It was quite the ordeal, getting out there, then we were there, and it was just a fruit stand with a parking lot. Well, we tried two new fruits: Durian--smells and tastes like my sweaty socks! Jackfruit--better than Durian, but the wasps liked it more than I did.

We joined up with the Penang Hash that evening, and met a hasher, Fruit, who worked at the Fruit Farm and saw us there, but didn't know we were hashers 'cause we weren't wearing our hash shirts! The run was not so much a run, but more of a hike straight up a mountain. I had a blast, pretending to be Julia Andrews humming Climb Every Mountain. There are these huge black thorns on the palm trees. I only grabbed them a few times before I figured out what "thorns on the left" was referring to (just call me Spinefinger). I kept hearing this insect that sounds like a canyon wren, but no one could identify it for me.

I was covered in mud when I finished, but managed to get back to the start before nightfall. Edna said it only happened once where they lost a hasher in the dark and he ended up spending the night out there.

Next stop was Kuala Lumpur, where my two goals were to see the Batu Caves and run with the original Hash. The caves were a little disappointing, but the art gallary was quite random. Too bad I don't read Hindu. Since the Mother Hash is men only, we contacted the Hartamas hash. Alice picked us up and introduced us to the GM, Mafia. He set a phenomenal run where we had a view of KL from the hillside.

We hurried up to get to Malacca, as everyone kept crowing to us about how charming and fun a place it is. Well, I'm sure it is, when all the museums aren't closed for renovation! We czeched everywhere but everything except this internet cafe and the mall (that luckily has a movie theater) is closed for renovation. Malacca is going to have quite a facelift when everything is done. Well, one museum was open, the Islamic Museum. We decided we weren't that desperate for culture.

Well, some forced R&R is ok with me here in Malacca. India is just around the corner! We'll find the Malacca hash tomorrow night and download some photos for the web site. This internet cafe actually had a laptop!!!! Be sure to czech out www.crazyhappenings.com!

Love to you all!
Carla