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

One (More) Night in Bangkok

We are all back from Cambodia and in one piece. The bus trip back only took us 15 hours rather than 20 this time! Bus didn't break down, but a bridge was broken, and we had to wait on the road until they fixed it. Alison got some great photos of the progress, in addition to a photo of a guy with 2 gigantic pigs strapped to the back of his moped. Random!

The last day we did another run around Angkor Wat to see the bass reliefs and the "milking of the sea" which was Meric's favorite. He just likes seeing the gods pulling on their snakes, I think. Alison befriended a bunch of Buddhist monks, and they had all kinds of questions about Catholisism, such as, "What do you do to celebrate the full moon?" I don't think she wanted to get into the separation of the pagans from the Christians, too complicated for their limited English, so she just said, "Nothing." Apparently, the monks shave their heads every full moon. They are also not allowed to touch women, and nearly all Cambodian boys spend a time in their adolescence or young adulthood practicing to be a monk. Our friend Chi was a monk from the age 15 to 20. Now he's just a regular guy who happens to live with them still, and is referred to as a "pagoda boy."

We are staying another night in Bangkok here since we missed the bus to Chaing Mai already. We are in a divy-er place than last time, called Lucky Beer's Guest House. Alison has to shout to talk to me in my room it's so loud in there from the noise of Khao San Road. Thankfully we have ear plugs! I keep thinking I'm going to run into Leo DiCaprio eventually, or some guy who has slashed his wrists in the room next to me....I watch too many movies!

We'll be up in Northern Thailand for the next week. Venera, if you are reading this, I can't help but think of you every time I step into a Buddhist temple!

Carla Kroft - Tomb Raider!

Random! We're in Cambodia for a week, at Meric's request. He has always dreamed of seeing Angkor Wat so here we are, in Siem Reap. Did you know one of the temples here was the famous Lara Kroft Tomb Raider set? It's the "jungle temple" officially called Ta Prohm, but who can remember that? We had a blast, posing like Angelina Jolie complete with boobs and lips. The bus trip out here was quite an ordeal. Supposedly we booked a "VIP" bus trip but it was the bus from HELL. It broke down a number of times, the last time being the AC and it felt as hot as a sauna in there. We made it to the Cambodian border 10 minutes before the passport control office closed. Then we got on the oldest minibus in the world and proceeded down a dirt road that looked like it had been cleared of land mines only recently. The potholes were so large the girl behind me dented the roof of the van with her head when we all were airborne. I've got a rather large bruise on my back as well. We traveled down this yellow brick road for about 7 hours, in the dark, crossing bridges that I was glad I couldn't see. The funniest comment was made by a Dutch backpacker sitting in front of Alison, "Oh my God, I don't know how, but I must've fallen asleep for a minute there because I was just dreaming I was a basketball."

We are here though, and are much stronger in character for our experience and having a great time climbing the temples in Angkor. We got up this morning to see the sunrise over Angor Vat and also hiked to a waterfall that had a submerged temple and gibbon monkeys calling down to us from the treetops. The best part is we get to cruise around to all of these things in a Tut tut (called for the sound it makes) driven by our friend Chi. I tried to convince him I could drive the motor bike and he cound ride, but he wasn't convinced and I got NO SUPPORT from Alison on the topic.

Well, we're hoping to leave Cambodia on Saturday and head up to Chaing Mai to trek with the hilltribes and build a raft out of bamboo. I think I may burn some insense to the Buddha for a functioning minibus to bring us there.

Love, Carla

One Night In Bangkok

I think we did more sightseeing in Egypt in 10 days than any other country so far! After taking in all the sights in Aswan and Luxor, we took an overnight train back to Cairo. Somehow we booked our trip on the Egyptian train, rather than the tourist train, and shared our car with the largest friendliet Egyptian family I have ever met. The kids were constantly sharing their cheese sandwiches with us, asking us questions about America, and taught Jon some new Arabic words. There was no sleeping to be had, with all that attention, and if we did happen to dose off, the tea man came down the isle shouting "Saoung Sang! Saoung Sang!" Alison swears she will forever hear those words in her sleep from now on.

Sad to say good-bye to Jon, but we were happy to move on to Thailand. Egypt was a bit exhaustive, with the hassling of the locals and the constant haggling of prices from cab fares to kashery. I think Jon just did it for the mere enjoyment of it, because what it came down to was haggling over 60 cents at times. My favorite parts of Egypt were the sidewalk water stations (tap water is safe there!) and playing backgammon at the cafes drinking mago juice. The felucca trip down the Nile was pleasant enough as well, and Jon and I were brave enough to swim in the Nile to cool off. Hopefully I won't get any interesting parasites from that dip. Mom! I'm kidding! Don't worry about me!!!

After 2 nights in a row without sleep, we arrived into Bankok at 2 am. The pace here is sooo much more relaxed compared to Cairo. Must be that Buddist influence. In about an hours time we will be meeting up with my friend Meric from San Diego as he is on a 3 month tour of Asia and planned to travel with us for a month. I just woke up from a well needed nap and ate THE BEST Thai vegetarian dish I have ever consumed. I even got soy milk with my meal! I haven't had soy since I left the US 4 months ago!

With the plethora of internet cafes on this street alone, no doubt you will be hearing again from me real soon. Andrea, isn't it amazing how there's a cheesy 80's song for nearly every occasion?

All my love,
Carla

You are the King, yes a very tired King

Special Edition: This is Jon's perspective on travelling with the crazyhappening duo.

It is an experience travelling in Muslim coutry with two women. It is often assumed I have two wives! When I have walked alone I seem to be left alone most of the time. My main achievment to date is that I have introduced Carla and Alison to Kashery: an Egyptian staple consisting of rice, pasta, lentils, and chickpeas topped with tomato sause and fried onion. Not only is it cheap but it is also readily available everywhere. Sadly, I will be en route back to the UK by the end of the week. The crazyhappenings pair have been great to be with, except that they now regularly beat me playing backgammon. When this happens they have been subjected to the "darkside" of Jon. I suggest that Egypt is no longer part of "crazyhappenings" but should be considered as "darkhappenings."