Beach detox

After 16 hours of travelling, we made it to Diu and the Arabian Sea. The town is really small and chill, kind of like Goa, but without crowds of Russians. We are staying in a little shack in the roof of an old Portugese church with great views of the town and the ocean. It's very charming. But hot. It gets up to 90 or 100 every day and most places in town close for a 2-4PM siesta. And this is their February, I couldn't imagine July. For better or for worse, we have also discovered the delights of cold coffee with ice cream and indulge in it altogether too often.

We took a cooking class our last night in Udaipur and had the best Indian food yet. We learned three basic curries that can be used with a lot of things and also chapati, chai, and galub jamun (deep fried balls of milky goodness soaked in sugar syrup). The class included our friends from Holland, Spain, and Argentina who we'd been on the same schedule with for about a week.

I went for a run today for the first time in about 2 months. Yay! By going in the morning near the beach, I avoided a lot of staring, but still got some. Wearing shorts in India is tantamount to asking to be groped and harrassed it seems. The sea breeze is soothing on our frayed nerves and we are really happy to be spending time here before catching a 24 hour bus to Mumbai and continuing the madness.

The most sobering thing about India is the kids. I've always taken for granted that almost every kid in America has the opportunity to go to school for free and the chance (however slim) to get into University. There are so many kids here that just have no chance. They're parents can't afford the school fees; their family is from the wrong caste; their labour is needed elsewhere; there is no school nearby. For every smart kid in America who suceeds to do something significant and acheive their happines, there are dozens of smarter kids somewhere else who will spend their lives ripping off tourists or dealing drugs or doing some mindless work. It's just amazing. I've really realized how incredibly lucky I am to have had all the opportunities in the world. Scary.