Undoing Elizabeth: Hello and Bye

I wish I could take more time yakking away about how crazy, fantastic, cruel, inspirational, wild, simple, rough and beautiful life can be.

Yet, as I've said in previous posts, time is constantly eluding me as I embrace every moment of exploring.

And wi-fi sucks in India. Hard to marvel or to rant about my journey when you have only two choices: more time online or more time offline.

And I found myself increasingly choosing to be offline and enjoying myself even more living off on the adrenaline of adventure.

However, I am also constantly writing down my thoughts, many of them unfinished because I have so, so much to say and so, so much to think more about these thoughts.

Isn't it funny how your thoughts are always in a process, forever endless and frequently changing? The very second a thought comes to pass, you immediately jump to the next thought that thinks about the previous thought and other thoughts that instanteously join in with this thought.

Anyways, I am saving those thoughts until I find the right moment to finish them out.

Now, here is the summary of what's up with Violet and me lately:

We saw the sun rising and setting while visiting the very tip of India. The sun was like a fiery ball, looming above three seas that meet, as it rose. When it fell, it descended into the fog of the evening, unfortunately depriving us of the opportunity to witness its farewell.

We survived a gruesome 30-hour train trip to Bangalore. I got into a public battle with an older woman over the seat I had claimed hours earlier; my claim to this seat remained firm after an hour of enduring her attempts to bully me out of my seat. The ride was a rather unnerving experience, especially as it was exacerbated by men's not-so discreet attempts to caress Violet and me. Fortunately, we learned to guard our bodies well and to straightforwardly slap their hands away while giving them furious glares.

We slept on the shore of the world's second longest beach, Marina Beach. The moon was large and full and it was our lullaby until we closed our eyes and slept peacefully (okay, okay, I was vigilant enough to hold pepper spray close to myself as I dreamt pleasant dreams).

And now we are in Calcutta (Kolkata) for a day, exploring reasons behind the city's nickname, "Paris of the East."

Calcutta, along with Gangtok in the northern state of Sikkim, will be our last two cities before we take a brief break from India by crossing the border into the mountainous nation of Nepal.

In meanwhile, here are the photos to make up for this rushy post: