Leaving Goa

Were heading to the train station at 5 am this morning to go to Hampi. Planning to get a third class non ac train, as anything else is unavailable at such short notice.

There was another accident in our extended circle, this time nothing serious, but a warning nonetheless. Be cautious with bikes and scooters here, as road conditions and the state of the bikes can be dismal. Scooters might be easy but can give a false sense of confidence, and loose traction easily, plus are much less stable at any speed.

Made an instrument from a clay curd ( yogurt) pot and some bamboo driftwood, held together with epoxy putty. The tone is good, and it is fretless, but still learning to play it. The hardest part was the tuning pegs, and two broke, but have now made them from some hardwood other than bamboo which seems more durable. Still haven't glued the bridge as I need glue and still deciding on its configuration.

Will report back soon.

Learning Hindi and Devenagri

We have been pushing each other to learn Hindi. Also trying to learn Devenagri, the hindi and Sanskrit script, which would be a great help.
I have made flash cards, and both Myles and I got good Hindi books. Also practicing writing the script as often as possible. Hindi is all phonetic, each vowel or consonant is independently pronounceable, making it easy to pronounce written text if I can remember all 12 vowels and 36 consonants. Reading signs in Devenagri is important even of you can't yet understand the words.

Sanskrit uses the same character set, with slightly different rules, so this is another goal to learn. After sitting through a few Bhagavad Gita lectures in sanskrit with Ira and Shyamdas, I am inspired to learn this beautifully concise and philosophical language. Each word seems to contain incredibly deep and profound meaning.

I thought to do a Sesame street style class, as in today is brought to you by the letter प pa, the number १३ तेरह terah and the word बड़ा bara (big). I want to get a small chalkboard for this purpose. I can count to twenty, but still working on larger numbers.

My vocabulary is limited, but expanding. I have been advised Mersin in an area lacking English is the best way to pick it up, which has been experience for other languages.

In memory of Shyamdas

Shyamdas passed away last night after a motorcycle accident shortly after a party.

Alison is currently in a hospital but stable and will hopefully be able to leave soon, she is going to make a full recovery.

Ira mentioned that auspiciously Shyamdas died in Brindavan hospital, Brindavan being the birth place of Krshna, a sacred pilgrimage site, and Sham Das' home in India.

Everyone is in a state of shock and mourning here in Mandrem, there are many here that knew him well and most of us have spent a lot of time with him the past few weeks.

Ira and Shyamdas had been reading through the Gita in Sanskrit, and I was honered to sit quietly through these talks in rapt attention.

Sophia was truly the heroine last night and was critical in the post accident medical treatments, from being the first at the scene to the end, taking charge and coordinating urgent care in addition to first aid and mental support.

Shyamdas was in great spirits and truly went out doing what he loved in devotion to Krshna, surrounded by loved ones and friends. His devotion to Krshna showed in every action, and his mind was in a very peaceful and loving state the preceeding week.

We will all miss a kindred spirit, friend, guru and scholar. this has shocked everyone by it's suddenness.

RIP Shyamdas
अँ Aum (Om) Krshna

-Alex

Helmets procured

We have bought two helmets, black full face style. Devin rented a Honda hero motorcycle, something like 100-150cc and we have been riding for a week or so. All freaks came out for the full moon, and we joined them.. New years promises fun, parties everywhere from arambol to anjuna.

First post from Mandrem, Goa

We have arrived and settled, after a week of recovery I think we finally are rested and in sync.

India is so far is amazing, but I have not had Internet access regularly yet, so updates are not as frequent as I had hoped. I will get a sim card with Internet access soon, so stay tuned!

Here are a few photos of some sunsets, and a shot of the beach from where I'm sitting right now.

Waiting in the airport

Our shuttle didn't arrive in kingston, but made a bus down to port authority, then caught a shuttle to Newark.

Sitting in the terminal with 2 hours left before boarding, resisting the temptation to waste money.

Got 2 cartons of American spirit cigarettes at the duty free. They didn't give me the cartons yet, instead I will pick them up at the gate while boarding. I need a smoke.

Packing List

My bags are packed and ready, final weight seems to be around 35-40 pounds, not weighed yet....

 These lenses were chosen by process of elimination. When planing my kit I never intended to take any of these lenses, almost forgetting I owned them. By comparing weights and narrowing down to my lighter options for a given range of focal lengths, I came up with these choices. I initially planned to bring both a 16mm m42 soviet fish-eye, and a m42 20mm f.2.8 East German Zeiss Jena wide-angle, both very wide lenses, but the fish eye is too rarely used to justify the weight and space. The 20mm wide-angle, as much as I love it, is just hanging together, and in need of repair of the lens mount, which is either too loose or locks the aperture ring. This might work for me on location, but for 6 months abroad I can't risk a favored lens falling to pieces. I can accept 24mm as the extreme of my wide-angle, my kit is similar to the limitation say a rangefinder photographer would have to accepts, a set of 3-4 lenses covering wide angle to telephoto.
All lenses except for the 16mm sony pancake will be used on both cameras, doubling their utility.

Camera Gear:

• Canon 5d mk2 Full-frame HD-DSLR with Magiclantern hack (FX format)
• Sony NEX-C3 1.5x crop factor MILC (APC-S/DX format)
• Sony 16mm f2.8 NEX-Mount Pancake Lens (aprox. 24mm equiv. with 1.5x crop)
• Fotodiox Sony NEX to Canon EF adapter 
• M42 28mm f2.8 Focal MC (Makinon) Wideangle (aprox. 50mm equiv. with 1.5x crop)
• PK Ricoh 50mm F2 Pancake Normal Lens (aprox. 75mm equiv. with 1.5x crop)
• C/Y Contax Carl Zeiss P* 135mm f2.8 Telephoto (aprox. 200mm equiv. with 1.5x crop)
• Fotodiox PK - Canon EF Adapter
• Generic M42 - Canon EF Adapter
• Contax C/Y to Canon EF Adapter
• Fotodiox Nikon - Canon EF Adapter (not taking a nikon lens, but just in case...)
• 4 x 400x 16gb Lexar CF cards (64gb total)
• 1x 800x 64gb Lexar CF card
• 1x waterproof 4xCF memory card pelican-style hard case 

Total: 2 Cameras, 128gb on 5 CF cards, 4 lenses

Battery / Charging Gear:

• 10000mAh/3.7v (37w/hr) Ankor Lithium Battery Pack -12V in / 2xUSB/12V/9V output.
• 4x? (4xAAA/4xAA) battery cases (for GPS/headlamps/steripen)
• 3x Canon 5dmk2 batteries
• 3x sony nex batteries
• Sony NEX 12v/100-240v charger
• Canon 5d mk 2 12v/100-240v charger

Cables/adapters (Note:most modern switching power adapters are universal or "world" models, and support 100v-240v 50 -60hz without issue):

• various cables for adapting main (Ankor 37whr) battery to charge all devices
•  3x India to Universal power adapters (dumb adapters, does not adapt voltage)
• 2x iPhone charging cables
• 1x iPhone (1A USB out) universal adapter
• 12v 1amp out/universal in adapter for charging main battery

Tablet / Hard Drives / Computing:

•  HyperDrive Colorspace UDMA2 - 1tb 2.5" Western Digital Scorpio Blue HD
• 3tb 3.5" USB 3.0 Hard Drive - 12V 1.5amp
• 5x Sandisk Ultra 32gb microSD memory cards
• iPhone 4 8gb with iOS 5.1.1 - Jailbroken with Absinthe 2.0
• Ainol Novo 7 Elf Tablet with Feiyu 0515 ROM?! - Android 4.0.4  (microSD slot / USB-Host Cable)
• GPS logging device with LCD data display - shows GPS coordinates/altitude, tracks paths for geosyncing images, runs on 1 AA battery for 10-14 hours)

Luxury Items:

• 2 x Kanen KM-92 Bamboo IEM Headphones with simple mod (removal of filter)
• JVC FXC51 IEM Headphones - just arrived for trip
• Apple stock headphones
• extension cable for headphones
• Fiio E3 Headphone amp - uses 1 AAA battery, short 3.5mm jumper cable
• Speaker for tablet/iphone - uses 2 AA batteries, currently untested as far as battery life goes

Bags:

• Kelty 3100 backpack with retrofitted Bioform-CX hipbelt from Osprey Argon 110L bag
• Camera bag
• 2 x IEM headphone cases
• 1x otterbox for Hyperdrive UDMA2 1tb drive
• 1x cable case
• waterproof army surplus backpack waterproof liner
• compression sack
• drysack for camera gear
• small seal line iphone waterproof case
• various large ziplocks bags for dirty clothes

Clothing:

• 2 x black lightweight Jeans
• 1 x cargoshorts
• 4 x boxerbriefs
• 1 silkweight polypro thermal bottom
• 1 silkweight polypro thermal longsleeve top
• 2 pairs sunglasses (1 pair light yellow aviators / 1 pair dark lenses)
• 1 x pair black leather gloves
• 1 x pair silk gloveliners
• 1 x pair wool triggerfinger mittens
• 1 x pair trigerfinger leather/canvas mittens
• 3 x pair wool winter socks (light, midweight, mid-heavy weight)
• 3 x pair cotton summer socks 
• 1 pair wool toesocks
• 1 spaceblanket
• 1 mosquito headnet
• 3 t-shirts (cotton/synthetic)
• 1 light synthetic shirt
• 1 emergency bivy sack (space blanket inside, safety orange outer)