A new record?

Well, I think I may have just set a precedent for number of things lost in one day. Yesterday I lost my debit card in the ATM machine, my room key in the ocean, my moped key I have no idea where and for 24 hours I thought $150 cash had gone to some very lucky local from being lost or stolen until I finally remembered I had put it under my mattress. I blame it on the sun. The sun in Kerala is proper summer hot. Nori and I are in the deep south of India near the southern tip in a small tourist beach town. We were very lucky to get seats on the overnight train from Bangalore to Kerala as our tickets were wait listed which basically means we can go on the train but all the seats are taken and we'll prolly end up sleeping on the floor. As we're trying to decide to risk it or not the train starts to move and we jump aboard. We still don't know how those sleeper seats came available. The only thing we can think of is that perhaps some very nice Indians relinquished their seats to us. I'm continually amazed by how nice people are in the south.



This is how I felt after losing half my valuables:


It actually didn't translate to much financial loss. Losing the bank card costs me $0, the room key was given to me by Marcus from the Buddhist retreat so that's $0; the moped key was US$4.45 (200 rupees); and realizing I hadn't lost $150? Priceless.



The palm trees everywhere lend to the laid back atmosphere. We rented mopeds and went to a wildlife sanctuary where we saw lions. Two locals with mini machetes told us they'd show us where the lions were. After about five minutes or so following them into the wilderness Nori thought they were going to take us to their leader and torture us ala Pirates of the Carribean and then eat us for dinner. Then she thought they were gonna feed us to the lions. But she eventually warmed up to them when they proved to be very friendly. I was a little nervous too but they seemed very friendly so I didn't really give it much thought that they might try to mug us or so.





I never realized how beautiful big animals are. Giraffes, lions and tigers oh my! We saw tigers at the zoo in Mysore. I didn't post pictures because it broke our hearts to see how confined their cages were. But I thought one of the lions in the sanctuary liked me. He kept looking at me all friendly but I wasn't about to put my hand through the fence to pet him. In fact, I was told to keep back from the fence. It was hard to imagine them budging from their lazing around to lunge at us though. They didn't look like they'd hurt a fly.


These lions had plenty of room to roam around but I think they preferred to lying around.


weee! swings are fun!


mmmm... the ocean, so delightful. The water is perfect.


This beachtown resort at night


Hmm... what could this be...?