We didn't expect to stay 3 nights in Dehli but the way it worked out with train tickets it was neccessary. The train ride out of the capital city was welcomed. Staying in the so called seedy area of town Paharaganj we were subject to relentless calls from local vendors to "lookings free", "pajmina's very cheap", "where you from?" "FREE!" " anything to get your attention and into the shop. We were fresh meat to the vendors who I am sure recognize everyone's face and country after a day. By the end of the day we were no longer friendly Canadians but hardened travellers who wouldn't respond to even the most insessant sales pitch.
We toured the city visiting the local attractions, The Red Fort, Spice Market, Central Park, and Palika Bazaar. We shopped but were reserved with our purchases as I am sure we will find better things in our travels.

An afternoon train ride took us to Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal, advice from the all knowing Paul Fraleigh led us to book our train tickets onwards before even arrving. To quote Paul (International Tour Guide) Fraleigh, "The Taj Mahal is a fucking nice building, the nicest i've seen, but thats it." We will have spent 26 hours in Agra by the time our train leaves tonight, for us that is more than enough time to visit the Taj and the few sites in Agra. At 8 PM we travel on to Varanasi to see the Ganges and the Holy city of Siva.

"Om Namah Shivaya, Om Namah Shivaya...........Om Namo Narayanya, Om Namo Narayanaya............Om Shanti Om.......Hare Krishna, Hare Hare, Krishna, Krishna.........AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! The chanting was still resonating in the back of my head as I paddled into stormy surf with Stevo, Steve poking fun that he was glad Jess and I made it back from the Yoga cult seemingly unbrainwashed. Secretly I am sure he still locks his door at night to be sure. Jess and I arrived back in Male yesterday at noon and were happy to be back on the familiar streets with everyone ignoring us instead of hassling, haggaling, and begging.

Living in the Sivinanda Yoga Ashram in Kerela, India was an experience not to be forgotten in the near future. We arrived to a full house, about 200-250 students from around the world were there to learn and/or practice yoga. It was a mix of people interested in teaching yoga in there home countries and individuals travelling India who had dropped in for a few days to a few weeks of yoga. Our first day we missed yoga so were introduced to the other happenings at the Ashram before ever getting to practice the physical side of yoga. Supper was served in a huge open air hall that also hosted lectures and asana classes during the day. The dishes were laid out and we were served food from large stainless steel buckets, vegetarian curries, rice, salads, and chapatties were the staple. The food was amazing and as we ate with our right hand (no untensils) I turned to Jess to comment on the food. "SILENCE PLEASE" A deep voice echoed from the front of the hall, our first lesson at yoga camp, no talking during meal time as it is a time of meditation. We waved over the servers for more food and they hunched over to serve up more curry as we all sat crosslegged on the floor to eat. After washing our dishes, setting up our tent the bell started clanging, it was off to Satsang. What we were about to experience was a half hour of misguided meditation followed by daily chanting. It was amusing the first day, bearable the next morning at 5:30 and ridiculous from then on. The next morning we arose for an early Satsang, followed by Chai Tea time and then 5 hours of Asana classes (The physical act of yoga) with a break in between. Really the only thing that we were interested in. After realizing the beginner class was a little to slow for us we switched to the advanced classes and found them more our speed. The yoga was amazing and by the end of the 12 days we spent there Jess and I both felt we made huge advances in our yoga practice.

Half way through the 12 days we had a day off and we joined a trip down to the southern most tip of India, Kanya Kumari. This is also where Ghandi walked on water, or wait was it made salt from the sea to protest the British taxation on salt. We visited the Ghandi memorial where his ashes were kept until they were scattered into the three bodies of water that meet there, The Arabian Sea, The Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean. We were meant to swim there but the dirty water filled with bathing pilgrims didn't seem too inviting. The day turned out to be a nice break from Ashram life.

The Ashram was great in the fact that it brought travellers from around the world together, we had the privilege of meeting some great people and interestingly enough found ourselves teamed up with a crew of other Canadians. We ended up ditching out early with two sisters Jess and Lily from Vancouver and hit Kovalam beach for 4 days of retoxification. All in it ended up being an amazing trip.

We are packing again for a trip with Derek and Leticia up to Dehli and onwards so will definitely have more adventures to come.

Om

Scott and Jess

Three and half months, wow, for Jess the days have flown by. Although it doesn't seem like we have been here long we both are looking foward to getting off the island and exploring some new terrain. Jess was supposed to get 2 weeks off for her holidays but has somehow talked them into 4 weeks. For the first two weeks Jess and I are going to study yoga in its birthplace, India. A friend of ours had reccommended this Ashram (yoga institute) in southern India.
http://www.sivananda.org/neyyardam/index.html
It is going to be a pretty intense two weeks with nearly 5 hours of yoga a day! Vegetarian diet, Meditation, and early morning wake up calls. This can hardly be called a vacation but we are considering it our Honeymoon. We are both really looking foward to it the flight leaves tommorrow the 16th. Returning on the 30th or 31st we rendevous with Derek and Leticia who are coming for a visit lasting over a month. They arrive at 10 in the evening on the 31st and we have them flying out of Male Feb 1st at noon. Not much rest but there were no flights going out for a few days after that. We then travel to Delhi where we will give Derek and Leticia a day or so to rest. Jess and I will round up some plane tickets and the next day we will be on our way to the Taj Mahal and onwards to Varanasi to visit our friends sister who runs a Hostel/School for underpriviledge children.
http://www.basichumanneeds.net/
Jess will be travelling with us for another 2 weeks but will then have to go back to work. The three of us will travel India for another 2 weeks and then we will head back to the Maldives.
So thats the plan and hopefully we can keep the blog updated from the road. Also I think the adventures will be a little bit more interesting.

The weather has made a shift for the better and we have been enjoying windy sunny days. Wind enough to ruin the surf but not enough to kiteboard. Mornings and evenings are a little calmer and we usually manage a sunset surf. Our house is quickly turning into the Surf Shack as anyone with a board wants to store it at our place. I usually send at least a few text a day giving a brief surf report for those pilots who aren't lucky enough to have a beachside residence. Steve our new flatmate has returned from Aus. He is a laid back surfer who has turned out to be an awesome guy to have around the house. Between the two of us and all our friends we have about 10 boards scattered throughout the house. That's life in the Maldives for now, in total I will be away for the next 6 weeks so I am sure it will be a new place when I return.

Happy Boxing Day!! The second anniversary of the Boxing Day Tsunami is opon us and Jess and I awoke at one of the best resorts in the Maldives. "The One and Only" Kanahura, the one and only thing is some sort of chain of hotels around the world similar to the Hilton in class and outrageous in price. Rich Euro's throw down $2000 a night to be at the "One and Only", after the visit I don't know what all the fuss is about although it is a pretty sweet place to spend Christmas Day. We arrived there around 5 and lost an hour due to "The One and Only" being in another time zone. This is so the guests get up an hour earlier and get an extra hour in the sun that they would usually sleep through. Jess and I quickly checked into our room and according to Jess we got stuck with what looked to be a staff accommodation compared to the 2000 dollar a night rooms which Jesse and the other pilots usually get set up with. I was happy with our room, Jess wasn't, her tastes are getting more refined with all these overnights. We hit the pool and swam through the maze of a pool as its fingers reached to all ends of the resort village. We floated by the four piece acoustic band playing recognizeable cover tunes, with the odd carol thrown in. We gazed passed our toes into the endless Indian Ocean the infinty pool living up to its name. We took it all in, relaxed and then on to the next thing to to at the island, the Spa. We have to try fit all you can do on the island in less than 12 hours and fit a bit of sleep in so Jess can make it through the next day of work. A quick steam, hot and cold pool session and then onto supper. This could easily be the highlight of many to the resort. An endless buffet of exoctic foods, sushi, tuna sambal, Indonesian chicken, Mutton Rogan Josh, Lemongrass seafood soup, back to the sushi, tempura prawns, filet mignon, reef fish, and on and on and all Jess and I wanted was a little turkey dinner. Ah well I guess that was a pretty good replacement. To finish the night off we sat on an oversized couch with oversized cushions and sat back with our feet in the sand, looking West to Africa but all we could see were stars. A few Coronas, a couple of Baileys along with Cherry flavored tobacco smoked in Shesha pipe finished the night.

An early morning before the sun, breakfast to match the supper the night before and Jess and her Captain were off to work. I stayed behind to catch a later flight in order to spend more time on the island. I swam in the Ocean and then got nervous of the fish I saw in the spotlights cast on the ocean the night before, the sun was just coming up and they could still be around feeding, they were big, I had enough of swimming anyway. After walking around the island and enjoying the sunrise I went straight to the spa, my flight was at 830 so I had to hurry, a series of hot and cold pools and of course the steam room woke me up, I got dressed and rushed out to catch the plane. The plane was 2 hours late, back to the spa for an hour more of the steam room. Later, I walked down to the watersports centre and tried to talk the guys into taking me wakeboarding, they weren't biting, they didn't want to be upstaged, I didn't want to pay to show off. I hung out and made a pest of myself to no avail. The plane landed at the other end of the island and taxied into the dock quicker then I expected, I ran down the beach hoping not to miss my flight for if I did who knows what they would have charged me for another night at "The One and Only" I had overstayed my welcome. Dave Reid, my kiting buddy picked us up and he chatted me up about his new watersports centre he is starting on Medhufushi, he may need help getting it started, I told him I could spare some time.

Boxing Day Stories (All for the most part are true but aren't verified)

When the tsunami hit Hulumale (airport island) It was one of the busiest days of the year at Air Taxi.

The water (not much of a wave they say) surged across the island, across the runway, and into the outdoor waiting lounge.

Chairs, tables, plane parts, planes, dockhands, sandbar coffee bar girls, pilots were pushed into the water.

Maldivians for the most part can't swim,pilots swam out to save their friends. People relocated to the roof, until the water subsided.

The water raised about 2 m above normal sea level, the maldives is on average 1m above normal sea level.

The planes getting worked on in the floating hanger were loose and floating out into the lagoon.

Pilots in planes at the time could not taxi in to the dock as they were underwater.

Water surged into resorts destroying water bungalows, dispersing garbage everywhere, many local islands have never been cleaned up, some resorts are just opening.

The street of Male were flooded, The Jetty and many boats were damaged.

Everyone was waiting on another wave which was suppossed to be larger, people feared for their lives, this wave never came.

The death toll in the Maldives was suprisingly very low, the y recieved loads of money from Red Cross, UN etc. the government is said to have extorted quite a bit of that money, but who knows.

After the tsunami Air taxi went back to work as usual, with tsunami relief flights, A certain pilot refused to do any other flights besides relief effort flights, her recieved a nickname Mike Habel = Hero Habel. I think everyone wanted to do relief flights.

Sri Lankan Airlines were the first company to fly back into the airport, they landed a 737 on the runway with a foot of water!

Just a few tidbits about the Boxing Day Tsunami for everyone, happy Holidays.

Merry Christmas everyone from Jess and I, wish we could be back home in Canada to celebrate. Jess was up at 5 to head off to work this morning and must have disturbed Santa because when I woke up at 730 there was nothing to be found. It is either that or Old St. Nick doesn't visit the Maldives on account that no one believes in Christmas. Muslim controlled airspace, very tight security and Santa couldn't get in to deliver presents to the Expat population. The locals are getting ready for something called Eid, which I thought already happened at the end of Ramazan in October but Dec. 29 and 30 shops are shut down for Eid. Jess works all day today and then has an overnight and Kanahuri, a high end resort with the reputation for the best food in the Maldives. I will try my luck again and see if I can jump a plane and make it out there for Christmas dinner. I did get Jess a present though and to my knowledge I think she liked it, its a boogie board with fins and all accessories, Now she will have to venture out into the surf, no excuses.

Lately I have been keeping busy by hitting the gym, swimming, running and playing basketball with the local kids. Shivji (pilot) and I went down to the local court to shoot some baskets and before we knew it we were in a full court B-ball game. Witin minutes we were gasping for air but we couldn't show it as we were elected captians and choose the teams, they thought we were going to be ringers, man were they wrong. After the half hour game I took off my tank top and actually rang out the sweat from my t-shirt it was as if I had stood in the shower one of the kids informed me. Any type of exercise that involves running here is wild as you start to sweat the moment you take a step. The gym guys must hate me as they have to mop up all the puddles after I leave.

Thought we'd pass on a Christmas blog, not to exciting but just wanted everyone to know we miss them and wish we we were home for Christmas for Johnny Cake Breakfasts, Turkey Suppper and Leftovers. I guess i'll head out into the heat to find a fish curry Christmas Breakfast!

Love You Guys, Merry Christmas, Miss you tons.

Scott and Jesse

I stuff the meat into the freezer, triple bagged but still leaking, strip down, throw the clothes in the washing machine and scrub myself down in the shower. Moments earlier I was biking by the local fish market and was drawn in by the amount of fish that were laid out and overflowing on a floor large enough for a basketball game. Swordfish streched out 2 metres long with their sides being disected as locals choose which section they desire. Smaller blue fin tuna the length of your arm, hundreds of them are being bought up for the local short eats shops so they can make masuni roshi a breakfast dish with shredded tuna, coconut, chilli and lime, served up with crepe style bread called roshi. Masuni Roshi has been compared to the truck stop brekfast by a french canadian pilot Jean Michel, who claims it leaves you feeling full but not greasy inside and on your way to a complete hangover recovery. That's if you can keep it down, I tend to steer clear of any fish for breakfast if i've been drinking the night before. Standing waist high in a bucket of ice are the yellow fin tuna, tails sticking out like a handle and their fins showing the distinct yellow. Before I knew it I was pointing, grunting and using all the Dehvehi i've learned, zero, to get my point across that I wanted to take one of those bad boys home with me. 40 Rufiyaa (3.50 CND) for the the fish. I grabbed on to the tail and heaved it out of the ice and dragged it on its nose to the cleaning area. I paid another 8 R. and was pointed to a line up of men holding their selections, at the front of the line a blood soaked Maldivian man fileting these fish like a master. After watching a few people I knew the drill, walk up to the counter, man handle the monster onto the cutting block, take reciept, obtained earlier, and as the man leans foward place it in is chest pocket. The head comes off first, he gestures if you want to keep it our not, I shake my head and he slides it to the side to take home, I guess some of the best meat is in the head, but what am I going to do with it! Splitting the fish in two, peeling the skin off, pulling out the inards and serving me up no less than 20 tuna steaks takes less than a minute. I fumble with my two plastic bags and he dumps the goods and I scurry off. The cutting block is perpetually washed with a hose sticking out at each cleaning station, of which there are about twenty. The water then channels down to the tiled floor and fills the whole fish market. As I walk out my sandles slip and slide and I feel like I am on skates for the first time. The ceiling drips water on my back, as I keep walking the dripping doesn't stop. My sandles are actually spraying me with two stripes up the back, a mixture of fish blood and water. Bag under arm, leaking, I pedal home extaticed and disturbed. Now what to do with all this choice tuna? I know i'll call my French friend, he'll have recipes.

Ok, Ok, I know that everyone thinks that this is Scott's blog now since hes the only one who has been writing the thing. But this Is Jesse now, with my first entry, please bare with me, I am not as elequent as my better half. But I have to say, maybe I have not been posting because I enjoy reading his thoughts so much, he has a way with words. Anyways things are great here in Male. I am writing from our bedroom balcony overlooking the surf (I see scott out there right now as a matter of fact), got home early from work today, 130, the weather turned yesterday, so all is better in my world now. My life has been intense this last month, the monsoon was (maybe is) still going full force, which means rain, strong winds and big swell at alot of the places we go. For a pilot still trying to master take offs and landings on the good days, it makes my job more intense. but I was never one to learn anything the easy way. That would be boring. For those of you that dont really know what my life is like these days I will go through a sample day in the life. Wake up in the morning to go to work, ride my bike to the dhonni, the earliest dhonni (ferry to the airport) is 5am, thats a tough one, ussually get 2 or 3 of those a week. The other mornings I am at a resort, that commute is a little easier, just walk down the beach to the plane. Once at work I do a walk around on the airplane, pump the floats, put some gas in, then go have a coffee (thats the most important part). All the pilots sit around drinking coffee till our flights are released, then we slowly dissapear from the coffee bar to our airplanes to start the day. All day we are flying tourists, staff, and locals to Islands all over the maldives. For the most part, The captain flies 1 leg, then I fly the next and we alternate all day (so i get tons of practice) sometimes we fly 10-18 legs a day. When you are the pilot not flying you are filling out the logbook, and talking on the radio to air traffic control and traffic advisory, (the radio was deffinetly one of the most challenging things to learn when I got here, it is very busy and the controllers have very thick accents). At the end of the day I either end up back in Male or at 1 of the various resorts we service. I have only taken Scott on 1 overnight so far, but will get him out there with me more often, he is so busy surfing and kiting I cant ever get him away. Anyways thats all ive got for now, Hope all is well and I will get Scott to post again soon. Love Jes