Tying up loose ends...

It's been a long time since I've updated this blog. I told myself that I wanted to make sure that I'd capture every detail and essence of my trip. Days turned into weeks, into months and into years. This trip was something that changed my life and I'm proud to say that it is still changing my life.

Whereas my previous posts sought to squeeze stories out of narrative, I think I'm due for a mere catch up. After Vietnam, I traveled in Cambodia with Roy for two weeks. We stayed a week in Angkor, reveling in the temples. I couldn't linger though because I'd already purchased my tickets to India and my 6 month visa was ticking away.

I landed in Calcutta (or Kolkata) and stayed with wonderful people. Sick of the smog, I traveled up to Darjeeling in the foothills of Himalayas where I drank tea and talked to the Ghurkhas. My friends told me to head South to catch the weather. I ended up in Chennai (formerly Madras). From here I traveled to Pondicherry (Puducherry), a former French colony. A few days of lost loneliness lead me to visit a little commune 8km outside of town called Auroville. What was supposed to be an hour long visit turned into 5 months, give or take.

In my time in Auroville, I met some amazing people, made music, made food, learned to ride a motorcycle and birthed the idea of traveling further, but not alone, this time with my musical peers, spreading one of the oldest traditions around the world.

Somewhere in between all of that, I managed to live in Sri Lanka for a month, come back to the states, join up with a crazy Canadian, hitch-hike, busk and travel around Serbia, Slovenia, Romania, Austria, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary. I even traveled to my birthland of Ukraine for the first time in 20 years. It was time to return to NYC.

I have a love hate relationship with New York City, as does everyone else, but it's the place I can most appropriately call him. It's also the only place I could put together the band that would take the beauty and inspiration I found out in the world and keep it going.

Traveling for all of that time, almost 1.5 years, I was collecting stories, songs, rhythms and melodies. Thus in New York City, my band Karikatura was born. The stories continue and the band has finally grown it's own wings, which bring it around the world.

I invite all to continue the stories at my bands blog, KarikaturaNYC.tumblr.com.
The music from our first EP Muzon can be found at Karikatura.Bandcamp.com , each song is a story from abroad. Youtube.com/KarikaturaNYC will carry the visual stories from here on out.

Und of course more photos will be available from India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia et al. on dimakay.fotki.com

The stories continues, not here, but here KarikaturaNYC.tumblr.com