Happy New Year!!

And Happy Decade, Lunar Eclipse, Full Moon, and Blue Moon!!!
My New Years Eve was about as exciting as last years... when I was stranded overnight @ the Chicago Airport. =(
Our curfew @ The Ashram is 9:30 so what are you gonna do!?? I could get all fussy and protest that that is lame and blah blah, but why fight it?? Just be one with the situation =)
Soooo I did some reading by candle light, went to bed early, woke up around midnight because I could hear all the fireworks, walked out onto my cold windy balcony and looked up into the night sky to see a moon shinning bright as the sun. The Lunar eclipse was only about 7% where we are (I dont know how that all works exactly?) so we saw like a tiny sliver at the top that looked like a shadow. The coolest part was early in the night when the moon was bright orange!!!!

PS- If you look back to one of my earlier posts, "Rickshaw Rodeo", there is a video that I reposted (I guess it didnt work the first time) so if you wanna check that out that would be cool!

Miss you all and hope you had a wonderful holiday season!
Everyday can be a Holiday, right Madonna???
Today we are gonna take a dip in the Ganges to purify ourselves. Interesteing.... Tradition here. Why not??

Hare Om
(let it be)
हैप्पी न्यू इयर!!


PS- If you guys wanna check out Julia and Christinas blogs to get their thoughts on our trip, and some other pics too, check it out at Hopeforageneration-julia.blogspot.com
kthanksbye!

Christmas @ an Ashram!!

Tina and the Christmas tree at the restaurant

The kids at the orphanage. Isnt their doggy adorable??

Christmas dinner at Tulsi

Our new friend Puck from Sweeden. We are taking care of puppies- their mom got rabies and we whitnessed her attacking the puppies, isnt that aweful??? A mom attacking her own puppies. And im talking tackling them and biting them in their faces.

The orphanage, some of them have parents who are lepars that cannot take care of them.

At a friends house for tea and pudding (these are some of the people from the ashram)

Snake Charmer!! Not just in Alladin anymore (I was waiting to see one of these!)

Cow.... or camel?? preeeetty. lol

The Ganges River. Every morning when I walk past this I stop and take in a deep breath. Especially with the sun sparkling on the water, and warming me up. wonderful.

I wasn't sure what to expect... knowing I was gonna spend Christmas in an Ashram. I didn't know much about ashrams till we got here.

Ashram Life:

There is only about 20 people here, which makes it very personal and you really get to know the other people staying here.

We are here for 2 weeks.

4 hours of yoga daily. (2 hour sunrise class, 2 hr sunset class)

There are chanting gatherings at night and sometimes the morning. We sing by candle light and its beautiful. There is some Hindu influence, but very minimal. Mostly the songs are about Love and respecting eachother and nature, connectedness. Awe it reminds me of times being at church durring worship gatherings when I would just close my eyes and stop singing and listen to the voices... and know very well God must be so pleased when He hears us. =)

Breakfast lunch and dinner is served to us.

Hot showers and laundry service.

All this for only $12 a day!

It is less rigid or religious than most ashrams, perfect for beginers, and right on the Ganges River!

Christmas Day

On Christmas Eve we had a candle light service and hot cocoa and sang christmas songs... then I started a pillow fight with the pillows we sit on the floor with!!!!!!! Which turned into a spontaneous dance party (after we were told to keep the noise down) in which we pranced around like a bunch of freaks on drugs, but nope no drugs- just high on life =) Feeling the love and energy bouncing off eachother.

That all probably sounds wierd, but I don't care it was awesome! I was 6 years old again.

Then at like midnight Julia and Christina and I snuck out into the hallways and decorated the place with paper snowflakes that we had been making for days (our room was a disaster- santas little workshop if you will) and we decorated the doors of the rooms of everyone that was staying there with wrapping paper (which we got in town- Rishikesh- via motorcycle and our new friend Amit) and left them little gifts at the door- candy and an orange and a tissue- inside joke- for the breathing excersizes that make you need to blow your nose. Oh yea... and a handmade cupon for Hot Apple Cider we were making for breakfast for everyone.

They loved it and it actually made it feel like Christmas!

It was a long but wonderful day.

Then we went into town and bought blankets to hand out to the homeless families and candies and sweaters for the children.

We visited an orphanage that had like 100 kids and we sang Christmas carols with them. They would sing us a song, then we would sing them one. They spoke english very well. Their songs were way better than ours. =)

There was a local restaurant called Tulsi that put on a free Christmas Dinner for us!! American style food and everything! Well- they tried. It was mashed potatoes and gravy aaand green beans and pumpkin soup.

There was also a DJ there and we had a dance party- how fun! It was decorated with a christmas tree and lights and all that jazz.I called each of my parents while at the party (my first time Ive spoken to them via phone this trip) so that was special too.

We gave them a donation at the end to help cover the costs.

Then we all walked home together and hugged goodnight.

Christmas is a spirit and it's location has no limitations.

Namaste and Tidings of Joy!

Dharamasala

Dharamasala is where the Dali Lhama lives. Unfortunately he left to travel to Dheli the morning we got there. Grumble! Anywho I picked up a book of his in a shop and learned a lot about Tibet and their struggle...and not wanting to change people, very interesting. Free Tibet!! Lots of buddhist monks walking around in Dharamasala... they are as the nuns are to christianity. There is a very pure unattainable aura about them. (I dont know if that made sense, it makes sense in my mind) haha

This is @ a roof top cafe called Carpe Diem that serves the best food. we at here breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You cant tell from this picture but it had a goooorgeous view of the snowcapped mountains and the valley.

By the way this is Marc and we randomly had a 4 hr conversation about quantum physics with him! He is flamboint if you know what I mean... and naturally my new favorite! Makes me want to go home and watch an entire season of Will and Grace. He is writing a book and sending it to us. He also coordinates marching bands?? =)

View from a friends hotel

We went on our version of "trekking" along a hill to visit some temples. Wait for the cows to pass...

2 new friends, they took us to a waterfall and..... sushi! We met them one night at a restaurant havin some beers.. they became our new tour guides. Thats usually how it works.

We took a horse drawn carriage from Nepal into India at sunset for about 5 miles. Parts of it felt mystical.... the serenity of sunset in a foreign land- I journaled about it.

All of these little towns we visit end up being way cooler than I can imagine. From the amazing food, to the scenery, the the wonderful and interesting people we meet- I just can't get enough!

Bardia National Park, Nepal

We went to Bardia National Park as our last hoorah in Nepal. We've been in Nepal about 3 weeks now. We had to take an overnight bus to get here. They stop every hour for a half hour Tea Break! I'm not even kidding... at these little wood shack type of "tea stalls". I dont know if the drivers do it because they love tea so much orrrr if it helps them stay awake?? Sometimes it's fun and we are getting off the bus at all hours of the night sitting on these benches around a fire on the side of the road meeting new people and getting warm because its freeezing here at night! Other times, you just wanna get there and these stops seem really frustrating and unnecessary!
I could write an entire blog just about these buses.... the roads are so bad and they drive so fast... it's like driving down railroad tracks- it's that bad! The whole way there. Around winding curves. With screeching loud Indian music blasting at all hours. I usually wear ear plugs.
On a lighter note, Bardia National park is very lovely =)
Can you believe when we arrived we were the ONLY tourists at our lodging?? Its the off season, and we decided not to go to the other national park in Nepal that is the more popular one- because we wanted to support the one that gets less tourists (plus theres a better chance of seeing a Tiger at this one!)
We stayed in these straw roof huts with mosquito nets over our beds.



We walked through villages that exist inside the park


This man had the most amazing smile. Picture doesn't do justice. I think I want to paint a portrait of them when I get back. Anywho, they let us inside their house and fed us and gave us rice wine that they make. Inside their house is the picture below:

They farm and store their harvest in these GIANT clay pots inside their houses/ huts

More children

you know... just a rhino in your front yard =)








Feeding baby elephants!










once a dork always a dork. Our tour guide/ park ranger friend put his binoculars around my neck and his cap, and his walking stick. And I am wearing a fanny pack. It doesnt get better than this.




















We took an elephant safari!! In search of Tigers and other fun animals. My first time on an elephant. This elephant is about 40 years old.








We rode bikes around the villages. Not just any bikes. Squeeky, wobbly, no gears, seats as hard as rocks kind of bikes.I will never take my bike in California for granted again! Mine sounded like a frog and Tinas sounded like... it was gonna fall apart. =)

Onward! Another overnight bus back to India...

Paragliding in Pokhara

We went paragliding but unfortunately don't have any pictures! =( Im sad about it, we forgot the camera. Paragliding is when you jump off a cliff and all you have above you is a parachute and you catch wind tunnels/ pockets that take you up and keep you in the air. You land at the bottom.
Let me tell you friends... there is nothing natural about running as fast as you can off the side of a thousand foot cliff!!!!!!
I am a wuss about these things. I was pretty nervous while we were in the jeep climbing the mountain. I had to psych myself up and say "go out there and get life christie!" haha.
I was suprised how calm I felt once we were in the air. I was tandem of course, with a russian pilot. We swirled around over the lake and mountains and I felt like a bird. It was like being on a giant ferris wheel in the middle of the sky.

World Peace Pagoda- Buddhist Stuppa.

We climbed around in some caves.. that are below the waterfall that is pictured below

It was like an underground waterfall, pretty "neat" as Tina would say

Another early morning sunrise in the mountains... we can't seem to get enough of those =) Sarnghat was the name of the place, best veiw of Pokhara

Beautiful lake here, I consider it the main attraction. Twice we rented canoes and paddled around exploring and relaxing, making occasional stops on the shores of abandoned beaches.

Khatmandu

Khatmandu is dangerous- because the shops are full of so many amzing things you will want to buy everything! It is known as "the backpackers disneyland" bc there is soo much to do here. It is like amsterdam. Our first night here we made some friends that took us to a traditional Napali "club" with dancing and singing in napali. I couldnt understand it but it was still fun!

There was about 1348975469000 stairs we had to walk to the top of a temple. They call it the "monkey temple" and you can see why! If you look closely you can see one of the monkeys is on the railings.... he actually started at the top and slid the WHOLE way down.... similar to how we would on a staircase banister. It was so amazing!! I could watch monkeys all day...

Temples in the Square, most built in the 1500's

Cows are sacred animals here so we see them roaming around in the most random places, untouched. Here they are just hanging around at this temple. They are often in the middle of the streets too.

Busy crazy traffic

I have been feeling sick lately. I got what is known as Giardia... which is a parasite you can get from a number of things- the water, the meat, ect... you get really bloated and nausious, diahrea, dizzy,your stomach is doing non stop summersaults, fever, headache. =( loss of apetite. When we were in Darjeeling I had to go to the hospital bc it wasnt going away- I had it for like a week strait. The doctor had me lay down and he felt my stomach and actually laughed... saying he did not need to test mystool... that it was obvious to him I had it. So he put me on antibiotics. It went away and things were great, but it recently came back. Yesterday I had it the worst. Really felt feverish. Forced myself to eat dinner so I could take some more antibiotics. But today I woke up feeling wonderful!

Health is something to be very thankful for!

Refugee Camps

Our original intentions were to volunteer for a whole month at the refugee camps in Nepal. Unfortunately the IOM (International Organization for Migration) who was running the camps doesn't accept volunteers.... who would have thought they wouldn't "let"us volunteer?? Julia tried for months before we left to get the information we needed- but she got the run around, so we just showed up anyways =)
They really liked us at the IOM office and said it was fine to visit. So we did. Quite an experience! Some of these people had never seen a white person in their lives! Which was evident by their responses. Funny story: We were all sitting inside one of the huts and a women brought her baby into the room and it took one look at Christina and it's eyes widened in horror of her very white face and it BURST into tears!! Haha everybody had a good laugh.
Long story short- these refugees were kicked out of Bhutan 18 years ago and have been living in these camps ever since. There are about 91,000 of them total. The camps we visited (2 of 7) had around 15,000 each. There is no hope for them to go back to Bhutan and the Nepal government doesn't want them there.... so their only option is to resettle in a 3rd country- which is how they end up in places like Oakland California where Julia works for a non profit that helps them find jobs, get medical, an apartment, etc.
So, we brought the gifts for them from their relatives that have resettled in California, talked with them, had a lot of great conversations- some of them speak some english- the rest we could only communicate to thru smiles and hugs... and our own learned Napali words such as "Dhanyabat" which means "Thank you"
They served us larger than life portions of food. In their culture it is an insult to not finish your entire meal. It was enough food for me to eat breakfast lunch and dinner combined! There were times where I was getting nausias because I was reallllly stuffed but had to keep eating! It was delicious food - rice and bok choy and dal and potatoes and chicken... mmmMMm. They served us warm milk strait from the goats udder that tasted like macaroni and cheese! LOL
They were incredibly hostpitable to us. It was a little overwhelming and not what we came there for! We came to serve and instead ended up being the ones gettiong served! They were delighted by their foriegn guests... fascinated by their new visitors from America. They told me I looked like Brittany Spears and asked me if I knew Tom Cruise!!
They have no running water or electricity. Their large families live in small huts made of bamboo and palm leaves. When a family leaves to resettle (its a loooong process of paper work) the IOM knocks their huts down and turns them into gardens.... mostly growing lettuce.
We visited for 1 week.


This is us inside one of the families huts eating a form of ramen noodles with fresh cilantro- you should really try it!

One of the families had a friend who was a tailor and he made us each matching shirts, by hand, took our measurements with a tape measurer and everything! Talk about custom fit. UN-BELIEVABLE. One of the coolest gifts I've ever gotten.

The children followed Christina everywhere . She is the most exotic of the 3 of us- being 5ft 10 and very fair complexion- blonde hair blue eyes. People are very short here, even the men, Christina could count on 1 hand the amount of guys that have been taller than her.

Playing with the kids... you can see some of the huts in the backround

They only have one size bike here!! SO funny to watch these little kids that can't reach the peddles so they sit not on the seat but in the bars!

Thanksgiving in Nepal

Too bad they don't celebrate Thanksgiving everywhere in the world! Most of the day I was like "oh yea- it's thanksgiving?" Ironically though- we did spend the day celebrating and with family and with exchanging "thank you's!"
We visited one of the 7 refugee camps here in Nepal. They are all people from Bhutan who got kicked out about 18 years ago. Julia who works with refugees from Nepal that come to America organized for us to come visit here, bringing gifts from their family members in the US to them here in Nepal. THEY FED US SO MUCH FOOD! So yea, it was a feast. I cannot write enough about how amazing it was to visit here! I will post more about the refugee camps later- we have been visiting them all week.




These were some of the family members we visited
We walked around and visited their schools and some of their different places of prayer and temples. To my right is the hindu priest that gave us a blessing with Tikka (the red dot on the forhead-each of us our first time) and put leis of marigold around our necks- how special!


This was taken in a classroom for adults learning english- many of them will be resettling in America. We sat in with them for a photo. I was thinking.... how awesome would that be to have class sitting barefoot indian (ha ha ha) style in a palm branch hut- I love that- call me crazy. I think I was born for the islands, I'm still very fascinated by tropical life.
Cheers! We had some beer to celebrate on the rooftop resturaunt of our hotel.... and our most expensive meal yet- over a thousand rupees!!! Which is equal to $20 US dollars. Tina threw it all up too, what a waste. Just kidding Tina I love you!!! I'm glad your better now!

Darjeeling

I had no idea the swastika was originally an Indian symbol for well being and life. It's been freaking me out so see these "nazi" symbols everywhere!
We bought matching earmuffs @ the market! Mine are chickens (which started the whole thing) Julias are mice and Christinas are pigs. People were laughing at us all day- well- we were at the zoo that day so it was semi appropriate. I think I want to give mine to my brother kenny... he's sort of notorious for his chicken costume =)
The "Darjeeling Ltd" train station- abandoned unfortunately. It is no more than a play ground for children and a trading ground for adults- sort of like a farmers market. It had 150 years of good service.
Buddhist Temple
Chasing birds....it was sort of a dare haha

Darjeeling Sunrise

We got up at 3:30am to take a jeep ride to this place called Tiger Hill that is great for seeing the sunrise- with a view of the Himalayan Mountains.


glorious
Oh my gosh it was sooo embarassing- all these people kept asking to get pictures with us... whyyyy... I'm not sure? I guess because we are white and they hardly ever see white people (which is just a fact of life traveling here- you're gonna get stared at) All it took was 1 person around us to ask for a picture with us... and then everyone exploded and was like "miss! Miss! I want photo too! Can we take your picture?!" It strait up turned into Paparazzi. It was so bad and we were getting so ambushed we had to say "SORRY NO MORE PHOTOS" and we pushed our way thru the crowd fast and moved to a completely different area. We all agreed we would NEVER want to be famous! so bizzare.
yay
The sun was hitting the peaks... you could literally hear the people gasping and awe'ing. There were hundreds of people on the hill that morning. We saw Mt Everest! It's not the highest looking peak in the pic- bc it is actually further away and sort of behind these mountains-it was more of a triangle in the distance- a guy next to us helped us see it. I beleive I read a fortune cookie before coming here that said "soon you will be on top of the world" Pretty close! haha

Reminds me of watching the sunrise on the top of the Haleakala crater in Hawaii...because there was a thick layer of clouds like this