Last Nepal Adventures

It feels so weird to actually be getting ready to leave all my traveling behind and come back home, but before I do i wanted to make my last week or so in Nepal memorable! What better way to do this than start off with going Bungee Jumping from the world’s second highest Bungee jump in the world! When I arrived at our meeting place before the long drive to the jump almost everyone in the group was from Canada and a group my own age were from Calgary! It was awesome to meet with so many fellow Calgarians and share this experience with some young adventurous souls! When I saw the bridge that we were going to jump from I immediately got butterflies, it was HUGE. The worst part was there was so much waiting around before we went that the anticipation was eating away at me. I didn't think I was going to be all that nervous but standing there watching people go one by one before me I didn't know how I would manage jumping off head first and free falling into the deep valley below. Most people looked so brave and didn't hesitate once they stepped up to the platform and I knew that as soon as I stepped out there I couldn't wait, I just had to go as fast as possible or I would never be able to jump off. I was called up and the guy putting on my harness asked for my name, I told him Marni, which I know has some sort of meaning towards death in Nepal and I usually tell the Nepalese this so its easier for them to pronounce but the guy looked at me strangely and said... "The real meaning is, you going to die!" Great thing to hear right before jumping headfirst into the abyss, Thanks! I stepped out, swore ALOT and jumped. Jumping head first is going against everything your body wants to do so it was extremely hard to go for it but I did it and I am so proud of myself for not crapping my pants right there! I screamed the entire time and the fall feels like forever until the bungee actually kicks in and you go flying back up and bounce a few times. It was such an unbelievable experience and I was so pumped on adrenaline that I climber back up and get in line for a second go at it. This time I tried the Swing. It doesn't sound extreme but it is! You are connected to the bungee at the hip instead of at the feet and you jump off feet first than fall for a good 6 seconds until some cross wire kicks in and you go flying to the other side of the canyon. They take a video of this and when i watched it, I looked like a spastic trying to roll down the window of a car, very entertaining.

Its great coming back to Kathmandu because I actually know people here that I can call up and go get some drinks with and hang out with. It really does feel like a second home where I have my favorite fruit stand seller, restaurant, guest house, and supermarket where I walk in and get a friendly smile and chat. Every time I come back to my favorite guest house the guy has my 250rs (3.50$) room all ready and set for me. This guesthouse is a bargain but you get what you pay for which is why I love it so much. It’s a piece of crap place with cockroaches running around and a tiny single bathroom I have to share with other people which is always soaking wet because the shower sprays over the toilet but its home and I get to watch Bollywood movies downstairs with the guy who runs the place.… I am such a cheapo haha! I met up for drinks with old volunteers and people I have met along the way and we all recapped our latest adventures. I had plans to go to a Yoga retreat for my last week to learn more and to just relax. The place was beautiful but unfortunately I was all alone at the retreat so it was very quiet… too quiet! The cook tried to keep me company on my free time but became very creepy when he started talking about how he wanted to come to Canada but getting a Visa was too hard… than continued to suggest that we get married so its easier to get into Canada. I tried to ignore him after that, but was not very successful. After 3 nights here I had to get out or else I was going to go crazy! It just made me want to come home earlier because it was lonely and made me think about home way too much. I left and signed up for a 2 day rafting trip for the next day to take my mind off things. It was a two day excursion, and was extremely lucky to be with a huge group of young travelers again. The first day we went over some class 1-3 rapids, had lunch and continued on. Our rafts team name was Team Extreme and we had some intense team spirit! We stopped at one point at some cliffs and got to do cliff jumping which was a little added bonus! That night we stayed at an amazing resort in the jungle where food was provided and slept in tents by the river. The next day we were told it was going to be a lot more intense getting mostly 3-5 class rapids; class 5 being the highest class... I kind of thought that our rafting guides were just talking the whole thing up like it was going to be super extreme just so we were ready for anything… however they were a lot more intense than I expected! We got thrown around, got stuck on rocks, had to climb out a few times to maneuver our raft, got lodged in between two rocks, lost two girls who had to swim down the rapids and even flipped the entire boat. I even had to be rescued by the emergency kayaks we had paddling beside us. It was such a fun time and I was so glad that I close to do rafting instead of stay alone with the creepy cook at the Yoga retreat.
Tomorrow I think I may kick it down a notch in extreme sports and go check out this place that offers a day package of yoga, reiki, holistic healing, meditation, chanting and dancing. For my last day Ill probably go and get an intense massage to work out all my kinks from traveling, go see the S.A foundation which I did volunteering back home for and are based in Kathmandu and than my rafting friends wanted to go out for dinner and drinks for my final night in Nepal. I don’t plan to sleep in my dumpy ol guest house for my last night, instead I’m going to spend the night on the high rooftop of the volunteering office in my sleeping bag where I can sleep under the stars, say my final goodbye to Nepal and reflect on my amazing travel experiences!

So Long Nepal, You will be missed!

Tibet

I Had written out my blog to Tibet yesterday and was quite proud of it when i had to run off to Yoga and left the blog up, telling the lady running the Yoga place to just leave it up so i can finalize it afterwards.. i came back and it was gone! So i was pretty peaved off and now have to start it all over again! Sooo here it goes!

The airplane ride to Lhasa the capital of Tibet was filled with anxiety, I could hardly contain myself from running off the airplane when we landed. Immediatley the surroundings changed and I was in a scortching hot, hilly desert. Driving to the Hotel we passed through the town where the streets still had an old style and the people were dressed in the old traditional style, it felt like i had gone back in time! When we reached the hotel, I ran up to the rooftop to see the famous Potala Palace, it was stunning and i am surprised that it isnt as popluar as the taj Mahal or considered one of the 7 wonders of the world because it is a spectacular sight! The next day we actually got to go inside the Potala palace and climb the thousands of steps to the top and see where the Dalai Lama stayed before his exhile. The best part by far was taking all our jumping in the air photo's outside in front of the Palace. Because of the Altitude we were always out of breath but we got some good ninja photo's. Our group was actually extremely lucky, not getting any signs of altitude sickness.. Apparently the Intrepid group before us there was a guy who had to get flown out because it was so bad. There was also a guy we met who was leading a motorcycle gorup that were driving from Lhasa to Kathamndu and one of the guys got so sick he was in intensive care for 3 days and finially had to get flown out in an emergency.. So i feel extremely lucky and the hike to base camp probable helped out with adjusting to the altitude. Later that day I went back to the Potala palace to sketch the building. I sat down in the sun ready to relax and draw when a police guard came and was eyeing me, looking over my shoulder to see i wasnt up to no good. Soon after i had two police guards sit next to me for the rest of the time i sat there drawing. People who were passing by were constantly looking at what i was doing and watching me draw which was really intimidating but it was funny to see how curious they were of me. There was a boy about my age who wanted to sit down and chat so we talked for a while about Canada and school and than out of the blue he just said “the Chinese are bad people!” I was shocked because we were told never to mention anything about the political situation going on in Tibet because there are Chinese spies everywhere and if they hear any mention of it you will be in serious trouble, and some people just mysteriously “disappear”. For those of you who are unaware of the political situation in Tibet, the Chinese will not allow Tibet to be a free country, they have banned the Dalai Lama, the Tibetans ruler from the country and the people are never allowed to mention his name or have any photograph of him. This is extremely sad because Religion is such an important aspect of the Tibetans culture and not allowing the Dalai lama to be a part of is like going to school to learn but having no teacher. I am extremely curious about the whole political/ religious strife in Tibet but because we are not allowed to mention it without putting ourselves and others in danger I was really curious to hear more from this boy who was so blunt about the Chinese people. He tried to explain some things in the little English that he knew and when I nodded over to the guards who were sitting next to me as if saying “are you sure you should be saying this with these guys sitting here” he said not to worry they probably don’t speak English and I will be safe because I am a tourist but he would have to face the consequences. Luckily he walked away without the guards doing anything and left me with my thoughts about Tibets plight. Everywhere I went while exploring Lhasa there were military. There is said to be 200 000 people in Tibet but the actual number is 400 000 because of the military, that’s 1 soldier for every Tibetan! Its absolutely insane. Most of the time you don’t even know who is the military or not because there are so many undercover people and spies that you can never trust anyone. Its an awful way to live, always having to watch their backs and trust no one!
The next day Joanna, Michael, Nick, An and I rented some bikes and went for a cruise around Lhasa. After a while we passed by a college where we saw some boys playing a game of basketball. We really wanted to join in their game to have some local interaction but when we went to the entrance of the school the security guard would not let us “foreigners” play with the students for whatever reason. It took a lot of sweet talking by An to finally convince him to let us play one game of basketball with them. It was a good game Foregoers vs. Tibetans.. I am pretty sure we won the game but there was so much fouling and cheating going on that its hard to say. Eventually the Security guard even joined in our game and probably had the most fun out of all of us and did most of the cheating and dirty work, it was all in good fun though and he turned out to be an extremely goofy guy. After we were exhausted from playing basketball at such a high altitude we hopped back on our bikes and explored all the old alleys and maze of old streets, getting lost but eventually finding our favorite street food and heading back to our Hotel. I found my favorite little café to sip on Coffee and look out onto the streets of Lhasa and play a few games of Darts with Nick, which I found out I actually kick ass at! The next few days we went to some monasteries where we watched the normaly very reserved and quiet monks debating with each other. As one of the monks asked a question to the others sitting in front of him he would lift one leg and with a violent slap of the hands he would land with his foot and his hand right in the faces of the other monks. If the monks answered the question “wrong” than he would get all upset and make some more crazy violent gestures. This went on for hours and was extremely entertaining to see this different side of the monks. The other monastery we visited there were people building the roof and would pack the cement down on the roof to the rhythm of their dancing and singing. Outside people were praying either in front of the monastery or going around it in a circle, laying down, stretching their arms out, standing back up again and repeating this over and over sometimes for days on special holidays. Its amazing to see their dedication to their religion. Afterwards I went crazy shopping at the local market, so excited to see all the amazing Tibetan jewelry to choose from. We had a cooking lesson one night where we made delicious momo’s and after eating them all we were craving a good ol movie night since the restraint in our hotel had a DVD player. We went out side and grabbed a Brad Pitt marathon package, get this, 20 Movies and only 2 DVD’s I was shocked! They were really good quality too and we watched Fight club. It was extremely uncomfortable and embarrassing when some of the staff came in and watched the movie with us right at the sex scenes and they giggled away in the background as the older woman just shook her head in disgust!
Eventually on the 5th day we had to leave our precious Lhasa behind and work our way slowly to Nepal, driving in our van and visiting little places on the way. We started at Namsto Lake which is the highest lake in the world and it was freezing cold when we were there but it was a beautiful clean blue with the snow capped mountains in the background and Yaks chilling by the lakeside. On our drive we found a place that sold VCD’s since our van had an old school TV set and we had some long days of driving ahead of us. We watched Charlie and the chocolate factory, Indiana Jones, Jack and Crocodile Dundee a couple times. The roads were so bumpy and winding what we couldn’t really read any books and the scenery was great to watch from our windows but after you have seen the same view for 5 hours or so you start to get a little bored and need some entertainment. We visited SOOO many monasteries, that’s really the main thing to see in Tibet which I was a little shocked at and became very bored of the same information about Buddha and Tara’s and what’s a god and what’s a Buddha and so on that I started to just tune it all out at the end. It didn’t help that our Tibetan guide had REALLY bad English and didn’t really know what he was talking about when he was explaining different Buddha’s so we were all far beyond being confused.
We had to take a boat across a river to the first monastery built in Tibet and unfortunately we had a little sand storm that kicked up and our boat kept on getting pushed to shore, when we eventually made it to the other side we were covered in sand! The town was so quiet and old it felt almost like a ghost town. I got some great photo opportunities here and had one of the best sleeps of my entire trip in the comfiest bed I have ever slept on! Maybe I just haven’t slept on a good bed for so long my standards are really low but it felt like heaven! The next few days are a blur because we did so much driving along the windiest roads I have ever seen! The worst part about it was you could see all the bends and turns ahead so I could anticipate how long it was going to be and they pretty much never ended. We would stop for short breaks and stretch our legs appreciating the beautiful scenery. As I looked out the van window as we drove on I would see little kids waving frantically at our bus, a boy blowing me a kiss, Yaks blocking the road and sheep scurrying out of our way and heading down the steep mountain side. Our driver was really good and the drive was not half as bad as all my many drives to Pokhara where I would pray around each corner, still the only way to avoid crashes was by honking the horn around the sharp corners so if there was anyone coming from the other side they could hear you. A festival celebrating Buddha’s birth was going on at this time and we saw many pilgrims walking along the road with their prayer wheels constantly in their hand carrying big bundles on their backs making their way to the nearest city and some of them trying to make their way all the way to Lhasa.
Along the trip An and I became really good pals and we could confide in eachother which was so nice because traveling alone can get lonely sometimes when you don’t have someone you can talk to and trust. I am so grateful for her because the rest of the group was really hard to start conversations with, they were very quiet and I felt like I was constantly keeping the conversations going. An told me if I wasn’t on this trip they probably wouldn’t talk at all.
We stopped in a place called Gyantse where our hotel had another great rooftop view of the old town which looked like a castle on a mountain. The next day I finially couldn’t handle it anymore and told our local Tibetan guide, Tashi that we are sick of monasteries after seeing the 100th one and everyone was complaining about it. I told him we wanted to see the real culture of Tibet and meet and learn about the people. So later that day he took to an old village and we ended up having Yak Butter tea with a random family. He just asked the family if we could come in and look around and they were so open to sharing their home and served us tea and bread which was so better than wandering around a monastery. The Yak tea in Tibet is something everyone has to try because its part of heir main staple diet but GOD is it awful!! The thing is everytime you take a sip they refill the glass to show that you’re welcome to stay. It’s a great gesture but when its so hard to choke down you have to be rude at one point and just tell them you have had enough. After our tea An and I went and explored the castle-like old town we saw from our roof which was abandoned and we explored old rooms, imagining what was in them and what they looked like in the past. Shigatse was our next stop and the second biggest city in Tibet which was pretty small considering. They had a mini Potala Palace and we walked around the huge monastery spinning the prayer wheels that are lined up outside the entire way for good luck. While I was spinning the prayer wheels a little girl came up and grabbed my hand, it was so unexpected I was shocked but it was SO cute my heart just sank. She was so playful and cute and when her grandma was yelling for her I had to run her all the way and switch hands from mine to her grandma’s so that she wouldn’t follow me home. That night we grabbed some Lhasa Beer (1$ for 1.5 L) and played some pool which were outside and the locals joined in to couch An and I to victory! We ended up getting a little information about the Dalai Lama from Tashi the next day. The Panchem Lama is second in power to the Dalai Lama. Usually when one of them dies the other one chooses the substitute through a bunch of random visions they get where they eventually look into a lake and see who will be the next Panchem Lama or Dalai Lama. The Chinese government got involved in the decision making for the Panchem Lama who is in Power now after the Dalai Lama was exiled and therefore chose who it would be, making it a Chinese guy who they could manipulate. So pretty much once the Dalai Lama dies, the original religion and traditions die with him. This is because the Chinese panchem lama with the government backing him up. The chinese government will then also control religion … I hope that all made sense.. It’s a pretty sad situation.
The next place we stopped at moving higher and higher in altitude, was Sakya. There was a while bunch of random ruins and old monasteries up on the huge hill that I saw as soon as we entered the town and I immediately wanted to go explore them. Nick decided he would come along and we and we hiked up to the top were we found a random mysterious monastery that we tried to brake into with no luck, we explored some more and found a nunnery where we were ushered in kindly and they were all so friendly one even grabbed curiously at my nose ring with no hesitation. It was nice to explore these monasteries without having to learn all the details about the history of it and so on. Nick and I sat down at a stupa overlooking the old town and had a really good chat about life and travel forgetting about the time, before we knew it, it was dark and we had to head back down. Having a good heart to heart with Nick really lifted my spirits about the group and kept me in good spirits. The monastery that Tashi brought us to in the city was like all the others we saw but there was a man who was sitting in the big room where the monks do all their chatting. We were allowed to ask this guy some questions who we assumed to be a monk but he told us he was “security” working for the government. We didn’t press on further but we chatted after and we assume that he was one of the spies we heard about that are even watching over the monks to make sure they don’t talk about the Dalai Lama or anything against the Government…
After a night of hardly any sleep because of the high altitude and all the dogs barking out my window we headed out for another long journey to reach Everest Base Camp from the Tibetan side! We arrived at our accommodations which was a tent city a ways back from the actual Base camp. We were all so pumped about spending the night in their tents with a little stove to cook our food and keep us warm with an Amazing view of Mount Everest in the background, so close to us. We got tucked in by the Tibetan lady in our tent and tried to sleep. I was very snuggly warm even though it was freezing outside but the altitude made it hard to breathe and felt like I was suffocating. Apparently we all felt the same way because no one got a very good sleep. In the morning we set off on a hike to the base camp and used up our oxygen tanks to help us breathe. The oxygen tanks were 100% oxygen so we were hoping for some sort of mini high but unfortunately there was none, it just helped us breathe slightly better for a short period of time. It was really neat to see Everest for the second time on the other side. From the Nepal side it was hard to see the top at base camp and I had to hike up a mountain to actually see the tip of Everest but on the Tibetan side I saw the whole mountain from bottom to top in all its glory! It was also Joanna’s birthday so we had a little cupcake and present waiting for her when she got there. What a perfect place to spend your birthday! It was a beautiful day so we took our time looking out at Everest; I even had a short nap in the sun. I could have stayed there all day but unfortunately we had to do some more driving, back along the windy roads. Its funny when the only traffic on the road was horse drawn carriages or guys riding on their horses in their traditional clothes, our mini van felt so out of place. We passed so many tiny villages situated in the sides of hills, in the middle of no where. After a few more nights we made it to the boarder town between Tibet and Nepal. The drive was good until the end where there was lot of construction and than muddy roads around steep cliffs. Tashi only told us later once we arrived at our hotel that he had so many near death experiences on that road that he actually took a break from his job to avoid the road all together and wait until the road was finally finished being under construction. Yikes! The town appeared out of no where in the mass amounts of trees and was built along the side of a hill so we had to zig zag through town, going down like stairs. We went out for dinner and a few drinks and got Tashi a bit drunk. There was a nightclub next to our hotel that we decided to check out. There wasn’t many people inside just a few really young teens dancing around and drinking so we just all goofed off and made a fool out of ourselves dancing and not caring about how funny we all looked grooving to the Macarena! It was all fun and games until we realized that all the beautiful young girls in there were prostitutes. They were SO young and guys in army outfits would walk in and they would all hover around him feeding him beer and negotiating prices. It was so sad to see and I just wanted to grab them and steal them away! I don’t think any bar or club in that border town was just a regular place…
The next day we crossed the border into Nepal! Leaving China and going through customs and security was a long process where they checked everyone in the long line ups’ bag. As we got into Nepal and everyone got their visas sorted out I was informed that I couldn’t get a new Visa even though it was to expire the next day because I still had one more day.. So I had to wait to get it extended in Katmandu but they are only open on Mondays and so I would have to wait an extra 4 days, making me illegally in the country for 3 days… We arrived in Dulikhel, a small town outside of Katmandu to relax afer the long journey in Tibet. We stayed two nights in this amazing little “resort” hidden away with our own balconies over looking the villages and rice terraces below. While we stayed here Nick, An and I went on a day trek through the villages and went to a monastery where they did burning of the bodies. I have seen so many bodies being burned on my trip that it hardly phased me when we saw another one here with its feet hanging out the side of the wood but this was An and Nicks first time seeing it and An could hardly stand being anywhere near it. We walked back to our hotel room and I realized how much I missed Nepal, it really does feel like a second home to me now.
On our last day with the group trip we went to Kathmandu where I was the guide showing everyone the nicest places to eat and where to find the best bargains and so on. Its funny, I am even recognized by the locals here too some of the restraints and internet cafes are always shocked to see that I am back again! We went out for a nice last dinner and went to a rooftop bar for some sheesha to re-cap our great adventure together!

WOW that has got to be the longest Blog yet, it took me way too long to write it but its nice to go over it in writing and remember all the experiences I had.

China

I am really behind on my blog (sorry brooke lol) but because of the Chinese governemnt sensoring, blogs being freedom of speech are not allowed to e accessed.
After the Yoga retreat i was feeling a little blue, no longer having the friends I had gotten used to travelling with but i knew that a new adventure in a new country would lift up my spirits and I was right.
During the flight to Beijing I had a stop over in Tibet and a local Tibetan guy climbed into the seat next to me. I was reading my 7 years in Tibet book, getting myself slightly educated about the culture and the Dalai Lama from the author, Heinrich Harrer's perspective when the Tibetan guy taps me on the knee and asks me what I am reading. When he saw that it was in fact 7 years in tibet he told me i should be especially careful with the book and not to let many people see I am reading it because it could get me into some trouble. Heinrich Harrer writes about the negative effect China had/still has over Tibet so its been banned in the country. This was a nice little wake up call for what i was to expect in a communist country and from then on I kept my book hidden in my knees just in case.
I arrived in China late at night and caught a taxi to my Hostel. Luckily I had the Hostels name printed in Mandarin because the taxi driver didnt speak a word of english but unfortuanetly i had no cash to pay her and she didnt understand me when i said i needed t stop at an ATM so that was an expereince in itself after a long day. This was also another wake up call, not many people speak English in China so its harder to get around on your own.
My hostel was amazing and 10 minutes away from Tianamen Square.
The very first day I arrived i hit the streets to Explore. After some shopping there was a nice girl who stopped me to admire my bleach blonde hair and blue eyes and we talked for a while with questions back and forth. She seemed like a nice girl so when she asked me to go for some tea i didnt see why not, I had the whole day alone so i thought i might aswell have some local interaction...Tea seems like an innocent thing to do right? WRONG! We went to this little tea house, nothing fancy and had a tea ceremony done for us. This is where you get several different types of tea served to you in tiny chinese glasses (smaller than a shot glass) just to get a taste of what the tea is like. We had a nice chat but she was a little strange and very hyper but I had no problem passing the day sipping some tea... that is until we got the bill... 1500 Yuen!!!! thats 75$ i had to pay once we split it! I almost cried, i am travelling on a budget and 75$ could have lasted me all week! I told her this and she pretty much told me tough luck. I payed the bill, being trapped in the situation and hightailed it away from her. I was scammed! I got back to my hostel and complained to my Roomates about what had happened, they laughed and pointed to the reception desk where there was a big sign reading "DO NOT GO FOR TEA CEREMONIES WITH CHINESE STRANGERS" I was crushed, and wished i had payed attention to the sign, however you live and you learn and it just adds to my list of silly travel experiences. Other than the scam i had a great time in Beijing just wandering around and going to different palaces and temples, exploring Beijing using the subway system which i was SO proud of being able to do alone. I went to the famous silk market which is 7 floors of knock off, brand name clothes and accessories. It was nuts in there! everyone shouting at you to buy from their stall and some getting aggressive and pulling you in. If they say a t-shirt costs 500 Yuen, i would bargain for 100 or less and each time they would end up giving in. Its a dangerous place for a girl, way too easy to spend Far too mcuh money. I could have spent all day there but i knew i was on a budget and i also had no more room in my bag.
I started another group trip after a few days on my own in Beijing and was a little shocked to see an old couple in their mid 70's sitting at our table however i relaxed once we started talking because they seemed like the young at heart type just looking for another adventure. Their names are Gordon and Brenda and they were quiet cute and funny. There was also a Polish couple Joanna and Micheal, an Australian, Nick and An my chinese tour guide. I knew i wasnt going to have a problem with them, they all seemed like laid back folks.
What really got me started on wanting to come to China was when a couple i met up with in India started talking about how they were going to the great wall and i was so envious and knew i HAD to get there to see this wonder of the world. So when we made it to the Wall I was overjoyed! It was so amazing to be able to walk along the old bricks and see it stretch on forever! I walked for a a few hours and explored as far as they would let you until it became to eroded it was unsafe. To get down from the wall I took a sled that ran on a metal semi-circle tube which was a blast. Everywhere i went i felt like a celebrity having chinese take pictures of me like crazy paparazzi! There was no way of stopping them so i just let it happen, at first it was really funny but it got extremely tireing after a while and i just wanted them to leave me alone. At tianament Square when it was cold and miserable and i was miserable because i only had a light sweater a girl literally just grabbed me and stuck the camera in my face.. i was not impressed and i am sure it showed in her picture as i made one of my famous scowls. A boy once stood infront of me and joanna as we were trying to watch people dancing in the park and took pictures 2 feet away, so i mockingly started taking pictures of him but after 5 minutes he didnt budge and so we gave up and walked away. We visited the Terra Cotta warriors and i am ashamed to say i wasnt blown away like i was at the great wall.. However it is still a pretty cool thing to see. We visited the Giant Panda's and got to Meet An's roomates. One is from Canada!! It was nice to go out for some beers and talk with some people more in my age range. Me and An got along really well and has become a great friend of mine throughout the trip. Its funny how after being in China you start to stereotype the Chinese people. They are always rushing around from place to place, they have to be first for everything so they push and shove you around if your not fast enough. They are loud and just kinda goofy people if you ask me but An broke that stereotype and was just alot of fun. Taking the Train in China is an intense expereience aswell where you see the chinese impatiance in its prime! when there is an announcement that the train has arrived but it will not be ready to board for another half hour or so everyone jumps up and starts making a mad disorganized line trying to be first, all along we are still chilling in our seats waiting. Once its time to board you are pushed roughly along the mob, i probably wouldnt even need to move my feet and i would just get pushed to where i needed to be. In Chengdu we went out for Hot Pot dinner which is just a big boiling pot of extremely spicey oil that you dip all sorts of raw food inside, and wait for it to cook, its really good but extremely greasy like all chinese food! After our spicely meal we bought some beer from the corner store (there beer is only 3.6% alcohol!) and feeling rebellious i got to drink my beer on the streets and in the taxi we took to the Nightclub. They thought it was pretty funny how pumped i was that it was legal to have a beer out in the open. The Chinese nightclub was a hilarious time. We walked in and i tried to take a picture and immedaitely a security guard grabbed me and told me i wasnt able to... whatever thats about i dont know. The music was mostly Western stuff and at one point they were singing a remix if Happy birthday for no good reason while everyone was still dancing about enjoying the song. There was this one obviously gay guy who was up on the high boxes in front of the DJ just kicking everyones ass at dancing and he got me to come up with him and join him. We danced the night away and i had to choke down a few awful drinks of jackdaniels with a WHOLE lot of water that were given to me. The Chinese really dont need alot of alcohol to get drunk so it tasted like yucky water to me but they got pretty drunk off of it. It was a good night until i had some really random allergic reaction to the pollen in the air or something and could hardly breathe so we had to go back to our hotel.
We ditched the big cities and hiked into the jungle where we spent 3 nights sleeping in monasteries which was suh a peaceful experience. We went on a hike that took us to one of the monasteries hidden away we stayed at and on the way we literally had to fend off monkeys. They were so aggressive and would follow us up the trails wanting food, we had to use our walking sticks to hit them away. We got to experience something really amazing and unique at one of the monaseries; One of the Head monks had passed away and so there was a huge ceremony where they burned the body, lit candles in huge designs and chanted over and over for hours. We were the only white people in a huge mass of monks and as I walked away when it came to a close a little old monk gently handed me an orange, this is a huge honour because it has been blessed by the monks and for good luck and a long life.
This was only the start of the trip but i felt like i really got a good feel for China and had so many great expereiences. However I was excitedly awaiting when we would finially make our way into the mysterious magical land of Tibet...



Tibetan adventures... To be continued :)

Yoga In the Jungle

After the long days of trekking that made my legs all stiff and sore, I knew that a nice relaxing Yoga retret was in Order. I head up to Pokhara with my new bud Alessandro who would join me at the Yoga retreat just a day after arriving back to Kathmandu from the trek. The Yoga retreat was Exactly what i needed! It was a hidden away oasis, a good hike out of town in the lush trees surrounded by nature. Each Day was routine but the Yoga and the People were always changing..
My day would look something like this
5:45 wake up
6:00 Meditation
Nature Walk
Nose Cleanse (pouring warm salty water from one nostril through the other)
8:30 Yoga
9:30 Breakfast
10:30 Steam or Mud bath (cleanse and detoxify our skin)
Free time (AKA SUNTANNING)
12:00 Meditation
1:00 Lunch
Free Time (AKA MORE SUNTANNING)
3:30 Optional Karma Yoga (doing Chores basically)
4:00 Tea and Popcorn
4:30 Chanting/Singing
5:30 Yoga
7:00 Dinner

It was a packed schedule but it was perfect! The Family that run the place were amazing people and the Food they made was flippin fantastic! It was all vegitarian, organic homemade food and each meal blew me away..
The Yoga was great, each class was different from the last some pretty funny aswell where we had to practice laughing for 10 minutes.
The Meditation we practiced was where we would sit for an hour and could not move. We would repeat the Mantra OM than follow later on by repeating So Hum in our heads concentrating on our breathing. I had a hard time silencing my always wandering mind so i would sing the other mantra's i have learnt during chanting in my head to stay focused. There are so many differnt forms of meditation and I am hoping to discover differnt ways. My absolute favorite part of the day was Chanting, another form of meditation. We all sat around a circle with a drum and would sing repetative Mantra's with our eyes closed, Belting them out loud and proud. It was Liberating! If my family is reading this you guys better get ready for a chanting session when i get back home!
I Loved every minute of the 10 days I spent there... well actually apart from the dreadful cleanse that i did.
I fasted for 2 days only eating a apple each meal. This part was surprisingly easy and enjoyable, it was the 3rd day that was hell..
Me and the other girl joining me on the cleanse had to drink cup after cup of salty warm water, do some excercises and than drink more water. This repeated until a little knock came down in the rear end where we would run to the toilet. I will spare you the gory details but we ended up drinking 20 cups of salty water, did 10 sets of excercises and went to the bathroom more times than i can remember until everything that came out was clear as Pee...
Sorry, but when you travel you just dont care anymore about holding back the toilet talk to anyone, It becomes everyday conversation.
So now i am Fully refreshed, vitalized and cleansed inside and out before I take off on my adventures to China and Tibet!

Mt. Everest Trek

I am not sure how to compile my 12 days of trekking into this blog but i am going to try my best.. This trek was something i was really looking forward to, after being in crazy Kathmandu for so long i couldn't wait to wake up each day for 12 days to the beautiful Himalaya's at my fingertips.
The trek began with a rough start, Susan (my fellow Canadian volunteer and Trekking companion) and I waited around for 8 hours in the tiny airport waiting for the cancellation confirmation due to cloudy skies. It was a test of self control and patience since we had no books, diaries, cards or food to keep us occupied for the 8 hours. The next day was a success and we got on the tiny 10 person plane in no time. We flew parallel to the monstrous mountains even though we were thousands of feet up in the air, looking down and seeing the tiny villages spotting the mountains. We landed in Lukla, the starting point of the trek. It was a whole different world to Kathmandu; The cold air hit me as soon as i stepped off the plane, everyone walking around in big fluffy down jackets, Sherpa's and Porters waiting hungrily at the airport gate for some business.. We already had our Guide and Porter lined up, my Guide was tiny old man named Krishna with the sweetest smile and most contagious laugh. My Porter was probably the happiest person i have seen in Nepal, carrying our bags that weighed a good 40 Kg everyday for 12 days up and down hills, walked faster than any of us and still had the biggest smile on his face.
We were told the first day of the trek would be about 4 hours, a nice casual day to start off with. I set off with the biggest grin on my face, here i am, trekking to the most famous mountain in the world the dream and goal of the most avid trekkers. We passed many small Sherpa villages, pristine waterfalls leading to crystal clear rivers (instead of the foul covered rivers of Kathmandu), and passed over suspension bridges covered in prayer flags blowing in the wind. I was pumped and energetic and was slightly disappointed when we stopped only 2 hours later at our sleeping destination.. I thought if we walked here in 2 hours when it is supposed to be 4 this trek is going to be easy peasy, and was a little worried that it was going to be alot of slow days... Boy was that a stupid presumption.
To make me feel like I had a good worthwhile day trekking I got Krishna to take us up a hill for a couple hours to some hidden monastery. It felt a lot better arriving at the lodge tired rather than just getting started. This is when our little group of two, formed into a group of 4 trekkers. My guide and another guide who were friends met up at this lodge and we bonded with the other trekkers, Alessandro from Italy and Leonora from Germany whom i recognized waiting at the airport the previous day. We decided to trek up together for some more company which worked out wonderfully because than I had another person to hike with me while Susan could take her time. We spent the night playing cards, drinking tea and eating momo's. (perogie like dumplings filled with veg) Our lodges all the way up the trek were very similar, a tiny room with just enough space to fit 2 twin sized beds, there were very cute and cozy.
Each day I woke up at 6:30, ate my warm muesli with fruit, packed my bag and set off at 8:00. The first half hour was always a little chilly but as soon as we got going and the sun started to come out i shed most of my layers and began sweating. The second day was largely going steeply uphill or a rocky path. Susan and Leonora fell behind and Alessandro and I trekked on. It was good to have company to keep motivated and a little pressure to keep going. It was a big difference to the day before, and it kicked in that it was not going to be a piece of cake. We arrived at Namche 8 hours later at 3440 m. We stayed here two nights to acclimatize to the altitude. It was good fun, playing cards in the lodges, going out for apple crumble at the bakeries and just kicking back. We did go on a little trek on our rest day up higher but only for a few hours. Our goal was to make it to the Sir Edmond Hilary school but it got too cold and windy and we were too sweaty from climbing so we worried about catching a cold..
Th menu's at the lodges had quiet a wide variety of foods but i stuck to my daily routine of Muesli, fruit and tea in the morning, Sherpa stew for lunch (a soup filled with veggies, potatoes and dumplings- good for the energy) and usually soup, momo's or Dal Bhat for dinner.
On some mornings Alessandro and I would wake up earlier and do some Yoga in the morning. What better place to do Yoga than in the middle of the peaceful mountains, watching the sun come up. It was Perfect!
Each Day was spent trekking thicker and thicker into the mountains, closer to the goal of Everest. We would pass yaks all lined up with huge piles of gear on their backs which would force us to scramble up and out of their way. The amount of weight some of the Porters we say carrying things up and down the hills were insane! They have got to be one of the strongest groups of people in the world. We had one Snow storm that hit us when we were halfway up a long steep mountain. I had to get into my down jacket, gloves hats, everything and trek on up the hill. We were initially going to try to push on to a further village but it was just too cold and the snow was getting heavier and heavier, blocking our view so we hunkered down in a cute little lodge as we waited out the storm. I was so glad we stopped because it was so nice to get all cozy in the blankets with a hot cup of tea around the yak poo fueled fire; it reminded me of Christmas! When the snow stopped we went out to see the mountains all around us. It was the most stunning view we had seen so far, The mountains were so crisp and felt like arms distance away. We snuck out that night after dinner and went to the Bakery for some mocha chocolate cake... Yes they have Bakery's even at 3800 m... They were pretty much everywhere.
The higher we went the colder and colder the nights got and the more difficult it was to sleep. I would cover my head with my sleeping bag but then run out of breath due to the altitude and be sucking for air. Its not a nice experience when you cant sleep, your cold and you know you have to wake up at 6:00 to go trekking for 8 hours. Still... I managed and was surprised with the energy I had. I don't want to boast but i was damn proud of myself and impressed with the energy and level of fitness i had. I was always leading the group, and My guide was always telling me he doesn't know how I walk so fast. It felt good to push my body, sweat and feel the sore muscles in my legs. I loved this trekking experience so much i know that when i get back home i want to get more into it, i felt on top of the world.
We were able to see The tip of Everest a few days into the trek which was my constant reminder of what my goal was. We reached the final village Gorek Shep at 5150 m after 8 days, dropped off our bags at the lodge and Leanora, Alessandra and I trekked on to the Base Camp. We were told it was going to be a difficult 6 hour journey.. 3 hours each way and we had already trekked 3 hours to get to Gorkshep on this day so we hustled and were surprised when we could see The bright yellow tents in the distance after only 1 and a half hours. It was a great feeling to have worked so hard and waited so long and to finally get to our destination. I was so giddy, taking a ton of pictures and soaking up the fact that here i am... EVEREST BASE CAMP!!!
That evening we all cuddled up by the fire and talked with some people who were actually going on an expedition to summit Mt. Everest. It was neat to hear their enthusiasm after training for years. There was also a movie crew where were filming a T.V series on the travel network. Apparently they travel around from place to place and film their little adventures; i think its sort of like the show we get called Departures. Its called "Dhani tackles the Globe" if anyone is interested in looking it up.
Just wait though the trek is not finished... The next morning we got up at 4:45 to start our ascent to Calapatta to watch the sun rise over Everest. These is a lot of hype about making it to the top of Calapatta and most people skip base camp and just do this instead. When you see the mountain it doesn't look too bad, its all up hill but from where we were it looked manageable... that is where i was wrong...
Still dark, in the freezing cold i started up the hill, immediately i felt my lungs working double time to try and get used to the cold and the altitude. My toes went numb halfway up the hill and each step was a painful chore. I did not think i was going to make it, there was NO WAY i kept telling myself my body did just not want to push any further. I kept fighting with myself saying " i have made it this far there is no way i am backing down now" Still i would stop every 2 minutes and look down to how far i have come, than look up to see how far i had to go and it just seemed impossible. Finally i got a hold of myself and pushed passed all my thoughts and went for it. It was probably THE hardest thing i have ever done in my life but i made it. I got to the top of Calapatta and cried! I Cried because i Could not believe that i had actually completed what i thought earlier to be impossible, I also cried because i could not feel my toes, fingertips or face!
It was really emotional making it to the top just in time to see the sun rise directly behind Mt. Everest. MT. FREAKING EVEREST!
It was gorgeous, breathtaking, stunning, i just don't know how to explain it! It was so much more Amazing because the energy and all the heart and soul i put into making it here.

The trek back was meant to be 4 days but we crammed it into 3 which was not so bad. They were long days but there was a lot more downhill than uphill this time so it was easier. We laughed as we watched others suffer up the hills we suffered as we merrily bounded effortlessly passed them. It was a good feeling haha.
When we reached Lukla we went out for some ice cold Beers to celebrate.. We spent all night playing pool and talking with other trekkers who had just finished the same trek. It was a great way to end it all off.
So there it is... My Everest Experience, The time of my life!!

Pokhara

The three girls i have gotten to know in Kathamndu decided to take a little week getaway to beautiful Pokhara, an 8 hour bus ride. Pokhara is based around a gorgeous lake with the snowcapped himalyas on one side and forested hills for hiking on the other side. We went for a boat ride around the lake the first day exploring the little coves and lakeside restraunts. The next day we went for a hike to the Peace Pogodia, a Buddhist Monestary on the top of a mountian. We happened to miss path that takes up you the hill and ended up going completely AROUND the mountain and up the hill at the steepest possible way. It ended up being alot longer and harder hike than we expected but we got to go through local villages on the side of the mountain and it was That much more fufilling making it to the top. We managed to make it down the faster way on the way back down. We have been going out to local bars with live music and good company each night, but nothing is open passed midnight. We went out For st. Patricks day and had some drinks and had to wake up at 5:00 the next morhing in order to watch the sunrise from the highest peak in Pokhara, just as well the bars close early. After 4 hours of sleep we hopped in a cab and made our way to the top of the mountain. The sun came up slowly and was spectacular but the height of the beauy was when it started to hit the tips of the mountains all around us, it was breathtaking. I have come to realize i am a mountain girl... I Love the mountains and would feel so homesick without them. We hiked all the way down the steep steps down the hill. This did not feel so good after our huge hike the day before. I found a pool to sit by and soak up the beautiful day for the rest of the day but when i stood up i felt like my legs were half paralized from all our hiking. This morning was the best day of all! Paragliding!!! I was nervous but mostly just so excited, i have done bungeejumping so paragliding was a fear that was alot easier to overcome. I got strapped in, ran a few steps and gracefully lifted up into the air! it was unbelievably surreal! Flying with the hawks higher looking down at Pokhara beneath me, as high as the mountains. My guide let me take control for a bit and steer the parachute. I got to spend about 45 minutes in the air with the biggest grin on my face the hole time. We did some minor airobatics, some crazy loops and scoops in the air before landing on the side of the lake. It was such an unreal view and expereience, Next Skydiving!
Its another scorthing day so we plan on renting the boat again and going to the middle to swim for a bit in the lake. I love Pokhara and glad i will be back for my Yoga retreat in 3 weeks! I spend a week with my kids at the orphanage in Kathmandu and Take off for my everest trek next thursday! Cant wait!

Drama Drama Drama!

I have been having quiet the Drama with hairdressers in Kathmandu... After the HOli celebrations my hair went multicoloured, bright red, orange and yellow... i pretty much looked like a clown and it was clinging to the bleach in my hair and didnt look like it was going anywhere anytime soon... so i made the huge mistake of trusting someone to dye my hair in Nepal... So first I went and tried getting it died my natural mousey brown colour to cover up the rainbow in my hair... after an hour in the chair it turned up pretty much the exact same colour that it was when I first came in but turned the rest of my hair a goldy yellow... GREAT! so I went to the nest salon.. a sketchy one at that... the guy didnt speak english but he was one of the only places that actually had bleach in his saolon so i thought i would brave it out... I pretty much had to teach him how to highlight my hair and roll it in tinfoil, almost doing his job for him While holding a candle because the power went out... after 3 hours in that salon i came out with almost normal hair but the orange red colour had now turned pink with the bleach and the places that did not have bleach were still the grungy gold colour.. I though i might just be able to suck up this awfull hair but i got too caried away into my vanity and went back a week later (yesterday) and handed him a letter written in nepalese telling him that i am not satisfied and need to get it fixed for free... of coarse this didnt work because i am in Nepal and nothing is free..
From what i understood from the little nepal and handgestures i know the hairdresser thought we should just bleach my whole head.. i thought this might just work because the blonde that came out last time was pretty nice... HUGE MISTAKE! another 2 hours sitting in the salon chair and my hair is yellow... a bright white/yellow. At first i laughed at my reflection because that was the only expression i could come up with. i am a clown. I then freaked out saying they need to fix it, dye it black or something, ANYTHING but this! i cried, called my friends in a frenzy and the manager got involved telling me his hairdresser is not an expert and its not his fualt... NOT AN EXPERT!? WHY THE HELL IS HE WORKING HERE THAN!. yes it is Nepal, i must not forget. So you may notice in a few pictures coming up that i post that i now have yellow/white hair.. and now you know the long process in how i got into this mess.
Wow that was far too long of a story about my vanity, but there it is!

After the mess in the salon and having a good laugh at my new hair, my nepalese friends, the girls and I went out to a live rock concert in Durbur Square. All eyes were on us as we let loose a little throwing in the odd air guitar dance and head bang. It was huge, and everyone was just loving the music. When we left to head back to our guesthouse There was a huge bang that came from behind us that sounded like gun shots. I looked behind to find the massive metal barricades that were holding everyone in the concert were falling down in a domino effect and crushing people as it came down. Everyone was screaming and running, terribfied that they too weill be crushed, if not from the baricades than from the other people running. We all latched on to eachother and Bolted as fast as we could through the crowd. It was quiet scary and although not as catastrophic in any sense, reminded me of when i saw people running away as the twin towers were falling down on th news. We got out of it safely but i have yet to find out the damage, i am sure there was a few people who would have been crushed...

This morning We woke up at 5:30 to catch our bus to Pokhara and just as we sat down on our bus we were told that we cant go today because there is a strike on the roads and we cannot pass.. So just as well we got breakfast and now you all get to hear the details of my rediculous hair drama.
:)

Orphanage

I breifly gave you some information on the orphanage i am staying at now in Kathmandu but ill give you more of the scoop.
There are 50(ish) kids here, its hard to keep track of them all because there seems to be new ones arriving on a dialy basis. I have only been here a week and there are already 4 new kids. A family runs the Orphange, started by a woman called Beina, her two sons, sister, brothers, mom and dad all help out. Rachana, Beina's sister is in her mid twinties and when other people her age are going out and socializing and going to colledge she pretty much dropped her life to help out with the home and be with the kids, she works so hard i dont know how she keeps going! They struggle with money all the time, the kids are not getting a nutritious diet only eating rice and a mixture of cabbage and rolled up flour as dumplings for their meals. I have been eating their meals for the last week and can already feel a difference in my body, i am weaker, and more tired and really craving flavour! I have had to buy a bunch of fruit because i just cant eat any more starch!
There are about 20 kids who are going to school now but the new kids are going to be starting up the following year. I want them to and from school most days and it takes a good 45 minutes to get there. On the way to school we pass through the temples and river where they burn the bodies. Each morning we guess how many dead bodies we will see for the day taking them to and from school. Their school is actually right near the cremation sight, where all the tourists are so they have an open school room for the young kids for tourists to walk by and donate to their school. There is alot of down time here, when the volunteers and I get tired we just hang outside in the sun chatting with eachother, picking out lice from the kids heads... other times we teach them english and math and than spend the rest of the time just making them smile, playing games and keeping them occupied.
There is one little kid who at first i thought was a girl, but on shower day found out was a little boy. He is always sitting in the corner alone, looking down at the floor, no expression, no energy. People just ignore him and the kids a mean to him but he kind of goes unnoticed in a house full of rambuncious kids. He never talks and never smiles, so he became my project for the last few days. I took a liking to him and tried to give him attention, with no success, he would just keep looking at the floor no matter what i tried. The other day, after a week trying with him we were all downstairs watching the loud kids dance, soaking up our attention. Amongst all the noise and excitement he came and stood infront of me, head down, no smile, but almost testing me seeing if he was allowed to have attention too. I grabbed him with a huge hug and put him on my lap and cuddled him. He usually would push away from such affection but he melted in my arms. I felt so good! To top it off, the next day i saw him again quiet, sad and sitting in the corner i picked him up twisted him around and he had the biggest smile on his face ever! just those little things like making the quiet, non affectionate kid who never gets any attention to smile and feel comfortable with me makes the whole experience that much better.
They are goofing around with me more and more these days and i am getting more of a feel of living with them.
Volunteering like this is a great expereince for me, its forcing me to come out of my comfort zone with giving affection and dealing witht he kids, and is really testing my patients. Its Grea to be able to live like the real Nepalese do, eat their food, sleep on their bed.. PLywood, and partake in their daily lives. No tourist who comes and stays at the top end guest house would ever see this side of Nepal. I am blessed!
tomorrow we are ordering a bunch of Momo's (dumplings filled with meaty goodness) for the kids as a surprise. Friday Pemba, and Faba, the two sons about my age are taking us girls to an outside concert all day where some hip bands are playing, that should be fun and exciting:)

Kathmandu

What a way to spend my 19th birthday, arriving in Kathmandu, a city bustling with character. We went out to a nice bar where they played live music and the singers dedicated a song to my as the cooks brought out free drinks and cake for my table. It was alot of fun and also a great way to end my group trip with Intrepid. It was so weird to be on my own again after the tour ended.
I just recently decided that i am no longer going to go to Europe. I dont really know what i was thinking when i decided to go there in the first place, when there is still so much to see in Asia. I am in the groove here, loving the culture and the people I cant even imagine leaving here yet and going to an whole new world in Europe. I can save that for another time in my life, but for now my heart is in Asia. So along with being alone in Kathmandu I now have to cancel all my plans in Europe and my plane tickets and begin planning my next adventure, which was a little stressful for me.
I have my plan sort of figured out now; After doing my Yoga Retreat for a week i will fly to Beijing and start a China/Tibet Adventure for a month. Starting off by seeing the Great wall and Terra Cotta Warriors than experience the colorful culture of Tibet. The change of plans makes me more excited for whats to come of my trip.

I Stayed a couple of nights in Thamal, The crazy, backpacker's heaven of Kathmandu. The roads are lined with different shops and pubs selling everything you could possibly need. I really got the hang of living in Thamal, starting off with language lessons in the morning, walking around and enjoying the energy during the evenings. On my Second day of being in Kathmandu, there just so happened to be the most crazy festival of the Year, Holi. Originally, on this holiday boys would throw powder at girls that they liked to "claim" them but now its just a huge party in the streets where people throw water and colored powder at anyone and everyone. There is no way you can walk the streets without being attacked by people with powder, covering your entire body. I went to check out this holiday and immediately got attacked by two kids smearing bright blue powder in my hair and on my face. I got into the spirit of the holiday and bought some water balloons, filling them with water and powder and throwing them for defense. I ran into a group of young backpackers who were really getting into Holi, and tagged along with them all day. We ran around the streets and at one point led a group of about 50 Nepalese guys celebrating through the streets. We took cover in a Closed convenience store, the store manager feeding us junk food and alcohol from his shop. It was one of the best days so far but the fun ended when me and the other girls i was with all got 3 raw eggs cracked on our heads and mobs of guys would try to "feel us up" and got aggressive. We had some drinks and than cleaned up but i STILL have orange yellow and red hair from the powder after 3 days... It was fun to be able to meet some fun young travelers and join in the celebrations together..
I am learning a little bit of Nepalese but its been a little challenging. Today I got dropped off at my next volunteer home, an orphanage housing 50 kids. I am defiantly going to need to practice more Nepalese because most of them just look at me like i am stupid when i try to talk to them. The orphanage is not very structured or organized.. the kids basically run around with no rules or people watching them. I am lukcily with two other voolunteers so i have some people to hang out with aswell.. I well keep you posted on how its going, the computert is about to shut off....

Chitwan

The thick fog creating a spooky, dark feeling surrounded us as we walked down the long pathway to the temple they made marking the birth place of Buddha. Monks sat around the tree where Buddha had his enlightenment, prayer flags covering absolutely every branch, stringed along like a tent. The prayer flags are put up and as the wind blows them each prayer is answered. I thought this was such a romantic (maybe that's not the right word, but all i can come up with) way to pray.
We drove for another 4 hours to get to Chitwan national Park.
Elephants and camels casually stroll down the street in the little tourist town of Chitwan. We settle into our hotel room, Rachel Super sick sleeps in our room as the rest of us go for a bike ride to an elephant breeding center. The Bike ride was an experience in itself. We were on these ancient bikes and had to bike on rocky, bumpy roads which made our bums bruised and our arms vibrate like crazy. We got to see the first ever Elephant twins in the world, SO cute! We went out for a nice rooftop dinner and stuffed ourselves with yummy Nepali food. The Nepali food i have seen so far is a lot like Indian but with a lot more variety of meats.. I am still trying to figure out a truly traditional Nepali meal.
The next day we started on our 2 day trek in the Jungle. The highlight of the trek is to spot the Rhino! We were warned ahead of time that if a Rhino charges all you can do it run in Zig zags, because they cant turn fast or climb a tree... I was secretly hoping that i would experience being chased by a rhino. We walked for hours, saw lots of birds, deer, wild chicken, wild pigs and lots of exotic bugs but hadn't spotted a Rhino. I was getting bummed out but then the guide spotted one and we all rushed through the trees to get closer. As we neared we could here it snorting and grunting guarding the young rhino at her side. We were super quiet, i was so excited to be so close but also a little nervous of what she might do. All of a sudden the Rhino let out a Huge grunt and one of the guides told us to start moving away fast, up the hill. When the guide started saying RUN, 5 of us girls just Booked it through the trees, frantically sprinting not knowing where to go, believing that a huge rhino was coming after us, and we would soon be his meal. As a scream out FIND A TREE the guide comes running up behind us huffing and puffing between laughs. He found it so funny 5 white girls frantically running for their lives but no rhino was chasing them. Although we took his message of Run as desperate attempt to save our lives he just wanted us to get a ways back to give the Rhino space, not to Bolt it through the jungle. The 5 of us with our adrenaline still running on full speed were almost peeing ourselves laughing at the whole situation. Everyone teased us for dramatizing the whole situation but to us we thought we were actually being chased. It was Hilarious!!
In total we walked 14 km through the jungle that day and ended up at a little village with our own little rooms to bunk for the night. We all took half attempted showers, putting our dirty clothes right back on and were treated to a Thali (assortment) of Nepali Dishes. Everyone was zonked so they went to bed slowly one by one until it was just me and Anand by the fire listening to cheesy bollywood music. I went to bed on the hard plywood mattress getting ready for a nice hike back.
When we arrived back at our Hotel area, we got to clean off in the river while bathing with the elephants. I got to get up on their back and they would spray water with their trunks in my face and slowly roll over, dunking me in the water.
Perfect way to cool off after a long hike I'd say!

Heading to Nepal

My alarm clock went off at 3:30 this morning so i could catch our Jeep at 4:00 am and endure a long, bumpy journey to Nepal. We were all so tired but sleeping was nearly impossible, all of us crammed next to each other. Just as i started to nod off to sleep there would be a bump in the road that would send my head flying into the roof. I slept in 10 minute intervals for the first 2 hours of the ride then gave up. Ratha, the woman on my trip who came to India to fulfill her lifelong dream of bathing in the Ganges was going to do this today. Anand knew of a huge festival that was happening about 4 hours away and we stopped here for her to do this. The festival was huge but just in the middle of a little village town, thousands of people just get up and leave their homes for weeks to come to this one festival. The festival is due to the time of year that the people believe the stars are aligned in such way that it gives the most energy to the Holy rivers, thus the best time to come and wash away their sins and worship their gods. We pulled up and immediately a circle of people surrounded us, making it pretty uncomfortable and a bit scary because we didn't really know how people would react to us. As soon as we started walking they parted the circle and we walked through an isle of staring eyes into the main tent. We were shuffled into a back room where we were told to wait, all of us not sure exactly what the hell was going on. Some guys carrying guns and decked out in full army suits came and we were told they were or body guards... Apparently many of the people at the festival have never seen white people so they wanted us to have protection just in case they got too curious or rough? We were ushered to the river side as Ratha bathed in the water, and learned about a foundation that a guy had started and was promoting at the festival to help kids on the streets who are abandoned. We all decided it would be nice to give a small donation to this cause so in front of thousands of people sitting in this tent praying, we walked up to the front, where the man was praying and dropped money into his pile of flowers. He gave us oranges and grapes and banana's as his offering of thanks and told everyone of the donation we had just made and wanted us all to get up and say a speech. It was so bizarre! We just showed up to this festival and now we were hero's, famous, glamorous westerners coming to save the day! We each went up and told them our name, or nationality and why we loved India and the people clapped and cheered like we were rock stars. As our 5 minutes of fame came to an end we walked out of the tent, everyone was trying to touch us, get a handshake or wave from us, some even bowing to us! It was so out of this world we didnt know how to handle it.
As our jeep slowly took off trying not to hit all the people gawking at us we giddily reminisced about the whole experience. Anand was just as excited as we were, having never expected for that to happen. Our happiness was quickly shot down when we realized we still had a good 5 hours to go! We slowly made our way to the Nepal Boarder and dealt with our Visa's. I originally was going to cross the boarder alone without a group but am so thankful that i didn't because it was pretty intimidating and i wouldn't know where to go or who to trust. We arrived at our destination, Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha just as the sun was setting. Wish such a looooooong day of driving, it was so nice to have a hot steaming shower accompanied by a chilled glass of Everest Beer before passing out.

Varanasi

Back to the clutter and noise of India, we arrive in Varanasi.
I hand wash some clothes and let sit in the sun, then wander the streets for a while with Rachel, sip some tea and indulge in some peanut brittle cookies. Its hot, perfectly hot; I cant imagine what its like in the Summer months. We walk down and explore the Ghats along the river. Each Ghat, or section along the river, has its own name and temple for a specific God or Goddess to worship. There are boys playing rugby, nearly hitting my head right off, kids playing and trying to sell us flowers and to smoke billowing out from the burning hearts. Its so strange how everyone is going about doing their daily prayers and playing sports while there are dead bodies being burning right in front of them. We walked up near one, and as a boy beat at the flame trying to burn everything, i see a leg. Its shocking, but its just so natural for them.. its just what you do. There are not girls allowed as the bodies are being burned because they believe that if you shed a tear than the dead will not be blessed by the gods for a tear symbolizes that they did not complete what they were meant to do on earth..
We board a boat and watch the sun set as we see the burning hearts from the water. On our way back we watch a ceremony that happens every single night where every single prayer from all the different regions of India are performed. We light about 100 candles that are placed inside bamboo bowls surrounded by flowers and drop each one into the Ganges. Every flower that we place in the water is a wish we get to make, there were so many flowers that i ended up making like 15 wishes!
We went out for dinner and drinks at a hip little place and Anand kept on disappearing than reappearing with different clothes on, asking for our opinion on what looked best on him. Finally all the girls walked across the street to where he kept walking out of the store with all the merchandise and we gave him a makeover.
When we got back to the Hotel some people went to bed but a few of us went up on the roof of the hotel and had some more drinks, still affected by the burning hearts we talked about different cultures and how they deal with death. Its cool to get an Indian's perspective on it.
Although it was a late night, i woke up at 5:30 to see the sun rise and get a better look at the Ghats and Burning while most of the group opted out of it. I had some of the best organic Granola of my life for breakfast and ended up almost buying her our completely of it for all my snacks. The rest of the day we went to the markets and i strolled around observing all the people. The City is full of Hippy's, smoking from their pipes and tripping out, having conversations with the air in front of them.
I am getting a really wide variety of India on this trip i feel. Its great to see how each place has its unique characteristics and people.

Major Catch up Blog

I really need to do some catching up with my Blog, and therefore i will probably leave out way too many details and funny little stories but i will do my best.

The sleeper train from Orchha to Allabad was great! We had 3 leveled bunk-beds, i was on the very top, and passed out when we got on around 10:30 pm and than awoke at our next destination at 6:30 am. It was nice to not loose a day of travel, to just get on and sleep and wake up in a new place! We took jeeps to where we would start our sailing journey on the Ganges River! I didn't really know what to expect of the sailing trip but when we pulled up next to the river and saw our sailing boats in the distance i knew it was going to be quite the experience.
There were 4 people to a boat, little foamies and blankets to lay down on that covered the floor and a ripped up and patched up old sail draping overhead. The Ganges river was not nearly as high as it would be in monsoon season so we trekked out with our bags in the sand, dipped our feet in the holy water and nestled into our boat for the next 2 days. It was surreal, floating peacefully down the Holy River Ganges, when it seemed just days ago i was in the hustle and bustle of Delhi, and Agra. It a a whole different world here, the only sound is of the boat being rowed softly and rhythmically. This is truly the life, one i wouldn't mind living for a couple more days. Anand told us old tales of the river as the sun peeked through the holes in the sail, the day spent reading, chitchatting, appreciating the scenery and secretly hoping to see a dead body float pass. I know that's really gross but you guys would be curious too! Apparently the only people who are not cremated but are sent floating down the river are pregnant ladies, people with Leprosy, A baby who is still on milk, a Saint, and someone who has been bitten by a snake, This is because each one of these people are considered to be holy. For one of the holiest and most sacred rivers in the world, you would think people would respect and take care of it more but there was a lot of garbage, some falling down in mass amounts down cliffs into the river. We had our very own personal cooks in their tiny little sailboats, we would all try to catch up to each other and connect the boats for each meal, passing the plates through each boat. The food was fantastic too, its amazing the food they can make with such little equipment! We pulled off to a sandy shore as the sun started to go down and as our boat boys scampered around setting up our tents we sat in the sand and watched the sun go down while drinking chai's! I will say it again, and you will probably hear (or read) me say it many more times but, this is the life! It felt too good to be true and i cant even put into words how much i enjoyed this part of the trip. As it turned completely pitch dark black, our fire not wanting to cooperate, we ate our supper, had some good laughs, and listened to the howling of wild Jackles in the distance. Although we had tents, i really really wanted to just sleep out with my sleeping bag under the stars because they were so bright and clear, it would have just made the whole day complete. However, after hearing that i may become Jackle dinner, i thought i would best to keep it safe and sleep in the tent, too bad...
I awoke before anyone else, and took a stroll along the river watching the sun come up. We ate a quick breakfast and headed back on the boats for another day of Sailing. I am so thankful that i was feeling better at this point of the trip because a girl on my trip got sick really bad and when your stuck on a boat with 4 other people its slightly inconvenient. This whole time not having toilets, but if you gotta go, you gotta go.. its almost better to go in the wilderness or behind a bush than go into one of the Indian toilets, the smell strong enough to make you pass out! Oh and Roger (the guy allergic to air) had the nerve to get angry at the cooks, who are working their ass off to feed us all, and on top of that Take care of his ridiculous food needs. He complained that the potatoes were not cooked properly and he would go the rest of the day starving because of it. He did this all in front of us and we were so mortified that we All just ripped into him putting him in his place, That felt extremely good. After lunch we docked up and watched the boys start their 15 hour walk back to where we started, pulling the boats behind, They work so freaking hard! We hopped on our jeeps and took a detour route through villages to get to our next location, VARANASI! I have heard some crazy stories of the people here, having an abundant supply of Marijuana and other drugs that make people so nuts on the streets. Its also the place of the "burning hearts", or in other words where the dead are cremated. I'm So surrounded by death, on the Ganges and at Varanasi it makes me feel so good to be alive! This is the greatest time of my life and i want to experience all these great foreign cultures.

Orchha

What better way to start off the morning than a stroll in the local ancient temples?
It seemed like every corner I took there was a better picture, more stunning architecture and greater temples to explore. It was nice to just walk around hear some stories of the temples and take a load of pictures. There was a section of the temple where the ancient king of Orchha had all his 7 concubines rooms lines up next to eachother, 7 concubines for 7 days of the week. Each room had a secret passage that ran throughout the walls that the king could manouver his way through to each room... Really classy!
Later in the day we got to enjoy a river rafting tour down the river. Although the rapids were fairly tame we got pretty soaked on a few of them but it was after our raft war where we got drenched. The scenery all around us was breathtaking with temples all around us in the distance. There was a section of the river that was really calm and we all got to jump out and float for a bit. The water was clean and quite warm which was great for enjoying just laying back and letting the lifejacket do all the work. We were treated to some nice hot chai when we got off the boats and were able to sit and soak up a some of the heat.
The rest of the day i hung out with the 2 other young single girls, browsing through the markets, meeing shop vendors and sitting down for some drinks. It was actually quite funny, the girls found some sandals identical to the ones i bought in Jaipur for 100 rupees and they wanted to buy a pair. The girl here was asking for 500 rupees. I told him that i knew he was scamming them because i bought mine for 100 and kept on argueing with him, getting mad for trying to cheat them out so much money. He gave in after we started to walk away, seling them for 150 rupees and inviting us into his shop for Chai and giving us free kepchains telling me not to tell any of the other tourists about his scam.

I feel it like i should share a little about one of the older guys on my trip. From day one i think we all knew that this guy was gonna be a handful. Roger is here with his wife who is malasian Indian, but is really out of his comfort zone. Apparently he cant drink bottled water because there isnt the essential minerals that he needs to keep alive and well so he carries his own personal water purification with him. He complains about all this health issues claiming he has diabetes yet when we asked him which type he responded with " the type where you dont need to take that stuff", yes y stuff he meant insulin... He has such a weak stomach that he cant eat group up normal pepper so bugs each restraunt about this. When we were on the cramped train, not in an immediate rush he pushed his way infront of an old Holy man and sent him flying on the seats behind him, we yelled at him and he only turned around and kept walking.. He is quite the Character and we are started to put him in his place because he is just so inapropriate..

Anyways i am off to a cooking class and spending the night on a sleeper train which will be interesting. After that i will spend a night sailing on the holy Ganges river. Cant wait!

I am Sitting in a tiny back room of a rickshack shop in Orcha, legs pulled up on the chair because there are mice literally scurrying around my feet! Before i tell you all about the beautiful town of Orcha let me fill you in on the last few jampacked days.
The day before i was to leave New Hope and the girls, I got extremely sick. The whole ghastro stomach sickness that im sure you would love for me to go into debdth about it but I will spare you the details. To summarize I was not sleeping, not eating and was quiet a frequent visiter to the bathroom. As a result I was super dehydrated and so Sunday the day I was to catch a taxi to Delhi to start my new Adventure a made a pit stop at the Doctors. The Doc told me I needed to stay and be hooked up to an I.V. for a while to treat my dehydration but because my taxi was picking me up I had no time. He gave me a quick shot of antibiotics and loaded me up with prescription antibiotics and I was on my way.
Saying goodbye to the Girls at new hope was sad, but i promised them all i would skype with them all the time when i got back home. I miss them all already. New hope was like my home for a while. I got used to the daily ins and outs of the home, the girls behavior, my morning ritual walk with Lucia and feeling comfortable with great people in a great atmosphere. Going off on my own is like starting fresh, which is a little scary. I love You guys!!
I got to my hotel in Delhi and awaited the arrival of my group that i will be travelling with for the next 15 days. I was so exhausted at this point that while everyone went on a tour around Delhi I just slept all day and all night. 5:30 am I pulled myself out of bed to catch our train to Agra where I got to meet and chat with my Roomy for the 5 hour long trip. Our next hotel was very similar to the first, basic and dirty. The sheets and towels were stained with God knows what, no hot water and halls that echoed so much we heard every conversation happening on our floor it seemed.
We ventured Agra, going to the Red fort and learning the history of the great kings and enjoying the stunning architecture. At last we made it to the Taj Mahal, oh yes what i have been waiting for! There was so much anticipation actually be seeing the Taj that i could hardly contain myself as we slowly walked through the archway, The taj just teasing me in the background. And then there it was... Right infront of me in all its glory. It was so surreal, The magnificance of it all was everything and more than I dreamed of. We scampered around trying to take the best pictures but it being Valentines day it was so crowded! My parents have a picture of my Dad sitting infront of the Taj, so cool and chill, i wanted to get a replica picture but there was just too many people. The picture ended up just making me look like an idiot sitting in the middle of the sidewalk. Ohwell, i tried!
We watched the sun set and walked back to our Hotel.
We all decided to go out for some drinks and a bite to eat. I was only able to drink tea and a bit of rice but it was a nice night out to get to know everyone better and have a couple of laughs.
9:00 am we leave for the train station again, only this time we get to sit with the locals, no comfortable single chair seating but all jam packed into benches. I loved it, all 4 hours of it! it was crowded and stuffy but we got to sit with the local Indians and i tried to make conversation with the little pathetic Hindi i know how to speak. We played with the kids, had the wind blow obnoxiously in our hair and have the Chai man yell out every half hour but it was so great to experience and made a ton of friends! :)
a one hour rickshaw drive and we arrive at our destination where i am now at, Orcha. We are staying 2 nights in these great little tents. The tents are airconditioned, have hot running water, a toilet and little compartmental rooms. Our view is of the river outfront, so peaceful and so quiet. Its so nice after spending the last 2 nights in those sketchy hotels.
Orcha is such a great little town. It is very religious and full of ancient temples. I can tell i am going to love it here already especially after spending most of my time near the loud obnoxious Delhi. I cant wait to see more tomorrow, going river rafting and exploring the temple ruins!
Until next time... Cheers!

Although the driving in India is crazy and every time I get in a vehicle it seems there are near misses I never really felt like we would get in an accident. Like most things you hear about crashes on a daily bases but you never expect anything to happen to you. h
I went on a little excursion to Delhi to do some shopping at the markets with Lucia and Kylee, another volunteer. Our driver was making a left turn and was in a turning lane, however people don't really pay attention to the rules of the road nor to any Lanes on the road so its basically just a big clump of cars all driving in the same direction (sometimes) trying to budge themselves in front. So as we made this turn a motorcyclist beside us was going straight. The motorcyclist hit the side of our car, falling from his bike, our diver hitting the brakes as fast as he could, was too late and as we all flew forward in our seats (no seat belts here either) we felt our van go over a bump. As we came to a stop, the van was silent thinking we had just killed a man. We are going to Jail! Then the man crawled out from under the front of our van and saw immediately he was wearing a helmet, THANK GOD! Us three girls still sat shell shocked in the back as the driver of both vehicles yelled at each other, blaming the other for his mistake. The biker looked alright and we didn't know if the bump we ran over was him of his bike but the only damage i saw was to his knee as he lifted it up to expose his bloody gashes. Because we are in India, no information was exchanged and the driver just drove off..
I was jumpy the rest of the day but so thankful no one got seriously injured.

Wedding Crashers!

oh yes! That's right, we crashed an Indian Wedding! Lucia, Deesa and I have all been complaining about how badly we wanted to see a traditional Hindu marriage and with me leaving New hope soon (saturday) Time was running short so we took initiative to make this wish come true. Lucia and I went to a Garden nearby looking for some marriage decorations because there are many marriages happening now with the nice weather. We found a Garden Location and went in to ask if there was any weddings happening ASAP. The owner sat us down and to our surprise let us know there was a Wedding the very next night and he invited us with open arms to come and join in the celebration. He did not check with the Bride and groom, nor question our motives he was just so happy for us to come.
We left his office with high spirits, so excited for our little adventure that was to come.
The night of the Wedding we all did our hair, put on make-up and dressed in our nice Indian Suits. It felt so good to actually make myself look good in the 4 weeks I have been here. The drive to the Wedding we devised different stories to tell different people who asked why we were there at the wedding. A wedding planner there to see a wedding in different cultures, Journalists for Times magazine to write an article about arranged marriages, There on a trip with Make a Wish Foundation, Marni as a sick girl who's last dieing wish was to see a Hindu marriage in India.. and the list goes on.
As we walked under the red, lit up tent leading us into the Wedding area, we were immediately greeted by a jolly old man. He did not ask why 3 white girls were at the wedding, instead he led us to the big tent in the middle of the Garden. We later found out that the jolly old man was the brides Father. Under the tent we were introduced to the brides mother, her sister, aunts, uncles cousins, Everyone! They were so happy that we were there, even though they had no idea who we were. Photographers crowded around us taking pictures with the family, having us pose with different people. To my surprise, moments later I saw my face plastered on the TV screens that were set up all around the garden to show off pictures of the evening. It was hysterical! A few young girls even crowded around asking whether we were famous and asking for our email addresses. The father on the brides side apparently is a retired movie director, the mother a professional singer and the bride a traditional dancer; a family full or artists, well to do artists at that! Appetizers were passed out and we did not turn anything down as it all looked heavenly! We strolled around the Garden taking little treats here and there from the many food, beverage and candy stands. Eventually we were asked to come and see the bride in her dressing room before she came out. She was sitting in her chair covered head to toe with jewels, gold, and diamonds weighing 50 kg(actually!). Her face was powdered and her hands covered in dark Henna, her husbands name hidden in the designs that he would later have to find. We sat down and talked, complementing on how beautiful she looked and quite honestly asking her about her feelings before her marriage. It was an arranged marriage but she knows who her husband is because they had been friends for quite some time and she told us he is a very good man. In a Hindu traditional marriage, the bride is to act sad and cry at her wedding because she is mourning leaving her family. She explained this to us as she held back tears and her aunt walked in saying the family had been crying all week. Luckily the Bride was fortunate enough that the family was not hard core traditionalists and were not making her come live at the grooms house and never see her family again, Instead her and her husband had their own place and would live alone, able to see their won families whenever they want.
She had these huge golden, bracelets that hung from her wrists and told us to sit in front of her as she clanked the gold roughly together over our heads. If gold falls off, then you will be married. The most gold that falls off over the persons head the sooner the marriage. As Deesa and Lucia only had one tiny little corner fall off on them, I had almost all the gold she had on her wrists fall on me... Yikes!!
As the Groom made his way from the streets into the Garden her rode on a White horse, his family dancing and celebrating to the loud music all around him. We were not apart of the wedding party so we thought we would not be able to see this but The brides mother absolutely insisted that we were front and center along side the family. She said several times, "you are my daughters now!" We followed the crowd as the groom made his way slowly to the front to sit and await his bride. Yet again we were forced to be apart of this and danced with his family..
AS the bride was getting ready to make her entrance we set ourselves up in a good location to take some pictures of her walking over the beautifully lit bridge. Yet again, being adopted by the brides mother she did not approve and we had to walk with her and all the other girls from her family. It was actually embarrassing that we were that honorable of guests to take part in such a sacred moment. Her brides maids, if you would even call them that, help a gold scarf over the bride as she walked slowly across the bridge to her soon to be husband. You would not believe the music they played as she walked to her future husband... My humps by the Black Eyed Peas, Yes you read it correctly. The traditional trumpets and drums were being played but My Humps played over top of it. It was so Indianesque, their taste in music is about a century off. Anyways, We snuck away from the brides mother and sat down to watch as the bride and groom were hoisted up on friends and families shoulders and attempted to hook flowered garlands around each others necks. After all the fun with that was over they sat quietly alone together on stage with sad expressions on their faces. The groom would catch glimpses of his new bride and smile, I could tell that he felt very happy his parents had chose her. The rest of the night we ate at our hearts desire from the massive buffet of Amazing Indian Food and danced with the little girls.
What a night! I feel so lucky to be able to say i have experienced such a unique wedding. Although it was a little odd we were such honored guests it was fun to just go along with it and have fun. We were so giddy as we left the wedding early in the morning and went to sleep reminiscing on the night not caring that we had to wake up 4 hours later.
A night i will surely never forget

Jaipur

Some of the Staff and I decided to take a little weekend trip away to Jaipur. Jaipur is about a 5 hour train ride south from Delhi. We Left around 4 am on Friday to arrive in the morning and enjoy a full weekend away.
I notice that the air is cleaner, i can see blue sky and it is more sunny and hot here. I know right away i am going to Love Jaipur!
We get to our hotel and are pleased that we have real showers and hot running water! YAY! Friday we just roamed the pink city, taking pictures to try to capture the essence of Jaipur's charm. The ancient city walls is what makes up the Pink city, lined with bright colored spice and fruit stands. We stop to eat fresh fruit for lunch, being stopped every now and than by gawkers "Hello, Hello, where you from!?" As we browse the crazy markets we were stopped by music, we looked over and it was a snake charmer, I was so excited to see something so Indian Esque! We stopped at the Wind Temple, a huge wall apart of the ancient city that is full of little windows. They believe the windows were for all the Maha Rajah's Concubines to see out into the activities below. Later that night we went to what i can only explain as an Indian Fair/Circus. We paid like 6 bucks to get in and there were puppet shows, Dancing, Hand turned Ferris wheels, Elephant, camel and horse rides, Boat rides, Giant slides from trees and most importantly the best traditional meal ever! we sat down on cushions and were given scoops of all sorts of different tasting Indian food with non-stop Chapatti (Indian Bread, kinda like a quesadilla) and Rice. It was a night to remember for sure! We tired ourselves out acting like children and went back to out Hotel listening to Bollywood songs the whole way back.
Saturday we planned to go to the Famous Amber Palace! Our rickshaw driver there was a pretty friendly guy and when he asked if we wanted to try driving his ricksahw we jumped on the opportunity! We were screaming and having lots of fun until the other people who were with us stopped us and informed us that by doing so we were basically telling the driver and everyone else around us that we are "easy" Ooops! As a female in India you just always have to be thinking about whats appropraite for the culture, just sitting in the front seat with another man can be taken the wrong way, Which is really quite sad. Although the rest of the ride up to Amber Palace was a little awkward when we made it to our stop we were blown away. It was so stunning, we all felt like we were straight out of Lord of the Rings! There were walls that went in all directions from the temple that looked like mini great walls of China. The Palace itself was Magnificent, and riding huge Indian Elephants up the ancient cobble stoned streets made it that much more special. I had to pinch myself, not believing that i am actually in India! No picture could capture this beauty!
We explored the inside of the temple, one room was filled with tiny little mirrors, each one individually placed into beautiful artwork, A whole room! Walking through the maze of hallways and rooms, two of the other girls and I got lost and wound up on the very top, no one else there to bug us as we soaked it all in. We slowly made our way down from the Palace and got a ride to another palace on the water. Although the Palace was amazing we were all more focused on the little boys who were trying to do magic tricks in front of us as their pimp bragged to us about how good they were. We were so disgusted, here is this Pimp exploiting these innocent boys as two cops walk by knowing exactly what is going on and just smiling and just loving this pimp. We all were getting so worked up about it that we decided to leave before we caused a scene.
Riding in rickshaws all day to get places we learned to pack some fruit so when the little boys and girls come up asking for money we can pass out food instead of money going to their Pimps..
That night we all went our separate ways and the girls my age and I went out for a drink. Thinking a glass of wine would be a nice way to end off a perfect day we find out that it is a Dry night, No alcohol is served in memory of Ghandi's Death. Darnit Ghandi!! We settled for mocktini's on our open rooftop restaurant. It was such a good night as we sat under the stars having a girls night, smoking from an Indian Hooka. (not drugs don't worry, Flavored tobacco out of a standing Indian style Pipe.)
As we made our way into the night to find a rickshaw back to the hotel we managed to flag one down who didnt speak an ounce of English. Two surprisingly nice guys tried to help us give our driver directions and after some difficulties it seemed like he knew where we were going. He was definately not the best driver we had experienced and at first we thought it was pretty funny because he was so goofy looking and drove pretty goofy aswell.. But as we nearly got hit several times and were actually screaming we realized he was Drunk as a Skunk! How Ironic that he is drunk on a Dry night... We stopped to get a new driver and get directions disoriented and adrenaline running from almost dyeing. We were well aware of our vulnerability; 3 girls alone at night, lost but we found the kindest guys who scolded the drunk driver, found us a new rickshaw and gave him perfect directions to our Hotel. We were so lucky to have found such nice men, for once not greasy, rude or vulgar.
Sunday, the day we leave was a day for relaxing! We did some quick shopping than made our way to a garden to eat our lunch and spend the day in the sun reading and hanging out. The garden we went to was the Kings (Maha Rhaja?) Wife's sleeping quarters, which she demanded to have if she was to marry him. Heck i would marry any guy who built me a palace like this one! Not only was her living quarters magnificant, but the surrounding garden and little Gazeebo type structures lining the garden were breathtaking. I spent hours reading and soaking up the sun (i am still so pale) taking breaks to glance up and imagine what this palace once looked like in its prime.
What a great way to end off the Perfect weekend. I had so many great experiences, and memories in such a short period of time. The people i travelled with to Jaiper were the best, we all got along so well and I really connected and made strong friendships with the girls.
A long train ride back home to a house full of girls with Chicken Pocks and Lice.. to top it off they have Exams stressing them out.. Its going to be one busy week.

Sorry to everyone i keep telling to skype with me, i never really know when i will have a chance to use the computer.
Love you all!