Bangkok 3rd time 'round

BANGKOK. HOLY SHIT!
The place where people have a good time. The Place people fear of getting taken over. The place where a shitload of new beginnings start.

What a place to be. I mostly never like cities. Mark always tried to convince me of liking cities, just the easiness of them, the convienience of them. Well, I have to admit. After India.... ANYTHING IS AWESOME. However, Bangkok is a world of great street food and well, happy times. Even though my bowels were ejecting everything they could from India they were taking in the crazy amounts of happy spicy Thai food they experienced! I don't have too much time to tell you of our experience here but I promise I will explain later.
But for now, I am out to enjoy our last couple days and to celebrate Marks Birthday for one last time in this city.
HOLY SHIT, WISH US LUCK XO

over view

Wow, I would never think that I would be happier to leave a country, however I never thought I would be in India! I can't say it was shit, neither can I say I loved it. India, what a diverse place to be. I don't know if I will ever go back, but what a different culture, and well it made me harden up! I was hugging Mark and high fiving while leaving this crazy country, with a gigantic smile on my face. Mark and I came to the conclusion; no man can travel India without a woman, and no woman should travel India alone. This is to get the whole experience; that is unless you are going only to Goa and the south, or have a guide the whole time. It is a very different pace to be and something you just can't figure out. Unlike an engine of the future, it is somehting that won't ever be explained in simple terms.
I am glad to be gone, yet I don't wish to take back anytime I have experienced in the country.
But with a large smile on my face I get to say for the third time, "HELLO BANGKOK, here we come!!!"

HOLY COW

Cows.
The cows in India walk the streets, eating garbage but somtimes are fed leftovers. They are a holy animal, left to wander the land as they wish, but people want them close by because they are holy. They believe that if they feed them once in a while they will get good Karma out of it!
So, the cows walk on the highway, in the middle of city center traffic, through street shops, around the city and town eating whatever garbage they can find.
Its funny because as soon as they get towards someone's business they get smacked with a stick or rock or a hand..
I had to write this because today I saw a hurt cow with a very large gash on its leg, that will more than likely get infected, an kill the cow slowly. Also, they have many cows die due to eating plastic and the plastic getting caught and the cow chokes on it. I also have seen a cow walking with a large gash in its leg, it was a pale brown cow. I could see the blood poison going through its leg and into its body, due to the brights pink lines down its torso.

This gets me upset, because if this animal is so holy why aren't they taking care of them. it is bad luck for te Hindus if the cow dies on their account or on their property. So why wouldn't they try to help it. there are some vets that work solely on these animals and they are volunteers.
I don't think I will ever understand this religion ever. I think it is better to eat the animal, and then people would be keeping them well fed and healthy! Makes sense to me!

vegetarianism = 0, Carnivorous = 1

SUMMER TIME!!! Part Deux...ish

Well, back again!
I mean at the beach. I am in the same internet cafe I was in when I wrote the last blog. We had a bus booked for tonight, a 16 hour sleeper bus, to go to Mumbai. We were going to go into Nashik, a wine producing region of India, but need to go through Mumbai to do this. Their wine really isn't that great, and well, although I could have bragging rights that I have been to a wine region that not many people have been, I had a better plan; I can sit on the beach and drink.uhh..."taste" the wine there.

Mark and I had all of our bags packed and made our way to the bus station. After a cocktail (it's a sleeper bus so cocktails are good for making you fall asleep) we went to stand and wait for the bus to come. We had bought our ticket and were ready to go. When the bus arrived, I said "I don't wanna leave the beach yet!" And it turned out Mark didn't want to either, so we didn't. We ripped up our ticket and bought one for 3 days later. Went back to the beach, and put our suits on and stayed almost an hour in the water. Another great decision made by Mark and Kylee!!! The ticket was 1000 rupees. Equivalent to $20, we can afford that for some calming ocean waves I do declare!

SummerTIME!!!!!

Wow, I can't believe we were going to skip Goa. It is the sandy beach paradise of India. We started in Anjuna beach, which was supposed to be very busy...it was not. It was a little beach town with locals selling clothes and fruit, the beer flows quickly due to the fact that there are no liquor taxes in Goa. a 650ml of alright beer is exactly a dollar. A 26oz of my fav..Bacardi Rum costs $8 CAD!! Awesome. And the swimming is free. The food is great, the hostels aren't expensive and the sun is hot! We made some friends on the way out to Goa on the train and hung out with them throughout the rest of our Goa experience. Mark and I never really party, we made friends with our favorite restaurant, and hung out for just over a week, laying around on the beach. I tell you; being able to wear a tank top or just a bikini in India and not get stared at the whole time is one of the best feelings in the world! I think the only time I had to do work was when I bought a cob of corn from the street stall woman and got chased by a cow with horns who wanted it a heck of a lot more badly than I did. But I ran and well, he couldn't get through the gates! Needless to say I ate the corn and fed him the cob, it was a good compromise!

After this we took 4 buses and a Rickshaw to get down south to Palolem beach. It was supposed to be "the quiet beach' yet because everyone knows about it, it is not very quiet anymore. We stayed for 2 nights rented a scooter bike and took a look around to find a quiet beach. We found one not too far away, I am not mentioning the name, due to the fact it is quiet and I don't want to ruin it quicker than it should be, but it was a great find. We got an awesome beach bungalo, which Mark had scoped out 2 days before, and we are paying about $10 a night, it is a nicer one than the rest and on our balcony we can see the ocean and the sunset. (Mark is a romantic after all!) But I must tell you about the awesome party that we went to before this.

So since we have been to this party people say that they have them back at home, however I have never heard of them before this one!
Since the beaches have brought many people down for drinks and loud music, the locals have complained to the government that the nights have become too loud, and they say it is not what they think is fair. This happened about 6 years ago (I'm guessing) but the law now states, "No loud music after 10:30pm"
The people still wanted to party though. So some British people came up with a plan. Wireless headphone dance party. Each headphone set comes with volume control and 3 different stations for 3 different live DJs spinning different music. I have found this a great thing because you won't blow your ears off unless you do it to yourself. As well, if you don't like a certain type of music you can change and your friend can listen to different type as well. It is weird though, because you take the phones off and it is almost silent besides people talking to one another, and everyone is dancing to a different beat. It sounds and looks stupid but it works really well. It was one of my favorite parties of all time and will never be forgotten. Pictures will be soon to come.

But as I am sitting here my last day on the beach is withering away and even though the Air Con is awesome, I have to bask in the sun for as long as I can, in as little clothing as I can get away with in this country. Because tomorrow we are back in the main cities and I have to be fully covered up, in this crazy heat!
UNTIL NEXT TIME!!!

( I apologize if some things are not correctly spelled in my blogs, it is because most of the keyboards are sticky or don't have letters are just used and abused)

Rajastan-a brief run through

We went to Jaisalmer to see the big sandstone fort. It looks amazing from the outside, however it has been taken over by hotels, small tourist shops and restaurants inside, which are all slowly tearing the fort apart. I was kind of saddened by this beautiful time warp, but when we wanted to take pictures or just look around there are coca-cola signs and water pipes bursting and garbage everywhere. Too bad. However, we did find a funny shop called the Bhang shop. It sells Bhang lassi, as well as bhang cookies. This made for a giggling afternoon to the lake, and then for a wonderful sleep afterward. We only stayed 3 nights, then moved on to Jodhpur.

Jodpur, the city of blue! It is funny when we heard this because why would everyone pain their place blue, but when you get to look from a rooftop at the city, it is amazingly beautiful! The fort here was better, it was ticketed entrance fee so that it was maintained and people didn't throw garbage around. We also had some leftover cookies, which only kicked in when we got into a big crowd of people, which sounds scary, but it was nice to be soo calm and not get overwhelmed with anger of the pushy Indian tourists. It was also funny that the Indian tourists seemed to be taking more pictures of Mark and I rather than the fort itself. Im sure after this trip we will be all over the internet! Now I understand how famous people feel, they never seem to get privacy and when they go out everyone wants to have their picture taken with them!! Moving on though, Jodhpur was nice yet not extravagant so we moved on.

We were thinking of going to Pushkar, they have a yearly camel festival. But, the more we looked into it, the more it seemed like we didn't want to go. We were told there was more tourists than camels and it wasn't very organized either. So we decided to skip it and take the bus to Udaipur!

Udaipur- known as Indias Venice! Well though it is very beautiful, it would be nice to teach the locals that if they are so proud of where they come from, why the hell do they ruin it with garbage! There is no upkeep at all, so the beautiful lakes are well not kept up.... We ended up by getting a great guesthouse, Lake Sky Guesthouse. It was run by Johar, an amazing man who brought us in and made it feel like home. We had some dinners together and he answered all our questions, it was sad to go. We stayed for 6 nights there, it was great but we didn't really DO anything. I did however get a facial, and I think I will wait till I get home until I ever get another one. All the smacking around he was doing to my face, I felt like I had done something wrong! I guess it was for lymphatic movement and stuff, but geeze! Not relaxing like I thought they were supposed to be! Later that night, while we were sleeping, I had gotten up to go to the washroom. ( In our guesthouse room the doors and windows have a beautiful windy outline to them, which makes the doors smaller than they usually are, Mark had hit his head the night previous!) I walked through the door, and WHAM! Hit my face on the side of the windy concrete wall! I hadn't turned the light on cause I was sleepy, then I probably swore a little and walked into the bathroom only to run into the shower taps! Haha. I woke up with a lump under my right eye and man it is sore! So I was beat up by the door as well. Life is funny.

This is just an overview of our quick run through of Rajastan. We are now on our way to GOA, finally some relaxed beaches. We get to have our vacation time now!!!

Bum-ba-lumpidy-dum-da-dum...

Riding a camel. Not so comfy, quite awkward, but one of the funniest things I have done. I don't know why but as soon as my camel started walking I giggled like a school girl for a very long time. It is so weird, very different from riding the elephant, and their faces are so funny looking as well. There is a lot of padding so it isn't too bad, and they had one camel for each person, as well as separate camels lugging the cart carrying our food and water. Camels fart....A LOT!! I thought they would be more of a spitting type due to the stories I have heard, but they fart, and fart and fart. It's quite funny!

Through the Indian desert, we stopped every 2 hours for a rest because of the intense heat. The second stop, the camel drivers made us a great meal of 3 different curries, all vegetarian, and delicious. After they cleaned up, we got back on the camels and rode to our camp for the night. We saw the amazing milky way and luckily they had brought beer, which was not very cold but a treat for sure. (beer in the desert, hahaa)

It turned out to be a great night there were 12 of us, all with amazing stories to share, and a great vibe throughout the evening. They made us some supper of tomato soup, and curry. After dinner, and a grossly annoying Indian band playing homemade music...we finished our stories and went to bed in our tents and thick blankets. It got quite cold that night so good thing I had my woolly socks!!

Due to the fact that my digestive system is AWESOME (it really works fast) I woke up in the morning having to run out of the tent, around the sand dunes and behind a tree. I didn't get a chance to dig a hole but it is amazing how the body works, not always with you!!! I covered it up and went back to the tent to breath.

We ate some breakfast of masala omellette and bread, then Mark and I headed on our way back to the guesthouse. We decided one day of riding camel is plenty!!

Experience will never be forgotten.

      Today we were part of a Muslim festival called Eid Al-Adha. They start at 10am by slaughtering 2 goats. This was my first time seeing something being killed, other than a bug or mouse.  It was humane; the way they never showed the knife, the way they said a prayer for the soul, and faced the goat to Mecca. However in India, the knives are not always sharp and it was difficult to watch. The first goat went  fairly fast, but since they use a different knife for each goat the second one wasn't so lucky. It was more of a sawing at the neck rather than a slit of the throat. I had to turn away. The blood shot far, but within 4 hours the goat was skinned, de-gutted, and cooked.


Mark took part in the skinning of the animal, it was the job for the men. And I helped make the chipati, an Indian bread cooked over an open flame.

I am still shocked, and have been in a different state of mind all day. After we ate, we came home around 2pm, and slept for almost 3 hours. I guess that is what emotions do to a person, tire them right out.

Taking meat for granted is not somehting I do, however I used to try not to think of what is being taken away when we sit down to eat a meal of any sort. Life is sacred and to take that away, that is sacred as well. We have made a pact that when we sit down for a meal we thank the farmers, animals, plants, and everyhing that was involved to make the food to thank them and ensure it is filled with positive energy so that our bodies may utilize this energy in a positive way, rather than just digestion.

It's crazy to think of how long and hard something works to make a life, and how fast it can be taken away. Not to look at it as a negative thing but as a step in learning about life itself. I know I have taken life for granted, I think everyone goes through this stage at one point in time. But I am lucky to learn such a valuable lesson and the amazing things I have experienced, because that can never be taken away.

I would suggest to anyone to take the school of life, due to the fact that it is one of the best experiences they will ever have, and alway remember.

Happiness: a state of mind

Oh McLeod Ganj.
What a beautiful escape from the life in India. A cool, crisp, clean breath of air as we got off the rattling bus. Such a simple thing that can bring a smile to anyone's face after being in major cities or towns in India. Hopping into a taxi for a grueling 15 minute ride uphill, on a so called "road", we reach the town where the Tibetans chose for their new home/settlement, (well until they get to go back, but I'm not going into that right now.) I can feel all the grimy loogies coming out of my lungs as they try to clean themselves and reach for the pure fresh mountain air. It is cold here. We were not prepared for this. That's ok, because one of the many amazing Tibetan specialties is knitting, and I buy myself a pair of yak wool socks to keep me warm at night. The next morning we register to visit the Dalai Lama, who is supposed to being doing a teaching in 3 days. We fill out a small form and get a card that attaches to our shirts, that says something in Tibetan about being cool, I'm sure. We spend the rest of the days waiting walking around gazing at the beautiful mountain ranges and enjoying the Tibetan people. (Tibetans are probably the happiest people I have ever met, and yes, I did just categorize a whole population of people but it is true.)

We bought radios to listen to the english version translation of the talks, and found a seat to listen. Well I'm not going to go through and tell you everything I learnt but I am going to say this: If you ever get a chance to see this amazingly smart, and very shy man, do it! I wrote some things down, but a lot of it is common sense. Basically not getting attached to anything in life and trying to be compassionate in every aspect of life. They gave everyone tea and bread at the beginning of every day, and everything was free. We also got red string to tie around our wrists to signify a blessing from his Holiness.

On another note.......

We have been asked a few times about our lives by the local people in India but mainly they ask these 3 things:

1. Are you married, this is a common one.
2.How many children; not, do you have any.
3. What religion are you.

Well number one, we tell people we are married because they don't understand the engagement process. But we go on telling them we have been not married for 7 years before we got married, and the just can't wrap their heads around it. Living together and stuff. Then they clarify, "Love marriage?" because the marriages here are arranged, and usually they don't know the person they are wedding until their wedding is finished. They always smile when we say YES it is always a love marriage in Canada, that's why we get married!

Number 2, well obviously we say zero and they say, well how old are you. This is because in their culture the woman should be pregnant within a couple days of their wedding, and the more boys they can pop out the better. As soon as they hear our age they gasp. They even ask, "is your family sad with you?" Due to the fact that this is their whole meaning of life!

And of course the religion question. Well although I was raised Catholic, I don't really practice any religion. I have tried to learn about many different types but I just can't believe EVERYTHING about only 1. We tell them we do believe in a God, this God has no name or face, it is just a God that we pray to and that is all. I believe that believing in something is a sure thing, but to believe in a whole story of tales to teach lessons, and being able to be forgiven of all sins by dipping your feet into some holy water, just doesn't cut it. I do believe in Karma but most religions have some sort of Karma in their religion. But other than that I follow my own way of life, and as long as I can keep myself happy and the people around me happy, that is a great religion in itself.

Oh, and trying to explain that you have no religion, well that just doesn't make sense here. They say, "Jesus?" 'no' "Buddah?" 'no' "Hindu?" 'no.' We usually end conversations there.
It just can't be. You can't have NO religion, No marriage, and NO children!!! But my answer to this always remains the same, "As long as there is love and happiness in our lives that's all we need."
I think we have educated quite a few people, and, well, we don't know if i will do harm or good.

Life goes on and Love will rule all! Spread the love!(add in peace sign here)

Patience is Bliss...

Well, I was going to write about how great McLeod Ganj was and how blissful I feel after listening to the Dali Lama talks and being in such great presence. However, it is going to have to wait, yet again, as I am writing this a local guy is peering (as in watching the screen closer than I am) over my shoulder ( as in pulled up a chair right next to me to watch my screen), telling me how nice my name is, (which he just read off the screen) and saying 'I can be your facebook friend', as he is watching my every move on the computer. Mark is sitting right behind me, and yet they still have no respect. Therefore, if I keep writing my blog at this moment, I am going to write an angry blog, and that is not what I want to portray about the beautiful places we have been and wonderful experiences we have been through in this past week.
So, until next time. I'm gonna whoop some ass.

New Beginnings...

Well, I guess things turn around once you can stop thinking negative and get thoughts out of your head!


After the terrible train ride we arrived in Amritsar, which is a city in Punjab. The Punjab men all wear turbans, so that they can grow their hair. Due to their religion they are not supposed to ever cut their hair. Thinking that it was going to be yet another damn Indian town, with damn Indian men, I didn't expect much. However after a few minutes, of walking around, things changed. Mark and I were looking at a map and a man tapped me on the shoulder. I'm thinking "Don't touch me you bastard!", but it turned out he was trying to get my attention because there was a small trickle of water coming downstream, and I was going to be right in the middle of it!! After that I felt like the bastard! That's when I eased up. The people here turned out to be very nice, of course there is always going to be some incident, but that happens at home as well. Punjab has lots of ice cream, and nice people. MY FAVE! However, we didn't stay too long because we had plans to see his Holiness; the Dali Lama in a couple of days and didn't want to miss out. We jumped on a bus and headed up north to Dharamsala, also known as McLeod Ganj.  A beautiful bustling small town in the cold mountains.

TIRING EFFECTS TAKE PLACE

Well, I thought I was strong enough, I thought I had the ego pushed down far enough to not take over. Well it seems India has taken over, and well.... I have Broken down.

The men here; I don't even know how to describe what the feeling is like but the best I can say is this:
I feel like I am standing naked.... Alone....And all these man are judging me in every action I take.
I had a train ride a couple nights ago. It was a sleeper train. This means there are 3 beds on each wall in a cubicle, so 3 beds facing 3 beds, with no curtain. Then you have people passing by going to the toilet, looking at you sleep, its not that dark so they can see in.
Well, this is what happened:
The train stopped.... The people who paid for their bunks got off, which means every man for themselves get on the train, but Mark and I stay in our original spots, lying down trying to sleep. This train ran from 21:40 to 7:20. These people got on around 3:00am. They were all men, mark was sleeping. They all got on and watched me, I had woken up and heard them so I saw what they were doing. Sitting there watching me sleep.

So.... being in India, you have to get used to people watching you at all times, judging you, or the like. So I put my blanket over my head, and kept sleeping.
Until, I felt a hand grab my knee. Well I have heard of a lot worse places for these boys to touch, which doesn't make it alright with me, however, I woke up and saw these boys walking away. I didn't say anything because I was coming out of my sleep, and didn't realize what happened until a couple seconds too late. Therefore I stayed awake.... Waiting...
They came back, and saw I was awake, but they tried sneakily to take pictures of me. So I had to speak up, cause I know the difference between paranoia, and my rights to be a human. I said some mean things and not knowing if they understood me but one guy sheepishly said "Sorry".

I find it hard to be nice to the men here, I make mad faces at them or just look to the floor because they are taught that if a womane looks into their eyes they want to have sex with them, like a whore. Which, as you know we are not taught pretty much the opposite back home. This is how I read people, by what their look is in their eyes. And I read a lot of sadness. So, instead of going like the heard and looking down and letting these boys/men look at me like I am a piece of meat, I now make faces at them. Stupid, ugly, rampid faces, until they either look away or get so confused they run into someone else, which does happen regularly. Just today a guy on a motorcycle ran into another guy on a motorcycle because he was watching me walk on the side of the road. Mark noticed it, I didn't even see what happened until the crash, and Mark told me.
This is probably the hardest test of life I have ever gone through. And I see women traveling alone in this country, although have never met them, due to the fact that they are always going as fast as they can, to and from places.
A test in the school of life. I WILL PASS, AND I WILL SUCCEED. THE EGO WILL NOT SUCCEEED.

Stop 3 in India

Delhi

Supposed to be the most energetically draining city in India, but after Varanasi it wasn't too bad. We knew most of the tricks people use to make money, and scam you so we escaped a lot of the hassle. They try to get you to their shops where they make you buy stuff, or bring you to private places where they sell you double the price for bus and train tickets. Anyway, Delhi has plenty of rich, some middle class, and WAYY too many poor. On one street there are beggars, people with no food, shelter or clean water. Then walk one street down and you have: BMW dealership, McDonalds, KFC, shopping malls that I can't afford to go into. Its quite sad really, that anywhere you go, if the money was distributed throughout the country, there would be no poverty, and hopefully greed would go away. However, we always say no to beggars, we do give to organized charities, and try to buy at local stores that support the community. We said no to a couple of people begging for money and after they understand they aren't getting anything from you, they spit at you and say mean things, one time we even got called Bastards! It is quite the rat race here, and well everywhere in the world, a race for money, yet no one is happy. I believe we still have time to make this world a great positive place to live in.  Money isn't life, yet we need it to survive.
Well, onto a train again to a spiritual place called Rishikesh, to help us with meditation and yoga and the calming down of this tiresome place some people call home!!

Stop 2 in India

Agra

The only thing good, and not really my thing, in Agra is the Taj Mahal. A building so beautifully built to encase the emperor's 3rd wife when she died. She was his favorite wife and he wanted to do something special. So inside this gigantic building there are 2 bodies, the emperor and his 3rd wife. It is pretty gigantic and amazing building, and a have to see if you are in the area. After seeing that, get the hell outta Agra, it stinks worse than any place I have been and everything about it is not happy, especially when I got sick from the food, and our toilet leaked out the back after you flush!.
My least favorite!

First Stop in India

Varanasi
A whirlwind of winding alleys, people always in a hurry, almost every corner reaks of urine, and yet there they are the Holy Ganges. The ganges are a sacred river that the hindus belive will wash away all their sin, after the cremation of the deceased, the bones and ashes are thrown in.

However, in the past thousands of uncremated bodies were thrown into the Ganges during cholera epidemics, spreading the disease. Even today, holy men, pregnant women, people with leprosy or chicken pox, people who had been bitten by snakes, people who had committed suicide, the poor, and children under 5 are not cremated at the ghats but are floated free to decompose in the waters. In addition, those who can not afford the large amount of wood needed to incinerate the entire body, leave behind a lot of half burned body yet they dump half cremated dead bodies into it.
They float lit butter candles and flowers to send a prayer on the water, they somehow wash their clothes in it, and last of all they bathe in it. It is the color of grey brown.  It is one of the top 5 polluted rivers in the world, due to the fact of what dies in it, or goes in dead, and the massive amounts of garbage put into it."According to official standards, water safe for bathing should not contain more than 500 faecal coliforms per 100ml, yet upstream of Varanasi's ghats the river water already contains 120 times as much, 60,000 faecal coliform bacteria per 100 ml;
After passing through Varanasi, and receiving 32 streams of raw sewage from the city, the concentration of faecal coliforms in the river's waters rises from 60,000 to 1.5 million, with observed peak values of 100 million per 100 ml. Drinking and bathing in its waters therefore carries a high risk of infection"
CRAZY! Yet these waters seem to still be holy and great enough to bathe in??? I don't understand.

Varanasi is still one of my favorite cities though, even through its crazy dirty chaos it has a sence of love and compassion.

Quotes

These are a couple of quotes I found from reading a book about a man on a spiritual journey, around the mountains in Nepal and Tibet called the Snow Leopard.

"No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place."

"The flower fulfills its immanence and intelligence, implicit in its unfolding.
                                     There is a dicipline.
                             The flower grows without mistakes.
A man must grow himself, until he understands the intelligence of the flower."
-This one I believe is something we all should learn, that if the flower grows imperfect, it still grows. We must understand that mistakes cannot be made, we learn and grow.

"Least you discriminate against the so called 'lower functions', for these too contain the inherent miracle of being. Did not one of the great masters attain enlightenment upon hearing the splash of his own turd into the water? Even transparency may be a hindrance if one clings to it."

Whirwind of E-Motions

The arrival into India was what you could call organized chaos, although it isn't really that organised at all. There is a 1km lineup of cars, people on bikes, motorbikes, and walking. To get through is a madhouse, because the lineup goes both ways! It heads into an arch that says on one side thanks for coming to Nepal, and vise versa to India. You can cross the border as many times as you want at this crazy place because nobody checks your passport to make sure you are who you are and there are no bag checks either, you just walk through the border and go about your day. 

Obviously we got our paperwork done because we are flying out and the aairport is a little more strict, however I could have been having a beer, and smoking a joint as I crossed the border with illegal orphans in my backpack to sell across the border. I obviously didn't bring anything over the border because we have all been through LAX, and if you haven't well its pretty much the most guilty you will ever feel, (for doing nothing) in your whole life! So we always take precautions. Anyway there is a little sign that says immigration office on one side, and then after you got your stamp, you walk across the border, pushing through people, (cause if you don't you will be surely left behind, or trampled, or run over!) And find the other sign that says immigration, and get your new visa stamped. 

As we walked through though, there were little girls walking with bags on their head, it looked as though they were rushing, and we still don't know why, but as they ran across the border, an army man cut open their bags to expose about 20 kg of rice. I don't know why he cut the bags, but he let them hold onto them and run across the border. Maybe its their way of checking your luggage I don't know. But you just keep your comments to yourself and go across as fast as you can, haha. Its CRAZY!

So we found a bus, (oh I should add it took us about 1.5 hours to get to the border crossing from the closest city we were at) And 5 hours later we were in the next border city called Gorakpur. We booked a night train that was supposed to leave at 11:15pm. We ate some supper, and then waited for 5 hours at the train station, while everyone stared. It is weird to be stared at. We know that staring is rude and try not to do it, but they sit by you and look, like there was a fetus growing out the side of our heads or something! It is crazy, you can stare back at them but they will just keep looking, they might look away for a couple seconds but then its back to staring. I get it more than Mark, but I knew this coming into the country that they would look at the WHITE GIRL!!!! But WOW, its crazy. SO I started making weird faces and making weird sounds cause I feel like if they are gonna look at me I might as well put on a show!! They don't even smile or wave, just a straight face the whole time. WEIRD!


Anyway, the train was only 2.5 hours late which was good because the other train we heard was going to be 8 hours late, that's business in India, you just have to be patient. We got the sleeper train but it is pretty noisy on the tracks, so sleeping was not really persistent. We arrived in Varanassi at 10:30am, needing a shower and some food, as well as a place to stay. WOW what a crazy place, its fast, colorful, and full of excitement and MADDNESS! We are about to stay our first night in India not in transit, after being through their crazy alley streets, getting blessed by a Sidu, and drinking Chai tea with a snack of Dhosa on the side of the road. SIDE NOTE: when you get street food, weather its a tea or food itself, they usually give it to you in stainless steel plates and cups so you stay there and eat/drink and there is no waste. Unless you just get a samosa or small snack with no sauce, they wrap that in old newspaper and send you on your way!

I could wirte a heck of a lot more but I should leave some to the time. But I do have to explain the smells. The smell of curries cooking, milk tea being brewed, people peeing on the buildings, cow patties wherever they feel like going rats in the streets, eating all the garbage that is carelessly thrown on the ground. One mimnute you can't wait to get out of the urine encrusted street smell, and don't know how people can sit there in the alley and live like that, but when you turn the corner, the most beautiful big river and Ghats, and fresh food being sold!
Were not in Kansas anymore!
 

Fairytale of Life

Only a half hour drive and a one hour hike uphill and we are in another world. In the village of clouds. They call it Sarangkot here, but Mark and I call it cloud city. A beautiful place set in the mountains with a viewpoint that looks toward the Himalayas. A couple of stores, a couple of family owned diners, guesthouses scattered about, all surrounded by chickens, goats, cats and dogs, and little grass/mud huts that the villagers live in. We can't see much the first day because of the humidity in the air. The clouds are below us, above us and well basically all around us. We can see the next building over, a second later it disappears! The feeling of emptiness never arises due to the fact of the sweet serenity of the moist pillow-like clouds. We wake up the next morning to see the epic sunrise at 5am. We it seems to be yet another cloudy day in the village. So back to bed we go. Later that night, after spending the whole day walking around this magic place, we retired to our room. (I should mention it was $4.60 CAD, a pretty cheap room)We turn off the lights to pitch black and go to sleep, only to waken to tap tap taping noise. We turn on the lights and Mark says he seen a mouse run across, so we chase it out of our room, but when we get a good glimpse of it, it turns out to be a rat. We took our pillow cases off and plugged the bottom of the door and put all our shoes on it so there would be no chance of THAT happening again. We turn the lights off and lay awake with a twinkle of terror in our eyes, until the alarm goes off to see the next mornings sunrise.
     Cloudy again. There was a glimpse of pink then it faded away. However, we did get to see some of the great Himalayan mountain tops, which are quite beautiful. But again back to bed we go. We make the final decent down the mountain that afternoon, not because we wanted to but because we ran out of money, there are no ATMs in cloud city.
That night, Mark and I went to one of our favorite places to eat dinner,(they give you free popcorn when you order a beer!) We enjoy our delicious and yet very garlicky soups and order another beer. Mark starts talking all sappy, sometimes he gets that way after a beer or three. So I just think it's cute and fluff it off. Then he says he wants to travel forever together and grow old together, and gets on one knee and proposes to me! (I'm tearing up writing this) All I could say was "what are you doing!! Are you for serious, no...really!!! I mean YES, I will marry you, of course!" With delicious garlic breath and  fast beating hearts we kiss and hug and can't let go of each other. WOW (I know sappy).
     Anyway, Mark tells me that this is the reason he has been spending all that time in the garage. For pretty much the whole summer, Mark was in the garage fiddling around, and every time I went to the garage door to open it, he would always stand up and be right at the door asking what I am doing. I thought he was really excited to see me or hiding something on his computer.But no, he was busy making me an engagement ring. He had bought a bunch of new tools, I thought it was for his job, but they were for making a ring to put on my finger. It is made from red oak, and is super shiny. The perfect ring. He made 2, so he could wear one around his neck too. So after over six and a half years of dating and falling deeper and deeper in love we are engaged! It seems surreal, but wonderful and even though we had a long night of drinks and laughter, I now feel exhausted  but still can't get this fiancee smile off my face. Later Mark says he wanted to do it at sunrise, but it never happened, but I think it was perfect. I  am happy to say I am engaged to my best friend, Mark.

Burning ring of fire.....

Well some of you may know what I am about to say. Some of you may need to turn away, and not want to read this due to the fact that you cannot stand the talk of disturbing bodily functions. Well, if you know me, and know me well, you know my digestive system is not...lets say...up to par.  I eat and it goes right through me. not fun for anyone. Especially me!!! I cannot eat dairy, and I just found out I am not supposed to eat wheat products. I'm not a celiac not allergic to gluten, just wheat. But, well as most of you know I am a chef, I love food, and I love, more than cooking food, I LOVE TO EAT IT!! I feel like a dancer that has lost a leg, or maybe a big toe.

I was crossing my fingers that the yak milk in Nepal would overcome the lactose intolerance, hoping with all my heart that maybe it was only our gross over stimulated, over hormoned cows milk. But no, I feel it, I feel it deep inside my large intestine, kicking the crap outta the lactose, without enough of a build up pf the lactase enzyme to eat up the pain. Well, dammit anyhow. I like my milk tea, I love my frothy Nepalese Masala in the morning, and if you could only taste the simple Paneer Chili!! They call it that here... It's paneer ( unripened indian cheese, from yak milk) mixed with garlic and ginger tomato, and green chili, but they make it so delicately with their little nepalese hands and it tastes sooo damn good. OHHH I LOVE FOOD!!

Anyway, that was the easy part. The hard part is having to look out for a toilet on every street, every nick and cranny, maybe there will be a place we go, hoping I have remembered to bring toilet paper with me in my pocket or in my backpack that day. But, well I should confess.... I get the need to go, even if there is no cheese involved, it might be the awesome spices, and herbs they use in the cooking.
The feeling....oh.....DAMN.....The FEELING.....

Sweat pours from the pores, I feel like puking like I might even faint. What a terrible feeling. I'm never going to make it, I start looking for alleys small places maybe no one will see!!! But...alas....Thank GAWD I have Mark who also knows what I am like. When I have to go, I have to go NOW!! I feel like I am the only one out there that feels this but I know that I am not. I might be the only one crazy enough to be travelling the world with a digestive system like mine, or eating how I want to eat, not how my intestine wants me to eat. But the passion I have for eating, is the same passion you have for your favorite thing, and you know I'm not fat, I'm not a greedy eater, I just love to eat GOOD FREAKIN' FOOD! I feel like my passion for life revolves around food and where and how it comes to be the way it is, that's always unknown..

The flavors and smells of the food on your first date, the smells on Christmas with your family, the thing you were eating when you found out almost anything important in your life, (the birth of your child, the time the oilers won the cup, the day you lost someone important etc). There was always the smells, tastes, sounds of food. They always bring you back to grandmas house in the country when she was baking buns, when mom was pickling cucumbers to make pickles, when you peel so much garlic at cooking school, the only people that want to hang out with you are the people that go to culinary!! Food is my interest, my love, my life. This is why I travel. I find it is worth to eat what I want, then feel like complete crap! Especially when I get to eat the meal of a lifetime!

P.S. I was not feeling well before we ate the live octopus, I threw up just before in the local fish market toilet, but the live octopus HOLY SHIT was worth eating...for the taste, the experience....the memory!
P.S.S. I ate soo much when we were in Montreal I was (to say it easy) excavating out of both ends, not cause I was sick, but because, well, my body can't handle certain foods and onforth, I was on a gluten and lactose free diet for a couple months before I went.


Food is my life, I know my body is teaching me a lesson, but I also look at everyone I know in Kung Fu how many bones and sprains they go through, as well as yoga how many hurting body parts you go through to know your body is talking to you;  I feel these are my brakes and sprains. This is how I learn, and well learning sometimes hurts.

Adventures of the Wild kind!

WOW! Well, going on from the last time I wrote the baseball game was awesome! They have cheerleaders for their baseball teams and everyone in the stands sing the songs as they move their noisemakers in the same way, Koreans are crazy!!!
Moving on.... NEPAL!!!!
Wow, what a great place, we start off at the airport which is kinda like a trailer with some extensions, there is a immigration line, and a bag pick up line and well thats pretty much it! We had booked our place to stay for the night when we were in Seoul, so they came to pick us up from the airport. Which was nice, cause there are lineups of taxis and basically just people with cars that want to take you to their hostel... "come with me... nice place...cheap, cheap!!"
We got to put our bags down in our room and take a look around the busy city of Kathmandu. Horns honking, garbage stinking the streets, and people trying to sell....well pretty much everything. It's very quite exhausting, and I should add that I am glad I'm not a smoker, cause the pollution from the purple gas they use well its going to pollute our lungs enough I'm sure!
We had booked a night at the Last Resort (http://www.thelastresort.com.np/) It is a place 3.5 hours north of Kathmandu, on a twisty turny road, with land slides and straight down cliffs...not the safest bus ride I have been on, gripping the seat with what I have for nails!!! (like that was going to save my life haha) But we get to the resort, and we have to cross this 160m high bridge over a flowing river, which we both agreed we were going to swing off of later that day. you can check it out on that web address, we  are getting the video of us doing it, its a 100m/6 second free fall before the rope archs you into a swing going 150 km/hour, awesome! But i will never do it again!! It was nice after though, the mountains and waterfalls were beautiful and quite relaxing, with crazy energy!!
When we got back to Kathmandu, the next day we decided to go to the monkey temple, called: Swayambhunath. They warn you to hold onto your cameras, hide your sunglasses, and keep everything close to you because the monkeys will take it from you. So we play it safe and get everything ready to climb the 365 steps to the stupa. As we climb the monkeys play around us we take pictures and laugh at the funny things they do. Well, little did I know that they were staring down the bottle of water I had in the pocket of my backpack. Mark noticed and told me to watch out but it was too late. The monkey jumped onto my back and tried to grab the water bottle out of my pack, it scared the crap out of me!! I swung around screaming (its a good chance you can get rabies from them so it is scary) and the monkey flew off, but not two seconds later jumped back on and i took the water bottle and threw it at them, they went chasing it, and opened it and tipped it over and started drinking it!! That was scary but I guess a good store after the fact.
So it hasn't even been 2 weeks and we have eaten live octopus, jumped into a 160m canyon off a bridge, and I got attacked by a money who ended up by just being thirsty.... This is an awesome trip!!

Kylee + Food = Happy

We wake up, in a whirl of a sweaty mess. Time to eat! Walk out of our hostel, to find we woke up at 6am! (I know Dad...I know!) Nothing is open, we didn't bring a phone with us, so we had no clock.. Thank God for 24 hour noodle shops 'round town. We walk in and the lady points us to a machine which shows pictures and some korean writing of food. We get nervous...(we have done this before, and well doesn't always turn out as expected, shall I say Cambodian fish soup Mark?) The lady comes and pushes the buttons for us and sits us back down. A little later, a bowl of fine noodles with rice crispies, soup, kim chee and some water arrive at our table... It was magically delicious! Finally, I am back in love with humanity. Koreans...Always there to help a person out! We leave there bellies full and satisified, one of the main reasons we travel.
Well, moving onto bigger and better things, shall I add we have been here for 2 days and here is the list of what has made its way to out tummies:
1. Fantastic noodles soup
2. Street food pastries, dough filled with sugar paste
3. Street food noodles and red sauce
4. Street food gyozas
5. croque-monsieur- thats right i said it!
6. Live baby octopus tenticles dipped in red sauce
7. The most fantastic bulgogi I have and will ever try in my lifetime! Paired delicately with cold rice      wine.

Now, I know what your thinking, well, maybe I don't, but #5 was in a coffee shop, they love coffee and pastries here, they have about 2 shops per block!
Ok, well some of you are probably asking about #6, well we saw it on t.v. a little Anthony Bourdain lovin comin your way!  Well they tak the baby octopus and cut it up, and like a chicken with it's head cut off, the tentacals keep moving, and as you eat them they suction to the sides of your mouth, so you gotta chew fast! Well it was pretty good! The freshest seafood I have ever eaten, they were caught earlier that morning (around 2am-ish) and we ate them at 8am, for breakfast. ( I know I just became a hero in some of your minds... no autographs please!) Pictures and video are soon to come! I kinda acted like a baby for sure!
Anyway, day 2 in Seoul, South Korea and it has been a blast so far. We are off the the stadium to watch one of Korea's national sports. BASEBALL!

Step off the plane.

    A couple sleepless nights, some (now seemingly aimless) running around, added with 28 hours of airports which also includes: 15 hours of acutal flying, 7 hours of waiting in the departures lounge,  crappy airport food, and finding transportation to our hostel. The transporation to the hostel sounds like the easiest part, well... we took the airport bus into town, got off 3 stops too early ( the korean language has many different versions of the same thing, we later found out), and had to walk in the heavy, mind altering humidity and heat, for about 45 minutes, finding out that our hostel doesn't have a sign on the door, so we really don't know where it is, so we walk...and walk... (aside: if you knew how heavy our bacpacks are you would find this amusing, and maybe chuckle a bit) Anyway, good thing we ran into Achmed. He pointed us in the right direction and away we went...straight to bed.

Less than a week.

Well the party lives on with all our family and friends, saying the last of "see ya laters" before we go. Its great to know how people feel about you as a person and this is one of the ways to see it.. To go Away!!
We are both done work now for 4 months, which feels great! We have however much money we have saved, and that is all. We will live as rich or as poor as we need to and then live on love!
Life is a lot easier if you try not to think of the material things and focus on feelings; most of all Love and Happiness. Material things don't make you happy, they may make you smile for a bit but real happiness comes from love and sharing love with one another.
"Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive."-The Dalai Lama

3 weeks left..

Well, this year seemed to go by very fast. Saving for another trip to the other side of the world, to experience what life is all about in other cultures and through the lives of others' eyes. There is plenty more to life than just whats here on earth, but I would like to experience what I can on this earth before we go any further. Life is fast, but if you don't stop and look around a bit, it'll pass by so quickly you will wonder if it was worth living!!
Anyway, three weeks left, only 2 weeks of work left and the pressure is on of getting everything set in stone before entering the world of the unknown. Trying to stay positive and not worry is the hardest thing in life I find. However, with such a great family and palette of friends, there is nothing I would want more than what I already have.
Its gonna be an awesome adventure.