Presently I am on a layover in Seoul Korea (its 2:30am), and even though I have yet to share about the rest of my Nepal and Tibet trip, there are some things stirring about in my mind that I want to get out. Also, I'm trying to get a headstart on Canadian time, so I'm staying up all night so I'll sleep through my 11 hour flight to Los Angeles tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.
I had a number of "wow I'm glad I'm Canadian" moments today (which I'm finding happen regularly the more I travel). One of them was at the Kathmandu airport where at immigration the line for locals is so long, they honestly must have to wait hours for that. The "foreigners" line...just me. I walk up and the guy jumps to attention, my passport is stamped and I'm through in a matter of minutes.
I got invited to switch seats on the KTM-Seoul flight, so I had 5 to myself... I shared though, because really I only needed 3.
Another involving immigration...this time here in Korea. The flight here from Ktm I was talking to some Nepali people, some of who were going to a pastor's conference in Seoul for 2 weeks, and needed visas, other a couple of guys who live in America, and had a ridiculous 18 hour layover (that I almost had) but because they didn't have transit visas, they were enduring it in the aiport instead of exploring Seoul. But I rock up to the immigration, with no hassle or money, and I don't even think the immigration officer looked at me and... bam I have a visa to stay in Korea six months.
Also, Korean Hospitality. Long story short...I didn't know when I was going to be leaving Seoul because I was waitlisted. But as soon as I got through the airport here, I went up to the desk, found out all my flight info, they called a (sweet) hotel for me, and the hotel manager came and picked me up. After I told him I was just in Nepal, he told me a story about how good Mongolian people's eyes are. Random. He also said he felt bad for me because there are no McDonald's in this part of town, just local resturaunts...I was like, really, thats quite alright. I would choose local Korean over McDonalds anyday.
Then because the hotel is booked I got a score of a deal on their nice suite. I have 2 tvs, this computer is in my room, theres a jet bath and it's like fort knox to get in here. I'm a fan.
I wonder why its like this sometimes... because I have a Canadian passport, and was born there instead of another country like Nepal, Tibet, or Indonesia, I have incredibly easy access to many parts of the world. Events like these today and ones that have happened before, remind me how lucky I am to be Canadian and to not take this for granted.
So much is so easy but its so easy to forget how easy it is.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Monks and Monkeys
After being in Canada for about 10 days I headed back to the other side of the world. This time, ending up in Kathmandu, Nepal via Los Angeles and Seoul, Korea.
Arriving in Nepal I had no idea what to expect, having little knowledge of the country and with still recovering from going back to Canada from Indonesia, and the busy 10 days I had in Alberta, I hadn't had much time to prepare for this trip.
But despite the fact that it was a little strange globe-hopping like I did (the fact that I can make it to the other side of the world in 2 days is amazing to me) I am so incredibly glad that I came here to Nepal and I think this trip will take a while to process and also be deeply impacting.
I arrived about 10 minutes before my friend I was meeting here, so I waited for her in the immigration line, very thankful to see a familiar face and someone I could speak Indo-glish with. After making it through the impossibly long immigration line and getting my visa, I was grateful to be at baggage claim, except for the fact that my bag was not there to meet me...super. But, this was an easy problem to solve, just filled out a form and went back to the airport the next day where my bag had just arrived. I was very glad that I had packed some toiletries and a change of clothes in my carry-on. So despite the fact that on the flight from L.A. to Seoul my sandal had broken so I was wearing a pair of expensive-too-small-airport flip-flops, it wasn't much of a bother that my bag came a day late.
The first day me and Llindsay wandered around, checking out the shops and little resturaunts, and getting completely lost as the streets here are unlike any other I've ever seen, directions don't make sense and maps are more like suggestions. Just last night we finally were able to make it for dinner and back to the hotel without getting lost. The food here is fantastic. After being in Canada for a while, being back in Asia I am kind of anti-western food, so I've been greatly enjoying the local cuisine of curries, momos (dumplings filled with spicy meat), lentil soups and of course...rice!
On Wednesday we went on a sight-seeing tour with another travelling girl from England. Because I can't pronounce the names of these places, I'll just tell you about them and then later I'll fill it in. We went to a stupa (like a Buddhist temple) up on a hill, we had to climb 350 steep steps to get to them, along with monks and monkeys. Stunning view, countless prayer flags, amazing.
Then we went to a Tibetan Refugee Camp. We watched beautiful women tireless weave beauutiful carpets, and then bought some for ourselves and to help support the camp. Then we went to Patan, an old, old city with many temples and old buildings and a museum.. with lots of old statues of Buddha and other Hindu gods were showcased, it was a good place to learn more about these faiths.
Next stop was the equivalent of Mecca, but for Hindus. There were many cremations being held at this place, as this is the place where Hindu people would most want to be cremated. There was also a huge temple there, which we were not allowed to enter as we're not Hindu. Here there were many beggers, many with leprosy, and Sadhus (holy men) who also rely on the generosity of others, and many people on pilgramages. Randomly there is a deer park here with a handful of deer and alot of monkeys. They were nice monleys (compared to the freaky ones in Bali)...until we were headed out and they started getting ready to attack us. My words to Lindsay "what do you do when a monkey attacks you?" my thoughts "what hospital should I go to to get rabies shots?". But, we hurried past them and they didn't attack, and we had a good laugh afterwards.
Then we went to another stupa, but this one is the highest in the world. We were allowed to enter the grounds here, and even walk around the bottom of it. Many people were walking around the stupa praying, there were monks crawling around it, and other people walking on their knees as they prayed their way around the stupa.
The next day we did the unbelievable. We got up early.
Shocking I know, me awake early in the morning, but theres more to the story. We woke up, went to the airport, got on a 20-seater plane with 10 other people and flew over the Himalayan Mountains.
I can't even describe about this experience. It was beautiful, moving and like a dream. We even got to go, one at a time, to the cockpit to see the pilot's view.
Some random things...
-As in India, cows are treated as gods here, and they take advantage of that by standing in the middle of the road in the midst of insane traffic.
-Rickshaws are fun ways to get around, just make sure the driver is strong enough to pull around your non-Nepali weight.
-When in Nepal, embrace your inner hippie...world peace and all that good stuff.
-When using a public computer at your hotel... be considerate and let other people use it... like I'm going to do now. I'll tell you more later, and when I can//post amazing pictures that will hopefully make all this make sense!
Headed to Tibet tomorrow. Wow.
Arriving in Nepal I had no idea what to expect, having little knowledge of the country and with still recovering from going back to Canada from Indonesia, and the busy 10 days I had in Alberta, I hadn't had much time to prepare for this trip.
But despite the fact that it was a little strange globe-hopping like I did (the fact that I can make it to the other side of the world in 2 days is amazing to me) I am so incredibly glad that I came here to Nepal and I think this trip will take a while to process and also be deeply impacting.
I arrived about 10 minutes before my friend I was meeting here, so I waited for her in the immigration line, very thankful to see a familiar face and someone I could speak Indo-glish with. After making it through the impossibly long immigration line and getting my visa, I was grateful to be at baggage claim, except for the fact that my bag was not there to meet me...super. But, this was an easy problem to solve, just filled out a form and went back to the airport the next day where my bag had just arrived. I was very glad that I had packed some toiletries and a change of clothes in my carry-on. So despite the fact that on the flight from L.A. to Seoul my sandal had broken so I was wearing a pair of expensive-too-small-airport flip-flops, it wasn't much of a bother that my bag came a day late.
The first day me and Llindsay wandered around, checking out the shops and little resturaunts, and getting completely lost as the streets here are unlike any other I've ever seen, directions don't make sense and maps are more like suggestions. Just last night we finally were able to make it for dinner and back to the hotel without getting lost. The food here is fantastic. After being in Canada for a while, being back in Asia I am kind of anti-western food, so I've been greatly enjoying the local cuisine of curries, momos (dumplings filled with spicy meat), lentil soups and of course...rice!
On Wednesday we went on a sight-seeing tour with another travelling girl from England. Because I can't pronounce the names of these places, I'll just tell you about them and then later I'll fill it in. We went to a stupa (like a Buddhist temple) up on a hill, we had to climb 350 steep steps to get to them, along with monks and monkeys. Stunning view, countless prayer flags, amazing.
Then we went to a Tibetan Refugee Camp. We watched beautiful women tireless weave beauutiful carpets, and then bought some for ourselves and to help support the camp. Then we went to Patan, an old, old city with many temples and old buildings and a museum.. with lots of old statues of Buddha and other Hindu gods were showcased, it was a good place to learn more about these faiths.
Next stop was the equivalent of Mecca, but for Hindus. There were many cremations being held at this place, as this is the place where Hindu people would most want to be cremated. There was also a huge temple there, which we were not allowed to enter as we're not Hindu. Here there were many beggers, many with leprosy, and Sadhus (holy men) who also rely on the generosity of others, and many people on pilgramages. Randomly there is a deer park here with a handful of deer and alot of monkeys. They were nice monleys (compared to the freaky ones in Bali)...until we were headed out and they started getting ready to attack us. My words to Lindsay "what do you do when a monkey attacks you?" my thoughts "what hospital should I go to to get rabies shots?". But, we hurried past them and they didn't attack, and we had a good laugh afterwards.
Then we went to another stupa, but this one is the highest in the world. We were allowed to enter the grounds here, and even walk around the bottom of it. Many people were walking around the stupa praying, there were monks crawling around it, and other people walking on their knees as they prayed their way around the stupa.
The next day we did the unbelievable. We got up early.
Shocking I know, me awake early in the morning, but theres more to the story. We woke up, went to the airport, got on a 20-seater plane with 10 other people and flew over the Himalayan Mountains.
I can't even describe about this experience. It was beautiful, moving and like a dream. We even got to go, one at a time, to the cockpit to see the pilot's view.
Some random things...
-As in India, cows are treated as gods here, and they take advantage of that by standing in the middle of the road in the midst of insane traffic.
-Rickshaws are fun ways to get around, just make sure the driver is strong enough to pull around your non-Nepali weight.
-When in Nepal, embrace your inner hippie...world peace and all that good stuff.
-When using a public computer at your hotel... be considerate and let other people use it... like I'm going to do now. I'll tell you more later, and when I can//post amazing pictures that will hopefully make all this make sense!
Headed to Tibet tomorrow. Wow.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Last Week in Bali
It was really hard to say good bye to all my friends in Bali. But luckily before I left I had many chances to spend times with the people I love there. I went to the Bali Art festival a couple times with different friends. Went bowling and out for food with great friends, played soccer and other games with the kids I lived with and even got to go see a really entertaining dance at a nearby neighborhood. Here are some pictures from this time...Oh, and I also ate as much Indonesian food as I possibly could.
My work at the center was basically done at the end of June, so up to the last days I was preparing to hand it over to other people so that the program will be able to be carried on!
My beautiful little sisters. Netri, Lusi and Koming.
Proud and Strong.
Big hearted Kadek.
Some girl friends.
Friends!
Ayam Bakar! (Grilled Chicken) Mmmm
Jagung Bakar! (Grilled Corn)
Security Guard and his wife.
My friend who sells paintings at the beach. Balinese teacher!
Friends!
Ayam Bakar! (Grilled Chicken) Mmmm
Jagung Bakar! (Grilled Corn)
Security Guard and his wife.
My friend who sells paintings at the beach. Balinese teacher!
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