THAILANDIA!

It is always such an amazing moment the second i step foot on Asian soil again. The people, the craziness all around, the noise, the strangeness, how uncomfortable everything seems to be, the tastes...definite sensory overload! LoveWe started our adventure in Bangkok where we found a crazy polluted mess filled with beautiful temples and very hospitable people. Stevi and I explored the city and got on an evening train headed for Chaing Mai where it sure was hot. Coming from the winter in Aspen to 115 degree humid humid heat is quick the shock to the system. Not something that a pool and some thai massages couldn't help. We tried to rent scooters where i just happened to run over the lady who was teaching us how to drive them. Quickly we abandoned that plan and got a tuk tuk to some pretty cool temples. From chaing mai we headed to chaing rai which had the most amazing temple that i had ever seen, it looked like narnia and really felt like a fairy tale. We then started a brutal trip over to laos which included a 3 hour local bus to a boat over the Mekong to a 14 hour sweaty and disgusting journey to Luang Prabang in Laos. Immediately everything seemed to slow down in the Laos mountains and we were able to relax a bit.

Indian Craziness, Delhi and Agra

The Red Fort and noticing how tall I really am.



The Taj Mahal!!!!







The strangest tour of my life, Im still confused 6 months later!





Headed Home!!!

Dharmasala...Little Tibet

His Holiness the Dalia Lama, hospitals, beautiful mountains, and MOMOS!!! A great town filled with one of my favorite cultures

Getting Over my Fear of Motorcycles, Rishikesh

Swimming in the Ganges, riding motorcycles, visiting the Ashram the Beatles stayed at in the 60's, getting shit on by a cow, yoga, waterfalls. Its just so loud all the time here i cant think to write. Headed to Dharamsala tonight i really hope the Dalia Lama is in town! O no everything is upside down i dont know how to switch it!

Varanasi and Trains Oh My!

Wow!!! It has been insanity traveling in this country. From Darjeeling I took a jeep to the train station in Silguiri where i had a 15 hour train ride to Varanasi. The AC, 1st class, and sleeper cars were all sold out and I could only get a ticket in a 2nd class cabin. I decided to just sit in a sleeper cabin and try to upgrade with the conductor. I found a spot with 2 nice ladies and their son. Who of course wanted to take pictures with me the whole time. Unfortunately they got off the train and 100's of Indian men took their places. Before I knew it I was sleeping in a cabin for 8 with 16 people and me. Needless to say with 100 degree heat, I didn't sleep at all. I arrived in Varanasi and took a rickshaw with 7 more Indians crammed in. There really is no concept of space in this country!!

After checking into my hotel i went to explore the town which is the most spiritual place on the Ganges where Hindu's come from far in wide to die or have their family members cremated here. It is considered very holy to bath in the waters and to pray along the banks. Of course at the same time the sewage and ashes of bodies are put into the water as well.

The night I was there i went to see a Puja ceremony where over 10,000 Hindus gather to pray as the sun goes down. I paid for a seat in a boat to avoid the chaos. I was the only white person out of the 45 people on the boat. I played with all the children and took pictures when everyone kept pointing at me yelling "white" then their children "black hahaha". They ending up giving me floating candles to put in the Ganges. I said a prayer and put candles in for my mom, my aunt pam my uncle geoff, and my grandma. It was such a holy place that I felt very close to those I have lost.



There was an amazing beauty in riding in a boat along the Ganges and seeing all the colorful people praying to their gods and carrying out ageless traditions. It was a real struggle to look past the dirtiness, the begging, and the extreme poverty of this place. Not to mention it was 120 degrees during the day. Varanasi is a place i will never be able to forget and am very happy that i went to go visit.

I just arrived in Rishekish and hopefully will be able to put pictures up in the next day or so.

Tea Country, Darjeeling!

My visa was up and it was time to leave Sikkim. This was super sad because I loved the Sikkimese people who were so welcoming but not in your face at all. On the other hand I was really looking forward to visiting the tea country of Darjeeling!

Shira and I hopped in the back of the Jeep which turned into a four hour journey with four of us crammed onto one small bench seat. We winded way way up until we were surrounded by tea plantations. We checked into our hotel and I was off to search for the Argentinians from ski school. They were pretty easy to find considering there are 9 of them! Crazy! We just spent the night catching up and filling each other in on what we had been doing.

The next morning we had intentions to ride on the toy train which was built in the 1840s. It blows crazy clouds of nasty black smoke because it is still powered by coal. Unfortunately, it was a little expensive so we decided to walk 7 km down the tracks so that we could pay much less to get back. On the way I saw a Monastery and we went in to have a look. It was closed so we had lunch for all ten of us, which including noodles, water, tea, and chocolate for $8. When the insanely beautiful monastery opened we found that they were having a huge ceremony of Puja! The monks played instruments, chanted, and wore crazy hats. By the time we arrived at the train it was sold out, so we got a jeep back to town.

Today we awoke to check out the tea plantations. On the way we stopped at the zoo which also had a great mountaineering museums and Tensing Norgay's tomb. It help all of Tenzing's climbing equipment and clothing from him and Hillary's Everest Expedition. Finally we made it to the Happy Valley Tea Plantation which wasn't so happy at first. They forced us to have a guide who probably gave us the worst tour of my life. SO we yelled and left to explore on our own. We hiked way down and there were ladies picking tea everywhere. The fields were vibrant green and it felt like we stepped back in time. Tomorrow I'm back on my own to Varanasi!

Village Life with Hundreds of Cups of Tea

After my beautiful trek my guide invited me to come to his village and to stay with his family. We headed out from Gangtok around noon and hopped in a taxi. We had to drive for around an hour and then we had a half hour walk to his house. Or so we thought, the journey ended up taking nearly 7 hours. As we were walking along the road we kept walking by houses and everyone would wave us inside. Somehow every person was Avi's relative, maybe his uncle, sister, cousin, cousin brother, cousin sister....but I'm not so sure if any of these people were really his relatives or they just wanted a white girl to cone over for tea.



Every house i walked into they would offer me tea, which was great the first three times. Then I would tell people I didn't want any but they would insist that it would be terrible if I didn't have tea. Some would give me tours of their gardens or their kitchen. Then they would go to the garden and bring me a fresh papaya or pickles or some other random thing from the garden. At one of Avi's uncles house his grandmother who is 87 came up and said in Nepali how much she wished she could talk to me. She said that she could not believe a young girl would come all the way across the world by herself and how brave I must be, and now she would treat me as her daughter because I was all alone.

All the families i visited were Hindi, so none of them drink. But many houses asked me if I would like a beer. I would say no thank you but Avi would insist and say he would split it with me. This never happened. I was drinking all the beer myself.... Finally after a tour of a bottle factory, 19 cups of tea, and a bunch of beers we arrived thankfully to Avi's house with a bathroom. His family was super sweet. They live in a two bedroom small home with his parents, 2 brothers, his sister in law, and their 6 year old son. Once again they gave me beer but it seemed like everyone else was acting drunk. I asked Avi and he said yes everyone was drinking they were just hiding it from anyone. They all seemed like 15 year old hiding booze from their parents. So weird

The experience was truly incredible. I think I may have been the first white person to ever stay in their village. Right before I left tons of people came up to the house to take a picture with me. Everywhere i went all the people would stare at me. From what I hear this will get me prepared for when I head south to Varanasi.




Avis family stove and kitchen

Leeches to Glaciers, trekking in Sikkim

I arrived in India to the crazy heat of Delhi where the smog and hot humid weather was suffocating. Thankfully I had a quick flight up to Bagdogra and not such a quick 7 hour taxi ride to Gangtok! It only cost 30 bucks, that's like me flying to new York and getting a ride home to Cleveland for $30. The only problem was that we ran into a huge goat on the way and I screamed so loud and maybe even cried a little. The mountains are very steep and green with monkeys lining the roads.



The following morning I met up with the owner of Adarsh trekking, Gopal. I found out that I had to leave that day for the trek which meant another five hour jeep ride. From traveling for 5 days and jet lag I was falling asleep between 3 guys in a crowded jeep on the bumpiest roads ever. The great part is that there are signs everywhere saying "Sikkim, we build the best roads on earth" After a good nights sleep I started early and met a dutch couple named William and Joyce that I would be hiking with for the next 5 days. They live in Delhi and it was great hearing about their lives in India. Our guides name was Avi and we had 2 super nice porters, a cook, a horse and yak man, and I think that's all.



The first two days were very uphill through the jungles. We would get to our lunch stop where they would make delicious hot lunches at a table with a tablecloth. We stay in huts starting at chokra (9000 ft) and then Dzongri (13,300 ft). At night it would get super cold with rain and snow so after a few games of yatzee we would fall asleep around 7. At 3:30 in the morning we woke up to hike to a view point to see the sunrise over the Kanchenjunga range. This is when I had my first view of these enormous mountains. Seeing the third tallest mountain in the world made me realize that I would rather be nowhere else on the planet at that time. From then we had an acclimatization day with some small day hikes up to yak town and to the pass. That afternoon the Dutch left and in came the sick Israeli American who was abandoned by her group. She couldn't stop throwing up while everyone kept yelling in her face. The next morning she woke up and joined me for the rest of the trip.

From dzongri we had a hike to thanshing (14000 ft) to hang out for te day watching cricket in the field, reading, going on short hikes, watching the blue sheep, drinking ungodly amounts of tea and eating wonderful food. The following day we were off to windy lamuni. And finally our lady hike to goecha la at 5000 meters or just under 17000 feet. I felt super strong the whole way until the very end. The views were stunning and I was so happy to be there. I had an "I love my life" moment and my guide agreed that life is so amazing!

For the next three days we walked down down down at record speeds and finally found hot showers and cold beers in yuksom. The following day we took the early long jeep back to Gangtok

Guatmala October 2009

We arrived in Antigua with no problems after a great night sleep on the floor of the Housten airport. We landed in Guatemala City and immediatly left for Antigua. Its an old colonial town with cobblestone streets and ruins of old churches that were destroyed in the 1700 from major earthquakes. The city is surronded by massive volcanos, some of which are consistantly smoking.

After a couple crazy nights, we decided to move in with an amazing Guatemalan family and to start taking spanish classes. We ate 3 meals a day with this family and they spoke no english. The mom of the house has 5 kids that are in and out and tons of grandkids. They were all super nice and it was always great hanging out with them.

One morning we hiked up Volcan Pacaya to about 9,000 feet and there was a river of flowing lava. It was crazy bc we had to walk over this lava field that probably was molten lava the day before. You could hear that it was hollow and it was super dangerous if you fell. Everyones soles of there shoes were melting because it was so hot. We could even feel our leg hairs burning.

Tonight for halloween we are going to some parties with alison hemly. Tomorrow we are headed to lake atitlan.

The Emerald Isle

Procrastination for a whole year...wow