The Travels of the Tattooed Map

So Senegal…

2011-12-13T04:52:00.002+09:00

Senegal is the last country on our West African tour. It is one of the most famous African countries, and apparently the most tourist-friendly in terms of infrastructure.

I have mixed feelings about Senegal. Admittedly, and unfortunately, Kat and I did not get to visit very much of the country. Our plans had to change rather drastically due to Ghana embassy schedule and sickness (I have to get a new visa to return to Ghana). We did not make it to St. Louis or The Gambia as originally planned, but we did visit a monastery a few hours north of Dakar and some sights to the south including ‘hedonistic’ Saly (technically geriatric hedonism -I kid you not), and Ndangane at the entrance to the Sine-Salomon Delta. We have also spent several days in the famous metropolitan Dakar, and this is where my Senegal story begins.

Before coming to Senegal, Kat and I had been living for 9 months in Ghana then travelling for five weeks through Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, and Sierra Leone, all of which are tropical lush countries. Senegal… Senegal is different. Senegal is my image of North Africa. Dakar was a feast of our eyes and ears. Everything seems different here: the architecture, colourful buses, horse drawn carts, modern highways, mosques, graffiti (good graffiti), dusty dusty streets. Dakar is not technically in the desert, but the amount of sand/dust that covers the streets makes it feel like a desert city. Senegal has the most amazing music, but it doesn’t blast it at defining decibels from every available power source. Senegal is also country of many artistic talents. From their music to paintings to sculpture to drumming and dance, the arts are alive and well here. The traditional cultural music plays in odd harmony with the counter-culture graffiti arts. There is a beauty to Dakar; it is really a mesh-mash of old and new, Muslim and French, playful and stoic.

Dakar also stinks like no other city I have visited on this planet. It is like Manhattan in the summer with a garbage strike. Not everywhere, but predicting the stink is almost impossible and when it hits I want to reach for a gasmask. Kat and I ask ourselves: why? Why does the garbage here smell so rotten? This is a cooler and dryer climate than the countries we have come from; the garbage does not seem greater in quantity from Accra, Abidjan, or Freetown. I don’t remember Delhi smelling anywhere near this bad. So that is the mystery of Dakar. Why does it assault our noses so? To be fair, they also have great incense but it is not powerful enough to overcome the former in the battle for olfactory prominence.

Besides the nasal assault, Dakar offers so much of everything, particularly in the arts. I am very…shall we say sensitive to aesthetics. Ghana was initially quite depressing in this area. Ghanaians, as much as I love them, are not aesthetically inclined and even those with money don’t really focus on crafting a beautiful world. Ghana is not alone, West African is not generally know for its aesthetic beauty, and Freetown gets a pass from its mountainous topography. Senegal, and of course Dakar, has distinctive and deliberate architecture: arched windows, spiral staircases, and the boxy two or three story white-washed buildings that I associate with north African and middle-eastern architecture. It is likely the Arab-Muslim influence and I do enjoy. Gardens! Lush overflowing gardens stand out as a declaration of defiance against the sandy streets and the whitewashed angular buildings. Flowers and decorative palms are visible over walled courtyards, balconies and rooftops. And when the sinuses are not clogged with dust or garbage stink, one can smell the sweet perfume of these hidden gardens.

The visual arts and music… While the typical ‘African Art’ can be found a plenty in Dakar, other more original and inspired paintings and sculptures are easily found. Some of the sculptures are just plan bizarre, some are disturbing, and many are gallery worthy. The music is in another class all to itself. Senegal most definitely wins my vote for best West African music. I can’t describe it to you, so if you are not familiar with it, please take my word for it. Senegalese music is worth seeking out. (I am brining tones back and I am happy to share.) The only country that I can imagine beating out Senegal in their artistic talents is Mali, a country that sadly remains on my wish list, but if I like something 9 times out of 10 I am told it comes from Mali.

The last thing I will boast about on Senegal’s behalf is the dress. Most men wear traditional Muslim long tunics and matching pants and the women wear elegant flowing dresses and head wraps. They look fabulous pretty much all the time. Western dress is rare here, even in Dakar. The good taste of the Senegalese most definitely extends to their wardrobe. Of course being freakishly tall and lanky doesn’t hurt one’s elegant appearance. This is the other mystery of Senegal…why are the people here so crazy tall??? I am not exaggerating. I have never been surrounded by so many tall men and women in my life; and Kat who is 6 feet can vouch for this. It is like the country took on eugenics to create an army of basketball players. So height, slender physic, and flowing elegant dress seems to be that perfect equation for jaw-dropping beauty. As Kat remarked: “thank goodness it is not rude to stare”.

There has been so much to take in here. We have had a great ten days. I wont miss the harassment, which I personally find worse here than in any other country I have visited or lived in, and no, I have not been to Morocco.

In my next post I will talk about the actually places we visited.

☺
L

Sierra Leone continued...Tiwai and Beaches

2011-11-30T05:23:00.003+09:00

When I was young and my older sisters were travelling the world they would send home letters of their adventures. Each letter was read aloud and the images it conjured up of these far off places lived in my imagination and thoughts for years. I was thinking of these letters and the images they inspired as Kat and I headed off just before dawn on motorbikes (okada) for the Freetown government bus station.

At 5:30am the streets were more deserted than I had expected. The sun was not yet rising, and the only light came from the head beam of the okada as it wove around potholes and navigated speed bumps. The quiet of the streets felt precious and rare. The okada drove down through the lower part of the city, towards the water. If I had not been in a taxi the previous day that had taken this same route I may have been nervous, as the streets are so dark and as sweet as my driver seemed I didn’t want to be a naive fool. We drove up to Congo Cross, veered to the left down side streets to avoid construction, then around the stadium, and as we started to enter downtown we veered left again down a steep hill and through one of Freetown’s slums where life was stirring only slightly more than in our neighbourhood of Murry Town. Then we crossed the base of the business centre on Lightfood Boston St, just one street up from the coast and the government wharfs. The ride was perhaps fifteen minutes and all in the darkness, but knowing the turns my driver would make and seeing the map of the city in my mind calmed my often-excitable imagination. One week in I was already comfortable here.

The bus station was another pro-Sierra Lone experience with helpful strangers, and the bus manager making sure the guys loading our bags on the bus did not ask us for money. The boy selling water who left with our too big note did eventually find us again with the proper change. It is nice to be able to shrug and say “I am sure he will be back with change, and if not it is not a big loss.” I still check my bags and make sure the zippers are pulled shut, but if I didn’t I am also pretty positive some older woman would come up to me and let me know my bag was open and give a mini lecture on keeping my valuables safe.

So the journey out of Freetown and towards Bo was uneventful. The sunrise was beautiful through the morning mist, and the countryside was wild. This is one the most striking things about Sierra Leone. Of all the land we saw in our journeys apart from Freetown, greater Freetown and Bo (the two larges cities), only 10% or so was under cultivation or otherwise harnessed for human uses. Sierra Leone is jungle country and it is marvellous! I look at the thick jungle forest and think how does one ever begin to penetrate it? ‘Machete required’. The other thing I noticed was the number of villages supported by Plan International. The Freetown-Bo highway felt like the Plan strip. Very few other NGOs were working in this area, it was very much dominated by Plan. The signboards mentioned the project, sector area, beneficiary population, and length of project but it was hard to see these details as we sped past.

In Bo we found a poda poda (mini bus) headed to Tiwai. We bulked at the price as the distance did not seem so far…but it certainly took a long time. Our poda poda was loaded beyond capacity. People, dry goods, water canisters, and more…items were piled on the roof a good 4-5 feet high, and the floor under the seats …well ever inch was used. There were probably 27+ people in a mini bus that was built for perhaps 14. The floor (what little we had access to) became burning hot metal with the rotation of the parts (not a car person) below. When we passed through puddles steam rose through the holes in the floor. At one point we were all required to exit the bus and walk about 500 meters while the mini bus navigated a particularly bad stretch of water filled potholes the size of garden fish ponds. It was certainly an adventure…a five hour adventure on metal benches. While we had our doubts about the actually making it to our destination (Kat thought the axel was going to crumble, I thought the roof was going to cave in) we did. Our poda poda did break down once, about an hour delay (axel-tire issues), during which time Kat and I discovered the most lovely all natural toilet I have ever seen – a floor of dark black shells of some nut surrounded by some tall green plant (sorry I can’t be more specific)…as spa-like as a natural outhouse could be. Toilets are something of note and a conversation topic for travellers…you get to see it all.

Tiwai- an island forest reserve in the Moa river. There were small communities of people on Tiwai until the 1980s, then as our guide informed us a white man said that if the island was reserved for wildlife then the white people will come visit…income generation, education, employment, and animal conservation – this is Tiwai today. Our early morning guided walk through this 12-sq-km island jungle revealed six of the 11 different species of primates jumping around the canopy – the Red Columbus, Black and White Columbus, Diana monkey, Spotted Nose monkey, ….Macak, and another one whose name I can’t remember. Apparently Tiwai island is one of the best places in the world to view primates. We also saw two types of hornbills and many other birds. Our canoe trip around the island did not reveal the shy pigmy hippos but it was peaceful and felt completely ‘wild’. Nature has the upper hand here, as in most of Sierra Leone. It reminded me of Hippo Pools in Zimbabwe, but perhaps a bit more rustic and less developed. Kat and I tented and ate groundnut (peanut) soup for three of our four meals on the island.

The return trip from Tiwai to Freetown had an even earlier morning start. We arose at 4:30am and at 5am the boat arrived to take us to the mainland where two okada’s were be waiting to transport us to the poda poda stop in Portoru where we would be catching the first transport (6am) back to Bo. The boat ride was undertaken in darkness, the blackness of the trees only slightly blacker than the night sky, our driver was skilful and found the correct patch of mud on the mainland bank without the aid of any light. Our okada ride was just as magical. The air was cool and the ride fast but meditative. Can those two co-exist? Early mornings are a special time, and I was more than happy to have roused myself out of bed for this ride through the countryside. In Portoru we choose the same poda poda that brought us there. As my father says ‘the devil you know, is better than the devil you don’t.’ Again we broke down once, the front tires/axel this time. Another distinction in this journey besides the sunrise and are choice front seats (100x more comfortable than the metal benches) were the chickens among passengers, and as we discovered just before arriving in Bo…poached monkeys and some small type of antelope. As much as I don’t like to see monkeys being hunted I was struck by the fact that this sight could not be in any way more disturbing than the poultry, pig, or cattle farms around the world where animals are treated as biomass for human consumption. I was not too sad for the monkeys, they probably had a good life and every part will be used (food, witch doctors remedies, skin for any number of things). I was a bit surprised by my reaction, but I am not a vegetarian so I cannot get all righteous and upset about the sight of a few poached animals, it would be hypocritical.

After a short time in Bo (which included a failed bank run and a rush back to the poda poda to retrieve our mobile left in the car charger – success!) we headed to Freetown on yet another poda poda. In Freetown we collected more cash and our friend Cindy and headed to the famed beaches. Tokeh was first on the list.

Beaches – Tokeh and River No. 2
What can I tell you about Tokeh? After a 1.5 hour okada ride down not-really-existent-roads one comes to small, undeveloped, but lively Tokeh village and beach. The beach is made up of fine white sands and the surrounding mountains disappear into the sea. As Kat mused -maybe this is what Hawaii is like. Stunning! Our accommodation was very basic, no electricity, a bed, a mossy net, and a reed hut right on the beach. The culinary highlight was the oysters! One dozen for $2.50!!! (Don’t worry Dad, I ordered them both days, can’t pass that up.)The sunset was in pastels, the beers were cold, the ocean was calm, the rains did not last, a bonfire was lit for us, and we had the whole beach to ourselves…well we did share it with the small local population. We played, floated, and just hung out in the ocean for hours…this did eventually cause the most sever case of heatstroke I have ever experienced but that was yet to come. Tokeh was pretty much perfect. Sure mats on our wooden sun beds and bug spray could have improved things but really, it was pretty fabulous just the way it was.

From Tokeh we went to River No. 2, one beach closer to Freetown, Cindy continued on to Freetown as she had to work the next day. We had wanted to get to the Banana Islands but Kat and I could not justify the expense with Senegal still to come in our travels. River No. 2 is the expat weekend hangout. We arrived on a Sunday night and saw the last of the 4x4 crowd finish their beers and pay their overpriced tabs before heading back to town. It was overpriced. Still cheaper than the transport to and from Banana Islands, but overpriced for what was offered. Kat and I shrugged, we had no choice it was late and we had to stay. The beach was beautiful. Kat read to me until the sun set (we are reading The Empathic Civilization) and then we negotiated a dinner from a waiter who said there was no food left after the weekend. Boiled eggs and cuscus with a spicy tomato sauce did materialize and it was tasty. That night the heatstroke hit. Both Kat and I were ill and running to the toilet in turns, but only I was vomiting. The next day was a right-off, I was bed-bound until we were well enough to climb on okada’s and take the journey back to Freetown. I did managed one walk down the beach as it was a cloudy day and the beach is beautiful…the overpriced expat establishment does not destroy the natural beauty.

There is so much more I want to say, I feel I have not done it justice, not been descriptive enough, I want to share everything, share how this country makes me feel…but it is getting late and we leave tomorrow for Senegal.

Sierra Leone is a special place. It has, in two short weeks, found a spot in my heart. If I were offered a job here in the future I certainly hope I could accept it.

Kat and I are worried about our wallets, but we are also excited to be off to Senegal and The Gambia. It will be go go go for the ten days we are there. I will do my best to update the blog.

Cheers,
L

First impressions of Sierra Leone…

2011-11-30T04:07:00.003+09:00

November 22, 2011

Sierra Leone is country I have longed to visit. This is a country that was destroyed by years of civil war, and an economic tailspin before that. I wrote two papers in my undergrad on Sierra Leone, one of the causes of the civil war, and another on the UN’s effort to lead the peace process. The war has made Sierra Leone famous for its diamonds and child soldiers. For most people, mention of the country conjures up images of chopped hands, drugged children with guns larger than themselves, and for those a bit more informed – the Kimberly Process which was the first international regulations to stop the sale of ‘conflict diamonds’. When I started studying Sierra Leone the UNDP’s data estimated the life expectancy in Sierra Leone at 37 years. This was 2001 data, today the life expectancy is estimated to be 52 years. This figure is so low because of the under 5 child mortality rate. Sierra Leone, despite the improvement of 13 years to its life expectancy is still one of the poorest countries in the world. It remains at the bottom of the UNDP’s development index.
There has been peace in Sierra Leone for nine years, almost ten. All the major NGOs work here. Every fifth car seems to have the logo of an NGO, UN body, World Bank, EU or other government aid agency. Despite all these efforts, I can say without a doubt, of all the countries I have travelled to in the world, Sierra Leone is notably the poorest.
How does one tell the level of poverty? Besides the high number of humanitarian aid cars… it is the small details. More women wear second-hand western clothing than African print cloth. (African cloth is more expensive.) Very few women here wear a weave or long braids, most have their natural hair breaded tight to heir heads or tiny dreads. As I learned in Ghana, weaves (wigs sewn into the natural hair) can be very pricy and must be redone every few months; same goes for long braid extensions. Private taxies are rare; almost all taxies are shared and drive a set route picking up passengers as they go. The more expensive but more convenient way to travel is by hired okada (motorbike). The general state of the taxies and poda podas (mini buses) are in welded/glued together, start with a prayer condition. The roads are bad, many are unpaved which can make okada transport more attractive. This is the case in the capital… conditions become more exaggerated in the rural areas.
More obvious evidence of the country’s troubles is the unreliable electricity. I have been told that during the dry season (December-June) electricity in the capital is rare, and might only come on every few weeks for a short period. In the wet season hydroelectric power is pretty consistent. Businesses that can afford it (and all NGOs) run on generators during the dry season. Again, if this is the condition in the capital, we hear most rural areas have no electricity, unless solar was being introduced.
As Kat and I walk through the business sector of Freetown, the numbers of beggars and homeless is striking. The numbers are still less than India, but too many for the population size, and far more than I have seen in any other African country I have visited. The misery on their faces is hard to ignore, and as terrible as this sounds, I have become mostly non-reactive to the faces of beggars… it is one of those survival strategies I suppose.
Another evidence of the poverty or lack of ‘development’ is the banking system. Most foreigners work with American cash, exchanging it on the street for Leones as required. Kat and I had a bit of trouble finding a bank that would accept her Visa (Mastercard is not commonly accepted in West Africa). We did find one but the largest sum we could withdraw was 400,000Leones (little less than $100), and that was double what we had been told to expect.

I promise you though, if you did not look for these things they would be far from your first impressions of this country. Our experience upon arrival at the airport was luckily not the norm. The hassle there was worrying, but we have not been hassled at all since then. Tourism, beyond the weekend jaunts of the expats community, is basically non-existent in Sierra Leone. It is safe, the beaches are easily the most beautiful of West Africa, but the tourists are not yet coming. The infrastructure to support them is slowly being up in place and I can imagine things will change a lot in the next ten years. I am, for the first time, exploring a country that has not yet become a backpacker destination. Maybe in the future I will complain about how much it has changed or how the charm has been lost, but hopefully that will be a conversation I have with my nieces in fifteen years after they strap on their backpacks and head over.
So the charm… Sierra Leoneans are lovely people. Really, just fabulous. Genuine, kind, helpful, and even if they see us as a dollar sign they don’t let it show. (My neighbours are blasting Celine Dion’s greatest hits, but I can’t hold that against them.  ) Kat and I have not felt like anyone has tried to cheat us, negotiations are not a headache. We have been offered rides by strangers (a necessary kindness with the state of the public transport system), and someone is always there to help us with directions or advice. The old adage ‘strangers in a strange land’ seems to apply to us here, and the help offered feels like a natural reaction to any stranger. Of course things are not perfect, tensions exist under the surface, the war broke apart families, communities, and involved almost everyone in one way or another. I asked the National General Secretary of the Sierra Leone YMCA if he was in the country during the war (knowing those who could fled), he said he left when Freetown was taken for the second time and he left because all of his friends from high school had joined the RUF and his father was afraid they would force him to join. He fled to Guinea, and when he returned all his friends were all dead. These memories and worse scars lie below the welcoming smiles of everyone old enough to remember. I have so many questions that I can’t ask, no one wants to talk about it, everyone knows someone involved if they were not involved themselves. They need to move forward. But if you don’t know the history, there would be little here to tell you of the war, babies are everywhere, laughter and life fills the air. Sierra Leone is under construction, roads, buildings, more roads…across the country. This country is moving forward, no one wants to look back.

Freetown is a beautiful city, despite the poverty. It is a city of hills and apparently the only areas in West Africa where mountains meet the coast. The city centre is formed at the base of a large bay, the downtown is along the water and the residential areas move up the hills. The views are stunning. Really almost picture perfect, certainly screams potential. It also feels more historic than the capitals of Cote D’iviore or Ghana, which is interesting as Freetown is a much younger city. It was created as a re-settlement colony for freed slaves after the abolition of slavery. Ghana in comparison was used to export slaves, and expect for the castles/forts that are relicts of this horrible history, Ghana does not have much historic feel. Old wooden homes are a common site down Freetown’s streets, as Kat remarked, have an old American feel to them. It is a distinctive charm to these homes, a charm that goes with fried chicken and grits. These homes were built by the British, but still feel like an American homestead over a British cottage.

Two of our friends in Ghana connected us to their friend Cindy who is living and working in Freetown. Cindy met us at the ferry wharf, hooked us up to an inexpensive room in the house she is living in, gave us tips on transport, and introduced us to her friends. It has been absolutely amazing to know someone here. Having someone, like Laura in Cote d’Ivoire, takes some much stress off the travels. We are so fortunate and we know it.

I can’t really explain the feeling I have here. Perhaps over the coming days I will be able to articulate it.

Wow a Prius just drove past…how does one get a hybrid car serviced here???

Sierra Leone has also inspired a new game – guess the NGO 4x4. Mercie Stopes, Oxfam, Save the Children, Christian Aid, Planned Parenthood, UNDP, WFP, World Bank, DFID, Plan, Concern Worldwide, UNFP, World Vision, MSF, International Crisis Group, medical this and that, agricultural this and that, UN (white car with big black UN logo…which agency? don’t know), BRAC. Basically it is a branding game. But really, can you imagine if every 5th car you saw at home had a company logo on it? To make it more obvious, each of these branded cars is a white 4x4. What does this do to one’s psyche?

Kat and I will head to Tiwai island next to check out the interior, wildlife, and village life, and then we are planning to explore the beaches along the Freetown peninsula…the famed beaches of Sierra Leone. I am not worried about the limited tourist infrastructure, I have learned over the years to ask for help (something I have really struggled with) and I am certain we will meet some great people when we stop and ask.

Cheers,
L

Ghana (final update)

2011-11-30T04:00:00.001+09:00

Greetings from Ghana!!!

I have now been here for just over seven months; that means it has been six months since my last email. So much has happened during these past six months, I will not be able to share it all with you in this update, but I am sure stories will come out over time and those of you with fb have access to my photos and the status updates I make from time to time about my life here.

Today is Monday, November 7, 2011. I am in a stretch of paradise known as Axim beach, close to the Ghanaian boarder with Côte d’Ivoire. The ocean is crashing against the rocks with all the idyllic beauty that one could possibly imagine. To the left of the rocks is an uninhabited stretch of palm-fringed beach. Yes, indeed, paradise discovered. This is the beginning of my West African adventure. We have been here since Thursday and today my dear friend Kat and myself will cross over into Côte d’Ivoire on our journey westward to Senegal. In six weeks we will sample three countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, and Senegal, flying back to Ghana for a few days with our dear friends, then it will be homeward bound for both of us. While we head to once war torn countries, it is communicating in French that we fear the most. After dealing with three different currencies in French, I better, finally, have my numbers down.

As much as I would like to speak about my adventure, I owe you all an update on Ghana. Well after seven months Ghana has become home, although exactly when it became home I can’t say for sure. It was always fun, exciting, challenging, and then it was familiar. Familiar = comforting = home in my books. When that warm lovely familiar feeling creped in the idea of leaving became scary, and the days and months until the end of my contract seemed to speed past. And now, I can hardly believe that it has been six months since I wrote, and I can’t believe I am leaving.

What bits of Ghana can I share with you?
Charly! (sounds like Char-lay) has become one of my favourite words. It is an anything word meaning friend, brother, dude, yo, etc. A gasp of realization or surprise is often “OH, Charly!”. “Charly, I’m coming.” Is one of the many phrases used to let you know that the person you need or are waiting for has every intention of coming, and sometimes does indeed showup. Yes time, is relative in Ghana. I am mostly good with flexible time, it is not like I am left standing in the cold as I wait. (hehehe…how is Canada?) A workshop starting two hours late, especially when the time given to participants was an hour earlier than the actually start, which means three hours late, can irk me a wee bit.
‘Sssssssssst’ ah a fun sound. Use it and heads here will turn. How else will a taxi know I want it or the waiter know I need him/her? The West African hiss as the Lonely Planet guidebook refers to it, takes a little getting used to for some; I embraced it. My apologies if I use it at home, it becomes second nature, and yes I will have just hissed at you.
I never did get the hang of Twi or Ga, the two main languages spoken in Accra. No surprise there, English is everywhere, and my ear for languages being as poor as it is struggled to recognise distinct sounds in these local tonal languages.
There are so many lovely other aspects to the way Ghanaians speak, interesting ways they use words or sounds they make. The handshake with the snap at the end also becomes second nature, and handshakes without it seem disengaged and unfriendly.

Ok moving away from language, I have now been to two church services. Interesting. One was Pentecostal, the other Methodist. Lots of music and women dressed up in fabulous African suits with head wraps, which is what I wanted to see really. The south of Ghana, for those that might not know, is very Christian. A new experience for me, while I have lived all over the world, this was my first time living amongst fervent Christians. I learned a lot, and was every amused by the signage:
“Redeemer variety” “By his Grace hair salon”, “Fear of God Chop Bar”, “God First Brick Factory”, “Exodus 15:23”, “With God Tire shop”, “God hath done it beauty salon”, and the list goes on…

I would speak to you about Ghanaian food but really, I don’t eat it much as the palm oil is very hard for me to digest. The food is heavy and the portions HUGE! If I never see fried chicken/fish again I will be ok with that. While my consumption of Ghanaian food declined there was a major upswing in my cooking. Dinner parties became commonplace among my friends here. The discovery of fresh basil, coriander, and mint was, oh, it was a happy day, as was the discovery of tofu at the Chinese grocer. My kitchen at Obruni House and then at my second home with Peter and Jessica was a busy place. Salads of every variety, lasagnes’, soups, stir-fries, muffins, pizzas, desserts, curries, crepes, the list goes on. Ghanaian dishes were not safe either; we adopted them, took out that excess oil and jazzed them up, Kat and I are always ready for a new culinary challenge.

In the past seven months I have met some terrific people and established what I very much hope to be lasting deep friendships. I have said too many goodbyes to too many of these important people. While I wont go on and on about these friends, I will tell you that my life here has been rich with amazing people, conversations, dinner parties, and dancing. We (Kat and I) have also received packages from friends who returned home. Anna sent prosciutto, parmesan, chocolate and coffee from Italy; Kim and Carolyn sent jasmine tea, dried sausage, chocolate, and coffee from Amsterdam. Anyone coming from Canada brought me a Vanity Fair…only missing two issues from the past 7 months, how amazing is that!! Friends are as important to the expat as water. Ghana has been full of friends, friends that become family, my Obruni family as I refer to them. My Ghanaian friends have also had a huge impact on my experience, and are the people who in the end make leaving so difficult… “See you in New York” or “Sure I will come to Washington” or “how could I not come to England to see you?” these are not the phrases I get to say to my Ghanaian friends…just goodbye, and “yes I hope I will come back one day”… not really a comforting goodbye to such dear friends.

One friend I don’t have to part with is Kat. Kat is my closest friend here in Ghana who I met on day 7 and who I will step off the plane with in Toronto. Our contracts ended in the same week and we are taking on West Africa together. Kat is also a CIDA intern and is from Toronto’s Bloor West Village…we also discovered that we went to the same Zumba class when I lived by High Park. (small worlds grow smaller).

So what have I seen around Ghana? I have been up to the north of the country, and all over the southern belt (mostly for work but also pleasure). Tamale, Kumasi, Ho, Koforida, Keta, Takoradi, Cape Coast, Akosombo, and the list of towns and villages goes on but they likely mean little to you. Since the majority of my time has been in the south, I have experienced mostly lush tropical Ghana. Just as the Inuit have hundreds of ways to describe snow, I feel Ghanaians could or should have the same for foliage. Trees at any one glance include palms of every variety, banana, bamboo, mango, avocado, rubber, papaya, mangrove, and African mahogany…a thousand different shades of green. The southern belt is hilly, but no mountains. Lush, lush, lush. The north however is dry as a savannah…which is what it is up there. Different and beautiful. I am sorry I did not get a chance to spend more time up north, but many never get there at all.

Yesterday morning Kat and I visited a village built on stilts over a lagoon. As legend has it, the villagers (pre-village) were being persecuted and on the run from warring tribes, a spirit told them to build their village on the lagoon and they would be safe. So far, so good. The transport there is by dugout canoe, an hour through the largest swamp forest in Ghana!! The wetlands were pretty cool, a neat way to start a Sunday morning.

So, my contract here has just been completed. I believe all of you know I was here working for the YMCA of Ghana as their Gender Advisor. It was a fabulous experience. In 7 months, I have designed a process of adapting a Gender Policy that was originally developed by the African Alliance of YMCAs. This process (framework) has now been implemented in Ghana and involves analysis, workshops, consultation, and focus groups. The a few months into my work here members of the executive at the African Alliance of YMCAs came to me to request that I create a framework for this process that can be used by other national YMCA movements in Africa in adapting the gender policy. This was pretty cool, how could I say no? The African Alliance of YMCAs has also talked about wanting to hire me on to move from one national movement to the next across Africa implementing this process. The likelihood that this job will ever materialized is slim as they do not have the funding, but I am flattered by their interest. Back to the Ghana Y… so to increase the sustainability of the work I was doing to (increasing gender equality awareness at the Y), I developed a gender-training manual that can be used by non-gender specialists. As part of the adaption process, I designed and conducted around 10 workshops on gender issues from basic gender awareness workshops to gender in advocacy, Results Based Management, and communication workshops. The activities and results from the workshops became the research on which my manual was based. I discovered through this processes that I really enjoy facilitating workshops. This might not come as a surprise to most of you but it was for me. What else have I been up to? Back in June and July I developed two gender equality youth leadership projects, one of which was endorsed by Ghana’s Ministry of Women’s and Children’s Affairs. That was pretty cool.
Towards the end of my contract I started thinking about how to get people to remember the gender equality concepts I was teaching and how to remind those at all levels of the Ghana YMCA that they had a gender policy. Well the YMCA seemed to like posters. They had a few posters tacked to the walls that were published by international YMCA bodies for events or campaigns that had taken place several years ago. I decided I should create a gender poster as a communication tool on gender issues in Ghana and the Gender Policy. Kat is a graphic designer (technically a medical communicator...a super cool job I will tell you about another time) so she was essential in designing the poster and playing with photos and layout. House of work! As of October, the poster 150 copies of the poster had been printed and are in the process of being distributed to members and the 50 YMCA branches around Ghana.
I struggled with doing this on my own at the beginning. I craved the collective input of a team. I wanted to bounce my ideas of people who new something about that I was talking about. Over time I had to get used to relying on myself, and myself alone. It got better, but I still think I would opt for collaboration over completely independent work.

Before closing I would like to mention Jessica and Peter Gross. Through a mutual friend, Peter contacted me to ask if I could look after his dog Bock while he and his wife were away on business trips. Kat and I (we are a 2 for 1 deal) moved in and Peter offered his home to us for the remainder of our time in Ghana. Yes a home, a real home with lovely furniture and bookcases!!!! So for our last 6 weeks in Ghana Kat and I lived in their home, feel in love with Bock dog, utilized their kitchen to the fullest, slept in AC on real pillows, and got a chance to know one of the most inspiring couples I have ever met. It is not their list of accomplishments, dazzling life, or hardships overcome that inspires, it is how they live their life, the simple moments, and how they treat others that has touched me. While not much older than us, they have become role models to Kat and myself. They are expecting their first baby, a girl, in March and I wish them all the best. They opened their home, gave us shelter and asked us for nothing. Of course we did what we could by filling the water tank and rising early to bake muffins before they woke, and making dinners…small kindnesses for such a huge gift.

So that is my update on Ghana. Of course there is so much more I have not shared, there are more stories that will come out over time I am sure.

In short, 7 months of: dancing, friendships, water challenges, communal living, shared lives, celebrations, food, excellent food, appreciating each moment, sad goodbyes, religiosity, gridlock traffic, oppressive heat, empty beaches, vibrant life, rains, energetic existence, never boring, rhythmic, laughter, re-imported coffee and cocoa, colourful fabric, more colourful beads, periods of high stress, beating sunshine, sexism, homophobia, police corruption, double standards, circular arguments, endless gratitude, bad roads, salty sea breezes, singing, smiles, handshakes, music, even more laughter and never, never enough dancing!

Now, West Africa, bring it on!!!
I hope you are all well, and in a few weeks I hope I will be seeing you. Good luck with the Christmas rush. Try dancing when no one is looking, it does wonders…promise.

Cheers,
L

One week left.

2009-09-13T13:25:00.002+09:00

Hello,
Well I am nearing the end of my internship with Action Aid India's Aashray Adhikar Abhiyan (AAA). One week left to go. I have written up my observer report and I am just editing and adding to it at the moment. I created some template Log Frame Analysis (LFA) for each of the clinics to help the staff at AAA create their goals and objectives for the health clinics. These are also used to review and evaluate if a program is being successful.
I have been asked to create a Program Monitoring and Evaluation (PME) system for AAA. I will not be able to create the entire system for them as it needs to be done as a collective by the staff and volunteers, but I will create a template for them.
It was very affirming to be asked to do this, they obviously see that I have something of value to add, and I am the closest thing they will come to an expert on this stuff (scary I know). I might be green but I have the tools to do it, I have created such systems in my program and I was good at it there.

I was asked if AAA has the physical tools I need to do this work (computers, printers, etc). It has limited equipment and I am very glad I have my own computer. I would be writing everything by hand if I didn’t and then typing up when I could grain access. This organization is asked to do so much but they have been given so little. They are in desperate need for a few new computers, laptops would be helpful. They don’t have a scanner or a fax machine.

This is my organization’s website if anyone is interested. It hasn’t been updated in a while but it still has lots of information. http://www.homelesspeople.in/

This week I will be taking pictures at the clinics so I will be able to upload some soon.

As always, questions, comments and advice are welcome!

Cheers,
L.

Working with the homeless of Delhi.

2009-08-16T21:58:00.002+09:00

Hello,
I am very late with this update I know, I apologize.
I have been in India for a month and two weeks at my internship.

What am I doing?
I am going to be generating a report on the health clinics for the homeless of Delhi. This report is for Ashray Adhikar Abhiyan (AAA), a program of ActionAid. AAA is a shelter rights campaign for the homeless of Delhi. They have a variety of projects for the homeless – shelters, health clinics, community organization and outreach, legal aid, identity cards and voter registration, and some programs for street children. AAA uses the participatory approach with each of their projects and with their office staff. What does this mean? It means that things are done with input from everyone. There is a basic type of hierarchical structure but all problems, solutions, and program design are done through open discussion with staff, volunteers, and the homeless. Most of the volunteers are the homeless themselves. The program has been in operation since 2001and most projects are now run almost entirely by the volunteers.
ActionAid is a rights based organization and so is AAA. This means that they are focus on their beneficiaries knowing what their rights are and what they are entitled to through the government. This means right to health care- a government hospital can not refuse a patient (even though they do), the right to vote – very few of the homeless have any official identification and no permanent address.
Who are the homeless?
The homeless in Delhi are 90% men who have migrated to from their towns and villages in the hopes of finding employment and sending money home. About 90% of these men are employed on a regular bases. They work as labourers, rickshaw pullers, street venders, sweepers, cleaners, rage pickers, and during wedding season many are employed as catering staff, event staff, etc. These jobs, if I remember correctly, make up 80% of the Indian labour force. They are the backbone of the economy and the way of life here. These people are paid so poorly that they cannot afford to pay rent. If person comes to Delhi with little to no education or skills, no family with a residence, no contacts, then they are likely to end up sleeping on the streets.
My misconception:
When I first heard that I would be working for AAA and that they worked with the homeless I took a deep breath, thought about they shanty towns India is famous for and thought this is going to be hard. Rural poverty is hard to see, but urban poverty is much worse. Well as it turns out a shanty is a residence, a tarpaulin and a mud floor is still a home and can even have an address. The homeless in India are pavement dwellers. This means you have no roof over your heard, not even a tarpaulin, unless you want to classify an overpass as roof.
Where do they sleep?:
There are an estimated 150,000 homeless in Delhi (that’s the top figure, could be only 100,000). They homeless are very hard to count, particularly the women as they do their best to stay hidden. The majority of homeless in Delhi live in what is known as the Walled City – Old Delhi. If you life in Delhi, and you don’t live in this particular part of the city, you don’t come here. Tourist do as Delhi’s famous Red Fort and largest mosque (Jama Masjid) are here. There is also a bit of the flavour of old traditional India. You can walk down winding lanes/alleyways where everything needed for an India wedding can be found, each at food stalls that have been around for hundreds of years. It is a very busy place, very crowded, often smelly (can be a good smell), and of course dirty. There are very little access to clean water (clean for Delhi I mean), and as few toilets. It is in this region of Delhi that an estimated 50,000 homeless can be found. You won’t notice many during the day (they are working) but in the evenings they come and even a few hundred are shocking to see. They figures are the estimation of AAA, you won’t find government stats that high, but then the government would like to imagine there weren’t any.

The Health Clinics:
So my department. AAA, in partnership with several other organizations (including government organizations) has several health initiatives for: general health, chemical dependents, mental health, and a separate clinic for rickshaw pullers. They have clinics on Mon, Tues, Thur, and Friday. The clinics are held in the evening so patients don’t have to miss work to go. They are held in three different locations, all in or around Old Delhi. They treat as best they can (mostly acting as a pharmacy), and for those in need of hospital care they make referrals and volunteers personally take patients to the hospital to make sure they get seen. Their treatment in the hospital is also monitored and recorded. The clinics are not entirely free, the cost is about 2-3 rupees a visit and the medicines are included. The doctors volunteer their time.

General Health: this clinic sees patients with a variety of conditions, the most common seem to be breathing problems, joint pain, and injuries. Many of the conditions are chronic.

Chemical Dependents: this is a clinic for drug addicts. In order to attend the clinic it is mandatory to attending the sharing sessions held every week. This is a group therapy, AA style, to coincide with the drug therapy. The vast majority of patients are addicted to smack, a form of heroin, that is very readably available here (go Afghan poppies!). The drugs they are given have the same basic effects as the smack but without the harmful side effects. The doctor I was speaking to this week seems torn with this initiative as while giving them the pharmaceuticals is technically better for them from a health perspective, it is just another cocktail of drugs they get addicted. I asked him why he volunteers his time if he feels it doesn’t help. He responded noting that since these drugs are free the chemical dependents are not engaging in the illegal activities that they may be drawn to in order to be able to afford their addiction, and the harmful side effects are not there. Rock- Chemical Dependents- Hard place.

Mental Health: this clinic is still new, only about 9 months old. It treats the mentally ill homeless with drug therapy. There are not a huge number of patients at this clinic, some are voluntary, others involuntary, but it is having pretty good success. How do they treat involuntary patients? Well they hold a court at the Monday clinic, a magistrate comes and judges the patient according to the psychiatrist, patient records (whatever exist), testimony, and an interview with the patient. If deemed unfit, then medications can be given by force. Hospitalization of patients also takes place if needed.

Rickshaw Pullers: I am still trying to figure this clinic out. Why is there a special clinic for them? Well I believe it has something to do with the fact they make a bit more money. There are many levels in the homeless community. You all know about the Indian caste system I presume, well there are many castes within castes, and my guess is that since the rickshaw pullers are consider the higher end of the homeless population, this means they get a separate clinic. Maybe they would refuse to go to the general clinics. I will be finding out this information very soon.

I could use your help!!
I have never done anything like this before (shh don’t tell anyone) and I want to do it right. This report is for internal use but it is going to be their most up to date documentation on these clinics, 2003 was the last report. I am to observe, understand, make suggestions.
I have prepared a four page list of questions for the staff and volunteers (about 88 questions) on the clinics. Don’t assume I have asked all, or the right questions. If you have questions you want answered please, please, please send them my way.
Also if you have any tips on how this report should be done, please pass them along. I want to do this well. Perhaps there are those of you who have worked with homeless populations or with organizations who try and aid the homeless and can give me insight.

Thanks for reading.
Cheers,
Linden

p.s. I will be using this blog mainly to update about my work. I will keep future updates short now that you have the background. I may, from time to time add a bit about my personal life, but mostly this blog will be about my work. You can always email me if there is something you would like to know about that I am not included here. Thanks.

2009-02-17T22:24:00.002+09:00

Hello,
Well I am back in India and with my darling Javed.

We are in Delhi now. I flew into Mumbai just over a week ago now and after a day there we went down to Goa to Palollem Beach.

I was just looking through my old blog entries to try to find the name of a hotel I ate at here in Delhi last time and I read some of my first thoughts abut India. It seems now in hindsight that I was bound to fall in love in this country and that I would return. I don't believe in fate, but my heart was certainly open when I arrived here and clearly ready and willing to embrace what India offered me.
I might have grown to dislike Delhi over my multiple returns to this city but I am ready to see it anew this time around. That being said I have not yet left the hotel since my arrival. I have been focusing on my research for a project proposal to get vocational programs to neglected youth in Darfur for Plan Canada. Oh and studying for my exams that await me on my return to Toronto.

Tomorrow Javed and I head to Agra as he has to lead a group there. We have less than two days together now. Our time together has been short but positively splendid.
I will try to update this blog a little more regularly. Last post was July...oops.

2008-07-15T03:29:00.005+09:00

Hello,
Well I have been pretty busy since I returned to Canada. After the weekend at the cottage and a few days in London at my parent's house, my sister Ashley and I flew out to PEI to meet up with the Browns- my mother's fabulous family. We had an amazing time on Prince Edward Island. We were there about 4 days I think and then my parents, Ashley, and myself flew back to Toronto and then drove right up to the cottage. I am currently at the cottage soaking up all I can of it.
While on PEI we played on the beach (I refused to enter the freezing ocean), kayaked on the lakes, had fabulous long conversations and walks, and of course we ate and ate and ate! You know, typical family bonding. The weather was so stunning. We couldn't have asked for anything more.
And FYI PEI is BEAUTIFUL!!! I hadn't been to the island since I was small and it is stunning!! I don't think I saw anything more beautiful than the rolling sand dunes of PEI in all of my travels. I have seen lots of beautiful things, scenes as beautiful, but not more beautiful. Of course the strangely hot and super sunny days helped, they are a bit of a rarity for the island.
Enjoy the pics. (i hope they load)
Cheers,
Linden

Home

2008-07-01T06:09:00.003+09:00

I may have left the most beautiful city in the world when I left Paris, but I got to return to the most beautiful place. I know that sounds cheesy but In all my travels, and all I have seen, Muskoka remains the most beautiful place in the world. Along with my parents, Ashley and Geoff; Jen, Theo and Piper came up, as well as my Auntie Sue, and my aunts and uncles on my Dad's side came as well to say farewell to the cottage.
It was a wonderful weekend, even if I was severely jet-legged.
Reverse culture shock has started to affect me, I was rather paralysed when I went into Starbucks. I mild kind of panic attack followed but I calmed myself down without drawing attention. I don't know if I am quite ready for grande over-priced coffee. I am working on that though.
Cheers,
Linden

In new York

2008-06-28T09:37:00.002+09:00

hello, I am currently in Newark waiting for my flight to Toronto which is fortunately delayed since my flight from Paris was delayed almost 3 hrs.
I am so very tired and excited to be almost home.
that's it from me.
cheers,
L.

Paris, and six months of travel come to a close.

2008-06-27T06:21:00.005+09:00

Hello,
Well this will be the last post from my travels.
I have been almost six months on the road and tomorrow I am heading home.

How was Paris?
Paris is beautiful. It lives up to all expectations. The people are kind and not at all snobby, in my experience anyways. The city is what is reports to be, as pretty as its pictures and as alive with culture and conversation as it has been since the enlightenment.
I can't possibly give you a run down of my days here, but here are some short notes:

- The biggest culture shock;
-yellow haired people. So many blonds!!!
-public displays of affection, very intimate displays of affection and of all age groups. Yup, I watched a middle aged couple heavily making out in the park yesterday. And coming from India, just holding hands with a member of the opposite sex is a big deal.

-The most surprising:
-my reaction to seeing the Mona Lisa. I was completely transfixed and this really surprised me as I haven't been a big fan of the painting. Her smile is still annoying, it was more the complexity of the painting, particularly the lower half, that held me. It was not the experience I had expected.

-The most beautiful:
-the streets and their beautiful apartment buildings.

-The funniest thing:
- All the pink-skinned people. All the fair skinned people who have come to Paris for their first vacation of the summer and put on their summer dresses and skimpy tops and neglect sunscreen. These white people then become pink and red and they are everywhere!! So many in fact it is like an epidemic. Very funny to see.

-Most delicious thing:
- Pan au Chocolat. When fresh and warm, this French treat is everything that is sinful and everything that is wonderful in the world. It is really best eaten in private.

-My favorite area:
- Paris 6 - St. Germain neighbourhood on the Left Bank.

-My favorite place:
- hard to say, I haven't spent enough time in the city, but as of now, probably the Luxembourg gardens.

-Most disappointing thing:
- The Musee Rodin had its vast garden closed to set up some private event. I got to see the sculptures in the main building but missed out on all the ones in the garden. I was very sad.

-Most embarassing:
- No not my traveller's fashions, it was my lack of French.

-Most delightful thing about Paris:
-Multicultralism in French. I have travelled to many countries all over the world but my travels are in English and my experiences of other cultures is through the native tounge of the area and through English. Paris feels as multicultural as Toronto, more so even than New York, and everyone of all racial and cultural backgrounds speaks French. For me this is very new and exciting. Every day this delights me. I love that my Japanese waiter speaks French and no English, and that the Reggae guy playing music in the train station sings and thanks financial contributor in French.

-Sights visited (not just seen from ourside):
-Musee d'Orsay, Notre Dame, Louvre, Luxemburg Gardens, Musee Rodin, Pantheon, Versailles, Eiffel Tower (I did't go up), Tuileries Gardens, Pont Neuf.

-Sights on my list that I missed:
-Picasso Museum, Moulin Rouge, Monte's Gardens, Arc de Triomphe ( I did see it from afar), and the Catacombes.

-The Best thing:
- Being constantly mistaken for Parisian and asked for directions.

-The Worst thing:
-Being constantly mistaken for Parisian and having to reveal that not only am I not Parisian but I don't speak a word of French.

There is so much more to this beautiful city but I can't put it into a blog entry.
Constance has been a kind and generous host, even though this is her exam time and a visitor is the last thing she needs.

Tomorrow I head home. It seem surreal. Tonight Constance and I had a picnic on the foot bridge over the Siene- wine, baguette, cheese, and strawberries, tomorrow I will have dinner in New York (in the airport) and Saturday morning I will wake up at my cottage to a smoke salmon breakfast (hint hint, nug nug). My cloths smell of India, my hands are covered in henna designs. My body has no idea where it is in the world or what time it is.

So I sign off for these adventures. I will continue to post.
Thank you for following my adventures.

Cheers,
Linden

A Hellish Journey but I am here - Paris!

2008-06-23T17:56:00.003+09:00

So the saying goes, "getting there is half the fun".... or something like that. Well when it comes to air travel, I would beg to differ.
I just experienced some of the worst of airport nightmares- missed connections, lost bookings, bookings never made, kind airline supervisors replaced by hellish ones at the last stage of fixing a problem, total exhaustion, no sleep, uncomfortable sleep, endless walking, literally running betweeen trains that connect the massive heathrow (yes, in all of this I ended up in England for 6 hours), smashed toes causing very painful walking and running.
Lets just say I am very happy to be in Paris, rather I am trying to be happy in Paris, mostly that experienced had me stairing at the departure boards and at the flights headed to Toronto and just wanting to forget Paris and just go home. But now I am here and it is beautiful, the little I have seen anyway.
I saw my friend Beth last night, tonight I will stay in a hotel and tomorrow I should be staying with my friend Constance. I am very much looking forward to checking into my hotel (1 more hour) and going back to bed!!!!!
I am planning to do a free walking tour this afternoon and probably meet up with Constance for dinner.
FYI- Paris is cold! I know, laugh at the girl who has been in India for three months but lord 15-20° (not sure exactly) is cold!!!! I will have to dig in my beg for my one long-sleved shirt. The wrap is not cutting it.
okay i am heading back to that amazing looking backery I passed and buyinging myself some bread and cheese.
This French keyboard is really giving me a hard time, and reaching the "a" key is cramping my baby finger.
Cheers,
L.
p.s. Paris looks just like the post cards!!

Last Day in India

2008-06-21T19:43:00.002+09:00

Hello
This will be my last post from India.
I am flying out tonight from Delhi to Mumbai and then from Mumbai to Paris. I should arrive in Paris around 1pm on the 22nd of June. I will be staying my first night with my friend Beth from Trinity and then the last few days with my frind Constance, also from Trin.
I have loved my time in India. Leaving it is hard, leaving Javed is hard, but Paris will be exciting. I nice transition I think.
Right now Javed and I are chilling at our friend Puja's place, a nice low-key final day, no rushing around.

Thank you India for all you have giving me. I plan on returning next year.

cheers,
Linden

Time where did you go?

2008-06-17T20:19:00.002+09:00

4 days until I arrive in Paris.
10 days until I am back in Canada.
!!!!???!!!!
Where did the time go?
I can't believe I have been traveling for 5 months and in less than two weeks it will all be over.

Yes I am excited to go home and see my family.
I am expecting culture shock. Paris will probably do me in in that sense.
I have started to research what I want to do in Paris and it is all very overwhelming. It is a very very big city with a million and one things to do. It is almost too much for one person todo alone. Normally I love tackeling big cities full of art galleries by myself but this one seems too much. That and 4 days sightseeing is totally going to break the bank. oh well, tis Paris and I intend to do it some justice with the little time I have.

Still working on the cookbook and soaking up my last few days with Javed.

cheers,
L.

Some photos

2008-06-17T19:53:00.001+09:00

Some photos from Dharmasala.

Back in Udaipur

2008-06-13T19:54:00.002+09:00

Hello,
I am back in Udaipur. I would like to upload pics of my time in Dharamasala but I have to pay to upload at this Internet cafe!! so annoying!
I am settling back into my old routine here. After I wake up I head to Javed's family home to help his mother with breakfast, any chores she will allow me to do (she has lost all rights to the dishes, they are mine!) then we make lunch. I am becoming as she said, a chapatti master! I just hope my skills will last me until I arrive home. After lunch Javed and I chill together for a few hours before I head back to the house to help prepare dinner. After dinner I am generally so exhausted that I just head back to the hotel and crash. Physical labour man, its exhausting!
To add some extra purpose to my time here, and to help me remember how to cook these dishes, I have begun work on a cookbook. I am writing down javed's mother's verbal recipes, estimating amounts (handful of this spice would be..., that large spoon is what? 1/4 cup?), and taking photos along the way. I plan to buy one of the beautiful leather bound books here and put it all together before I leave. I am very excited about it and I can't wait to show Javed's mother and mine.
So that is what my life is like at the moment.
Udaipur is much cooler than I expected. We are experiencing some early monsoon weather ever few days. it cools things down a lot.

Cheers,
Linden

Amistar, Pakistani border

2008-06-06T23:17:00.004+09:00

Hello,
Well plans have changed as happens so often when traveling. Our friend Puja was detained in Delhi so Javed and I went to Amritsar along the border with Pakistan to meet up with Megan and Nick- friends of mine from highschool that are traveling in India. Amritsar is the home of the Golden Temple, the most important holy shrine for the Sheiks. Amritsar was deathly hot. Javed felt it was the hottest he has ever been and coming from a guy from Rajasthan, that is saying something. I have no idea what the temperature actually was, it was in the mid-forties for sure. In the evening we went to the India-Pakistani border to watch the border ceremony. It was so amazing! There were soo many people there. There was dancing (Megan and I were pulled up to join in) and patriotic chanting from both sides. It felt more like we were at a sporting event than a border event between two rather hostile countries. I was so thrilled to be there. We didn't stay in Amritsar for very long as ti was too hot and there isn't so much to do there. We are now in Dharamsala, the home of the Dalai Lama and the seat of the Tibetan government. Tomorrow we are going to do some sightseeing.
I have delayed my time in India to spend 10 more days with Javed. This cuts into my time in Paris but does not affect my return to Canada.

Note- I need to apologize for my last blog entry. While I did not realize it at the time, I said things that I shouldn't have. I have taken it down. I haven't reread it, frankly I am embarrassed to, but the emails I received from people I love have made me feel very ashamed. I am so deeply sorry. It was not my intention to hurt, honestly it wasn't.

I am working hard to put myself in a better emotional place. Being with Javed is a huge help.

Alive in Pokhara

2008-05-30T17:39:00.000+09:00

I completed the trek in the hope of replacing emotional pain with physical.
I am back in Pokhara, I will see a doctor for my lungs in Kathmandu. The hot springs at Tradapani have helped to release a bit of the lime green gunk. I am coughing but a storm but at least it is more rewarding.

Himalayan SOS

2008-05-26T10:47:00.002+09:00

Well I am currently on day three of my 7 day trek. I am in Ghorepani at the moment.
I am not having the best time of it here, I have to say. When I signed myself up for this trek I was worried about my knees, my still healing ankle, my lack of fitness, and the general rigor of a week long trek through the Himalayas. It never entered my mind (as I suppose it should have) that my chest infection that I had fought in India was going to rear its ugly head. To put it strait, I can't breath. Each day has gotten worse. At least none of the other trekkers that are staying in the same guest houses as myself question my illness, I keep all of us up at night with my coughing. Sometimes I am alright, then I have a coughing attack, the wheezing comes, my lungs contract in pain and I fight to breath.
Yesterday morning I thought I would have to turn in, I just couldn't bare the pain but I kept going and the walk was amazing! After the initial hellish climb, we stopped the steady upwards assent and walked more or less around the side of the mountain. Ups and downs of course, but nothing like the first day's 3000+ steps and 2000 meter assent. The forest I walked through was breathtaking. Ethereal in every way. I kept my eyes pealed for gnomes and fairies but they kept themselves hidden. The clouds had rolled in and the damp green forest was alive with birds and soft moss that covered all the trees. It was so magical. It rained in the afternoon but my spirits were high from my surroundings. If I wasn't liable to laps into a coughing fit I would have skipped my way through those windy mossy paths.
Yesterday evening, as the cold air set in, my coughing worsened. Even my darling Lenard was not able to sing me to sleep. Now if Mr. Cohen can't calm me into sleep what am I suppose to do?!! At 2am I awoke again with a coughing fit that lasted about an our, occasionally I got a 10 min break when I just felt like crying but couldn't because I didn't have the air support.
This morning I was awoken at 4am to climb Poon Hill to see the amazing views. For days it has been too cloudy to see anything but at 4am the sky looked promising. I headed out, tired and drained from all the coughing. I got part of the way up and had to stop. I just didn't have it in me to suffer through another 30mins of climbing. My guide and I found a nice place to watch the view. It would have been more spectacular from the top but that was just not possible for me. The view I did have was stunning all the same. I have the pictures to prove it.
I told my guide that I didn't think I could continue, that I just couldn't breath. He said "everyone has this problem". I was so angry that I almost lost my temper. I tried to remind him that I was not just out of breath, I had a chest infection, my lungs were tightening in on me, I was in pain, I didn't just need to catch my breath. I need to be able to breath!!
The idea of turning back is almost as painful as pushing onward. I feel I have failed. My dream of being in the Himalayas is slipping from me. I almost broke my ankle in India, China shut Tibet's borders, I can't breath in Nepal, and on top of all this my parents are selling our cottage. I am not one to feel sorry for myself. I lead a wonderful rich life, I am in an amazing relationship, but right now my spirit feels utterly broken. Tears ran down my face the whole walk down Poon Hill. This was not how it was suppose to be.
I don't know what I am going to do.
Do I press on?
Do I go back?
Which would be more painful?
I have to decide soon. My guide is pressing me for an answer.

hmmm....

L.

Chitwan National Park

2008-05-22T22:58:00.004+09:00

Hello,
There was a bit of an upset in my plans and I am currently back in Kathmandu. Today I was supposed to start rafting but my bus driver failed to drop me off, and since I did not know what the place looked like I did not know we had passed it until we arrived in Kathmandu. I was disappointed and annoyed but all is not lost, I will head out tomorrow for one day of rafting. At least I have Billy. Billy is an Australian girl that I met in Chitwan and we have gotten along very well and are sharing a room for the night.
Chitwan National Park:
My few days in Chitwan were really nice and relaxing. My guest house was along the river and reminded me of Hippo Pools (a guest house in Zimbabwe along the Zambezi). Yesterday I woke up at 6am to go on a dug out canoe ride down the river. The river is crazy shallow and I could almost always see the bottom. We saw some beautiful birds and come crocodiles, but mostly it was just a peaceful ride in the cool morning air. After an hour we docked the boat and made our way through the high grasses and into the jungle. We didn't see much wild life, but at the watch tower we did see a wild elephant which is really rare and felt special. I was glad we saw it from the watch tower and not at eye level as this elephant is know to be very aggressive and dangerous. No tigers, snakes, or rhinos on this walk.
Then we (a German couple and myself) watched the working elephants bath in the river. For a small fee you can join them and play on the elephants. It looked like fun but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Perhaps if I had stayed another day I would have. I had a few hours on down time and then I went on an elephant safari. The seat wasn't exactly comfortable but the fantastic jungle atmosphere and seeing eight rhinos certainly made up for it. The baby rhinos are soo cute. Being around these great creatures in this setting felt very "Jurassic park". We were able to get so close to them! We also saw several deer and monkeys.
After the elephant ride I sat and watched a gorgeous sunset as I shared a beer with another German guy who was on my elephant with me. All very relaxing.
The cultural show (where I first met Billy) and the guided walk through the village were also really nice. It was really funny to see all the wild marijuana growing by the road. My guide expected me to get more excited than I did, but inside I was giggling at the thought of it just growing wild.
I am working on managing without Javed, it's difficult but separation is something both of us are going to have to get used to.

So tomorrow I go rafting and then I am off trekking in Annapurna.

Cheers,
Linden

Kathmandu and beyond!

2008-05-20T00:22:00.002+09:00

Hello from Kathmandu!
I just arrived today and I am going to be very busy here. Through Great Adventure Treks & Expedition I have booked up almost my entire time here in Nepal. Tomorrow morning I head to Chitwan National Park to see some Nepalis rhinos, ride some elephants, do some bird watching, some jungle treks, and some elephant bathing! Then I am off to Charaudi to do two days of intense white water rafting. Fabulous! That will also evolve some camping under the stars. Then I head to Pokhara to start my 7 day trek around the Annapurna Circuit. I will be hiking through towns and villages with the names of Tikedhunga, Ghorepani, Tadapani, Ghandruk, Tolka, Saraugkot, and Pokhara (for those of you who would like to follow where I am going on the map...ahem...mom..).
I will most likely be out of contact until I return to Kathmandu around the 31st of May. I may have internet access in Pokhara.

I am very excited about the next two weeks.
It will be just me and my guide for the trekking portion, but the national park and the rafting will be with other people. Well, I think I will be with other people in the national park. Highly unlikely there will be no tourist there doing what I am doing, even if it is low season.
My trekking guide will also fulfill roll of porter when my bag gets too heavy for me. The tour company is also supplying all the equipment, they are giving me a smaller bag for the trip and a sleeping bag. I will be staying in tea houses along the trek and a hotel in Pokhara.

Jen- good news and bad. The bad news in that Kathmandu is just as dirty as India. Good news is that the Pumpernickel Bakery is still in existence (bad news is that it was closed for renovations when I tried to go, hopefully it will be open when I come back to Kathmandu).

I went to a Japanese restaurant tonight for dinner. SOBA!!! TEMPURA!!! MISO!!! It all melted in my mouth. I know I love food from everywhere, but sometimes you just need a bamboo plate of cold soba!

Kathmandu is pretty cool. Like Koh San but better! The choice in restaurants and guest houses is overwhelming!!! Everything looks amazing!

Loving life.
Linden

Getting ready for Nepal!

2008-05-17T17:58:00.005+09:00

Hello!
Today will be my last day in Udaipur for a while. Tonight Javed and I will catch the sleeper train to Delhi, and then on the 19th I fly to Nepal to do some white water rafting and hiking in the Himalayas while Javed leads a tour group through sweltering Rajasthan. That's right folks, it is REALLY HOT here. Today is one of the worst, last night their was hardly any relief from the heat. Udaipur with its mountains and lakes is one of the most comfortable places in Rajasthan during these months, but not today! I can't wait to get into the Himalayas!!!
Tomorrow, during my day in Delhi, I will meet with the family of a colleague of my father's. I am looking forward to seeing another Indian family home.
Javed's mother is unhappy I am leaving, she tells me she will miss me. Her kindness touches me deeply. I have promised I will return in a few weeks. I will miss her.
After Nepal, Javed and I plan to head to Shimla (north India, Himalayan foothills) on the "toy train". The Toy Train is a narrow gauge train that is slow but historic and passes through beautiful country. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalka-Shimla_Railway) Then we plan to go through Punjab and visit the Golden Temple (the most important Shikh temple. (http://www.sacredsites.com/asia/india/amritsar.html) Then return to Udaipur for my last few days before I fly to Mumbai and then to Paris.
I am excited to be on the road again!
I can't wait to update with pictures of the Himalayas!!!

Love,
Linden

Jaipur bombings

2008-05-14T14:07:00.000+09:00

Hello,

I am safe.

I watched the news about Jaipur last night from the safety of my hotel room in Udaipur. Javed started getting calls from friends to make sure he was safe just after the news broke and we turned on the tv right away. It is so scary. Javed says he doesn't know why this group has done the bombings. The English news channel was not saying anything as to why these would happen either.

The Palace of Winds where the bombs went off is very beautiful and I could not get the faces of the shop keepers and tuk tuk drivers out of my mind. I spent a good deal of time wandering the exact area where the blasts went off. I am so sorry this has happened, at the same time I am glad I am safe in Udaipur and Javed discouraged me from going back to Jaipur because of the heat.

Javed tried calling his friends in Jaipur but the networks were overloaded and he couldn't get through.

My heart goes out to the people of Jaipur.

A colleague of my father's has family in Jaipur. I hope they are alright. I am sure they are as it was a touristy part of the old city that was hit and it is unlikely they would be anywhere near there. I am also grateful that this is the low season for tourists. There are only a handful walking around these days. Everyday the heat increases here in Rajasthan and all over India.

I know that those at home are thinking about the people of Jaipur.

Such a tragic waste of innocent life.

-Linden

My Life, Their Life, and Culutre Shock -An Indian Wedding

2008-05-05T20:26:00.008+09:00

Back in Udaipur!
The city is quite and clam. The tourist have almost entirely disappeared, it is considered too hot. I love it.
My days are relatively slow here. The past few nights have been really late ones with the wedding parties so my mornings have melded into afternoons. I am currently sipping my third glass of chi (I have been up for 5 hours and I am only on number 3!) The people here could and probably do, mark their day with these tiny cups of chi. It is yummy and nice even in the heat.
Javed's cousin's wedding was not what I expected. I thought it would take up our days and nights and be some huge crazy party. Not so. It was relatively subdued. I have instead spent many hours of the day at Javed's family's house with his mother and brothers. There are around 68 people in Javed's extended family and they all live in the same house. The house is more of a complex than a home as we know it. Each individual family has a room and a cooking/washing area. Javed's family's home is a room about 10 by 7. They have a few built-in shelves on every wall which is where all clothing, pots, general things are stored. Everything they own is in this room included a tv (always covered by a cloth) on a small table and a large 'bar fridge'. Javed's family is not poor. They are solidly middle class, all five brothers either went or are going to university. Each has a fancy cell phone, and nice cloths. They seem to want for nothing but in comparison to a family of the same status at home, they have nothing, and would appear impoverished.
Javed's family has opened their home to me. I am welcome anytime and his mother is always happy to feed me whatever curry she has going and fresh chapati. Her food is out of this world and she has started to teach me which is very exciting. His parent's English is minimal but we do alright, the brothers on the other hand are almost fluent. They youngest (16) is particularly chatty. I was a little shy and nervous and cultured shocked at first but I am quickly becoming very comfortable in their home.
Yesterday was the day of the wedding. Javed had left me at his home for the afternoon. I sat their on the floor a little bored and a little uncomfortable in my skin while is mother did the washing (man that woman works hard!) and his brothers came and went not doing very much. I did not want to be rude and leave. I hated that I felt dependent on Javed to "come and get me", but I was worried I would offend so I sat their bored until his mother motioned for me to follower her to the brides house. We went down the stairs and entered the bride's family's home (same set up) where there were about 30 women crowded in around the bride who was sitting on the floor in a beautiful mustard coloured sari. The women were singing as they took turns dipping leaves into a turmeric and sandal wood mixture and smoothing this mixture on the bride's cheeks, hands, and feet. A few of the women help a sarong sized cloth over her head, and a man with a high-wattage light and video camera filmed the ceremony. This was cool. The bride smiled up at me (she is stunning), the children stared at me, and the pushy Aunties laughed and scolded the women to keep singing whenever the repeated chant would die down. (Oh how colourful all the women and children are in their saris! I always feel so drab in thier presence.)
This ritual is something that is repeated everyday for the week leading up to the wedding. I was there for the very last one. The turmeric mixture is supposed to cleanse the bride and make her skin nice and shinny for her husband. I wish I had had my camera with me.
Did I mention that this is an arranged marriage? Javed was not sure if they had even met before! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH culture shock!

The wedding.
Well the wedding was interesting. I was dressed up in an outfit of one of Javed's cousin's. I was a bit of a disco ball, I am not going to lie. Why did it have to be white with multi coloured beds? The thing weighed a tone and white is NOT my colour. All I could think off is the white dress with white beading I had tried on in a store a few years ago and how my friend Ani and I lovingly referred to me in that dress as a snow-beast. How I wished I had my midnight blue sari that I sent home a few weeks ago. Well whatever I might have thought of myself in this dress, those feelings were not shared by those I met at the wedding. I was much stared at as I followed Javed's mother through the crowd of 1200 invitees. I should probably have mentioned to Javed that their is another reason Deathe's shouldn't wear white. I was paranoid to eat dinner. Yes it was buffet style and we sat on the grass, and yes, I did drop food on me....I was trying soo hard not to! Many women crowded around me, stared, smiled, spoke in Hindi, and pinched my cheeks. The only word I recognized was Javed's name. At one point someone told Javed he had chosen well. That was all that was translated to me. My face must have been five different shades of red most of the night. I greeted the bride and had our picture taken, Javed and I on either side of her, very formal. (the picture was taken by the wedding photographer so I do not have it) Then another picture with some of the Aunties, the bride, and me. The bride herself was soo much more calm and happy looking than I would have been. She told me I looked beautiful, but who are we kidding... next to her, in her beautiful burgundy and gold sari, I was most definitely a snow-beast. After the groom arrived I joined the bride in her tent enclosure. The bride and groom are not to see each other or to be together when they are married. This is a Muslim Indian wedding, not a Hindu wedding one. I watched as the bride's lovely face was covered with flowers and her head covered with a white cloth. The Imam goes to both the bride and groom separately and asks if they agree to the match and asks the bride if she agrees to a sum of money payable to her from the groom. It was lost in translation if this sum is a gift from the groom like a dowry, or a kind of pre-nup. The woman guiding me through this ceremony moved on to say that no price is enough for a person's life and that she is not happy in her marriage and that she envies my freedom. (what does one say to this?) I told her she has a beautiful daughter. She smiled and shrugged. I fell deeper into culture shock.
After the Imam had gone back and forth a few times they were married. I watched as the groom was congratulated by a massive group of men. Each was hugged three times (kind of like the French kiss for each check but no kisses). He was then taken to eat, the bride remained in her tent. It was time to leave, everything was finished. Those who hadn't eaten would eat, those that had would go home. There was no dancing. No singing. So not bollywood, even if music was playing in the background.
All the women at the wedding looked lovely and were dressed up in their finest. I can't say the same about the men who mostly wore jeans and a new shirt. I went over to say goodbye to the bride and take a few last photos (really just taking requests by elderly women and children). I wish I had taken more photos, but I was shy at first and I didn't want to draw more attention to myself, I also didn't realize it would be over so fast!
Javed's cousin has now left her family. She can visit them, but they no longer play an important role in her life. She has most likely been "adopted" by a male relative of the groom who is given the authority to interfere in the marriage if their are any problem. This adoptive father is the only security she has should things go wrong in her marriage. Her family has no say, no power to protect her. When Javed told me this I felt like I was five years old again and watching The Little Mermaid - crying uncontrollable with my inability to understand why Ariel would want to leave her Daddy. I curled up in my hotel room, hugged the pillow for a long time and told Javed I missed my family, and my Dad.
Javed's mother was married at the age of fourteen. His cousin is about twenty-six, she is university educated. Things do change, but customs are customs, this is their culture.
After the wedding, back in my hotel room, I told Javed that it was so strange and funny to have all these women around me talking about me, pointing to me, and that the only thing I understood was the mention of his name. He told me that they, all this family and relations, thought we were married. That is where the 'he had chosen well' comment came from. SHOCKER! I was so not prepared for that. I burst out laughing. For him this was obvious. I was with him, I was with his mother all night, his mother never goes out to events (her husband does not like it, he did not come), and I was dressed up all fancy. This is the second time I have been married off without my knowledge. At least I got a good reception, and a good report card from the family. I suppose I look like the good quite girl when I am overwhelmed, culture shocked, and I can't speak the language. I know all you who know me well are getting a good kick out of this. Can you picture me? Eyes low, blushing, smiling, and silent? At least Javed knows me for who I am.
I paced the roof of my hotel for hours last night, my inner feminist not knowing how to absorb all I have been witness to and having no outlet, no sisters with me. Javed pushed me to talk about it with him, but he can't imagine what this is like for me. He can't help me process it, he can't relate. I miss my sisters and my strong women friends and when I get home I am sure we will sit down and hash my experiences out.
The reception was the day after the wedding. We all got to greet the bride and groom, eat, get stared at (maybe taht was just me and the newly weds), and go home. Again no dancing. Bollywood let me down yet again! The groom looks a bit hard and unfriendly, I hope this is not the case. Javed shares my thoughts. All we can hope for is that he is good to her and they are happy.
I see all these experiences as a gift and I will take them in and try to process them for the time I have left, even if it does mean very long blog entries.

Cheers,
L.

The Himilayan foot-hills

2008-05-03T14:49:00.003+09:00

Up in "the hills". That would be the Indian term for my trip into the Himalayan foothills.
Javed, my good friend from Udaipur, met up with me in Delhi after I returned from Varanasi and we set off into the hills with another couple. Six hours north of Delhi we arrived in Rishikesh. As I said in my earlier blogs, Rishikesh is know for its Ashrams, yoga courses, and as the place The Beatles went when they came to India to stay at an ashram.
Rishikesh is a nice city but it is clear spirituality is on sale here. Everywhere you go there are sadus and swamis (monks of sorts) asking or money or offering to bless you. There are posters and banners for yoga classes and meditation courses. It is kind of a New Age Mecca. I did not participate in any of these things, but if it hadn't been for my sprained ankle I would have done a yoga class or two. I did attend an evening Puja which was great. There were so many people there praying and singing. 99% were Hindus, but a few foreigners were scattered around. The pictures of the people on the steps are from that Puja, as is the statue and the kids playing in the water.
While we might not have taken time out to work on our inner selves we did work on the physical. That's right, I went white water rafting down the Ganges! It was amazing fun. The rapids put me into hysterics as we were plunged into walls of water and sucked and rocked over massive rapids. Well I can't say how massive the rapids were, I am sure there are much lager, but they are the largest I have ever experienced. At one point we were given the option to jump into the Ganges. Javed was in the water faster than I could take off my shoes but I also dropped myself into the freeing glacier water. Why not? I got to cleanse myself of all my sins of this life time, AND I got to get the closest thing to icing my ankle as one can in a burning hot country. We also went cliff jumping. FABULOUS! Should I have done these things with an ankle I can barely walk on? Probably not, but I have no regrets. My only wish is that I'd had my camera. A man took photos of us and I have copies but they are not very good and you don't see us white water rafting or swimming.
Rishikesh despite the fun, was still not a break enough from the heat for me so we four headed north again. We went to a small village another four hours north of Rishikesh. Here it was cold! Well the days were nice, mid-high twenties, but the evenings were very chilly. Despite my still sore foot, I took off for a walk around the twisty hill top road to take in the scenery and enjoy the fresh air. The pictures of green hills and tress are from this area. There were also irises everywhere! fields of them! Irises are one of my favorite flowers. The smell of pine needles, and the fresh unpolluted air were very very welcomed.
From here we moved on to Moosurie. Javed and I did not stay there unfortunately as we had to return to Rishikesh and then back to Delhi in order to get to Udaipur for his cousin's wedding. Mossurie is an absolutely beautiful tourist town. It mostly just attracts Indian tourists, I was the only western that we saw. Mossurie is probably the cleanest place in India. WOW was it clean! signs everywhere told people to put their rubbish in the bins or pay a fine. The streets where lined with rod-iron fences and street lamps. Very Victorian British. Very beautiful. We spent about an hour wandering around this town and I wished we could have stayed a week. Everyone was so kind and friendly, it was nice to see Indian couples taking a romantic holiday and poses for pictures with the mountains behind them. Mosurie also boosts a Domino's, Baskin Robbins, and a Coffee Day (Indian coffee house chain). I was shocked to see these chains in such a relatively remote hill town. Even Rishikesh does not have any of these.
So a few days ago we boarded a morning train from Rishikesh to Delhi, (on the train a sweet elderly Indian couple mistook Javed and I for a married couple, after letting them think this for a few hours and taking all the wife's "advise" Javed corrected her and said we were not married but engaged. I was downgraded and I didn't realise since the conversation was in Hindi! The whole thing made Javed and I chuckle to ourselves for the good 5 hour ride. I got all the pointers on what to do and not to do as an Indian wife, I love how she proceeded to tell me this after saying she refuses to interfere with her married children's lives. They were very sweet and blessed us with a long and happy life together when we parted.

So here I am in Udaipur and oh do I have stories to tell!
More later.
Cheers,
Linden

Rishikesh- shamefully short update

2008-05-02T01:25:00.003+09:00

Hello,
Sorry I have no time to write. The Internet cafe is closing.
I will update with pics and lots of stories when I get to Udaipure.
Basically Rishikesh has been nice. We went north to a small town for a few days. The pine trees there reminded me of my favorite place in the whole world and almost made me homesick but than I looked up and saw the snow peaks of the Himalayas and got over it.
I am excited to return to Udaipur, and excited to get back to the hills after that!
My Himalayan Loop trip with GAP has been officially cancelled. Another year.

Next up: Indian wedding!

Javed is taking great care of me. He spoils me rotten but also teases me endlessly. He would totally fit in at my family's dinners at the cottage.

Very happy.
Don't want to leave India. Well I will go to Nepal and then come back!

More from Udaipur.

Cheers,
L.

VARANASI

2008-04-24T12:28:00.005+09:00

Hello from Varanasi!

Varanasi is chaotic, crazy, and I love it! I may be one of the only ones though. Most of my friends here feel spooked by the proximity of death. The burning ghats send out an ominous feeling to those of us who are detached from death. I did not see floating bodies in the Ganges which is not uncommon, but we did see bodies being cremated on the river's edge and urns with ashes floating down the river. While I was not completely comfortable what I saw I was not as affect as my friends. Varanasi also has a dark side which has been fatal to tourist over the years, I won't go into details but these events added to the eeriness of the city. While my friends felt on their guard more so than other places, I felt no different, I am always on my guard.
We found some fabulous restaurants in our explorations of the city ( limited as they were from heat and a need to avoid large parts of the city). The Brown Bread Bakery gets a nod from me! Freshly baked cheese croissant (gouda on the inside, cheddar on the outside!) was amazing, as was the hot chocolate! Indian food? Didn't really eat any in Varanasi, just Middle Eastern and bakery food.
So what were the highlights beside the food? The early morning (5am) boat trip and the sunset flower/candle ceremony. Each flower we dropped was to be accompanied with a wish. The flower/candle ceremony was on my niece Theo's birthday so of course she got the first in, and since I know she loves to share, I dropped a candle in on her behalf for each of her cousins, her aunts and uncles, her grandparents, and her parents. There were still candles to float so I sent some off with wishes of health for myself ( my list of aliments continues to grow) and for my travels. It was so beautiful to watch the candles flicker as they floated down the river. It reminded me of the days of "lanterns for peace" and my first steps as an anti nuclear proliferation activist.
Varanasi is a city that is older than history. There is no founding date, it has always been, and is perhaps the oldest city in the world. It is ancient, it has a dark side, it is chaotic, but it is intoxicating.

I am now in Rishikish, up in the hills where the Beatles went to meditate.
More from the hills later.
Cheers,
Linden

The day before I arrive in Varanasi

2008-04-22T23:30:00.005+09:00

Hello all,
Well my ankle is healing very slowly. I have not been successful obtaining crutches, but then I have not seen one lame person in India with them so why should there be any for the white girl? I do have it bandaged as you can see in the photo. The swelling has been going down with the help of tiger balm.

A little story:
Once there was a young woman travelling in India. After a particularly hard day she finally arrives at her hotel. A few minutes after she settles into her room she is told by the hotel that her mother has been trying to get in touch with her and says to urgently call home. The young woman can't even respond to this news, she stumbles to her bed and breaks down in shock. Why would her mother leave such a message? something bad must have happened. The dream she had of her father the other night comes to mind, a dream she had not dared even tell her friends about. The tears flow. Her friends race to find phone credit for their cell phones, they are also very worried and upset. The young woman sit in her hotel room watching golf on tv and holding tight to her childhood doll while thinking of how fast she can arrange to get a fligth home. Her friends return and encourage her to call even though it si 4am back home. They are saying reassuring things but thinking the worst, it is written on their faces. She calls, no answer. Her friends leave to find food and give her space. She gets through to her sister in Ottawa and after hearing all is fine she breaks down again in sobs of relief. That was one of the worst moments of her life. Her mother was just trying to make contact. Their was no urgency. The hotel just assumed it was urgent. Why else would a mother be calling from overseas?

That was my day.
I am still recovering.

I think my parents and I are even on receiving scary messages from overseas.

More from Varanasi.

L.

p.s. Theo, you turn 8 tomorrow!!! so excited!!

Will update ASAP

2008-04-20T12:52:00.002+09:00

Hello,
I am in Khajuraho.
I have so many stories for you all but I don't have time to write them at the moment.
I fell down the stairs at a temple here and sprained my ankle rather badly. My friends are doing a fabulously job taking care of me but as on yet I still can't walk.
I don't know when I will have access to a computer again, maybe Varanasi. I will update when I can.

Cheers,
Linden

speaking of mummy....

2008-04-14T19:13:00.002+09:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM!!

I love you!
I miss you!
I wish I could spend your birthday with you!
Have a great day in Florida!

I will try to call you tonight.

xoxo

MUMMY!

2008-04-14T18:31:00.002+09:00

There are three things that when combined can comfort even those suffering from "delhi belly", they are: comfy over sized pjs, BBC's Pride and Prejudice, and one's Mum. I have none of these things, but I do have caring friends who have been through it and are compassionate.
This morning as I boarded my 6:30am train I almost burst into tears wanting my mum, but I am feeling better. My stomach has yet to decide which end it will direct my lunch. Sorry if that is crude, but such is a traveller's reality in India. I have been very fortunate so far.
I still want my mum.
The heat still climbs. It has to be at least 40 today.
I am dreaming of the Himalayas.

bye bye Pushkar

2008-04-12T20:22:00.004+09:00

The photos:
Pushkar bazaar
Traditional Rajastani meal on leaf plates and bowls (very environmentally sustainable)
Me after I have stuffed myself with this good home cooking. (We were invited to have a meal at a family's home.)

Desert heat and spirituality - Pushkar

2008-04-12T19:13:00.003+09:00

I am here in Pushkar, one of the most holy cities in India. It is here in Pushkar that the only temple to Brahma stands on the holy lake Pushkar. Brahma was the creator of this world, but was cursed (who cursed him and why depends on the mythology you have been taught) and only allowed to have one temple at the place where he worshiped- Pushkar. He also created Pushkar with the drop of a lotus petal (this alone had made the place spiritually important. Pushkar is a jewel in the desert. Rocky hills and seas of sand surround this desert oasis.
The weather is hot here. It is probably around 40 degrees and the power has been out for most of the day which has given me a new respect and love for electricity as I mutter under my breath what I would give for a fan. There is little to no breeze here and the flies are everywhere.
There is so much more to Pushkar besides the heat and the flies. As I said before, it is one of the holiest cities in India and thousands of people make the piligramage here every year to pay their respects to Lord Brahma, to bath in the sacred lake, and to perform puja. Puja means worship, and performing puja means to be blessed by a brahmin.
The other things to do here in Pushkar is to go on a camel safari!
My camel safari was great fun. We left in the early evening just before sunset to try to avoid the heat (not possible) as our camels and guides lead us on a three hour walk through Pushkar and the surrounding desert. There was much laughter, and mirth despite the heat. Some of the camels were extremely funny. I (of course) choose the bad boy of the group. It wasn't until I got on him that I noticed the bit of hair and skull that was missing from the back of his head and was later informed this was from a fight with another camel. He took every opportunity to eat and tried to bite me when I went to pet his head. His name is Krishna, one of the most important gods of Hinduism, and the name seems to have gone to his head. Despite his attitude and the fact he had to walk at the back of the line so as to not get into trouble with the other camels, my guide handed the reins over to me and I was the only one in the grou that got to "drive" their own camel. Riding a camel is not that different than riding a horse and Krishna behaved tolerably well for me.
All in all, the camel safari was acceleratingly and the desert sunset was stunning.
Performing the Puja:
Yesterday morning I went down to the lake with Genish (my brahmin, not the god)and took part in the puja. The puja was much more involved than I had expected. We were given a plate with five things on it: sugar, red powder, yellow powder, flowers, and a coconut. Our hands were washed with holy water from the lake, then we repeated the mantra that Genish chanted. We asked for health, happiness, wealth, and for a sweet mother, sweet father, sweet sister, sweet brother, and sweet husband. We were told to make a wish and after more repeating of the mantra a red and yellow thread was tied around my wrist and I emptied the contents of my plate (not the coconut) into the lake. Once the puja was finished we were asked if we wanted to offer a prayer/blessing to someone who had expired. (His word not mine.) A decided to offer my prayers and my blessing that the next life be a good one to my Auntie Karen. I did not expect this to be so overwhelmingly emotional. I was given holy water from the lake, I repeated the mantra I was given over the holy water and I had to speak her name before releasing the water into the lake and repeating the process. It was on uttering my aunt's name that I broke down. I was in Japan when she passed away and as I performed this blessing and prayer for her I realized I had not yet done any ritual to honour her passing and her life. I barely managed to repeat the mantra, but I completed the process, sat down in the hot sun and let the steaming tears run down from my behind my dark glasses. I looked over the holy lake, at the hundreds of temples that dot the city, and at the many ghats that marked the places of prayer donated by kings, presidents, Queen Elizabeth, and Ghandi. Ghandi, Neru, and several gerus have some or all of their ashes sprinkled in this lake. I tried to think that she would like this, that she would feel honoured, but this could not comfort me and so I just let the tears come.
Pushkar is a place for families to come. Yesterday I honoured mine both living and past, I wished for health, and I wished I was here with them. Spiritually in India is as much connected to the family as it is to the individual. I may not be the most spiritual person in the world but my puja here in Pushkar was one of the most powerful experiences of my life.
Pushkar is also known for three other things: hippies, cheap shopping, and Israeli food. The three go together. Some of the hippies here have gone... well... native, except scarier than the natives. Deadlocks, unwashed hair, tattered clothing, and a lack of shoes are all signs of those who have been here too long and drank one too many bang lassies. The Israeli food here, on the other hand, is AMAZING! Indian food has had to step back for the falafel and humus. I am going to have to get another one for the train ride to Delhi tonight.

My love to all.
Cheers,
Linden

Camel Safari and Pushkar

2008-04-11T18:54:00.004+09:00

Bundi and Udaipur

2008-04-11T18:48:00.002+09:00

Well life continues to be very full. Every day is yet another adventure.
I have added some more cities to my itinerary since my last post.
The last few have been my favorites.
Bundi was wonderful and my visit there was far too short. After a short tour of Bundi Palace and its magnificent views, I walked through the town with Puja looking for contact solution and nursed my slightly infected eye. (no worries, after a horrible night of hot compresses and washing it out I am all better). I would have loved to have spent more time in Bundi, the place just had a great feel. It was very relaxed and chill. It is slightly off the tourist tract but gets enough to have services for wandering westerners.
From Bundi my friends and I moved on to rural Rajasthan where we stayed in a beautiful castle of the old ruling family (that still lives there), and toured the near by villages. Everyone I met in the villages was warm and welcoming. The people are very poor but there life is so much better than life in a city slum.
Puja was amazing in helping us organize a day trip to Udaipur. Udaipur, "the most romantic city in Asia" also know as "Venus of the East". I feel in love with Udaipur as soon as we arrived.
Udaipur City Palace is by far the prettiest palace I have seen in India. There is a courtyard with trees on the 5th floor!! how cool is that?! Our guide for the Palace was also the best I have had yet. Udaipur is just the best of everything.
After the tour of the palace and a rather disappointing lunch at a German bakery, I was introduced to a friend of Puja's. Javed asked me if I was free that afternoon (of course I was) and then asked if I would like to spend it with him. I was game, he was nice and cute, and when he showed me his motor bike I was on it before he could finished asking me if I would be scared to ride. We whisked through the city streets, he gave me a wonderful tour, showed me the lakes and then took me up one of the mountains to the Monsoon Palace. The roads were windy, deserted, and I was having the time of my life. I teased him that he was kidnapping me, but he did not find this so amusing as he was trying to make a good impression. It took me a little while before I realized I was on a date, and the sweetest date ever! Javed lives in Udaipur but works as a tour guide all over India. We hung out at the palace basking in the winds, which cooled the otherwise soaring temperatures, until it was time to met up with Puja and my friends for an evening boat cruse. Javed is finished work for the summer (it is too hot to give tours) and asked if I would meet him again. I asked Puja to join us and maybe we will head up into the hills in a few weeks to get away from growing heat.
So Udaipur was very exciting. Very beautiful, and lived up to its slogans.
Enjoy the pictures.

Bundi and Udaipur pics

2008-04-11T17:16:00.006+09:00

Hello!
Well I am now in Pushkar. same old same old really - very much in love with India!

These pictures are of Bundi, rural Rajasthan, and Udaipur.
From the top:
-My drive by shooting of of a man in rural Rajasthan carrying water.
-Bundi Palace
-Bundi town (painted almost all blue)
-My bedroom in the castle. fit for a princess!
-The castle.
-My date, Javed
-Monsoon Palace, Udaipur
-following three are views from the Monsoon Palace
- Very colourful festival in Udaipur
- Pictures of Udaipur from the lake.
-Udaipur street

Jaipur

2008-04-07T18:59:00.003+09:00

Here are pictures from Jaipur. I just relized that I didn't take any pictures of the city or the Amber fort. I do have pictures of Galta, the monkey temple which was amzing. The other pictures are from my visit to i-india, and NGO helping street children in Jaipur.

Madhogarth Fort

2008-04-07T18:43:00.000+09:00

2008-04-07T13:15:00.002+09:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRIS!!!

My big brother is one year older today.

love you lots!

Rajastan, the land of Kings adn so much more!

2008-04-06T22:39:00.003+09:00

WOW where do I begin?

Well after the Taj Mahal I travelled to Bharatpur. Bharatpur is famous for its bird and wildlife sanctuary. The Monsoons have not come to this part of India for three years and so neither have the birds, and consequently it has been taken off the World Heritage listings. The park was still wonderful and very peaceful. The journey there was by local bus which was fun.
From there my friends and I travelled to a very rural and remote village in Rajasthan where we stayed in a fort. How cool is that?! We walked about the village in the afternoon, meet some of the families and saw the work they are doing there - many small trades that have been practiced for centuries, such as carpet weaving, bangle making, gem production, carpentry, and others. Also, all those redoing their kitchen's with marble or granite counter tops....well the stone mostly likely comes from Rajasthan India, and I have met the people who do the back-breaking work and seen the tones that rely on it, so keep renovating!
At the fort (name of fort will be added later) we dressed up in Rajasthani traditional clothing and had a dance party. I was unfortunately too ill to partake but I did dress up even if I didn't dance. (I have not be near as ill as some so no one needs worry).
Then we were off to Jaipur. WOW! Loved it! The Amber fort was amazing, the Palace of Winds was cool. The City Palace was alright but not amazing. The shopping.... oh the shopping! We went to a government sponsored emporium for cottage industries in Rajasthan and I bought.....wait for it....
Topaz earrings, a navy blue sari with bronze beading (most beautiful sari ever!), a black silk duvet cover with pillow cases, and a very beautiful birthday present for a very special niece who is turning 8! Yes all these gifts were for myself, well expect Theo's, you will all just have to come to India to get yours! no, no I joke, but seriously, India is a must!
Shopping in another bazaar I was paid the highest complement. I walked into a dress shop with my friend Phillipa as she wanted wanted to get an India suit like mine. I had previously been suit shopping of cousre and I had asked our friend Puja tones of questioned about material and price. So we are in the store and I am advising Philly on the cotten top she has selected and the shop keeper asked me where I was from. I told him Canada. He then stated (did not asked) that I lived in India, "but you live in India." I told him no, I do not. His reply: "but you come every year to visit." Again I had to tell him no, this was my first time. He was shocked. I was thrilled!! I AM thrilled! I may not be able to blend in with the locals, but passing for a knowledgeable expat is as good as it gets folks! I am still walking on air from that.
I CAN live anywhere. India and I are two peas in a pod!

Today I arrived in Ranthambore. Ranthambore was the home of Maharaja kings up until about 40 years ago and is now a national park. It is a Tiger park! The park is about 4000 kilometers in size and has about 30 tigers. The park drivers are given lottery drawn routes that they must stick too. Our route was said to be home to four tigers. Puja has been coming here for two years, she has been to the park countless times on tours and she has seen a tiger only once. None of us had our hopes up. Tigers were so low in my expectations that I did not bother to change my memory card in my camera.
How many tigers did we see you ask? Well that is an interesting questions because we saw FOUR!!!!!!!!!!
That's right folks! Four Tigers!
First we saw just one. A previous jeep had seen one cross the road so we lay in wait, then after some time we heard the warning call of the monkeys, we moved closer to their call and waited, and then from behind the dry bushes we saw her. She came slowly and I was sure she would turn around and walk away from us. Did she? No. She took her time but she decided she wanted to cross the road again and we just happened to be in her path so she crossed right in front of our jeep. How cool is that! We were running out of time in the park so we could not stay too long and stare at this magnificent animal. After leaving here our driver put the peddle to the metal and headed for the exit. And what happened about 3km from the exit? we came across another jeep which was stopped on the road. On the right hand side of the road we saw three tigers hanging out. One got right up and left. The one closest to the road walked over to her girlfriend and there they stayed for a good while rolling around and looking cute as we clicked our camera and I cursed myself for not having more space on my memory card. Some pictures from Malaysia were deleted, but that is okay, Malaysia was not so impressive.

I have so many photos to show you all. Lions, Tigers, and Bears! oh my! Well actually it will be more like villagers, tigers, and forts! oh my!
I am sorry to say I can't upload them today. I will try to as soon as I can.
Right now I must run off and join the tiger celebration party. Tiger face paint and wine is involved so I delay.

Still absolutely in love with India.
Still having an amazing time.
Still laughing into the night.
Still "healthy" for Indian standers.
Still adjusting to the dry heat (it gets so cold with no sun!).

Love to all.

Cheers,
Linden

"A tear drop on the face of eternity"

2008-04-02T00:21:00.005+09:00

Hello!!
Well I am on day three of my Indian love affair.
I LOVE India! I even loved Delhi!
I am traveling with a fabulous bunch of people and it is constant laughs.
Yesterday we checked out Old Delhi and some other sights. We fit four of us into a tuktuk and that was hilarious and sooo much fun! I am all over the indian clothing here and I have already bought myself an outfit.
Today was Agra. Agra is the city that is home to two of India's finest treasures- the Red Fort, and the Taj Mahal.
Both were amazing. Of course the Taj is what we all focused on, but the Red Fort is stunning. I am sorry I could not put up more pictures but the computer I am on is rather slow.
We had a guide for the Red Fort and my mind is bursting with details and history, but let me talk about the main attraction of the day.
How do I describe seeing the Taj Mahal?
It is everything it is supposed to be, and everything a monument to love should be.
It is stunning, it is impressive, it inspires all onlookers to be in awe of it and Shah Jahan (the Shah that built it as a mausoleum for his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal). The marble sparkles in the sun. The carving are delicate. The structure daunting.
Besides the physical structure of the mausoleum and its symbolism, the life around it is amazing. Indian tourist are far and above the most dominant and the colours of the women's saris are amazing! The men however look very drab in comparison.

I spent a few hours there soaking it all in.
I was pulled into a number of photos. Lets get the white girl dressed up in Indian cloths! I did not feel comfortable with all the men wanting to get their picture taken with me so I politely refused them, but I had no problem with children and families. oh the children!

After we rather painfully pulled ourselves away from the Taj Mahal, we headed to a carpet factory. WOW! This "factory" actually is more of a carpet business that educates village women on who to knot carpets (the weaving is done by knotting), then provide them with a loom, patterns, and work. Each carpet takes months to make depending on the size, some can take over a year. Most of the time several people will work on one and it will still take months. These carpets use moreno wool from New Zealand and Australia, all their dyes are natural, as are all the steps of the process of which their are many! The carpets are woven, inspected, washed, carted, sheared (trimming the ends (top) to make it even), washed again (all natural protects and treatments), sheared again, inspected, washed again. It is phenomenal the amount of work and hard labour that goes into creating them! The price here is unbeatable! I am very tempted and if anyone reading this would like me to buy one of their behalf please send me an email and I will let you know about prices and designs. They are really amazing works of art!

Well that was today... not that it is over yet. Some friends and I are head to the roof of our hotel to finish off a bottle of wine.

I am very very happy.
I am finally here and I feel like I have been here before.
I am very comfortable in India.

All my love from the subcontinent.

Cheers,
Linden

horn- check, breaks-check. India!!

2008-03-30T20:38:00.003+09:00

hello all,
Well I am in INDIA!!
I was so excited to get here. I felt like I had to pinch myself in the taxi to believe I was finally here.
Getting here was not all that easy. My flight was scheduled to leave at 2:40am this morning (march 30th) but when I arrived at the airport they said it would be delayed...until 7:25am. It took a few hours for Air India to get their act together but they put us up in a VERY nice hotel, I would even say posh, and feed us. By the time I got to bed it was 3:20am. The wake up call came at 6am and then it was back on the bus and to the airport where we found out our flight was delayed again until 9am. Well that was just the time we need to clear security, immigration, and the like. I did not go through this alone. I met a nice woman named Rochelle from Melborn who was rather frazzled by the whole thing and I got to be the cool calm steady one who lead her through the process.
We landed at 12:30pm and after collection bags and clearing more security I got a pre-paid taxi to my hotel.
I had planned to do a blog entry before I left that did a bit of a trip recap but I never got the opportunity.
I had also planned to send one out with the chant that has been going through my head the past few days and filling my journal. It went I bit like this:
INDIA, INDIA, INDIA, INDIA, INDIA, INDIA, INDIA!
I'M GOING TO INDIA!
I'M GOING TO INDIA!
I'M GOING TO INDIA!
I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M GOING TO INDIA!
INDIA, INDIA, INDIA, INDIA, INDIA, INDIA, INDIA!
INDIA, INDIA, INDIA, INDIA, INDIA, INDIA, INDIA!
I'M GOING TO INDIA!
I'M GOING TO INDIA!
I'M GOING TO INDIA!
I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M GOING TO INDIA!
INDIA, INDIA, INDIA, INDIA, INDIA, INDIA, INDIA!
INDIA, INDIA, INDIA, INDIA, INDIA, INDIA, INDIA!
I'M GOING TO INDIA!
I'M GOING TO INDIA!
I'M GOING TO INDIA!
I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M GOING TO INDIA!
INDIA, INDIA, INDIA, INDIA, INDIA, INDIA, INDIA!

Now I am hear.
It is hot and dusty. I haven't seen any of Delhi yet.
I wish I could be more descriptive but I have a ragging headache from too little sleep and even less to eat.
The menu at the hotel is full of words I don't know. Some I do, but most I don't. It is a bit daunting. Oh I don't know if I have mentioned this but I have gone partial vegetarian in Asia. Meat turns my stomach here, the the veggie food is so good. It is not like Japan where they put pork of some sort in almost everything. I will eat seafood as it is free-range and mostly organic, not that the stuff we put in our oceans is organic. The only downside i have realized on my arrival here in India is that I am not familiar with the names for veggie food here. More to learn!!
oh the honking....my poor head. I want my bed.

Cheers,
Linden

Travel diary

2008-03-25T23:40:00.003+09:00

Hello,
Well I am in Ayutthaya although I haven't seen much of the ancient city yet.
Yesterday was a long travel day and today not too different. At 10am Viki, Kristin and I boarded a water taxi to take us to a small pier where we got into a taxi (more a pick up truck with bench seats and a cover) that took us to the main pier on koh Pangnag where we said our goodbyes and then I left on the boat to the mainland and the girls went to Koh Tao.
On the mainland i boarded an overnight train to Bangkok. The train was supposed to take 12 hours, but we were delayed and it took 17 instead. I would not have minded the extra sleeping time but I had to get to the Chinese embassy before 11:30 to apply for my visa. The train pulled into the station a few minutes before 11 and I raced to drop off my big backpack at the baggage station, then to change some more money, then to a motorcycle taxi. The taxi driver said it would take 20 mins, I told him to hurry. And hurry he did. He raced through the streets, between cars, trucks, and other bikes. When we took the highway I had to close my eyes we were speeding so fast I felt gravity pulling on my skin... but perhaps that was just the wind. I tried not to think of all my exposed skin that would be taken from me by the pavement if it were to make contact. Instead I trusted, but made sure I had my eyes open when we were weaving between trucks so that I could tuck my legs in to keep them from grazing the burning exhaust pipes that we came so ever close to. We both survived and I was so touched by his understanding of my need to rush that I gave him an extra 50baht...well i also had no time for change as I arrived to the embassy at 11:25am.
The big rush was over, I had made it. I got my ticket (number 590) and took a seat. I talked to the travellers beside me to see how long they had been waiting. The couple beside me had number 433 and the embassy was currently calling number 333. They said they had been there an hour and expected it to be at least another hour before they were called so hours before I would be. They told me to go and get something to eat or walk around. I went to the official at the door and asked if i should go with my number and if I would have an hour. He said yes...maybe he didn't understand me. I came back in an hour and everything was locked up and lights turned out. I can't imagine how they got everyone out of there so fast, the place had been packed! just fabulous! I could have cried, I very nearly did. I called Viki and she sympathised, if I didn't have her to call I would have cried then and there and that would have totally frightened the security officials. I had worked so hard and given up time with her so that I would be able to get my visa for China without paying the extra cost of a rush visa. Being as tight for cash as I am now, I needed to get my visa in today. So that really sucked.
I went back to the train station, got my bag and boarded a train for Ayutthaya and that is where I am now.
I will probably go back on friday and pay the cost of a same day rush visa.
Now I am at an Internet cafe that is full of young boys playing video games, even dance dance revolution as a video game! I don't get the attraction. Books are soo much more exciting! ... as is tv, not going to lie.

I have stories from the islands with Viki and Kristin but I don't know when I will get a moment to tell them.

I am very much looking forward to India. I have been nervous about this part of my trip. South East Asia is like an extended home for me, and Australia isn't exactly difficult to travel. India and Tibet have been my main destinations, the real traveling will begin so soon. It's funny to think that the other side of the world can arise no more fear, stress, or anxiety in me than a trip to Ottawa. I love how comfortable I am here, how easily I move through these countries and even when it isn't easy, it just washes over me. South East Asia and I are tight. What will India hold? I will love it I am sure, but I don't expect it to be as easy going as where I have been.
This experience is truly the best education.

Tomorrow I will update on my Wat touring. Perhaps I will be able to upload pictures.

These video games are giving me a headache. I must jet.

Cheers,
L.

Heading back up

2008-03-24T13:44:00.002+09:00

I have just left the islands...or rather I am waiting to leave.

I head to Bangkok tonight on the overnight sleeper train. When I arrive, after I drop off my application for a visa to the Chinese Embassy ( I still have hopes to go to Tibet) I wil head straight to Ayutthaya before returning to Bangkok to pick up my visa on Friday, visit my Thai family and then fly to India. I was able to get my ticket moved so I arrive early on the morning of the 30th, a day before I was originally set to arrive.

Koh Phangnag was amazing. Beautiful and I wish I could have stayed a week.
I have been having such a great time with Viki and Kristin. I have been thinking so much about Muskoka while here...very strange. Not homesick though, but maybe beig with two Canadian girls has made me think about home a bit. They are now off to Koh Tao....and I drag my feet to Bangkok. Ayutthaya will be great though. I am looking forward to that.

Happy Easter everyone.
The girls and I treated ourselves to a Mars Bar pancake...it was amazing. pure sin. I loved it.
No easter eggs for me this year, but my parents are more than welcome to pick up some on sale and save them for my return... :)
Cheers,
L.

Down South

2008-03-21T11:11:00.002+09:00

hi,
Sorry it has been so long.
I will update soon.
I am still in Thailand. I left Bangkok shortly after my last post. I have been in the south visiting my friend Viki. We went to Krabi which was paradise. And then I went to Phuket to go diving in the Similan islands area. The diving was wonderful.
I am now back with Viki in Nahkon and tonight we will take the ferry to Koh Pangnang. We were planing to go to Koh Tao but I have to get back to Bangkok to drop of my chinese visa application, see Ayuutthaya, and visit my Thai family and then it is off to India.
Sorry I have not been taking pictures. I have not really been in the mood.
I am loving being with Viki and her roommate Kristin.

Cheers,
Linden

THAILAND!!!

2008-03-08T20:22:00.003+09:00

That's right, I have finally arrived. I am sorry I couldn't give Malaysia more of a chance, but Thailand was calling.
I am in Bangkok on Khao San road. I am really enjoying reacquainting myself with the area. Many things are just as I remember them. Restaurants and shops bring back memories and conversations. I passed and Internet cafe today and I could actually remember the emails I wrote from there four years ago. There were I few places I was looking for in particular. My hair is in a very bad state and I have been waiting get to Bangkok so I could return to my old salon. It has done well for itself in the last four years, they place has gotten a face lift and looks very stylish now. It was so busy that I could not get an appointment until tomorrow!!
There is lots and lots to buy but I am not really in the mood to spend money, but the more I walk down the road the more my eyes see things they want.
Tomorrow I am supposed to meet Graeme. That will be nice. Right now I am just enjoying being in the familiar.
I want to send out a bunch a birthday wishes. March seems to be a major birthday month.
March 3rd- My little nice Quoia turned 6!! (and got a phone call from her auntie in Malaysia)
March 5th- Graeme is officially old at 25.
March 6th- My dear Lianne also became officially old with her 25th.
March 6th- My Auntie Sue, radiant from her journey to India celebrated her birthday.
March 8th- Ebony, an old old friend, turns 24. Happy Bday Ebony, I am thinking about you today.
March 11th- The fabulous Justine will turn 25...also officially old.

I hope I am not forgetting anyone and I have a little break in bday before my bro's, my mom's, and the fabulous Theo's, all in April.
Well that is basically it for me.
I may have to go get myself another massage.....hmm so good.
I will definitely be downing a Chang!
Cheers,
Linden

Malaysia

2008-03-07T01:24:00.003+09:00

Malaysia.
Well I have been in Malaysia for a few days now. I was in Melaka, and now I am in Kuala Lumpur. Melaka was quite, sleeping, and well dead. Nice historical town, but better on a weekend.
KL is okay. It isn't a huge city. Small by Asian standards. I thought it would be a lot bigger. It is walkable. Well the main city center areas are.
I went to some Hindu caves today. That was cool.
Last night (when I arrived), I met up with a nice Polish guy, who is a dive instructor in Puhket. Today I met a funky English woman. She stopped me to ask directions (that always happens) and we ended up spending the afternoon together. I showed her Chinatown and the layout of the city. She is travelling for 8 months and did the Kiwi Burn in NZ. Apparently it is like Burning Man in the states but on a farm in NZ...they had sheep floats!! how amazing is that! I so could have been there!! It was the first week in Feb. Oh well, next time. My not going to NZ is increasingly becoming a regret. some day.
My time in Malaysia has not be lonely.
Malaysia is not that interesting to me though. It is very multicultural, which was a surprise to me. The Malay are the original people to the area, then came the Chinese, then the Arabs bring Islam, then the Portuguese, then Dutch, then English who brought the Indians and more Chinese. Malaysia also borders Thailand and Indonesia so there are many influences from those countries. Chinatowns and Little Indias seem to be present in even the smaller towns.
Malaysia is not winning me over. Bali still rules. I always miss Thailand. Might head there tomorrow. More diving!!!
Cheers,
Linden

Men, men, and more men

2008-03-02T21:57:00.004+09:00

wow this is strange. So my friend told me that he was creeped out in india by all the men on the streets and no women. Ok I thought, that will be interesting. Well I am staying in little India here in Singapore and the amount of men hanging around on the streets is frightening. I keep my head down and walk, or state blankly past them as if they are not there and are not staring at my chest.
India is going to be a challenge. I don't feel in any threatened but it is unnerving to move through crowds of men.
well besides that I have had a nice day. I went to the museum of Asian civilization today with an English women named Annie. Annie is a Buddhist, a veggie, an environmentalist, a teacher in Vietnam and a writer. It was cool to meet her. She told me she had never met a grown up Waldorfian. She thinks I have pretty amazing parents. We are in agreement. We talked about ethics, I talked about my amazing sisters, and we had a free veggie lunch at the Buddhist temple in Chinatown. FYI, steamed rice balls filled with peanut butter- fabulous!
I have been reading Antigone Magazine blog: antigonemagazine.blogspot.com and How to Save the World in Your Spare Time. I am all fired up and surrounded by men. Oh how the inner feminist is burning.
cure? Shopping. I have no money to spend but I can watch the Asians spend, I'm used to that. Sushi is also calming. So is starbucks. And maybe calling a fab sister.
tomorrow I plan to head to Malaysia. How, when, and exactly where to are yet unknowns.
cheers,
L.

Singapore- all of asia in one city

2008-03-01T15:05:00.004+09:00

Singapore.
The city it great. It is like a more multi-cultural, more western, more new version of Tokyo. It is so cool. For those of you who don't know, Singapore's official language is English, that is what school is taught in but the city state itself is a collection of many asian ethnicities and just as many or more languages. Singlish is the English slang spoken here. It takes a bit of getting used to but it makes sense, kind of.
Within 5 minutes of checking into my hostel last night I was invited out by a german girl and her friends. Jenni has been here on an internship and lastnight was her last night and she wanted to go karoaking. Could I possibly turn that down?!! Unforunately the karoake place was full, so we headed over to a beautiful old street with tones of restaurants and bars. After a few drinks we headed to one of Signapore's maga clubs but apparently not near the biggest. Tonight one of my new Turkish friends has invited me out to the mega mega club, there are like 8 clubs in this building and it is a must see. So looks like my time in Singapore will be out nightlife. All fun. Today however is about laundry. and food. I am staying in Little India, I have not eaten all day and the smells of curry and nan are driving me crazy!
I put up some scuba pics.
Cheers,
Linden

My Dearest Bali

2008-02-29T11:13:00.003+09:00

Hello,
Today is my last day in Bali.
My 8 or so days here have been full and exciting. I have made many friends here, locals I am excited to see again when I return.
Since I last wrote I have been mostly diving, although I did take a day to enjoy a traditional Balinese spa. I think I spent about $17 on a 2hr massage/body scrub/flower petal bath, a facial, and cream hair bath. I was there about 4.5 hours. It was lovely.
The diving. Oh wow, the diving!! Two days ago I woke early and was picked up by my dive master, Made (Ma-dai), who is now a good friend. Richard joined me for this dive and we three headed out to Tulamben to dive the USS Liberty wreck. We did two dives here and they were both amazing. This is considered one of the safest wreck dives in the world. The USS Liberty was a WWII American supply ship that was hit by a Japanese torpedo. The boat did not sick, but was safely tugged to shore of Tulamben where all the important and valuable parts were salvaged. In 1963 Mt. Agung, which had been dormant for 300 years, erupted and the resulting lava flow pushed the USS Liberty off the beach and into the shallow waters of Tulamben bay. This event also broke the ship into three parts which make swim-throughs more accessible and safer. Today it is covered in coals and has become the home to thousands of fish which seem unperturbed by the constant stream of divers wanting to explore this great dive site. I have some great photos but the computer I am on now can not upload the files. I will give it a try when I get to Singapore. I think Tulamben was the best diving I have ever done.
After the diving Made took Rich and I to Padangbai. Padangbai is a sea side town that is home to a very important temple and some great dive sites. I dressed myself in Balinese traditional dress and watched the hundreds of people passing down the main road on their way to the temple. It turns out that we had arrived during a four day ceremony which happens once a year on the Balinese calender (so about every 1.5years for us). Balinese come from all over the island to pray during these four days. They bring offerings which they carry on their heads, and are blessed and cleansed by the priest of the temple. Hindu priests from all over Bali come as well. It was such an amazing site to see. I would have been allowed to join them as I was wearing Balinese dress but I was shy and nervous I would not do the right thing even though I had previously been to temple. I regret that, but I am glad I was not shy to wear the traditional clothing as it made the Balinese people who saw me very happy.
Yesterday Made and I dove Padangbai bay and the Blue Lagoon. The diving was not as exciting as Tulamben but we did see thousands of fish, loads of blue spotted sting rays, and I got to hold a bright purple puffer fish in my hands!!! That was such a highlight! Made caught it for me and it puffed itself up to look all scary, but it was soft and beautiful. I did not hold it long as I knew it was probably scared. We saw about 5 or 6 different kinds of puffer fish, some big and spiky when they puffed up and some small and soft like my little purple friend. We also saw lots of clown fish. At Tulamben I was bitten by an aggressive clown fish, it took a little chunk out of me the bugger. But at Padangbai the clown fish were more gentle. Some were huge! Who knew Nemo could grow so big! Huge angle fish too. I saw several eels, two giant moray eels- those are NOT cute and cuddly, and some blue ribbon little eels that I totally mistook for long fish with their heads in the sand. So the diving was great. Almost being run over buy the ferry was not so fun but more of an adventure. It passed by maybe 3 meters above us when we were in the shallows of the reef and we had to swim away fast from the propellers. I gained a sympathy for marine life and a dislike for motor boats. When Made and I were down 29.6 meters we could still hear the piercing hum of engines that hurt my ears so much I wanted to end the dive. The boats were not that frequent but they were annoying. I feel for all the marine life that dies such a painful death from the noises created by underwater drilling. Motor boats alone drove me crazy. Made was excited to dive with me because my breathing is so good. We had a bottom time of 60mins and we went to max safety depths where air is compressed and doesn't last very long. I go into this zen kind of place underwater. I love being an observer in the land of the fishes.
Yesterday I also said goodbye to Richard who has been a stellar travel companion for my time in Bali.
I am in Sanur now. Made brought me here last night and took me out to dinner. I was so tired from diving I passed out around 8pm. This morning I went to a cafe to do some writing and eat some breaky and low and behold I had walked into a Canadian-Balinese cafe. I was shocked to open the menu and see "Traditional Canadian breakfast" and I whole page devoted to Canadian food I have never really eaten (mostly pub food stuff). I had french toast and a latte. So good!!

Next stop Singapore! I am trying to get a bed at The InCrowd Hostel which has won tones of awards and looks fabulous!!! I might fall in love with Singapore, who knows!

I have loved my time in Bali as I am sure my entries here have made evident. I will miss it but I am excited to move on and discover new places. My wanderlust continues.

Cheers,
Linden

Tulamben

2008-02-29T10:45:00.004+09:00

Here are some photos from my diving at Tulamben, the USS Liberty wreck. Some of the photos turned out so well I am thinking I might make the move to underwater photography. It would keep me diving! Oh that diver is me, except of the one with the upsidedown diver - i took that of someone else. I am not able to upload all the pics I want to. The computer has become very slow. Sorry.
Cheers,
Linden

My garden home

2008-02-25T16:46:00.004+09:00

Gusti Garden Bungalows- my palace of a "home-stay".

Mt. Batur

2008-02-25T15:49:00.005+09:00

Hello again!
Two more fabulous days here in Ubud.
Yesterday I had a Balinese cooking class. It was lots of fun. I was taken on a market tour and introduced to all the spices, vegetables, and fruits that are traditionally used in Balinese cooking. The dishes we made were fabulous, several of them I had already tried in restaurants. Rich and I hung out in the afternoon enjoying the many fabulous cafes in Ubud.
Today ( or last night...?)
At 2:30 in the morning Rich and I were picked up at our hotels and driven to Mt. Batru. We were going to clime the famous volcano. Mt. Batru last erupted in 2000. It is an extremely active volcano. Not every eruption is massive but they do all spew lava, if not a massive lava flow.
Our guide, Mabang, met us at the base and we started our climb. Now I was expecting more of a, well, "trek". "Climbing" is rarely ever really climbing, but more of a strenuous walk around a mountain slowly winding your way to the top. Not this climb. No we went straight up the face. Granted we did a bit of winding but the majority was very steep over craggy sharp and often loose molten rock from previous eruptions.
It was difficult but climbing but the light of the moon over ancient lava flows was magical. The views were stunning, and watching the sun rise over Lombok was probably the most stunning sunrise I have ever seen.
After the sun had risen and we had regained some body warmth (massive sweating then cool summit winds... not so cozy) we walked along another creator ridge so we could cook our breakfast in the steam rising from deep within the volcano. FABULOUS!! -if not the food then the cooking method. We hung out and chatted to Mabang for about an hour as we took in the views. I told Mabang I would be coming back and that he was going to be my guide and take me all over Bali. I need to come back. I need to be here. Everyday I fall more in love with this island. I can't believe I will be leaving in a few days, I am so not ready.
Our walk down the mountain was mostly uneventful, well besides being separated from Mabang (briefly lost), my landing on the side of my foot wrenching my ankle, and running down the side of the mountain on powder fine volcanic rock.
I need more sleep, but otherwise I want for nothing but more time here.

Cheers,

Paradise

2008-02-24T16:56:00.021+09:00

I am moving to Ubud.
This place is magical, sure it is a bit touristy but the tourist (myself included) here don't feel offensive.
Ubud is nestled in the hills of Bali, close to the centre of the island. The land is lush, the people are welcoming and kind but not pushy even when they are trying to get you into their shop.
I fell in love with this place the moment I arrived. I am so sorry I have to leave in a few days. My stay in Bali will be altogether too short.
I arrived two days ago from Kuta. (Dirty Dancing was my sound track on the bus up- fabulous!)
My first evening here I did some shopping and went to a traditional Balinese dance at the Ubud Palace. My hotel is amazing. It is the most beautiful place I have ever stayed in, not just this trip, ever! It is called Gusti Garden Bungalows and the view off my private balcony looks over lush gardens and a beautiful refreshing swimming pool. It is my palace. I have found paradise and I don't want to leave, not ever.
Yesterday I went on a Eco Cycling trip. We left early in the morning, drove to Mt. Bautu and then cycled 30km (mostly downhill, but not all) around the Ubud area. The guide was very knowledgeable. He taught us about Balinese culture and home life. The tour took us to a garden/farm where we were educated on the fruits and vegetables of Bali. We got to observe traditional coffee bean roasting and sample several different teas, coffees, hot cocoa, and fruits. the tour also took us to a family compound to see how people live in the country side, the traditional and spiritually relevant layout of the compound, and the cows and pigs that the family will keep. The cows are not eaten as Balinese are Hindu, but are keep as kind of an insurance policy for the family.
The country side we cycled past was breathtaking. Bali seems so untouched by the commercial western world. One of the particularly special aspects of Bali is that each village has a temple and these temples are very old. It reminded me quite a bit of Siem Reap, not Angkor Wat per say as that temple is very big, but the smaller old temples that have decayed a bit. The difference here is that the people live around the temple. There are these ancient structures everywhere that are not for tourism, they are central to life.
At the end of our cycling tour we were treated to a fabulous Balinese lunch. The food was so good, especially after the 10km of slow gentle uphill climb we had just completed.
the tour finished with a trip to the Monkey Forest here in Ubud city. I have a million pictures of monkeys as there were about a million monkeys... actually a little scary.
On this tour I met Richard. Richard is my English, 6'6" version of Duncan. We clicked right away, and now I am horribly abusing his offer to use his computer. Rich is great and I think I have hooked him into being a travel buddy for a few days. So much for being alone.
Our guide, Gday, offered to take us to a special ceremony at a temple then to the night market for some local food. Richard and I snatched up the chance, so a few hours after arrival back in Ubud I was picked up and then dress up in full Balinese costume. No one is allowed to enter a temple unless dressed in traditional cloths. We were driven to the temple where we made an offering, prayed and were blessed by a priest. There were no other westerners there and we certainly could not help but be noticed. (Richard is part giant). After the procession from the temple we sat to watch some (2hrs) Balinese dancing which was part of the temple's ceremony (happens every 6 months).
The dancing was amazing, even if we were exhausted after our physical day. We had to leave the dance a bit early in order to catch the night market before it closed at midnight. I was not hungry as the lunch was massive, but I still tasted some new dishes and they were very good. When I finally arrived at my oasis of a hotel I feel fast asleep. No dreams so possibly top my day.
I will upload pics of my hotels the next chance I get.
Cheers,
L.

Bali- now we're talking!

2008-02-21T18:08:00.002+09:00

So I have arrived in Bali, Kuta to be exact.
I exited the airport last night and walked into South East Asia. The smells, the people, the architecture, the stray dogs, the mopeds, the night vendors, the food, the incense, the "hello darling" s. Last night as my hotel's van drove through town I was on the verge of tears I was so happy. I am so at home here. Australia was fun, but Bali is way more my style. Now I am traveling!!
As I walked down the main road in Kuta looking for a late dinner I was pulled aside by a tourist vendor and I bought myself a little package - glass bottom boat ride, snorkeling, and a trip to turtle island. The ways were rough on the ocean so we (a Spanish couple and myself) opted not to snorkel and instead we trading that in for parasailing. Our parasailing adventure will be tomorrow morning, afterwards I hope to head to Ubud for a few days.
I don't know where I will be sleeping tomorrow night, but I will worry about that tomorrow.
Food is good and cheap here. The pollution is a bit overwhelming and was making me a little sick so I ducked into this internet cafe.
I have a bit of a cold that I am fighting off at the moment but otherwise I am healthy. Who could possibly get a cold in 38 degree heat? me of course. I blame AC! And of course it arrived the day before I was to get on a plane, at least I didn't have it while diving.
It is a shame that I am here all by myself. I am not lonely but it is always cooler to share these experiences with a friend.
I held a sea turtle, a giant bat, a sea eagle, and a python today. I have pictures.
It is rainy here.
Cheers,
L.

2008-02-20T00:45:00.001+09:00

I have posted some pics for previous posts starting at The Blue Mountains.
Enjoy.

Goodbye Australia

2008-02-19T18:20:00.004+09:00

I just wanted to let you all know that I am alive and well.
I have just come back to Cairns from Cape Tribulation. It was relaxing and a bit rainy but I was able to meet up with Steph, my French Canadian friend I met in Byron Bay. I wasn't able to get a hold of her before I left so I just crossed my fingers that I would run into her there and I did.
Tonight is my last night in Australia. My time here has gone by so fast.
I have had loads of fun. I promise I will get my pictures up as soon as possible.
Tomorrow night I will be resting my head in my beautiful hotel in Bali that I just booked today. I am sooo organized I can't even tell you!
What am I going to do in Bali? I have nooooo idea but I will probably know in the next 48 hours. As it stands now I have a few recommendations from fellow travellers. I will probably go diving again. I will check out Ubud, eat some fabulous food, and hopefully sit down with some Balinese and learn about their culture. I can't promise no night clubs.

Anyway, thanks a bunch Aussieland. Its been great, if not horribly expensive.
in 19 days I land in Bangkok!!! yes, yes, I have three countries to pass through first but I am really excited to return to a country that I hold so dear to my heart.
Viki....we are totally diving in Ko Tao, or at least I am diving. I have been on dry land for far too long already. What is it? day three without diving? it is more addictive than tattooing!

I am heading off to dinner now with Terrah (from my trip to Kenya) and Steph (Quebecer).

Cheers,
Linden

Diving the Reef!

2008-02-16T09:12:00.007+09:00

Hello all! I have just arrived back in Cairns. I spent the last three days out on the Great Barrier Reef scuba diving. 11 dives in three days, that is very exhausting! I took the advanced open water course while I was out there. I am now an advanced diver. I did two night dives...a little scary but oddly calming. I did a deep dive, and many others. These are pictures from my first go with the underwater camera. The colours were amazing. I am sorry that they don't show up that much here.
Oh that blue thing is a stinger suit. We have to wear them because of the jellyfish in the water.

Who doesn't like a good steam room? no room...even better!

2008-02-09T12:14:00.000+09:00

oh it is hot!
Really, really hot.
The heat is intense, probably around 35, then add the humidity. There is not much I feel like doing. I am in Mission beach right now which is very close to Cairns. I am taking a bit of a rest day. The ocean is sooo warm it is almost too hot to swim in. It feels like a bath tub, even when the water is deep enough to go over your head. There is a netted swimming area that we must swim in because of the stingers. The pool at my hotel is also too warm. That and it is full of beer drinking truckers. The little hotel is fabulous though! It is all gardens, hug ferns and flowering trees. Each little block of rooms is hidden in this dark green jungle. There is a BBQ and we will buy some seafood and veggies and BBQ it up! I am in charge of the salad and desert which is very exciting! I miss cooking. The tour leaders called dibs on the BBQ...men!
Last night we all went out for dinner at a nice asian fusion restaurant and then had some beers at a pub on the beach. Lush, everything is so lush. My skin is loving it. The Irish on the trip are having a bit of trouble with the heat. The Brits aren't doing too well either.
So that is basically it for me.
A relaxing day in the sauna that is Mission Beach.
Tomorrow to Cairns- scuba diving, sky diving, cape tribulation....who knows?!

Cheers,
L.

Take only photos, leave only footprints

2008-02-07T18:28:00.000+09:00

The Whitsundays!!

After a quick breakfast the bus arrived to pick us up. We were the last pick up so they were a bit delayed. The air conditioned giant dropped us off a few minutes later at the wharf. The excitement for the day had grown as we waited to be picked up and by the time we were unloaded most of us were giddy with anticipation. In front of us was a Maxi. Not just any Maxi, the Ragamuffin. Three time winner of the Sydney to Hobart Challenge, multiply second and third places finishes, and winner of a variety of other international competitions.
What is a Maxi you ask? I had asked that same question as we waited for our pick up. Greg was kind enough to enlighten me, "A maxi is the NASCAR of sailboats". Got it, it is a fast boat. If it wasn't a world famous racer I still would have been deliriously happy. Sail boat + sun + Great Barrier Reef National Park+ picnic on the beach.... sure being on a world class winner racer is a bonus but the day is the prize.

What did I do today?
Today I spent sailing around the Whitsundays on Ragamuffin. My fabulous ipod provided the soundtrack to my day of champaign sailing (I did get to do a bit of work pulling ropes, cranking up sails). On the way out the Beatles (Across the Universe soundtrack) was just the perfect touch, and the late afternoon sail back in was in tune with some Bob Marley. Did I mention it was relaxing?

Meredith, I missed you soo much! Well, I didn't so much miss you, I wasn't lonely for you, but I did think about you tones and imagine how cool it would be if you were on Ragamuffin with me. I told the whole crew about you. (you have a job waiting for you on Ragamuffin by the way)

I spent most of the sail at the stern (front right?), hanging off the side and relishing the cool waves occasionally splashing my dangling legs. If I wasn't draping most of my body off the boat, I was stretched out soaking in the rays while watching the sails, or standing right up in the thing that juts off the front and staring out at the beautiful topical ocean views.
I may not have been the hardest working sailor but I was dressed very well. Yup, pulled out all the stops with white shorts, dark blue breezy shirt, fabulous earings (thanks ash), and a side ponytail, a hug sun hat, and big dark glasses. I just thought I would describe how smashing I looked since you don't have a picture. Well my philosophy for today day was, if I don't look like part of the crew, might as well look like I own the yacht. hehe...it was fun.

We didn't see much marine life. I did spot a giant sea turtle. That was pretty exciting.
The lunch on the beach was great. It was unfortunate that we had to wear stinger suits for the water.

Well my time is up. sorry about spelling mistakes. i have no time to proof read.

The day was Fabulous!

Cheers
L

Drought? but it's raining...

2008-02-07T16:24:00.000+09:00

Hello,
Well I am back to the coast from the outback. The farm stay was great. really different. The rains here made it well... not what i imagined. when I think outback, i think dusty red rocky earth, but with the rains everything was well, lime green. It is hard to imagine rains like they have been having here and the land still suffering from drought. The rains are either not the right kind or still not enough to be able to help last the year. It is a mind trip to be walking through fields of mud, roads being washed out, and then having to take a very short shower because of the intensity of the drought. But that is the reality for the people of Queensland, espicially the farmers.
Despite the rain and the washed out roads, the farm stay was fun. Bill the owner was such a character! oh god he was funny. I had a chance to go horse back riding which was really great. I was totally in "The Man from Snowy River". (fyi, that is the name of australia's most famous poem, not just a movie. who knew?)
We were not able to sleep in swage because of the rain but we did have all our good country australian food cooked out on the campfire. It was, well cuntry, a little salty (I had my first taste of corn beef) but still good.

Again, I will update with pictures later.
Sorry I am short, but again, time is money.

Cheers,
L.

2008-02-04T12:06:00.000+09:00

books to read, noted. I will look for both.
Thanks guys.

Fraser Island

2008-02-04T11:42:00.002+09:00

Hi all,
I know there are too many post all at once but so much has happend and I won't get to another computer for a while.
I just spent the last two days on Frasher Island. My tour group met up with other travellers as we boarder the Fraser Island Company 4wheel drive bus that would be our transport over the famous sand island.
Our guid was Rossco, I really can't say another about this guy. He was efficient, kind, funny, so knowledgeable, and all around amazing.

The highlight for Fraser Island for me was probably when we entered the tropical rainforest, were kicked out of the bus, met but thousands of cicadas hidden in the trees and obviously offended by our interruption.

For those of you who don't know what a cicada is or the noise it makes but they are insects that rub their legs together and it creats ahigh pitch kind of whin that is pretty cool, however I have never know them to be as load as they were when we stepped out of the bus. So this amazing noise was the perfect soundtrack to what my eyes were taking in.

The giant firns, the skinny but tall plams and the trees that seems to touch the sky all made me take an extra look around for dinos. Really everything was super big! huge! we were tiny little creatures in this forest. And to top it all off this is a rain forest that essentally has grown up on a sand doon!!!!!!! HOW?! HOW?! I was talking on sand and staring at firns the size of houses! It was so unreal and that was just the first 20mins of my time on Fraser Island.

What else? well I don't have much time so I will just list.

Dingos, birds big and small, 75miles of straight white beach that we could drive on, shark infested waters, fresh water creeks, freshwater lakes, sand blows that would take anyone's breath away, salt water pools whose rocks keeps out the sharks but welcomed the crashing waves, beautiful tents with hard wood floors, more rainforest hikes, sand dune treks, swims in fresh water lakes and creeks, a fabulous fish dinner, kangaroo meet to sample, hot showers, new friends, tones of laughs. Paradise!

Next stop?
The OUTBACK!!! Two nights sleeping in swag under the stars and horseback riding!!!

Love it all.
Miss none of you!

Cheers,
L.

ps. photos will be added to posts later.

Byron Bay...oh sun, sun and sunburn

2008-02-04T11:17:00.002+09:00

After my day in the blue mountains, I boarded an overnight bus to Byron Bay. The bus ride was unadventful, long and FREEEZING!!! the AC was broken...it was stuck on 21degrees and the whole bus of backpackers did more shivering than sleeping. However, we all survied and arrived in Byron Bay early in the morning and was met by hostel recruits waving signs. I choose a YHA hostel as a few on the bus i had met had already booked it. The hostel was great and I met tones a people there. Dear Sophie, my French Canadian friend was the best! I am so sorry I only had one day in Byron Bay. It is a fabulous beach town. Full of surfers, backpackers, and pseudo-hippies. I spent the day on the beautiful white sand beach with Sophie. I would have to say that playing in the waves was the highlight.

The water was so beautiful and the waves were large and super fun. We did our best to body-surf but failed each time, almost drowning ourselves in laughter. There was one dramatic event that day. As a group of us was playing the waves we caught sight of two large dark long shapes in an approaching wave. Some people screamed shark. I was too frightened to do anything but think, well too late to do anything now. The massive waved crashed down on us two seconds later and when I popped my head and battered body out of the water to see how close the dorsal fins where, I did not see sharks, but dophins. Two beautiful dolphins playing in the ways like the rest of us. In another moment they dived back under and disappeared from view. WOW. that is all I have to say. WOW, nothing beats that!
After the dolphine encounter sharks were still on the brain and many of us retreated from the waves. I lay down exhausted on the beach, did a shabby job of reapplying sunscrean and promptly burnt my white skin under the very strong Aussie sun.

Lets just say that the following few days have been very painful. Since I had burnt the tops of my legs, walking was more pain that I could really handle. I am healing, and pealing now.

Next stop was Brisbane but unfortunately I was in too much pain to see the city. I really regret this as I was looking forward to Brisbane. In Brisbane I met up with a tour group I booked for the journy to Cairns, and we headed from there Harvey Bay, the gateway to Fraser Island.

I am getting very scary weather reports from back home. I hope you are all avoiding frost bite like I am avoiding another sun burn.

Ch?

The Blue Mountains

2008-02-04T10:57:00.001+09:00

oh man where did I leave off? Sydney, wow, ages ago!

Just a quick note, I won't have photos uploaded for the next few posts but i will insert them as soon as I can.

THE BLUE MOUNTAINS
I booked on the cheapest day trip of the Blue Mountains that I could find, and when one does such a thing, one often can't expect the best of service. I, however, lucked out!!!
Wow my guide was fabulous. A total self schooled natualist. He knew so much and was so passionate about the Blue Mountains, every type of tree and all the animals in the national park, i couldn't have been happier.
I don't really know how to describe my experience but when you mix temperate rain forest with waterfalls, eucalyptis trees, blue haze, scorching sun, sudden thunderstorm, steep mountain hikes walked by Charles Darwin, pretty towns, and my frist wild kangaroos.... it does not fail to impress. There was a good group of us, mostly young backpackers but some elders mixed in. I got to sit up front with our guide and I was a total nerd trying to absorb everything he said and complaining that he had not put together a booklet of information.I don't know yet if my pictures will be able to translate anything for you into something you can picture. I took a million though.
Little stories may come back to me when I look at the pictures. Right now i am filled with all the stories my Fraser Island guide (another fabulous guide) implanted into my nerdy but forgetful head.

All in all, I am so gald that I decided to do the Blue Mountain trip. The natural world of Australia totally tops the surfer party scene. hands down!

A day at the beach.

2008-01-28T22:19:00.000+09:00

Hello,

Well today I spent the day with Mike and Sarah in Coogee and Bondi beach area. Mike is a colleague of my father's. He and Sarah are working down under for the year. Rough life, let me tell you!

We went for a great long walk from Coogee breach along the coast past Bronte beach, and as far as Bundi beach. Along the way we stopped off to snorkel in the clear beautiful waters. We also paused to watch a surfing competition. As I said, rough life they have here.

The beaches were packed as today was a public holiday day as part of Australia Day long weekend. It also marks the end of summer holidays for most people.

Mike and Sarah have been too good to me. When I arrived at their place they had a beautiful bed made up for me, fresh towels and everything! They made us all a picnic lunch and then took me out to dinner at a wonderful restaurant along the Coogee beach.

I am sorry that I have to leave tomorrow. I told them that I would more than happy to just move in with them. hehe

Tomorrow I am off to the Blue Mountains and then I will board an overnight bus to Byron Bay.

Cheers,

Pics from my biking tour of Sydney

2008-01-28T21:57:00.000+09:00

Australia Day!! (part I)

2008-01-28T21:38:00.001+09:00

Australia Day! (part II)

2008-01-28T21:01:00.001+09:00

Mount Lowe, LA

2008-01-28T20:36:00.000+09:00

Goodbye Sydney

2008-01-28T06:16:00.000+09:00

Hello all!
I just want to shout out a Happy Birthday to Isabell!! I am so gald we got to celebrate you before I left!
So here I am still in Sydney for the moment. I spent most of yesterday biking around the city which was amzing but I am feeling it today. Loads of walking too.
I have tones of pictures that I want to upload for you all. I hope I will be able to do that tonight.
I am off to the beach today. I am meet up with some family friends.
I am so excited to spend the day on the beach!!!
Sydney has been great.
Beautiful city!! It is a total cross between Halifax and Toronto. If Australia wasn't so far from everything I could easily see moving here. I feel very much at home here.
Well my minutes are almost done.
I must say goodbye.
cheers,
L.

Happy Australia Day!!

2008-01-26T07:47:00.000+09:00

G'day!
It is a stunning morning here in Sydney. It should be a hot day, and very sunny.
Today is Australia day!!
I am meeting loads of people here at the hostel. Everyone is really nice and there seems to be tones of solo travelers.
I was really tired all day yesterday. I slept most of the afternoon. I woke up in time for the BBQ here at the hostel which was great. I met a couple great girls that night.
Today I am planning on heading down to the Rocks with some people. There is a big free concert going on down there. It is the historic part of the city on Sydney Harbour, and the Opera house is right there.
Tomorrow I think I will head to the Blue Mountains.
Then on Monday I will head out to Bondi area to stay with some friends.
I will take loads of pictures today, I promise. Getting them onto the web will be another matter.
cheers,
L.

Aussieland!

2008-01-25T09:17:00.000+09:00

Hi all,
I am in the airport in Sydney. I have landed.
THe flight was very long and we were delayed, total of about 16hrs on the plane. I had an exit seat so it wasn't soo bad.
Mom and Dad, I will try to call after I have checked into the hostel.
The shuttel is on its way to pick me up.

I AM SOOO EXCITED TO BE HERE!!!

Let the adventures begin!!

Tem I love you!!!
Charlie, I am sending you a ciber hug. Thank you for being so kind to me.

Cheers,
L.

Goodbye from LA

2008-01-24T10:33:00.000+09:00

Well in a few hours I will be in the skies heading out over the Pacific to Australia.

Tem and I have had an eventful time the past few days.

Yesterday we went to a korean spa which is a favorite of Tem's. It was sooo like a Japanese onsen, it was amazing!!! Tem and I each got the Bliss treatment which meant a totally body scrub down (at times I felt like I was going to bleed the woman was working so hard), massage, facial, and hair wash/scrub. Now when I say total, mean total! The woman, Yang, now knows my body better than I do. There was not one inch of me she did not work over thoroughly. No privacy issues allowed! It was amazing but it felt more like hygiene then luxury self indulgence. It was painful, but boy did I feel newer than the day I was born when Yang finished with me. I highly suggest a trip to Olympic Spa for anyone coming to LA. I think it needs to be a yearly experience.

Today Tem, Chuee, and I went for a rigorous hike up Mount Lowe in Pasadena. It was 2.7 miles of hard uphill climb. The views were spectacular and it felt so good physically pushing my body like that. At the top of the mountain the winds were biting cold but the view and the ruins of the historic hotel that once stood there were worth it all. I have pics from the climb but I have not uploaded them onto the computer. Next time.

Tem and I hit up the Rosevelt hotel for a late lunch on Hollywood Blvd.

What a fantastic trip!!

Thank you so much Tem for everything! There is nothing like being with your sister.

Ani, I wish I got to see you more, we were just so busy. I will call from the airport.

Cheers all.

LA done.

Next stop: Aussieland!!

Shopping shopping shopping!!

2008-01-22T11:23:00.000+09:00

The problem is, that the equation Target+Clearance= Broken Bank, just does not make sense when one starts out at the fabulous US chain store. But it can very easily be a reality. Tem and I had a little too much fun shopping today. We hit up Target, Forever 21, Express, MAC, and American Apparel. Lets just say I will be a very well dressed backpacker.We took a little shopping break and lunched at Terroni's, famous in TO, and now smoking up the LA scene.

We didn't stop there, after our late lunch, we picked up Chuee and headed back to Griffith Park to do some hiking. The sky was getting really stormy, and it made for some fabulous pictures.

I think we might stay in today and snuggle up in front of the fire, but we may hit up the town. There's no stopping the Deathe sisters!

Cheers,

LA Hills

2008-01-22T02:12:00.000+09:00

January on the beach! I could get used to this...

2008-01-22T00:34:00.000+09:00

Well the last two days have been pretty exciting. I am so happy here with Tem and well you know.. sun. I have seen a lot of LA but there is still SOOO much I haven't seen. The city goes on forever!!On saturday Tem and I went hiking with Chuee. That

was fabulous! I love the desert environment. The mountains are so amazing. We didn't do too much else on sat as Tem and I were both sick.

Yesterday we went to Venice beach and Malibu in the morning. Then in the afternoon I met up with my friend Ani who was in Japan with me and we walked all o

ver Studio City and up to Universal City. We did s

ooo much walking. It was crazy! No on

e was out walking! and it was sunday and gorgeously sunny! I

n the late afternoon I met up with Tem again and we went out to Manhattan beach to visit her friend Jimmy and his girlfriend Laura. Jimmy was sick so we didn't stay too long but we walked on the beach and I got some pictures of the sunset. We then stopped in at an Out

door supply store like MEC and I bought the last minute th

ings I will need for my trip- cable locks, a watch, sleep sheet, stuff like that.

Today we have a long list of "to do"s.

More later.

Cheers,

L.A. BABY!!

2008-01-20T01:23:00.000+09:00

Well here I am in LA! I arrived yesterday afternoon and picked up my bags just as September pulled up. Fabulous timing if I do say so myself.

We sped off on the famous LA freeways, entered the downtown that was cloaked in smog, and then around to Los Feliz village that September calls home. Her place is fabulous. I will update with pictures later. She has made her place into a palace with the best bedroom I have ever seen!

After settling in we took off to a big event downtown. This event was for Alex Grey (www.alexgrey.com). He is an LSD/DMT/Ayahuasca inspired artist. I don't know what all of those do but he mentioned me.... often. His work has been made famous by the band Tool. He gave a lecture at the event which was... well okay. He wanted to talk about the relationship between humans and the cosmos in art over the centuries, which is a cool topic and if not exactly a new one, however his talk was a little disjointed. He was showing slides of ancient pieces of sculptures, paintings, and architecture but sometimes he was talking about how they related to the cosmos, sometimes he was just pointing out their similarity to our sexual organs, sometimes he was just seemed to be showing them because they were cool. I really don't think his audience noticed though. All in all it was a really cool event that drew that crazy LA scene. It was quite an eclectic group of people of all ages. The best part was that I would say over a quarter of the people looked like people the would provide really stimulating conversation. I loved that! Some people were, well to you the derogatory term "off the reservation", but there were only a couple of them. Feathers, fedoras, and glitter were the main accessories. I was definitely feeling the need for feathers. Some people were rocking out, or "trancing out" with all three. Turbans were also popular, as was body jewels, crystals, but stilettos and suits were also in the crowd, as were the british rocker chic look. It was a feast for the eyes! I tried to take in as much as I could. September and I didn't stay that long, well three hours, but the event was going all night. We then hit up Fred 62, and all night dinner and totally rock star hang out. After stuffing ourselves we came home and crashed.

My internal clock woke my up at 5am. So I had a few hours sleep.

Today we are going hiking up to the Hollywood. Then shopping, then to a mud wrestling birthday party. I LOVE LA!!

Enjoy the pics. There are more but I am having trouble loading them. I will try again later.

More to come.

Cheers,

Birthday Note

2008-01-02T23:57:00.000+09:00

A quick note that I forgot to add in the last post.
My beautiful niece Piper has turned 5! Her birthday is the 25th of December so you will see her getting a chocolate cake in the Christmas pictures below.

Christmas in Canada

2008-01-02T23:38:00.000+09:00

Well Christmas in London and at the cottage was wonderful. Despite the talk of not giving many gifts since we are blessed with wanting for nothing, Ashely and I woke on Christmas morning to discover a tree pregnant with presents. Stockings, as always, were the highlight. A few days after Christmas we went to the cottage and we were joined there by the whole Deathe clan. Well actually we were not whole, my niece Amber and my sister September could not make it. They were very much missed.
Here are some pictures of our wonderful family and our magical Christmas. These pictures were taken by Geoff, Ashley's partner. These photos are breathtaking. My camera conked out on me.

Christmas 07 pics

2008-01-02T23:00:00.001+09:00

A Snow Day

2007-12-23T03:29:00.001+09:00

Here are some pictures of the snow storm that hit Toronto last week. I did not take the storm alerts seriously, they were predicting 5cm, we got 25cm. The city shut down and I took Theo and Piper out to play. They played with the sledge and I built a snow fort. SO FUN!
I have no idea why my text is underlined.

Preparing for Christmas

2007-12-15T00:14:00.001+09:00

So I was in London over my birthday weekend and I was "helping" my parents get ready for a big Christmas party they were putting on. The house is not fully decorated yet but here are some pictures as we start to get it ready. The tree is amazing! it is kind of a cross between a Dr. Seuss tree and the tree in the Nutcracker at the moment it grows crazy big and the nutcracker comes to life. The ceilings are bout 12 feet I think. We had to cut the tree down a bit to fit the star, and the star still touches the ceiling.
Just a quick note about the second picture. Well my dear sister Ashely gave my parents a framed photo of her and Geoff to try to balance out the Meredith pictures. Well what did my mum do? She went to the computer and printed off another picture of Meredith and put it in a frame. Meredith 3, Ashely 1. hehe lets keep up the good work Mer. Sorry Alec, you didn't make the cut at all.
Anyway, my childhood home was made for Christmas and I can't wait to get back there and to continue "helping" and relaxing in everything a Tokyo Christmas is NOT!
Cheers!

24 (me this time, not Bauer!)

2007-12-09T22:37:00.000+09:00

Well today is my birthday.
Last night I was thinking about my birthday and what it means for me to turn 24, I was thinking of how I have survived and thrived for 24 years and now I get to were the that number like a badge. Badges, like when I was in Brownies and every accomplishment and/or completed task was marked by a badge on my sash. Well that little thought lead to other thoughts as so often happens. I started to think of all the badges I have accumulated in this past year. In my version there are badges for failures and disappointments as well as achievements as both equally build and inform who I am as a person.
My biggest and most glitzy badge is the one that says "Completed a full year in Japan". This is a very important badge since there are many other badges that had to be acquired before this one was able to be given. There are badges from before my 23rd birthday to make it possible but I will list only those acquired since turning 23, they read something like:
"Moved to 2nd Apt in Japan, 1st in Tokyo"
"Started new job in Tokyo"
"Survived 1st Christmas Away from Home"
"Kamakura"
"New Years In Tokyo"
"Totally Rocked Tokyo's Transit System"
"Kyoto 1"
"Koya San"
"Bonded with Sister"
"Kyoto 2"
"Nara"
"Survived Homesickness 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, . . . . . 16."
"Survived the Last Train Home Rush 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, . . . .19
"Bought Bike"
"Bought bed and bookcase"
"Health Insurance"
"Pension Plan"
"Tokyo Disneyland"
"Read Pride and Prejudiced 1,2"
"Tokyo Disney Sea"
"Sushi Addict"
"Found Second Hand English Bookstore"
"Survival Japanese Course"
"Watched all Seasons of House, Scrubs, 24, Gray's Anatomy, Life on Mars, Friends, Fresh Prince, Weeds, Nip Tuck, Heroes"
"Acquired Re-Entry Permit"
"Visit to Japanese Hospital"
"Fell in Love with Tokyo 1"
"Danced all Night 1, 2, 3, 4, 5"
"Needed to get out of this city before I lose it"
"Fell in Love with Tokyo 2"
"Books Read No Longer Fit in Bookcase"
"Too many good byes"
"Internal dialog champ"
"Me, Myself, and I Bonding"
"Author of Lonely in Tokyo for Dummies"
"Started 2nd Job in Tokyo"
"Met Cute Saudi Boy"
"Fell in Love with Tokyo 3"
"3rd Apt in Japan, 2nd in Tokyo"
"Karaoke Addict"
"Made a New Friend"
"Fireworks Magic"
"Made Another New Friend"
"Went On A Vacation With A Boy"
"Made Another New Friend 2, 3, 4, 5,........15"
"Too Many Good Byes 2"
"Handed in Alien Registration Card to Airport Immigration"
"Home with tears"
"Bought Round the World Ticket"
"Moved in with Sister and Family"

There are badges that are still in the works like "Transition back to Toronto" and "Life After Tokyo"

These are my badges, the badges that marked my 24th year. I am sure there are more badges that could go on the list, this past year was no exactly what one would call uneventful or boring....even if I streamed more TV that I thought humanly possible. There was a lot of learning, disappointments, hardships, tears, bubbling excitement, dancing, singing...you know, life in Tokyo, my life. A life lived in exclamation marks.

Now onto my 25th year.... oh what fun- LA, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Nepal, Tibet, Paris, a family reunion, a train trip across Canada (more sister bonding)....and that's just the first 6 months!!! Who knows man! who knows?! Life can be pretty absurd, all the more reason to use exclamation marks!!

Despite whatever personal struggle I might find myself in I am pretty much a very happy camper. I am living a blessed life and I am embracing it.

That's it for me, for now.
Cheers,
L.

To Tokyo With Love

2007-11-28T13:43:00.000+09:00

My sister Jen sent me this site. This women has done a photographic love letter to Tokyo. You will need to download the pdf fly to view it. I loved it. I wish I had taken more photos of just Tokyo. I am sure if that when I sift through all my photos I will be able to create something similar but I really do like a lot of the shots this women has put together. One of my favorites is of stone tables and stools in what must be a park that are roped off so no one can sit down. I find this so fabulously ironic as there is little to no public seating in Tokyo and to imagine actually finding some and not being allowed to use it is just too funny. The picture really cracks me up and I doubt the photographer knows how truly funny and ironic her picture is.
I must say I miss it. I miss all of it. Tokyo became my home, my enemy, my love, and my lifeline. I really feel that a big part of me "grew up" while I was there. I went to Japan a different person than who I left it as. Most days now Tokyo doesn't cross my mind, but when it does, I have a hard time with the idea that I am not there, that life goes on there but I am not apart of it, that I will not be riding the Yamanote tomorrow or the next day. I miss it and I don't. I would love to be back but I have no reason to be there. When I look at photos of the city I wish I could step into them, like the chalk drawings in Mary Poppins, and be apart of that vibrant crazy city once more. However, I have closed that chapter in my life but Tokyo has left its mark on me, it is an invisible tattoo that I will wear forever.

Here is the link:
http://www.dianascheunemann.com/books/index_tokyo.html

Cheers,
L.

My Grandmother

2007-11-18T01:05:00.000+09:00

I have been going over different things that I have wanted to say about my grandmother Lois Death. My grandmother died last week, her funeral was last Monday. I am glad that I was in the country so I could be there. I have toyed with writing a letter to her through this blog, I have thought about writing up a little bio of her life, but in all this debating and wondering (and my current flu) have delayed me from posting anything. I want to honour my grandmother, my father's mother. I did not know her well before the dementia, the majority of my interactions with her were as a caretaker after my grandparents moved to London. I saw her and was there for her at times when she was at her most vulnerable. Even though we could not have conversations, and she didn't know who I was, I will hold our time together very close to my heart. I am privileged and honoured to be her granddaughter.

TRAVELS TO COME!!!

2007-11-12T01:36:00.000+09:00

Here is my basic trip itenerary:
Bye bye Canadian winter!!!
Jan 18th - fly from Toronto to LA. I will chill in LA with my fabulous sister September. I hope I can help her out with her Raw Food Chief thing she has going on. I will see a little Hollywood to I guess, and soak some sun into my Canadian winter skin before I hit up the Aussie summer sun. Maybe I will take a turn as a surfer girl.
Jan 23rd - fly from LA to Sydney (arrive 25th). I will make my way to Brisbane to meet my friend Katie on Feb 2nd. Katie and I will stay with another friend from highschool who is at teachers college in Brisbane, we are planning trips up the coast and maybe do some WWOOFing.
Feb 20th - fly form Brisbane to Denpasar Bali. Katie and I plan on spending a couple of weeks in Bali, Lombok and other islands in that area of Indonesia. Doing what? I'll let you know when I get there. Whatever it is, it will be fabulous!
Mar 5th - fly from Denpasar to Singapore. We will travel overland from Singapore, up through Malaysia and Thailand to Bangkok. Besides meeting my friend Viki who is living and working in the south of Thailand, we are planning to have no plans and just go with the flow. If we have enough time and money after arriving in Bangkok we may get visas for Cambodia and head to Angkor Wat. I have already been but would consider myself more than lucky to see it again, and Katie and Viki long to go, so we hope we can include it. Katie leaves me at the end of March for home. I will take it easy at my friend Graeme's place in Bangkok and see some old friends, the Thai family that housed me, and see some of the things I regretted not seeing when I was there last. Going to Thailand and Bangkok feels like going to my other home, I am so comfortable there, I know my way around, the people are amazing. I can't wait to return to a country that helped me grow up a little and overcome huge challenges.
Apr 13th - fly Bangkok to Delhi. I haven't figured out what exactly I will be doing in India but I will probably join up with a tour for a bit, maybe meet up with other travelers, head to a yoga retreat in the mountains, WWOOF, volunteer, who knows! I will also be heading up into Nepal and Tibet. I have dreamed going to India since I was a little girl, but even before that I dreamed of going to Tibet, and I always knew that would mean starting off in Nepal. This trip is a king of pilgrimage for me, and Tibet is my end goal. I am doing this on my own at this point but I am more than happy to have travel companions should anyone be interested or know anyone else who would be interested. I plan to head to Nepal and then to Tibet in the middle of May.
Jun 11 - fly Delhi to Mumbai to Paris. PARIS!! I am so excited to see Paris. I think it will be super cool to fly into Paris at the tail end of my big trip. I have seen a fair bit of Europe but I have never been to France or Paris. I will be there for living life to the full extent that my depleted budget will allow (and credit card) for 13 days and I know it will be a marvelous time. I hope that I may be joined by a fair haired cousin. Again, anyone is welcome to join me. oh and I don't intend to spend the entire 13days in Paris although I am sure I easily could.
Jun 25th- fly Paris to New York to Toronto. My ticket, as it stands, has me connecting through to Toronto, but that can be changed. I may stay in New York for a few days...we will see.

I am bursting with excitement. I can't wait to begin my grand journey.
I feel so nomadic, in my heart, not just because I am going traveling. I am reading a great book called Tales of a Female Nomad. It is about a women in her late 40s who becomes a nomad and discovers this is who she really is. I don't plan to just travel aimlessly around the world for the rest of my life, but working and living around the world and with different cultures excites me so much I can't wait to get started. It really does feel like my life's calling....doing what?...well I have an idea but I haven't really gotten that phone call yet and I don't expect to until I test out my idea.

That is it for me!

Two pieces of news

2007-11-12T01:05:00.000+09:00

I have just booked my flights for my big trip. I am so excited!!
I no longer feel the need to be here in Toronto, it is a great city but I need to get back to traveling and back to Asia. When I look at my friends' pictures who are living and working in different parts of Asia I feel an intense longing. After everything I went through in Japan I thought I would really love and need theses months at home but two months feels like more than enough. It is also hard as I start to make new friends at my job, not hard to leave, but hard to invest anything in new friendships as I will be off again in two months and I can't tell them as I haven't yet told my boss. I have never been one for secrets or holding my tongue but these days I feel like I keep so much of myself to myself. But that is I will say on that.

Another big piece of news is NOVA!!! NOVA= BANKRUPT!!! WOW!! The company has been getting in trouble for a while but this is HUGE! My good friend Jill is in Japan with NOVA right now. I am waiting to hear from here as to what is happening, if her school will be closed, what her plans are. It is very possible that NOVA employees don't know much and will only know about their school closing when they come into work and find it locked up and no job for them. There will be thousands of NOVA teachers looking for work in Japan and flooding the market. There will also be thousands of students looking for schools. NOVA as the largest school (a publicly traded company) offered the most inexpensive lessons, the competition will be open to the hundreds of smaller schools that struggle to make it big. NOVA also employs hundreds of Japanese staff. It is unclear how many schools will be closed but several hundred at least (there are 900 in total). For Japan this is like Tim Hortons going bankrupt, there is a NOVA at every major train stop, some times more than one...and Japan is all about the trains.

CRAZINESS!!!

Fresh

2007-10-23T07:21:00.000+09:00

So today was my first day working at Fresh. Fresh is a vegetarian vegan restaurant which I love! It is going to be busy but it should be fun and I will get to eat lots of their yummy food. I am planning on getting a second job so I can make some more money.
Anyway, thats it for me now.

Posting issues

2007-10-17T04:03:00.001+09:00

I have gotten a few comments that I haven't posted in a while.
If you can not see my "One Month Home" post dated Oct 12, please let me know...that is if you can see this one.
Thanks,
L

One Month Home

2007-10-12T21:13:00.000+09:00

Well it has been almost a month since I posted anything. I have been busy, and not busy, over the last few weeks. It has been a challenge adjusting to life back here, reverse culture shock I guess. There are many things I have to adjust to, and they all will just take some time. One thing that is taking some adjustment is my place here in Toronto. Every other time I have gone on a big trip it has been while I was in school, I would come back and everyone would be more or less as I left them. This time I left just after graduating from university, and I have come back to find that I don't have a place just to slip into. I am no longer a student and the community that university offered is no longer there. My friends that graduated with me have moved onto other things, either more school or jobs, many are not in the city any longer. I have made contact with almost everyone, but we are all so spread out doing different things so it is not the same. I really don't know what I expected, it is not like I didn't know about the different things my friends were doing, and that not everyone was in the city, I didn't exactly expect nothing to have changed. I am currently adjusting and reconnecting. I would love things to be the way they were when I left but they can't be....more of that growing up stuff I guess. I was never a supporter of that stuff by the way.
I met with my sister Ashely's good friend Becca the other day. Becca is working at War Child Canada. She did her masters degree in England and has since returned here to Canada. Becca was able, of course, to relate to my situation. She has things a little more compounded- Becca is from Ottawa, and went to school at McMaster, then went to London England, then after graduation returned to Ottawa and now works in Toronto. Most of her university friends left Hamilton after graduation and she also found herself lost in the post university social world with friends spread everywhere and no job. It took Becca about a year before she felt adjusted and rooted again within a community of people. I tell you all this about Becca because her telling of her experience helped me to feel better about my own situation. I know I JUST got back to the city, and I need to be patient, things will sort themselves out. But I am not the most patient person on the planet and after a year of not feeling like I belong (until the last few months), I just wanted to come home to that- belonging, fitting, home.
I should add that living with Jen, David and the kids is great. Theo and Piper could not make me feel more wanted, loved or needed. I had a nice time in London with my parents. Thanksgiving at the cottage was monumentally fabulous! We had 25 people both big and small (6 kinds under 7). We had the largest turkey I have ever seen in my life or ever want to see. 25lbs of free-range goodness, how it ever supported itself on those legs to live the free-range life, I will never know. I wish I had pictures, it was all so much fun. Those of us staying at the cottage did yard work and never had to look far for ways to entertain ourselves. So many jokes, so much laughter. My family is really good in those two areas. My student from Japan who was here for a week to visit and got to experience some cottage life (not thanksgiving) just loved how lively we all were, how much laughter we share, how much we tease each other...anything for a laugh. To me this is just my family, but seeing it through Miho's eyes I realized that this is not the typical family experience and it is special. I know, I know....starting to get sappy. I will cut it off there, but you can imagine where I could go with that and the tears I could shed while typing.

Oh, I also got to see pictures of Ashely and Geoff's trip to Newfoundland! The photographs while still in digital mode on the computer, were breathtaking. There were a few that showed how cold Newfoundland can be in the summer but most where taken on bright sunny days, even if they included closeups of icebergs!! They challenged themselves physically and mentally, I know the adventure was not always pretty, but their photos tell the fairy tale version of their odyssey to Gross Morne National Park - a national park that comes with a warning label! And no Meredith, I had NOT seen those pictures yet, I have been in JAPAN!!! (yes darling, I know you so well I can read your mind.)

So that has been my month so far. I know I haven't spoken much about Miho's trip, but we did so much in 10 days that this entry would go on forever! Okay, to sum up: Brought Miho to London to parents house, beautiful,sunny. Went to Stratford to see a musical. Went to the cottage for the weekend, Chris, Misa and kids surprised us- fabulous. Went on Wanda steam ship for cruise of lakes, went canoing...Miho fell of the dock while taking the boat out of the water- she was very scared but I told her that she was okay...nothing broken, still alive=all good. Then we went to Ottawa to tour our capital, visit Ashely, check out some museums, churches, galleries, were surprised by my Aunt and Uncle who were in the city for a conference...more family for Miho to meet. Then it was back to Toronto for me and to Niagara Falls for Miho (she did an organized day trip and had great fun). We had a fabulous dinner in To, I showed her Trinity College and UofT, then we said our goodbyes and off she flew. I am now accepting the title of master tour guide- personalized tours of Tokyo and southern Ontario.

I hope that makes up for not writing for a month.

Cheers,
L.

Back in Canada

2007-09-14T16:59:00.000+09:00

Well I am back. From door to door it has taken 30hrs and I have not slept more than 20mins.
I was delayed for 2.5 hours in Atlanta and then there was construction on the 401 driving home....all in all I am now in London and it is 4am.

I am emotional and tired.
Lets see how things are after some proper sleep and the realization that I am back in Canada sinks in a little more. Right now, I miss Tokyo, well actually I miss Talal.

Going to sleep and wake up in a fabulous mood!
That's the plan.

cheers,
L.

Leaving Tokyo

2007-09-12T09:48:00.000+09:00

Hello all,
Well today is my last full day in Tokyo. Talal and I will head to Kamakura and then Shibuya tonight for dinner. Tomorrow we go to the airport and I fly....
Packing up my place was horrible. I was totally overwhelmed, but Talal came to the rescue and keep me moving when I didn't think I could take it anymore. How on earth do I have so much stuff?!! It was hellish and involved a lot of tears but now it is done so my last day will be stress free. It is raining here and threatens to rain all day but Talal and I are still going to go through with our plans.

This is the last post from me in Japan.
I will keep my blog up and work as in January I head back out traveling for six months. So stay tuned for those adventures and the planing off which will be documented on the blog.

Thanks to those who supported me while I was here during the ups and downs of life in Japan.

Next post will be from the other side of the world.

I will miss Tokyo. The people and the city.

Cheers,
L.

oh Tokyo Disneyland....

2007-09-10T10:10:00.000+09:00

and the ears...clearly he looks TOKYO DISNEYLAND!!! My first trip to Disneyland since the age of about 5 or 6... a trip I hardly remember. This one was more memorable. Talal and I went a little later in the day to try to avoid the heat and crowds....heat avoided, crowds....no such luck. Talal being the best boyfriend ever, bought a pair of Micky ears to go with my Mini ears. We were so cute we were down right sickening, however we were STILL beaten out in that category by several Japanese couples. They just can't be beaten! Anyway you see a before and after shot of Talalsoooo much better with the ears! We waited too long to meet Micky, but hey I will probably never meet Micky again....and Talal had the ears, so it was a must! We did a few rides. I loved the spiny cups as you see. We waited in a 1.5hr line for the Whinnie the Pooh ride which was great but not worth the wait. The Pirates of the Caribbean ride was fun. The light show in the evening was cool but we didn't stay for the whole thing as the crowds were rather crushing. The rides as Tokyo Disney Sea beat out Tokyo Disneyland but it was still cool to chill in the magical kingdom. And no Disney can be like Disney in Japan!!!

Pictures of My Classes

2007-09-10T09:40:00.001+09:00

These children, most of the time, were the best part of each day. I couldn't have asked for a better job here in Tokyo. My classes had children aged 1-5, and one class of 6-8yr olds but sadly I forgot my camera that day. I have addresses for some of the schools and I intend to send them postcards from Canada and my travels. In these pictures many of the students are trying to show off their spiffy Canadian tattoos.
ahhh...so cute!

My last week or so in Tokyo

2007-09-07T14:37:00.000+09:00

Hello all,
My internet has been out at my apartment for the last week so I have not been able to return emails or update my blog. My apologies.
Today I am at my office, it is my last day of work here in Tokyo.
I have been taking pictures of all of my classes and I will post them as soon as I have internet access again and can upload photos.
I have been having a wonderful weak of bitter sweet goodbyes. Looking back now I realized that I have made a lot of friends here in Tokyo, particularly over the past two months. I can't believe the tight friendships I have made since working at Gaba. I was given a wonderful goodbye party last weekend which ended in some crazy karaoke.
I will miss Tokyo, I will miss my job, the children, the Japanese staff, and my co-workers. My each day I say goodbye to a different group of students and they have made me feel so loved and missed. One class memorized the phrase "Thank you very much, we will never forget you." in English!!! They are only 5! It was so touching. Other classes have given presents made by the children or flowers. I in turn have been temporary tattooing the children of Tokyo with Canadian flags and maple leaves. Each class has been so delighted. The temporary tattoos were such a great choice since they are very rare in Japan and most of the teachers had never seen anything like it. Those children who were not up for tattoos got to get shinny stickers, also Canadian in theme. Mom, thanks so much for sending me the tattoos and stickers. I might have to bring temporary tattoos with me as part of my permanent travel kit.
My last few days here in Tokyo will be very full. Tonight I am heading to Odabia with Talal and his friends. Tomorrow Talal and I are hitting Tokyo Disneyland. Sunday we will stroll through Ginza (they close the streets to car traffic ever Sunday), then in the afternoon my student Miho will show Talal and I the results of our English lesson by giving us a Yoga lesson in English, then after that Talal and I will head to Yokohama- ride the ferris wheel and all that. Then Monday it is all business stuff- city office for forms, trip to the bank, packing. The evening is full of my last private lessons and dinner with one of my students. Then Tuesday and Wednesday will be Tokyo days - I am planning to hit Kamakura with Talal one day and Kichijyoji by myself on the other. My last night in Japan will probably involve Karaoke, but other than that I don't have fixed plans. Then Thursay I fly. Talal is taking me to the airport even though I have asked him not to. Crying at the airport is never a nice experience and I have done too much of that already but he won't give up the idea.

So just in case my internet remains down and you don't hear from me until I am in Canada again, this is what I am doing.

Cheers,
Linden

Azabu street fair

2007-08-25T12:07:00.000+09:00

Another random night, another part of the city explored, another part of Japanese life experienced!

2007-08-25T11:22:00.001+09:00

Hello,
Well there has been one or two days where the temp has gone under 35 since my last post so the summer has become more bearable. Last Saturday Talal and I went to Yoyogi Park and then walked down Omotosando and then over to Shubuya. We had a wonderful day. Talal had never been to Omotosando and he was very impressed by all the designer stores and in particular the Ralph Lauren building which has become a regular stop for me when I am showing people around Tokyo. I was able to remember from my walks with the girls, suitable places for Talal to pray. I have since gone on line and located some mosques in Tokyo for him and his friends. I am actually surprised, since there are here on a scholarship from their King, and many don't speak English and are only learning Japanese, that the embassy has not taken better care of them and helped them out more.
Anyway, this last week ticked by quickly. I long for home, I am so excited to get back to Canada but the days slipping past so quickly brings me closer to losing Talal. My heart is being pulled in two directions.
Friday nights I normally work for Gaba but last night I had off. I am sooo glad I had the night off. I meet up with Talal and his friend Hatem in Hiroo. Hiroo is the ex-pat center of Tokyo. This is a wealthy area in Roppongi which is filled with Embassies, cafes, tree-lined streets, and foreigners who generally either work for their Embassy or a multinational and therefore get paid the big bucks. I had never been to this area before but I had always wanted to check it out. Hiroo also is home to the Islamic Institute of Japan and a mosque. This is another reason I choose this place to go to on a Friday night. I am so glad I did, for two reasons mainly. One- it turned out to be Hatem's birthday (not something that is celebrated in Saudi Arabia) and he got to go to a mosque which is really a rare gift for these guys. Two- there was a fabulous street-fair going on!!! I had no idea!!
After I left the guys at the mosque I decided to explore a little. I went down one street and then another, and then I heard music and voices. the street fair was huge!! it snaked down on average sized Japanese street so a couple kilometers and even spread out to include other streets. I was delighted! I sampled some Japanese white wine (although evening it was still very hot) and the wine tasted like white grape juice! YUMMY!! There were many men and women in Yukata (summer kimono) and surprisingly less foreigners then I would have expected. So hear I thought I was going to Hiroo to have a little escape from Tokyo and I ended up back solidly in Japan. It was so much fun. There were food stalls, and drink stalls, and toys, and crafts, and sooo many people. I walked to the closer end from where I had entered and then turned around and walked back as I still had more time. I sampled another glass of white whine which wasn't so delicious. I soon realized that I needed to get some food in me or this wine that had gone straight to my head was going to stay there. I bought some BBQ squid. It was a bit salty but otherwise okay. I also bought candy apples for the guys and myself. I took lots of pictures so I shall post them in the next post. The timing worked out perfectly. The guys were finished at about 9pm which was closing time for the street-fair. Well I guess that wasn't perfect timing for them but it was for me! They were able to find me and we walked to Roppongi and ended up at TGI Fridays which was not exactly where I had envisioned eating (small Italian or French cafe, down a quite side street), but after the squid and the candy apple I was really interested in food anyway. At least Hatem was able to get a bit of birthday cake (Friday's warm brownies with ice cream and fudge). All in all it was a great night. I was so tired from the work week that I completely passed out on the train ride home, and Talal had to wake me up when it was our stop. I slept in this morning as well. Sooo tired. I am looking forward to finishing at Gaba next Friday. Working two jobs and not coming home until 11pm every night is weighing on me.
Cheers,
L.

Hot summer days in Tokyo

2007-08-17T08:17:00.000+09:00

Hey,
So the other day Talal and I went to Shimokitizawa. He had never been so of course I had to show him. Here are some pictures....ahh Tokyo in the summer. Just moving makes one tired....so yes I am aware I look exhausted.
Just a quick note: Tokyo has been steadily in the mid to high 30s for a few weeks now and the temp isn't expected to change. Yesterday was 37degrees....before the humidix!!! I swear if they factored that in the temperature would be listed in the 40s. Conclusion: VERY VERY HOT AND HUMID!!

Arrival date

2007-08-15T00:32:00.000+09:00

Hey all,
I just realized that I never mentioned when I am returning to Canada. I arrive back in Toronto on Sept 13th. I will head to London to be with my parents for a few weeks (they deserve it) and then I should be back in Toronto until Christmas.
Anyway thats it for me.
Cheers,
L.