An Adventure

Home Life

2011-03-23T09:34:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

I hope people are finding satisfaction in their life in this moment. Spring is arriving! I like the winter but I'm ready for the changes and beauties that spring offers. It's been awhile since I wrote last and I wonder if anyone still checks for new posts. I intend to continue writing but if at any time I decide that I will not continue then I will write a fair well entry so that people don't have to bother checking the blog anymore.

I've been home for about three months now. And some big things have been happening. I went to a Vipassana meditation course in Merritt. The day before starting the course I stayed with some couchsurfers in Merritt and they were so beautiful. Exactly the kind of atmosphere that I needed before starting the course. Relaxed, honest, good connection and we had a lot of fun playing music. I guess the atmosphere made me feel like when I was traveling and people saw me as a spiritual person. They valued, or at least understood to a higher degree, what I had to say. I suspect now that this is another angle my ego has taken to try to get control again, identifying with this spiritual person image, and so I try not to get hung up on it. Just trying to be Present all the time. But I did enjoy their company.

The Vipassana course was not the big epiphany that I was hoping for. It's main themes were ideas that I've already been processing and trying to practice. However, they applied at a different level and I got a deeper or different understanding of some of these ideas. I feel it was beneficial. I learned a new meditation technique, it really helped my meditation sitting strength and could be very helpful for a person that hasn't been exposed to such ideas before. I'm not describing the ideas because many of my friends that told me about it refrained from describing it too much. Allowing people to experience it for themselves with less preconceived ideas. One thing I found interesting though, was that men and women were separated. While living in Bangladesh and India there is a lot of separation amongst the sexes. I feel this leads to less understanding between the two groups and takes the individuality out of people. What I mean is when I wasn't able to talk or interact with the female people in the group I started to see them more as objects of lust. I didn't see them so much as other people with personality and ideas. And this was only after a few days! I suspect this happens often in places where sexes are segregated and I think it can make marriage or opposite sex interactions more difficult. Maybe not?

After the Vipassana course I went on a tour through Abbotsford, Aldergrove, Victoria, Port Albernie, and Vancouver. I visited old friends and family members. It was pretty fun a lot of the time hanging out with people I've known for a while and sharing and interacting with them in new ways with a different, can I say greater, perception. I feel like I understood and was more open with many people now. Though some not so much and I, at times, had feelings of high anxiety wondering how to fill the time. Getting caught up in my emotions, being unaware. I constantly find myself catching myself caught up in thoughts. But that's okej. Every time I catch myself I just go, Okej that's what I was doing well I don't have to do that, and take a deep breath.

Returning back to Summerland I've found a temporary job. It's been interesting too because it takes up a lot of time. Before I had a lot of time on my hands at home and got a bit overwhelmed with what to do with myself even though I had lots of things that I wanted to do. Now with less free time I find myself more productive with that time. It's more manageable. I also found a new home for my cat with some really nice people that live just a few blocks away. A grandmother and granddaughter have taken him in and they have a nice back yard that he can get into trouble in. The grandmother was looking for a cat and she said she's a kind of person that believes things are meant to be. When she saw the poster I put up for Milo she just knew that he was the cat for her.

Other big news is that my Mom has come back from her vacation down south. I got to meet her boyfriend and have really been enjoying my time with her. Finding out more about her and how she perceives this world.

I found myself getting wrapped up in emotion and future in the last couple weeks. Trying to make money at my job. Reading "The New Earth" was refreshing. I just opened it up to a random page and it seemed very fitting. Avoid reliving past experiences over and over again in your head. Embrace and accept the emotions that come to you but don't dwell on them. Plan for the future but also don't worry about it. It is out of your control. Do what you can, make a plan but let it take it's course. I also was reading about how our primary purpose is just to be here, now. To be Present. To awaken. That this is humanities primary purpose: to Awaken or be aware of this moment. And our Secondary purpose is to do the practical stuff. ie. when I'm riding my bike my primary purpose is to be aware of riding my bike, pushing the petals, feeling the wind or whatever is happening in that moment. The secondary purpose is to get to the top of the hill and off to work. Being present, the primary purpose, is the foundation for a persons secondary purpose. It's our state of mind that's most important and when we are acting out of presence we will have more energy and quality in what we are doing. More meaning.
This is what I've been reading. Some of it really seems to make sense to me but I have trouble explaining it and remembering it too which seems strange and I think upsets me but I'm trying to accept it. As well, some of it I haven't experienced for myself but feels right, though I think personal experience is the key. I plan to read and process it more and then write another post giving a better explanation. I would like to share one more part that felt right which is the idea that when one is interacting with another person they are not just a person but a field of awareness. Being that field of awareness is the primary purpose of that interaction and whatever the other reasons - buying something, selling, enterteining,- is the secondary. The secondary may still be important but it's secondary.

In a few weeks a good friend from Winterpeg will be coming to the Okanagan. I'm excited to see her. But who knows what it will be like?

I'll keep my sights set on the present, or at least bring it back every time I catch it wandering.

Pease and Presence,

Love

Before and after returing home

2010-12-30T19:27:00.000-08:00

Hello hello,
Hope everyone is aware and accepting of how they are feeling right now.

I said that there was some interesting things (in my opinion) that happened before arriving home. Well, one of those interesting things started when I found a church one day in "the mansions". The mansions are bunch of large buildings containing two floors of stores selling food, watches, calling cards, electronics, and lots of other floors including rooms for low budget tourists and churches apparently too. It's a maze. One day trying to find a hostel in the mansions I heard African drums being played and decided to check it out. Turned out to be a Christian church. While listening to the service I felt a lot of resistance inside me. Me thinking " I don't agree with this and that" but then I decided that I wanted to understand, without having to agree, and also try to see if we shared some ideas. And we did.
Example: giving all your problems to Jesus is kind of like not focusing on your "problems", letting them go, though I try not to judge situations in life as "problems". Maybe that problem will help you or someone else tremendously.
I accepting to listen helped me to hear more clearly what was being said at the Church. That allowed me to take away some things, notably, to have some sacrifice in ones faith for the sake of discipline. This got me thinking that I wasn't making any sacrifices and with the "new to me" reason of self discipline I thought I could benefit from that. A day later I realized that abstaining from sex was the sacrifice for me. I've been learning over and over again that I don't want to get sexually involved with people unless I suspect that it is probable that we will be together for a while. That day I made a commitment to abstaining from sex, kissing and any other sexually arousing activities for the next 365 days. However, later that day I got into a situation where I was challenged on this commitment. I met a newly made friend in Hong Kong. I really feel it was a test. With this commitment I learned more about desire and how I try to use logic to convince myself that it is okej. The logic can be really false but because I want to satisfy the desire I will believe it and do what I want to do at that moment. I also found that I often don't want to resist the desire. I think that I could. I could leave the situation or not fuel the thoughts that tempt me but the real issue is my attitude towards the desire. I just want to fulfill it. I need to have my mind made up before hand and not let my false logic convince me. As well I think it helped my newly made friend. We talked a lot into the night and found out that she had been rushing into the sexual part of relationships which had resulted in her partners loosing interest in her. She didn't like this but had continued this situation because she would be overcome by her desire in the moment. So I suspect it was a learning process for her too. However, I did break the commitment in the end. We kissed. It occurred the next day in the early morning. But I feel like that is okej because I learned about desire through resisting for as long as I did and I'm going to continue this commitment even though it has been spoiled already. I feel like it will keep me from being proud.
Another interesting thing, in my opinion, occurred on the cargo ship crossing the pacific. The ride wasn't exactly what I was expecting: could forget I was at sea, many men on the crew weren't very happy with their job and didn't have much time, days went by really fast. I ended up watching some movies like Bruno, Whatever Works, Lord of War and JESUS. Bruno got me observing my thoughts and feelings towards homosexuality and I found that I wasn't as open as I thought I was. Still had a negative stigma. Not a real surprise. I'm constantly find ways in which I'm not open and I take this as a learning opportunity to help me open up. After watching Bruno I found a movie called JESUS in my room and decided to watch it. It seemed to speak to me. I felt a lot of energy and liked what he had to say about loveing thy neighbour and the way people treated him when others claimed he was the messiah. The energy I felt that night motivated me to leave my room where I then found one of the crew and ended up having an interesting conversation about afterlife. He believed if you are "good" you go to heaven and I also told him about my abstenance commitment. I also might have seen The Divine or perhaps it was just low fog or exhaust? Whatever Works and Lord of War showed me that interesting mainstream movies do exist. I found the arrogant genius character in Whatever Works and the ethical dilema in Lord of War interesting and insightful.
Arriving to Canada, specifically Prince Rupert, I found myself really interested in First Nations' culture, both modern and traditional, and also went through some thought observance. Basically, I was wearing a lungi in Prince Rupert which I assumed most people would think was a dress and I had thoughts that many people were judging me and considering to beat me up. However, when I talked and interacted with people more I realized that the judgements were mostly in my head. People may have been judging me but that doesn't really matter. Nobody beat me up (or even tried) and many people were really kind to me. Makes me suspect that we can easily take offence from misread and biased perception. To what degree do we create our own reality by the prejudgements and biasis we have. I suspect that the common "reality" is much more subjective than I (and perhaps many others) have often considered.
Now back in Summerland I'm finding myself engaging in interesting discussions about university education,credibility, responsibility, spirituality and religion, blind faith, choice and fate, 2012, teaching methods amoung other topics. It has been a refreshing experience to see the "other side" of topics that I haven't been exposed to in quite awhile and finding them valid in some ways. Testing my suspicions (faith or beliefs in other words). Maybe all the "signs" I've recieved are false and self created from a biased perspective. I've also had some typical and superficial conversations that make me feel like people don't understand me. As well I find myself feeling stressed with the lack of progress I've made on some practical and governmental tasks. Feeling overwhelmed and a resistance to feeling overwhelmed. I often felt overwhelmed before leaving Canada and I though I was over it. I'm trying to be aware of these thoughts and feelings and keep in mind I can choose how to react to them if I'm aware of them. That this is only my perception which may have a negative slant right now. I feel coming home will be a real learning experience to reprocess the things I've learned away. And to re-comfront my ego. I think it has more strength here in it's home turf, but I still suspect the light of presence will always prevail.

Still learning even at home.
I hope I'll be able to keep learning through all my time here on earth. Accept. Be humble. Listen.

Love

Honey I'm HOME :)

2010-12-19T14:01:00.000-08:00

Okej,
I hope everyone is at Peace. Is here.
I'm here. Home that is and already feeling like I've never left. Feeling inspired and eager to begin
the projects that I've had in mind for so many months now. It was hard to fall asleep last night.
Some things have changed here some have not.
Some interesting things happened a long the way from Hong Kong to HOME but I'd rather be off the computer and involved in the projects happening around the house today so I'll write about that in the next few days.
I've decided, for the moment, to continue this blog. I don't intend to stop having inspiring, insightful, boring, happy, sad, and preferably nonjudged experiences now that I've returned home. To the so called REAL WORLD. I don't suspect there is as much truth in the real world as many would have me believe. Perhaps I'm wrong.
Live life with
Love

On the boat!

2010-12-09T21:09:00.000-08:00

Turns out that I have indeed made it upon the cargo ship.

I'm the only passenger! But there are some nice german guys around my age that I'm hanging out with.

There are also many Phillipino guys that are really nice and fun.

There's also not one but TWO guitars. I've been practising and my fingers hurt.

AND there is a PING PONG table.

I've been doing yoga everyday and trying not to eat too much: there is so much really delicious food on board.

The sea has been beautiful though I haven't really been feeling a deep conection with it as I have in past experiences. (Accept)

I saw some flying fish!

It's starting to get cold so I won't be able to hangout for so long outside.

One of the guys, Hans, gave me a tour of the engine which was pretty noisey, big, and hot. The pistons are about twice my height.

Today we will arrive to Japan but it doesn't appear that I will be allowed to go ashore. However, I can see a really big volcanoe from the ship:)

I was amazed at how much stuff get's moved around the world by cargo ship. Wow. The ship yards are huge with thousands of containers and in China it took them 24 hours non-stop to unload and reload the ship, using four differenent cranes.

The boat is currently about a day behind schedule which means I may not have much time in Prince Rupert but I should still be able to catch my bus which leaves the night of the 17th and arrives the night of the 18th to Summerland!

It's been interesting, boring,fun, exciting, calm, smokey, noisey, quiet, cold, hot, windy, and restful so far.

I'll see what ten days of nothing but ocean feels like.

Acceptance,

Love,

Kelly

I'm I REALLY going??

2010-12-02T02:08:00.000-08:00

Hello every Being,
I hope this post finds you accepting whatever you are feeling in this moment.
So I made it to Hong Kong. Traveling through China again was all too familiar and the cold weather got me thinking of Christmas. Hong Kong has been interesting, insightful, expensive, tiring, beautiful. I've met some really kind people hear. I went to an all night movie screening. The films all had something to do with Aids and I learned a lot about Hiv in China and Africa. Selling blood in the last 3o years was a way for chinese people (mostly quite monetarily poor people) to get some extra money but ended up giving a lot of people aids: the donors and the recievers. There wasn't much knowlege about aids so people were really afraid of it and would ostrasize the people that had it, not knowing how contagious it was. In africa, specifically Kenya, many people won't admit to having aids because it is seen as a dirty thing, coming from prostitution or homosexuality. Many teachers preach abstanance and to stay away from condoms, because the church is against stoping procreation. Interesting stuff. And the people that attended the film screening were really nice.
I also met a nice friend and fellow cser. I wasn't able to find a host in Hong Kong and accomodation is really expensive for me: $15/night for a bed. I figured there would be other cser's in my situation so I thought maybe I can share my room with another person unable to find a host. And I ended up meeting a beautiful person whom later invitated me to meet more beautiful people. We went for a swim, talked about a lot of spiritual and nonspiritual things. I learned more about Kung Fu, felt inspired to rekindle my weakend conection with non-human Beings AND I saw the biggest buddha I've ever seen accompanied with lots of calm energy.
Tomorrow is the day that my ship shall set sail, I've been told. I can't really believe it. We will see. If I do leave tomorrow I should arrive to Prince Rupert on the 16th, catch the bus on the 17th and arrive home on the night of the 18th. HOME!

Hope everyone else out there is enjoying their HOME
Love

Vietnam

2010-11-23T21:09:00.000-08:00

Photos: Train view from a town somewhere in central vietnam. Modern city scene in Saigon (Ho chi min). Some calm traffic in Hanoi with the typical pyramid hat. A group of newly formed slackers with the guy in the white shirt wearing miragio around his neck. Some fun people that I had lunch with on the out skirts of Hanoi whom also served me some home brew alcohol and charged me the local price.

Hello everyBeing,
I hope this post finds you Present.
Well I'm in Vietnam now and will be heading back to China tonight. Last time in China we couldn't get access to the blog so that may occur again.

Well I think I had some unconscious expectations for Vietnam. Romantic ones of course, I knew about it from an early age when hearing about the war and hippies. I thought it would be more communist and old but it's quite modern in the big cities which is all I've really seen. On the out skirts of the city and along the train ride there were a lot of rice fields, small wood houses, oxen tilling fields and that sort of living.
Traffic is quite fun. There is seldom a traffic light or stop sign at four way intersections but you just have to know where you are going and it most often works its way out. I've been cycling through it with joy.
Here as well as in Cambodia people think I'm a cross dresser or lady boy. I felt strong negative emotions arise in me when asked whether I was a man or a woman. I see it as another opportunity to dis-identify with emotion. Kind of cool that people don't know what gender I am. I suspect it doesn't matter as much as we think it does and this is giving me a chance to help transcend gender.
In some ways I find that Vietnamese culture is a bit aggressive (in my eyes) or perhaps there is more ego here from the war or other sources. I've found myself get taken over by my ego a few times and let anger overcome me. Be me. More challenges :)

The night before last I saw some guys break dancing in a concrete park. They had music playing, there were skateboarders, and fruit booters (roller bladers), families, people selling stuff. A really nice scene. I stayed around for a long time watching. The break dancers were really talented. I noticed too that there is a lot of macho behavior in this activity. Lots of ego, I percieve. I also noticed that I felt the urge to join or say hello but upon noticing this thought I decided I don't need to participate. Last night I went back to the square after thinking that Mirage, my slackline, would also fit in quite nice there. People really liked it. A big crowd formed and lots of guys were trying it. Some of them were progressing quite quickly and some of the break dancer guys came to try and we hung out a bit:) One guy was really progressing fast: jumping on, walking there a back with a turn. I gave him Miragio. I figure I can get another slackline in Canada pretty easy. This guy and many others showed a lot of interest. And it is just a material thing. It felt right. I hope they don't think that because I'm from Canada I must therefore be rich and can just give things away just like that. But from the way I look and our interaction together I don't think they get that impression. The people were so much fun.

Well I'm heading out for China tonight and plan to be on that cargo ship home soon!
I'm really looking forward to that and seeing many of you folks

Love

sue-ahh-sue-die from Cambodia

2010-11-17T17:28:00.000-08:00

Hello there! (Sue-ahh-sue-die means hello in Khmer the main language in Cambodia)

Well I'm a fast traveler now. I had a great train ride to Bangkok, Thailand, from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I met some nice Americans a long the way. One of them had been working in Antarctica for the last three years and the other was a long time Asia traveler that let me know that I would have to travel very quickly in order to make it to Hong Kong in two weeks. She kind of got my rear in gear.
Bangkok was interesting though I felt unmotivated and a bit anti-social. I'm getting use to this quick traveling system now but in Bangkok I felt like I don't know this place. I don't have any friends and I'm just going to leave quite soon anyways. Not enough time to get into anything.
I did meet some nice people though and two really sweet ladies refused to take my money after I ate lunch at their stand on the side of the road. I think they thought I was some sort of traveling monk. Or a bum. hmmmm

I decided to go to Cambodia in the end and getting there was quite a touristic hoop jumping experience. Lots of extra fees along the way. But it's only money and I made some really nice friends through the experience. I ended up hanging out with those friends for the last 3 days in Siem Reap, the town closest to Angkor Wat, and we've been laughing and talking a lot together.

Angkor Wat and the other temples in the Angkor area have been interesting. I suspect my expectations were higher but that's okej. There are loads of tourists here which does make it difficult to feel the energy of the place but I did get some silent a lone times in Angkor too and the smaller temples are really nice because there are not so crowded with people.

Cambodia or really I can only say Siem Reap has been interesting too for the Cambodians are really relying on tourism for a source of income. Meaning when you arrive somewhere ten people might come up to you saying "only 1 dollar", "buy something?", "Why you not buy???". I feel fortunate that I've pick up a few phrases in Khmer that have helped me have some laughs with the people and I've had some nice, non-commercial experiences with some of the locals too.
Been having some really interesting conversations too ie. Last night just started talking with some Polish people and it turned into a spiritual, accepting, judgment awareness, mind identification discussion. It felt really meant to be and I suspect I'm giving off some sort of energy or perhaps just the way I look makes people want to talk about this kind of stuff with me. Whatever it is I'm happy that these kinds of discussions are happening and that I can be a part of it. Actually I didn't even know these people were Polish. We completely bypassed all the small talk stuff. It was really nice.

I'll be on my way to Ho Chi Min, Vietnam in a day or two and then take the train all the way up to Hanoie in the north of Vietnam soon after so that I can get to Hong Kong in time.
I hope people are at Peace and taking the opportunities to teach and to learn from the experiences in their lives.

Love

Back on the travel saddle again

2010-11-09T03:30:00.000-08:00

Eye Candy:
Left sippin' a cup of tea in my painting uniform me.

Couch surfing in Malaysia.

Red rice and sesame diet supposedly helps to receive spiritual wishes and guidance!
The Mural!

Hello all beautiful Beings as you are!
I still plan to be home for Christmas! Hopping a boat from Hong Kong Decenber 2nd.
I'm going to travel by land from Malaysia through Thailand, Laos or Cambodia, then Vietnam and main land China.
Since I last wrote I have completed my first mural! One might call me a painter. I really enjoyed it and learned more about myself and hopefully the people around me learned some things too. I might right a short story about my time in Kulai as a painter. I learned about discrimination, love, lack of motivation, work?, painting, sponge painting, and was again shown that people are beautiful.
Then I headed for Batu Pahat where I learned more about love and how I view it in a romantic way. I got a bit lost in my Ego I'm afraid but it's all part of the learning.
Now I'm back in Kuala Lumpur, Capital of Malaysia, with my KL family of angels (not tired of me yet and happy to have me). Visiting friends made before and making new ones too.
Trying to figure out if I should go to Cambodia or Laos to get to Hong Kong. Any suggestions out there?
I hope everyone is Present in this moment.
Love

Fickle I may be but it feels right

2010-10-24T05:37:00.000-07:00

Hello every body

Well my plans are changing again! Basically I SUSPECT I will be home for Christmas!
After speaking with a good friend and family member it started to become clear to me that
what I think I need to do in Syria is going to take a lot of time AND there are some really time sensitive things I would like to come home for. I'm a best Man after all and I've got some friends that will only be in Canada for this year and so many other reasons. Just the thought of going back home for Christmas conjured up so much joy inside me that I started to strongly suspect that it was the right thing to do.
I feel I wasn't meant to take the first cargo boat. That I needed to prove my commitment to the Divine, discover that I may have a significant purpose in Syria that will likely be more successful with more experience, insight, knowledge and time. As well I now plan to travel through Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and then into China to Hong Kong. I've got a friend in Thailand that just contacted me and I have already purchased a Chinese Visa. These I'm taking as some signs. I'm sure there will be some people I'm meant to meet a long this route.
HOWEVER,
I'm still planning on taking a Vipassana course and if I receive significant signs during it that I should not go home and instead somewhere else I may change my plans again.
My heart hopes not.
I feel I must let you(s) know that I can't make any guarantees.
Don't book a flight to come in see me in other words :b
I hope this post finds people looking around them and really seeing where they are, in this moment.
Love,

There go my plans, out the window again

2010-10-22T06:21:00.000-07:00

Howdy hoe everybody,
I've been having some interesting times in Malaysia and Singapore. More people thinking I'm a terrorist or crack cocaine user/dealer and some other interesting people too.
I met another nice couch surfer in Kulai, outside of Johor Baru, and completed my first painting creation amongst lovely conversation. I MAY not be the worlds best painter, yet. Singapore did live up to some of the hype of highly organized and controlled. There were camera's in a lot of places. Pedestrians feared to cross the street on a red even if there were no cars coming because the CCTV would be watching. I met some interesting people there too.
Then my boat from Singapore to Hong Kong got canceled and for some reason I asked them if I could cancel my other boat (from Hong Kong to Canada) now that the "PACKAGE" had been "DISTURBED". I'm not really sure why I asked this and I assumed they would say NO sir the second boat is still on schedule. They didn't say that. They said, you can cancel it and get a full refund if you so desire.
Damnnnnn, I thought, That's interesting.
With the first boat being canceled I had some extra time because now I would have to take a PLANE to get to Hong Kong and so I decided to go visit my friend in Kulai. Her Parents don't quite like me. They are among the people that think I'm a terrorist/cocaine addict. Thanks to the long hair and beard. Only way, that we could think of, that I could be allowed back to see my friend is to volunteer to paint their new house and my friend had said that I did some schooling about painting, electrical and piping :p So that's been interesting. Her parents are quite strict and I feel like I'm a typical 15 year old , which I never really was as far as the parental treatment aspect goes, so this is interesting. Patience and Peace, learning deeper and deeper.
About the other boat (from Hong Kong to Canada), I had to make a decision.
I suspect that my decision was between two things:
1) What I wanted to do, what was logical, what I had promised others, what I felt safe doing,
where my responsibility lie
AND
2) My faith. Trust in the subtle signs and my feelings.

Basically I felt like I wasn't suppose to take that boat. That my path lead somewhere else.
It was a hard decision to make but in the end I have chosen faith.
I feel like I've transcended while in Malaysia to a new level and I felt like this was another test.
"How committed are you?", ask God, Allah, the Divine, insert name here.
So I'm sorry. To all those that I want to see and suspect would like to see me. To the responsibility I'm not coming to reclaim. For breaking my Word to some. I don't know if I'll be home for Christmas. I don't know much but I'm ready to find out. So I suspect.
I plan to do a Vipasana course (10 day meditation course www.dhamma.org) to try to get some clearity and direction and who knows what else. Currently I feel that I might go and meet a friend that just randomly let me know she is in Thailand and/or make my way to Seria from some signs I've received. But it's all up in the air now.
I'll try to let you know when something settles down here.
I hope you are all calm and accepting this moment.
I love you or am at least trying to,
Kelly

Eye Candy

2010-10-11T22:18:00.000-07:00

Okej so everytime I go to explain what's what their spacial location changes and then I look dumb as a stump which is fine but could be confusiong for others as dumb as a stump. New strategy. A wee description.

Hands on Deborah: These hands belong to the friend that invited me to his restaurant. They contain some culturely interesting aspects. The long pinky finger nail on the left hand is a signal of

wealth: I don't have to work hard labour, though many men with this signal do drive buses and work in restaurants. I've seen it in India and Bangladesh too. Also of signifcance is his ring. Most prevalent in Bangladesh. Many men wear really fancy looking rings which are actually not so expensive maybe $10,which is a lot here but that's the ball park figure. And often you get them from a palm reader that tells you you must wear it or bad news bears will be at your door. I got one but lost it.

The End of the world dock in Batu Pahat: That about sums it up.

The End of the world dock: a.k.a lover's dock accompanied with a beautiful girl and a beautiful sun set.
My Malaysian family: One picture is hand drawn and depicts the entire family. The other is a photograph and contains only some of the members. Can you tell which is which!!:)
I just wrote a new blog entry below, a tid bit long, but know that it is new and there.

Alright that's it.

Love

More love in Malaysia

2010-10-11T20:58:00.000-07:00

Top of the morning to youses!
Lot's of interesting, inspiring, disturbing, anxious, and fun things have been happening to me since I last wrote. My couchsurfer in Kuala Lumpur told me I had to leave with short notice. Hotels are expensive. What to do? I looked around the neighborhood the night before I had to leave. No hotel but I met a guy that invited me to his really cheap restaurant. "Meet me here tomorrow" he said. I thought well okej. I met him there with all my stuff. Now homeless. I start to draw. Kids come and are watching, laughing but too shy to start drawing themselves with my encouragement. I think, " What am I doing, I should be looking for a place to stay". A few hours go by. Okej time to go. A man just sits down to some 2:00 lunch. "You want some food?" he asks me with a big smile. "No I'm full thanks" I reply. "Where are you staying?" he asks. I shrug my shoulders almost enthusiastically "I don't know". "You stay at my house" he says with another big smile. Bang, I thought. There it is. That's what I was waiting for. You might think it a bit crazy or risky to accept from a complete stranger. It felt right to me.
Turns out he's got eight beautiful kids and a beautiful wife. Some of the kids are around my age and the youngest is around eight? We had sooooo much fun. We laughed a lot, danced, played music, watch a lot of tv and video games, ate a lot of food. They fed me all the time. They were so generous. They gave me a ring, shirts, some traditional malay clothing, a scarf. And so much fun. I drew them a picture of their family. They really liked it and we laughed a lot with it.
I stayed at their place for almost a week and they were sad to have me go. I wasn't sad to go. I really enjoyed my time and I would have liked to have stayed longer but I couldn't be sad to go. I was so happy, so grateful to have met them and had the time I did share with them. I couldn't be sad.
I also met so many people in the subways and had really nice conversations. I met a man in a mosque. The same mosque that helped bring me to The Great CAT Man. I think this mosque is a special, holy, place for me. I felt drawn to the mosque again where I met Ahmed and I had a lot of talks about Islam there with him. He was also really generous to; offering me lungis, a tuke, lunch, new sandals (though I didn't accept them), a stick tooth brush, more food.
The day I left KL (kuala Lumpur) I got confused on the metro on my way to pick up my chinese visa. Went to the "wrong" stop which meant that I had to go to the mosque again. The mosque is right beside one of the metro stops. I thought okej. Guess I'm meant to see Ahmed one more time. And he is there. "Hej Ahmed. I don't have much time is there anything you want to say to me?". Ahmed didn't get that I had to go, I just arrived. He talked with some other guys and didn't give me much attention for some moments. "Ahmed, I've got to go. Any last words?". Still busy with other people. "Okej I"m going Ahmed" as I reach for his had. He says, " Next time you're in Malaysia you better come here". " I don't plan to ever come back to Malaysia" I say. He says " I think you'll be back in Malaysia again". Bang! There it is. Why I was drawn back to him. Will I really be back in Malaysia again? I really felt it from him. But I want to be a local organic farmer in central BC. How am I going to go back to Malaysia? Then I thought. I'll just let life carry me where I need to go, and I smiled.
Another day I felt drawn to another Mosque. Very beautiful one. Met some Bangladeshi men that invited me to an opening store party. Through talking with them I learned that they (muslims) and Jewish people, I don't know about other religions, believe that Jesus a.k.a Isa will come back. I look like Jesus some say. I find it fun to think maybe I'm the Messiah, but also think this is my ego trying to make me identify with something other than my "self" and consider myself something so great and better than others, which I'm not. No being is better than another on the "self" or "soul" level says Eckhart Tolle and that feels right to me.
I asked Ahmed about this second coming. I thought Mohammed was the final word of Allah for the muslim people. He said it's true and the Messiah will have only one eye and that they will arrise in Syria.
After Ahmed told me I'll return to Malaysia I hopped on the metro and saw a young man. I really wanted to talk to him. I didn't know why. Turns out he was from Syria. Spooky. Lovely. Meant to be?
My KL Malaysian family drove me to the bus station and waited with me before the bus came and fed me one last time. Oh I love those people! I arrived late to Batu Pahat and met my cser.
She was a lot younger than I thought and didn't even have two kids! I was her first couch surfer.
She took me to meet her friends, we went to a small fishing village and hung out on a dock that I was drawn too, that was so calm, and that felt like the end of the world. I got feeling anxious on the dock, the deep calmness had subsided, but I tried to calm myself. An English man, though he had lived in Singapore for some 40 years, came up the dock. He had been in this little fishing village for almost a year. He knew so much about this dock, the amnimals around including the legal and illegal fishermen and cargo boats men. He was a plethora of information and I had a lot of fun listening to his stories. He didn't seem ready to hear what I had to tell him. He seemed a bit hard, pessimistic. He was hit by a motor bike and was resentful. He could still walk but "It's not the same! I can't dance anymore." I feel I was meant to meet him. I hope he considers my advice on letting that resentment go. Focusing on what he has.
We watched the sun set. It was amazing.
My couchsurfing host was great. So accomodating, funny, and has some exciting travel plans for the future. But what I cheerished most about her was that she listened to me. I asked her repeatedly that if she was bored with my stories and my annecdotes and quotes from "The Power of Now" that she must tell me. It won't hurt my feelings. Well it might but I can deal with that. I don't want her to feel she is being lectured. She listened. She told me she liked my stories and that made me feel so happy. I really felt like she WAS enjoying them and I was so happy to tell them. And I really felt like I was able to explain the ideas of "The Power of Now" in a clear way to her. I've felt unable to explain these things to so many people for so long which is frusturating because I strongly suspect it is the Truth. She gave me the space to explain. Many people don't and I suspect it will be no different when I return home. So I'm trying to practise shuting up more often. But it's hard because I suspect I know what is going on. Why people are having problems or that what they are doing/saying is only feeding their ego. But maybe I suspect falsly and people won't listen unless they are ready.
I don't want to repeat my over proactive environmental activism past and scare everyone away from listening to me because they think I ONLY care about the Environment/Power of Now. I care about you, I love you , we are One.
Also interesting (in my subjective opinion), many times I would start a story with my cs host which would make me think of another connection or insight brand new to me. I was learning from my babbling mouth too! That made me really happy. I'm so grateful.
Thank you.
Now I'm in another big city Johor Bahru or JB with a lovely family. I've started to practise a day of silence once a week. A day to be calm and focusing inwards. Either Sunday, the day of rest for Christians, Monday for Mahatma Gandhi whom is the person that inspired me to do this and he practised it every Monday, or tuesday for Morrie from Tuesdays with Morrie. I've made it so I have a choice so that if Monday is a travel day or the first day I meet someone I can change it to either Sunday or Tuesday.
Following Mahatma Gandhi I start 8pm the night before until 8pm that night. Today is my silent day with my cs family; the dynamics are interesting and fun.
Yup that's about a little part of what's been happening in my life. I hope it was interesting.
But it is what it is.
Hope you are at peace with this moment. If not feel the emotions in you. Take a deep breath or to and know that those feelings are okej. They are not you. (everybody,"shut up kelly!" Kelly "D'oh")
Presence,
Kelly

Something Amazing according to Me!

2010-09-30T05:54:00.000-07:00

Eye Candy:
-Right, I mean left!: Layboo ( a really cool CSer amoung other things like a geeky computer, sock sandler, programer guy) Me and a V.R.B (Voodoo Ring Bearer)!
-Below. I mean Below ha! "I'll take the upper deck seating please.
-Below, Below, left: couchsurfing in Malaysia,
-Below, Below: The Great CAT Man and his cats and moneky.
- Below, Below, Below, left: Some beautiful Beings.

Hello everybody,
Below happened to me today. In the last three days I've felt very creative and spiritually (I suspect) energized. I had a blissful last day in Bangladesh which included a suprising last falooda ( a tasty and novel Bangladesh desert which I thought was only available during Ramadan), endless patience, the writing of songs and stories and sketches, and fun with my hotel and couchsurfing friends. I enjoyed the flight. Really fun (seriously). Why feel guilty? I thought. It will likely be the last flight of this/my life.
Malaysia first impressions: White people everywhere! And girls and guys barely wear clothes. Holy shit everything is expensive, clean, tall (refering to buildings) new, shiny, and shopping malls seem to be the major attraction.
I met a really cool girl that happened to be on her way to the vipasan course that I considered going to. I met my couch surfer whom plays pingpong and trusts me enough to give me the keys to his place which is conveniently close to the metro.
Today's adventure follows below:

Short Version (because I know most people are too busy for the long Version):

Basicly, Today the Divine or (insert word of worship hear ie. Allah, God, Englishment, Universe etc.) led me to a Malyasian man that for 16 years has been taking in stray cats, and the occasional monkeys that people buy and then leave in their hotel room when they realize "Oh shit I can't take a monkey home. I don't know how to take care of one". He's currently got 104 cats and 3 monkeys in his home. He is pessimistic about people because so many don't take the time to care about his project and often think he is a cruel man making a show with animals.
He's got a sweat leopard print (home made) scooter that his cats sit on (not all of them! maybe 7) aswell as one of his monkey's. In order to "help" cover the cost of feeding and taking care of 104 cats and 3 monkeys,and to promote and expand his project of helping stray animals, he asks people for 5Rm (less than one Canadian dollar) if they want to take a picture with the cats/monkey. This is not a money making business. He is also a free lance photographer. He hopes one day to raise enough money to have a center for all the cats.
He's been doing this for 16 YEARS. He's been on the news, in other media, and might be on the Big and Famous Oprah one day. Let's hope that raises up some money.
He's got a website http://catlover.fotopages.com (which has a link to his blog) and http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamilismail/
On his website you can donate to his project if you so choose. You can also send him positive vibes if you think his project is cool. Either by making, inspiring or otherwise, comments on his blog or pictures or through prayer, conscious thoughts or however else you send positive energy. I guess if you think he is a "Bad" you could also send him that feed back too but please include suggestions for change.

That was the highlight of my day and I wanted to share it with you. Attached are some picture of The Great CAT Man. Enjoy. The Moment.

I love life. I am life. And you are too! Though you may not know it, yet.
-Me! Though credit is unimportant. ha :b

Honestly and lovingly,
Kelly

Long Version:

If you can make the time and have interest:

Long Version (basically the story of how I was led to this my man by what I suspect was the Divine):
I've been feeling very creative, energized, for the last three days. I've had a lot of interesting conversations with people in the last three days.
Today, I woke up. Late. Too late to visit the Chinese embassy to start the visa process. I headed for the metro from my Couchsurfers (www.couchsurfing.org) place. Shit! (not really) I forgot the map. I don't want to go back for it. I guess I won't go to the hospital to get my cargo ship medical exam filled out today. What shall I do? I feel energized, by the Divine I suspect. Let's just follow our nose. I asked the man at the metro ticket both wear to go to meet the "locals". KLCC he responds. I'd been to KLCC the day before. Roaming security officers at the park notified me I was not permitted to lay down on the grass in the park. Security officers also notified me that I was not permitted to walk through the water of the water park. I was only for children and their parents.
But I headed that way. I got on the metro and felt I was suppose to talk to this guy. Turns out he will go to Bangladesh and is originally from Pakistan. I told him about my experience to Bangladesh. I got off the metro to get onto the other mentro line that would bring me to KLCC. KLCC? I don't want to go there,think I.

The other metro line involves crossing the street. There is a mosque, doing the call to prayer. I enter and because I have a beard am consider Muslim and am permitted to enter whilst other white tourist are not permitted. I see a young man. I feel that I should talk to him. I do. I ask where I should go to meet the "locals". His response? KLCC. Okej.
I feel compelled to talk with another man on the metro. I ask him multiple questions from normal: Do you have the time? ( a bit of a joke in my head. I think, do you have the time to stop thinking, to talk with me, time in general to do what you want to do) To unusual: Pick one, Yes or No. With some confusion he picks No. The next major decision I have to make with be No. I think to myself.
Right before getting off the subway I find out he is an artist! I'd like to talk more but my stop is here.

A delicious smell enters my nostrils as I head for the exit to subway. I want to eat that which is producing such a smell.
I find the source. A bakery. I continue to walk down the mall in search of a place to sit and eat my delicious baked goods. I sit. I see a young man with long hear and think. Follow him! I've occasionally had thoughts like this but rarely allow them to manifest. What else to I have to do today. I follow him. For a long time. 20 min. Up and down and all around the city. He is heading for the aquarium. Yay I get to go to the aquarium, I think to myself. Nope, just a tease he turns the another way. I follow. I think I lost him. Nope, there he is.
I continue. I see a man with a leopard print scooter with cats unusually calmly sitting upon it as well as a monkey. I'm intrigued and wish to take a picture. I spot my guide as I take out my camera. The man with the cats (hereby referred to as The Great CAT Man) shakes his finger a bit grumpily and points to the multiple signs hanging from his scooter. I glance. Pay 5 RM (Ring git= less than one Canadian Dollar) for photo. I continue to browse. Newspaper clippings of him with the cats, where I read that his is...(you know what he does). Interesting, I think. I will return here.

Now where is my guide? Start to walk. Walk a little more. He has vanished into thick air. Or as I think, he has completed his guide work. I return to The Great CAT Man's premise: The side walk. Continue to read and become more excited. I speak with passerby and take the opportunity to explain what this man is doing, after asking if they understood. They often didn't know. I start talking with a South Indian man living in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia usually but in Malaysia to study. He is incredibly open, accepting and understanding. We talk about many things from Spiritual beliefs to how the skimpily dressed women trying to convince people into their massage parlors are likely to be selling sex aswell. He knows he has tried. I judge not. I know. I was offered a sexy massage after engaging in conversation with one of the ladies. I think to ask him for his contact. Before I do he offers me his card. I feel we will meet again. We talked for over an hour. He departs.
I'd noticed the way The Great CAT Man treated those that tried to take a picture before paying. A tad aggressively. Not lovingly. I wish to talk with him. I do. We talk a lot. I pet the cats. We both really enjoy. One cat, Shakira, invites herself into my lap. I realize I've had a lot of love inside that I haven't been able to release. I'm releasing it but it seems endless. I make some suggestions to The Great CAT Man. His replies ring true with 16 years of experience -albeit slightly pessimistic. His grumpy behavior begins to make more sense. I think of how tired I got of answering the Bangladeshi questions, COUNTRY?, and often thought maybe I should just make a sign: I'm from Canada, I'm not married, I'm not Muslim or belonging to any religion, I'm 23, I'm alone, No girlfriend, Not everyone in Canada or any Western Country are Rich, Immigrating to Canada is not easy and may not satisfy you, etc. The Great CAT Man has be doing this for 16 years. He has created the sign and he points to it regularly.
I stay for some hours enjoying The Great CAT Man's company as well as that of the Cat's and the one monkey, Baby Q; bites my pencil, uses my arm as a branch, bites my hair rap, is extremely interested in my necklace which I disallow handling from previous biting experience, and whom bites my arm when she can't have anything to play with. When I say bite I mean a playful nible which doesn't break the skin but is enough to send parents to the police station to file a report against The Great CAT Man. I repeat: I begin to understand The Great CAT Man's grumpy behaviour.
I ask to visit his (cat) house after he refers to how some people have gone to visit. He thinks about the request. His final answer no. But here is my card and my website addresses.

You may think hmmm? Not allow to go to his house, eh? Starting to sound fishy to me.
My response: If he is a crook, he is an incredibly stupid one that deserves the 5RM for the photo to help him with his stupidity and his creativity alone. His suggested "black" business is not a money maker by any means. He would make more money working at McDonald's.

I leave The Great CAT Man. Eat some food and realize I want to write and preform a song for him, and the passerby's, at his scooter to bring more fun and love into his project. I write the song and head to the internet cafe. I am sitting on a chair in the internet cafe. Present.
The song?
To the sweat rhythms of "The Blues Brother-Minnie the Moocher" (type "this" into www.youtube.ca and you will find):

Hej folks here's the story about The Great CAT Man,
For homeless, helpless cats he gives a damn,
The time and energy is all his own,
He's got 104 cats (and three Monkey's) at his home!

Chorus:
3 Monkeys
104 Cats
Saved from the City streets
and you won't find a single ra-at.

Now he's doing this for 16 years,
That's commitment and compassion to my ears,
He hopes to open up a center some day,
where all the homeless, helpless animals can come to live and play,
Chorus:
For now he's here almost every single day
For a picture you have to PAY?!
Please friends don't think this man a cheat,
104 cats can really eat,
Chorus:
So that's the story about The Great CAT Man,
Ladies and Gentlemen there's something you must understand
This ain't some cruel cat monkey trick show
This is love and compassion, Let it grooooooooooooooooooooooooow

CaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaT Man,
The Great, CaaaaaaaaaaaaT Man
Jaaah-millllllllllllllllllllll

Thanks for making the time for the long version,
Peace and Presence,
Kelly

Holly Molly!

2010-09-27T02:13:00.000-07:00

Well some suprising news.
I went to get my new visa extension which I thought would be for a month. Turns out it has been extended for two days! Though I feel relieved. My decisions have been made for me. I will not go to Chittagong to look for boats. No time! I have bought a plane ticket and will leave Bangladesh tomorrow evening to arrive to Kuala Lumpur. Funny thing too was that I got a message from the online sailing network from a guy sailing from India to Thailand. Exactly what I was looking for. Too bad he didn't contact me a month ago. Now there is just not enough time.
I'm excited for Malaysia!What will it have in store for me? I will stay there for about 10 days and then make my way into Singapore where I will stay for 10 days before boarding my vessel!!!
(if all goes to plan:)

Now that I'm leaving Bangladesh my patience for people has grown tremendously.
Presence,
Kelly

Back in the Dhak(a)

2010-09-26T01:11:00.000-07:00

Hello all,
Yup I'm back in Dhaka. I feel more comfortable here for some reason. While out in the country side I felt more annoyed and trapped by people questioning me all the time. It was hard to deal with because I didn't really have the option I wanted: to explore as an observer and be left a lone whilst wearing my odd (for a foreigner) attire, Lungi, beard, and gift necklace. I could either stay in my room or be confronted by people in the streets.

I also made a friend that is starting an organization called The Beggars of Peace, however, it didn't really seem to be very well organized and he often complained about money problems. This also bothered me. But he did take me to some really interesting places where I got to hear really soothing Lalon (the famous spiritual folksinger) music and hangout with Lalon followers.

I was on a mission to find a Guru. A friend recommended this to me, but I don't think I found them in the end and instead got sick. However, I accept this as part of the lan and will keep my eyes and heart open for a Guru. Who knows when they will come to join me along my path.
Perhaps that's what this past mission was really about. Discovering deeper acceptance of negative thoughts. Hard (and unnecessary) to know for sure and we can't often understand the reasons why (or so I've recently read and tend to believe).

I still feel a little uneasy these days but I'm trying to accept those feelings just like "happy" feelings. Partly I think I'm still recovering from the antibiotics and maybe I'm just tired of traveling. Less motivation to learn about new cultures. However returning home sometimes feels scary too. Hmmm

I'm considering going to Chittagong for one last boat attempt before submitting to taking a plane.
Hope this message finds you at peace.
Peace and Presence,
Kelly

Two week vacation

2010-09-21T05:56:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody,
I'm out of Dhaka and have been recently inspired to seek out a guru.
I'm in a town called Kustia right now. Meeting interesting people. No Guru's. Lot's of music. Got diarrhea and am recovering. Trying to be present and accepting but found my patience really low while sick.
Should be back in Dhaka in a week or so. I won't be using internet much for the time being.
Peace and presence,
Kelly

Eye candy!

2010-09-02T04:15:00.000-07:00

Here we have a picture of some ladies and me in Kolkata. I had some interesting conversation in english with some of them. I tried to explain why I don't give money to individuals but to organizations. I work really hard to find organizations in Kolkata that I think could help them, if they had vacancy, and gave them the list with phone numbers, adresses and what the organizations did. Either they didn't understand what it was or didn't have much faith that these organizations could help them.
Another picture of the street from an above angle is in Kolkata. I would wake up to see people bathing, with there clothes on, on this bit of street where a water hose was located. People did their washing here too.
Another picture of the street but with lots of people, a young bus conductor hanging out of his bus and traffic is of Dhaka. Typical busy Dhaka. The traffic here is really quite bad at times. Spending two hours standing on an inner city bus is not unusual.
There's a picture of me with the Landlord I was staying with. His hair is died orange with Henna, also used to make cool pictures on women's (more often than men's) hands and arms. I liked him but apparently he didn't like me so much.
Also there is a picture of a rickshaw in Dhaka they are really beautifully decorated here. I just recently learned that many rickshaw pullers don't actually own their rickshaw (three wheeled bicycle pulling passengers) but belong to some boss that may own hundreds of rickshaws.

The below post is also quite new so do take a look at it to if you want.
Peace and presence
Kelly

Again still in Dhaka

2010-09-02T03:30:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone,
Yup I'm still in Dhaka. Have being a bit of a bum here and have realized that that is okej with me and actually it's exactly what I want to be doing right now. I'm learning a lot being a bum and interacting with the people I meet every day.
I went to the newly made friends house in Natore (mentioned near the end of my last blog entry). It was really fun, tiring, uncomfortable and comfortable. It was in a rather isolated setting but still had a busy town center. I enjoyed playing futbol with the neighboring kids and swimming in the mosoon made pond. I enjoyed the company of some men my age but also was uncomfortable with their generosity at times and the way they treated other, younger kids. I felt tired after just a little bit of time playing futbol. Am I out of shape? Shaun, they guy that invited me, said something interesting one night as we hung out with his friends sipping chai and eating bananas. He said to me you look really happy. How can you be so happy? That made me realize that I haven't thought about being happy for a long time. I've just been accepting what has been going on, trying to learn and be aware through my experiences. I told him that I don't try to be happy but just accept, be at pease, with what is happening.

Now I'm living in a Hotel with about a dozen other bengladeshi and predominatly muslim men. Some have lived there for a number of years. It feels like a home there and I've been learning from them. I participated in a Islamic prayer one night. I felt good energy at the beginning but it went on for a long time and I had feelings of exhaution, boredom and disinterest. Two men about my age were talk/singing really quickly in Araebic the whole time. I later learned that this was a special type of praying time. For Ramadam (month of fasting) these two men were memorizing the Qur'an and reciting chapters of it during prayer. One would recite and the other would listen and correct when necessary. I had heard about people memorizing the Qur'an as a display of devotion and now I was seeing it! The more I learn and experience Islam the more I've been exposed to characteristics I dislike or don't believe in. For example, righteousness and poor listening/accepting skills.

I've made some really nice friends here. One of which I perceive is really critical of Islam and racism. I'm trying to be accepting of Islam. Considering my disliking for it's non-accepting nature (what I perceive thus far) it seems hypocritical for me to be non-accepting of it. I'm learning.

I'm learning a lot about patience and understanding people's actions here. For example, when people ask me questions I would take it personally sometimes as think "why is this person asking me the same old questions? Why are they being so annoying? They are doing it just to annoy me?" but realizing that I was complaining and actually blaming them has allowed me to be more aware of these thoughts and when I'm aware of the thoughts I can see the situation more clearly. See well actually these questions are brand new for them. They are just curious and don't realize that I've been asked them a million times and they aren't trying to be annoying in any way.

I've also been trying to volunteer lately but it hasn't been too successful. I found a really interesting organization that is a organic agriculture movement with a spiritual component based on a poet in Bangladesh many decades ago. One thing I really like about it is that it gives respect to all living beings and is not just concerned with the human food crops. I've been trying to volunteer with this group and it looks I will be able to visit some of the places they are established and do some writing of my experience for a western audience. I'm quite excited about this. I've never written for anyone before and I think I will have a observant and hopefully insightful opinion. It would be nice if it was positive too but I'll be honest, and optimistic.

I've also met two men that seem to be very knowledgeable but don't seem very accepting. Don't seem to listen very well. I think they have very strong ego's. I do fear that I'm just saying everyone has a big ego and that I don't but really it is my ego saying those exact words. I'm trying to be present in the situation, which is really exhausting at times, and also figure out how to deal with these people. I'm trying to learn from them because they have interesting ideas but I would also like to express some of my ideas and be heard. Have them listen too.

I've booked my boat home!! It leaves from Singapore in October bringing me home in mid November to Prince Rupert! It look like I'll have to fly to Malaysia but I'm still hoping that I'll be able to get their by land or water. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
I'm really excited to come home and also to see Prince Rupert and other parts of Central BC. I hope to visit some intentional communities on the way to Summerland.

So I'm still alive and being more and more present,
Hope this finds post finds you at peace,
Kelly

Getting Used to Bangladesh

2010-08-10T23:37:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody!
Well I'm still in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Can't believe I'm still in this city. I meant to only stay a few days but I've been trying to figure out my next move.
I've become a lot more comfortable in the city now. It just took me some time to get used too. People are still asking me where I'm from and urging me to come sit and have a chai with them but (most times) I'm a lot more patient and enjoy satisfying peoples curiosity. The people are also really eager to help in any way they can. So many people have walked me to buses or the location I'm trying to get to. I don't think we are so willing to give our time to clueless tourists in Canada, but I'll have some karma to repay.
I've been staying with a really nice couchsurfer who was really okej with letting me stay as long as I needed and he took me to all sort of fun outings. We went to a fashion show which was interesting to see the too cool expressions and really jerky walking. We also spent time with his friends, which included some really tasty food, played some music and had some interesting conversation too. Sadly his landlord wasn't too happy with my stay so I'm on my own again.
I've had some luck with boats but it looks like I'll have to fly to southeast asia to start the voyage. No cargo ships in this neck of the woods offer to take passengers.
Kolkata and Dhaka (the main city of Bangladesh) have definitely be more crowded with people and have more homeless people which has been reminding me that I want to help. So I'm trying to get involved some how and may volunteer with a group called actionaid.org
I met an employee of this organization the first day I arrived to Dhaka and he was very helpful (as most Bangladeshies are). After meeting with him to discuss how I may be able to volunteer , followed by going to his home for more conversation and snacks, he offered to take me back to his home village for the weekend. A good example of how friendly and generous the Bangladeshies are. I'm considering it at the moment. I'm also interested in Wwoofing in Bangladesh but I think doing more social work or volunteering with a different organization would be something new for me and feels more right.
I'm planning to extend my visa for Bangladesh and then either fly:( or find a boat to Malaysia where I can start the freighter journey back to Canada!!! If this plan follows through I'll be home about mid-November. Later than I expected but I feel like I'm suppose to stay here longer and volunteer and I'm really interested in Malaysia as it is an Islamic state. I've been learning more and more about Islam here. AND I don't think I'll have another opportunity to go to Malaysia in this life so I think I ought to take it.

Om namah shivaya ( I acknowledge the divine with in you)

Quick update

2010-08-04T21:31:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody,
I arrived to Dhaka, Bangladesh a few days ago. Things are more different in Bangladesh than I expected and I'm feeling a bit anti-social (my usually response to a new place) which doesn't mesh so well with the very curious and social Bangladeshi's. However, I'm getting used to it and have been well taken care of by the couchsurfer I'm staying with and all his friends.
I'll write more soon and I plan to head to Chittagong or Coxes Bazar in the next few days.
Peace and presence,
Kelly

A beautiful ordinary day

2010-07-26T07:35:00.000-07:00

Greetings earthlings,

I'm still here in Kolkata.
The day started with an early bus ride to attend a meeting with a bunch of Indian shipping businessmen. It was an interesting experience because with the way I look most places in the western world would not have let me in the door. But just having white skin, no matter if it's almost brown with dirt, grants you some high respect. The main boss asked me what I was doing there and began the meeting by asking if anyone could help me in my desire to travel by container ship to Canada. The response: " Absolutely not", "it's not possible", " no containership in the whole world will allow civilians on board". This is the message I've been receiving all week. After that I hung around outside the docks writing down more company names of the passing containers to investigate.

Then off to a clothing store that supports marginalized women become more independent by training them to make all sort of items AND the store had many things that I was interested in so it really felt great to support them, especially because I've really wanted to help lately due to the significant increase in homeless and begging people in Kolkata compared to the rest of India. Note: if coming to India I wouldn't suggest Kolkata as the point of entry unless you really want to be shocked and then pleasantly relieved in all further destinations in India.

Then off to a container company office that is going exactly where I want to go and has environmental conservation as a significant part of their procedures (or at least they claim). But again "Not possible", however, this time the manager was really nice. We had chai (milk tea) and chatted in his office He was very interested in my travels and although he did not have the news I wanted to hear I didn't feel like he was lying to me or trying to make me feel crazy. After that I started to think well maybe it's true. Maybe I really can't travel by containership from India or Bangladesh to Canada. If that's the case then I guess that's what's meant to be. But why have so many internet sites said it is possible? The thought of not being able to take a ship actually took a lot of pressure off me. I didn't want to fly home without giving the ship a worthy try. I didn't want to come home in an anti-climatic way of: it started to get really hard so I took the easy way out. I feel like I've been giving it a good try and I'm not done yet. At least I will go to Bangladesh and try at the major port that the other beautiful soul recommended me. If it is still not possible from there than I can be content with taking a plane.

Nearing the end of my day in the internet cafe I looked up some of those sites speaking so greatly of containership travel and the author recommended a few specific compainies that allow passangers on board. One of which I saw today at the docks! With a little investigation I found on their website that they go from Bangladesh to Vancouver AND that they organize "vacationers" to travel on their vessels with a specific contact person to reach!!
Wow this sounds really possible again. Seems to me like I just needed to accept that the Divine will deliver what's best for me even if I think it's not what I want or need.
I'm prepared for this new possibility to land short which is again okej because I know it's going to work out for the best whatever way it does.

So that was my day. How was yours? Feel free to write me about what is going on in your life.
Peace and presence,
Kelly

Where's all the boats?

2010-07-23T07:58:00.000-07:00

Hello hello,

Well a lot has happened. Had a nice time climbing around Hampi and got to meet Moran there too. Then I was off to Rishikesh but got sick again along the way. Very fortunately I met some fellow travelers that had been to Rishikesh before and they kindly helped me find my way around, a place to stay and even helped me get some medicine. Had a really nice time with them, as we stayed at the same guest house, and enjoyed seeing their creative artwork. I did get to gain some more experience into Yoga as I took one class and tried a Kundalini medatation class too. I also bought a bunch of great books (heavy!!) that have been really interesting, but I've become a walking library again. Swam a lot in the ganga (the holy river flowing through) and once again became grateful for having health again. I met a great sitar player in Rishikesh and we ended up traveling with him to a small mountain city which really reminded me of BC, pine forests, before heading to Kolkata.
Now I'm in Kolkata walking all over trying to make connections with boats as well as other odds and ends that I'd like to do before possibly leaving India. Trying to be present and even though I've got things to do I'm trying to enjoy the moment. I'm looking at it like a small taste of life back in the stable world and it's been good for me. Haven't had too much luck finding boats but today I met a nice guy at the Kolkata customs office that gave me some inspiring advice which is to try a city in Bangladesh called Chittagong. It has a bigger port that hosts many more large container ships.
I wasn't sure whether I wanted to go to Bangladesh but now I feel drawn to go there.
Still there are two docks that I've been recommended to go to for ship travel in Kolkata that I have yet to investigate so I'll see about that too.

Good night, sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite
Kelly

Making Connections

2010-07-02T06:13:00.000-07:00

Bonjourne everyone, (I don't even know how to say everyone in francais :(

So I made it to Amma's ashram and was really glad to hear that most of the activities at the ashram were not obligatory. The one thing that was nearly obligatory was the selfless volunteer work that would compose of at least 2-3 hours a day. I was a bit frustrated that the chanting and meditation times at the Sivanada Centre (where I was learning about Yoga earlier) were mandatory and that someone would come to our dorm to make sure we attended. I thought it was too much of this activity and it really turned me off when someone would come to make sure we went. Never-the-less I had a really good time at the Sivanada Centre and feel that I've got a good base knowledge of Yoga.

I met some nice people at Amma's Ashram but for the first view days I felt like there wasn't much for me to learn at the Ashram. I was really moved by reading about Amma but I really didn't feel her vibe while there in the begginning. A big part of it was that Amma wasn't there at the time, she is in the US right now, and I kept hearing how different it was when she was there. Over flowing with people, energy and watered down food. However, I've noticed that it is a common reaction for me to feel like I'm wasting my time if I'm not learning something all the time so I gave the ashram more time to reveal some of its wisdom. And it did. Two people I met from England were really nice and I ended up talking with one of them quite a bit. We really connected and he helped me handle all the devotion and praying that I saw around me. His view was that when people bow it is their ego that is bowing down to the Universe or the Divine not the person's "Self" because that is the Universe or Divine. This helped me. I also had an experience where I really felt like I was an instrument of the Universe. I had a really interesting afternoon hangout which involved slacklining, cleaning our nasal cavities (led by me!) and getting advice from a person that believes she can communicate with "The Brotherhood" which to my understanding is a group of highly evolved humans that give advice when asked through a form of telepathy. She hears their voices at times and other times just feels energy that gives the requested advice. Apparently I'm on the right track which is unusually good , she says, because usually they always have something to say. Now this wasn't a person on the street that then requested a certain amount of money. This was one of the English friends that did it because she wanted to help me and this was a way she helps people. This and other engaging conversation really got me into a space of tranquility and bliss. Following this I went down for dinner and for some reason asked another friend a question about some big troubles he was having in his life. The question was really direct and was really at the very centre of his trouble. He talked a lot about it and it felt really healing to me. Clarifying and motivating. I didn't really know why I asked the question and then when it turned out to be such a good question and leading to such a positive sharing it really felt like something else asked the question. I was only the messenger. Part of this person's path. It was a really great feeling. I've really been feeling this Univerself energy lately, what many people I suspect refer to as God, Allah, Krishna, Englightenment, etc.
It feels good. I feel centered and on a path with a great energy gently leading me.
Now I'm off to Hampi where I'm likely to meet my previous traveling partner, Moran, and hopefully have some more positive experiences. After that I suspect I'll be off to Rishikesh to further my Yoga awareness and who know's what else.

Today while walking around I found an old Canada lonely Planet book in a used bookstore. I couldn't resist taking a little peak and started to get really excited about traveling in Canada.
In good time I think to myself.

Take care everyone,

Om namah sivaya
( this is a saying that they used at the Ashram for Hello, goodbye, thankyou pretty much every kind of intereaction and it means " I acknowledge the divine in you". It's suppose to keep you looking inward, instead of engaging in meaningless small talk, and I really like it. Makes me more aware of that Universal energy.)

Kelly

Quick update

2010-06-25T04:07:00.001-07:00

Hej hej,
I've left Sivananda and am on my way to the Amma Ashram and from there probably Hampi.
Peace,
Kelly

An inspiring day

2010-06-20T06:16:00.000-07:00

Hello hello,
Today I woke up, at the Sivanada Ashram in Neyardam near Trivanadrum, Southern India, not feeling motivated to partake in the morning meditation and chanting. But I did and we went on a nice meditative walk around the lake and watched the sun come up over some really jagged looking mountains. Later I was feeling quite anxious and I think still a bit tired so I decided to lay down but also grabbed a book I got out from the library about Amma. Amma is the guru of the Ashram that I said I was going to checkout in my last post but I haven't yet. I started reading about her and I really connected with the story. Getting energy from the miracles occuring in her life, realizing how I've become rather pesimistic about the level of spirituality in the modern day Indian person, and the resistance I have to spiritual devotion. The energy in my body was really strong and I just wanted to keep reading. So I did. Resulting in missing the lecture of the day which I felt was really okej. Still feeling very present and energiezed I headed for Yoga and got there early so I waited in meditation. The energy in my body came back and was really strong. Perhaps the strongest I've ever felt and I had the erge to try to levitate. I was laying on my back for the meditation and I lifed up my legs, hands, head, back and torso. That's for sure, but I don't know if I really lifted up my remaining pelvic area.
The Yoga began and I was still feeling strong energy, very calm, and very guided by what I'm starting to really feel is my "self" or the universe. During the Yoga I realized that I could hold my breath for much longer durations. In an exercise where we hold our breath I usually have trouble holding it the whole time however this time I had no problem at all. I felt like I could hold my breath forever. I tried exhaling all my breath (usually you take a deep inhalation) and then reframed from breathing for the time duration and I almost made it. But I didn't. However, I still believe that this was quite amazing.
And since the yoga I've been feeling really calm and present. During dinner I found out that there is an ashram in Kamloops, really close to my home town, that is highly recommended and just ONE moment ago a really nice women walked into the internet room and gave me a t-shirt from the Ashram store which is exactly the one that I was huming and hawing about buying!
I hear you universe!

During my time in India and as I look back on multiple other times in my life I'm really having some powerful experiences that I am now suspecting are spiritual. It's inspiring.

So since my last blog entry I went to a small town in Kerala called Kochin where I took my first yoga class. It was calming, strengthinging, small (only three people in the class), trust involving (the yoga teacher really pushed us), and encouraging for further yoga practise. Moran, my friend from Israel that I met at Sadhana Forest and with whom I went to the Zen Meditation center, and I then went to Alleppey with a German girl and had some really intense discussions. I found myself being a mediator and using a lot of energy to focus on truely listening and understanding. It was very thought provoking and I was generally happy with my role and abilities in the disscusion.(I want to develop my mediating and communication skills because I've been feeling that people really don't understand eachother in a lot of conversation). We also traveled by row boat through the back waters, which consists of many small and a few big kanals. Many of the houses along the sides of the kanals were very close to flooding and a couple already were. Why? Yeah it's Monsoon season here. There's been some really heavy rains and I don't have a rain jacket. However I made a rain cover/jacket out of a abandoned tarp. Wah hoo!
Then we headed (Moran and I, the german girl went another way, her name was Fredrika) to the Sivananda Ashram, where I am now, and have been doing yoga twice a day. I'm really enjoying it and have moved to the intermediate class. Body is feeling worked hard but I think it is okej. Meeting really nice people and playing some great music. The food is fantastic and low quantity (which is great because I've been eating too much lately) and to stay at the ashram is really inexpensive.
Life is good.
How about you?
Love,
Kelly

Quick Update

2010-06-09T20:30:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody,
Just leaving the Meditation center and making my way with a friend to Kerala (Province) to a town called Alleppey which has some beautiful backwater ways and a big and famous ashram near by called Amritapuri (amritapuri.org). Planning to at least check it out.
Peace,
Kelly

Out in India again!

2010-05-31T03:20:00.000-07:00

Hej everybody!
The last FIVE WEEKS I've been staying at Sadhana forest. I can't believe I was there for so long. The time went flying by and it was hard to leave. Staying at the forest was like a trip out of India. Living amongst many lovely foreign friends was great but it didn't feel like India. So now I've ventured out again and find myself back in the noise of India.

I've also taken on a new traveling approach. Many of my friends have told me about their experiences of India (and other experiences) and how they let its energy take them away . With the Universe/inner self/wind/ intuition as their guide. No plans, no guide books. Well I told myself that I would do this "sometime". That I'd like to do this and I've realized that I don't have so much time left. So I've been trying it. Trying to listen and see where it takes me. Frankly, it has been a bit stressful. I find myself so indecisive and unsure. I just don't hear it or feel sure about things. However, lately, I think I've been doing something right. I've worked out staying with a family outside of Kodaikanal, came across a conservation organization that I think I will volunteer with and was reminded about a Zen center that looks quite interesting. I found myself saying " What am I looking for". And I feel like it is becoming more clear. I'm looking for Yoga or some sort of spiritual teaching for I think India is a good place for it. I'm also looking for living with local people and for helping out. All seem to be coming to me.

In my times of uncertainty I also felt like I was wasting my time with this Universe guiding business. Now I'm feeling more sure it isn't a waste of time. Many people talk about their "intuition" and how they get strong feelings to do or not do something. I've never really felt that and now I'm practicing. I'm all ears. And what I find is that I'm giving myself more time to talk with people. More credit and energy to thoughts such as " let's try going this way". It's feels strange to not have any certain plans (for I'm allowing the plans I am making to be changed at any moment) but it is also very freeing. I feel like I've got loads of time to explore and wander.
And as far as time wasting, I think I've got strong desires to be efficient with my time, all the time. But this won't necessary allow me to do what I'd most like to do. So often I've planned things right up so that when really interesting things come along I'm pretty restricted it changing "The Plan". I'm starting to believe the universe provides us with what we need and it is usually way better than we could imagine or plan for ourselves.

So for now I'm in Kodaikanal, which reminds me of Victoria, BC: Cool damp weather, Old English buildings, flower gardens all around, and beautiful forests along narrow side streets. In the next few weeks I suppose I could be volunteering here or spending some time at the Bodhi center (bodhizendo.org) or somewhere entirely different. If the plan does change I'll try to keep you ( Mom and Dad) updated.

Peace and love and try listening if you can,
Kelly

A Month at Sadhana Forest!

2010-05-23T03:37:00.000-07:00

Eye Candy: Left to Right top to bottom.
Our composting toilets
with bum wash and water buckets; me at the washing station with my gloves to keep from spreading the infection; Sadhana from the water tower; solar panels and the water tower; a beautiful and plump lipped volunteer at Sadhana

Hello everybody
Wow! It's hard for me to believe that I've been at Sadhana for more than a month now. The time seems to have gone by so fast. I've recovered from the Staph infection but I had to take antibiotics in the end. I got some of the infection on my lip and it swelled up really big. It was quite painful for about two days and the fact that it really distorted the way I usually look had a bigger effect than I would have expected. It was emotionally straining. Now I'm better from that, for good I hope, but I've started to have rather low energy in the last week or so. Annoying and uninspiring but I'm learning with it too. How I can start looking at things in a negative light and how I can fail to take the opportunities to learn with out really noticing.
Sadhana forest is a really dynamic place. People are coming and going all the time. It's hard to make friends and watch them go so often but it's also neat to have new people and ideas coming through all the time too. Some issues arose amongst the volunteers in Sadhana concerning different groups forming, people not working hard enough, and people not being treated with respect. It was really interesting to work through these problems and I found that lack of understanding amongst the group was a key thing. One group thought the other group didn't care and that their efforts weren't being appreciated and the other group felt exactly the same. Having a meeting to discuss and share this relieved a lot of the tension. I learned a lot (and only a little) about composting toilets, compost, yoga, alternative types of healing, the benefits of taking responsibility for my duties, Non-Violent Communication, and appreciating my surroundings. I've also made some good friends too.
I'm planning to head back out into India again this week. While living at Sadhana I really felt somewhere else. An alternative bubble in India. Spending the day in Pondicherry today has given me new excitement to go out traveling again. I'd like to explore more of the communities in Auroville but I am more itching to see more of southern India. I've only got two months and a week left in India and that seems so short.
I hope to travel freely in southern India (ie. not have much of a plan and see where my intuition takes me) but I'm not sure if I want to go back to Northern India and volunteer in Ladhak. We'll see.

I hope everyone is enjoying reading this blog and that you are finding the adventures and learning opportunities in your own lives.
Peace from the east,
Kelly

I arrived and am well

2010-04-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

hello every body!

I arrived to Sadhana and am feeling comfortable here.
fpound out that I have a staph infection. I thought I was better, d'oh! But there is a nice guy that does first aid and he's taking care of me. There are some really cool things happening here too! Lot's to learn.
Just saying hej I'm still alive and well.
Hope you are too
Peace and Patience
Kelly

Sick in/of Mumbai

2010-04-16T08:06:00.000-07:00

Bottom left to top right: Back lanes of the Jaisalmer fort, Lunch time in the Raj desert with our cart a beautiful camels, traveling in the beautiful Indian transport truck and we are actually rocking out to some horrible sound quality Raj music (at least I was), Jaisalmer and the fort way up there. A quite calm street in bussling Bombay and the beautiful, if deadily overused and overfilled, Mumbai Urban trains. Hanging out the sides lets the wind cool you down a bit. Worth the risk for many. Can't say I haven't done it myself.

Hello everybody!
Well me and Renate made it to Jaisalmer. We tried some bang lassi which was more effective than I had expected. AND we also got to see the sand dunes! I thought perhaps we weren't suppose to see them when we decided to put it off a day and then the bus left later than expected, twice, and then when we got on the bus someone asked us where we were staying and we casual said we were catching the night bus back. There was no night bus and we had a train to Mumbai the next morning. We begrudgingly but gratefully evacuated the bus. Our last hope was to go to the dreaded "Travel Agency":( But we did. That's how dedicated we were. But even then our car broke down along the way. Which is when everything started to make sense. Less than a week before I met Paul Carter (Summerland acquaintance from child hood) in Jodhpur and we both realized we were on our way to Jaisalmer. As our car sat there in the middle of the road unwilling to start. Who but Paul Carter would dare to cross our path. So he did. And we got a chance to say hello and have another quick chat. He'd just come from some days on camel back in the desert. THEN a big Indian (meaning colourfully decorated with words and murals and everything) transport truck came our way and offered us a ride to the dunes. It had been a dream of mine the first time I saw one of these beautiful automotive transportation units to have a ride in one. They look so comfy. The truck was heading to Pakistan and later Renate told me that for a moment she considered leaving everything behind and going with him. But she decided no because she didn't feel it strong enough. I still envy people with this ability to really "feel" when something is the right thing to do. I'm working on it but I haven't taken a truck to Pakistan yet either.

We slept most of the train time away to bombay and arrived tired still. Grateful I got a hold of my fried Kunal who accepted me in a day earlier than I said I would. Renate wanted to head to Goa right away so she got the next ticket out. We had the afternoon together which was filled with some good conversation but also a lot of dragging our heals. At least I was. Tired. And realizing in the last week or so that I was ill. Diarreah mixed with something else that sucked the energy out of my body and mind and returned pain in my head, groin (lymph node), stomach, and throat all at different stages. Kunal's mattress on his living room floor became my hospital bed and I felt trapped in my own lethargic body. Craving and then appreciation for freedom and mobility were refreshed in my life. Two days ago after starting antibiotics I regained my energy. I good walk around, get groceries, walk back AND still not feel completely exhausted. It felt great! The last few days have been a lot of fun. Kunal and I have been joking around a lot and enjoying each others company now that I'm not an overcooked vegetable. I am extremely grateful to that beautiful man. Eventhough he wares scandalous undergarments sometimes:P
I'm preparing to make my way south. Almost as south as one can go to a heaven called sadhanaforest.org. An eco-village that's working towards sustainable community living, restoration of the natural temperate forest habitat type of the area, and interacting with the nieghboring communities to share, learn and have fun. I'm pretty interested as you can imagine but don't label me!:p
Tonight I hope to be playing some music with Kunal and his friends and the day after that "leaving on a tr-ain, I don't think that I'll be back again, but oh baby I'm ready to go"
Appreciate health and mobility if you have it, if you don't you must already be thinking of it. So many of us have it and take it for granted. Myself included.
Peace, love and health
I hope this post finds people enjoying or at least acknowledging and accepting this present moment
Kelly

Camel riding amoung other things

2010-04-01T05:49:00.000-07:00

PICTURES!!
Right to left top to bottom:
A spice and vegie market in Pushkar. A regular street in Pushkar similar to many streets in India thus far but perhaps a little more aimed at foreigners. Me being carried by Moti (the camel) with our camel cart ahead going through the Rajasthan desert. Pushkar Sikh temple with the typical surroundings: Cows and trash. My "Penciling" creation at the hostel.

Kelly's Life

Well I arrived to Pushkar and the holy lake there was empty :( The lake was drained because it was quite polluted or poisoned. There are lots of stories of what happened but who knows what the truth really is? However, in the previous years and last year especially the monsoon has been significantly less so the lake has still not filled up. One person told me last year there was 80% less rain! The real devastating thing is the farmers not getting the needed rain for their fields and the many people lacking enough drinking water.

I got to draw a picture on a wall of the hostel I was staying at and I was really satisfied with it, if not impressed with myself. I also met my newly made friend from Norway, Renate, and we started our camel adventure. We went from Pushkar to Jodhpur which took about 6 days. Less time and riding than we originally planned to do but our camel got a soar on his leg so among other reasons we decided to stop in Jodhpur. We had two camels (Moti and Krishna), one camel cart (not named) and two guides (Govinda a young guy and Banchraj a really nice and happily married guy). I'd say things went pretty well. We slepted on the Rajasthan desert floor, with the snakes and scorpions alike. Renate and I had some really interesting discussions and it felt really nice to communicate so easily with someone. No big sand dunes but really sandy and hot. Really got a deeper appreciation for water and was so surprised when I'd see our guides or local people waste it. I tried to develop a relationship with our riding camel Moti, and I think we made a friendship but we didn't quite have a talk. At least I wasn't satisfied. Our guides were good guys but they didn't seem to know where we were going at times, took us along the roads longer than I would have liked and we had trouble understanding eachother at times. Going through small villages was extra interesting because we got even more attention than usual: not only is it a foreigner he's on top of a camel!!! A major difference between camel riding and horseback riding is that you either have to make the camel sit down (which they don't seem to like to do all that much) or you need a tree branch or big pile of sand to break your fall. This being said Renate and I found ourselves quite trapped one time in the middle of a large group of villagers all looking at us propped up on a Moti, like performers with nothing to entertain the crowd with and no power to run off stage. We just had to wait until Govinda and Banchraj filled up our water jug from the well which seemed to take ages.

We spent a few days in Jodhpur where there was a crazy festival where women carried bamboo bats and hit the men while music played all throughout the city.

Now we are in Jaisalmer and plan to go to a national park to try to see some sand dunes and hopefully hear some music and dancing. Then we'll be heading to Mumbai where I'll meet up with a friend I made there and then head on our way to Goa where I hope to learn more about yoga and different meditation techniques.

Yeah that's it for now.
Hope everyone is doing well and if you aren't perhaps it is a challenge to inspire growth in one way or another.
Health,
Kelly

A farm, freedom, and foreigners

2010-03-24T08:04:00.000-07:00

Well life on the farm was interesting. We got to harvest the mustard which was cool but no luck with the cow milking. It makes sense though because it is a pretty intimate activity and I don't think many animals would just let any old stranger waltz in a try their hand at it. In the end my back was getting quite soar. Lots of carrying of heavy stuff, like 50kg sugar sacks and baskets of amla fruit on our heads, but also the nature of the repetitive work where one sits on the floor cross legged was hard on me too. Although my fellow workers really did try to make me as comfortable as possible in these situations, my back still seemed to whine. I started to get grumpy at the end of a long days work and I realized this as something to be aware of when I start my own farm or when wwoofing in other places or really any job in the future. I don't want to be a grumpy guy. I feel being aware of it will help tremendously but extra effort will also be needed. I left the farm perhaps a bit earlier than expected but I was ready to leave.

Going to this particular farm was not planned and brought me out to an area that I hadn't and wouldn't have looked into if it weren't for the farm. I ended up going to a place called Nawalgarh and the most significant thing that happened to me there was this: I stayed at a hostel known for their organic farming; I found the Bhagavad Gita (a book on aspects of hinduism in the claimed newest and best translation in English thus far) in their library; found out that one of the smaller neighbouring towns I wanted to visit, Lohargal, was no longer in the lonely planet due to its holy pilgrimage purpose (but it was in my copy of the LP because I happend to have an older version) and was told that I need be very respectful when I go there; after reading the beginning of the Bhagavad Gita I realized that this small pilgrimage town was the same town that the story of the Bhagavad Gita takes place. I felt like things were coming together. I was meant to go. I did go. And it was really great. The water was cold. It felt full and refreshing. I felt welcomed and made some friends. And learned more ideas concerning hinduism. Some very thought provoking: Letting go of the "Fruits" or results of all actions, giving up desires they are the root of sabatoging development of wisdom, and it was really into devotion. To name a few of the main ideas. I felt it insightful and so did Mahatma Gandhi!
The same book shelf brought to other books to me one called the "White Tiger" and the other "Talking with Nature". Two books that I'm inclined to read but perhaps just reading the few first pages will be enough. There beginning ideas may be enough to set me on the path. What I mean is "Talking with Nature" is about a man that suddenly finds that he can hear voices coming from animals, plants, rivers, nature. He thinks himself insane at first but later comes to terms with it and learns through it. I've found that I've really lost my connection with nature in the last year or so and, call me crazy, now I'm inspired to try to communicate with animals, plants and how amazing would be to hear was a river has to say. Not much progress yet but I think it will take time. Any new language does :)
Now I'm in Pushkar and met a friend from Norway. We are planning to ride camels from Pushkar to Jodhpur (6 days) and then decide if we want to continue to Jaisalmer (another 8 days). Pushkar is very different from what I've been experiencing in Hindustan (India's name in hindi) thus far. There are much more foreigners whom seem to be of all different walks of life. From families with young children, elderly, mohawks, middle aged, dreadlocks, tattoos (lots of tattoos wow), mainstream, yogis, junkies, and more. Forgive me for the labeling, I haven't judge these people but am just trying to give a description of what I've observed. What a mix!
I'm feeling great. I feel a connection with the people using the very limited Hindi I know but it seems to create a connection.
Well I likely won't be in contact for the next week or so. Don't let it worry you.
I hope everyone is doing well and learning AND teaching.
Kelly
P.S
I've included some pictures of the farm but strangely enough all of my pictures of Lohargal (the holy waters town) seem to have disappeared from my memory stick. Spoking! and sad but I've got to detach!

Jaipur Family Matters and off to wwoof

2010-03-13T01:33:00.000-08:00

Kelly's Life

Hej does anybody remember T.G.I.F nights and family matters with Steven Q Erkle. Brings back good times for me.

So I arrived to Jaipur after my first solo train trip to meet a couch surfer. Every couchsurfing experience seems to have unexpected elements to them and this was no different. I ended up becoming one of the family in Jaipur. It was difficult at first as I didn't know what was expected of me, my freedom (which was previously near 100%) diminish to having to let people know when I wanted to go to the bathroom, and finding myself staying around the house instead of out exploring the town. To be honest I felt that I was wasting my time in the first day or so but I thought in my head, "Maybe there is something that I'm suppose to learn here. Some kind of different challenge or opportunity." And lately I've been taking these thoughts more seriously. I'm glad I did. After a couple of days I really started to enjoy myself with the family. Vicky's (the couchsurfer I originally contacted) beautiful wife, two daughters, baby boy, and grandparents really made me feel welcome and we had a lot of laughs together. As well, being imersed in the family gave me new motivation for learning Hindi and also allowed me to see Rajasthani, if not Indian, culture and gave me a good mirror for viewing my own culture. I feel women aren't treated as equal and they seem to do a lot of work but they also have a lot of fun too. I got to learn more about parenting and felt a bit more prepared after interacting with the baby boy and seeing how things played out. I was also a big star in the neighbourhood. I can't recall how many times I was at the centre of a big crowd of people trying to comunicate or talking to the one person that spoke English while he/she translated my answers to the crowd. Exhausting at times but I began to get more comfortable with it and enjoyed the attention and opportunity to resolve myths about "foreigners" or at least entertein the people for awhile with my strangeness.
With some frustration two farms that I'd planned to wwoof at were unable to host me due to no vacancy (which is great to see that these places are getting interest that will hopefully inspire growth). Calling another farm I felt again "Maybe I'm suppose to go to a different farm" and I finally got in contact with a farm that would take me right away. Saying goodbye to the Jaipur family was sad but I think I made some really good friends there and I hope to visit them again before I leave India.
As for the farm, it wasn't exactly what I expected. More of a processing plant than a farm. They pick and process Amla (a small apple/peach like fruit), making juice and dried fruit in large quantities. They also make an aluevera juice (good for digestion and has other medicinal usages), have mustard fields and other crops as well as some water buffalo and cows. So far I've been helping in the factory which really takes me back to the Boerboom's (old tree nursery job) except less people speak english, it's stickier, containing exponentially more flies, organic!, and I don't get paid. I've decided for the last few weeks that I will not give to beggers. Instead I will give to different organisations. I haven't done this in a while so I'm viewing this farm as a way to give back. I'm working hard for about 8 hours a day, helping one of the kids with their english homework, and eating two meals a day. I think I'm definitely earning my keep and like to think that I'm making a good contribution. I'm really hoping to get out in the fields soon but I guess as long as I'm helping out I'm happy. I just wonder if wwoofers are taking away employment from other people? Wwoofing is rather cheap labour. Oh it is so hard to truely help!
Being at the farm working hard is a nice change regardless and it's giving me lots of ideas of how I would run my own farm (differently:).
I'm hoping we'll harvest the mustard in the fields tomorrow and I'm going to try to help milk the cows and help some of the neighbouring farmers harvest their grains as a break from the factory work. I'm living with about three families (it's hard to tell the relations) so I get to see more family dynamics, which have been a bit physical, further establishing in me that I'll never use pain as a punishment. Helping one of the girls with their english is also giving me ideas for teaching english and I am feeling better about my hindi. I can almost read am starting to make sentences! I got discouraged though, when I failed multiple times to communiate my small words and phrases to some of the people I was working with. Discouraged until I realized that they didn't speak hindi; they spoke only Rajasthani. Duh!
Well I'm planning to stay on the farm for about a week longer then head to Pushkar for a few days and possibly meet up with a friend to ride camels from Pushkar to Jaisalmer (a 10-12 day trip).
From there? Who knows, south I rekon but the rate and destinations along the way are less clear. I'll let you know when I do.
Hope everyone is doing well and feel free to post comments or send me messages saying I'm great or full of crap or anything in between.
Peace and health,
Kelly
P.S
USBs not working so pictures today. Sorry.

Holi guacamoli!

2010-03-03T02:48:00.000-08:00

Kelly's Life
Hello again,
Holi in Bombay was really great. I planned to spend it with some couchsurfers but we had trouble getting in contact and we never met. Fortunately, so many people were celebrating just in the streets and they were quick to ask me to join them. Holi is the festival of colour which I was explained was to celebrate the harvest time and also a way of chasing away bad spirits to give a fresh new start. People seemed to celebrate it in different ways. Many people threw colour dyed water ballons others smeared the dye powder over eachother. Others cracked raw eggs over eachothers heads and many celebrated with beers, dancing and laughter.
It was a lot of fun and I was pleasantly surprised how welcoming people were in including me into their festival.
To finish off the day I went for a swim in the arabian sea with what seemed like millions of other people. The water isn't exactly clean but I'm hoping that a quick dip followed by a serious shower will prevent any harm.
Another uplifting Indian experience.

I've now just arrived in Jaipur, Rajasthan and am staying with another pleasant couchsurfer. I'm hoping to do some wwoofing at a near by farm but no dice yet.
Peace out,
Kelly
I'll try to put some fresh eye candy up soon!

Just a regular gong-show day

2010-03-03T02:21:00.000-08:00

Kelly's life
(no longer the same as Kyle's and if you are only interested in Mr. Jang then the following text may proove fruitless)

Hi everyone,
This morning was going to be the start of an extra cool day. I'm staying with a great guy named Kunal, in Mumbai, and we woke up early to make our way to his friends farm to partake in a seed saving workshop with over 70 other people and also play music and generaly relax and enjoy life. Furthermore, I had originally thought this day would conflict with the colour festival "Holi" but to my satisfaction Holi was actually the day after. "I guess I was meant to come" so I thought.
Kunal and I jumped on his bike and made our way to the farm. It was going to be a bit tricky for the dirrections we had were "clear as mud". However, about 45mins into the ride the bike started loosing power and we had to pull over. It didn't want to start. Fortunately we weren't far from a gas station that turned out to be a small mechanic shop. GREAT! They took some things apart put a liter of oil in the bike and started it up. It didn't sound very good at all but after some idling it sounded ... better? We hopped on again but not 10 mins in the bike lost power again and this time the kickstart locked up.(Later we came to the conclusion that the engine had ceased)
With some pushing, phone calls, and about 2 hrs on the side of the road Kunals friends came to the rescue attempting to pull the bike from behind the car with a nylon rope thinner than my pinky. They bought some real rope and to my surprise we made it all the way back without the knots coming undone or any wipeouts (although there were some close calls). We arrived home around 7pm.
So no seed saving or jaming but I was happy to find myself very calm and accepting of the situation. I think we had icecream later that evening so it wasn't a total loss either.
Gong-show days can happen anywhere, anytime and I got to experience it Indian Style.
Kelly

Only a one man show now

2010-02-26T02:05:00.000-08:00

Well after five months together we are finally parting ways.
Since my last entry Kyle and I have been to Amritsar, Agra, and now Mumbai. Amritsar is in Punjab and is home to the holiest Sikh temple: the Golden Temple. The atmosphere of this temple was really calming, soothing and communal. Music is played live all the time from inside the temple (the best tabla I’ve heard in India so far) people bath in the moat around the temple, and there is a free soup kitchen where you eat on the floor. The Punjabi people were so nice to us. We met a lot of people and they were just genuinely interested in us. One guy showed us around through a museum and some other places around town and treated us to icecream and chocolate. We had to twist his arm to treat him to some lassi ( yogurt drink significantly better than Yop). This was really helpful for my spirits. I think our first experiences were on the intense side when first arriving to India. I’m not saying I won’t have similar experiences later on in India but I feel ready for them and more comfortable now that I’ve had so many positive experiences.
Agra was just a quick visit to see the Taj Mahal but it was worth it. Really beautiful but not much for atmosphere on the inside and a bit expensive, but still worth it.
Our overnight train ride to Mumbai was made more exciting because we never got off the waiting list so we didn’t have our own beds on the train. People again were really nice and let us stay on the top bunks quite late until they decided to go to bed. I slept on the floor quite peacefully until I felt what I thought was a mouse running by my feet. Regardless of whether it was indeed a mouse or rat or just an inch, I strangely enough had trouble getting back to sleep.
Arriving to Mumbai was like arriving to a different country. It really has a different, a times western, feel to it. Although we’ve been to high populated places in India already, Mumbai really gives off the big city vibe. Something about the English buildings, endless black top roads, funky old English cabs, and palm trees. Kyle and I had a good time exploring the city but I can’t say I really feel well acquainted with Mumbai yet. It’s just so big.
Well, after some catch on the beach with a cricket ball, some other ceremonious activities, and about two hours of sleep Kyle left for another new adventure. I wish him the best of luck and look forward to reminiscing about these days, which will likely be referred to as ‘the glory days’, in our future meetings. It really was great traveling together.
As for now , it’s the start of my one man show in India
Thankyou to those that shared their advice and experiences with me to help me over my first hurdles in India.

The up and coming plan: I'm going to stay in Mumbai until the end of the month for Holi (the colour festival) and then head up to Rajasthan Province to hopefully wwoof at a farm there for the next couple of weeks.

Peace,
Kelly

P.S
I think Kyle and I both plan to continue writing in this blog although we will be living out rather dissimilar lives. We’ll see how it works and post here if anything changes.

Typical Valentines Day

2010-02-14T01:35:00.000-08:00

Hello, namaste!
So we are in Mcleod Ganj, Northern India 10km north of Dharamsala. This is where the Tibetan Government of Exile resides. This Valentines day was also Losar the Tibetan New Year and we got to see the Dalai lama! We waited two hours standing in a huge crowd of people to see him and hear him give a speech to celebrate and start the new year. It was worth it. He was so calm and cool and almost as surprised to see everyone waiting to see him as we were excited to see him.
McLeod Ganj is small, calm, built on the side of a mountain and more Tibetan than Indian which was really nice to see again.
Since we arrived in India we have been to two cities Varanasi where the Ganges river runs along People bath and get burned (after they have died) in and near the river to release their sins. The other is Bodhgaya where the Buddha reached enlightenment. At first I felt quite comfortable in India. Katmandu really help with the transition. It was a bigger initial shock going from Tibet to Nepal. Nepalies look more like Indians than Tibetans and Katmandu had a lot of garbage, obnoxious car horns, and dogs and cattle on the road, which is also typical of India thus far.
The big difference I feel though is the people. Until the last few days I haven't been as happy with India as other places I've been too. In Katmandu we were overwhelmed with hospitality. The people were so friendly and accomodating. Thanks guys at Panda Palace you are great! India on the other hand seemed very friendly, many people would come up to us asking where we were from but it seemed to always end with they needed money for something. People always offering to guide you and if you tell them where you are going to stay they've often said that it is full, underconstruction, really expensive or other complete outright lies. As well there are many beggers, much more than any place we've been before. I thought that I had prepared myself for this, I definitely was told about such things, but I guess not. I really want to trust people and hate feeling suspicious of people all the time.
The other major thing contributing to my uneasy feelings is that recently Kyle and I have been discussing about whether to give to beggers. All through China I often gave food (never money) to beggers but perhaps sparked by the shear number of beggers here Kyle began thinking that food is also perhaps not a good idea for it is supporting the system of begging. The more people that give to beggers the more it becomes an option for other people and the more people that rely on it. And really food for one day is not really helping them in the long term. Instead I've given to a school for poor children and to an environmental group here in Mcleod Ganj. However, telling people begging that we won't give them money or even food has been quite difficult. When I gave in the past it felt really good and there weren't as many people begging. Being asked so often and not giving is hard on me but I think it is the best thing to do. I give respect and as much positive energy as I can muster but it is still tough.
On a good note though I've been feeling better about India just in the last few days. Here in McLeod Ganj it is definitely calmer and there are fewer beggers but I'm hoping it is more that I
have been reading a lot about different organizations that I can potentially volunteer with. As well I've become a member of wwoof India and the host sound really cool. So I feel like I will be able to help people in a more significant way. Plus just yesterday Kyle and I went for a walk and found a cricket field and a match going on. After watching I saw some boys playing a small game of cricket and ask if I could join. We played and had a really good time. It was one of the few times (but there have been some previously) thus far that I've been hanging out with Indian people and had a good time having good clean fun. I really enjoyed it and didn't feel like anyone wanted money from me. One of the boys invited Kyle and I to his place for Chai. He lived in a very poor tent village and he along with many of his brothers worked as shoe shinners. He was really nice and gave us chai and biscuits and he helped me with some Hindi. We then road a bus back to McLeod Ganj together and Kyle and I offered him to have dinner with us but he declined and wished us a good night. He didn't ask for anything in return and just hoped we would see him again. It was really refreshing and inspiring.
However, today on our way through the streets we met one of his brothers and friends that were shinning shoes. We started talking and then decided that we could use a shoe shinning and support them a bit. I had some nice conversation and everything was really cool until it came time to pay. The boys tried to charge us a lot of money and I ended up paying $20 for less than an hours worth of work. "Damn it India, I was just starting to like you", I sighed to Kyle later on down the road. Lesson learned (although I thought I had already learned this lesson before, welcome to life) we really need to ask the prices of things before doing them even if the people seem really nice and friendly.
Still I'm feeling better about India and think there are a lot of good people that are genuinely interested in meeting new people and helping others for the sake of helping others. We just have been meeting many people in the tourist areas that are making a living off tourists. I feel I've been (hopefully) unrightfully cynical of India so far and am hoping to be proven so in the time to come.

Another day of learning.
I hope this finds people well
Pleace feel most welcome to share your thoughts on begging and giving and making a effective and positive contribution.
Peace from the east,
Kelly

We... are... Indians!

2010-02-04T21:20:00.000-08:00

though I'm not convinced as I haven't seen any tepees... (inside joke, sorry)

But! We are in India! Varanasi to be precise. After a long and sleepless bus ride, we've finally made it into long-awaited India. So far my first impressions are a little underwhelming. Like China, I assumed that as soon as I entered the country I would be surrounded by a swarming mass of humanity. However, like China, I wasn't.

Parts of me are glad that I am getting used to life in the east. I don't get annoyed by the constant pressuring of touts and rickshaws. However, sometimes I wonder if I'm becoming desensitized and a little complacent about life here. We often see groups of people who seem to have just arrived from the western countries and life seems so new and exciting to them. Mostly I just sit there smugly watching them and hoping that I don't look like them, but on occasion I am envious of the freshness and newness of life around them.

Such is life I suppose. Anyways, I'll be able to romanticize all the things I've done later when I return, so it will all sound so fresh and exciting. What a joy memory can be...!

However, a new country always holds a certain excitement to it, and though India seems much like Nepal right now, I'm sure it has much in store for us. Reading about India in our trusty guidebook has made me realize that my trip is ending shortly. What to do in India for a month?! This is our plan for the moment:
- few days in Varanasi
- couple of days in Bohdgaya (place where the Budha was enlightened)
- few days in Agra (Taj Mahal)
- few days in Dharamsala (Tibet government in exile)
- few days in Rishikesh (Hindu place... don't know much about it)
- maybe a day in Delhi
- few days in Mumbai
Another cool thing I'm looking forward to is that on my way to Brussels, I have a 22 hour layover in Cairo, giving me an opportunity to see the pyramids.

So if you have any advice on what I should do for the next month, let me know.

Peace,

Kyle

Whoa, maybe this does work...

2010-01-05T02:12:00.000-08:00

So I'm trying a sneaky way of updating the blog because for some
reason, like facebook, China doesn't like blogspot either...

Anyways, just a quick update. Kelly and I are still in China. Right
now we're in Yunnan province making our way up to Tibet (the long way
around). Eventually we'll make it to India hopefully at the beginnig
of February and then Kelly and I part ways.

For my part (to update those friends back home who I've relied on
facebook for contacting and don't have their emails...) I'm flying out
of Bombay on the 25th of February to Brussels, visiting Jesse in the
Netherlands where she'll finishing up teaching English. Then we'll be
quickly making our way across the channel to England and Ireland then
flying back home early March (I know, I know, two months after I had
planned on being back).

On Kelly's part, he's planning on staying in India for a while longer
(who knows how long that will be...) then making his way across
southeast asia to a major port then hopefully find a boat back to
North America.

So that's the update. Hopefully it gets through. Oh, if you want me to
contact you, send me your email address an I'll get back to you
(specifically Aaron and Kevin).

Peace out,

Kyle

The beginnings of China!

2009-11-27T20:54:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody,

Sorry we haven't updated in a while. In China many internet sites are blocked including our blogg and facebook so we just figured out how to get around that.

We made it to Beijing with no problems. We even got to share the train compartment with two generous Mongols (a Mom and her son that were both hair cutters and had competed in hair cutting competitions). We've recieved so much generosity from people on our train rides here; it's made me try to be more generous as well.

Beijing is huge! but the subway system is really easy and cheap so that really helped us get around. We stayed with a couch surfer named Zhao our first few nights and he was very kind to us. He helped us with our Chinese, helped me in the market, and we watched a movie about the history of Mao (China's Communist Party leader from 1949 to 1979). Quite interesting but hard to follow, that could be said for all three activities.

We went to the forbiden city which was also really big and there wasn't too many people there either which was nice, although at the entrance and exit we still got bombarrded with people trying to sell us stuff. Some parts of the forbidden city were really calming with large trees built into the architecture. There were many temples for all sorts of things like for the emperor to live, a resting place on the way to another place and other temples to get ready for certain occasions. Not all of them seemed so necessary. Often the emperors would never leave this place and it was only open to the public in (I think) the 1970's sometime.

We also went to the great wall which was pretty crazy. Some parts were built on a very narrow ridge of some high mountains. Kind of wonder why you would need a wall there but it looks really cool. In was neat to walk on the parts that hadn't be restored yet. We also went on a zip line from the wall across a river which was pretty cool.

We stayed in at a hostel for part of our stay in Beijing located in the hutong district which is a place with mostly single floor homes and cafes and very narrow passage ways. These places were very different from the almost futuristic scene we saw when we went out to the olympic stadiums. I think China if not just Beijing if full of these contrasts. There's also lots of people selling food and lots of other things on the street. We've been eating a lot of the food from these vendors. It helps us practise our chinese, at least the numbers, and also with the bartering, which I've been getting better at but often forgot about in the begginning. They've got baked yams, dumplings, crepe like sandwhiches, and normal hot sandwhiches with fried potatoes and vegies, as well as cobs of corn and soup which is serve in a bowl but with a plastic bag covering the inside of the bowl. Yeah, everything is given to you in a thin plastic bag. I've been trying to reuse these bags with the vendors though and it's been working not bad. We've also tried hot pot on numerous occasions and I've been trying to increase my hot spice tolerance but with the hot pot is usually gives me an extra tough spice work out. We also got a taste of the Beijing duck too which was really tendor.

I went to an improvization night to help support some local NGO's in Beijing that were working towards making Beijing's energy more sustainable and less polluting as well as working with migrant workers to increase there confidence and leardership skills in order to get better more fullfilling jobs. It made me want to get volunteering which I think will happen when we get down south. We plan to spend more time there.

The air pollution here may not be as bad as Ulaanbaatar but Kyle and I still have been waking up with soar throats. People mostly use coal for heating and cooking and you can see motorcycle trucks (a three wheeled motorcycle with a big box in the back for carrying stuff) carrying it around all the time. As well smoking is allowed almost everywhere including busses and trains so that has been paying its toll on our throats as well.

From Beijing we left for a "small" town called Datong south-west of Beijing. We've been finding that "small" towns in China aren't all that small, for example "small" town Datong has about 1.1million people! We went to the Yungang Caves which involved Kyle and I riding a motorcycle taxi together. The caves were built in the 400's to 500's and have all sorts of buddha statues carved into the stone in the caves. It was really quite neat; the biggest buddha was 17m high! The area around the caves was also interesting because there was a lot of construction going on, due to it being the off season, and they were planting trees everywhere. Not just sapplings, they were planting 20ft trees with a crain. They wanted the place to look good for next year. Makes me wonder how new some of the trees and other sites we've seen really are. We heard from some other people that tourist areas are really good at making new things look old. One place was planting grass in the roofs of houses so that soon it would look like the houses were so old and unkept that grass was now growing out of them.

We went to the Hanging Monastery, which is really just hanging there on the side of a really big cliff face. We also went for a special karaoke night with a couchsurfer which was quite a different experience from what we are used to. We went to a really fancy looking place and waited in the lobby to what seemed like a really fancy hotel. Turns out this building has hundreds of rooms just for a small group of people to come use karaoke and they were all full on a tuesday night so we had to wait awhile. Quite popular. We had fun in the end though.

Now we are in Taiyuan which is the dragon city (capital city) of the Shanxi province and staying with a nice couch surfer named Della who has been really fun. We went to a park that was the palace of the dragons (emperors) of Taiyuan and it was very similar to the forbidden city accept smaller. We also got to play PING PONG!, our first time in China. Strangely enough the place we went had more people playing pool than pingpong but we still had a good time. We also went to the museum here and learned that Shanxi is an area full of archelogical findings which they are able to say that humans and the written history here dates back to 20,000 year bc.

Now we are on our way to Pingyao, only 450,000 people! It's one of the best preserved ancient walled cities in China. Should be pretty cool.

Hope everyone is doing well. Today is the first sunday of advent so Kyle and I can now start singing christmas songs. Horray!

Peace,

Kelly

Quick update

2009-11-14T01:22:00.000-08:00

Hello friends and fam!
We've had a really nice time here in Mongolia with a big thanks to Anne (Kyle's cousin once removed, yeah we figured it out finally) and Sam for letting us stay with them and being so hospitable and kind.
After waiting in a stagnant line for almost an hour the ticket booth sudenly was thrown into activation mode and people almost step over eachother to get their tickets. We got one! so we will be heading to Beijing early tomorrow morning and arriving the day after that. Unfortunately we couldn't make our way south first on the local train and see the Gobi because the local trains are still closed. Can't win them all.

The Plan:
Beijing tomorrow.
Stay there for a few days maybe a week
Then south along the east coast until we get to Guangzhou (sorry about my spelling there)

Lots of love,
Kelly

More Eye Candy

2009-11-06T21:52:00.000-08:00

Top: Border town in Russia.

Top 2: Kelly and Kyle arrive into Irkutsk, Russia (Kelly was tired).
3: Red Square in Moscow
4: Right Kyle's favorite thing at the Hermitage (a wheel chair elevator)

Eye Candy

2009-11-06T21:41:00.000-08:00

Left: One of our last days on the Finnish Tour. Alunda, on her side here, was exhausted.
Below: Kyle holding us up again!!

L
Left: Chilling in a cafe in St. Petersburg.
Below: Ekenas, Finland. Our accomadation for the night after a long rainy day.

Left: Talliin, Estonia. From the roof of couchsurfers place.

Land of the Mongols

2009-11-06T20:41:00.000-08:00

Sam bah Know! (Can you guess? Hello in Mongolian)

So we have arrived into Mongolia! We've been here now for almost two weeks actually. We trained to Ulaanbaatar where we spent a couple days touring around the city and desperately trying to get rid of our colds as most people walked the streets with face masks, attempting to protect themselves from the Swine flu. (Just today we had to get face masks in order to use one of the only remaining open internet cafes. Fortunately I was allowed to wear my balaclava so I didn't have to buy a mask. Yay!)

Then we headed out for a horse riding trek to the "Ancient Capital": a small, quite unexciting town. The horse trek was really cool. The highlight for me and I think Kyle too was staying with Nomadic families in their Gers ( smallish, circular, mobile houses that we know as Yurts but here they are called Gers pronounced Gears).
We stayed with one family for three nights and got to help with scooping poop, herding cows, goats, sheep, and horses, choping wood, taking care of calves, leading massive Yaks, and taking down, moving and reconstructing one of the Gers! Amoung many other things. We were constantly summond by whistles or pointing gestures to our next task for the day.
I really enjoyed it. The families really took us in and put us to work! Which made me feel like I was contributing and earning my keep.
We also ate all our meals together with the families, which consisted of meat, home made noodles or bread and almost every kind of concocktion you can think of from cow, goat, and/or horse milk. Lots of dairy products: milk teas, cold horse milk beer, incredibly hard yogourt cookies, soft butter or cream pancakes/creepes.
Living in a Ger we quickly found out that privacy is non-existent and that, at least in one family, yelling is niether uncommon nor taken all that seriously.

We have just arrived back into Ulaanbaatar again and are staying with Kyle's second cousin and are hoping to get involved with some volunteer work. However, the odds are not in our favor: It's winter, schools (as well as the "Black" market, many internet cafes and bars) have been closed due to swine flu, and major roads in Mongolia are soon to be closed to try to stop the spread of the swine flu. Meaning that we can't help in the schools, agricultural projects are at a stand still, and rural areas will not be accessible. So we'll just have to see and hope we can leave in the next couple weeks when our visas expire!!
We were quite lucky however, to have done our horse trek when we did and arrive back in UB before the road closures as well our stay with Kyle's relatives have been great so far. Very interesting hearing what they have to say and great hospitality.

The Tentative Plan:
Stay in UB for the next week or so
Then make our way south to see the Gobi desert and hopefully stay with a friend in a southern town
The take the train or bus to Beijing and likely along the east coast from there.

Take care everybody
Enjoy the day (it's all you have)
Kelly

Kelly's Russian Observations

2009-11-05T16:23:00.000-08:00

“Dobrea utra” (good morning in Russian) friends,
Although our stay in Russia was rather short I feel like I came across a lot of interesting things.
The culture seems to be shockingly different than the ones I've come
across so far. Here are some of my observations (perhaps completely
unrepresentative but this is what my [limited] experience has revealed to
me).

Hard to Communicate
When we first arrived, St. Petersburg was a busy place: crazy traffic,
lots of small scale construction (one or two men working with hand tools on the side of the road) that would continue until 9 or 10 at
night, and plenty of uniformed men (police and many different types of army
uniforms). Asking for directions or answers often proved unsuccessful for no
one that we asked spoke english, even the younger generation which was a
bit of a surprise for me. It seems that Russian people are less willing to communicate non-verbally. Once they heard that we didn’t speak Russian they would just not bother. The common response to our questions was a quick "no".
However, we did meet some extremely hospitable, kind and generous Russian people that showed us around and made large efforts to communicate with us in English and/or sign/body language. Namely, Sasha, Masha, Denis and his Mom. Thanks again you really made our travels through Russian fun and insightful.

Tough outer shell
People walking in the streets predominantly wore tough or grumpy faces and
I found myself commonly doing the same in order to blend in and to feel
less like a target. It was, surprisingly, fun. We called it our "Russian
night time faces and voices". But it was also hard to meet people because
I felt like I had to be tough and talking to people made me feel more
vulnerable or weak. Friendly people are so much easier to confront. And
often when people did smile I felt it was more like a sneer or smirk, like
they were laughing or making fun of us. That's just the feeling I got
though. People did laugh and make small talk with eachother at times too. A friend from Belgium made an interesting point that people in Russia haven't experienced democracy like we "the west" have. The USSR only broke up in 1991, not so long ago at all, and people are still very affected by that. Perhaps a
reason for the less showing of emotions in the streets. I also read in a
book called "Russia" which gathered, via personal interviews, that Russia is still not in a democracy, that the elections were fixed, and that people aren't really happier now than they were before.
We were also told that once you get to know someone in Russia they can be really kind but it is a steep curve to get over.

Social interaction:
The way Russian people talk to eachother or to foreigners seems to be very
attacking and also very honest and blunt. Listening to our hostel
receptionist in Moscow converse with the guests really showed me this. But
this also seems very normal for them and that they don't take offense. This is just the way the communicate.This was hard for me to understand. I kept taking offense.

Bribes and theft:
Bribes and mugging seems to be just a part of life.
A friend described mugging as such:
Perhaps I would get stopped by the police
They'll say I ran a red light or made a mistake.
They'll ask what shall we do about this?
She might say Well you know I'm a poor student and I don't have much money.
And they'll say maybe we'll have to take away your license?
And she'll say, well maybe I can pay something? (I'm not sure about the
last line there but it ends in paying off the police). This is because the
police don't get paid so much but the bribes don't stop there. That police
officer will then have to bribe her boss for something and that boss
bribes her boss all the way up to the government level and then to
corporations perhaps.

Theft also seems to be rather frequent. A friend told me that her mother
got her purse stolen so many times she lost count and that it is quite
common that a person has been robbed or pick pocketed at least once in St.
Pete. “Yeah it sucks but you live through it”, seemed to be the attitude.

Food:
Russians also drink a lot of tea. The trains would have hot water on demand and lent out free tea cups. They are not too big into vegetables though, which I think may have something to do with poor people growing a lot of there own vegetables. Hence, eating vegetables is seen as a lower class thing to do.

More differences:
The Suana or Banya seems to be common but it is apparantly not as hot
However you get hit with sticks during the process and wear a funny hat to
protect yourself from your hair.

When I mentioned that I wanted to help out, "contribute", along my travels
a friend I met in Russia told me that was a very western thing to do and that
Russian people really don't have this need or desire.

Of course, I noticed that trash on the street is very common and that
there is no signs of recycling or composting and the tap water is not
drinkable. However, I found out that in Irkutsk there is an environmental
movement going on that I was completely unaware of which means that there
could be the same movments in St. Pete and Moscow that I'm not aware of
either.

Well, again these are just my observations and experiences but I thought
it might be interesting. I found it interesting. Please feel free to make
comments or questions about them. I hope I didn't offend anyone. I've
tried to be as true to my experience as possible.

Keep on learning and teaching
Kelly

How to "GET BETTER!" in Russia...

2009-10-25T05:45:00.001-07:00

This year for my birthday I got a cold. Fortunately for me, this date
was also directly before I was to be in a train for a good 80 hours
with a Russian mother and her 13 year old translator son (he knew how
to count very well at least).
I soon found out that the trick to getting over sickness in Russia is
to eat. A lot. And it's not just any food that you eat. It's anything
and everything that has at least enough sugar or fat in it to kill all
those germs. For me, this meant cookies with "NOT LITTLE" jam on it (I
feel the need to write what was said in Russian in capital letters,
for it seems like everything is spoken that way). Once the cookies ran
out, I was to put jam in my tea. Once I couldn't drink any more tea, i
was to just eat spoonful of jam. Of course after every dosage of sugar
I was to sleep, which wasn't exactly easy. But when a Russian tells
you to do something, there's no way out. After my sugar overload, it
was time for pre-packaged chicken drumsticks with salami and cheese.
And then the train stopped, more cookies were bought, and more cookies
were stuffed into me.

It's quite funny, because I quite enjoy these foods in and of
themselves (except maybe the pre-packaged chicken legs...) however the
quantity of it all spoiled the effect.

It seems that everything in Russia is a bit forcefull. I later found
out that when someone sneezes in Russia, they respond with "GET
BETTER!" said of course with much gusto.

Oh Russia... Well, I'm in Mongolia now and still have a cough. I think
I'll try some other recipes for getting better. I'm actually quite
self conscious about it here because half the population of
Ulaanbaatar are wearing facemasks... Apparently there's been a big
outbreak recently here. Here's hoping!

Peace out world,

Kyle

p.s. For those of you who didn't notice, Kelly and I are now sharing
this blog. We've decided, in order to cut back on tensions over
writing style, that when we write together, it will be more of a
update, when we write independently, it will be whatever we like

Dabroe Pushalavitz v'Russio (Welcome to RUSSIA!)

2009-10-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

Priviet world (please forgive our rough Russian transliterations),

I suppose it has been a while since we have updated you on our adventure. Since we last wrote, we have had many adventures through many different places. Our first adventure was still in Finland where first my bike, Charlie, broke his neck and then later, after recontructive surgery, his friend, Alunda, broke her ankle. We were very lucky both times as the first time we were in a town with a bike shop and the second time, though we were out in the boonies, we knocked on a random door and a very nice lady offered to drive Kelly and Alunda to the nearest town where she happened to be friends with a bike mechanic.

The next few days we spent on our trusty bikes and we eventually made it to Helsinki. Our last night on our bikes was perfect as we found a wonderful little pinninsula just outside of Helsinki to set up camp. We spent that night relaxing with the sound of the ocean lulling us to sleep.

From Helsinki we decided to spend a couple of days in Tallinn, Estonia. This was a wonderful little medieval town. We were initiated to the town by our couchsurfer friend Toomas, who when we arrived at his place, he immediately brought us up on his roof (he already lived in an attic) to show us the views and places of the old town. This was quite nerve racking as we climbed up a steep ladder and crossed a narrow ridge to get to this little platform to stand on. Later Kelly went up there for some quiet time and lost a boot... Luckily it fell down right outside our window, however it was still quite the adventure trying to retrieve it.

After we spent a couple of days in Tallinn we couldn't help but notice that every store seemed to be either a souvenier shop or a restaraunt. Luckily, we were there in the off season as we were told that the streets are packed in the summer receiving an average of 4-9 thousand new tourist daily! We were also lucky to have our own personal tour guide, Stewart, from England who has been in and out of Tallinn for the past few years. He taught us some history and showed us some cool bars. Thanks Stewart!

We left Tallinn and returned to Helsinki. We never really gave Helsinki much of a chance, as we were quite tired. However, we did manage to sneak a sauna (Sa-U-na) in, which was extremely relaxing. Kyle, unfortunately, rediscovered that he's quite the wimp when it comes to extreme tempuratures. We then headed to the town center and had a sad farewell to our faithful companions, Alunda and Charlie. Alunda found a new home with an older lady and hopefully Charlie has found a good home as well. You both served us well!

We then headed to our German couchsurfers dorm where we spent the night relaxing and talking politics. Early the next morning, we headed on the train to St. Petersburg.

St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg. What a good place. We really enjoyed our time in St. Pete's. When we arrived, we were walking around the streets with all our bags and were a little lost, when out of the blue, two young ladies approached us and told us that they saw us in Tallinn a couple of days ago. Now this was strange for two reasons. One, because St. Petersburg is a huge city. And two, because Russians don't tend to be the kind of people who just talk to anybody on the street. Especially in English. Our usual response from people is "Niet... no."

Well, they ended up giving us a ride to our hostel, which turned out to be a funny place. The landlady didn't speak a word of English, and our Russian was even more limited than it is now. We eventually got things figured out though, and then Sasha and Alisa took us out to a student pub where we enjoyed some fine Russian cuisine and of course, vodka.

Later that night, Sasha was nice enough to drive us around the city, showing us all the unusual sights plus she saved us from getting mugged. It's always good to have a Russian at your disposal in Russia!

The next day was a long one. First, we headed to the Hermitage. We tried to get our tickets for the local price, but ended up failing as our fake Russian accents were a little too obvious... not to mention lack of Russian identification. We spent a good deal of time admiring all the works in there... but apparently you'd need two years if you spent one minute at each exhibit if you went for 8 hours a day. I guess we need to go back some day.

Later, we met up with our second St. Petersburg tour guide, Masha. She took us on a walking tour of the city and we had a good time just hanging out, playing music, jumping on bridges, and crossing streets when the light was red! Masha's favourite.

Masha then handed us over to Sasha who took us first to a vegetarian restaraunt (rare in Russia) then to a couple of bars. We had a good time playing foosball (Canada dominated) and just hanging out. The night turned into morning and we found ourselves walking Sasha home which was on the street that Dostoevsky lived on, with his famous park. We eventually made it back home at around 5 in the morning.

Our plans for the next day didn't quite work out as we got a little lost and couldn't find some places. That meant that we couldn't play ping pong :(. After walking around for a while, we decided that we should just head back to the train station and wait for our train to Moscow. Luckily, we did meet up with Masha for another music session, and then Sasha came to wish us fairwell. Thanks so much to both of you for a wonderful time!

Moscow was a little different. We only had two days there and we were really tired from St. Pete's. But we did manage to go to a nice gallery and hang out with some couchsurfers whom we played mafia with. The next day we went around the Red Square and all the other touristy things. But we were looking forward to our 3 day long train ride to rest.

Now we're in Irkutsk. The train ride was quite exciting as we got to meet some interesting people. Most notably Denis and his mom Larissa. They were so kind to us and helped Kyle get over his cold. We traded gifts with each other and had an all around good time. Now we're in Irkutsk for 3 days, then off to Ulaanbaatar on the 25th. There, we will meet up with Kyle's mom's cousin, Anne, who with her husband, are missionaries there.

Well, that's all for now. We'll update sooner next time with pictures.

Peace out G's.

Kyle and Kelly

Rain Riding

2009-10-07T09:39:00.000-07:00

Hello!
We are still alive.
We are currently in a lovely library in Ekeräs. We've been on our bikes for four days now and things have been going pretty well but also wet. Our first night we found refuge from the rain by sleeping under a bridge. We made our way easily to the ferry and to Åland. Leaving from Åland was a bit luckier of an experience for we just made the ferry unknowingly due a time change we weren't aware of. As well this ferry turned out to be "The Booze Cruise". There were multiple dance floors, a club, bars, hundreds of middle aged people dressed up in their sunday bests, and a complete supermarket on board selling everything cheap and duty free! Kyle and I didn't partake in most of these luxuries. We then arrived into Turku to stay with a couch surfer whom showed us some of the typical beers of finland. We didn't linger long though as we were off the next day to a National Park called Teijo and we learned the definition of Bike Route for our map. Sometimes it means a nice secluded bike path only for walkers and cyclists but it can also mean highways with micro shoulders or random roads full of pot holes and steep hills. Today we woke up to the sound of rain drops on the tent. We thought we'd wait until it let up a bit. No dice and it proved to be the wettest day so far. Soaked, and unfortunately where we placed our packs the night before in a heavy duty tarp bag turned into a large puddle soaking most of our things as well. D'oh.
With such wet conditions we hesitantly decided to invest in an indoor accomodation for the night. A small cabin by the water that is fully packed with makeshift clothe drying lines. Hope there will be room for us to sleep in there.
Still smiling
We've seen some really nice views over here in the land of Fin.
Hope everyone is enjoying there nice dry existence for the moment.
Peace,
Kelly and Kyle
p.s.
We'll try to post some pictures soon

Upwards and Onwards

2009-10-02T15:32:00.000-07:00

It's been 10 days in and it's time to move on. During this time we managed to bike to and from Stockholm; help dig out an allotment of land; steal bike parts, fix bikes, break bikes, repeat; witness an epileptic seizure and call Swedish 911; and explore Kelly's most recent home.

But we must go. Our bikes are finally ready, and so are our spirits. Tomorrow we head off on our bikes to Helsinki, where we'll catch a train to St. Petersburg. Here is our route if you wish to follow along.

Oct 3 - start biking to Grisslehamn, Sweden (Northeast of Uppsala)

Oct 4 - take a ferry (traditionally called the booze cruise, due to lack of taxing of alcohol) to the island of Åland

Oct 5 - take the ferry to Turku, Finland

Oct 6-10 - bike from Turku to Helsinki

Oct 10 - take the ferry to Tallinn, Estonia

Oct 11 - Explore Tallinn

Oct 12 - take ferry back to Helsinki

Oct 13 - hop on a train to St. Petersburg

That's the plan anyways. It should turn out to be something similar.

Until next time... peace,

Kyle and Kelly

The Journey has begun

2009-09-24T01:27:00.000-07:00

Well I made it to Uppsala, Sweden where I was met by the infamous Kelly Toots.

The trip was quite ineventful physically, however emotionally it was quite rivetting. I was really nervous as I left Seattle for Iceland. I was nervous as to how this trip was going to affect me. I flew over the Okanagan on my way to Reykjavik, and my heart just sank, realizing that I was not going to see my home for a long time. By the time I made it to Reykjavik, I fully realized that this trip is going to be as much of a spiritual journey as it is anything else. I am hoping that this will give me that tangible experience that I have been longing for. However, I think it will take many miracles for me to keep my focus on this.

I hope and pray that God will be faithful and keep me faithful.

On another note. I have really enjoyed what I have seen of Sweden so far. Uppsala is an old university town and it is full of students riding bikes. The European architecture and design feels so warm, inviting, wise and intimidating all at once.

Kelly is going to show me more around today, then we will hopefully fix up the bikes a bit more so that we have transportation to Finland! I was forced to stay awake until a decent hour last night, so my jet lag is not bad at all. Thank goodness.

Peace out world,

Kyle

Leaving (For real this time!)

2009-09-20T09:38:00.000-07:00

Well, the time has come. I ended up having to delay my flight because of visa reasons. Apparently it's really difficult to get a Chinese visa outside of Canada.

So now I'm off and ready to go. I don't fly out until Tuesday, but I'm heading down to Vancouver to visit family for one last time before I leave.

Peace out North America, I'll see you next year.

Kyle

(possible) set-back #1

2009-09-09T20:07:00.000-07:00

Uh ohs... So, due to my stupidity and Canada Post's incompetence, I may not have a passport by the time I need it!

I sent it to the Mongolian Embassy in Ottawa via Priority mail expecting it to get there within 2 days. It took 3. And I didn't account for Labour Day... so now it's going to be a close call. I was planning on heading down to Vancouver on Sunday so I could get my Chinese visa on Monday, then go down to Seattle and fly to Sweden on Tuesday... however, if I don't get my passport... I suppose that won't happen.

Hopefully it's on it's way and will arrive on Friday. If not, my options are to rebook my flight (which would cost a bit) or try to get my Chinese visa somewhere else, maybe Sweden.

Any thoughts?

The Plan

2009-09-05T20:19:00.000-07:00

10 days until I head off to Sweden to start my adventure across Asia with the one and only Kelly Toots.

It all started with a random email from Kelly. He said he wanted to go to India for a bit and was thinking about going there by land. He knew that I wanted to go to China, so he invited me along. Who could say no to that?

Our plan is open ended. We're not really sure what is going to happen. We have a general idea of what we want to do, however, things may change completely.

Here's the plan:

- Have Kelly show me around Sweden a bit.

- Ferry across to Finland (maybe stop in Estonia)

- Bike across Finland to St. Petersburg, Russia

- Train down to Moscow

- Train to Irkutsk

- Train to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

- Train to Beijing, China

- Explore around China

- Train to Lhasa, Tibet

- Bike to Kathmandu, Nepal

- Hike to Mt. Everest base camp

- Bus to Varanasi, India

- Explore around India

- Fly home

Hopefully we'll get to do a lot of the things on the list. But it will be an adventure nonetheless.

This is where I'll be documenting significant events that happen. If you'd like to follow us on our trip, this is where to do it.

Happy travels,

Kyle