Waltz With Bashir Trailer TRUE-HD Official

an animated movie about the 1982 massacre by idf forces in the palestinian refugee camps of sabra and shatilla......outside of beirut.

this was done by an ex idf soldier and is a must see. i believe it is up for an oscar this year.

genocide to genocide...so sad

it's good to be home!

aaaahhhhh.....a beautiful morning here in the bow valley!  honestly, it just doesn't get much better than this!  we have lots of snow, them temperature is up in acceptable ranges, the sun is lovely and the mountains are alive!

for the past few days i have been back country skiing.....yippee!  and today, i'm off to sunshine for a day of either downhill skiing or snowboarding!  i'm so freaking happy to be home!!!  i love it! love it!   love it!

i am off to vancouver the middle of february for an advanced final cut editing course and a black and white landscape photography course.  i love b/w!  i love editing!  i love vancouver!  i love my friends and family there.........i'm full of love dudes!

but for now, i am happy here in manmore!!  oh god, everywhere i look in this town there are beautiful, athletic men......men out skiing, men doing yoga, men out climbing and beautiful men sitting in the cafes drinking tea.....thank you santa!

i'm off to the hills babies!

i'm looking forward to 2009

we shouldn't forget this....

john said it best....i wish everyone a happy christ-mas, muslim-mas, jew-mas, buddha-mas, atheist-mas or whatever is your fancy. please, please, wherever you are at.....kick your warmonger 'leaders' to the curb....we are so much better than that

i miss nights in tokyo

learning about varanasi....

varanasi was once known as benares, banaras and kashi, it is a very historical city in northern india. the city is sacred to hindus and is also one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.

varanasi is the place where many pilgrims do their devotions in the river ganges at sunrise set against the back drop of the centuries old temples.  this is probably one of the most impressive sights in the world.

varanasi was likely named for the two rivers that it sits by, the varuna and the assi.  the varuna enter the ganga from the north and the assi enters the ganga in the south.  thus making the name varuna-assi because of the two rivers.

varanasi has nearly 100 ghats.  many of the ghats were built when the city was under maratha control,  marathaas, shindes, holkars, bhonsles and peshwes stand out as patrons of present-day varanasi.

dashashwamedh ghat is located close to 'vishwanath temple', and is probably the most spectacular ghat.  two hindu mythologies are associated with it:  according to one, lord brahma created it to welcome lord shiva.  according to another, lord brahma sacrificed two horses in a yajna here.  a group of priests daily perform in the evening at this ghat 'agni pooja' (worship to fire) where a dedication is made to lord shiva, river ganga, the sun, agni (fire) and the whole universe.

two legends are associated with the manikarnika ghat:  according to one, it is believed to be the place where lord vishnu dug a pit with his chakra and filed it with his perspiration while performing various penances.  while lord shiva was watching vishnu at that time, the latter's earring (manikarnika) fell into the pit.  according to the second legend, in order to keep lord shiva from moving around with his devotees, his consort parvati hid her earrings, and asked him to find them, saying that they had been lost on the banks of the ganga.  goddess parvati's idea behind the lie was that lord shiva would then stay around, searching forever for the lost earrings.  in this legend, when a body  gets cremated at the manikarnik ghat, lord shiva asks the soul whether it has seen the earrings.

hindus believe that bathing in the ganga remits sins and that dying in kashi ensures release of a person's soul from the cycles of its transmigrations.  hindus regard kashi as one of the shakti peethas and that vishalakshi stands on the spot where goddess satis earrings fell.  hindus of the shakti sect make a pilgrimage to the city because they regard river ganga itselfas goddess shakti.  adi shankara wrote his commentaries on hinduism here, leading to the great hindu rivalry.  vaishnavism and shaivism have always co-existed in varanasi in harmony.

varanasi is one of the holiest places in buddhism to, being one of the four pilgrimage sites said to have been designated by gautama buddha himself, (the others being kushinagar, bodh gaya, and lumbini).  in a residential are of varanasi lies sarnath, the site of the deer park where gautama buddha is said to have given his first sermon on the basic principles of buddhism.  the dhamek stupa is one of the few pre-ashokan stupas still standing, though only its foundation still remains.   also remaining is the chaukhandi stupa commemorating the spot where buddha met his first disciples (pre 5th century b.c.).  an octagonal tower was later built there.

just beautiful!

the last few

the fifth king...jigme khesar namgyel wangchuk

just like being there....

i keep finding photos i like....

random bhutan..

some more from bhutan

more varanasi

varanasi

fish bait........mmmmm yummy!!

this morning sky and i went back down to the fish market to buy 2 more cups since i only had bought 6 and apparently i can only be satisfied by having 8 cups!  good grief!  and this time i took my video camera with me and i can't wait to post the video to my blog when i get home!!  it is such a cool place. 

there were so many samples of the squishy and odd foods out today!  we ate so many samples that i don' think that i could eat one other thing today.  i really love daikon and i usually eat it when it has been grated and it's raw, and i've ate it pickled..... but today i bet i ate the daikon root pickled a thousand different ways and both sky and i loved each different way!!!

we also tried pickled beans (odd, but good) and many kinds of fish done many different ways. now i have to tell you a funny story......only eat samples where there are japanese people gathered, never be the only whitey eating at the booth!!  sky and i were eating these little fish flakes and we were like......mmmmm, yummy this is so salty and ssssoooo good......   only to discover that we were eating fish bait!!!  oh gross, after we got over the yuck factor,  we discussed why fish were attracted to hooks cause bait is actually pretty damn good!!!  if i ever get really poor....i'm not going to be one of those people who eat cheap dog food man!!!  i'm going to go straight for the fish bait, it's really cheap and pretty freaking tasty!!  and if i go ice fishing this winter.....i'll surely know what bait to put on!

it's another sunny day here in tokyo and i'm spending this last little bit of time walking the streets, taking the subway and sitting here in the apple store fondling the merchandise!  i'm sad to leave and happy to go home.  i'm  a walking riddle!  wayne forwarded me the environment canada weekly forecast.....-32 for the day i'm meant to arrive back in calgary!!  wtf?????  -20 is a totally fair and decent weather for arriving back to canada in the winter......-32 is not!!!  damn you canada, damn you!!!!

......tomorrow.......leaving on a jet plane, don't know when i'll be back again........that song always plays in my head when i'm leaving to go home.  origato, thanks for listening to me....and now i'm off to my room to let the fish bait digest!

goodbye japan and hello canada........

morning in akhibara...

this morning we went to sky's favorite part of tokyo.....akhibara!  this part of the city is stuffed full of everything that goes with anime and manga and is kind of seedy!  big breasted, animated women stare back from the comic book covers at you and there seems to be some perverts lurking about!!!!   but it is a fun place to sit on the street and watch the world go by!  and since i can't keep up with sky's excited pace while she is in these shops.....i usually just hold the bags and sit on the streets waiting for her to exit!!!  ever since sky could hold a pencil, she has drawn this japanese style of art.....many people have told me that she must have been japanese in her last life.

the weather here has been sunny and gorgeous.  yesterday we went out to shinjuku and shopped around.  but near to the subway station was a beautiful park full of leafy trees and we sat there for a while and enjoyed the sun.  the air was so fresh and warm and slowly the leaves were falling from the trees around us....it felt like a perfect canadian fall day!

tomorrow is our last full day here and i feel a little sad.....so happy to get home, but sad because it won't be long before i find myself sitting at my computer telling myself that i'm going to travel less, but slowly finding myself googling different parts of the world and getting excited. this is the life of a gypsy i guess.......

i am going to miss tokyo a lot!  today i found a food hall that had so many different kinds of seaweed salads that i almost fainted with excitement!  and some man gave me a cup of saki to try and it reminded me so much of sitting around in bhutan and drinking ara with my bhutanese family........and then i really started missing them!  this trip has been an incredible experience.

let's see this journey started off in bhutan.....and spending time with some of my most favorite people in the world and going to the king's coronation and witnessing a wonderful king who takes the time to greet his people and express his sincerity to them. and seeing the monasteries, the monks and those incredible himalayas always looming in the background. then my mom and i moved onto india ......and riding an indian train for 24 hours is an experience onto itself!!

spending those days in varanasi....even though the indian people can drive me a little insane sometimes!!.......was just such an incredible experience.  just to sit there and watch the people bathing themselves in such a holy river and feeling the spirituality of the place.  watching my mom experience the burning ghats and seeing the look on her face as she tried to understand that process.  varanasi is a place where people come to die, but it takes awhile to sink in.  and watching how much celebrating the indian people do!!  there is dancing and parades daily and nightly.  celebrating life and celebrating death.......

then moving onto thailand and doing a very good cleanse and watching your health and the health of others repair in front of your eyes......getting massages, colonics, detox wraps, doing yoga, drinking wheatgrass and ginger teas!  just feeling your body get stronger and letting go of all those stresses and toxins and sharing your experiences with like minded people.....and always surrounded by the gentle and sweet thai people.

and then getting caught in a country on the verge of a civil war that is over-throwing it's government.  this has happened to me so many times while i've travelled to various places now that i barely even bat an eye!!!  i respect their understanding of democracy.....we canadians could really take lessons from them!!  all we do is sit around a bitch and complain about our crappy governments!  in bangkok, hundreds of women in their 50's with bad perms and big sunnys on packed up their bed rolls and occupied the airports.....effectively shutting down the tourist season for a week, freaking foreigners out and in the end....causing their government to dissolve parliament and call for a new election!   i say bravo....when i get home, i'm going to occupy the calgary airport and see if they'll remove steven harper!!!!!

and tokyo is like the icing on the cake at the end of this trip.  a country steeped in tradition but more modern and fast paced than anywhere else i've been.  tokyo is full of wonderful and very respectful, decent people......and getting to be here with sky in her favorite place.  what a treat this whole time has been.  i'm one lucky girl!

wayne sent an email last night saying that canmore is going to be -20 c on saturday.....perhaps i'm not quite ready to put back on my winter skin??????

tsukiji fish market

this morning we walked from our hotel to the tsukiji fish market, which is the biggest fish market in the world.  and a whole different world than the rest of ginza!  this market just blows my mind! about 90% of the stuff in there....i don't even recognize at all and i'm a huge fan of sashimi and seaweeds!!!!

there are vendors selling tons of sea creatures and many other slimy and squishy looking things. there are loads of drying seaweeds, mushrooms and other sea vegetables.  matcha teas and beautiful sashimi knives, ceramic tea pots and bowls of every size!  i love it there, the atmosphere is electric and as we are getting closer and closer to the new year, the japanese people are there in droves picking up special items for their new years celebrations.

we wandered through the little alleys stopping for tea and walking into the little sushi shops to eat fish so fresh that it would have been swimming just this morning.  i love walking into those little places and hearing everyone shout irshamasae (welcome) in their loudest and happiest voices and someone comes rushing over with a cup of fresh matcha as you wait for your miso and other food.  i could just spend days wandering through those little alleys full of hidden treasures.....have i mentioned how much i love tokyo???

right now i am back in ginza at the mac store....or as i like to say......4 stories of heaven!!  this store is full of every imagineable kind of mac and mac computer accessory.  i feel like a kid in a candy shop.... it's like....oohhh, i want one of those and one of those and one of those!!!  the stuff in here that you could use for making documentary films is mind numbing!!!

we have spent a day in harajuku exploring stores full of funky and bizarre clothing and just people watching!   yesterday we were in shibuya which is like the shopping mecca even by tokyo standards!!  the streets are so packed full of people that it is virtually impossible to move most times!  and shops spring so high into the sky and also go on floors and floors below the streets! one of sky's favorite stores mandarake is in shibuya, it is shoved full of every kind of anime and manga book out there and it is almost impossible for me to drag her out of there, i think she would like to live in there!

tomorrow we are off to shinjuku and then akihabara.  akhiabara is sky's very favorite place in all of tokyo, it is a whole district dedicated to anime and manga and all the freakiness associated with that stuff.  figurines of all shapes and sizes!!  and books everywhere and oddities that i can barely describe.

i was having a laugh at myself this morning!  i dress very typically canadian!!  we are pretty casual dressers to say the least!!!  i was thinking that if yoga pants and flip flops look out of place in bhutan.......they REALLY look out of place here.  people in tokyo are always dressed to the nines!  no one dresses for comfort AT ALL!!!  even men have dress shoes on!  and all women have high heels and skirts!!  man, you'd have to wrestle me to the ground to get a pair of heels on me!!!!!!!!!

i have so much more to update about the other stages of my trip when i couldn't get to a computer that i can't wait to tell you more about my adventures and to post some video and pictures.  i can't wait to explain more about the places and people i seen!  it has been an incredible journey.

as each day goes on though, i find myself craving home!  sometimes the best part of travel is getting home.  sleeping in my own bed, eating salads, catching up with family and spending hours talking with friends over coffee and tea!  i have so much to catch up and i'm really starting to miss my friends!  dannie emailed me this morning and told me that we got a foot of snow just last night!!!!!!  yay, my ski pass is burning a hole in my ski jacket as we speak, and to be honest ... my canadian blood is starting to un-thaw!!!  i need snow and colder temperatures!

slowly moving west....

I'M BACK!!!!!!!   omg......it's been a long journey!!!  i don't have the time (or energy) to catch up on india or the whole getting out of bangkok story right now!!  but i will in a day or two.

i was able to leave bangkok yesterday and last night arrived in Tokyo to meet up with sky.  i love tokyo so much.  i was a little weary from the plane ride from bkk so by the time we took the train downtown, i felt a bit weary, but here is one of the reasons i love japan and especially tokyo.  we arrived at tokyo station which is huge to say the least.  sky and i wandered over to find the subway line to head into ginza and immediately a young medical student named hiro came over and offered to carry our bags and get us on the right train!  how sweet!  then when we got off at that stop, we were orientating ourselves on the streets and another group of people stopped by and gave us directions....and then offered to walk us to the hotel.  since we had no phone number for the hotel, he put the name of the hotel into his phone gps, told us that they had some time before their dinner party, and walked us to our room.  talk about starting out on a great note.

before i qo, i have to send a big hug and kiss to lisa and jun jun and their new baby....emma.  i CAN'T wait to get back to vancouver to see you guys! xoxoxoxoxo  i'm so happy for them.

now i must go......sky and i are off to harajuku to watch the sunday stroll, all those people in the wild gothic lolita clothes!!  today we are harajuku girls!!

xoxoxoxoxo......i miss everyone!

burning bodies everywhere

last night we took a boat out on the ganges and we watched some amazing ceremonies...all along the ghats people were gathered and there were hundreds of boats also full of people watching from the water. every night at 6:30 people go down to the ghats and do dancing and chanting, sadhus with vases of overflowing smoke, dancers dressed in bright colors, singing, bells clanging. there is always a celebration here in varanasi!

today we went to saranath....a very important place to buddhists........here is a short description.

Inscriptions found here refer to the site as "the Monastery of the Turning of the Wheel of the Dhamma." Known as Deer Park during ancient times, this is where the Buddha gave his first discourse to his five former companions, and where all five eventually became fully liberated. The ruins of Saranath cover an extensive area. Emperor Asoka erected a series of monuments here, including the Dhamekh Stupa which stood at a height of about 150 feet, the impressive ruins of which can still be seen today. A place of modern interest is the Mulagandhakuti Vihara erected by the Mahabodhi Society. Relics discovered at Takkasila, Nagarjunakonda, and Mirapura-khasa are enshrined here. The Lion Capital, which originally surmounted an Asokan pillar and today is the symbol of the Indian nation, now occupies a place of honour in the Saranath Museum. Saranath is located about 10 km from Varanasi in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

morning on the ganges...

this morning we got up at 5am and we took a boat ride out on the ganges. it was really beautiful and people are right....you can really begin to feel the spirituality in the air. it hangs over the river with the morning fog.

many people come down to the ganges to immerse themselves in the holy waters and to give offerings and to do puja. there are many mantras being chanted and people are putting cow's milk in the water as an offering. there are many sadhus (holy men) doing special prayers and offerings along the river as well.

the air is very thick with fog and as the sun breaks over the river, it is such an incredible sight, the sun is a beautiful glowing ball just hanging in the sky and to hear all of the mantras being chanted just adds to the mystique.

the world here is full of color and holds many ancient and sacred rituals............

now i am off to the old city and to the market to look for silver, silk and spices...........it is bound to be a day filled with madness!

too much sun and sadhus in varanasi

well, the train was good for thinking indeed! but hard on the ass! we were a little paranoid to oversleep our stop, so we pretty much stayed awake, plus it was darn loud on that train! i also got some new fleabites! i miss bhutan!

we are here now in varanasi and india is crazy as usual! it is so hot here right now, it surely must be way up in the 30's if not the 40's. even when we got off the train this morning, it was really hot and humid. we grabbed a taxi from the train station and it took only about 30 minutes to get to our guesthouse. we are staying with a lovely indian family, they are totally sweet and make us amazing food. parents, kids and grandmoms............a really big, happy family.

i'm just quickly off now to a ceremony on the holy river ganga..........the burning ghats are a feast for the eyes, ears and nose! mom was chased by a bull, she will now stay a little further away from the holy cows!

the smell of spices fill the air here and it was nice just to sit along the ghat and watch the world here go by.......sadhus (holy men), temples, people bathing in the river, people cutting their hair off for good luck, burning bodies and herds of cows...........it's a lot to take in.

well, we are off into the night and i'm looking forward to getting some sleep tonight, i'm not so good at staying awake for days in a row anymore, i must be getting old.........

packing up....moving on

as sad as it is that my time here in bhutan has come to an end, it is always exciting to move on. sometimes i hate trying to make everything fit into my pack!  but since i am a gypsy, it always feels nice to have the bag on my back!

we have made the arrangements for our train tickets from siliguri to varanasi and i even have a guesthouse near the ganga booked.  the train ride will take around 24 hours so there will be lots of time to sit back and have a good think.....

these days i'm spending a lot of time thinking about lisa and her new baby that should be due any day now!!  i'm so excited for her, having a baby is life altering in such a good way.  i have never experienced anything as selfless and caring.....sky has enhanced my life in every way possible.  i honestly would never have believed that it was possible to feel such a deep love and commitment.  even through times of  difficulty and insanity....teenage hormones, friends over messing up your house, bad marks at school, bad haircuts, constant chauffering (constant!!) back talking and smart ass comments.....would i have ever thought that i could only have someone else's wellbeing on my mind....sky has truly been my greatest gift and i love her so much and i miss her intelligence, creativity and laughter while i'm gone.

the place where we are staying at in varanasi has yoga (many different styles), meditation, philosophy and traditional medicine discussions.......this is going to be fantastic!  the world is right there for the picking.......all you have to do is hold out your hand.

in life people come and go...as has even happened recently, some people just fall away, but for those ones that are constant...............

xoxoxoxoxo to everyone that is in my thoughts and my soul.......you know who you are!!!!

hot stone bath

yesterday we drove back to paro and went up past takstang and stayed with a family and used their hot stone bath.......so amazing!  there are probably some people who don't know what this is, so i will describe it.....  a hole is cut in the ground and then the hole is cribbed with timbers. water from the stream is run into the bath which is by the fire,  river rocks are put in the fire until they are glowing hot and then they are dropped in the wooden tub full of water until it is boiling hot. the minerals released from the rocks are incredibly healthy and the steam rising of the water is divine!

last night there was a full moon and the air was crisp, it felt so relaxing.  the man would come out every so often and drop new burning red rocks into the water, and at times it was SO hot!! my mom and i just laid in the water and talked about how beautiful it was!  the moon was stunning over the himalaya.  the house was not very far past takstang monastery and my mom talked about how exciting it was to conquer her fear of climbing up mountains and being up there on top.....i told her that everyday i wake up i try to conquer one fear!  i never want to be afraid and i want to go for it until the day i die!

the family we stayed with were really wonderful.  the little girls were so sweet and they showed me their school books.  we were brought some really good food and lots of tea and whey.  i'm such a whey junkie!  and i sure get my fill of it while i'm here!

we had so many wool blankets on us that i could barely turn over in the night, but we woke up warm and toasty.  we waited for the sun to come up and we went outside, played with the kids and ate a whole lot more food before heading back to thimpu.

where we stayed last night is very close to the tibetan border and is on the way to cholmahari..

the mountain goddess.  this mountain is one of the most beautiful mountains that i have ever seen and a couple of years ago i hiked up into there with some good friends, it was a really incredible experience.  my good friend and i left the tent, which was right in the shadow of cholmahari, at 2 in the morning and walked up the mountain in the dark to hang our prayer flags as the sun was coming up.  that night will stand out in my mind until the day i die.  

as you are walking near to cholmahari you can feel the presence becoming stronger and stronger.  i remember at one point almost falling down and just needing to sit there and cry because the power had completely overcome me.  it felt a little bit like that last night and again i felt like escaping down the path and up into the mountains.  it's really hard being here and being around lots of people and not being up in those mountains.  obviously i will be back again soon........next time i just want to stay up in the mountains.