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.

pictures posted

i'm still not able to post too many pictures, but i'm hoping that these 3 will at least be able to show some of the beauty of this place.

the first photo is of a young monk standing outside of the thimpu dzong.  i took this picture as we were walking away from the dzong, as the crowds were so thick with people standing in line trying to get in to greet their king.   there were hundreds of us walking through the rice fields on our way back to town.  he has such a beautiful face.

the second picture is at the top of the dochu-la and is of the 108 chortens dedicated to his majesty the 4th king.....the present king's father.

the third is a quick picture of the punahka dzong taken from the bridge over the river on the way to the dzong.  it is really huge and very, very gorgeous.

i hope you enjoy and i'm going to keep trying to post more........

too much ara....AGAIN!

where to start?  this morning, me and mom and apa and sonam left for punahka.  to get to punahka we have to drive over the dochu-la.  la in dzongkha means pass.  and it is a beautiful pass indeed!  dochu-la is 2200 meters and at the top of the pass is 108 chortens dedicated to his majesty the 4th king and it is very beautiful.  in the distance you can see the high himalaya and it is stunning!  as you head down to punahka, the plant life becomes more tropical and sometimes i am surprised at the size of things.  my mom is a rhodo addict so we looked at a lot of these huge, tall rhodo trees and when i showed her poinsettas as tall as 12 feet, she was blown away!

the dzong in punahka is huge and it is at the site where the mo chu and the po chu converge.  also known as the mother and father river, the dzong sits at the beginning of the convergence.  a very beautiful covered bridge passes over the river as you walk to the dzong and it is beyond words that i can find to describe how beautiful it is.

we walked around the dzong and soaked up the atmosphere of the place.....i must have taken hundreds of photos and video even though i have been her many times now!  it is hot down there in punahka and it is very fertile.  as beautiful as it was, i must say i was happy to eat and get back up to the pass.  

at the top of dochu-la, i must admit that my mind raced again with ideas of escaping into the forest and up into the mountains!  i could see the way to gaza and the trail heading up into laya, high up in the himalaya along the tibetan border.  i am coming back this fall and doing that walk again, somehow i lost my soul up there awhile back......i keep thinking about how sterile canada has become everytime i think about that walk.....how we must stay on the trails and not wonder out into the forest and get lost.  how sad....and i don't think that this is just the ara talking!  our wilderness has become a bit out of reach.  we must pay to park in the parking lots next to nature and then stay on designated trails???  how sad is that ....whole new generations of canadians will now lose touch with nature and accesibility to nature.....it is becoming like a museum where we can stand on the sidelines and look but never touch.....it breaks my heart.  here i can just start walking and it doesn't matter, i can be wrapped in nature the second my foot touches the earth....no one there to monitor me and to tell me that i'm not allowed, just trees and mountains welcoming me in.....thank god there are still sensible peoples left in the world.....a place where no one tells you that you are breaking the rules by stepping out into nature........

we had a wonderful dinner tonight at the house, samdrup brought his friend from china who is a photographer and is living in delhi and jigme brought a british lady who is making a documentary about bhutan, there were many bhutanese friends and family...much good food and ara was had.......

phew! mission accomplished!

we drove to paro this morning and it was a beautiful morning. i love paro so much, it's such a beautiful town. amazing architecture and lots of pine trees blowing in the breeze. after a nice breakfast mom and i headed up to takstang.

takstang hangs off a side of a mountain and whenever there is a place like that.....you know you're going to be walking up! mom was a bit concerned when we drove up and she looked high up into the mountain top and seen takstang perched there!!! and that is putting it mildly! she really thought that she wouldn't make it, but she hung in there, and with much huffing and puffing and after turning an interesting shade of purple, she made it. and that felt good, she should be really proud of herself. walking up to to takstang is sort of like hiking up and down the middle sister 3 times so it's a pretty big accomplishment.

and inside the monastery just blew her mind! we looked at the alters and the different statues and looked in the cave where guru rinpoche meditated, it's a very powerful place and it feels quite overpowering to be there. i always feel very over powered when i'm up there and full of magic, it's a gift just to be there, and i feel so thankful. we even had a nice big bowl of ema datse and red rice on our way down.

i'm going to be posting some of the pictures tomorrow, they're going to blow your mind! i'm off for the evening ara so in combination with todays walk, a good sleep should be just around the corner.

i've been dreaming of being up in the mountains, just walking up among the peaks with the mountain breeze and a sense of freedom that comes from nowhere else for me. today satisfied that craving.......day after tomorrow we will drive over the dochu la on our way to punahka and we will be up in those mountains again.....sometimes i want to run away through the forest and up into those mountains and get lost forever.......

Takstang Monastery

Takstang (Tiger’s Nest) Monastery is Paro and Bhutan’s most famous religious site. This cluster of temples is perched on a cliff 800 meters above Paro Valley. Guru Rimpoche came here to meditate during the eighth century by flying on a pregnant tigress. The great Tibetan saints Milarepa and Dorji Lingpa came here to meditate. Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyel visited in 1646. Thangtong Gyalpo revealed a terma (treasure text) at Takstang. The main lhakhang was built around the Dubkhang (or Pelphug), the holy cave where Guru Rimpoche meditated. Other buildings include the Phorbu Lhakahang which contains a phorbu or three sided ritual dagger used to slay demons. Higher up is Ugyen Tshemo Lhakhang, and even higher Zangto Pelri. In 1998 Takstang was destroyed by fire. Only the temple of the Protecting Deity of Takstang, Singye Samdu survived. Takstang was rebuilt and consecrated on 24 March 2005.

i'm a star ;0

so word has come from canada that i was on the bbc last night....i'm famous!!!  add that to my reuters interview and i'm headed for stardom babies!!

i had SUCH a great day today, i sat in the blistering sun again but it was just totally joyous.  so much beautiful dancing and singing and laughter.  today at the ceremonial grounds it was a little bit more light hearted as most of the dignitaries have departed so it was more casual.  we watched a strongman contest that featured the strongest men from 12 different parts of bhutan, they were lifting really heavy bags of rice, logs and such and the crowd was oohing and ahhing and laughing.  there was also pillow fighting with the loser falling into a tub of cold water.  it was such a laugh.

the king walked through the crowd again to say hello to everyone and there he was right in front of us, smiling and talking.  what a lovely man!  his smile and manner is infectious.  he picks up kids and walks with them hand in hand.  he holds the elderly and talks to them, it makes me really happy to see, honestly it makes me want a hug from stephen harper!  instead of writing the pm and calling him a big fathead, i've decided that i'm going to email him and ask for a hug!!!!!   :0  ......oh stephen!

tomorrow we are off to paro and we are going to hike up to takstang.....that's going to blow my mom's mind.  it is the most beautiful temple i've ever seen and it just clings to the side of the mountain.

i've really got to get some pics posted soon...........wow we had the best meal today at an indian place....ema datse, chili paneer, roti, basmati, riata and masala chai.  yum!  there can't possibly be any room in my tummy for ara tonight......there just can't be!!!!!!!!

wow! what a day!

today was something else!!!  we went into town this morning and faced a lineup that was snaking it's way across thimpu!  more than a little intimidating, but again my paperwork saved the day and we got put through right away!  man i need that type of action in canada too!  we got up to the stadium just as the gates were closing and the crowd surged.  the guards began closing the gates pushing people back and we managed to push though and i only lost one handfull of hair!  we had incredible seats so i guess a little hair loss is worth it in the end!

the procession was beautiful!  the dancing was amazing and it featured people from across the country dressed in their traditional clothing,  the scene was so festive and dramatic and happiness filled the crowd when the king walked in.  his majesty jigme khesar namgyel wangchuck is such a wonderful human being.  where do you find any leader these days that walks through the crowd and takes the time to talk and listen to the people?

the day was filled with beautiful colors and voices as people sang, danced and marched for their new king.  the 4th king was also present as well as the queens.  it really was spectacular and it was such an honor to be there.....the sun was so damn hot though that my face feels like a charcoal however!

on the way out i got interviewed by reuters....i felt like such a movie star!!!!!!!  too bad i left my movie star sunglasses back at the house!  watch for me babies, soon i'll be in the movies!!  :)

ciao.....i'm off to soak my charcoal head in a bucket of ice!

hey t.....

just read your blog 'we sing the forest electric' ......omg, well said, i concur 100%... honestly we should make a mockumentary based on what you said! funny as hell and totally true! we are perverse creatures.........the maverick helicopter!!! FUNNY!

you rock sister!

another day.....more ara!

my blog title says it all!! 2nd night in bhutan...2nd night of ara overload! and this rice wine was especially potent.....i have much apologizing to do to my liver. i have made a promise to my liver that if it will just survive this time in bhutan, i will keep it alcohol free until next year when i return! when we went to auntie's house tonight and i seen the young girls running downstairs with 2 jerry cans.... the liver got afraid! the liver tried to run and hide! the liver knew that there was ara in those damn jery cans, diesel fuel might have been safer! and this is ara brewed in the village in the east where my bhutanese family originates from.... it's pretty hardcore!! and since i am communicating with my liver, you can probably tell how much i have had to drink!

the preparations for the king's coronation here is busy and ongoing. everyone is working long hours and working hard to make tomorrow successful so that the people can come and greet the king and pay their respect. people are travelling from across bhutan for this very special occasion. it is an interesting time here in bhutan. the king is young and very forward thinking and is eager to carry on the bhutanese concept of gross national happiness. all governments should consider the happiness of their citizens and not only gross national product. the happiness and state of mind of a nation is critical, there is so much more to think about than just dollar and cents. the idea of gross national happiness is very healthy for a society to follow, we are so much more than the goods and services we produce, our happiness and health must be factored into the larger picture.

the prime minister and president of india arrived today as well as sonya ghandi and many other dignitaries, thimpu was bursting at the seems with people tonight and there is a good vibe in the air. the bhutanese people really love their king and they are fortunate to have such a good man to inspire them.

.....i have read that obama has won the u.s. election, let's hope that he is really able to make the change that he has promised, he has a lot of people believing in him and i hope that he can implement some change. i am VERY sceptical, the machinery of government keeps grinding along no matter who is in office and the economy of the u.s. is so dependent on war. i hope that obama can bring some new ideas and develop new technologies instead of following down the same well trod path of those before him, i am skeptical, but i would like to be proven wrong.......

good night......my liver needs some rest!!!!! ;))))))

we've arrived! we got into paro this morning and when druk air landed, you should have seen the look on my mom's face. it is a tight landing to say the least and when the plane made it's final turn and the wing was just off the ground, my mom's face drained of color and her mouth was wide open! there was a lot of gasping on the plane! it's a wild ride and i love it!! and this is coming from a girl who is afraid to death of flying!!! the himalayas have some energetic air and lots of wind. bhutan also has very narrow and short valley floors, making for a very dramatic entrance into the country!

gelay picked us up at the airport and it is always good to see an old friend. when i arrive back into bhutan it feels like i'm coming home, it wraps itself around me. and to be here with my bhutanese family is such a gift, they treat me so well and i feel like a part of the family. i got to run into samdrup along the highway as he was on his way in to paro. so great to just see him and say a couple of words. and i can't wait to get a good visit in tomorrow. samdrup lived with me for 5 months at my house and he is kind of like a brother/son to me!

the cook and i went into town today to the market and bought some veg. i wish we had markets like this....i wish we had warm enough weather to grow vegetables! how have we forgotten the value of fresh food? our food now seems to be coming wrapped in plastic and looking a bit neon. today, we used no plastic! thank god, just put the veg into a bowl, weigh it and plop it into your bag..... i'm a canvas bag person but i see you all out there using plastic! i'm watcing you! stop it!

i'm going to bed soon, i'm so looking forward to tomorrow and i can't wait to be more alert and write a bit more. the adventure has already provided me lots to say! and there will surely be more to come. but i've got a nice feed of rice and chilis and of course the ara has come out!!! it was actually pretty good, it had sandlewood in it which made it a very pretty color. it's still pretty hardcore. right now my mom is finishing off my ara..........my tummy is safe for now.

btw......i watched a speech by the new king today, very, very inspirational! he should come to canada and give some ideas to our mr. stephen harper!!!

the airport in hong kong....a familiar place! tired! 14 hours in one position, not very good for the skeletal system! almost half way there! must perservere........................