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After Kathmandu, I took a 48 hour journey to Bodh Gaya back in India. The journey was long and involved changing transportation several times.

The periods of transportation between cities are characterized by cramped seating, lots of honking, aggressive driving, hot/ humid weather, and often unpaved roads.

I am met often with stares and approaches of all kinds, peddlers and others who just wanting to converse.

I am constantly bewildered with the atmosphere a native here grows up with. Its just heart breaking. It is a constant reminder to be grateful for what I’ve been given in life.

I was relieved to get checked into a hotel and get cleaned up.

Taken from Wikipedia:

Bodh Gaya is a religious site and place of pilgrimage associated with the Mahabodhi Temple Complex in Gaya district in the Indian state of Bihar. It is famous as it is the place where Gautama Buddha is said to have obtained Enlightenment (Pali: bodhi) under what became known as the Bodhi Tree.

For Buddhists, Bodh Gaya is the most important of the main four pilgrimage sites related to the life of Gautama Buddha, the other three being Kushinagar, Lumbini, and Sarnath. In 2002, Mahabodhi Temple, located in Bodh Gaya, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

I spent most my time in Bodhgaya either at the Bodhi tree or in my room. It was a significant time of self-reflection. The atmosphere around the tree itself is somewhat unbelievable. Its just like a constant state of being stupefied. Sitting in front of it is like, “am I actually see this?”

It was low season, and so it was not hard to get near the tree to sit. Most the other people sitting around me were monks.

This event happened while some heavy family issues were surfacing back home. There was much material to sit with. I encountered a kind elderly lady at a restaurant just next to my hotel the night before I left. She had an unidentified accent, maybe French Canadian. We had a good exchange. It was so good to have the listening ear of a seasoned meditation practitioner, to be able to get some things off my chest, without it coming off as anything other than what it was. It was an opportunity to communicate my present situation, simple and yet often difficult to find.

 

After Lumbini, I headed over to Pokhara.

Taken from Wikipedia: 

Pokhara Leknath (Nepali: पोखरा लेखनाथ) is a Metropolitan City and the largest city of Nepal in terms of area.It is located 200 kilometres (120 miles) west of the capital Kathmandu. Pokhara Lekhnath Metropolitan City has become the country’s largest metropolis. It occupies an area of 464.24 sq km– nine times larger than Kathmandu. The altitude varies from 827 metres (2,713 feet) in the southern part to 1,740 metres (5,710 feet) in the north.^[1] The Annapurna Range with three of the ten highest mountains in the world —Dhaulagiri, Annapurna and Manaslu – is within 15 – 35 miles of the valley.^[2][3] Due to its proximity to the Annapurna mountain range, the city is a base for trekkers undertaking the Annapurna Circuit through the Annapurna Conservation Area region^[4] of the Annapurna ranges in the Himalayas.

Boating at Phewa Lake is one of the popular tourist activities.

Pokhara Lekhnath is home to many Gurkha soldiers. It is the most expensive city in the country, with a cost-of-living index of 150,^{[clarification needed]} and the most expensive place in Nepal after Namche Bazaar, in terms of population, and is often referred to as the tourism capital of Nepal.^{[citation needed]} 

As soon as I arrived in the Pokhara bus park, I went to pick up my massive backpack and was besieged a mixed group of taxi drivers and other men asking if I had a hotel room.  It was a lot to process at once. Yes, I needed a room and taxi ride to that room, and I wanted it cheap. I managed to strike a deal for a room with a man there for $4 a night (its low seaon). He arranged the taxi ride to hotel, and after passing a long stretch of shops by the riverside, I arrived at a place that was way nicer than I anticipated. Delighted by my good fortune, I drop my bags on the bed and went across the street to French Creperie and there met 2 expat locals,  Kara (USA) and Amanda (UK).

These two are amazing.  Kara has such a good spirit and attitude towards life. She works at/ founded an organization that brings water filters to people living just outside Pokhara. Check out backpakingforbetty.org.  Kara’s joy is infectious. She is a fireball.

Amanda was also really cool. I was fortunate enough to practice a massage session on her, which I hadn’t practiced since Rishikesh. I felt like we were able to do some deep tissue work. I love working deep. It is so rewarding to see how people are after releasing long held stress.

They took me to their favorite places in town. Its great to have local guides.

On my first day wandering the city, I walked over to the giant white Japanese Peace Pogoda which over looks Phewa lake and Pokara.

On my way up the Pagoda, I stopped by Devi falls, and was followed around by  a homeless looking man who was telling me about the falls.

On the way back down from the Peace Pogoda, I bushwacked it to a main road that lead back to Pokhara. I took a mini van public transport bus packed with people down back to town.

The next day I headed over on a one day trek to the Austalian Base Camp to see some mountains.

To get there, I climbed 1.5 hours of stairs through a forest to a village, which I found out had vehicle access once I got there, then hiked another 1.5 hours to get to the  Australian Base Camp.

Amazing.

The night before I left, an old Tibetan woman chatted me up by the lakeside. She told me about leaving Tibet with her mom when she was a child during the Chinese invasion and about the economic hardships of living in Nepal. She had a great sense of humor. She ended up selling me a mala for a lot more than I would have normally paid for one.

I felt humbled and very grateful for my fortunate circumstances leading me to my current life. The teachings on Transcedental Generosity come to mind.

“Transcendental generosity is generally misunderstood in the study of the Buddhist scriptures as meaning being kind to someone who is lower than you.  Someone has this pain and suffering and you are in a superior position and can save them—which is a very simple-minded way of looking down on someone.  But in the case of the bodhisattva, generosity is not so callous.  It is something very strong and powerful; it is communication.

Communication must transcend irritation, otherwise it will be like trying to make a comfortable bed in a briar patch.  The penetrating qualities of external color, energy, and light will come toward us, penetrating our attempts to communicate like a thorn pricking our skin.  We will wish to subdue this intense irritation and our communication will be blocked.

Communication must be radiation and receiving and exchange.  Whenever irritation is involved, then we are not able to see properly and fully and clearly the spacious quality of that which is coming toward us, that which is presenting itself as communication.  The external world is immediately rejected by our irritation which says, “no, no, this irritates me, go away.”  Such an attitude is the complete opposite of transcendental generosity.”       -Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche  (more here)

After Pokhara, I headed to Kathmandu.

Taken from Wikipedia:

Kathmandu (/ˌkætmænˈduː/;^[3] Nepali: काठमाडौं) is the capital city of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, the largest Himalayan state in Asia. It is the second largest metropolis in Nepal, with a population of 1.4 million in the city proper, and 2.5 million in its urban agglomeration across the Kathmandu Valley, which includes the towns of lalitpur Kiritipur, Madhyapur Thimi, and Bhatapur. Kathmandu is also the largest metropolis in the Himalayan hill region.

The city stands at an elevation of approximately 1,400 metres (4,600 feet) above sea level in the bowl-shaped Kathmandu Valley of central Nepal.

The city was the royal capital of the Kingdom of Nepal and hosts palaces, mansions and gardens of the Nepalese aristocracy. It has been home to the headquarters of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) since 1985. 

Kathmandu has been the center of Nepal’s history, art, culture and  economy. It has a multiethnic population within a Hindu and Buddhist majority. Religious and cultural festivities form a major part of the lives of people residing in Kathmandu. Tourism is an important part of the economy as the city is the gateway to the Nepalese Himalayas.

In 2013, Kathmandu was ranked third among the top ten upcoming travel destinations in the world by TripAdvisor, and ranked first in Asia. Historic areas of Kathmandu were devastated by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in 25 April 2015. Nepali is the most spoken language in the city, while English is understood by the city’s educated residents.

I stayed just north of Thamel, the tourist district. Thamel is like a labrinth of tall buildings with loads of restaurants and shops.

Here are some of sites around the city.

Swayambuhnath (monkey temple): Swayambhunatha Temple is a vivid example of an  ancient religious pagoda style structure. It is situated at the top of a hill in the west of Kathmandu city. It is a Buddhist holy site. You can see most of Kathmandu Valley from here.

Swayambhu means self-created. It is believed  that Swayambhunath was originated by itself. It is also known as Monkey temple as there are many monkeys living around the jungle of Swayambhunath.

Durbar Square: This is the historic old town. It was devastated during the earthquake 2 years ago. Foreigners are charged $10 to walk through. I turned away from the ticket counter having not purchased a ticket. A man approaches me and tells me to go around the corner and enter the square through an ally. I go around the corner and enter the ally as instructed. When I emerge from the ally, I am near the center of Durbar square. I look over and see a police walking straight toward me. I snapped a picture of my surroundings and quickly went back through the ally not turning back to see how far behind the cop was. That was exciting.

Boudhanath: Boudhanath is one of the biggest stupas in the world. It is a UNESCO world heritage site. Its hard to describe the vast spaciousness feel of being near this stupa

Besides being dirty, having traffic problems, and a big air and water quality issue, Kathmandu is not that bad.

My first stop in Nepal was Lumbini. Lumbini is a Buddhist pilgrimage site in the Rupandehi District of Nepal.

It is the place where, according to Buddhist tradition, Queen Mayadevi gave birth to Siddhartha Gautama in 563 BC.

This is what the current location of his birth looks like. Also, there is the Puskarini, or Holy Pond, where the Buddha’s mother took the ritual dip prior to his birth and where he had his first bath.

Inside are ruins, and the exact spot he was born.

I spend about 30 min in the ruins. There was a king scorpion just beside the marker stone and another one tucked into the rocks on the other side of the marker.

There was a sensation of being hot and humid and enclosed, maybe like what its like being in a womb. When I stepped outside the ruins, it was similar, but less intense, to stepping out of a sweat lodge.

Here is the area surrounding the Mayadevi temple.

Lumbini has a number of other temples, monuments, monasteries, and a museum.

The two that caught my eye were the Japanese peace pagoda and the German Monastery. It felt amazing just being at the peace pagoda. There was a freshness and vibrancy about the place.

That is all.

 

After Rishikesh, I took a 12 hour bus ride to Dharmasala which arrived at 2am. The bus was a local bus that would stop at every other village and had these sit-up-straight-only seats. The last 2 hours of the trip, where I could hardly stay awake, was of course riddled with constant sharp turns and bumpy roads, as the bus ascended in elevation. When I arrived, a fellow bus passenger offered to drop me off at the main part of the town where there would be lodging, but would have to go look for someplace that was open. I was exhausted and decided to pitch my tent there outside the bus station for a few hours and head out in search of lodging later. The plan worked out well and soon arrived in my hotel with this lovely view.

The Dalai Lama’s residence and the headquarters of  Central Tibetan Administration (the Tibetan government in exile) are in Dharamsala.

I wanted to come here to have a look at the Dalai Lama’s residence and to be in the midst of a Tibetan community.

I wasn’t able to see the Dalai Lama’s residence, but I did head over to the Dalai Lama Temple Complex. Being in this sacred place with hundreds of practicing monks was incredible. To add to that, the air was cool and the views from the temple were beautiful.

In the complex is a Tibetan museum that talks mostly of oppressed Tibet today and the atrocities committed toward the Tibetans since the Chinese invasion. Its really sad.

The next day, I had a look around the city.

After Dharmasala, I headed for my first destination in Nepal. It was a grueling 48 hours of bus travel with multiple bus transfers. The bus stops were frequent and unnecessary, who wants to eat at 1am and then again at 3:30am? On the first night bus, the driver was blasting music the entire ride, as if to keep himself awake.

The scenery changed dramatically after crossing into Nepal. I hired an old man on a bike to transport me across the border.

Eventually, I made it to my first destination Lumbini, only after having first falsely mistaken a previous city for Lumbini, and getting checked into a hotel, washing up (I was so dirty), discovering from a conversation down the road as I was walking this was not Lumbini, trying and failing at a hotel refund, and getting back on another bus that would indeed take me to Lumbini.

I want to make mention of the extreme poverty I witnessed during the long bus rides. Some of the images I saw will be burned into my memory forever. Its heart breaking to see people living in these situations.

 

After Thailand, I headed to India. I’ve been in Rishikesh for the past 2 weeks doing a yoga teacher intensive class.

Rishikesh is known as a pilgrimage town and regarded as a holy place to Hindus. Hindu sages and saints have visited Rishikesh since ancient times to meditate in search of higher knowledge. Rishikesh is known as the yoga capital of the world. There are many yoga teacher certification classes here.

The Ganga passes through Rishikesh. The Ganga is a trans-boundary river of Asia which flows through India and Bangladesh. The 2,525 km (1,569 mi) river rises in the western Himalayas in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, and flows south and east through the Gangetic Plain of North India into Bangladesh, where it empties into the Bay of Bengal. It is the third largest river in the world by discharge. It is a holy river to hindus.

The food is amazing, but the indian spice has definitely taken a toll on my stomach.

After doing some research online for a 2 week program, I came across a yoga teacher class that looked good, Hari Om Yoga Vidya.

The past 2 weeks have been amazing and full of challenges. The daily schedule was full.

The teachers were knowledgeable and well practiced in their fields. My classmates were so lovely and came from all over the globe.

During one weekend, my classmates and I headed over to a nearby waterfall.

I am so thankful for my time and experiences in Rishikesh. Here is a poi offering for my time here:

After my massage class finished, I stayed in Chiang Mai for a few days to do some additional practice.

The day before I left the city, I went out to the Chiang Mai Grand Canyon to cliff jump with a hostel friend and a classmate, Tao.

Here’s Tao demonstrating the incorrect way to dive from a high place into water.

After Chiang Mai, I headed to Pai in hopes of learning some additional poi techniques at the “famous circus hostel”. The hostel was lame and didn’t offer what it advertised so I went to another hostel that had more space and was a bit more reclusive to do some solo training.

I headed to bangkok a day before my flight out. The night before I was to leave, I went in search of masaman curry (my newest food obsession). As I was wandering the streets  looking for the perfect restaurant combination of not-too-touristy, moderate price range, and looking like it’d be good, I stopped to notice my goal oriented mind and the tension it brought to my brain. I took a breath, appreciated where I was without having to be somewhere else or obtain something, and looked across the street and like ordinary magic… there it was…. a quaint rasta looking restaurant with loads of plants covering the entrance and a sign reading “home made masaman curry”. Glory and eureka!

While in the restaurant, I was being served by a mute man. It reminded me of the good fortune I have to be able to speak and to communicate via spoken words relatively easily.

I appreciate my time in Thailand. It has been so good to me.

These past 2 weeks have been pretty routine, going to class, socializing with classmates, and having excellent food daily.

My last day of class was Saturday. It was sad saying goodbye to Watpo, my massage school, and my amazing teacher, Nuy.

I took a month long intensive course. Most students will come to study for a week or two, so about every week, I was seeing a fresh group of new faces. Its wonderful to meet like minded people from around the world and study…. and play 🙂

Food continues to be great!

Its been good to be stationary for this amount of time. Its allowed me to have a morning routine and to have space to work on some collaging.

I’m heading out soon, so I moved out of my month room rental and back into a hostel. That’s Kikie making dinner for some of the hostel residents last night.

I’ve really enjoyed my time at Chiang Mai. Its easy to see how people come and end up staying for years.

Headed for Chiang Rai next.

 

Chiang Mai has been so good to me. I found a cure for my dietary intolerances, dined and partied with beautiful people, celebrated the Thai new year, and am loving my massage class. My teacher is so knowledgeable. Where do I begin?

Songkran

Last week the country celebrated Songkran for 3 days. It was so crazy. Its like the whole country is so rowdy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMMoomaMLko

You can’t walk down the street in the middle of the day without getting wet. My bike rides to and from school on those days were a mix of delight, moments of irritation, and occasional anger when being splashed with the unexpected bucket of ice water while trying to keep focus in traffic.

During Songkran its customary to visit the temple and make various offerings. One of which is pouring water over a statue of Buddha.

Needless to say there are plenty of parties in the evenings.

Massage class

What can I say.. this is probably the best classroom setting I’ve ever experienced. I’m passionate about the subject. My teacher, Nuy, is approachable, funny, and so knowledgeable. The classroom is relaxed.

There is a lot to learn.

After class

I love my classmates. They are easy to work with and we socialize after class often.

Last weekend 2 classmates and I went over to Doi Suthep, a major temple just outside Chiang Mai, and then to visit one of the king’s palaces as well as a neighboring village.

Food

The food continues to be phenomenal. And to add to that, I found a cure to my dietary intolerances…. Turmeric.

I’m still in disbelief. After the past 3 years of searching, researching, experimenting, renouncing all the foods I love, and doctors visits of various kinds, I come here and buy an over the counter bottle of turmeric pills for about $3, at the advice of my amazing teacher, and now I can eat dairy, gluten, coffee, spicy food… I’m still adjusting to the sudden shock of dietary freedom.

I also found the best pad thai in Chiang Mai, and possibly all of Thailand, and it’s just down the street from my school so I eat there everyday, sometimes twice a day.

Donate

I am really enjoying my time here and feel this is just what I needed at this point in life. Thank you for reading my blog and supporting my travels. I started this blog so that I could share my experiences abroad with friends and family and I’m so fortunate to have you amazing people in my life.

I’m still taking donations for help with my Thai Massage tuition and expenses. All donors will receive a little token of gratitude in the mail. For generous donors giving $50 or more I will send you these thai hot pants I have only encountered in Chiang Mai.

Click here to donate.

Thanks again for reading. Until next time…

 

 

After leaving Vang Vieng, I headed to Chang Mai, where I’ve been for the past week. The city feels small and quaint, with its many back alleys, inside the moat-surrounded old town, even though there are many tourists here.

On the way here, I met a fellow traveler who told me about a cheap hostel, Kikie’s house.

I arrived early in the morning around 7am. The owner, Kikie, arrived shortly after to greet me and get me oriented to the city. I told her I was interested in learning Thai Massage, so she introduced me to Mateo, a fellow hostel guest, who was currently in a massage course and gave me info on the various schools around Chang Mai.

Schools can sometimes be hard to get into, depending on how full the class is and also the timing. Most intensive classes will start less frequently than a general one week course. Fortunately, I was able to get into my first choice for a month long intensive the very next day. So now its been one week since I’ve been in massage school and its been really great.

Last night, some of my school mates and I went out for BBQ at this place where you collect raw pieces of meat, seafood, and veggies and cook them at the table. After we headed over to a local club.

Im hoping to eventually bring the skills acquired here, back with me to where I’m from and make good use of them there.

I could definitely use some financial help with the tuition and room and board while I’m here, so if you are feeling generous, please feel free to donate at my gofundme page here.

I love being in Chang Mai. The city is lively and is about to get much livelier during Songkran,  Thursday April 13 -15, the Thai new year.