OUR TRIP

the gillaspies go BALIstic

2009-06-29T20:41:00.000-07:00

After more than a month of neglecting this here blog, I'll try and recap our three weeks in Bali. Gina, Yosh, and I flew into Bali before Mama Cin & Papa Don, so we spent the day waiting to see our parents for the first time in 8 months. For a grand first surprise, I hid myself in their closet so that when they came in to put their suitcases in their room, I could jump out to startle them, but it didn't work out so well.... the Wayan that showed them to their room opened the closet and screamed like a child when he saw me huddled inside of it with hangers tangled in my hair. it didn't go as planned, but was entertaining, nonetheless. It was the nicest gift in the world to be around mom and dad... missed mom when we decided to take off and beach our days away, while she got into the culture and learned the language and studied the arts... but while dad, gina, yo, and i were at the beach we played a lovely game that always creates laughs, Time's Up! and then we'd go out to Kuta while Papa Don got his beauty rest. Gina and I became addicted to the Frisbee that Yosh carried our whole trip in his backpack (poor guy- it was just dead weight). The low tides at Padang Padang were extreme, and you could walk out half a mile, and be knee-high in water.
Some of my favorite moments were as we all stood together at Double Six's beach and watched the sunset, played frisbee, got sand poured on us by sweet Aussie children building "a sand castle", and just soaking in the goodness.

This last year has been the ultimate blessing for me. When one of my dearest high school teachers, Ms. Carlson, suggested to all her classes to consider a gap year, the thought had never crossed my mind. But after her one presentation, I was convinced that was for me. Programs were too expensive, staying in one place seemed too unadventurous... so, I started thinking of all the places I wanted to visit. Since I had only been to Mexico, Canada, and handfuls of the states (and later, Costa Rica), the world was truly my oyster. I could go anywhere, and it would be a new place for me. But then, after I started getting serious about it, mums and pops weren't too thrilled about the idea of little old me traveling the world abroad by myself. So mom made the best phone call one day- she called Yosh to see if he would want to take the year off from UCSD to travel with me.... I remember her telling me what she'd done, and the fact that he said he'd like to do it, and walking down the street in Fairfax after work, and screaming out loud from excitement. Since I got myself so worked up, I think I had to retreat back to my car, to have a cry, since I was sooo happy. And the fact that Gina, my lil bestie, ended up going to the first three months of college at University of Oregon, and then joining us in Thailand and all other adventures for most of the year, was more than I could have ever asked for. I rarely got homesick... my home was pretty much traveling with me. Gina and Yosh to keep me company, video skype to see family and friends' faces and hear their voices every now and again, at times I wanted to pinch myself to make sure I was actually on this trip.

Granted, the adventures aren't over yet- the blog will still be updated for a few more months, since Yosh went off to England and Spain, and I'm typing away in Manly, Australia (across the bridge from Sydney) as a nanny... but it's truly been the most wonderful decision I have ever made for myself. I'm due home on August 1st, and hopefully by then, I will have perfected my Aussie accent. We'll see.
(By the way, thank you for reading the blog, whoever it is that's reading this. ha. It's been nice to share.)
lovelovelove
denali

2009-06-29T03:54:00.000-07:00

Surf, sun and PARENTAL UNITS

2009-06-29T03:18:00.000-07:00

Ok, So its been a while, and thus I'll have to summarize some. A lot. A whole lot. Well, to begin with I can't say enough how great it was to see Momma Cin and Poppa Don. Its funny to be traveling on a shoestring for so long, haggling with prices of a room when its already down to maybe 4 dollars or so a night, and then meeting up with our parents and their idea of what is cheap and what is expensive is on a completely different scale. After living out of a backpack for 8 months it was soooo relaxing meeting up with mom and dad who brought all the much appreciated extras such as truckloads of chocolate, a mini library of books, my computer, snorkelling gear and more.
So let's see...started our trip in Ubud with a couple of the tourist days to see the temples and art workshops and such with Wayan...don't remember which Wayan he was, except for Wayan driver who was so chill. (For those who don't know, every first child born to a family is Wayan, so more than 25 percent of the population is named Wayan in Bali). Went to the monkey forest, which, believe it or not, was a forest full of monkeys. We went to see how silver is made into jewelery, a batik workshop and a painting gallery.
It got to the point where most of us were craving some time at the beach, and off we went to Padang Padang, a really scenic surfing beach where we actually ran into Livia who we met in India at the Buddhist retreat we went to! It truly is a small world. I haven't had so much time surfing since the days when I was first learning to stand up, nor have I had so much fun. The right sized waves, relatively empty (depending on when you paddled out) and bathtub tempurature water made for an amazing surfing experience.
The nightlife in Kuta, which was a short taxi ride away, was completely nuts. A good completely nuts. All the clubs are nice enough to be charging ridiculous cover charges if they were in the states, but since its Bali and there seems to be a lot of competition, all of these super nice clubs are free and have great drink specials (such as one night where beer was completely free until 11). The two we spent the most time at were Sky Garden, which had a video screen on the bottom floor so you could see people talking and hanging out upstairs, and Bounty, which was HUUUUUUGE and modelled after a ship, the main dance floor complete with cages and many levels fashioned after an old pirate ship. I was really down with the music which played some really old school music like Nelly and Naughty by Nature (by really old school I mean 90s and 80s, which for a club to be playing I thought was crazy). The only problem was how many creepy locals would reach around people, grab girls, and walk off getting the person they reached around in trouble for doing nothing but being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
As momma cin continued to do her painting in Ubud (which was really good, ask her to send the pic if anyone wants to see it!), we next went to the far north east coast for some 'seroius snorkeling', as poppa don said...it ended up being a little too serious for us. To get into the water you needed to climb across a beach of rocks which were just the right size to hurt your feet the most. Then you needed to climb into the water at just the right moment so you didnt get smashed by the shorebreak, which was a good size and very powerful...Dad got smashed pretty good before we learned the strategy of entering the water, and had a bump like a unicorn for a little while. One of thebeaches we did this at had an old US shipwreck you could swim over to where lots of fish seemed to be drawn to. By far the most amazing thing we saw in the water was a school of 2ft or bigger fish in numbers I thought I would only see on animal planet. Denali compared it to the school of fish in Finding Nemo who create the different shapes to point Marlin in the right direction to get to Sydney.
Hmmmm, well, there's a lot I've skipped over, but overall relaxing in the sun and getting some serious surf time in (my first really good experience with a shortboard!) just about sums up the amazing experience we had in Bali...I mean, momma cin and her time in Ubud was something else, going to birthdays, weddings, etc, so she can write about THAT when SHE starts a blog!

Teaching at Kopan

2009-05-22T22:52:00.000-07:00

Three weeks of teaching English at the Kopan Monastery & Nunnery was a much shorter time than I would have liked. From the moment we arrived, the nuns were sweethearts 24/7, always making sure to step out of their comfort zones and speak a shy, "Hello, Miss. How are you?" Once we felt like part of the big nunnery family, Gina and I would receive visits from nuns around the clock. One nun in particular, Ani Salje. She was the English teacher for many classes at the nunnery, so communicating with her was always a rewarding experience. I would like to think that there was a miscommunication when we were discussing my age, but I'd be ignorant to think such a thing. One day, we were sitting on the steps chatting away the minutes, when she asks me, "Do you want to be a nun?" I remember the nuns from Kopan that came to stay in San Anselmo in 2000 and I reply, "Nine years ago I wanted to become a nun, but I've changed my mind since then." She smiles like she knows my thoughts, "Yes, yes, I think now that you are 28 or 29, you don't want to be a nun anymore." Flabbergasted, I jab, "Really? No no no. I'm not 28 or 29." She makes a second guess, "Oh yes, I think you are maybe 31 or 32?" "Actually, Salje?" She laughs at my astonishment. "I counted your wrinkles. I think you are 32." In my 19 years of living, my age has never been guessed accurately. It used to be a parlor game when we were at dinner parties meeting with people who had never met me- let's guess Denali's age. In middle school, many people asked me what I studied in college, or how college was going. As a 6th grader, a man asked if I was saving the seat next to me for my husband. In Thailand, a student assumed Gina and I were 40. Now my wrinkles are so prominent, that I'm in my thirties.

The class of four nuns we taught at night in the reception office of the nunnery got a good laugh out of Salje's guess. I shared with them the wisdom my Auntie Sachi gave to me and proudly said, "They are my smile wrinkles. I earned them." It was 3 weeks of nonstop smiling. For the last week of classes, we taught the nuns Cat Stevens' If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out. And to hear those lyrics ringing loudly through the classroom was enough to make my heart sing. They wanted to learn the lyrics to the song I'd written my mom for Mother's Day, and copied down all the words, only for me to be deathly sick the last day and not be able to play it with them. Inspired by the English lessons via song, we wrote a song with Class 8 and Class 4. We had worked on rhymes the previous week, and one of the students didn't quite grasp the concept of making two lines rhyme, but also having them make sense. The first verse was so great... and the fifth line, was truly the icing on top of the cake.
"Classmates are precious to us.
So we all have to trust.
Our class is very funny,
It can't be bought with money...
Sometimes we go to a picnic by bus."

Working with the Kindie class at the monastery each afternoon (kindergartners are not the easiest bunch to handle when you can't speak the same language as them, and they're running around the cafeteria making mazes out of benches) was an experience. One day, I felt like I'd managed to fully lose my mind, and I nearly tackled a few boys who had gotten into a full-fledged punching match. I yelled "NO BEATING" and the class fell silent. "If you are angry, what do you do?" Several boys ceased the opportunity to throw punches and pull ears. "NO. If you feel angry, you close your eyes. Where are your eyes?" Their tiny fingers point to their tiny eyes. "Good. Close your eyes and take one breath. Ready? One, two, three." It worked. Praise the heavens it worked... Even if it was only the antidote for the next five minutes. Class 6 with the monks was precious time to be in small groups with the boys. They liked Akon and 50 Cent and couldn't contain their laughter when I sang some good old Akon tunes.

Now we've been away from Kopan for nearly a week, and I know that I'll go back at some point in my life, and stay for a while. Probably not as a nun (at least not in this life time) but I wouldn't mind going back after several years. Maybe I'll be 31 or 32... and they'll all guess I'm a grandmother.

P.S. Driving on the other side of the road wasn't as peculiar as I would have imagined it to be. There were a few days that the nunnery's driver was on vacation, so I was the driver for the day, and enjoyed the nostalgia of driving a stick-shift. After not having driven a car for 8 months, it was refreshing.

KRAZY KOPAN!

2009-05-16T08:55:00.001-07:00

ok, not that crazy. but a good time for sure. Maybe one of the best times. But then again I have a thousand best times, so I don't know if that really says too much...but it does say something.
There is plenty I could say about the food (delicious even though only vegetarian) the environment (amazing view and awesome to hear thunder rumble through the valley) and the chess games (which took a lot of my time...who knew monks played so much chess?), but I'd like to focus on the people, most of which were students.
My early morning class was 3 Geshis (is it capitalized?), and that class consisted of a lot of laughing and trying to form simple sentences. I think my biggest accomplishment of this class was getting them to understand the 5 main question words, who what where when and why. There was one who could clearly speak more than the others, translating have the time, and when he laughed his eyes would close. It was great.
2nd morning class was class 5. These kids could hold a conversation, although there might be some problems with their grammar. The two best games we played were a drawing game and hotseat. The drawing game was everyone drew a head, then passed the paper, drew the body, then passed it and drew legs, then passed and drew the feet, and had to make a story about their character. Characters varied from Avril Lavine whose favorite hobby was kickboxing to Ghostman whose future aim was to be human. The hotseat game was just one person sitting at the front of the class and everyone asked him questions. One of the funnier questions and answers was "Do you like my face?" "No." "Why?" "Because you look like girl." "You don't like girl?" Clever kids.
Class 6 in the afternoon we played the same game with some more funny QandA. The difference between 5 and 6 was pretty amazing, the kids in 6 (or at least my kids since Denali and Gina and I split class 6 up in the afternoon when Denali and Gina came up from the Nunnery) had almost no grammar problems and could speak about everything, including the government and more. They did have a little bit of trouble with writing Limericks, getting the rhythm was the problem. One went as such: "I went to the store to eat an ice cream cone (pronounced CON)/ I heard the Hollywood don was James Bond/ I went to see if he was a scare/But we was not there/So I went home with my son". This was one of the closer ones...some were way crazy.
Kindergarteners were the crazy ones. Absolutely bonkers off the walls, full of energy. At the beginning, I stood no chance. Since Denali Gina and I would split the class into 3 with only one classroom, at first I tried to go to the roof with benches. Mistake. They ran around, to the point where "dont let the teacher catch you" just became a big joke. They filled tubes with water and had waterfights, there was spitting, hitting, jumping off the stairs, spitballs, the works. I think my class was the craziest, and thus I was given the classroom. Then Chodar the assistant headmaster would stand outside of the classroom at the beginning...just stand. It was beautiful the way they would listen after that. Chodar was a great guy. Very funny with a happy happy laugh, and we would always practice about 6 languages at once, such as Spanish, Thai, Japanese, Tibetan, English, and Hindi. Also, I ended up liking Kindies very much.
What else happened? Oh, the 6th was my birthday (and no, we didnt have a chance to celebrate Cinco De Mayo), and Denali and Gina were kind enough to hook it up with some creative gifts, which ranged from a bottle of Black Label (which I did not drink at the monastery, thank you very much) to a mento (no, not a pack). Also, I shaved my head. Once over with a machine with the chess buddies in the cafeteria, then Venerable Tenzin Chogkyi finished the job with a razor to get it down as short as possible. I felt naked and white. And naked. There are too many other people that made it such a memorable experience.
Psyched for trekking, leave early tomorrow.

Hey Mama

2009-05-10T04:36:00.000-07:00

It's Mother's Day in Nepal's time zone. My mama is probably just waking up and getting ready to calm her mind in her 10-day meditation retreat at Vajrapani in good old California. All of the nuns who live at the Kopan Nunnery (where we are teaching English) live without their parents and families for the majority of their life as a nun. If they are lucky, they will see them a few times in a year, but sometimes there are monks and nuns with stories of families who are still stuck in Tibet. Yesterday a monk told us that when he travelled home to see his family, he was thrown in jail and beaten for being a Buddhist monk and accused of meeting His Holiness the Dalai Lama. There are nuns who have to walk for five days through the mountains to see their families. When I hear them talk about the difficulties of seeing their families, it makes me have appreciate sky-high for the blessed life I've been given. I am able to see my mama anytime. (That is, anytime I wanted to get on a plane and fly to her... but for now, I'm alright with living in Nepal). I haven't seen my mama in 8 months since I've left to travel, but I don't miss her with a pained feeling anymore. With or without her company, there is joy.

In Buddhism, the belief of reincarnation resonates strongly with me. The idea that everybody has been your mother and you have been everybody's mother in another lifetime, makes it easier for me to love everyone. But in this life, I've got Mama Cin as my mom, and for a mother's day gift I've written her a song. For all of you mothers everywhere, I wish you a happy mother's day.

To hear the song (which Gina and I recorded on the roof of the nunnery), go for it. Enjoy. Love to you all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQhUSos3QMI

(Here are the lyrics, if the sound quality is iffy.)
Hey mama, I miss you.
The same way that the sun must miss the moon.
Spending day and night on the other side of the world
Took some getting used to.
I was looking up as the leaves were falling down
To the ground beneath the bodhi tree.
India's heat was burning through my feet, but my soul was comforted
Having you there with me.

Not in the form of your body, not in your voice on the other end of the phone.
But in your essence that's embedded so deeply in my bones.
Your blood's pumping my heart, so I can never feel alone.

We're two peas in a pod, we are the same, same, same, but different.
When I feel broken, I think "what would you say, say, say" and i listen.
But not always, there are some days I'm your stubborn little baby
Doing what I do, I'm staying free, the way you raised me.
You love me, so you let me go, go, go.
I hope you know you feel so close.

Not in the form of your body, not in your voice on the other end of the phone.
But in your essence that's embedded so deeply in my bones.
Your blood's pumping my heart, so I can never feel alone.

For anything that I have thought, said, or done
That may have gotten under your skin,
My tail's between my legs for every fight I've lost or won.
Please forgive me, Mama Mama.
My heart of hearts, I meant no harm for anythin',
Please forgive me, Mama Cin Mama Cin Mama hey, Mama
Please forgive me, Mama Mama.

Not in the form of your body, not in your voice on the other end of the phone.
But in your essence that's embedded so deeply in my bones.
Your blood's pumping my heart, so I can never feel alone.

lovelovelove
denali

Teaching kids who may one day be teaching me

2009-05-04T03:43:00.000-07:00

I sometimes find myself pondering about who the Dalai Lama's reincarnate could be. It is without a doubt, a terrible thing to think about, I'm sure. It would probably be far more beneficial to be wishing him a long life of happiness, free of suffering (I do wish that for him), but I also get caught up in my curiosity. I think his reincarnation may be a woman. Until a few days ago, I was crossing my fingers for a western woman, but after talking to the assistant head master of the Kopan Monatsery yesterday, he pointed out that a westerner wouldn't create the ideal situation. Since the Dalai Lama needs to be Tibetan to give the Tibetans hope, how strong would the connection be to his the people of Tibet if His Holiness the Dalai Lama was all of a sudden in the form of a Swiss body? or a Canadian body? or a Californian body???? haha. I've come up with a problem solver- he can be a western woman who is born to Tibetan parents who are living in America or perhaps Europe. Only time will tell- and hopefully, we won't know for a long time.

There are more than 300 monks and 300 nuns that have just finished a three-day long puja for His Holiness the Dalai Lama's health (as well as all other lamas and highly realized beings... and of course all the rest of the sentient beings too). How kind, that they would dedicate three days to simply sending out blessings and prayers for HHDL. Pretty cool, I think. Life at the nunnery and monastery is relaxing and there is always chanting to be heard outside my window. There are heaps of dogs that collect at the nunnery, and Gina and I have taken to naming all of them. The teeny white scraggly dog with black spots is Moo, the light brown puppy that follows you if you've got food is Butterscotch, the shaggy one is... Shaggy, and the black puppy that used to sleep on Gina's doorstep was Lancelot. He's disappeared, and since he was one of the sicker dogs of the bunch, we're fearing the worst. If he passed away at the nunnery, it is one of the best places to die, I think.

Our teaching schedule monks and nuns is busy: Gina and I wake up at 7am, teach the nuns in reception how to format letters and create brochures until 8:45. Next, we teach Class 8 (which is a room of nuns ranging from age 15-26), and they are all excedingly enthusiastic to speak English (which makes our job easier). Then from 9:30-10:15 we teach "New Class" which is a small group of graduated nuns who are no longer in class who just want to brush up on their conversation skills (some of them shyly giggle more than they produce English sentences). From 10:15-11 we teach Class 4, who sometimes find us in our spare time to practice casual English, then we relax until lunch. Mid-day heat accompanies us for our 20 minute walk up the hill to Kopan Monastery where we teach Kindergarten and Class 6 in small groups. The view from the top of the hill gives a 360 degree view of the surroundings and Kathmandu.

I'm now reading a book about finding the reincarnate of the late Great Mahasiddha Geshe Lama Konchog. After finding the reincarnate, they brought him here a few years ago and now he's a five or six year old boy. This book caught my eye in Kopan's library, because there's a sweet picture of a young monk on the front cover. When I found it, I laughed because he's one of the mischievous, yet excelling students in my Kindergarten English class haaha. He's a funny kid. It throws me for a loop that this child is enlightened, yet I am dealing with his behavioral issues and correcting his spelling errors, the same way I would for any other young child. The head master's assistant showed us the relics from his last life (the late Great Mahasiddha Geshe Lama Konchog) that are preserved in their own room at the Monastery. He said that he has always been a very straight forward person. That became very apparent to me through teaching. He is able to learn things much faster than the other children, so when he finishes an activity, and I am still explaining it to the others, he will tell me, "Stop talking. No more talking. I want you to tell me what to write, I need to write more more more." I've found a remedy for this gap of learning abilities between the children. We'll do activities that the slower children can take their time to complete through drawing and writing, and I'll simply talk with the monks who are fully able to hold conversations.

I actually have two lamas in my class. The other lama, Lama Thupten Kundol Rinpoche, had Gina and I come to his room with him a few days ago to play Spiderman and eat cookies with tea. Whether I believe in reincarnation or not, it is clear he is a special person. He showed us a photo album filled with pictures of the man he was in his last life, and each time we flipped the page, he would point to a picture of an older Tibetan man and say, "This one. This is me. And that, that is me." It gave me chills. Ani Fran, a nun who live at Kopan, said he gets lonely sometimes, so it's good to spend time with him and help him improve his English. It's a hard job being a teacher, my goodness. I can't even begin to think of how many hours outside of school time that my teachers must have put in, to make a lesson plan for 250 days of the year. That's insane. Teachers are underrated. You really can't know how somebody's life has been unless you've tried living it, and after teaching English in Thailand, India, Vietnam, and now Nepal... I've got a tip of the hat to all teachers.

Avoiding Eye Contact

2009-04-28T03:28:00.000-07:00

I made a habit of walking with my eyes to the ground, after being hassled non-stop in India. When we first arrived, I felt helpless in Kathmandu on the main tourist street, Thamel, where we stayed for our first few nights in Nepal. Walking from one place to another, I was constantly approached by people who wanted to offer me treks, sell me pashminas, give me rickshaw rides, etc. In the beginning of our trip, I would do my best to interact with each person, even if it was just a polite (and often repeated) "No, thank you." But now, I've become so worn down by what feels like a relentless nag, that I no longer make eye contact with the people who call after me. At night, when I would reach the safety of our hotel room, I would be so frustrated with the way I would avoid making a connection with the people around me, that I would promise myself the next time I was out and about, I would make more of an effort.
Walking back from a pharmacy later in the day, a man gave me a polite, "Hello, how are you?" And I gave him a, "I'm doing well. And you?" "Yes, yes, you must sit here. Come. Where are you going? I have a shop...." Once he motioned to the hanging shawls outside of his shop, I knew the rest of the schpeal. I don't enjoy cutting myself off from people in that way, but I don't want people to see me and have money signs in their eyes as I walk by, being a Westerner.
Now that we have been at Kopan Monastery and Nunnery for nearly a week, we have settled in and been teaching English classes to monks and nuns of all ages. We have our routine set, and after lunch, when the sun is the hottest, Gina and I trek up the hill from the nunnery to the monastery and pass many people on our way. They are not trying to sell us things, or lure us into their shops, but just yell out "hello" to receive a "hello" in return. The children are the most eager to practice the limited English they know. Yesterday, there was a group of five kids carrying water in large jugs to their home, and before asking a question, they would group together and decide what to ask. "What is your name?" "Where you going?" And with each sentence, came an accompanying wave of giggles, as though they were surprised their English was understandable.

There is a program called Thinking Beyond Borders, which is a perfect Gap Year program to travel the world and learn about ways in which the world ticks. Highly educational and inspirational- one of the reasons that I was inspired to take a gap year, myself. Since I wasn't on their adventures with them through Costa Rica, Peru, Thailand, India, South Africa, and more, I've been reading each newsletter that Co-Founder, Sandy Pendoley, has sent out. This last week's newsletter included a reflective piece from one of the students, Liz Kuenstner, titled I Believe in the Power of a Smile to a Stranger. It was beautifully written. If you have a minute, it's a wonderful read. http://www.thinkingbeyondborders.org/newsletter/2009/0904Ibelieveinthepowerofasmiletoastranger.html (Or to learn more about Thinking Beyond Borders (TBB), then you can visit their website at www.thinkingbeyondborders.org.)
lovelovelove, denali g

First few days in Nepal could've been worse

2009-04-23T01:08:00.000-07:00

To get from Darjeeling to Kathmandu, we spent nearly 24 hrs in moving automobiles, with fewer stops than would have been desired. Share jeeps to the Nepali border were bearable, but once we set foot in Nepal, it was bad news. The cost of a 30-day visa increased $10 since our Lonely Planet (aka every traveler's bible) was published, so we were all ten US dollars short. We're only staying 5 days longer than our 30-day Nepali visa allows us, but we'll have to buy a 15-day visa for $25 for those 5 days. I suppose it could've been worse.
We decided that bus drivers who appear to be on crack should not drive buses, because playing chicken with every automobile in the on-coming traffic is enough to give me a heart attack, or at least make me pee my pants on a bus that does not have bathroom facilities. We were seated in the back rows of the bus. With the heat, I would hold my arm out of the window to feel the breeze as I read Memoirs of a Geisha (or, as the company who photocopied this novel back in Vietnam titled it - Memoiris of a Geisha.) As we'd go over bumps at full speed, my body would jump off the seat about 7 or 8 inches, which was just high enough to slam my collar bone into the upper edge of the window frame, I'm accumulating some battle wounds. Yosh's legs are longer than Gina's and mine are, but to say that we had bruised knees by the end of our 15 hr bus ride because the seats in front of us are too close, I can't imagine how Yosh's knees must have felt. But he never complained. I guess because it could've been worse.
When our bus finally stopped at our destination, men were slamming on the sides of the bus yelling up to us, "Welcome to Nepal!" I wanted to say, "Well, that's really nice of you, but I feel like hell right now. I wouldn't stand too close, I may throw up. I'm sorry." Our first few hours in Kathmandu were spent in a hospital waiting room so that I could see a doctor. (Yes, it's kind of an ongoing joke that I've managed to see a doctor in every country we've been to... I think every country but Thailand.) So, here we were in a hospital waiting room for an hour, because I would eat the simplest of foods and they'd come right back out of me. My digestive system is kind of like a bucket with a hole at the bottom. Being cramped for space in the physician's office, when it was finally my turn, four other men were in the room waiting their turn... I'm not accustomed to being physically examined by doctors with strangers in the room, but that's just the way it went. After being prescribed medicine, and being told to stop taking the anti-diarrhea meds I had accidentally taken an overdose of a few days back, I got the lovely experience of turning in a stool sample in a tiny plastic jar where the label held my name, which was creatively spelled, "Deyoli Gillowpi". (Side note- our next door neighbor, Judith, said it wasn't proper for a student to graduate if they couldn't spell the word diarrhea. After writing the word in my journal quite often and reading it on medication labels quite often, I could now graduate as Judith's proud spelling pupil. D-i-a-r-r-h-e-a. Diarrhea.) Paying the registration fee to become a member of the hospital, seeing a doctor, buying medicine, paying for a stool sample test, and going back the following day for a second consultation, it cost me the same amount of money as crossing the Golden Gate Bridge and paying the $6 toll. On top of cheap hospital expenses, I'm also no longer bed-ridden. I've been able to enjoy our past three days in Nepal. Yes, it could've been worse.

Kalimpong and silence

2009-04-23T00:45:00.000-07:00

We entered India six weeks ago and immediately started a ten day silent meditation retreat, and we left India in a similar fashion. For those of you who have been tuning in since seven months ago when this journey began, the people we stayed with in Chiba - Inomoto-san and Rinpoche - also let us stay with them in Kalimpong. Nichyan Rinpoche is building a monastery, which is an extravagant project in the works. His property overlooks a gigantic valley that turns the mountains in the distance into silhouettes at sunset. Yoshi, Gina, and I spent the majority of our time for our three days sipping tea, reading books on the patio as the wind chimes sang in the wind, and petting the resident dogs. Blackie and Tashi had serious cases of fleas, and so did Yoshi and I.

One of the days, to be productive in a more active way, we each took on a section of the garden. Yoshi sawed huge logs in half to simplify the task of carrying them. Gina loosened soil to let the roots breathe the crisp mountain air and weeded the potted plants. I was advised to trim the hedges that were taller than I was... Rinpoche instructed me, "Make them look like a monk's head." Smooth and round was the goal. The ladybugs kept me company while I was weeding, bent over for nearly an hour. I hadn't been feeling too hot for the past few days, but I won't go into the details because I don't wish to make you queasy. But I was dehydrated to say the least, and stood up to stretch my body. I had precariously placed myself in a circle of rose bushes, and felt like I was dreaming. I was loopy, like the day I got my wisdom teeth pulled out last year, loaded up on laughing gas, and I was singing songs to the surgeon while he tried to tell me to stop moving my mouth... that's a story for another time, though. I saw Gina look up at me from the section of potted plants, and then my mind went black. Some time later, I woke up and started yelling to her, "I DON'T KNOW WHAT JUST HAPPENED" over and over again. She had watched me clumsily fall over myself while I was in a daze and thought I was just being a ditz. But after pulling me out of the bushes, to see the scrapes on my legs, arms, feet, and forehead, she could tell that I had no intention of falling. By fainting, I dove myself head-first into a rose bush. Not the brightest idea. I rested for the remainder of the day, upstairs reading a captivating novel that shows the life of a lower-class man building his own destiny in India, called White Tiger by Aravind Adiga - winner of the Man Booker Prize.

After spending our time in Delhi, speeding around Agra, getting hassled in Varanasi, sucking in smog in Kolkata, and all the rest of it that is the craziness of India, being in Kalimpong was perfect. Birds sang in the morning, you didn't need a jacket during the day, and we were in good company with hot tea and books. It was just right.

The Devil Bus, and more

2009-04-22T00:54:00.000-07:00

The end of our time in Kalimpong was fun and uneventful (besides for the flocks of fleas that ate Denali alive first and then came after me...but were kind enough to leave Gina alone), and Darjeeling was similar. It was cool to spend one day seeing the zoo. The red panda is more like a raccoon than a bear, the deer are bigger than cows, yaks are like mini elephants. It was also cool to go to the tea gardens and Tibetan Refugee Self-Help Center, and to watch the clear mountains get ambushed by the fast armies of fog. But I really liked finding quiet cafe's with ridiculous views, sitting down with a book and a pot of Darjeeling tea and just reading. Oh, also saw OngBak 2, which was cool to see for the action, but difficult to understand it all in Hindi with no subtitles (then again, action movies like that don't have the most complicated plots).
But enough of this jibber jabber. I want to get to our first bus in Nepal. I think the best way to compare it, although it may sound like a cliche metaphor, is a rollercoaster. Let me begin by saying that I love rollercoasters, always have, even did a 30 page report (or more?) in 8th grade on them. Now let's go through the aspects of a rollercoaster compared to the bus. 1. Thrill factor: Speeding headfirst around trucks into the opposite side of traffic is much more terrifying than any loop-de-loop I've ever been on, and my head and shoulders hurt for days from hitting bumps at top speed giving us a momentary feeling of weightlessness before knocking our noggins on the roof. 2: Safety: I feel much more comfortable free falling for 10 stories then going head-on towards another truck honking at us, especially when we have no seat belts (thus the 0-g sensation when we hit huge bumps...frequently). 3.Time: As a kid I would dream of a rollercoaster that would last for hours and how cool that would be. From the border, its supposed to be about a 15 hour bus ride. After the 1st hour of gripping the chair in front of you till your knuckles turn white, you're ready for it to be over...I definitely appreciate the length of a rollercoaster ride as it is now. Let's not forget to mention that my legs don't fit, so I used my sweatshirt as padding for my knees rather than warmth, not that I could sleep anyways when we hit huge bumps and the the back had 7 people cramming into 6 seats (I was in the left corner). I will admit, though, that I am SOOO happy I had a chance to ride that bus. For one, it's an experience I'll never forget (even cherish), and 2. I appreciate every moment I'm not on a bus from hell.

Mama Theresa of Kolkata

2009-04-17T07:42:00.000-07:00

I felt like a menopausal woman in Kolkata (Calcutta) the other week. All times of day were so hot that I took an average of 2.5 showers per day. We traveled to this humid city for the sole purpose of volunteering at one of Mother Theresa's Institutes. We were only able to volunteer for two days at Prem Dan, which is a home for the dying and destitute. It's similar to the work our dad does as a Hospice nurse, it's no easy job to have. Even after only two days of caring for people who know their days are limited, it weighed heavily on my heart. Gina and I, and a dedicated band of other female volunteers, took care of the women. And Yosh was in the section with all of the males, from 8am-1pm. We showed up and got straight to hand-washing the mountains of laundry. Our next task was moving all of the women from chairs to beds or other seating areas. Language barriers played an interesting role at Prem Dan. All volunteers are called "Auntie Auntie" and are yelled at the whole time (I'm sure with the sweetest intentions possible). There are several sisters wearing Mama Theresa styled robes with all-white, edged in blue stripes, who take care of the medical needs, but the workers need help when someone has used the floor as their bathroom, for example. They would point across the room and shout "Auntie Auntie" and of course all volunteers turn and look, because while we are at Prem Dan, we all share the same title. "No. Auntie Auntie". Oh, now I understand.... what? "AUNTIE." Then we're given a rag to wipe up the ground... I should've known.

I took the task of cutting fingernails and toe nails. A few women talked to me while I snipped their nails, and I would make stories up in my mind as to what they were saying, judging by their facial expression and gestures. ("And then I was trying to tell her my stomach was sore, but she didn't listen. So I ate some rice, but it wasn't delicious so I threw it on the ground. They didn't give me rice after that.) One time a woman pulled my head close to hers and whispered secrets in Hindi. She can trust me not to tell her secrets, because I never knew them to begin with. Using our limited Hindi knowledge, Gina and I managed to play some name games with the women in wheelchairs before lunch began. Then a volunteer from Spain busted through the door with a pan in her hand and started serenading the women in a Spanish love song: stomping her feet to the ground, drumming away on the metal pan, reaching her hands out to all the women... she got them dancing in their chairs. I was ordered by a woman to massage her arthritic wrists at the time, but we both took a break to have a good laugh.

I took a pause to observe the women who have no other choice than to be at Prem Dan. I wish I spoke Hindi so I could get inside of their heads for a few minutes, and see what their thoughts are like- they must know they'll be starting their next lives soon, or else they wouldn't be there. Are they counting down days? Reflecting? Not even thinking about death, just thinking about how long it's been since they've eaten a banana? (Answer = one day) Some of the women were silent the whole time, not very responsive. But other women were light in the midst of darkness. They would laugh whenever we walked by. I even got a few hugs. I would do Tong-len for them, which is a Buddhist practice. Paraphrased, it is a breathing meditation to breathe the suffering/pain out of others with your inhale, and exhale positive energy to them. Breathe it in, Love it out.

Mother Theresa has definitely left her mark on Kolkata, by starting with the simple, open-hearted acts of kindness for all who need it. There are many institutes started by her that have a constant stream of volunteers coming through to help out. There wasn't a forceful religious agenda for the volunteers, there were just optional religious activities, (but we went to Science City instead). Everywhere else in India there have been pictures of Hindi gods, Gandhi, sometimes His Holiness the Dalai Lama, but in Kolkata, Mother Theresa's face appears more frequently than any other image. She is in Kolkata's heart, and mine as well.

Denali's Travel Tips

2009-04-16T03:02:00.000-07:00

A brief list of things I've learned. Here is the wisdom I've gained in the form of travel tips.

-Always travel with a spoon.
(You never know when you'll have an ice cream to go, or a yogurt that needs a-mixin'.)

-When bargaining, pull the 'contemplate-and-walk' tactic.
(When you look at an item for quite some time, mulling the purchase over in your mind, tell the shopkeeper "I'll think about it and come back." As soon as you leave, they'll lower the price. Works every time. Especially for students who aren't lying when they say "I don't have enough money for that.")

-You don't need a towel.
(Hotels will supply you with one if you are on the beach, but as far as showering goes, I lost my towel six months ago. I've used a six inch by two foot piece of material that we've fondly come to call "the cheesecloth" because it looks like the loosely woven fabric that's used to make cheese. When wet, it is a washcloth. If you wring it out, it can be used as a towel.... after writing this blog, I discovered I'd lost it.)

-You will lose things.
(Shoes get stolen, towels mysteriously disappear on Thailand overnight bus rides, cheesecloths get misplaced.)

-When you buy things, get rid of things.
(Living with all of my possessions out of my backpack, I have to be the mule for everything I want to have. I've sent many things home, but when you give things away to schools or charities, the postal charge won't damage your bank account, and you can see the direct benefits. My dad used to tell me "If you buy one piece of clothing, you have to send two pieces to Salvation Army." Well, I'm not two for one thus far, but I'm trying.)

-Don't be taken advantage of. Sneak attack.
(The other day on the overnight bus ride from Kolkata to Kalimpong, I was trying to sleep so I leaned my chair back. The man behind me wasn't too thrilled. This is the man who had kept us awake by blaring loud Hindi music from his cell phone while the passengers tried to sleep. I knew he was trouble from the start. He decides to stick his fingers through the small area where the backrest meets the seat, and grabbed at my lower back. I wasn't going to have it. After three grabs, it was clear it was intentional. I positioned myself so I could see where his fingers would appear, and waited. When his hand popped through to my area, I punched it with the force of a sleepless girl with adrenaline. He got the hint... Passive as it was, he got it. The grabbing stopped. I hope with all of my heart that you never get groped, but if you do... I'm telling you- sneak attack.)

-Bring a deck of cards.
(The lovely girls I babysit back home in San Anselmo sent me off with a deck of cards. It's helped us make friends and pass the time before meals while we're waiting for our food. A compact life saver.)

-Beggars can't be choosers.
(We always get the cheapest accommodation. Wherever we can save money, we do. If we find ourselves saying, No hot water? We have bed bugs? There's one bed for the three of us? The fan's broken? The bathroom is two floors away? Check out time is at 9am??? We remind ourselves: We got what we paid for, at least we have a place to sleep.)

-Anything can be treasure.
(I try to reduce, reuse, recycle. Since we've been traveling, I even use floss three times before throwing it out. Who knew it could last so long? Our pants have rips in them. As long as they get the job done, they serve their purpose, they'll still have a place in my backpack.)

-Skype video works wonders.
(When homesick, get to an internet cafe and sign on to Skype. Seeing the faces and hearing the voices of loved ones lifts the spirits exponentially. If I were to give thanks to people and things that have helped me survive staying abroad, I would thank my family, friends, strangers and their kindness, skype, bookstores, and mentos. I am forever indebted.)

Bodghaya is too hot for me, but not for the Buddha

2009-04-16T01:43:00.000-07:00

Bodghaya was a nice place, if you're drawn to mosquitoes, extreme heat, and Buddhism. After sitting beneath the bodhi tree where the Buddha attained enlightenment, there was no other insentive for us to stay in Bodghaya. Our visit lasted two days. Gina's bed bug count was at 106 on a single arm, it looked like elbow acne had appeared overnight. We collected a few leaves that the wind took from the bodhi tree and cast to the ground. It was a peaceful place. Inside of a large temple built next to the tree (which Yosh pointed out completely upstaged the tree) there was a statue of the Buddha. I made the decision to keep my camera in my pocket and take a photograph with my eyes. I felt picture-crazed with my camera always at the ready, being the good tourist that I am. Yet, there's an odd phenomena that the three of us have experienced numerous times. Indian families ask us to stand in their photos, sometimes hold their children even, but we've never met them before. So as I am blinking my eyelids to store this image in this photographic memory of mine, an Indian woman grabs me by the arm and says "Come, come. Just here. Can we take photo with you?" "Uhhh..." Flash. No time for me to reply. "Ok, thank you. Where are you from?" "America. I'm from California." "Oh, very good." And just like that, it's over. The faces of her and her family of 8 or 9 will become fuzzy images in my mind within several years, but I may be put into one of her family photo albums. She may go home and show her friends, "Yes, this woman is from America... California!"

Under the tree, a man walked up to Yosh and he only said one sentence. But I don't think he could have fit anymore slang words into it. "'Ey Boss, mind if I snap a pic of ya with my boy?" I wonder how his son must have felt. You take a family vacation across India to come to a sacred sight, only to be seated next to a foreigner you've never met for a Kodak moment? If that's not bizarre, I don't know what is. Oh, maybe this is:

There are no shoes allowed in the temple surrounding the tree, however; there's also no pain like walking on sun soaked pavement without shade in sight, with bare feet. At our silent meditation retreat in Dharmsala, Venerable Tenzin Chogkyi taught - pain is just sensation plus fear. If we take away the fear, everything is simply a sensation. I like to ponder that one. But I must say that's a lot easier said than done. Especially when you're running from shade puddle to shade puddle trying to keep the skin on the soles of your feet from being eaten alive.

Speaking of being eaten alive, in the restaurants, the ratio of customer to fly is probably 1 to 30. It's like parting the black sea when you walk into the entranceway of each restaurant. The cloud of black swarms to escape your footsteps, and resettles as soon as you've passed. At least there were no flies in our room. Nope, instead we got mosquitoes. I felt like Rose Dawson (Kate) in Titanic, with the potential to be saved from death by hypothermia, resting on the floating door.... but I had to watch Jack Dawson (Leo) freeze to death. I was in the mosquito net because my blood seemed to be favored by those little blood-suckers, but Gina and Yosh were out in open air, helpless victims. Since Gina's bed had bed bugs, we fit two of us in my single bed the next night... no one slept. In the morning, we dragged our sleep-deprived bodies to see a cave temple, which was a half hour and 200 rupees away. We drove through towns where the cows' ribs are all showing, young children are carrying hay bales on their head that are at least two or three times their size, and I would imagine you'd never see rupees as currency. No stores, just homes. These hot, hot, hot, open fields could be looked down from a bird's eye view after hiking up to the temple in the cave. People here are amazing, with the amount of heat they can stand. How the Buddha managed to attain enlightenment in this city baffles me. I guess that's why I'm not enlightened yet.

Varanasi was Verynicey

2009-04-15T13:27:00.000-07:00

Staying longer than we had originally planned ended up being relaxing... Yoshi's downhill health took the remaining meat from his bones over the course of four or five days. Gina and I roamed around, pet puppies, and walked up and down the ghats during our days of wandering. The first of the two weeks we spent in Varanasi was such a joy. At the Saraswati school for underprivileged kids, run by two brothers - Amit and Somit - there was class in the morning and evening. We would split the 20-30 kids into two groups and Gina and I would teach English and guitar upstairs. The sounds of our singing and dancing crept into the ears of the kids in the downstairs classroom where Yoshi tried to teach mathematics to kids who struggled with English, and at times, math as well. There was always a fight for the guitar. One guitar amongst ten or twelve students can't be divided as easily as cutting a cookie into sections. Patience is required. After we were comfortable with each other, I sat a room full of girls down who would be learning guitar for the next hour and told them how it would be. "There will be no more 'I go first' or 'Let me have the guitar now' or 'I haven't had a turn yet.' Everyone will get a chance to play. Ok?" All the heads nodded. "Repeat after me: Maybe you should go first." They repeated it perfectly. Good. Step one accomplished. Now for step two. I brought out the guitar and all the voices started in 'I go first, madam' and 'give me the guitar!' I didn't say a word. I looked at one of the older girls whose English was highly impressive... as was her cute hair-do that Gina and I called a 'banoofi' after a banana/coconut dish served in a local cafe. "Monika?" She knew. "Ok.... Ok... Maybe you should go first." She looked at Berka sitting next to her and Berka's face lit up. She would get a chance to play- she grabbed the gutiar. But then she thought better of it. "Ok... me too. I understand. Maybe you should go first, Arti." And so it went down the line.
They were such fast learners. I taught them three cords. A, D, and E. On final day, they threw us a going away party and dressed us in garlands of flowers and shoved bengals onto our unforgivingly western-sized wrists (which took around ten minutes for Gina, who ended up with bruises on the widest parts of her hands). The last chance they would have to play guitar for a while probably, so I took it out. Two girls made my day in a matter of a minute. I had the instrument of their desire in my hand, but Monika said, "Maybe you go first" and Berka gladly played. She looked at me and said "I know. This is A." And it was. "And this one..." slowly adjusting her fingers, "this one is D... you only play the bottom four strings. I know." And now for the final cord, "This is E. I can play now." Yes.
The next day, walking the ghats with Gina as Yoshi read novel after novel in the hotel room to keep his mind of his body weakening, we ran into a few of the girls from school selling post cards to tourists. (Child labour is part of the reason that Amit and Somit created the school, so that children would be able to live the lives of children, not laborers. They have big plans to build a new, larger school where families will also be able to come if they need help. Check out their blog for more information and pictures, donate, or find their contact information. They also teach Hindi, massage, astrology, yoga, and on and on: http://varanasivolunteer.blogspot.com/). Well Berka put her hand against a wall with a painting of a guitar on it and showed me her cords one last time. I said, "Keep practicing." She said. "Yes. You buy postcard?" Good old Varanasi.

Movin on up...and East

2009-04-14T22:57:00.000-07:00

A quick word about Bodhgaya, since that was our next stop after Varanasi. Bodhgaya is simple, spiritual and peaceful. I think that sums it up from my experience. The night mosquitoes were absolute death, however, invisible in the light but at dark they seemed to appear in swarms the size of water buffaloes, covering any skin you were unable to cover (which was hard since the room was scalding even with a constantly running fan). One funny story was when Denali and Gina shared a pancake (or wanted to share a pancake...but this is foreshadowing) with chocolate on top. The pancake that they were brought was covered in Masala, though, which (for those of you who haven't had Masala) is not QUITE the same thing as chocolate...their two similarities is that both chocolate and masala are both brown and both are food. After returning the pancake, they brought out the SAME pancake, this time with chocolate sauce on top of the masala, which is no better than straight masala. After sending it back a second time, the new pancake was actually the old pancake, once again, with a new layer of masala. Thinking that maybe the third time's a charm, they stated their order of one chocolate pancake again, and recieved the same pancake with everything scraped off to the best of the kitchen's abilities, which tasted like (guess what) a masala pancake. After this, we paid for the rest of the food (my food, which was tasty) and left.
Kolkata was a fun place to visit, and volunteering at Mother Theresa's was quite an experience. Doing everything from giving massages to shaving faces was more rewarding than I would've expected. Such a simple task, yet they are so thankful for it. The highlight was going to "Science City" in my opinion. A combination of the exploratorium and an amusement park with a hundredth of the funding, science city was filled with hands on experiments, such as the fog tornado, teeter totters with different fulcrum points (I LOVE TEETER TOTTERS) and a pedal yourself monorail. The monorail was great, since Denali and Gina got stuck behind an Indian couple enjoying the view and pedaling slowly, so I caught up to them and gave them a good knock with the front of my car like they were bumper cars. Sweet.
Now we are up in Kalimpong, staying with Inomoto-san and Rinpoche. Their project is a LOT bigger than any of us expected, and although we really wanted to help with the construction, the language barrier would probably make us more of a hindrance than help. We did get to do some gardening, and Rinpoche gave me the task of sawing a fatty log in half with a regular saw. The only real annoyance has been fleas, which Denali had at first and now I am dealing with. I feel like I'm back in 5th grade with horrible poison oak...well, maybe not THAT bad.

My First Trip to the Doctor

2009-04-03T04:36:00.000-07:00

While Denali and Gina have beenmany times, I personally made my first visit a few days ago. It all started with my love of mango juice on the street... Oh well, it was a wonderful love while it lasted. One day I ended up getting 5 glasses around the town, so it could've been any one of them that got me sick (or all of them!). That night was the parade, and what an interesting parade it was. Before it had arrived in our part of town, everyone was walking up and down the streets, where they gave out free sweets and sweet drinks that were considered blessings (which I stayed away from so that I wouldn't get sick. HA). The streets were decorated with lights so that it looked like Christmas. Even the colors were red and green, so I guess cows are the same as reindeer.
When the floats arrived, they all had massive speaker systems and lots of people sitting or dancing on them, and were more than willing to pull people up onto them. I got pulled into the group dancing in FRONT of the first one, which was ALL guys (it's so weird that NO women ever dance. I mean, obviously not to them, but to me its so...backwards), and that was enough for me. The more interesting floats came at the end, such as the recreation of the Mumbai attacks.
They had a huge screen with a picture of the Taj Hotel (and it said TAJ HOTEL) and there were lots of people dancing on their stage. I was offered to by pulled up onto this one but I declined, and am happy I did. All of a sudden, the music stopped, and was replaced by recorded gun sounds and people with their faces covered holding guns ran around pretending to shoot and take the people hostage (OH, these were the orange-wigged Indian men pretending to be "Western women") until a jeep (which was following at a distance) SCREECHED up and unloaded a bunch of police men who pretended to fire back. The recorded gunfire was loud, the explosions that they had on the stage from what looked like pipe guns (I dont know, a big plastic tube of sorts) was RIDICULOUS). Then an ambulance screeched up behind the jeep, and they carried away some of the people that had fallen on stage. After this, they played an Indian song and waved the flag and everyone cheered. Peculiar, but fun.
The next day was the beginning of my sickness. I'll spare the details, but basically it consisted of bathroom, bathroom and bathroom. And being really tired. On a positive note, I did get some reading done. That was sweet. It's been days now and my stomach I still dont think has recovered 100 percent, but I do feel much better than I did before, hopefully that will be a lasting feeling.

I'm alive, but a girl stole my bananas

2009-03-29T00:27:00.000-07:00

I have been taking sitar lessons for the past three days, only 200 rupees per lesson. Considering my parents paid an arm and a leg for each music lesson I had growing up, $4 for a private lesson is a bit of a bargain. Each day I maneuver my legs into the classical seating position, let the painful finger pick squeeze all blood flow out of my right pointer finger, and practice scales. In English, I would sing Do-re-mi-fa, etc. But in India, we sing Sa-re-ga-ma-pa-dha-ni-sa. I've got a blister on my finger to prove my amateur progress. Anyhow, walking through the alleys - that all connect and seem to look the same, like turning the corner to find myself in a groundhog day effect - I clench my fists when passing cows, bulls, water buffalo, etc. The dogs aren't intimidating in comparison. Most often, the dogs have eaten the hair off of their own bodies by scratching their teeth. Their teats sag nearly to the ground, and their puppies are too cute and tempting not to give a little scratch on the head as they paw your toes. All the animals on the street share the abundance of garbage on the street as their daily meals. The trash cans here are nonexistent because the ground acts as one garbage receptacle. Every morning people with large brooms come and sweep all of the feces, plastic bags (which are actually illegal in India), old food, etc. into the drains and into wheelbarrows to be taken away. Anyhow, as I was walking to my sitar lesson yesterday, I saw two water buffalo slowly down an alley towards me, so I step aside and watch as their thousand pound bodies pass. I have now learned that if there is one water buffalo, there will be more. They travel in herds... I prepare myself for the slow-paced buffaloes. I predicted that if I could only get to the end of the alley and turn right, I would be able to perfectly time it so I could avoid the next ones coming around the corner. The alleys are only 5 feet wide at most, and the circumference of a water buffalo's abdomen is easily 3 or 4 feet, which leaves hardly any room for me and my travel guitar on my back to squeeze between them and the concrete wall. Not wanting to be late for my last sitar lesson, I. I jumped down from the step where I had used as my refuge from the last two buffaloes' bodies and booked it towards the corner, but I wasn't fast enough. A huge beast of a water giant turned the corner. Face to face with an animal that had head-butted Yoshi in Thailand and scared the living daylights out of us. For the most part, they seem to be lazy animals, I never would have expected to see one break into a run.... let alone do it three feet in front of me, towards me. I sprung up to stand on a concrete ledge and hugged the wall as it barged past me. My body was in shock, my arms and legs numb, as I started walking again. It's nice to still be here. After sitar lessons I had to make my way back through the alleys to get to Hindi lessons with Gina and Yoshi. The experience is similar to walking through a maze, so I asked children for directions. A young girl who looked to be about eight years old, with a baby on her hip, and a toddler waddling close behind had me follow her. We exchanged smiles and I was glad to have a guide through these twisting stone lanes. I had a few bananas, so I offered her one. The common response to offering food to strangers thus far has been a polite head nod. Not this girl. She ripped the plastic bag with bananas out of my hands and ran for her life. I said "no/don't" in Hindi ("nahee") and surprisingly, she stopped. She gave them back even. Hearing the raised voices, a young boy had come to see what was happening. He got involved, but not quite in the way I would have preferred. He grabbed a banana out of my hands and she grabbed the rest and they ran for it, in opposite directions. I stood for a minute, in a lonely alley, with the ripped handle of a plastic bag in my hand.Bizarre things like that have happened on a regular basis. It keeps life fresh, not always for the better, but always a new experience. Cows have peed on Gina and I, a man spat red fluid onto my foot yesterday, Yoshi saw a parade with men pretending to be Western women by wearing orange wigs and dancing on a float, we saw a child's body being carried down to the burning ghat on the Ganges to be burned... Being in India is like being transported to another world or another time. It's a trip.

namaste, denali

The Varanasi Hustle

2009-03-28T02:47:00.000-07:00

Rather than cover all bases very briefly, I think it might make more sense to look at a single story in depth...if people are interested in all the little things like what I ate, how many bites I took, how many times I chewed, I'll try and include those details as well.

This story I think there will be many who will say "WOW" and many people who will say "well, DUH" It started after one day of early morning teaching and I was craving mango juice. Ok, CRAVE isnt the right word, since craving is bad and I could be happy without it, its not the actual juice that will make me happy its in my mind, etc. But I really wanted mango juice... During the right season you can get mango juice and lassis at any of the many restaurants, although the price is much more expensive than going to a stand (RELATIVELY, its still only 50 cents or so). Alas, it's not mango season, so I went out on an adventure to get the goods. I walked out until I got to the main road, which is much more busy with all types of people and vehicles (can fit many cycle rickshaws in lanes across) compared to the narrow alleys that our guest house and most shops are found (can't even fit one rickshaw...although there are a lot of cows and motorcylcles). It was also a whole lot hotter, without the shade provided from the buildings close together. After a fairly good walk, I found the stands selling mango juice for 10 rupees, bought a glass, relaxed and watched the ludacris traffic (today I met some kids, amazingly quick who spoke all sorts of languages including japanese, french, spanish, and of course englishand hindi, who showed me a place where the juice is only 5). While finishing my glass, a boy in raggedy clothing came up to me, a look of despair on his face and his hand out which would from time to time move to his belly or his mouth. I ignored him the best I could for a long time, and when he had followed me all the way to a vendor selling food, I decided to give him a 5 rupee meal. I bought him a mamosa like thing, not sure what its called, but its SWEET, and kept walking. I realized I was going down the wrong way, so I turned around and headed back the way I came, and guess what I saw... that little sneak selling my food back to the vendor, pulling out some bills form his back pocket and buying some other food! I laughed pretty hard when I saw that one...it's been a while since I've been played that hard. Gotta give him props, but at the same time, I dont think I'll be buying food for people any time soon... well, im a softy, so i probably will.

Taj Mahallelujah

2009-03-22T04:31:00.000-07:00

It was magnificent, like a from a fairy tale. White marble all around, this monument was built by Shah Jahan for his wife (favorite of his three wives) Mumtaz. The other two wives have small mosques, in dedication to them, built on the same property as the Taj Mahal... I think we can all tell which wife he liked the best. When I asked our tour guide why Mumtaz was his favorite, he replied simply: she was beautiful. Being hassled all day got under my skin. Started the day off politely looking at auto-rickshaw drivers and saying "no, thank you" when swarmed by them, but towards 5 o'clock I had a stone face on and walked through crowds of people shoving marble elephants and wooden chess sets in my face for "cheap price or you, madam". Constantly having people interested in me sharing my wallet (which has limited money in it) is a nuisance. In a day, I can be asked if I want to buy silk, pashminas, hash, coke, maaza mango juice, mineral water, postcards, see classical Indian music concerts, get a boat ride on the Ganges River, see pictures of somebody's uncle who met Goldie Hawn (children ask me where I'm from. "California". They say, "A, like Goldie Hawn.") a man "cleaned" Yoshi's ears... so this happened in Delhi. He got his tools out and acted amazed that Yoshi had years' worth of wax clogging his drums. (Yoshi cleans is ears everyday, it's something he really enjoys. haha) I watched him with his metal stick, insert into Yoshi's ear, not much came out... THEN - tricky man - he took a piece of what looked to be brown playdoh and stuck it on the end of his tool, placing the substance inside Yoshi's ear... then miraculously finding hidden treasures within Yosh's ears. I don't think so, mister. Scams like that are amazing.

Yesterday, Gina and I were walking on the Ganges in Varanasi between teaching English/Guitar classes at Saraswati Educational Institute/Y.E.T.S. (Yoga Education Training Society). There was a boy limping, carrying a bowl for bakshish- money. I try to have compassion and help where I can, but I think the wisest choice isn't always to give somebody money, when you don't know their intentions for spending it. Instead, I like to give food. Using my rookie Hindi knowledge, I said what I thought was "You like bananas?" ("Ap ahm pasand karta hei.") He said yes, so we went to the market and I bought several bananas. He wasn't pleased but took the banana anyway. As it turns out, "ahm" does not mean banana. It means mango. I got the kids hopes up to receive a mango, and instead gave him a lousy banana. Silly tourist, trying to speak Hindi. Well apparently bananas can heal injured legs, because he went from "limping" to dancing and running. A bit skeptical, eh?
-denali g

Tushita, Manali, Delhi and Varanasi

2009-03-22T02:56:00.000-07:00

I think most has been said, Denali has kept it pretty up to date. Tushita was great, loved the cold air (most o the time, not really during shower time or mornings when we were waking up with or before the sun) and how clean it felt up there. I must admit my retreat was not EXTREMELY silent, since me and the other 2 snorers (they put us in a separate room so that others could sleep) did do a little bit of private discussion, but it was usually about the teachings! One of the snorers was hardcore. He made airplanes sound like crickets. Overall the experience was great, although I can't say I agree with everything that was taught. Basically, it was a great reminder to live in the moment, be nice and have fun. I think if you do those things other things are gonna be ok. MAybe a word or two should go to the food. Although it was very simple, and usually the same everyday (morning porridge, afternoon salad and noodles, night soup), it was really good (part of it probably being that everyone was so focused on ENJOYING the food rather than just eating it), although it did make me fart a lot. This was especially awkward cause it would usually hit me right around the time of our silent meditation and yoga. I loved the monkeys. Spent a good amount of time watching them steal food, breed, jump from tree to tree and more. The ones at Tushita were kinda small with "bad sunburn red" faces, kinda like the ones you see pictures of in hotsprings in Japan. Outside of Tushita there were big white monkeys with long hair, like white lion monkeys.
Seeing the Dalai Lama was really great too, although I really wish I could understand what he was saying without a translator. Needing to go to the bathroom the whole time was a little bit of a distraction, but I fought through it. Maybe if the bathrooms in India were as interesting as Japan I would've had a problem.
The trip to Manali I thought was ok. Cheap, for me half off since they overbooked it and i sat on a rolly chair they put in. 3 people did get sick, we did have a whole bunch of stops, but we still got there which is the important part. Its interesting, after Tushita I've noticed a lot more talk about religion, and I'm wondering if people often talked about it and I just never noticed it or if its a weird coincidence that people all of a sudden have started to talk about God and being good. I think the best thing I've heard was one shopkeeper who invited us in and talked religion for a while said "Bad is not good." The rockclimbing was janky, running up a steep rock with my feet slipping nonstop was something I wasn't used to.
Delhi was a bunch o fun. I LOVE Indian food, including street vendors. The yogurts, the spices, the potato, the naan, the prices; its all so good. I get scared from time to time, but its soooo good. Old Dheli was probably the area that was closest to the India I picture in my head, with the thousands of delicious and disgusting smells going through your nose all at one time. One of the more interesting, sort of intimidating experiences was when the three of us decided to go play cards on the grass field, and a crowd of 30 or so men gathered over time to watch us, standing around us playing our simple games. It was bizarre, but of course, with such a crowd my guess is to them we must have looked bizarre. I like the bazaars. Staying with Elise was so nice. She was a great host, showing us around Delhi, giving us advice on what to pay for autorickshaws, where to buy train tickets, and tons more. A good place to go back to and watch Arrested Development when we were tired and didn't have too much energy to explore during the nights.
Ok, theres a lot I'm leaving out cause I haven't written in a long time, but I'm going to skip ahead to the Taj Mahal, which was an absolutely awesome sight. I'd say the 2nd coolest thing I've seen since traveling. Just behind it is Angkor Wat, and the number one spot was the view from the plane of the Himalayas. It does look like heaven on earth, filled with Indian tourists (with a dabble of foreigners). Our guide was great, some man who started walking with us and said no money to be paid (I guarantee he was expecting a tip though, which we gave), taking a TON of pictures from all angles, as well as explaining the height, price and architectural details. My favorite parts were him using a flashlight to illuminate some of the stones used in the inside of the building, to show how they were actually in the marble, not just ontop.
Now in Varanasi, the capital of cows, which is saying a lot considering how many cows run "wild" in Delhi and Mcleod Ganj. The streets are filled with funny twists and turns, and each night there are tons of kids on their roofs flying kites. There are so many warnings about being safe in Varanasi, but so far it just seems like a quaint quirky town. We should be volunteering tomorrow, hopefully, maybe the day after. SOON!

We are in India

2009-03-16T05:55:00.001-07:00

It's odd being in India... it's not nearly as impoverished or smelly or any of the extremes that everyone had warned us about before coming. There are begging on the streets with missing limbs and sometimes carrying babies, but i think i built it up so hugely in my mind that it doesn't feel that overwhelming. Gina, Yosh, and I were talking about getting hassled each day, and we got hassled more in Vietnam than we have been our past three days in Delhi. Anyway, it's so nice because we've been staying in our friend's apartment that we met at the retreat. She goes to cornell and she's so sweet. her name is elise.
When I was sick the other day, all i wanted was to be home. But that only lasted a few minutes before i remembered i'd be home soon enough, so i'll enjoy being sick somewhere else. tong len for all the other travelers puking up their samosas.

We went to an shelter/orphanage yesterday! it was the greatest. all girls, about forty of them, and they paitned our nails (hands and toes) in a deep purple and gave us bindis on our foreheads, they put on a show of coreographed dances and songs, they were falling asleep in our arms, they sang english songs with Heather, a woman who has been volunteering with them for almost a year, and we just got to hold them and tickle them all day. it was a joy. one girl, basanti, wrote hindi phrases all up and down my arm... i asked a man on the train what they meant, but he said they were too broken to understand. every time i would say "basanti!" she would bury her face in her arms and giggle. it's crazy how some of the girls were five years old, but already had pierced noses, i suppose it's the same way that babies in the states get their ears pierced when they're not even two years old.

i think we'll be in Delhi for a few more days, but we want to go to Varanasi, Bodhgaya, Darjeeling, etc. and volunteer within the next month, so we've gotta get a move on. We're planning on a half-day trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, but we hear it's one of the most unpleasant cities in the world, so we're not going to stay there. Two nights ago we went to a house party, and it was such a different scene as far as dancing goes. All of the people dancing were Indian guys, and they were shimmy-ing and shaking their hips like I've never seen... but there were no girls on the dance floor. It was a new concept, I feel like in the states that would be unlikely to happen. When we heard Michael Jackson on the speakers, we joined in on the dance party, but once there were enough camera phones taking videos of us dancing to feel like we were being recorded from every angle, we decided that was enough dancing for us. The men are dressed in pants and shirts, regular attire, but the women!!! Oh my gosh, their clothing is outstanding. The colors are vibrant, it's like walking amongst tropical fish. They're extravagant. A woman on the bus the other day had a toe ring on every toe besides her pinky toes, adorned from head to foot.

Every day, we go and get frozen yogurt at CocoBerry (which is like Pinkberry) , and there's a vendor that serves veg. chow mein for 30 rupees (50 rupees = 1 US dollar), and the serving could feed a family. We went and saw Slumdog Millionaire in Delhi today. It got the same feeling I get when I watch Gattaca, for example, and then drive past the Marin County Civic Center... seeing a movie that's filmed where I am gives me a feeling like I'm immersed in the movie in the theater and out of the theater. It was fun to me to see the screen full of saris, samosas, auto rickshaws, bengals, etc. and then stepping outside and being surrounded by the same things. I really enjoy that. There was an intermission in the movie hahah. Brilliant way to get people to buy snacks and such. The seats reclined! However, there's no cameras allowed in the theatre, and anywhere you go, there's a security frisk and bags are checked. We weren't allowed in a park yesterday because Gina and I had our cameras. I think they're afraid of people taking pictures of anything strategic... I took a somewhat potentially strategic picture yesterday on the metro to the orphanage. We all sat down, and Yosh sat across from us, and we look up above his seat and there's a huge sign that says "for ladies only". It's fashioned after the NY metro system, so the woman's voice on the speakers says "doors will open on the right. please mind the gap." I never imagined that so many people could fit into one car, but amazingly we all slammed ourselves in. The doors closed on Elise's arm once, but she was a trooper about it.

Today we got Cocoberry and brought it to Elise at work, where she's interning 9-5 editing field reports. She took a break and we walked around Lodhi Gardens, which was beautiful and peaceful, and full of birds (some of which decided too pooh above us) and flowers and dogs. Yosh named one of the black dogs "meow mix". Gina calls him the dog whisperer because dogs seem to like following him. Now we're planning out where to go in India before heading to Nepal (actually, Gina and Yosh are doing that, I'm slacking off and writing on the blog hahah). Taj Mahal, here we come!

all the best,
denali g

9 day silent retreat at tushita - india

2009-03-13T01:37:00.000-07:00

Being silent wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. Didn't miss checking emails or shopping for goodies. There were far more things I enjoyed than things I missed. Each day was really structured. Wake up at 6am by the morning gong ringer, then morning meditation at 6:45 and breakfast which was always porridge (and the most delicious bread). Makes my mouth water just thinking about putting butter and honey on the bread. Mmm. And tea 'round the clock. Milk tea. Masala tea. Honey, lemon, ginger tea. Always made at the ready by the great kitchen staff. For early afternoon meditation sessions, we were allowed to talk and ask questions, so although we weren't really given the chance to get to know each other by talking, you could get a feel for how people were by their questions and time at discussion groups. People from all over the world were there. The first few days we went over the Four Noble Truths and talked a lot about karma... mainly negative karma, which got to be depressing, but the following days were more uplifting, focusing on the cessation of suffering and ending cyclic existence. During meditations, led by both Venerable Tenzin Chogkyi as well as Venerable Jampa Dekyi, (both Western nuns haha), we tried doing a lot of single-pointed meditation. We focused on our breath, or the nature of our wandering, monkey minds. Or we would practice analytical meditation. Since this was the first time I'd ever put this much time and effort into meditation and focusing on studying my mind, it was a challenge at times.
So much of what we were learning were things I'd been taught my Mama Cin and Papa Don all my life, but for some reason, I really understood them for the first time at Tushita. Meditating on equanimity- everybody wants happiness. It's such a simple thought, but sitting and really spending time thinking about it, it hit me hard to think about how true it is. With so much time to myself inside of my head, not talking, a lot of memories arose that I had forgotten about. My dreams were all very vivid and extreme.
Yoga everyday was the best. Gina often got the giggles, which was contagious, of course. We all gathered on the roof of a three-storied building and did yoga together in a huge group, as monkeys ran around the building grooming each other or guarding their tree branch territories from other monkeys. They were crazy and loud. One day, I was staring at one (which you aren't supposed to do, to look them in the eyes in intimidating) and I said 'meow' (which I also wasn't supposed to do) and it screamed at me "HHEEEAAAHHHH", to which I screamed and sprinted for my life into the eating area for safety. Gina lost it. Giggles galore.
By the third night, Gina was sent to a hut in the middle of the forest without electricity, because she was snoring too loud for anyone to sleep in our dorm haha. Yosh was also in a snorer-designated dorm, but he was with two guys who were also talkers. Coerced into breaking the silence, guilty by association, I suppose. They had super interesting stories though, most of which we got to hear after the retreat, and Yosh could talk again.
Bucket showers were alright, losing the electricity and reading by candle-light at night was romantic, learning how to use tong-len was amazing, being able to touch my toes after eight days of yoga was a joy, wearing all of my warm clothes at night with a sleeping bag and two wool blankets was an experience. Being a toilet cleaner every day for my job was actually nice, having time to myself was heavenly. We were up in the mountains, with silence around us, and really nice, silent people for company. I had a wonderful retreat. I kept thinking I could become a nun, but the things stopping me are the small things I'm attached to. Maybe one day, I'll be a nun. I remember when I was nine years old and loads of Tibetan nuns came to stay with Jack and Judith next door to us, and I wanted to be a nun. Who knows. Maybe.

Seeing His Holiness the Dalai Lama the day after the retreat ended was special. The first time I saw him at Stanford several years ago, I was supposed to be sitting in the nose-bleed section of the bleachers, but ended up being brought to the front row with Dorothea, who was hard of hearing. I spent some of the teachings counting the people in the stadium to find the ratio of people in robes to people in jeans. What good fortune wasted. So I realized how blessed I've been, and how much I don't want to waste opportunities like that again. We got ourselves radios to listen to the English translation of HHDL's teachings, and they made sense! I mean, after talking about impermanence, and beginningless time, and cause and effect of karma, it was all that he talked about. We had been studying it and taking notes for the past week. We were in McLeoud Ganj on the day of the 50th anniversary of the uprising to Free Tibet. Hundreds of people with candles, all chanting and walking with Free Tibet flags and signs and hats. We went to get candles and when we tried to follow the crowd, we walked in the opposite direction hahaha. Whoops.

We're now in Manali (it rhymes with Denali!) and I've managed to lose my lunch twice already since we've left Tushita. Feeling like a million bucks right now, though. Just went rock climbing... It was a unique experience to have a rope tied around my waist, and feeling like I was just being pulled up the side of a rock, but it was a beautiful view. They didn't have rock climbing shoes that fit Yosh's feet, so with his poor grip of his sneakers, it looked like he was running on a tread mill up the rock while monkeying his arms from hold to hold. We did chimney climbing, and then they had me belay, which I was scared out of my mind to do. It felt really primitive to the climbing I was expecting. They didn't use caribbeaners or harnesses after the first climb, just a rope. I guess that's all you really need, though. Keep it simple.

We're off to Delhi in a few hours. Crossing our fingers that we won't get Delhi-belly.

2009-03-01T17:00:00.000-08:00

i love india. just ate three samosas and two cheese/potato patties with the most delicious home-made sauce. flying into the airport near dharamsala today was a trip because we landed right next to a gigantic mountain range covered in snow. now we've taken a taxi up that mountain range (go figure) and we're in McLeod Ganj, tomorrow we will go to Tushita and check in for our ten day meditation retreat. the other day at the water puppet show in hanoi, i saw some guys i recognized from tubing the veng vieng in laos on christmas day. they said they'd been to india (which was actually where they met and started traveling together) and told us so many things, but in the end, that we would just need to go find it all out for ourselves. im excited. yosh thinks that if there's anywhere we might see somebody we know, it would be here. there's monks and walking around the streets, loads of foreigners (which was surprising to me), so ill keep my eyes peeled. at least now we'll get to wear our warmer clothing, which hasn't gotten too much use yet. when we were at the bangkok airport yesterday, gina and i lost yosh during our layover (we found him in the end, the next morning), we tested all the lotion, cream, body spray, etc testers in a pharmacy with yummy smelling lotions, then had a dance party at an electronics store, pretending like we were testing out ipod speakers, until they turned the store lights out on us... we took the hint... we left and hit up testers in another store. anywho, it was nice to be back in bangkok, and hear people speaking thai. thailand ranks number one for right now on my list of southeast asian countries. japan kind of sits in a league of its own, i'd say. it was a completely different experience. but i think 3 weeks was a good amount of time spent in vietnam. it drizzled nearly every day in hanoi...

well, now we're working with rupees. gandhi is on all the bills. it's nice. the rupee notes are much longer and wider than dollars (and any other currency we've been using). samosas for 10 rupees (exchange rate: 45 or 50 rupees = 1 USD).

i got an accupuncture appointment with rick for $9 for general health stuff, its was relaxing. im feeling pretty healthy right now, so i'll try to hold on to that. the weather's refreshingly chilly... my shoulder is now peeling because i fell asleep on the beach about a week ago, and yosh and gina are constantly picking at my arms and neck trying to scrape away my sunburn. hahahah. they're soooo buggy. i get tickle attacked at least once a day. on my birthday, they gave me 19 birthday tickles and one for good luck. they'd pin me down and tickle me. it wasn't fair. good thing gina's birthday is in 19 days, so she'll get her fair share of birthday tickles.

im really glad to be here. we've only been here for four hours, but it doesn't seem anywhere near as chaotic as everyone's been making it out to be. i can't wait for tushita to start tomorrow and to be silent for ten days, and meditate.

HCMC and Hanoi, Ups and Downs

2009-02-25T01:32:00.000-08:00

There are a LOT of ups and downs, here are a few of them.
UP: Getting back into HCMC, the crazy traffic I spent hours watching and cool streets to walk around, meeting up with Denali and Gina again.
DOWN: Indian Embassy saying my US Passport wasn't good enough, "damaged" and needed to be replaced before I got a visa. US Passport from HCMC took 9 days I think.
UP: Learning a little bit of Vietnamese chess (not really sure of the name since the guys didnt speak English too well) and playing cards on the streets with randoms.
DOWN: Asking a motobike driver who spoke no English to take me to "Zoom Bar" and he drove me to the airport (i think maybe zoombai or zoomba hassomething to do with it in vietnamese), then dropped me off in the middle of nowhere where nobody speaks english and charges me for it.
UP: Denali's B-day, meeting the nice Econ students Denali and Gina had met many times before, listening to everyone play guitar and sing in english and vietnamese, eating 2nd dinner with them.
DOWN: Playing Pool the next day with one of the guys, and agreeing loser pays for the games, first to win 5 games. I lost 2-5, both games I won were because he scratched on the 8-ball. He was REALLLY good.
UP: His friend came and paid for it before I had a chance to, wouldn't accept my money.
DOWN: After getting my plane ticket, took a motobike (with my HUGE backpack and little backpack with me) to the airport, but the helmet wouldnt fit with my hat on, so the guy took my hat while i wore the helmet. Getting off the motobike, I was so busy checking to make sure I didnt lose anything else in my pockets (camera, I-pod, wallet, passport, tickets, pen) that he had sped off before I realized he still had my hat.
UP: My room in Hanoi is only 4 dollars a night.
DOWN: It is 75 percent bed, which I do not fit on, on the 5th floor with no elevator, and bathroom is on the 1st floor.
UP: Meeting up with Rick (Cork, if I didn't know who i was looking for, I would've thought you were in Vietnam), getting a nice tour of the "American War" Museum and a huge tower to see a great view of Vietnam.
DOWN: Offering to pay for lunch, then realizing I didn't have enough money to pay for it...Not the first time I've looked that stupid.
UP: Eating somewhere on the street, meeting a Vietnamese man who spoke really good English with a French accent (spoke a little french too).
DOWN: Hustled me in pool (about 10 bucks). You know, I shouldn't say I got hustled, cause everybody I play is better than me, and I know it too, so I guess I just got creamed.
UP: Took me to a bar where i heard MISTAH FAB (bay area music), and he bought the beers.
DOWN: My hangover the next morning.
UP: Going to see Benjamin Button and meeting a girl who has been showing me all around Hanoi for the past couple days when she isn't working or in school. REALLY good english, REALLY nice.
DOWN: It's been rainy, so where we go is limited to places we dont get TOO wet.

Overall, I'd say the ups outweight the downs, although I really do wish i had seen more of Vietnam in between the two big cities.

denali music

2009-02-22T05:27:00.000-08:00

I've been blessed to have an internet whiz and lovely lady in the form of Victoria Collins, enter my life. She is the PR lady for When It Hits Records (http://whenithitsrecords.com/), created by the members of Still Time (http://www.stilltimemusic.com/) who I've opened for three times now at Sweetwater Station in Larkspur, CA. They're a great group of guys who make amazing music. Victoria and I have been working on getting my music online, and since I'm traveling with my guitar but not performing any shows, we figured getting some old and new songs available would be a good idea. She's been the greatest.

Check it out if you'd like to hear a few newly recorded songs. "Us" and "Company" were roughly recorded in November while we were in Chiba, Japan with Masatoshi Kijima (we called him Oshishosama because he taught Yoshi and I how to paint on Japanese silk.) Several songs are for sale. I hope you enjoy! Hopefully, when I return (if i return..... ha) to California, I'll be recording more songs for your listening pleasure.

http://www.cultureload.net/blog/wordpress/ (I am the featured artist this week- i've done an interview with cultureload. Exciting. Give it a gander.)

http://www.myspace.com/denalichiyo (trusty old myspace haha)

http://www.reverbnation.com/denalica (Go buy a few songs if you feel like spending $.79!)

http://www.iheartmusic.com/new2/artists/i/224870.html (You can stream my music and give them ratings as well)

http://www.ilike.com/artist/Denali+Gillaspie/bulletins (If you've got facebook, become an ilike fan and you can dedicate songs to people)

http://www.last.fm/music/Denali+Gillaspie

thanks a bunch.

just in case you wanted yet another music website to check out, do yourself a favor and hit up my lovely will melbostad's music blog: http://melbomusic.wordpress.com/

Vietnam and my birthday

2009-02-21T06:11:00.000-08:00

After 10 days in Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon aka HCMC), Gina and I caught a bus to Mui Ne (beach town), spent two nights there, and today we arrived in Danang (another beach town of course). In HCMC we found a room for $8 that had a fridge, a fan, a TV (which played the most wonderfully awful American movies), and a bathroom the size of my closet. We began to feel like we belonged after going to the benches in the main park of the city, only one block away from our hotel, and meeting Vietnamese people who were all excited to speak English and meet us. There was one boy, Nyun, whose mom, Mein, wanted us to teach him English, but every time he saw us, he would run away. I don't think he was too crazy about the idea. Gina met people a few of the afternoons while I was sick in the room, but they soon became my friends as well. There is a HCMC economics college dormitory one block away from ours, so many students would come to the park in the late afternoon to exercise, and it became a daily ritual to meet in the park. Four of the students, Gina and I were invited to Mein and Nyun's house for dinner one night, and we had the tastiest shrimp I've ever had. It was nice to sit around in a circle on the floor, each bite of soup being a new adventure (sometimes, the boys would stare at Gina while she took a bit of chicken to see if she would react to how difficult it was to eat. We all got a good laugh outof it.) Her family sent us home with a huge bag of fruit, the boys got the biggest watermelon I've ever seen in my life to carry home. The hospitality factor was through the roof. So back in the park, later in the night, the aerobic elderly ladies would come out for their exercise, and thrust away to the tunes of kylie minogue and beyonce. It was like watching rows and rows of mothers fling their hips in every which way, their arms like windshield wipers above their heads, getting in their daily exercise. It was such a joy to watch (and on two occasions, participate in). We stand out, though. We aren't wearing the typical attire: matching top and bottom polyester, floral print suits that look like pajamas to me. We would dodge the cyclo riders, motorcycles, cars, taxis, and bicycles to cross the street every day. It's like a video game, but real. Some of the street vendor food gave us stomach pains (and then some... I'll spare you the details), so Gina and I were content with 10,000 dong cheese sandwiches. (conversion is 17,000 dong = 1 US dollar). We got into a daily pattern. While Yosh was volunteering at the animal rescue center (he got to pet kind bears and get scratched by otters and feed monkeys, lucky guy), Gina and I would start teh morning off (and by morning, I mean 2pm) with a sandwich and fruit shake for breakfast, go to Sozo to teach the waiting staff how to speak English and pronounce words on their menu, get a fish shaped ice cream from the 999 mart (equivalent of 7-11... nice and air-conditioned all hours of the day), go to the park around 4:30 to meet with our new friends, dinner at 6 or 7, watch a really bad movie in our room or play with our favorite neighborhood baby until 11 or so, then head out to Go2 bar. I don't know how we manage to get ourselves into such a groove so quickly, but it's just like at Thai Mueang, where we would go to the beach every day under any circumstance, this was what Go2 bar became for us. We would go to the 4th floor (Go2 bbq floor) and exchange english lessons for vietnamese lessons with two waiters- Tommy and Henry. They modified their names for our benefit. Then, it was off to the second floor (Go2 dance floor) and do what we do on the dance floor. Upon meeting some students at the HCMC economic college, they invited Gina and I out for dinner at their cantene (cheaper and more delicious!) and found out my birthday was February 16th, and decided they would throw me a birthday in the park. When the16th came, it was a joy for me. Breakfast in bed was my favorite cheese sandwich and a fresh coconut! At night, in the park, our new friends Phuong, Linh, Mr. Koi, and co. brought sweets and snacks and a guitar, and we played went back and forth playing songs. The only song we could sing together was Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" and the first verse and chorus of "My Heart Will Go On". They love Celine Dion. Gina and Yoshi got me the greatest birthday gifts - a hair gadget we can't quite figure out, but it looks like an alligator mouth, speakers for the ipod (amazing), cheesecake, bailey's... Gina had me blow out her flashlight and make a wish since we didn't have birthday candles. It was one of the best birthdays. It was nice to have Yosh back with us, even though most of his days were spent going to the Indian Embassy or the US consulate to work out passport/visa issues.

We didn't do any of the touristy adventures until the last day. Gina and I went to the War Remnants Museum. Glad we went, it's always depressing to be reminded of Agent Orange's effects, the way people were killed, the way people were treated during the Vietnam War (in Vietnam it is called the American War). We've gotten more used to riding motorcycles ("we" meaning "I" since I'm the one with the crash record of 3.) Oh- Gina and I were on the back of a motorbike trying to get to an orphanage to volunteeer (that didn't end up working out) and we rear ended anotehr bike. No damage done, just the shock of crashing, and the inside part of my leg that was stuck to the seat when we crashed.

It was a bit sad to leave, since we'd met so many wonderful people, but there were wonderful people in Mui Ne as well, and I've got faith that Danang will have its share of lovelies as well.
Stay safe, stay sound.
love denali g

cambodiyaaa it was alright

2009-02-21T04:32:00.001-08:00

I'm fully behind on blogging and journaling and documenting, etc etc etc. Cambodia was only two weeks ago, though, so it's still rather fresh in the memory reserves... not that too many things stand out, though. We got a bus from Thailand straight to Siem Reap and started off partying from the git-go. Made friends with some of the sweetest waiters and waitresses at a small restaurant, they taught us how to say "cheers" in Khmer: Chon Mui. Also, belated-Santa came to town and surprised us with white matching RayBan sunglasses. (The next day, a motorcyclist would look at us like triplets walking down the street decked out in our $2 glasses, and say "same same but different" to which we would reply in unison "no... same same, but same." he shook his head. points to yosh "he is a boy" points to gina "she is a girl" then points to me "she is chinese". i don't quite know what the deal is, but 99% of the time, when my nationality is in question, people guess chinese. i tell them "no, im half japanese. my mother is japa..." i get cut off and they reply "no, i think you are chinese".) We spent our night at Angkor What? Bar because it was packed with people, so we had a few buckets, wrote silly things on the walls, danced the night away, and then made the mistake of getting a tuk-tuk driver to pick us up at 8am the next morning to take us around to all of the world-famous temples... our temples were pounding the following morning, with only 3 or 4 hours of sleep as we reached Angkor Wat. (setting of Tomb Raider, for any of you movie buffs). Being Chinese New Years, there were many people walking through the ancient ruins, built about nine centuries ago. Gina, Yoshi, and I split up and experienced it on our own (i got lost once or twice). The kids outside of the temple were all eager to sell us postcards, bracelets, books, etc. I got suckered into buying ten bracelets for $1, gina and yosh both went for the postcard bargain. When we said we were from California, three kids echoed "California. the capitol of california is sacramento. obama!" yes indeed. one boy claimed his name was obama. since we each bought one thing, that gave them hope we might purchase more... not the case. we couldn't please everybody, so some kids weren't too pleased with us as we drove off without having bought something from them. it was bizarre to be working with US dollars in our pockets, and not using reil, which is technically the currency of Cambodia. Gina and I got lazy... or I suppose we would prefer to phrase it "contemplative" after climbing to the top of another temple, and just rested there watching people move like ants around the ground while Yosh continued on to explore. He had far more endurance than we did, but after doing ballet lifts to each other and climbing loads of stairs of many temples, I enjoyed sitting in the sky up at the top of a temple with Geens, sweating away the liters of water we'd previous consumed. My favorite (I think the three of us agree that this temple was our favorite) was the Bayon Temple, with gigantic faces you could hug with both arms outstretched, and not even reach ear to ear. I loved it. I huged loads of faces.

If I had a time machine, I would have spent more days going around to temples, but unforunately we decided to move on to Pnom Penh (yes, the two cities we went to were the most touristy of all the places to visit in all of Cambodia hahah, that's just the way it is). We had to wait four days to receive our Vietnam tourist visa, so we stayed at the Happy Guest House, which I found Happy for the first few days, until someone stole my sandals. (Actually, I seem to be on quite a roll, because today I realized that I've lost a running shoe... now the only pair of functioning footwear in my possession are Abercrombie and Fitch sandals I bought in Vietnam for three dollars.)

Visiting the Killing Fields- the mass graves of the Khmer Rouge's massacre in the 1970's was an interesting experience. We read all of the information provided, walked around to see the graves (which were all excavated, so now were gaping holes in the grassy earth), and gave me a weird sensation to look around knowing that only thirty or forty years earlier, there were people standing on the same ground as me getting their skulls smashed with hammers, or being killed in some other brutal fashion so that the Khmer Rouge soldiers didn't have to waste bullets, because of their expensive cost. Something to be noted is that there were hundreds upon thousands of butterflies and dragonflies. I pointed this out to Gina, and she said that perhaps they were all of the Cambodian people reincarnated. I don't know why they were all there, but that's the best explanation for their presence in my opinion. On the street, I bought the book "First They Killed My Father" from a man who had walked on a land mine and had his leg blown off. I didn't get a chance to read it until we were out of Cambodia, but am so glad I did. We were in the same places that are written about, where families were starved to death, killed for being educated, worked to the bone to grow crops to send to China so that Pol Pot to purchase guns... it hurt so much to read about the heartbreak that was Cambodia. However, now I'm reading David Sedaris' "When You are Engulfed in Flames" and it makes for a complete change of pace, going from chapters titled "Labor Camps" about overworked five year old girls in the fields, to "In the Waiting Room" where David Sedaris finds himself in his underwear awaiting a doctors' appointment.

Speaking of which, Gina and I both had our fair amount of visits to the doctor, but are now free of our gastritis and sinusitis. Hoorah for health. (Yosh has managed to stay healthy all the way through... even though he eats the craziest of foods. Fried spiders, a duck fetus inside an egg, durian... Gina and I think we're adventurous eaters when we eat noodle soup instead of fried rice.)
lovelovelove
denali g

looking back on thai mueang

2009-02-20T16:42:00.000-08:00

Take a look at this website:
http://www.tmvolunteers.org/
Gina, Yoshi, and I each have a volunteer bio up on the webite, and if you ever get to Thailand, spend some time volunteering. I guarantee you'll love it.

Our last three weeks in Thailand, spent teaching, now seem like years ago. Leaving Thai Mueang was the first time this trip that I knew I would feel some version of "home-sickness" after leaving. I spent our entire time in Cambodia planning the cheapest way to go back to Thai Mueang to teach English again at Wat Muang Pracharam. But after a few weeks, I've coped, and have moved forward... with the picture alphabet the kids drew still in my backpack, the necklace one of the 4th graders gave to me after class one day still around my neck, and "good aftahnoon teachaaah" still replaying in my head when my mind wanders.
Each morning Gina and I would wake up and embark on our ten minute (mainly downhill) tandem bike ride to the school. It's a wonder why we got so many weird looks the way we rode our bike, since there were often times what looked like circus acts as families of four or five people would all pile onto one motorbike, along with bags and baskets of goods, and sometimes a chair or the occasional dog. Gina and I were nowhere near as miraculous. She would sit on the seat with her feet dangling, and I would stand on the pedals and pump my legs the whole journey (or the other way around). Getting to school, kids would run out of their classrooms and yell "Ginaaa!! Ginaa!!" My name is not "Gina" it is "Denali" but they choose the easier of the two names and decided from then on that we would both be "Gina". (The second week, I changed my name to "Dee" which I thought would be a good idea, but "Dee" means "good" in Thai, so it was a bit confusing at first.) One of the teachers, on the last day, told me she was amazed my name was "Denali" because for three weeks she thought my name was "Dictionary." We had a schedule to see each class once per week, since there are so many kids, so we only made three lesson plans. Anders, the man who organizes the volunteers and has us at his house for dinner every night to eat the unpredictable and delicious food his friend, Seng, makes, had us sit down with him before we stepped into a classroom to go over dos and don'ts. Do creative games that get the kids excited. Don't expect them to understand what's going on the first time around, explain everything many times, many ways. Do songs and fun things you would want to do. Don't hit the kids to discipline them. Don't touch their heads (this one was hard to avoid, because their heads are placed so naturally and conveniently right at the same height as my hand, but since the head is considered the most sacred part of the body, it is to be avoided.) The lesson plan that worked out the best was having them draw a picture that corresponded with each letter of the alphabet and then draw out their names using each letter. (D is for dress. E is for eye. N is for nine. A is for apple, etc.) They looooovvveee to draw. It takes them all the time in the world, but they love to do it.
Some days, boys would chase after us at the end of the day and give us fake flowers made from packaging normally found around apples. Some bizarre moments were when we would be teaching one class, but all the kids from the whole building were out in the yard playing, unsupervised. After some Thai lessons with wonderful Andu, I could manage to say "You have a teacher? Where is teacher?" And they would have two-steps to their reaction. The first "Wow, you can speak thai?" and after I'd smile and say "a little" they would say they didn't have a teacher.
Lunch time was my favorite because everyone was out at the same time (not quite freely able to run around like I remember my elementary school lunches being) and wonderful Ms. Mali would bring us fruit from her home in Phuket every day and ask us if the food was too spicy. There was one teacher in particular that wasn't capable of speaking too much English, but the few sentences she said to us were golden. Once every three or four days, she would grab one of our stomachs and say "You huuuungry?" Then laugh to herself and speak in Thai. It was on the final day that she was able to translate her thoughts fully into English. "You huuungry?" "oh, no thank you." "OOOohhh, you... big... you fat fat" Gina and I exchanged glances to see if we had heard her correctly, and indeed we had. Hahaha.
One day, we went with Anders to the high school he teaches at, and Gina and I were teachers for the day. We worked on questions and answers, and each person had to come up with a question for somebody across the room and ask them. Some were simple like "How many people are in your family?" or "What movies do you like?" However, lucky Gina got the question, "Are you beautiful and sexy?" I don't know how you would answer that question, but she replied "I dont know, you tell me." Silence. Looking around for what to say, then giggles throughout the room.
We followed it up with hangman. We started too easy, with Golden Gate Bridge, then too hard with Supercalifrajalisticexpialidocious, then Keanu Reeves. Keanu Reeves is a man who lives in Thai Mueang. I don't actually know his real name, but he introduced himself as Keanu Reeves, so it stuck.
Gina and I went to the beach every single day (at least once), swam every day, shook down our own coconuts from George and Veronica's palm trees and cut them open on our own!! Delicious. We made boiled cookies with Gina's grandma's recipe because you don't need an oven, and George and Veronica could then make them without trouble, and serve them at their restaurant.
I think we miss the kids, the coconut goodies, late night runs to the 7-11 where the cashiers would sing to us in Thai, ginger tea with dough balls, riding our bikes to Thai lessons, finding spiders in the volunteer house, throwing branches into the shower through the windows, and so much more. I was homesick when I left, it was the best three weeks.

Cambo to Vietnam

2009-02-08T00:47:00.000-08:00

So the Vietnam trip is still fairly early, but we dont have TOO much time here, and I'm just finishing up the time i spent volunteering at a Wildlife Rescue spot, which is AWESOME! But to that in a minute.
Cambo, it was fun, it was amazing, i wish we couldve seen more of it than the big backpacker spots. One cool spot though that i didn't mention was the "tallest point in Phnom Penh," which is a hill about the size of a 2 and a half story building. The cool part of it is all the monkeys running around, although it seems like people feed them WAY too much. Like bowling balls with arms and feet...and half a head sticking out of the fatty stomach. Jenga was something we played fairly religiously in cambodia, one place had a jenga set with HUGE blocks, standing about 4ft tall at the beginning. You could (and I did) win a free shot from here by pulling the right block.
Now although I wish I had more time in Cambodia, I am defintely happy to be in Vietnam. Just in the first day, seeing the rivers of nonstop motorbikes was amazing, I met a really cool cyclo driver (like a backwards bike where the person riding it is in back and there is a seat for the passenger in the front) who let me ride it with him in the passenger seat...granted we went in the slower part of town, not the bigger streets. A couple of nice guys invited me over to play the vietnam equivalent of chess with them and smoke cigarettes, both of which I declined, the first only because I don't know how to play (although I did watch for about an hour and understand most of it). I also met a group of college aged kids drinking at a house who invited me to sit with them, and eat some REALLY weird food, including an egg with a baby duck in it (actually they have this in cambodia too, they dont let the duck grow to the point of hatching), a whole bunch of different shellfish, and dog nails. Of course they give me each one and let me eat it, with big smiles on their faces (they were eating it too) then afterwards one of them had a translator and would show me what I ate after I finished it. For those wondering, YOOO is cheers in vietnamese, or at least what we were saying. What a great first day.
The next morning I took 2 busses out to Cu Chi, where I have been working at an animal shelter. ITs really cool, I only had to spend one time shoveling bear poo, so that was a real plus. I've gotten to feed gibbons (monkeys with ridiculously long arms), bears (and pet one that was friendly), pet otters (got some scratches from one), weigh armadillo looking creatuers (can't remembe the name for the life of me), cut up fruit and feed turtles (and finding the babies to put onto the plate to eat is fun too), and the most exciting part was watching a macquack (wow my spelling is bad today) autopsy. It was sad to see them put it down since it was foaming so bad at teh mouth, but really amazing to see the procedure afterwards.
The kids at the place I've been staying here are really fun. Actually they live right next door, but still, really cool kids. They like looking at my journal although they can't read a word of it, and loved the pictures we have o the geishas in japan. I also pulled out some of my "magic tricks," like taking an eye out and putting it in my mouth then popping it back in its socket, or sticking a pencil so far up my nose it comes out my ear. They love it. For those of you who don't know these tricks, I'll show you the Amazing Yoshi's act when I get back.

good by thai hello cambo

2009-01-29T23:59:00.000-08:00

It's sad to be leaving volunteering already. I mean, we are expecting to be doing similar work at other places, but this was still sad. There are numerous highlights...one good one for the very end of teaching was going on a 3 day fieldtrip (2 nights) to a huge waterfall where we camped out with maybe 7 other schools. the first day was filled with sweet games, like tying 2 ropes across a really wide part of the river and the kids had to climb across (one teacher on the other side of the bank would wait till a lot of kids were in the middle then start shaking the rope as hard as he could till they all fell off...he also called me obama the whole trip). They also had tug-o-war in the middle of the river, and many other games. The next day we climbed to the top of the waterfall and all around it, which was really beautiful. I was in between the girls and boys of a different school than the one I had been teaching at, so I had a good time talking to everyone in English where nobody had any idea what I was saying until I tried acting it out and everybody laughed (and vice versa). There were SO many waterfalls on that hike, although only one about 50 m tall (wow, i just used meters as my measuring tool...).
Another real good time was going with Anders to teach at his school, where the kids were much older and their english was a little better. The two classes we were there for they would write down 5 questions, and each had to ask me one of them. Some of the questions were expected, like "where are you from?" and "how old are you?" and some were braver, such as "do you have a girlfriend?" and "what is your phone number?" After I got to ask questions to them, and when I asked the girl who asked me for my number if she had a boyfriend, she said "Yes, his name is Yoshi." Brave girl.
Everybody can now see photos of some of the kids and our experiences in thailand, go to http://www.tmvolunteers.org/ (Anders you should be paying me for this!). Anyone interested its an amazing experience.
Cambodia is a lot flatter than i expected. The roads arent as bad as the legends say, but not like thailand where everything was paved. the first trip from the border to sieng reap was a particularly strong butt massage. Angkor Wat is something else. One part of the outer wall has some 2000 unique dancing women carved into the stone, with only one smiling showing its teeth. Gina when sitting down started talking to a 12 year old boy who knew where it was, so we followed him and his big green balloon to the sacred spot. The temples around Angkor are just as, if not more, amazing, although no where near the same size. My favorite one (forgive my ignorance of not remembering the name) was covered in faces, huuge faces sticking out every which way (i think its supposed to be the king's face, which represented him like a god watching over his people). Phnom Penh is a cool capital, i wish we had more time to meet people and a place to actually stay rather than a guest house, but the killing fields ( place where millions of cambodians were executed by Khmer Rouge) was devastating to see. god, there is so much more of cambodia i want to see now that i'm here, im hoping that when i get to vietnam im not wishing i had stayed here! i have faith though

OH the best part of children's day!

2009-01-12T03:45:00.000-08:00

All the kindergarteners had ridiculous hats made of paper of different animals that were all too big for their heads, like puppies and bunnies, and one of them was obsessed with shaking my hand (all the kids like hand shakes, fist bumps, uptop downtowns), and once he got the courage to do it once, he was pulling all the other kindergarteners over to shake hands too. What a guy, future connection maker

The Smaller Village School

2009-01-12T02:47:00.000-08:00

So while Denali and Gina have a large large school and only have the same class once a week, I have the same classes every day, each class about 10-15 people. At first I was NOT down with teh first graders, simply cause I had no control and ended up doing whatever they wanted to do. Actually, thats kind of the case with all the grades for the first day, since my lesson plan lasted about 10 minutes for a 60 minute class, the older classes just requested different things they wanted to learn, which was AWESOME! Now, they just request playing games since they know I cave in, cause thats all I really want to do too, but at least they have to learn something at the beginning of the class in order to get the freedom to play, right? They also love to teach me thai, which I feel is a fair exchange since I should be learning some of their language if I expect them to learn some of mine. The first graders I now play a lot of letter telephone, where I whisper a letter to one kid, and it needs to get all the way around to the other side and they say that letter. Its really hard for me not to laugh when they try to say some of the letters, like J and G, since they say things like RAAYYEESSSS and they cant even say S, it sounds more like the e in elephant, or R, they say AWWWW. WHERE DID THEY JUST GET THAT R AND S?! Older grades the best thing has been cards, when we did numbers one day, which they now request everyday, and like the very simple games such as "guess the number, then guess again after I say higher or lower." I like those games because they like those games.
I now have about 60 percent of the school's names under my belt, which I feel pretty good about. By names I mean nicknames, which are all one syllable and very easy, such as Ohm, Sai, Nook, etc. Compared to their full names which I can't even pronounce the first 2 syllables, this is cake. A lot of these names came on Friday, which was Children's Day at school (even though actual children's day is on the first saturday of January). All the different ages had different dances, the youngest classes were very cute with simple La bamba hand rolls (does that describe it correctly) and then facing another student of the opposite sex and bouncing in a boxing motion with the music. The older classes were a little more complex, sometimes much more sexual than I expected for that age group... But all the parents were their and having a grand old time, so I guess its normal.
After lunch they taught me some of the dances, on stage, with all the parents watching...THAT was comfortable. All the parents were really nice though, despite none of them teaching english. They then played a bunch of different games up on the mini stage, one was hold your feet with your hands, laying on your belly and dont let your legs or head touch the ground, the second was simon says, except they only said jump forward, jump back, or stay there and if you moved even a LITTLE bit you were out on stay there (all in thai, of course, i lost really fast in that one), then blow the balloon up until it blows up in your face. For all of these, the winner got a pencil. I participated in all of the games, but the only one I won was blow the balloon up, which I thought about throwing, but there were so many kids chanting my name I couldnt let them down... my responsibility to win!
Then we played "games from America" which consisted of "Wonderball" passing a ball in a circle, singing "the wonderball goes round and round..." i couldnt remember the actual song, so I made up the rest of it, and when who the song stopped on was out. That was all good fun. Then we played "keep the ball between two people's heads" and they had to walk, sit down, stand up, and even lay down. This was the best game of the day. Lotsa fun, lotsa fun.
One teacher, Teacher Shy (full name I cannot pronounce), was kind enough to let me stay at his house in Phuket Town for the weekend, about an hour and a half drive south which he makes every day. He treated me soooo nice, amazing, considering we had such a hard time communicating sometimes with his lack of english and my ZERO thai, and I only knew him for one week. We did many many tourist things, which I thought was really interesting since I didnt think he would want to go, but he took twice as many pictures as I did with his camera. We went to Phantasea, sort of the Disneyland equivalent of Thailand, on a much much much smaller scale, with the main attraction being the show at night. The most interesting thing we saw I thought was a Christmas show (this is a week later in January), with all the people on stage lip syncing with big headsets, the main singer being a ladyboy. Only in Thailand. The show was pretty cool, but not SPECTACULAR, the best part was the animals they had on for short amounts of times, such as trained chickens running from one side of the stage to the other, trained goats following the chickens, and a whole lot of elephants.
We also went to James Bond Island, the island in The Man with the Golden Gun that stands straight up and down like a pillar, and around to the many many beaches on Phuket, where we didnt swim, but just took pictures. Funny funny. My favorite things were what tourists dont usually do, such as him taking me on his motorbike all around phuket town, and eating at the many hole in the wall restaurants where I normally couldn't order the food. I felt bad with him wanting to pay for everything, so I offered to cook on saturday and sunday, until I realized he didnt have a kitchen. Or a stove. Even the "baths" i took were cold, which he seemed to take at least 3 times a day, i think to stay cool more than clean.
Today I brought out the frisbee in class, i dont think they have ever seen one before, since they were throwing it like a baseball or shotput, basically any way you dont normally throw a frisbee. four of the boys got the hang of it, i think we have the makings for an ultimate frisbee team. now if we only could find some competition...

Good Aftahnoon Teachah

2009-01-06T00:19:00.000-08:00

Gina and I are emailing from the computer room of our school... we taught five classes today, and hr each, and had an hr lunch break. today was our first day. we went over basics: hello, what is your name? my name is (blank), what is your nickname? my nickname is (blank), nice to meet you and a handshake. (they call it "shake hands" its cute). we teach first grade to sixth grade. every class greeted us by saying "please stand" and then in a chorus, recited "good aftanoon teacha. (long pause) how aah you?" Gina and i reply in unison "i am fine thank you. how are you?" All of them said, "I am fine thank you, and you?" With the older crowd, we used our amazing art skills to draw stick figures of our families on the board, and wrote "mother, father, brother, sister". I wrote about my family: "I have a mother, a father, and a brother. I do not have a sister." So naturally, since the Thai children have such an ability to copy English writing down letter for letter, 90% of the class also had a mother, a father, and a brother, but did not have a sister. Go figure. Gina and I walked around making sure that kids were staying on task. At this point, since we've only been here for six or seven hours, we are still feeling each other out, but it's fairly easy to see who is trying their hardest, and who would rather shove the pencils in their nose and try to write. (Yes, that did happen today. An adventurous fifth grader got a bit snotty hahah). Our last class of the day was with first graders (SOOOO cute). I wanted to snuggle with them and pat their heads, but a definite don't in Thailand is to not touch anybody's head because the head is considered to be the highest part of the body, so it is incredibly rude to touch somebody else's head. And so also with the feet, do not point your feet at anybody, because they are the lowest part of your body. Gina and I each messed up once today, I touched a first grader's head while we were playing ring around the rosie, and Gina ended up tapping a young boy's head during our remodeled version of "red light, green light" (since there are so few light signals that we've noticed) called "stop, slow, go" and a boy ran into her hand who didn't quite grasp the concept of "stop", and kept running. We're teaching barefoot in the classrooms, since everybody takes their shoes off when entering most buildings (no sweat, you can keep them on when buying goodies from 7-11.) Oh, speaking of sweat, it is beyond hot, and my wardrobe is filled with tank tops and shorts.... however, we are supposed to wear shirts and pants when teaching, so I am really looking forward to walking our 1km to the beach, at our usual spot, to go swimming in the ocean where the waves are inredibly strong. Tonight I will probably fall asleep with really slow english phrases repeating in my head. "Doooo youuuu havveeee a siiiisssssttteerrr." "oooohhh, verrryyy gooooddd." In order to explain to them how to say "father" and "mother" as well as "brother" we had everyone stick their tongues out, for the "thhh" sound instead of a "ttt" sound. We looked like royal fools, but I think that's how most of today was. But hey, what else is new? Yosh is teaching at a different school with only 50 students, but he will be by himself, while Gina and I have each other to bounce off of. We have about 350 students total. 1234567 (a student who is sitting next to me, and tells us that his name is "Denali Gina" just typed that.) Right now there are 5 volunteers (me, gina, yosh, eileen, and maude), and Eileen and Maude are teaching together at a different school. Now there are five of us staying at the volunteer house, 1km from the road near the rubber trees, so Anders (who is the lovely man who has organized all of the volunteering) has hired a wonderful man to cook for us! It has been great. Thai Mueang is a great town, much different than the touristy places we've been going to in Thailand. I think it's time to go for a gander to the beach, go for a little swim, read a JFK book I bought for 50 baht in Chiang Mai, lie on the beach with Geens, and watch the sunset... just as I think we will do everyday for the next three weeks of volunteering. Can't wait. We're excited.

Happy New Year

2008-12-31T00:55:00.000-08:00

There's about a months worth of traveling to blog about... I'll write the things that stand out in my mind. Starting with the tiger temple. It was one of the more touristy two days of traveling Yoshi and I have had, booked it with TiT (unfortunate acronym... it stands for Thai something Travel) and we went to the Tiger Temple where I am convinced the tigers were drugged. Let me explain- The idea in the beginning of creating this tiger sanctuary was that monks were raising them and they were used to human interaction and were calm and free to roam and people could visit and take pictures, pet them, etc. But when we were there, all of them were sleeping but two, and they were all chained up. A worker brings you around, holding your hand, and takes pictures of you petting different tigers. I was always placed at the tiger's butt and told to pet its butt... I tried snuggling with one of the bigger ones, but got yelled at and brought back to pet the tiger's butt. That's ok, they were soft. Huge and calm, but soft. Then one of the older tigers was being walked, so we were supposed to pet it, and told that if it pees on you, it's good luck... well, Yosh and I pet it while it was peeing, maybe that's half good luck. There were wild boar, horses, cows, peacocks, chickens, but most importantly, water buffalo roaming the grounds. It was feeding hour, so all the animals gathered in the center of the sanctuary to eat, and Yosh decided he would also stand in the center with them. I guess he was standing on some food, because a few thousand pounder water buffalo head butted him, but he stealthily blocked it with his hand. He says it was the scariest 4 seconds of his life. A worker who saw this came up and pinched the back of my leg and made a squealing sound, so I thought I was also being attacked by a pig... nope, just me being a baby. Anyhow, here are a few websites about the tiger temple:
http://www.careforthewild.com/files/tt_news_release%2020-06-08.pdf
http://www.tigertemple.co.uk/index.html

So we went from the tiger temple to staying on a room on a river (where does all the waste go? the river... where did we swim the next day? the river... gross.) Bamboo rafting, elephant riding (elephants sound like tigers!! no joke, when they growl because they're hungry, they sound like tigers.) We also got to see wood carvers at work, coconut sugar being made, and elephants on the highway. For Thanksgiving we had noodles, massages and walked through markets. The food vendors are amazing, we can get half of a pineapple, with the eyes already cut out, presliced, cold, anywhere in Thailand pretty much, for 10 Baht. (33 Baht = 1 dollar). I eat pineapple pretty much every day. Pad Thai is delicious (of course). Fruit shakes vary in price, flavor, and consistency, so we have found ourselves turning into fruit shake conneseaurs.

Our Mom's brother, Uncle Ernie, flew to Thailand in December, so we traveled together to islands down in Southern Thailand together. First was Phuket (Patong), which was rather touristy and developed, and being there, you would have never guessed that the same beach covered in thousands of plastic lounge chairs was the same beach that got hit by the tsunami in 2004... there must be sooo many plastic lounge chairs in the ocean because of that tsunami. Well Patong provided us with a drinking game involving a huge stump, one nail per person, and a pick. It isn't the most intelligent idea, seeing as how drunk people swinging huge hammers/picks isn't the safest activity in a crowded area. Also, another not so intelligent idea is how all bathrooms in Thailand have the showerhead which sprays everything in the bathroom.
Next day Ernie and I went cable skiing/wake boarding and loved it. The design of it is about a half-km track that goes around in a man-made moat, and you fall off and swim to the side, and a motorbike picks you up and you go again. Took a few tries to get the hang of it, but once we mastered the art of standing, going around a few times managed to give me some sore forearms for the following days. Yosh and Uncle Ernie then rode ATVs around a wilderness track. Since it was the king's birthday (December 5th- and the king is like God), no alcohol was supposed to be served. All the bars were serving coca cola in straws instead. It was cute, like children pretending to be grown-ups at a bar. So there wasn't much nightlife, but there were fireworks and the king's speech being televised on evvverrry single channel (besides the English-speaking channels playing The Prestige).

Rain on the beach came, so everyone packed up and left, but we stayed for a while at the beach. This day was a good day, because I had my first sticky rice with mango, with coconut milk and sesame seeds, it is probably the most delicious thing I have had in Thailand. Yosh made friends with the locals who owned the restaurant next to our hotel, and went out with them. Oh- in the bars, they have bells that people can ring. If you ring it, then you have to buy everybody in the bar a drink. We were hoping every time we entered a bar that a tipsy person with a heavy wallet would be so wise as to ring the bell, but no such luck. On Patong, I had an iguana put on my shoulder, a picture taken, and then told we needed to buy it. Uncle Ernie bought it for me... it's an awkward picture.

Krabi was the next town we went to, and this was our favorite place thus far. On the beach, there were monkeys the size of large cats that you could feed bananas to, and they would climb up your body to get them, and just hang out on your arms. It was in Krabi, at the Smile Bar, that we enjoyed our first bucket. A bucket, when on a menu in Thailand, is an alcoholic beverage served in a child's plastic beach toy bucket. Thai whiskey, redbull, coke and more straws than you can fit in your mouth at once. Played some jenga, connect 4, I bought some sandals, ate some corn from a vendor, and we called it a night.
Yosh went rock climbing on Raleigh (an island) and Uncle Ernie and I went swimming on Raleigh instead, and got bitten by loads of sea lice. It was great.

Our next island was Koh Phangan, which is known for the full-moon party. Yes, TiT hooked it up for us and set up our accomodation and travels for us. (P.K. has been our travel advisor, and he is wonderful. "This hotel has cold water. But you don't worry. Why? Because it is hot all the time on this island. Uhhhh." That's how he talks... now, that's how we talk too.) Well, first night on Koh Phangan we took a tuk-tuk to a pool party with loads of backpackers, and ended up having a good amount of buckets, getting separated from Yosh, and trying to walk home in the wee hours of the morning. A really sweet Thai lady picked me up on her motorbike, along with a man, Tom, from England, and the hills were so steep that the motorbike couldn't carry the weight of the three of us, and we ended up falling. I got a pretty burn on my leg, and made a few friends. Worth it, overall. Following day, Uncle Ernie got a motorbike (since he's on the other side of the island), and Yosh and he motorbiked to the 110 baht buffet for dinner this night, while I got a tuk-tuk. I wasn't quite ready to get back on a motorbike yet. The food was great, kind of like chanko nabe in Japan, where you cook it all yourself. It was delicious until both Yosh and I tasted it again due to food poisoning. Anyway, took it easy the next day by riding to a waterfall with a few friends, Paul and Josh, also staying at the Power Beach Resort. On the back of Uncle Ernie's bike, we were on the same hill I'd been on after hte Pool Party, and sure enough, it got to be too steep. The bike flew out from under us and I was in the middle of hte street screaming a few "oh my god"s as Uncle Ernie was still holding on to the handle bars as it rode itself into a ditch, and had him doing summersaults down the hill. No real injuries. They all went to check out where the full moon party was going to be on the motorbikes. That night when we arrived to the beach with thousands of crazy, dancing people, we lost all the people we'd arrived with within minutes. Ha. But met up with some lovely friends Yosh made a few nights back and danced/slept/danced until the full moon left, and the sun came up. There were fire shows on the beach, where a huge jump rope about 20 feet is lit on fire, and anyone and everyone is invited to try and jump... only the drunkest of the drunk dare to go. A few nights back, Yosh did it actually, and unlike 99% of the other people who try, he didn't get burned! Bragging rights, I'd say.
At Power Beach Resort, we could've gotten a tattoo with a bamboo stick and a needle, but chose otherwise. Watched a pirated version of Step Brothers, could hear everyone laughing in the theater that it was filmed in, which made it just that more enjoyable.

Our last island was Koh Samui, which had the majority of hte sand on the beach covered at the peak of hte day due to high tide, so we would go to Ninja Crepes and eat mango with sticky rice and have fruit shakes. One night, walked through a red-light district without quite knowing it. Yosh has been really good about reading the Lonely Planet and figuring out where we are and what we're getting ourselves into, so I just sort of go along. Uncle Ernie and i went to a Lady-Boy cabaret show, and they did DreamGirls, Aretha Franklin, Kylie Minogue, and Rihanna... it was bizarre. Lip sinking to words of songs they don't know was an interesting concept to me. But the costumes were good. At night, I fall asleep to a Thai woman's voice in my head saying "Masssaaa you want a Thai massaaa?" Because every day about six times, I've been asked if I want a massage. Or if we would like suits. We can't figure out how the suit businesses in Koh Samui stay afloat, every thirty feet, there is a suit shop, offering the exact same thing as the last. They all stand on the street trying to sell you suits or dresses (even wedding dresses... "no thank you, I'm not planning on getting married anytime soon") and they all start their conversations with "Hello, Madam/Sir where are you from?" With Yosh he says "California" and they say "aaaah, wassup man?" They assume Uncle Ernie is from Japan and say "Konbanwa. Ogenki desu ka?".

Well, we got back to Bangkok to pick up Gina!!! WOOO!! Gina took off a term from University of Oregon to travel with us for ten weeks. So we went to the reclining buddha in bangkok, and then went to Laos for Christmas. Veng Vieng is known for tubing. Rent a tube, and then all day you go down this river with bars on either side, and go off rope swings, huge slides, jump off towers, dance, etc. It's a guaranteed good time. On Christmas, Santa came!!! We each set up our stockings ("stockings" meaning my hiking socks and gina's green sock) and Santa brought Gina a salt shaker and a luggage lock, I got a pepper shaker and nail clippers (how did he know what I have been wishing for!) and Yosh got wooden ear cleaners from Japan and headphones. We all got hooked up with gum and mints too. Santa was amazing this year. Yosh gave us Santa hats, which light up, which we sported all day and all night at the bucket bar. (Buckets are so great, because when everyone's drinking buckets, it looks like little kids going to the beach to make sand castles... actually, it's not that at all.) Now I think Gina's waiting for me to finish, since this blog entry has been so long. We're in Chiang Mai right now, took three days traveling here from Luang Prabang to Pak Beng to Chiang Rai to here, but it's good to be here. We rented bikes today and have no idea what we'll be doing for New Year's Eve. It'll be great fun though, I'm sure. Buckets all around.
Cheers!
Happy New Years!
lovelovelove
denali g

the laos experience

2008-12-30T20:14:00.000-08:00

we had a relatively short time in laos, so we hit the hotspots. vang vieng. amazing. everyone our age and older needs to see it to believe it. tubing is all we did for the most part and we loved it. going down the river was absolutely beautiful, which huge cliffs on one side, but late in the day they were kind of wack since they put the river in the shade. we always started our tubing experience by buying a beer from the very first bar before you even got in the water, where they said it was maybe the only bar where the proceeds would go to children. you jump on your tube, float down the river in the sun drinking a large beer, and its heaven. then come the many bars. The bars themselves are ok, really fun since they give out free shots of lao lao and lao whiskey (on christmas they were giving away whole bottles if you bought a bucket). but the best part of the bars are their swings and slides. Some have HUGE ropeswings, the last main bar being the biggest of over 50 feet we think. we have pictures for those who doubt, cause i wouldnt think it was possible. others had zip lines, which you ride down and can drop off into the water any time you want, or if you grab on until you hit the end you flip and flip with no control into the water. i was lucky enough to go feet first, i saw many others backplant hard. the last bar also had a slid with a 15-20 foot launch at the end into the river. the whole slide was ceramic tile. it was simply ridiculous.
the nights were also pretty crazy, the price of beer and alcohol is so cheap! where in thailand a bucket was 200 baht, roughly 6 bucks, in laos at night there were bars with specials of buy one bucket, get one bucket free along with t shirts, which cost 20,000 kip, roughly 2.50, since 8,500 is about 1 dollar.
the last thing to note about vang vieng, and laos as a whole i guess, is the food. specific to vang vieng, its really weird but cool, almost every restaurant has laid back seating, where you sit and watch either friends or family guy. they just play it nonstop. one place had the simpsons, but that was rare. Friends and Family Guy dominates the screens, which you watch with your dinner. The other food (which pertains to all of laos) which is REALLY good are their sandwiches. 10,000 kip for a chicken sando, little less than a footlong with all the goodstuff minus cheese, even the bread are decent baguettes.
The other spot we spent time at in laos was luang prabang. that place is very beautiful. i dont know if quaint and elegant are the right words, but they are close. the architecture is all very french, and the speed and size of the town is perfect. there is one hill with a huge temple built on top which is a good walk up, but an amazing view once you make it up. sadly i went at sunset, when you had to fight for position to get a picture. with my height and arm length, i was able to get some decent ones from standing on a bench. our other goodie spot there was the waterfalls, which there are a TON of, most small 1-2 footers, some 5 footers, and the biggest (and the last we saw) over fifty feet. you could swim in some of the pools, but it was overcast and had rained the day before, and laos at this time isnt like bagkok where its always hot. me and gina went swimming anyways, jumping out of a tree at one of the pools.
2 days on a slow boat to get to the border sounds like a long uncomfortable excursion, but its beautiful to see the area from the Mekong River, and with an ipod and a book the time goes by quickly. the only bad part of the trip was one guy who sounded like kermit the frog with a deeper voice who loved to talk nonstop (and was EXTREMELY LOUD, most people you couldnt even hear over the engine from far away, his voice was clear as day) especially about his girlfriend. im sad to say i dont appreciate the green muppet as much as i used to, since his image has been tarnished. you do stop one night at pak beng, where there is only electricity from about 6.30-10 o clock. it was funny hearing denali try to ask how they keep their chicken refridgerated when we have trouble simply asking about food and what to do.
thats the gist.

end of thailand (we come back though)

2008-12-30T19:47:00.000-08:00

We are in Chaing Mai now, supposedly the culture capital of Thailand, but the days from what ive heard are pretty slow, and I already made it around the whole perimiter (it used to be a fatty brick wall in a square shape, which has been broken down for the most part, but the corners and some main entrances are still existent as well as the moat), so I have a little free time. ill break this one into two so if people get bored they can stop.
Gina has arrived, which is great. Caus it gives Denali someone to roam with when I decide to roam by myself. The first night she arrived me and Uncle Ern went out to Kho San road, which is touristy market, but i bought a hammock for 3 bucks (and got denali one for 2.40), which i was happy about. The bucket idea which i thought was revolutionary is actually pretty standard I have found, since me and Ern got a bucket at Kho San and every single bar we walked past (and there are a LOT of bars) are selling different deals, such as cheaper ones, more expensive but the "strongest", etc.
The next day we took the river taxi up to relatively the same area, which was a kind of cool experience. ps, i dont LOVE bangkok, but i did really miss the 30 cent thai iced tea shakes and 15 cent chicken kabobs and other street vendor delights. we ended up at the laying buddha, which was absolutely HUGE. its interesting to see the difference compared to Japan's architecture, which i admit i like more. Thailands is beautiful, the golds and roof tile patterns and colorfully painted walls and even the bottoms of the buddha's feet were covered in intricate mother of pearl design. But Japan's all wood (Not even nails!) temple with the daibutsu in nara is such a plain, elegant beauty that i think fits the buddhist idea better of not needing the flashy looks (not to say they didnt go above and beyond creating the whole thing). I would say that the sitting buddha in japan and the laying buddha in thailand were about the same size, but since thailand's was laying, it took a lot longer to walk around. that day we also got ice cream in a bun. an actual bread bun.
that night denali and gina and i made it to kho san road early, but i was the only one who stayed for the night to begin. considering i had met almost 0 people from california (except one guy who recognized the we believe shirt in krabi), it was interesting me and some australians who i sat with convinced 3 different groups of californians to join us. one girl (AND HER BROTHER! but only for winter break, doesnt count) were from fresno, and went to school at ucla, 3 girls were from santa cruz, and 1 other girl was from silicon valley. the australians i thought were the my favorites though, since they are pretty nuts and lvoe to dare each other to do things. in fact, thats how attractingpeople over got started, by grabbing a sign (usually held by pushy locals selling drinks) and having to get people to join our table. a few of the guys had painted toe nails from dares (and said some tuktuk drivers would follow them saying LADY BOY), and others sang along with the guitar player at the bar. it was great.
the next day we went to the weekend market again, i got a pair of shorts which i love for 3 bucks, but i already ripped a little in laos. not bad quality, it was my fault. that night denali and gina took a turn going out, they can talk about that.
then a long journey to laos, or at least the border, which we took in a train 3rd class sitting in seats which might as well have been covered in tacks they were so uncomfortable. we were the center of attention being three white travelers among all the thais, none of whom spoke english, some who liked to try though. the man next to me seemed soo nice, even giving denali a key chain (which he put on a necklace...) with a beautiful buddha on it, and played some songs with denali on the guitar and he gave me a massage and i gave him a massage (both his i turned down after a little and he turned mine down after a little) and we talked for a while using the southeast asia language book a LOT. but the woman accross from us kept giving us really stern looks, and was obviously really uncomfortable with him (not us, cause she warned us when he left, using very broken english). the three of us slept almost none, but after the sun rose again (a night train), i started to nod off, when i felt the magnet clasp for my cellphone move, so i jolted upright and saw Bo (the guy next to me) pretend to go back to sleep. after that i didnt sleep until we were off. he was still really nice, and offered to buy coffee, but i was hesitant from that point on. the woman across seemed to ease a little after that cause we were more careful.
then laos began. what a trip/.

the beaches of the south

2008-12-15T00:14:00.001-08:00

Its been a while, no?
So after bangkok, we took a quick trip to see the tiger temple and go rafting down a river on a bamboo raft, and went elephant trekking, which all turned out to be a gigantic tourist trap. I mean it was cool, the tiger temple you got to pet real tigers (i still think they werent drugged, it doesnt make sense to put people right next to tigers that are coming out of being drugged), and after you walk back and some people got to feed cubs, which was cool to watch, then they fed all the other animals, by ripping open bags and bags of turnips which filled the road with boar (which are huge), deer, roosters, cows, and water buffalo. the boar were the most skiddish, which sometimes got real close to people, but the thing i got hit by was a water buffalo. Walking through the crowds of animals (i know, smart...but it looked dangerous and fun!), i think i mightve been to close to one turnip (which were scattered EVERYWHERE) for one water buffalo's liking, and it walked right up to me, gave me a powerful nudge that lifted me a few inches, and i walked quickly away. no scars, bruises or brakes, but my heart was racing for days.
then we met up with uncle ern, which was sweet. before our FINAL departure down south, we tried all sorts of weird fruits, or at least ones i have never had, and still dont know the name sof. jack fruit are good, almost fake sweet though.
then to phuket. disgustingly touristy at patong beach, 100 baht just for a beach umbrella and people constantly trying to sell you junk. denali and ern went cable wakeboarding, hopefully denali can write about that, and her motorbike experiences. My highlight was walking by a store, where a family called me over to drink with them (like, extended family, not ma pa and kids) so we hung out all night and shared our dinners and they sang thai songs which they all laughed at and i sang "Stand by me" and "In the jungle". the girls all laughed at me and the guys all danced and gave it rhythm on chairs and buckets. great fun.
Then to krabi, maybe the most beautiful place ive ever seen, aqua water, huge cliffs jutting right out of the water (which i went rock climbing on one day, real fun), and lush green forests. The best part are the monkeys, which are wild, and you can buy bananas, hold them above your head, and the monkeys climb up your arms and eat it on your shoulder. Amazing.
then to kho phangan, where we went to the full moon party. an absolutely crtazy island, with pool parties, jungle parties (for the half moon), beach parties (the full moon), and all other types. the age range here was much younger, although i still thinnk denali and i were the youngest. the full moon was so hectic, with each club blasting electronic music towards the ocean to the point where it was actually difficult to distinguish beats and rhythms from each other. real fun, although felt a little sick, and took a bomb nap in the mddle of it (like 2-5 in front of the blaring drum and bass spot). Met a bunch of real nice people here, including 3 english people (two guys and a girl who love to play a game with meeting new people, introducing yourself in funny ways such as a jesus freak, you have beautiful eyes can i touch them, or pretending to read a pick up line off your hand). Also a new zealand and english guy travelling together whose actually on the island we are on now. koh samui.
thats a quick, abridged update. sorry its still so long

for finding places to stay in koh samui, check out these sites:
http://www.hotelscombined.com/City/Koh_Samui.htm
www.hostelworld.com
www.hostels.com

Beginning in Bangkok

2008-11-30T09:02:00.000-08:00

This one will be fairly short, since we haven't done too much interesting stuff and mostly been planning.
To begin, we had postponed our flight to Bangkok, which cost us a little extra, but was well worth it so we were better prepared to leave Tokyo. Then the night we were supposed to leave (and we would've arrived in Thailand at 11:30 at night, super whack) our plane got delayed, which meant that United Airlines paid for our hotel night (which we would've been sleeping in the airport in Bangkok), paid for our meal (which we would've eaten overpriced airport food) and apologized for the inconvenience...boy did we trick them!
When we got into Bangkok, it was fairly difficult to get a taxi, as the protests were starting to pick up around the airport (not that we could see). When we eventually did get a taxi, the ride away from BKK we could see the highway going towards the airport was full of cars with no people in them, just the people on the street surrounding their automobiles.
The hostel we are staying at is a little out of the main city, but we can get in no problem with the skytrain, which is like a dollar a ride (cheaper than Tokyo subways) and beats all of the congestion down below. We have ridden a few tuk-tuks, which are fun and fast when there isn't too much traffic.
The food is amazing. Sooo spicy, to the point where Denali can't eat, 'cause of watery eyes and afterwards (like, after ingestion) it hurts a good amount. But sooooo good. And cheap, like 50 cents to a dollar. The desserts are so sweet, all of the vendors are delicious, and we haven't gotten sick yet, so all is well.
Today we went to the gigantic weekend market. I don't think its possible to describe the size, as I roamed nearly the entire day and still don't think i covered half of it. I also noticed there are a good amount of super small alleys that led to completely different sections with no other entries and exits. Some of these streets took me to places with monkeys in cages, squirrels on leashes, and cock fights (seriously. I'm not saying I'm happy I saw it, but I'm ok with the experience) among MANY other things.
We also went to a muai thai kick boxing match. If anyone remembers High School High when the main teacher goes to Bangkok and gets really drunk playing games with lots of people betting on him, that was exactly what it was like. If not, go rent High School High. The guys were SOOO skinny, like 105 to 120 pounds, but were absolutely vicious. Its something I'm happy i got to see, but don't think ill ever go see again. The place (or at least our seats) were pretty dirty, Denali and i saw 2 cockroaches skurry beneath us, I guess you could call it "character".
It's kind of ridiculous how many nudie bars there are. O our first night we saw all of these clubs, and I was excited to explore them, until the night came and I realized the inside of every single one had poles. Sidenote, for Thanksgiving we went to a restaurant for noodles at a place called "Noodie". Interesting name.

Leaving Japan, Almost not arriving in Thailand

2008-11-28T08:54:00.000-08:00

It has been ages since i have typed my stories out. Brevity is the word... Hakone Open Air museum was phenomenal, other than when I was climbing on a netted art structure and slid down it thinking it would be fun, but instead of shrieking because i was happy, i was shrieking out of pain. Next day went to the hospital to get an x-ray of my pinky toe which had swollen, had three doctors wiggle it and ask me if it hurt (hai... ittai desu. = yes, it hurts), and then tell me I'll be ok. Well, I'm not actually sure what they said, because they said it all to Tetsuo and Tomoko (who were so kind to take me) and then Tomoko's translation was "It's ok. Not broken". I am now officially a member of the Nakano Salvation Army Hospital as "Daniel Gillaspie". Nice. Walking around Hakone with one shoe was a bit chilly for my naked left foot. The onsen at the hostel warmed me up... the water is so dense with minerals that the water was too white to see my legs. After much sight seeing in Hakone (as yosh already said), we went the Tenzan Onsen... I was definitely uncomfortable, but pretended that I went to Onsens all the time. I tried to blend in with the crowd. (When I told Tetsuo I was trying to "blend in" he laughed super hard and walked to the wall re-enacting what he pictured me to look like and said "blend in... i am the wall.") I did alright with showering and putting clothing in the locker. However there was a bit of an uneasy moment. You see, the waters are so scorching hot that I have no immunity to the intense water's temperature, so I could only be in the natural spring bath for ten minutes at a time, at most. When you get too hot, you are supposed to sit out on the rocks surrounding the baths or on benches... so, I followed suit as all the other women and sat on a bench after I had overheated. The sun was going down, so I thought "oh, this is good, then the lighting will be a bit more dim, and I can stop worrying about being the only foreign woman naked with thirty-five Japanese women I don't know"... So of course, I happen to be sitting on the bench in the perfect spot. Because when the sun goes down, the outside lights come on. Yep, I had two spot-lights on me. That was my cue to get back in the onsen. I was becoming more comfortable, but not that comfortable.

A few days later, we took at bus to Chiba (TOTORO TOWN, I am telling you, I saw Totoro nuts on every street on every walk in Chiba. Go there.) Yumi and Gen have an amazing lifestyle, very self-sustained, and they are eating as much raw food as possible, so we did too. The thought process of this is that when food is not cooked, it still has life in it, but after you cook it, the life and enzymes are lost through the steam and whatnot, so enzymes help to digest, so you want them. Learned not to drink water with our meals because pure water dilutes the enzymes. Went to their childrens' weekend festival and got to eat mochi they pounded! Delicious. Any and all mochi is delicious, but this was especially oishii. (oishikatta). Next in Chiba, we headed to Rinpoche's student's home with Inomoto-san and Oshishosama. They were so funny when teaching us how to paint, because they would constantly compliment us on our skills, even when we messed up. Yoshi's is BEAUTIFUL. We have already sent them home. Mine isn't so good, it's just a funny concept, because his head is taller than he is. He has a large head, and my head is not small, so I figure we would be good friends. His long head represents a long life. Inomoto-san and Namishita-san (the most lovely woman who sang Japanese children songs with me about rabbits in the moon and chestnut trees) made amazing food. Oshishosama recorded a 7 song CD for me too! Very simple, mostly all done in 1 or 2 takes, with my little traveling Martin guitar and a small keyboard we found... It was so much fun. Also, went on many walks and we saw goats. Then a man saw us walking and decided he wanted to take us in his car to the top of a hill and see the land he maintains. (Yosh missed out on this... he was peeling potatoes at the house) I picked shitake mushrooms, LOADS of them that were growing on his land. We went to another onsen (this time with black/red water, so deeply colored that i couldn't see my legs again, when i was sitting down in the bath). I am a fan of onsens, I think, as opposite as it is to what I am used to. Chiba was for sure a lovely place to be, and we had such great people taking care of us.

Back to Tetsuo, Tomoko, and Mitsuko's house for a few more days. Got there by going through an undersea tunnel that stretches for miles. Arrived just in time for Tomoko's birthday, the sweets were sweet, as always.

A few highlights overall of Japan: seeing business men on trains on their cellphones, sneakily playing video games. stumbling upon a fashion show. people on the streets handing out tissues. young japanese children who LOVE to say hello and goodbye. meeting family i didn't know we had. the hospitality of strangers. bowing as a sign of gratitude to everyone. playing hide and seek in shibuya crossing. the possibility of finding a totoro. the food, the people, the cuteness.

Now we are on our 3rd night in Bangkok, Thailand, after a delay of our flight (they gave us a hotel room, two dinners, and breakfast from McDonalds... we got ice cream for breakfast). We arrived four hours before they shut down the airport due to the protestors closing off the highway and access to the airport. There has been violence but no killing over the subject of anti- and pro- government groups who do and don't want the Prime Minister to resign. All of the people we have met on the streets have been verrrrry kind and have always apologized for the situation of unrest, because it is as though the protestors are holding Thailand hostage, by closing down the airport. We speak no Thai, so there is a lot more sign language, but people speak enough English to be able to buy delicious food for minimal prices from street vendors. It's hot, but the trains are air-conditioned to the point of wanting a sweater. Already, we have encountered numerous um.... inappropriate encounters while walking down streets with many bars. Had our first tuk-tuk ride today, also went to see Muay Thai fighting..... I really have a difficult time watching people fight. After the second of ten or eleven fights, Yoshi turned to me and said "are you crying"? I am a baby. So sue me. My feet are a bit tired from walking through Lumpini park today to an art gallery, so I will retire for the night. Hope you had wonderful Thanksgivings, ours involved massages, but no turkey.

lovelovelove
denali g
p.s. i am so sorry, i said "brevity is the word" but i apparently don't know what "brevity" means. my bad.

The end of japan

2008-11-22T22:32:00.000-08:00

There is so much i would like to say, but ill try to condense into a fine mesh of tidbits.
So back to Hakone, i guess its good i didnt finish that last message, since it wasnt our last onsen. Our first was the guest house (all private, gigantic bathroom pretty much). The second was in Tenzan which was VERY crowded. Not exactly what i would like for my first public experience, but at the same time it made it easy to know what to do so i didnt embarrass myself without having to stare or make it noticeable that i was so out of place. of course, there were only 2 or 3 other foreign guys, so it was pretty clear i was out of place anyways, but besides the point. getting naked in front of maybe 30 guys isnt exactly a soothing experience, but once you get into the hotspring water, your mind turns to goo and you can just relaaaax. the THIRD experience was actually with a tibetan lama and his student. Just the three of us had the place to ourselves in Chiba, where the water was a deep blackish reddish tea color. but more about rinpoche and inomotosan in a sec.
Hakone from there on was beautiful, which we experienced in fast forward on the many modes of transportation, from beginning to end with train, switchback train, cable car, rope way gondola (stopped here to get eggs boiled black in sulfuric pits although the inside is still white), boat, bus and finally train back to tokyo. the color change was amazing, with spots of green among the vast firey reds and yellows.
then to chiba. We stayed with Yumi and Gen who both speak amazing english which was great. sooo different than tokyo, anywhere we have been in japan really. very natural people, happy with the land where we planted onions and garlic as well as picking azuke beans. Despite the many temples and shrines we have visited, i would have to say that chiba was one of hte most spiritual places we have been. Yumi and Gen`s stories were quite interesting of how they ended up living in Chiba, as they both used to work high ranking jobs in big cities. They also had a 23 year old helper (Masa) who was helpful and hardworking, and also fun to play cards with and taught us how to cook (some... i still cant cook).
Then we met with Inomotosan and a man who we later deemed Oshishosama (i hope i spelled that right) meaning master/teacher? We drove to the peninsula where we were close to a nice lake with a huge cliff on the far side with more beautiful color change.
SPOILER ALERT FOR MOM AND DAD Here the definite highlight (granted the onsen was great) was painting. Oshishosama was a professional artist, who restored old paintings and sculptures of the buddha among others. SOOO talanted. He was kind enough to help teach us how to paint. The process from to start to finish was making the sketch on a piece of paper with help from a model, then outlining the good lines so they were much darker, putting this drawing on the back of a silk screen, using very special ink to outline the beginnings of the drawing, then filling in with color. The actual process took two days, one for the initial sketch and the second for the color and detail. Denali did an old man with a fatty beard and a cranium bigger than his body. It was great, especially since she did hers pretty much all by herself. Mine turned out amazing, but not because i did it, but because of the massive amounts of help i got. The final touch was real gold being painted onto mine, which added soo much more depth (of course this task is too difficult for me, but still it looks great). The evidence is soon to be at our homes in San Anselmo.
Now we are back in Tokyo, went ot ropponghi last night which is always an experience (or at least the two times ive been). We went to Muse again, which is a 3 story club (we only saw two stories though) with pool, ping pong, darts, dancing, and drinking. Its almost encouraged to stay out till 4 or 5 in the morning since thats what time the trains start running. We leave for thailand tomorrow. Hopefully all goes smoothly.
Over all impression of Japan is it is respectful, polite and (for females of all ages) cute. The things i would like to remember in terms of cultural differences (or some off the top of my head) are watching tv while driving, recycling ALL trash, wearing slippers in bathrooms, taking showers sitting down, having to buy toilet paper in some bathrooms, and many more.

The Different World of Chiba

2008-11-16T19:45:00.001-08:00

Im not sure how much time I have to write, and there is so much i want to say!

we went to hakone which was amazing, although denali thought she broke her toe on one of the interactive art pieces (a gigantic webbing that you could climb on top of and through knitted holes, we took pictures and its awesome). Walking around the open air museum had some really amazing exhibits, and me describing them doesnt do them justice. A picture is worth so many words, blah blah blah.

We also went to our first onsen (most likely last on this trip as well). the hostel we went to had one that was private for one person at a time which was very relaxing, like a gigantic bath. OOP i have to go, but there is much mor i have to say...LATER

Second round in Tokyo

2008-11-10T03:22:00.000-08:00

Getting picked up at the nakano station was what started the enjoyable adventure here, when Tetsuo (funniest most happy go lucky man in the world) saw us (granted this is a man i have not even spoken to on the phone/remember from 6 years ago) and gave us a big hug and laughing and being very loud and jovial. we then went to his car, where he showed us a sign Judith gave him which had too stick figures having sex, a big red cross out mark, and in very tiny little english in the corner it says `no sex`. He shows us this and says `its funny!`
one of the cooler peaceful places we have seen was a temple outside of tokyo tetsuo and tomoko took us to, where there was a hollowed out cave with different gods carved out of the walls, each god standing for a different symbol, such as money, health, food, etc.
Also the sony building is very cool. they now have cameras (maybe this is old news) that can automatically take pics of people when they smile, which different settings to capture small grins to big happy smiles. also, the staircase from the 1st to 2nd floor is musical. each step plays a note of the major (i guess c) scale. neato. tomoko took us here (in ginza) as well as asakusa, where we walked down a glowing pathway lit by white lanterns with shops on either side to a huge temple with a red lantern (sorry if my ignorance offends) that would probably fit a good 4 or 5 of me inside of it at the end of the path.
today we went to shibuya again, where we checked out the love hotels which have rooms with every different theme from being in a zoo (the walls have people looking in with cameras and painted bars to make you feel like your in a cage) to black light night themes. we also went to shibuya crossing which is still amazing to watch, and because of the masses of people we played hide and go seek, where one person would walk out into the masses during one green light, then the other would have to find the person walking. At any other intersection in the world this is a stupid game, but it took me 3 green lights of people walking through the crossing for me to find denali. Denali found me on the first light though...i stand out, but also my hiding skills were not on par.
we have been more laid back here, watched some badmitton on tv, started reading the dictionary, some relaxing rather than constant tourist.
OH and saw red cliff. john woo trying to make a lord of the rings epic from china, all in chinese with japanese subs...the action is a universal language, but still not too amazing.

i fell in love with an art gallery

2008-11-08T04:02:00.000-08:00

the happiest moment from yesterday was goin to this art gallery where tomoko works... it was a photo gallery of mika ninagawa`s photographs, and i think it was the closest to euphoria that i could have felt. i wanted to hold on to that feeling for so long that i took two hours to go through the gallery of only six rooms or so. i fell in love wiht her colors, and she changed the focus of the subjects in the pictures to be the unlikely subjects that normally dont get captured and noticed. there was one cherry blossom picture with the flowers closest to the lense were blurred into white shapes, but the tiny petals in the background that were being blown away in the wind were the sharpest point. i loved it. she had pictures of flowers, goldfish, travels, and portraits. none of them were sad to me, all just pure joy. -denali

p.s. not down with tsukiji fish market. i have sea food nightmares now. i am definitely leaning towards a vegetarian lifestyle.

Back in Tokyo

2008-11-05T05:25:00.000-08:00

We left Mari`s house on Monday, which I was very bummed about, because I got to hold baby Karin-chan (10 months old) whenever she woke up from a nap and I was nearby, or when Mari was cooking dinner and Karin-chan needed a distraction... I just can`t help it, I love babies. But Mari was amazing with the way that she managed to juggle so much at once, she is the mother of three kids, a wife, (a constant translator for Yoshi and me), and she is the community leader for one year. I really like this concept- there is one household in charge of making sure that all the people in the neighborhood have enough money to buy a car, or have somebody looking after them if they are older, so everybody takes care of everybody and pitches in to help the other families. I think we ought to set something up like that at home. Another thing that I want to do the same way as Mari`s family is that on Tatsuya`s 6th birthday (wednesday), she made dinner as usual, but then used cookie cutters to cut out the carrot slices in fun shapes. I had a bird. It was delicious and fun to eat. Everything is very musical, the washing machine sings a song whenever it is finished, the train stations have songs to alert you when a train is coming, and the crosswalks even have the Nintendo - Mario Kart Racing - beginning song. I cant really describe it with just text on a blog, but if you know the three tones at the beginning of a Mario kart race, its bum... bum... BUMMMM. We did our laundry at Mari`s and hung our clothing outside, which I thought was great fun because our underwear was blowing in the breeze. We took their dog for a walk through a bamboo forest, and then on Halloween (since Japan doesnt really celebrate Halloween aside from decorations) we went to Arashiyama to see the beginning of hte changing colors of trees and to walk through another bamboo forest and garden. The coi fish are so huge in the gardens/shrines, Im a bit frightened. Maybe I worry too much though, first I get a fear of deer, now a fear of coi... So now we are Tomoko`s house with her family, and when Tomoko came to San Anselmo to stay with Jack and Judith, we took her to a few places to go sight-seeing, and so these past couple days she has been our tour guide. Yesterday, we went to Kamakura and Tomoko and her dad, Tetsuo, had us sample everything. All very oishii (delicious). We went to the restaurant that Kill Bill was filmed in, and I guess we just looked really American, because this waiter talked to us about George Bush. He said something really odd: "after you eat here, you`ll know why george bush came running back." what that means, we have no idea, but dinner was great. the staff always yelled in japanese when a new party was entering the restaurant, when they were leaving, and pretty much anytime inbetween. We also went to a few shrines and there are huge wooden boxes in front of Buddhas and statues that you can throw money into and make a wish, so I have been wishing long and hard the same wish, and today, it was granted. I will admit that I cried when Obama gave his speech today in Chicago. So, yosh said we sang stand by me at karaoke the other day- somehow we always find ourselves making our own acappella versions of songs all day walking down the streets, and stand by me was always one of htem, but another one was just simply quietly chanting obama in rhythm with our steps up the stairs of shrines. Needless to say, I am a happy camper at the moment.
Today we rode the trains all over Tokyo to get to Asakusa and Ginza with Tomoko guiding us. It was a good day. Speaking of good days, a week or so ago, when we were at the Nakagawas, I sang the only Japanese song I know (which I wrote, so its incredibly janky) and Yosh volunteered to contribute, constructing a verse of all the japanese phrases he has come to know, and it went a little something like this: "my name is yoshi. nice to meet you. i like you. do you like this? i cant speak japanese. can you speak english? excuse me, where is the bathroom?" Yes, we are having a great time in Japan... obama!!

love denali g

Working with Kids

2008-11-03T06:52:00.000-08:00

So its been a while since an update, but i have limited time to talk about many events. highlights is all that will be included, although there are many stories i left out/forgot
Our last day with the Nakagawas, went to Takarazuka show, which for those who dont know, my best description is a Broadway musical mixed with Cher-like costumes and what i picture a Spice Girls Concert to be like all rolled into one, with all of the characters played by women (and there are as many male parts as female parts) and the entire thing sung in Japanese. It was really interesting, very bright, but not completely my cup of tea. I dont know if I would go again, but i did like it more than Tateharu-san (relative who said he had gone twice and fell asleep both times). Denali and I stood out pretty bad, worse than usual which is saying something in Japan, since we had very nice seats where everybody dressed up, and we were dressed in jeans and t-shirts, we are white, I`m two feet taller than everybody and almost the entire audience was female.
The next day we ventured back to Kyoto, where we stayed with Mari-san and her husband (I call him Luigi, but I think its really Richi sounds like Reechee), and there 3 kids, the eldest a boy just starting kindergarten. It was much different than most of the places we had stayed before, but definitely in a fun way. We played with the kids a lot, despite the language barrier, and got along fine since if I could pick them up and swing them round, they were all smiles. I didnt realize how popular pokemon still is, I guess now there are over 450 pokemon. Its so funny, whenever the kids watched a show that they really liked, they always danced to the opening theme music. We did some walking by ourselves in Kyoto, and saw 6 geisha, which are so stunningly dressed in flashy colors with their faces painted (for lack of a better word) completely white.
Much more about Kyoto, but I feel its late and I should go to bed, but now we are back in Tokyo staying with Tomoko and her family. PS, went to Karaoke today (just the three of us) which I have never done, and to make a long story short, Denali chose Stand by Me, I sung back up vocals, I killed it. Nuff said.

Bambi was a beast

2008-10-26T09:44:00.000-07:00

So denali told most of the story, there isnt much else to tell. i will say that the deer are not cute and cuddly, and are more like raptors with hooves and fur. they attack all together once they figure out who has the food, some from the front some from behind, and while the ones in front of you rip at your pockets where they think you might have more food (actually it was just my camera, how sweet) the ones coming from the rear are pushing your legs with their heads, im not sure if its to get your attention or to bend your knees so they can trample you and grab the food from your hands. I also had no idea what a deer sounded like today, which I must conclude sounds like a cross between a donkey, dolphin and whoopi question. There was one that was particularly loud, and an old man walking back from the temple gave it a good smack on the nose, making the deer fall silent, and continued walking without breaking his pace. Hilarious.
Also, i think something needs to be said about the kaiten sushi. the first sushi we went to amazed me cause there was no conveyor belt, only the plates moving around on an unmoving track, which eventually I was told was by magnets underneath. The one we went to with the nakagawa`s was much more like chucky cheese, where every 5 plates you finished you would stick into a slot for the plates and a little animation would appear on your server screen (there wasnt actually a server, just a screen where you could order anything from drinks, to hamburger sushi, to ice cream and it would come out on the conveyor belt), and you could win little prizes similar to gumball machines.
i also read denali`s update fairly fast, but i dont think it mentioned our attempt to make dinner tonight. to begin, we went to the super market where nothing is in english, including what is in each aisle, so finding the ingredients to begin with was difficult. then we went back to ai chans building to the common area to begin (pasta, tomatoes with basil and mozzerella, salad), but our pasta turned out way sticking to the pot and ladel because we didnt use enough oil, and we also had about 5 times too much pasta with the amount of sauce we made. then when we were almost ready to serve, we had to leave the common area because it closed, and get everything ready again in another room. i think we created much more hell than help. also, they dont have full basil leaves in japan, so we used ground up stuff. not the same, let me tell you. all in all though, i still liked it, and i think the effort was appreciated.
two things i must note though are in tokyo, the things you can buy. 1. a baseball cap for the white sox with black writing and design all over the hat with the word boston stitched in going for more than 60 bucks, and the other was a melon, i think a cantalope, for about the same price. i only got 3 melons, but boy were they good

ps, didnt actually buy the melons. bad joke, apologies

I am afraid of deer

2008-10-26T08:18:00.001-07:00

This is Denali again- Yosh is either sleeping or taking a bath upstairs... Today was nonstop busy fun. Woke up later than we had hopedto, headed off to Nara with Aina, Kumiko san and Tateharu san. (Ai-chan ... Ai means love in Japanese. What a great name.) She is six years old, doesn't speak English, aside from her ability to count to 10, say "hello", "goodbye", and "I am fine thank you, and you?". The things that her mom whispers in her ear to say in English... a few of them being - "Have a nice trip", "please pass the spoon..." it is cute, but maybe you have to be here. Anyway- a lot of my Japanese culture of today I learned from Ai chan. We made origami out of old maps we ripped up in the back seat of the car, she showed us how to wash your hands at a shrine, she shared her knowledge about using coasters at dinner when consuming chilly beverages, we sang the Totoro theme song together while dancing with umbrellas like Totoro, and at the end of the night we played her Nintendo DS together... tamogachi games for 6 year olds are fairly simple, I am sure, but when they are all in Japanese, and I am playing the roll of a babysitter who needs to feed the crying babies before the game ends and the screen goes black, it is a wee bit stressful. I got the hang of it, not to worry.
So the park/shrine/Buddhist churches that we went to were the same ones that Mama Cin went to 30ish years ago, and we saw pictures of her in front of this temple- of course, we took a picture in front of the temple too. There were Buddhas that were probably more than 20 feet tall. Overwhelmingly huge. But after we were done admiring the sights, we went to feed deer. This may seem like a very straight forward task. Not so. They are not afraid of people at all, which is endearing (ha- endeering) at first, but then its quite frightening... in my opinion. I will speak for myself, since Yoshi seemed to handle himself very well when stampeded by 5 deer who were jumping up to get the crackers in his hand and leaving traces of slobber on his jacket as they nibbled away on his clothing. Then it was my turn to feed them crackers, and I tried to hand them out as fast as I could, but it was as though the universe had created a funnel to draw them all to the crackers in my hand. Yes, yes, I did run away screaming, and yes, we did buy three more packs of crackers to have the same scary experience three more times, and yes, in retrospect, I loved it, even though I think I may now have a fear of deer that I didn't have before. At home, they will be more afraid of me than I am of them, so I wont be too worried.

Off to bed- waking up early to take a train to see a Takarazuka show (theater with only women in the cast). I probably won't understand any of it, but, as they would say in Japan- shikataganai. Not to worry.

Staying with the Nakagawas

2008-10-25T09:08:00.000-07:00

This is Denali. (aka Chiyo for my time in Japan). We have been staying with our relatives, the Nakagawas, Kumiko san and Tateharu san, and they have been amazingly welcoming. Every meal, they feed us and then feed us more and then offer us coffee, tea, juice, beer, umeshu (delicious... delicious- i highly recommend it), and then worry they haven't fed us enough. It is a sweet life, especially after trying to stick to $3-$4 meals every day. But the first day we were here with them, they came to pick us up at the JR (Japanese Rail) station and since we had never met them, they had a picture printed out of Yoshi and I that Mama Cin sent them hahaha. We had Italian food (Yosh had pizza with bacon and a hard boiled egg on it... interesting, eh? and I had pasta... boring), and I had the wise suggestion that Yoshi sneak paying the bill for lunch, but when Kumiko san realized what we were up to, she got legitimately mad, and since I was in between Yoshi and Kumiko san, I was gently (but firmly) slapped on the arm a few times. She ended up paying for it, and evvvverything after, every time we offer to pay, she tells us not to worry. While we are with her, she is taking care of us. I actually understand the majority of what she is saying, but it helps that Tateharu san speaks some English. He reminds us of our Grandpa, but one day I tried to tell him that, but with my limited Japanese vocabulary, I ended up saying in broken Japanese- You and my grandpa are like the same person. He said how so? I didn't know how to say "you have similar personalities and the way that we interact with you reminds me of the kindness he has" so instead I said "you are both happy men". It was a good try... but I think he was more confused than anything. We are also meeting looottts of family I didn't know we had! Its great! And everybody is so excited to speak English, if they know a little bit. Tateharu san took Yoshi and me to the Osaka Jo (Osaka Castle) and a few hundred kids were there on a field trip the same day, and they saw us and assumed we were English-speaking people (we stand out from the crowd... sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad. but this was a good time to stick out). So a five year old boy says "hello". and I was greatly surprised, so I said "oh, hello". then "eigo o hanashimasu ka?" which means- "do you speak english?" and he said "yes" so I said "what are you doing today?" he had no idea what i had said. so after repeating it in japanese, i asked "how are you?" and it was then a courtyard of surround-sound cutie pie japanese school children saying "i am fine thank you. and how are you?" amazing. its like they've been practicing it for years. i loved it. the museum inside the castle was interesting, but i cant read most japanese, so i pretended like i knew what i was reading. it was great. we also went to the osaka tower (its odd- we went to tokyo tower, kyoto tower, and osaka tower... we have only been to three japanese towns, and all three of them, we have been to the tops of their 360 degree view towers). oooohhhh how could i forget the best part of the osaka jo experience. tateharu san insisted that we make wonderful fools of ourselves by paying to have yoshi and i be even more touristy (if that's possible) by wearing ancient japanese helmets, coats, and holding swords. My helmet was adorned with huge golden deer antlers, and yoshis had big wooden spikes coming out of the back like a peacock. then the museum volunteer cleared out a huge pack of school kids in front of a tiger monument so we could have our picture taken. i was laughing so hard i cried. all the pictures, my face is glistening with water because im crying. it was amazing.

i realize now i didn't quite write about tokyo- ill do it now since I've got a few minutes. keiko san took such good care of us- we were always well fed (you would think we would have gained hundreds of pounds in these past few days, but we walk so much every day, I'm not too worried... actually, the other day i was talking to tateharu san and i said for lunch, i ate too much. he said one of two things. one of them being- you eat too much, so you become fat. or the other one being- when someone eats too much, they become fat... i just said *ah yes* so I'm going to assume it was the second one.) lisa san took us out clubbing, which was amazingly nice to be dancing until 5:30 in the morn. mari-chan was kind enough to give us her room. the kindness of the people we have met is remarkable. today a man gave us a bookmark as a present because we asked him for directions and he was happy to talk to us. also got mochi as a present from a mochi store. today got a box of tissues as a present for helping to clean a park. all we did was sweep up leaves. i wrote too much. i apologize. no need to read it all.
love denali

one week in japan thus far

2008-10-22T07:05:00.000-07:00

(Oishii mochi wrapped in seaweed-nori from breakfast-asagohan at Keiko's)

(kaiten sushi in kyoto)

(a day walking around seeing temples in kyoto)

(maid cafe advertisement - kawaii ne)

(6 story arcade in Akihabara)

(Shibuya crossing - I spy with my little eye, Yoshi in a blue shirt)

(I spy again.)

i have 15 minutes, about. i dont write in complete sentences sometimes, bear with it.i hate not speaking japanese. but when will i use japanese besides for japan. it sucks, oh well. went to roppongi, it was crazy. at night its so different, clubs are many levels, cover is not too bad, went with our friend lisa, who speaks fluent japanese and english, which was a blessing.went to shibuya, the huge famous crosswalk with a starbucks over looking which used to be the number oneseller of coffee in the world. went to akihabara, electronics world of japan, there they have maid cafes, where all girls are dressed as maids, as well as cat cafes filled with real cats, little sister cafes where all servers are little sisters not to mention there they have tantrum hour, etc. i dont think such a thing would survive in the stateswent to a drum and bass concert, the only place where i met someone taller than me. he was HUGE. some irish guy... i wonder how he fits through doorsstaying with keiko was a dream, since the whole family speaks english and are so ready to help us with whatever we needed.harajuku is odd, lotsa fun, the english on tshirts is great. we even saw one store which read fluits and vegetables.most people do not speak english, but want to help so bad. one guy went across the train station to read a map for us, while we stood by the train, and helps us on, another woman walked us to the hostel who we asked for directions since we couldnt find it.now in kyoto, a lot i couldnt remember, but the main most amazing thing are the toilets period.
yoshi

i only have 5 minutes left on my computer, but today we walked around kyoto and saw shrines in the rain, and yoshi used one of his few japanese phrases (do you speak english?) to make a friend on a hike to a shrine, and he ended up walking with us for 20 minutes and taking us to our train station. he walked from hokkaido to kyoto, which if you:re not looking at a map, its not that impressive, but after youve checked it out, thats amaaaazing. also, today (by the way, i have fallen in love with mochi even more so than before, which is alright, but costly... so worth it, though) i bought mochi after dinner (flavored blueberry and melon - oishii desu ne) and he gave me a present (presento) of two more, just for fun. i asked him why he was giving us a present and though i couldnt really understand his reasoning, im sure there wasnt much to it other than he just wanted to be a nice person. i love bowing to people to be polite, and then having bowing competitions to see who can be the most polite, and who can bow the lowest and the most. its crazy. oh- today, i talked to the nakagawas (our relatives who we have never met,but will be staying with them for the next four or five days in osaka) and they only speak japanese, and i actually had a successful phone conversation with them!!! i was so excited with the outcome, that i danced through the streets in the rain all the way back to the hostel to tell yoshi. they said i sounded like mama cin, (which is no surprise at allll, but super funny). lots of walking all day, but the subways are also lots of fun. but we have been saving a bit of money by walking more. also- had some very interesting sushi last night. we went to a sushi restaurant where i didnt know what i was eating, but it had the word "miso" at the end of it so i thought it would taste like soup.... not so at all. basically, itwas like somebody scraped up the bottom of the ocean floor and spooned it onto a cucumber. turns out it was crab brains i think... you live and you learn.

lovelovelove denali
only one minute left on the computer! bye.

First day in japan

2008-10-15T19:03:00.000-07:00

(a picture of the airport bathroom)

yo- quick update, since we:ve been here a very short time. staying at keiko`s, which is really nice, last night drank good sake and talked about the us economy. the toilets are ridiculous, with sprayers and gadgets and butt dryers and whizzbangers, all types of things. keiko:s toilet is heated which is sweet.
today made it to shibuya where the huuuge intersection is that has waves of humanity walking through it. pretty amazing.

denali- i took a panoramic picture of the airport bathroom... it even had a baby-holder on the wall. its amazing. went out walking this morning, and were walking against the sidewalk traffic of people going to work. we:re in an internet cafe right now and will hopefully find somewhere really delicious (and inexpensive) for a sushi lunch. won:t be too hard, im sure. weve been navigating around with our lonely planet a little bit, but weve been walking wherever we see interesting things, which has worked out well so far. this is the first full day in japan, and weve spoken to one japanese stranger who pointed to the internet cafe. our japanese needs a lot of work, so good thing keiko and her daughters, mari and lisa have great english speaking skills.

hope your all doing well sayonara

leaving hawaii

2008-10-13T21:41:00.000-07:00

Heyheyhey,
So this is our first blog, how exciting. Right now we're at chace's house on the east side of oahu. This is yoshi typing, I write in all lower case for the most part. And I'm not as interested in grammar and letter cases and stuff. chace says he's special. So I am having a good time so far, saw some real cool fishies when snorkeling and surfing at waikiki was small and fun, papa don impressed the locals with his amazing surfing abilities. Turtle beach had two huge turtles laying on the beach which was amazing to see. They did seem kinda slow though...
Tomorrow morning we leave for japan, hopefully all goes smoothly. Shout outs to my peeps, love and peace

Hello, now it's Denali. Mama Cin and Papa Don went home yesterday, after our week on Oahu with them for a lovely family vacation. We made good use of our snorkeling gear, and saw a huge array of fish, eels, and plenty of sea urchins. Our mom's good friend, Nancey, who conveniently lives in Waikiki was so sweet to take us in for a few nights and let us overtake the master bedroom even. She cut up fresh fruits of Hawaii each morning (dragon fruit, pineapple, papaya... not so much a fan of the papaya, but that's alright... star fruit, and on and on). She gave us rides to wonderful beaches in her Obama adourned car. On one of the nights, her daughter, Kim, gave me more than an hour's worth of Japanese youtube knoweldge and pointers for Japanese music, the best places to be going, and more. One of the days, we went on a hike with my mom's friends Joanne and Binny around Diamond Head to have a view of what seemed to be the majority of Oahu. The skyscrapers seemed so out of place next to such beautiful nature, when looking down on it from a bird's eye view. We got our tan on and played plenty of frisbee. (Longs sells frisbees for two dollars... a very wise investment, I must say.) It rained a little bit earlier on this morning, which made me feel like I was back in my summer travels to Costa Rica, but that ended after a short while, but the hills' fog still made them look like they were covered in cotton balls. My backpack is 45 pounds, but I suppose that's the same as giving a kid a piggy back ride, so it's all good. Today's the last day of having a cell phone for nine months. Skype might be happening in places where we can use internet cafes and friends' and families' computers, but other than that, we'll have this blog, email, and facebook to let the world at home know we're alive and happy. There will be plenty more to come on this blog that we'll be updating for the next 9 months and more. We'd love to hear what you're all up to as well, so please drop us a line when you get a chance. My email is denalig@gmail.com and Yoshi's email is yoshdizzle@gmail.com

lovelovelove
denali g