elephant friends: TWO of THREE.

dear you,
www.docsfoundationnepal.blogspot.com
i just got back from an short and amazingly sweet trip to chitwan national park!
it's south of kathmandu by a lot, making it much hotter and muggier there.
lila and i went together and stayed in a lovely place called the rhino residency.
i was really surprised at how nice it was.
i got my own room, and it was as nice as something i would expect to find in america.
the food was also amazing!
best quality place i've been to in nepal so far.
our first day, we walked around in the jungle for a bit with our guide, b.p.
we walked to a stables.
stables makes you think of horses, right?
WRONG.
elephants :)
there are a lot of elephants in chitwan that are used for tourist safaris, forest work, and police patroling.
best police job ever.
they build fires around the stables to keep the bugs away, which seems risky but it works.
the first night, we went to a program featuring the dances of the tharu people.
they're the native people from chitwan.
they were the only people who could bear to live there because they're malaria resistant.
fortunately, however, malaria was done away with in chitwan in 1960 or so.
i did have to get some mosquito repellant cream tho, since i swell up when they bite me.
the dances were really cool.
they used sticks and hit them together in cool patterns and danced until i thought they were going to die.
talk about a cardio workout!
there was one dance where they had a big peacock costume that they used for a mating dance thing.
the best part, tho, was the announcer.
he had the weirdest accent i have ever heard.
he was trying so hard to speak in english, but it wasn't working.
SO FUNNY.
he kept saying thenkoooo (thank you) :P
anyways, the next day was the highlight.
first on the docket was a dugout canoe ride.
b.p. pointed out a bazillion kinds of birds and whipped out his handy dandy bird book to show me.
he's really cool.
we saw a few crocodiles, which was exciting.
and a lot of elephants carrying happy tourists crossing the river.
it was beautiful.
from there, we walked around in the jungle some more and came out at the elephant breeding center.
fun fact about elephants: their gestation period is 22 months!
crazy.
there was a 10 day old baby there that was the most precious thing.
it kept falling over and struggling to stand back up again.
my heart melted.
there were two other young ones that were lose and roaming around.
of course, that's immediately where all the humans flocked to.
they were so cute. one was a little bigger so he could get over this low fence thing, but the little one couldn't.
he kept trying, but no luck.
then we went back to the hotel, and went to my favorite part.
i got to bath with elephants!
it was so fun!
they sprayed me with water and laid down underwater and i got to feed them bananas and lie on their backs.
it was a great moment.
there was this funny lady that was taking pictures and yelling,
"YOU LOOK LIKE A STAR DARLING! WORK IT!"
definitely one of the best things in my life.
i love animals.
lila always laughs at me cuz wherever we go, i pet whatever animal crosses my path.
do they have diseases?
probably.
i'll take my chances.
lila says that everywhere i go, i'll have a friend cuz i gravitate toward the animals.
not a bad thing, in my opinion :)
after the elephant bath, we went on an elephant safari through the jungle.
it was beautiful and you could hear so many birds!
we came to a clearing, and lo and behold, there was a mommy rhino and her baby!
they didn't seem to mind that there were like 15 elephants surrounding them.
they looked so small, but that was only because i was on an elephant.
they're definitely NOT small.
they look so prehistoric to me.
b.p. asked if we saw a tiger on our safari, but no, we didn't.
our safari was with a german couple from our hotel that we got to know during our stay.
lila is fluent in german since he used to live in germany, so they had a grand time 'spreckening' together :)
that night we saw a nice slideshow of all the animals in chitwan national park and how it came to be.
it used to be a hunting grounds for the king and his friends.
they're protected now, obviously, although there still is some poaching.
the third day, we packed up and took a bus to hetauda.
that's where the other orphanage and the street child rehabilitation center is.
there aren't many kids in this orphanage.
maybe like 11, cuz many have gone back to their homes.
docs still pays for their education tho.
the street kids center was really nice.
the boys were so nice to me and another german lady who was with us.
they gave us flowers and put tika on our foreheads when we arrived.
we came for a ceremony put on by local people who banded together to donate used clothes and shoes, as well as a lot of rice to the center.
they call themselves "the real life making movement"
cool stuff :)
we only stayed there til around 2, then took a jeep back to kathmandu.
it was a beautiful drive through the mountains, except for the fact that 4 of the 12 people in the jeep threw up.
in bags, out the window, you name it.
perfect.
but i won't let that spoil my memories of a wonderful trip.
so much fun was had :)
here come the pictures!
love,
me

happy :)

ten days old <3

kids in the orphanage in hetauda

former street ruffians. now loving boys.

our hotel in chitwan <3

recently: ONE of THREE.

dear you,
www.docsfoundationnepal.blogspot.com
i apologize for dropping off the side of the world.
a combination of laziness, busyness, and lack of a flash drive is my excuse.
but anyways,
last time we talked, i had just come back from trekking in poon hill, which was fabulous.
despite hobbling around like an old woman, i got to met a new friend the next day!
her name is kathy ruiz diaz, and she's been living here for around 2 years.
her husband is the anesthesiologist at scheer memorial hospital, where i went to church my first sabbath here.
a cool thing is that she graduated from MVA like i did.
small world.
it was nice to hear about all the things she and her daughter and her daughter's friends have been doing.
she has a blog, if you're interested.
www.himalayanhappenings.blogspot.com

*note: these events are probably not in chronological order because i have a horrible memory
i also got to go see the hunger games movie :D
AWW YYEEAAHH.
the theater was actually pretty nice, but very different.
there was an intermission, you have assigned seats, and the popcorn was just lightly salted, which i think is way better anyways.

i went with sudha, suvash, and suvash's brother, sudeep (spelling?)

indira and urusha took me to boudha, the biggest buddhist stupa in the world.
it looks exactly like all the others stupas, cept it's bigger.
it was nice :)

there were a lot of people meditating and praying on little wooden mat things.
that was just the beginning of the girliness.
a couple days later all four of us girls went out for some shopping.
i did the shopping, they helped me get the native rate, as opposed to the tourist rate.
scarves for 200 Rps.
LIKE A BOSS.
they made me drink this "soda" that just tasted like sea water.
so gross.
so i gave mine to matina :P
we bought a buttload of junkfood and had a lovely time stuffing our faces, while watching vampire diaries.
they're obsessed with that show.
i don't really like vampire stuff, but let me tell you.
it was way better than twilight.
i spent two nights with the girlies and got my fill of being girly :)

i did some more girly things with sudha too!
she bought some mehndi and doodled all over my foot.
it actually looks pretty good, in my opinion.
she and suvash came over for 3 days to celebrate a festival called dashain.
it's kinda like a end of the year reminder to pray and say goodbye to the old year.
she dressed me up in one her saris, which was fun.
it was actually one of the two saris she wore for her wedding!
i feel very honored to have been allowed to wear it.
they wanted me to have "tops", their name for earrings, but since i don't have holes in my ears they stuck the pointy part INTO my ear and clamped it around the back.
painful, but still way better than piercing my ears like goma keeps insisting i should do :P
we had a dance party in our saris and ate lots of food while looking fabulous, obviously.

get a load of the sky!

best attempt at a jumping picture.

BLING.

they also had a big puja ceremony in the house to say farewell to the old year and make sure all their sins from the year were forgiven.
they built a fire pit in the middle of the kitchen!
it was pretty tho.
goma also went over to the hostel and gave snacks and tika to all the kids.
they all looked to excited to get something cool like that :)

aftermath

and that is what i have been doing lately.
well, part of it.
the rest will come :)
don't you worry.
love,
me

panorama view.

dear you,
www.docsfoundationnepal.blogspot.com
let me tell you about my trekking adventure.
it's gonna be hard not to get ahead of myself because it was so amazing.
friday around 2 we (we being ramchandra, mati, urusha, and i) went on a 5 hour bus ride to pokhara.
we didn't do much there, except for finding our room and going to bed.
sabbath, we went to fewa lake so ramchandra and urusha could go to the temple.
the temple that's conveniently located on a small manmade island in the middle of the lake.
we should have churches like that.
we had to take a canoe to get there.
the view was already spectacular, and the trekking hadn't started yet!
the mountains (called mountains because they're snow-covered) are reflected on the lake for a double whammy :)
anyways, after some successful worshiping, we took a taxi to nayapul.
and that was where the trekking part started.
the first trekking day was more walking than trekking, although don't let that fool you.
for my out of shape body and lungs, it sucked.
it started out as a dirt road, turned into a dirt track, and then turned into stone steps.
going up.
we went up about 500 meters in 3 hours, which isn't impressive, but means we were tired.
and that was just the beginning.
but we were very happy when we reached our little lodge in tikhedunga.
fortunately for me, there were lots of mountain donkeys and horses that stopped outside our room for their meal.
so i of course went to commune with them :)
the next day was the killer day.
in 7ish hours, we climbed 1400ish meters.
-all you hikers out there, i know this isn't that awesome. but its my greatest accomplishment so far in my life, so don't hate-
the first 2 hours were just steps going straight up the side of the hill.
sabbath had just been walking along the valley floor to the point where we had to go up.
sunday was all about the burn.
there were a bunch of asians who were so funny!
one guy gave us candy.
well, what we thought was candy.
it turned out to be seaweed.
shoulda saw that one coming.
anyways, after trudging up the stairs we finally made it to the next phase.
jungle.
it was still hard, but less so because it was a dirt path up through beautiful trees.
there were lots of rhododendron trees in full bloom, which was gorgeous.
AND we saw little white monkeys running around in them!
that night we stayed in ghorepani, a little 'village' at around 2900 meters.
we were really worried because when we arrived, it was really foggy and we couldn't see any mountains.
ramchandra kept insisting the mountains were really close, but i couldn't picture it.
but when we went outside early the next morning, i totally got it.
they were right there!
we hiked for another hour and a half, trying to go fast to get to poon hill (our intended destination) by sunrise.
and we made it.
OH. MY. GOODNESS.
whoever determined that this is the 4th best viewpoint in the world should be given something nice.
it was EXQUISITE.
the pictures i'm going to post don't do it justice at all.
this is the part where i wish i had the nice nikon/canon/i'm a pro cameras.
our group, along with a canadian lady we met along the way on sunday, took a bunch of pictures together.
and i started a trend!
i suggested that we take jumping pictures, which caused a scene.
7 people jumping and yelling for cameras tends to do that.
but then a bunch of other groups started doing it!
i don't have those pictures yet because ann (canadian lady) has a nice camera that takes faster pics and she's going to email them to me.
but she went on to annapurna base camp, and won't be back for 8 extra days.
anyways, i got to call my parents from the top
-dude, how is there cell service at 3200 meters?-
and then we skedaddled all the way back to nayapul.
it took forever, and urusha barely made it cuz she's a city girl, but we did it.
but in birethanti (right before nayapul) i saw the most beautiful little girl EVER.
you'll see why when you get to the picture.
anyways, we made it back to pokhara, and then had to wait for the night bus.
which was horrible at first.
us 3 girls were squished into one and a half seats in the back of the bus.
but some people got off, so we eventually got our own seats.
kathmandu doesn't allow buses to come in before 5 am, so even tho we could have gotten there by like 2ish, we had to wait.
it sucked.
but that still didn't take away from how amazing the trip was.
the whole time i was thinking that God is so creative and just plain awesome.
to think of huge mountains covered in snow, jungles, rhododendron forests, river valleys, etc.
all in the same place.
God's a pro.
there are so many other little details that i want to write, but they're probably only interesting to me AND i'm excited to post the photos.
so i'll stop writing and let the pictures do the talking.
love,
me

fewa lake

tikhedunga

past the stairs of death and into the jungle. we got this.

nepali national flower: rhododendron

day 2 complete.

annapurna 1, annapurna south, fishtail

annapurna 1 is the world's 9th highest mountain, although from poon hill it looks shorter than other around it because it's farther away.

if you ever come to nepal and want to go trekking, go with ramchandra.
he's the best.

dhaulagiri: world's 7th highest mountain

they nicknamed us the 'vancouver girls'.

(left) annapurna south

beauty is in the eye of the beholder.