Magical, Mysterious, Majestic Mountains: The Trek to Annapurna Base Camp

October 29th, 2012 - Kathmandu, Nepal

Hello all!

It's Orion...attempting to cover the last two or three weeks of sheer excitement!  Here goes....it's gonna be huge.

Kathamandu and the Indian visa situation worked out much easier than we expected.  At the end of it all, we somehow ended up spending a week in the Thamel area, but we got a ton of other errands done too, which was fantastic, and lightened our baggage (literally).  We sent a parcel home full of gifts and goodies, which we found out recently that it actually made it!  Wonderful.  The visa place wouldn't actually give us our visas, but they took our paperwork and told us to come back on October 29th to pick them up.  It was easy going, especially with a few bribes to the officers so that we could skip the line.  Sneaky!

In Kathmandu, we decided that we were going to do a trek.  After a bit of research we decided on the Annpurna Sanctuary trek.  It's slightly shorter than the circuit, and more endearing to me especially because I LOVE getting right into the alpine.  Being at the base of Annapurna I, the 10th highest mountain in the world, only 800m less than Everest, seemed quite appealing.

We arrived in Pokhara with plans to leave the next day on a local bus to start the trek. We ended up leaving one day behind schedule because we needed to buy a bunch of mountain sanctuary climbing permits, and the office was closed on the first day. Regardless, we got everything sorted out and left without any issues. 

Another note of preparation: we don't have boots with us traveling, because who wants/needs boots when you're going to such hot countries?!  But regardless of how hot a country is, when you get up to 4000 meters, it's going to be cold and probably snowy.  However, I don't have sandals, I have CHACOS.  And Marina doesn't have sandals either, she has a toe protected open shoe made by Ahnu.  So we weren't too worried.  Chacos are the shit.  I love them.  And I'll be damned if I let a bit of cold and wet weather try to defeat my love for them!  Anyway, we tried on a bunch of boots in Pokhara just to see what was available, and they were all the worst thing ever, and like $30 which would be a total waste, and my chacos had 10x better soles and support and EVERYTHING than all of them put together.  So we asked an honest guy at one shop where Marina scored a real Mountain Hardwear 900 fill down jacket for $30 (another story for another time) what his opinion was, and he thought we'd be fine in sandals, as long as we had socks.  I said, "They're not sandals, they're Chacos," and then we bought a bunch of wool socks from him and headed for the Himalayas.

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DAY 1: Pokhara ( - Phedi - Pothana

           Hike time: 3hrs

           We got up at a reasonable hour, checked out, left our bags of things that we didn't want to carry with us (instruments included, sadly), and hopped on a local bus headed to the trailhead we had chosen, Phedi.  It was a little less than an hour, and we dismounted groggily from the crammed bus with difficulty to see a strip of a few restaurants in the middle of nowhere, with a steep stone staircase headed straight up the mountain.  We took a timing photo (we don't have watches, but our cameras have clocks), fixed my trekking pole that had broken in the first five seconds of its use with duct tape, and headed up the mountain.

Over the course of the day we walked up, and up, and up, hundreds (or thousands) of stone steps.  We rose from Pokhara's 800m altitude to Pothana's at 1900m.  We began to feel the familiar symptoms of mild Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) when we stopped for the night.  It was a good thing we didn't rise any higher.  Crazy that we get affected so much.  Marina's lucky because I always develop the symptoms first, and then several hours later it hits her.  She gets a bit of a warning so she can hydrate herself and prepare mentally.  But this was nothing like Leh; it was nice and mild, and we were acclimatized by morning.

"Trekking" in Nepal is definitely not roughing it!  Contrary to the backpacking that we're familiar with in Canada, you can actually get your cravings for delicious food fulfilled by the villages that dot the path regularly throughout the day.  No need to squat in the snow and stir a pot of gruel in the morning outside your frosty tent or igloo like we're used to.  You can get delicious yak cheese pizza, fresh apple strudel, or the classic refillable dal bhat, for a price.  And the prices keep rising.  The higher your altitude, the more you pay.  But everything's the same price, so you don't feel too bad about it.  The view of Machhapuchhre makes you forget about money pretty quickly.  Anyway, I'll get to the details in the summary of the next few days...

It was a short but fulfilling day. It sprinkled a little and we didn't get any views because of the clouds, but it felt good to get the muscles going.  The trek had begun!

DAY 2: Pothana - Jhinudanda

           Hike time: 6hrs, 40mins

           We woke up on mountain time, aka just after sunrise, feasted, and hit the trail.  We had garlic soup and lemon-ginger tea, which the locals claim is good for AMS, and we both agree 100%.  Several times over the course of our trek we felt the symptoms of AMS, had the faithful tea and soup, and felt immediately better.

The day was an epic journey of up and down savage staircases, with relative flats in between.  We stopped for an hour long lunch in Landruck which was a nice break for the knees and we enjoyed an amazing pizza.  The end of the day was that hardest, when we went alllllll the way down to the bottom of a valley, crossed the river, and then hiked straight up steeeeeep stairs for over an hour.  We felt triumphant at our pace setting skills when we crested the top of a staircase and saw the first guesthouse with the subheading, "Jhinu," in proud lettering.  

Jhinu, or Jhinudana, or Jhinudanda, is famed for the natural hot springs that are a 15 minute walk away.  We decided to skip them that night as our knees couldn't take any more pain, and hit them up the next morning right before heading out. 

The descent from Pothana was grueling, but we were rewarded with our first views of the mountains!  We only glimpsed them before it clouded over for the rest of the day, but the views brought shouts of, "Epic!" and, "Look at how BIG it is!" to our throats.  Through the ever-changing clouds, a savage snowy rock face rose impossibly high to an epic peak. It was humbling to know that the peak that we were craning our necks to see the peak of was at least five kilometers higher than we were standing.  We were in awe at the simple HUGENESS of it.  Amazing.

We also crossed several cable suspension bridges over rushing glacier rivers throughout the day, and saw many cascading, majestic, fountain-like waterfalls misting the picturesque rice fields.  The relative flatness was a gift to our knees at the river bottom. 

It was a successful day.

DAY 3: Jhinudanda - Bamboo

            Hike time: 6hrs, 30mins

            "The third day is always the worst."

I told this to our new friends from Seattle / San Francisco, America, Mindy and James over breakfast.  We had originally thought that they were from Vancouver, based on their accents and slang, but we were wrong.  Apparently the whole north-west coast time zone has pretty much the same manner of speech.  Makes sense. 

We were all sore, and had an even "sorer" day too look forward to, based on my statement above.  But in my experience, the new muscle starts building up on the third night, so the next day we had fresh legs to look forward to.  We parted ways, fully expecting to never see each other again, as is common while traveling.  Little did we know that we would spend almost every day on the same schedule through the rest of the trek and beyond, and would become good friends!  They started the hike to Bamboo after our unintentionally late breakfast, and Marina and I jogged down to the hot springs.

The hot springs are really more like warm springs, but in every other way they are ideal.  The symphony of jungle sounds along with the rushing river would make for a perfect "yoga-relaxation" CD.  As you sit in the beautiful slate tiled pools, it is easy to get lost in the peace.  The water wasn't hot enough for a life risking jump in the rushing glacier river a few steps away, but it was pleasant and infinitely soothing to the sore "day 3 muscles."  

And humans aren't the only ones who get to enjoy the natural heat!  A big pack of black-faced langur monkeys roam nearby.  We noticed them from a distance, and they approached at a gallop when signaled by their leader.  At first we were frightened and stood up to fight them off, but then we realized that they were totally wild monkeys and weren't dangerous; they just wanted to share the pools with us.  We retreated to the pool farther uphill so we could watch them, and they approached one by one and licked the green algae off the rocks in the warm water.  Most of them were too afraid to come close, but one big monkey, perhaps the leader, was brave enough to come within a few meters of us.  He kept looking up sketchily at us as he ate, but he was calm enough, and we took the opportunity to take a ton of photos.  Another monkey had a super young baby hanging on her belly, and the baby kept looking at us and screeched in such a terrified way. "Mommmmyyy! Run away! Scary humans! Wahhhh!"  It was quite cute. The mom ignored her baby of course; she knew she had nothing to fear.  Luckily people are nicer to animals in Nepal (unlike India) so they are protected by the locals at the hot spring, yet they stay wild.  It's really nice.  We enjoyed a private bath with the monkeys, then set out on the road again.

The hike started with the Chomrong stairs, a gruelingly steep uphill staircase straight up to the top of the mountain where the village of Chomrong sits.  It is one of the steepest parts of the trek...perfect for day three.  However, Chomrong is famous for its apple pie and chocolate cake, so we were rewarded handsomely when we reached the top.  We had a super long lunch and then, realizing that we still had four hours of hiking to go and that sunset was near, we set off at a fearsome pace.  Straight down again to the valley bottom, then straight back up, and three hours later we were at Sinuwa.  We almost stopped there, as we were quoted another 2+ hours by a few different people.  Instead, we kicked it into high gear and practically jogged the whole way to Bamboo.  We made it in one hour, helped by a family of seriously epic goats who allowed us to herd them for the last twenty minutes, and happily collapsed on our beds (we had four in this room for some reason, haha).

The price of food just kept on rising, but it's hard to put a price on a hot meal that will heal your pleading muscles. We had dinner with Mindy and James and hit the hay early.  Tomorrow we'd be headed to much higher altitudes.

DAY 4: Bamboo - Deurali

            Hike time: 4hrs, 15mins

            We rose 900m on this day!  We went from 2300m in Bamboo to 3200m in Deurali.  Pretty sweet.  The hiking time itself wasn't that long, but we were feeling the altitude symptoms a little again when we got higher, so we took it super slow and took a few breaks for GORP (Good Old Raisins and Peanuts - but embellished of course).  The path basically followed the valley and rose "slowly" up.  We were done with stairs pretty much!  We rose steadily, but it didn't feel as strenuous as the days before, partly because of the path and partly because of our new muscle, as I predicted.  Everyone said they felt stronger in the morning and throughout the day.

We broke the tree line and entered the alpine, which was a treat.  We crossed epic rivers originating from the snows above that shot off the huge cliffs as amazing waterfalls before crushing their way down to meet the river below us.  The flowers adorning the meadows were wonderful as always, and most of all, the sheer, insane, hugeness of the mountains around us blew our minds.  We could rarely see the big glaciated one because we were in such a steep valley, but even the "small" ones are gigantic and incomprehensible in their magnitude and power.

Thought from the day: "Why haven't these countries learned about insulation?!  The houses are concrete bunkers just like in Kathmandu or South India.  NOT ideal."

That night I went outside and blocked out the lights from the guesthouse and was blown away by the hulking black silhouettes ascending so high into the sky.  It seemed as though the mountains around me would meet at the top and enclose me in a giant cave.  To top it off, a sliver of a moon peeked out from wayyyy at the end of the valley.  Beautiful.

DAY 5: Deurali - Machhapuchhre Base Camp (M.B.C.)
           Hike time: 2hrs, 15mins

            We got to "Destination #1" on this day, the first base camp, and it made all the fog and sore muscles worth it a million times over!  The hike continued up the valley and we rose to 3700m at M.B.C., where we were rewarded with stunning early afternoon views (we took the opportunity of a short hiking day to sleep in and hang out for a while in Deurali).  The hike was beautiful as always, but uneventful.  At the top we found our friends Mindy and James waiting for us, who hadn't been so lazy in the morning, and we marveled together at the view.  On one side, Machhapuchhre rose like an immense arrowhead piercing the sky.  A sharp ridge descended from Fishtail's peak, crossing the sky and ending in a huge glacier.  On the opposite side, the beast of Annapurna South rose like a guiding light drawing you to Annapurna Base Camp.  The afternoon clouds were rolling in at this point and quickly obscured the views, but we caught mind-boggling glimpses of Annapurna South's peaks and ridges through the mist.

If we had had more time, climbing shoes would have been a necessity.  Awesome boulders of every shape and size scatter the long stretch of valley from the M.B.C. area all the way up to A.B.C., and it was sad to look upon them with no way of enjoying their shapes to the fullest.

DAY 6: Machhapuchhre Base Camp (M.B.C) - Annapurna Base Camp (A.B.C.)

            Hike time: 3hrs

            This was the longest it's ever taken me to hike such a short distance.  We stopped to take photos practically every ten meters, so by the time we actually reached A.B.C., the clouds were already setting in.  Along with the amazing views, I tweaked my knee clearing Annapurna I in one of the jumping photos about halfway up, so after that the going was even slower.

Wow... What can I say?  We were totally blown away by the surrounding peaks.  Up at A.B.C., you are actually fully surrounded by the hugest snow and rock walls imaginable; every direction you look there is another testimony to the puny-ness of humans and the sheer, indisputable power of nature.  

It snowed that night, and we were rewarded for our efforts at sunset by clear skies (it clouded over from 12pm-5ish as usual) and amazing golden red streaks of colour touching the tip of Machhapuchhre.

I stayed up late that night and took some night photography of the white mountains against the black earth, with the starry vault as a backdrop.  It worked out pretty well, considering that I was using random piles of rocks as a tripod.  Night time is one of my favourite times in the mountains, when the snowy faces glow against the dark background.  So beautiful.

DAY 7: Annapurna Base Camp (A.B.C.) - Himalaya

           Hike time: 5hrs, 15mins

           We woke up super early on this morning to see the sunrise at A.B.C., which is one of the "things you have to do!" while you are there.  It was amazing, and cold, and we filled our camera cards and killed our batteries quickly.  We ended up staying up there until 11:30am, when the clouds rolled in, before we resigned to hiking down.  It was a wonderful morning to chilling out, enjoying the INSANE views and getting a chaco tan in the alpine meadows.  We took a little VLOG in the morning showing the full panorama as well.  It's on youtube here http://youtu.be/cBqF_9dvDT4 .

The hike down was grueling as usual, and especially brutal because of my still injured knee.  Luckily Marina reikied me every 30mins or so, which helped SO MUCH.  My knee healed perfectly from an injury that normally would have taken 4-5 days in only 3.  I'm sold.  I decided that I'll probably get reiki level 1 as well so that I can treat my knee every day and help it to heal once and for all.  I'm stoked.

DAY 8: Himalaya - Chhomrong

            Hike time: 5hrs?

            We got up early and descended out of the alpine into the jungle.  It was another joint-killing day, but we made it okay and collapsed at the Chhomrong Cottage, where Didi (the owner) is famed for her chocolate cake (it was written up as "the best chocolate cake" in Time Magazine).  We met Mindy and James there, and when we saw the rooms and had some cake, we decided to stay an extra day.  Why not?  We were both ahead of schedule, and Chhomrong was such a nice place with amazing views of Annapurna South, Hiunchuli, Annapurna III, and Machhapuchhre, from left to right.  It was definitely a good call.  We had hot showers and three of us agreed that it was actually the BEST shower we had ever had in our lives (Marina and I hadn't showered in a week due to being freezing cold all the time).  James wasn't as thrilled as the rest of us, but he had had a shower the night before, so his opinion wasn't from the same viewpoint.  It was a glorious occasion.

DAY 9:  Chhomrong - Chhomrong

             Hike time: 0hrs

             This day we just relaxed!  Wow. Not having to wake up super early to hike was wonderful.  We spend the day hanging out with Mindy and James, watching Didi and her crew cook their AMAZING food (They make the BEST lasagna, pizza, burritos, and cake of course. And probably everything on the menu we didn't try. They even make the noodles for the lasagna! And they do everything so creatively, without needing an oven! Ex: They steam the lasagna to cook it. And the cake. Crazy.) and trying to learn what we could.  We loved every minute at Didi's cute "little" cottage (she has 30 rooms or something, but it feels like just a few).  

DAY 10: Chhomrong - Ghandruk

             Hike time: 3hrs, 30mins

             This morning we woke up intending to go back the same way we came in to the Sanctuary, through Phedi, but Didi wouldn't allow us!  She basically said that we had seen that view before, can showed us another route.  Pretty cute.  Then, just as we were about to leave, she came out with a piece of cake for us to share as a farewell gift.  She's so nice!  We were already stuffed, but split between the four of us we had no trouble getting it down.  It's such good cake. 

The hiking day was easy enough, because the trail was less used, which meant that it was less stairs.  It was more like a washed out trail in BC, and went down to the valley bottom, then straight up the other side, then down again to Ghandruk.  It rained on us as we were going up the big switch backs which was actually really nice.  Ghandruk is a huge village, and we were quite culture shocked!  We found a nice guesthouse for a third cheaper than everything so far, which was nice, and had a chill evening.  

DAY 11: Ghandruk - NyaPul - Pokhara

              Hike time: 4hrs?

              Bus ride time: FOREVER

We woke up this morning to amazing mountain views and soft Tibetan music drifting lazily from the nearby monastery to our room.  The sunrise was worthy of a photo-sesh, even after having seen the mountains up close in all their glory. 

The hike down wasn't anything special, and we ended up hiking on a dirt road for a lot of the way.  At least it was flat; our knees were grateful.  

When we arrived at NyaPul, we hopped on a local bus that ended up being the craziest and longest ride EVER to Pokhara. At first we were standing on the inside of the bus, but after no time at all the bus stopped for a food break for way too long.  We headed for the real local ride - the roof.  Finally the bus left again, with all of us "securely" sitting on the roof.  It was hilarious.  We had beautiful views and fresh breezes, and the cherry on top was a group of insane village women whooping and yelling throughout the entire journey.  They had some kind of bizarre mating ritual going on; whenever they saw men working in the fields around the bus, they would call out in this screechy blend between baby birds begging for food and squawking seagulls.  At was so weird.  At one point we stopped as we went around a super sharp corner and a guy was standing at a tea shop; the girls went crazy.  As we left, the guy threw his entire remaining packet of cookies at the bus.  In a cacophony of squeals and laughter, everyone tried to catch the cookies as we sped away.  It was so funny.  Marina and I scored a cookie and enjoyed it along with the cool breeze.

I took a video of the madness.  It had died down a little at this point, but it gives you an idea. Here's the link http://youtu.be/OG5bzdfoofA .

We finally made it to Pokhara after more bus madness involving the police kicking the girls off the roof (everyone else had complied earlier when the bus guy told us that we were going through a police checkpoint) and holding us at the side of the road forever.  It's one of the many experiences traveling that you'll never fully understand.  I have no idea what really was happening... BUT we made it finally, got a hotel, got our bags that we had left behind, and collapsed in the garden of Hotel Elia, Pokhara.  We were back! 

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The mountains were so amazing, and despite stretching our budget, it was worth it a million times over.  I feel so at home there, and being right in the midst of those gigantic beasts was so humbling and powerful.  I'm making a resolution to spend as much time in the Rockies as I can when I get back home.  Sometimes I take the Canadian mountains for granted, and I intend to change that. 

Sorry if this email is too long.  Take a few days to enjoy it fully.  It also might not make total sense all the time because I wrote it over the course of several days, so forgive me if some of my descriptions are too similar or something!  Wow, I have to say I'm glad to have it done.  We'll definitely try to be more consistent from now on (although we had no choice, being in the mountains)! 

Now is a time for hanging out with friends!  Mindy and James are meeting up with us again in Kathmandu tomorrow, and then our friends Shauna and Daniel from our home town in Canada are coming the day after, and then my parents arrive a few days after that!  And during this entire time, Jazzmandu is happening here, which is a huge jazz music festival.  Life is good!  We had some complications with our Indian visa so we're going to leave India after one month with my parents to a totally new country!  We're thinking somewhere where there are beaches and surfing....... Bo pen yang!

Peace and love from Nepal!

Orion (& Marina)

21 Days in Pokhara

October 7th, 2012 - Kathmandu, Nepal

Hello everyone!!!

  My my it sure has been a long time.  Hmmmm..  Where did we leave off...  Ah yes!  Pokhara.

  So Pokhara... We ended up staying there for 3 weeks.  3 WEEKS!  Even we were surprised when we realized how long it had been.  What can we say?  We found a good place and got sucked in!  Perhaps it is part of our human nature to settle when we find comfort.

  And we did find comfort!  We had the BEST food (and cheapest) in all Pokhara, an amazing homely room, our own porch and front lawn with a view that took no trouble getting used to: a shimmering, crystal lake and towering, gleaming mountains. Every morning the cooler air would lift the monsoon clouds and the mountains would glow pink from the sunrise and we would just sit outside and feast our eyes.  Then after our eye feast, we would feast our stomachs with Dal Bhat.  Dal Bhat is the traditional Nepali meal that EVERYONE eats all the time.  It is rice, dal (pressure cooked lentil soupy amazing thing), curried vegetables, and a raw vegetable salad of some sort.  Our hotel owner, called Maila, made us amazing dal and curry, and supplied us with fresh sliced cucumbers and carrots and steamed juicy spinach, all freshly picked straight from his garden!!!  Organic!!  The spinach was so amazing.. when we ate it the juice would dribble down our chins.. YUMMMMMMMM.   We still miss that meal everyday.. 

  Anyway a few more things happened in Pokhara besides relaxing and eating, I swear.  We were just healing up our fresh tattoos, and getting what most people with multiple tattoos seem to get: an addiction.  Heh...  We were brainstorming and imagining what ELSE we could get and where and we were all excited.  And then, I will tell you a story to disprove any of you doubting in your believe of the Law of Attraction.  So here we are talking about tattoos and getting super excited and wanting more SO BAD when we just happen to run into a group of people on the street with the sweetest freakin tattoos EVER.  They were so awesome that we walked past them, then turned around and went back just to tell them how sweet their tattoos were.  It was a group of 5 or 6 people and they had all tattoos that sort of matched and were actually the best we had ever seen.  They said they had all got them done by the same guy!  He was visiting Pokhara apparently and tattooing alot of people.  "Well that's cool," we thought and continued on our way, and soon forgot all about it.

  Then the next time we were in town we ran into some friends we had a met in Kathmandu.  We were stoked to see them and they invited us to come to this open mic jammy blues bar with them that night, so we went.  It turned out their group of friends were the same people with all the sweet tattoos, AND there were more of them.  Probably like 10 or more people all hanging out in a group, all with the BEST TATTOOS EVER.  One girl had this aaammaazziinnggg design up her whole back and then down one arm.  I wanted one...  We inquired to a few people about the tattoos.  They said the artist was very specific in that he liked it to be HIS design and he was difficult to work with, as well as the fact that he didn't speak any English.  They also said he used only 1 tiny needle in his tattoo gun which made it like 3x as painful.  (Normal tattoo artists use needles with like 9 or more tiny needles on the end.)  We decided that this mysterious man, although amazingly talented, was not for us.

  That night at home I couldn't stop thinking about it!  And I suddenly decided that I changed my mind and I did want a tattoo.  We had no idea if he even had time to do us, and we only knew his hotel, but none the less we set out the next day to try and find him.  Once I had a made up my mind that I wanted a tattoo, Orion realized that he too wanted one!!! He had a bit more of a plan than me, but we were both very open.  We met with the artist and his family by sheer chance and they agreed to tattoo us in a couple days' time.

  So that was that!  I got a "smallish" henna design on my lower back.  Its BEAUTIFUL.  So beautiful in fact, that as soon as he finished and I looked in the mirror, I asked if he had another day's time and decided to get it extended up onto my shoulder!  And now its done!  I'm so happy with it!  He did the whole thing free hand, just drawing out a few things to map on my back using a child's felt marker.  And it hurt.  SO MUCH.  In total, my tattoo took almost 9 hours (split up in 2 days thankfully).  When he did my upper back it was actually the most painful thing I've ever experienced, and I'm not even exaggerating!!!  But as soon as I looked in the mirror, it was worth it!  I can't wait to post some pictures to show everyone.

  Orion got an amazing sun on his shoulder with "prana" (life force) in sanskrit in the centre.  The sun is completely made up of geometric designs and patterns and it's so complex and detailed and AMAZING.  I shall explain a bit about Mau (pronounced like Mow) and his art.

  His calls his business "Spiritual Tattoo," and every pattern and shape he incorporates into his designs is from some ancient culture or other and has a spiritual significance.  Geometry tattoos, like Orion's, are full of detailed and tiny shapes and patterns.  Every single pattern has a meaning and an explanation and a place it is from.  Some are protection symbols for self or family, some represent different aspects of evolution, some tell a story, and more.  A geometric tattoo, therefore, does not only LOOK like it's from some ancient tribal culture, it IS!  And that makes the art that much more special.  In order to gain knowledge about all these different symbols, Mau, who is originally from Chile, traveled the world and studied different peoples of the past and present.  For example, Orion has these cave symbols in his tattoo that tell a story and offer protection.  They are from an ancient tribe on Easter Island.  In order to learn how to write with these characters, Mau literally hiked out to the caves and copied the symbols off the walls that he found, until he was able to read it, like a language.  HOW COOL. 

  He has a wife named Maria from Sweden, and they have two kids together.  Though Mau only speaks Spanish, Maria speaks Swedish, Spanish, AND English, and she translates very efficiently.  That way it wasn't actually that hard to communicate what we wanted.  Mau has two epic dreadlocks for a beard on his chin that are so long they reach his hips!! CRAZY.  Their kids are only about 5 and 8 and they're fluent in English and Spanish and know a fair bit of Swedish.  Genius children!  The whole family lives in Pai, Thailand where Mau has set up his business.  They lived in Goa, India as well for around 6 years with a business set up there.  They travel to other countries sometimes (like they did to Nepal) to explore a bit and spread the business.  Its so easy for them, because as soon as anyone sees one of Mau's tattoos, they ask, "WHERE DID YOU GET THAT?!?!" followed by, "How can I get one?"  Hence us being convinced to get tattoos after seeing all those people with the amazing tattoos at the bar!  Maria likes to jam and play music and we hung out with their family a bit when we weren't getting tattoos by going to little restaurants and bars to jam.  Mau is the quiet artist type and prefers to sit with the kids.  All in all they are AWESOME people and we enjoyed getting to know them.  We are SO HAPPY with our new tattoos!!

  So after that, we retreated back up to our hotel again to heal yet AGAIN.  But FIRST we found out a certain event and bought tickets, not knowing at ALL what to expect.  The event was called "Psychedelic Travelers Gathering!"  It appeared to be a RAVE for travelers!! See, if this was back home, as soon as I saw that, I would know it was amazing, and wouldn't hesitate to buy tickets.  But this isn't home, this is Nepal.  And who KNOWS if they even understand what a rave should be like.  And who knows if I could even be free enough to dance without pressure from creepy local men.  But the thing I miss most about home that never gets satisfied from traveling is dancing at hippie gatherings, and I just couldn't bear to pass up a potential chance for that, even if it could all turn out to be nothing.  

  So fast forward a week and its time for the festival weekend.  We show up at the meeting point and are pleasantly surprised to find a lot of other hippie type travelers waiting, as well as our same friends from Kathmandu.  We hopped on the buses, and after a very carsick ride, they dumped us at a random gas station in the middle of nowhere.  We were very confused.  Then some jeeps showed up and it was clear we were supposed to get on them, so we did.  The jeeps took off, and next thing we knew we were turning off the highway onto a dirt road.  Then we started off-roading...  So we were all clinging on for dear life and driving straight up a mountain, when we reached a random Hindu temple built in the middle of nowhere really, surrounding by a ton of locals and screaming children.   There was no stage, no tents, no field, no nothing.   We unloaded none the less, and they told us to set up camp on this random plateau next to a stinky swamp.  So we started taking out our tents that we had rented for the occasion, but suddenly they yelled at us to stop.  So we were NOT supposed to set up camp here...  We were so confused, but we put our tents away again.  FINALLY a random traveler who happened to speak Nepali got a somewhat clear story.  This was the "chill stage" (though there was no stage) and the "Main Stage" where we were going to be camping and where everything else would be was at the TOP of the mountain.  Like actually at the TOP, and apparently it was a 2 hour hike away.  We were supposed to wait down here for "only a hour" for them to get set up, and then jeeps would drive us up the rest of the way.  We became almost MORE confused.  Why was there a separate stage if it was TWO HOURS away from the campsite and main stage?!?  Who the HELL would hike down there?  And why couldn't we just go up there now and set up camp?  Why did we need to wait down HERE?  Some people got frustrated and impatient and decided to hike up the hill anyway.  The locals promptly chased the down yelling "HEY! STOP!" or something similar in Nepali if they spoke no English.  Most of the travelers were rounded up and forced to return but some escaped.  In the mean time they had set up a very thorough beer tent with a freezer and SO MUCH BEER.  We became more confused.  If we were camping so far away, who would want to walk that far just to buy a beer?? We let it slide for now, and decided to go with the flow.  FOUR HOURS LATER we were still waiting, spread out in the shade reading or sleeping or some people pulling out the drugs already.  Some of the travelers who had escaped and made it up the mountain returned and told us there was nothing up there at all, so they had decided to come back down.

  EVENTUALLY after who knows how long, the first jeep took the first group of people up the mountain.  We got on the second.  The ride was terrifying.  If I thought the way to the first camp was off-roading, then I don't know what one would call the second stretch.  It was switch back after switch back, and they were sooo narrow that the jeep couldn't make the turn in one go.  Often 3 point turns were necessary, which was terrifying because an inch further and we'd be falling off a cliff.  At one point we got stuck mid turn and the jeep ALMOST tipped.  We were stuck at like a 45 degree angle for a moment of terror and then we accelerated to relative safety.  When we finally reached the top, we were short of breath and white knuckled.  A couple people applauded the driver, haha.  So we set out to look for a spot to camp.

  Unfortunately the mountain had to be carved out to make room for the festival.  We went to the camping site which used to be jungle until someone had gone through it with a machete to hack it to pieces.  It didn't make it any more campable stupidly.  It just made it a jungle with alot of short trees.  TERRIBLE planning #2.  We managed to find a little cliff with bumps that were only huge instead of ridiculously huge with thorns.  We put the tent up and shuffled it around trying to find a flat spot.  We didn't, and gave up, choosing a huge lump in the lower back rather than a huger lump in the neck.  Then came the dancing!

  DANCING.  Oh how I love Thee and give thanks for Thine existance!  Oh how Thou dost fill mine soul yearnings with joy!!  But actually. Within the first SECONDS of dancing, the music pounding and crazy lights flashing, all the craziness and disorganization of the festival fell away and it was GLORIOUS.  After my complaints of restraint in the rigid Muslim city of Srinagar, there I was wearing a TANK TOP and a flowy skirt and spinning around and feeling wonderful.  I was and still am truly grateful. :)

  All that said, and my gratitude expressed,  I will offer a few complaints, mostly for comedy's sake
. 
  First of all, the music was all trance.  Trance is pretty good actually, but there is a fine line and I find, for my taste, it can be overstepped easily.  Trance music is a continual throbbing bass 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4, etc that continues constantly without ceasing for the entire song (or entire night for this occasion).  That is all fine and dandy as long as the rest of the song is interesting enough with enough changes and breakdowns and what have you.  But often, the darker side of trance is expressed, which I find slightly soul sucking.  The thumping duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh on every beat continues but with NOTHING else added on top of it except a few terrifying sounds.  Sometimes demons talking, or weird echoing and screeching and creaking, like a typical haunted house soundtrack, even a few screams!  We fled to our tent to escape these songs.  SENDING LOVE to the AMAZING DJs we have become so used to back home.  GRATITUDE. And that said, we were grateful for the music.  At least it wasn't the screeching, shreeking voices and wailing terrible synthesizers of the low budget "traditional" music of India and Nepal, or the horrid repetitiveness of the soul-less cover bands of Kathmandu and Pokhara.

  Secondly, although the festival was 90% travellers, and our hippie festival culture strongly overwhelmed their conservative opressed feminism culture, there was still a few crowds of Nepali men ready to creep hard.  The cultural barrier.  Women expressing themselves freely through dance is something quite foreign to most Nepali men (and to ALL Indian men I swear.. Nepal is muccchhhh better in that respect than India).  Many a time I would have my eyes closed, lost in the dancing trance and moving freely to the music, only to open my eyes and find a literal WALL of Nepali men surrounding me, a beer in one hand, the other hand in a fist and pumping the sky (and often holding a cigarette), all watching with that terribly creepy smile on their faces.  YUCK.  A slight buzz kill.  In those cases I was infinitely grateful for Orion, who would let me drag him to dance in whatever spot he was most needed to act as a barrier between me and the creepy men.  And he would stare and them and dance uncomfortably close at them and they would be scared away.  VICTORY!  What a guy!

  So it was no Komasket or Fandango or whatever, but it was FUN and we had a really FUN time. We met a super sweet Canadian guy from Quebec named Philippe, who told us about, and showed us pictures of, this AMAZINGLY sweet week long music festival on the border of Quebec and Ontario in August.  So we want to be there for it next year. :)  It's called Open Mind Festival.

  Anyway so after the festival we hopped on the roof of a ridiculously full jeep and somehow made it safely down the mountain and onto the local bus back to Pokhara.  The ride down the mountain on the jeep was sooooo fun!  I got to lounge so epicly on this towering pile of bags, and duck when branches whipped by and cling on when we almost tipped on every switchback, and hold on to other people's bag to keep them from flying off the jeep.  FUN.  So back in Pokhara we retreated to our favorite home for 2 nights and then headed off to Kathmandu where we are now.

  I forgot to mention one thing!  I've been giving a lot of thought to what I want to do with my life. YES!  Music is definitely one thing!  Fear not, lovely people.  But I also have a lot of interest in energy healing, natural medicine, those types things, and randomly, WHALES.  I LOVE whales.  Not sure of any careers that incorporate all those things, so I decided to focus only on the first two first.  So I read a book on Reiki and decided I wanted to get it.  Yet another attribute to the powers of the Law of Attraction, after finishing the book, I just so happened to meet a Reiki "Master" (the name for someone who has been initiated into all 3 levels of Reiki.. Does not mean they're enlightened or a guru or anything silly.. It just means they can initiate other people) and got initiated to Reiki Level 1! So now I can successfully channel the Reiki energy for healing of myself and others and even objects like broken electronics or sad plants or whatever.  I've done a few treatments on Orion who said he can feel the energy and everything, which is sweet because it means I'm not just imagining it, and who promptly gets so relaxed as to start snoring.  The whole thing seems very relaxing!  When we get home I hope to have Reiki 2 and a few other courses and things under my belt.  My DREAM is to be able to get a job doing these things and be done with the world of crappy low paying jobs FOREVER!  I'm thinking of getting my Yoga Teacher Training right now, but it is very expensive, so it depends on my some school funds being available or not.  We shall see!!

  Anyway so we are now we're back in Kathmandu, getting our Indian visa sorted out for our re-entrance to India in November.  Exciting!  After this, if there is time we hope to do some sort of trek in the Annapurnas.  But we've begun to accept there may not be time because apparently you have to wait quite a bit for the visas to get sorted out, and I want to take a course or two at this Naturopathy centre we found, but we shall see.  Who knows what will happen. :)

  So we are sending love and gratitude to all you brilliant beings shining your lights back home.  And on this Thanksgiving we urge you all to think of things that you are grateful for!!  We tend to overlook this, yet when we do it, it makes our life TEN TIMES BETTER.  So here's a challenge:  Grab a pen and paper.  Write down, without stopping, for 10 minutes, things that you are grateful for.  It can be the smallest things or the biggest things, it doesn't matter.  Then reread your list and feel how HAPPY it makes you feel.  Then smile!!  That's it.  :)

PEACE, LOVE, OM,

Marina (and Orion)

Inked

September 13th, 2012 - Pokhara, Nepal

Hello all, from Nepal!

Orion here. Sorry for neglecting you for so long; we've been busy, but we haven't forgotten you!  Here's the latest update...

We arrived in the beautiful country of Nepal without a hitch, and were instantly blown away by all of the subtle yet mind-melting differences between where we had come from and where we now were standing.  First of all, where had all the garbage gone?  Even in dirt-bag border towns, the streets were suddenly cleaner, and the rivers and streams nearby weren't even polluted!  Secondly, all of the angry staring had completely disappeared.  People might glance at us curiously, maybe even hold the look for just a second too long (in Western standards), but then they would look away and continue on with their business.  Quite the opposite of the intimidating and heinous blank stare of death that we had become accustomed to in India!  The air seemed "lighter."  We loved it from the first second. 

After crossing, we took a bus to Lumbini, the birthplace of the Lord Buddha.  We were once again surprised as we dismounted from the bus and not one tout approached us.  We had arrived in a tiny town with one short strip of hotels and restaurants, and that's about it.  We quickly found a reasonably priced guesthouse and passed out after the long and excessively hot day.  

The next day we visited the actual birthplace of Gotama the Buddha!  Backed up by tons of archaeological evidence, it is basically certain that this is where he was born.  It was a nice garden area with the ancient temple where he was born, and even the sacred pool and tree under which his mother bathed before (Or was it after? I forget. Or both?) his birth.  The energy in the area was so peaceful, and we meditated in the thousand year old temple for some time.  There is also an ancient stone pillar that was placed there by the famous King Ashoka thousands of years ago.  It was pretty unexciting to look at, but King Ashoka was legit, so it's good to see that some of his "art" is still around.

While we were in Lumbini, we contacted Mohan's Tattoo Inn in Kathmandu and booked appointments for both of us.  We found them online and they looked great, so we went for it.  Mohan is world famous, and they use all of the best equipment and all that at their shop.  After appreciating Buddha, we left for Kathmandu.

Kathmandu is not what we expected at all.  It is described in our Lonely Planet as a dusty, large, overwhelming and dirty city, but seeing as we had just come from India a few days ago, we didn't notice even one of those things.  It is a city smack dab in the middle of a bunch of rolling hills and valleys, and it is wonderful to look at.  Instead of the bleak, smoggy flatness that is characteristic of so many big cities, the hills and jungliness was a nice change.  We got a local bus to Thamel, the local tourist hub, followed a tout touting instruments, hashish, treks & tours, and luckily cheap hotels, and found a fantastic little room flooded with sunlight exactly where we wanted to be.  That night, after an epic rain storm (it's the monsoon in Nepal right now), we went to Mohan's and although our official appointment was booked for the next day, we walked out freshly inked and aching.  I got an om right in the middle of my palm, and Marina also got an om, though slightly more complicated, on her forearm.  I didn't know it at the time, but apparently the palm is one of the most painful places on the human body that can be tattooed.  I realized this more and more as I was healing, when hard men covered in tattoos head to toe would come up to me asking to look at it and say, "Fuck man! Didn't that hurt?!"  It's also a bit of a sketchy spot, as the palm is made up of dead skin cells.  To remedy that, the artist used dots with a needle instead of the usual "scrape and fill in" method.  As a result, he went as deep as the needle could go, hoping that the ink will stay better that way.  According to him, it should work.  The scabs are just starting to fall off today, and it's been about 2 weeks since I got it done.  It was savage, but worth it. If it fades a little over time  I can always get it gone over in the future.  Marina's om looks as pretty as the day it was done.

In the healing time we did a lot of shopping in Thamel, enjoying seeing all of the clothes from the hippy stores in BC right in front of us in their original location (and at their original prices!).  I also learned to write with my left hand, and do everything else with it too.  And the best thing of all?  LIVE MUSIC.  The biggest and best difference between India and Nepal is that the Nepalis APPRECIATE MUSIC!!!  Wow.  What a revelation.  Every night in Thamel, pretty much every bar has a live band.  It's amazing.  Unfortunately, we were soon jaded and dissapointed because 90% of the bands played only covers.  One time we walked into a place that was empty, but the bands was seriously rocking to an amazingly tight funk jam.  Open mouthed and unbelievably happy, we sat and watched them until the song finished.  Then we heard, "Song...mm...what..play,,who..song..." and we knew it was over.  They had seen two white people walk in (us), and immediately launched into a fantastic rendition of "Summer of '69."  We left before the intro was done.

But good music does exist also!  We saw a crazy funk-jazz fusion band shredding one night, and that was definitely top quality.  We also saw a ridiculous WOMAN sitar player playing with an amazing tabla player and an out-of-this-world wooden flute player.  Traditional music, but with a lively and very contemporary and zesty approach. We loved it. When we go back to Kathmandu to get our Indian visas renewed, we'll know a little more about how the schedule works, and how to find the real music.  Regardless, the fact that musicians are getting paid to play live is a step in the right direction.

After a few days we got the tattoo fever again.  We now had artists and a shop that we trusted, and we had a few more ideas, so we went for it.  Marina got an amazing lotus on her neck done by the Great Mohan himself, and I undertook the 10 hour ordeal of getting all seven chakras tattooed on my spine, all the way up to the crown chakra on the crest of my newly shaven head.  Marina's hurt much more this time, as Mohan's style is to gouge.  Watching him work was amazing - truly a zen master.  After she was done Vivek started on mine, and he proved to be a master as well.  For 10 hours he worked without a break on one of the hardest things a tattoo artist can do - perfectly straight lines and symmetrical designs.  He did it flawlessly.  A testimony to his brilliance is as follows: While he was working on the 6th tattoo, Marina asked him how he was feeling, expecting him to want a break after such a long time.  His response? "I'm excited to start on the next one!"  He didn't show even a little bit of fatigue and didn't even eat or drink anything the whole time.  He was in his artist's element - pure inspiration and excitement.  We only took a few 5 minute breaks to look in the mirror and for me to take a sip of water, and rather than relaxing, he inspected his previous work and sat waiting for me to be ready to go.  It was a joy working with him and I always felt safe and happy under his blades.  It's nice being comfortable with the person who cuts you open and pours ink into the wounds.  At the end of it all he gave me an insane deal and wouldn't accept the whole payment.  He only charged me 13000 NRs when it should have been 20000 NRs.  Such a good guy!  I bought him three books as a gift after the fact.  He expressed an interest in meditation, so I bought him two books on that (knowing that it would be an amazing asset to not only his life, but his profession) and one on the chakras, so he could understand a little more fully what he had been working on for so long.  For the chakra tattoos, I put myself into a little trance to make time go by quickly for me, and to remove pain.  It worked!  I only gasped two or three times during the whole session, and then I just told my subconscious to go deeper and that fixed it.  It also helped that I had gotten a palm tattoo a few days before, as the comparison between the palm and normal skin made it seem like nothing.  My head was so itchy after being shaved that the needle actually felt like a good scratching.  I let him take some creative liberty in the moment of doing the crown chakra, and I'm glad I did.  All of his suggestions throughout the process were amazing ideas and I'm glad I followed his wisdom. 

We healed for a day or two, and then headed off to Pokhara, where we are now!  We are staying across the lake and halfway up a mountain covered in dense jungle.  Our guesthouse owner is a fantastic host and a great guy, and he helped us carry our bags when neither of us could put anything on our backs due to the healing tattoos.  The view from our room is of a beautiful lake surrounded by steep foothills, and towering above it all is the Himalayan Annapurna Range.  It's amazing how high a land mass can reach into the sky!  Triangular, snow covered glaciers, poking through the clouds making you crane your neck up to see the tops of the majestic range. It's insane. Most of the time the mountains are covered because of the monsoon right now, but every once in a while we get a literally breathtaking glimpse of the splendor.  I LOVE THE MOUNTAINS.  Here is a little view from the lake's edge, where we moor our boat when we go into town.  You can imagine how much better it is from our hotel room halfway up the hill.  http://nepalaustralia.com.au/userfiles/images/Fewa%20Lake%20Pokhara%20Nepal.jpg

We're just enjoying the peace here for now, and we might get tickets to a rave music festival happening in the woods around here at the end of the month.  Besides that, we're just planning out what treks we might like to do, playing music, reading good books, and filling up with the refreshing mountain air.

Hope things are as fantastic in Canada and wherever else you all are as they are here!  Life is good!

Bo pen yang,

Orion (& Marina) 

Jai Mata Di! and Other Tales

August 24th, 2012 - Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

Hey Everyone!

  It's Marina again!  We switched up email order this time so that I could describe some of the places that Orion has already been to (on his last India trip) and written about.  But he wanted to write SOMETHING (since it is his turn) so we decided to take turns.  Haha.

  So where did we leave off?  Ahhhhhhh yes.  Srinagar!  So Srinagar was awesome as you all know judging by how stoked I was in my last email.  BUT all good things must come to an end, and we had to leave.  The owner of our houseboat, Amin (pronouced Ameeeeen) walked with us on the morning of, negotiated with a guy speaking no English and found us a ride headed to Jammu (directly south of Srinagar.)   Instead of riding it all the way, we had plans to go to Katra, a town famed among Hindus for Vaishno Devi, a giant mountain with a cave and a shrine dedicated to Divine Mother.  The trip was glady uneventful and we hopped off at Katra unscathed.

  Katra is a VERY popular pilgrimage spot for Hindus, but completely off the map for foreigners.  As soon as we arrived, we knew we were the only white people in the whole town.  We set to work finding a cheap hotel, which turned out to be extremely difficult as NOBODY spoke English.  Nobody.  Conversations went mostly like this:
"You have room?"  (Often misunderstood, in which it would be followed by many repetitions and simplifications, often down to only, "ROOOOMMM?????" or charades like acting while saying, "SLEEEEP!")
"Yes. Room."

"How much?"

At this point, the mutual understanding would cease.  

"Yes. Room."

"Yes, but HOW MUCH."
"Room?"
"HOW MANY RUPEES?"
"Come. Have room."

Many times we would simply give up here, or start pulling out our money and waving it at them, or try writing down numbers, or counting on fingers.  However, eventually we managed to find a room!  We passed out from exhaustion hoping to rest up for our epic pilgrimage the next day.

  So!  Vaishno Devi.  What to say.. What to say.. 

  The town of Katra exists completely as a base for the pilgrimage to the top of the mountain.  Thousands and thousands of people are ALWAYS here hiking it and it is always busy, always packed, always full.  We had barely started walking when we were already in the thickest crowd.  There was sort of a frantic, intense, electrifying devotional energy in the air that sort of blasted you with power and came from the zillions of people walking, limping, crawling or dragging themselves up the mountain in devotional fervour for the blessing of Divine Mother. 

  Vaishno Devi has a cave at the top in which, long ago, was discovered three matching rocks in a row.  If this was found in Canada, someone might might have said, "Wow this is cool," taken a photo, maybe told some of their friends or taken them to see the cave, and probably only thought about the rocks having any significance for maybe half a second.  Maybe. 

  BUT.  This is India.  So In India, someone happened to be strolling on top of a mountain, found a cave, found some rocks, and immediately thought of his Divine Mother, and claimed the rocks to be manifestations on the three aspects of Her in natural form:  Kali, Saraswati, and Lakshmi.  Not only that, but after worshipping the rocks and the mountain as Divine Mother, and telling everyone about it, then millions of Hindus would journey to climb to sacred mountain for years and years and years, and then the government would spend millions of dollars blasting the mountain to build a safe path, designing the temple to hold thousands of people and setting up regular security checks for safety (though very half hearted), and hundreds and hundreds of business owners would haul supplies up the mountain to fund their snack shops, ice cream shops, food stalls, etc.  Oh India.

  So if you're imagining a beautiful gorgeous tropical mountain, with a tiny gravel path winding its way up the steep cliffs and valleys, with nothing but the calming sounds of Mother Nature in your head, and meditative peace surrounding you, and clean fresh greenery and air to breath and see and enjoy.........You're wrong.

  Imagine instead a beautiful gorgeous tropical mountain... Covered with a wide-enough-for-a-truck paved path winding its up the steep cliffs and valleys; completely packed with people - rich, poor, healthy, missing limbs, deformed, as young as a newborn baby, and as old as too ancient to be climbing a mountain; a constant din of noise of people, horses, bad music, good music, live drums, kitchens, and even small cars; garbage EVERYWHERE, including thrown off cliffs and down valleys in disgusting reeking heaps, defouling the face of the sacred mountain; monkeys everywhere, often attacking you; sad, malnourished, mistreated horses with limps, slipping all over the wet path, being brutally whipped by their owners, with fat people seated atop them, too lazy to walk up; any so many shops everywhere selling everything and anything you could possibly think you might want; and so much more my overwhelmed senses were probably too occupied to notice.  

  We hiked through the madness for probably 4 hours, including tons of stops of food and ice cream more and more frequently the higher and more tired we got.  The total distance up is 12.5 km.  That is only ONE WAY.  However, when we reached the top, there was no resting.  If you have any dream of ever actually getting to SEE the shrine, you must immediately get in a too-long line up to lock up all your baggage and shoes.  So we did just that.  Of course this is India, so there is no nice single file line.  There is pushing and shoving and a mini battle to claim your place in line.  You must prove your strength and ability by holding your ground to be worthy of a good spot in line.  So prove we did, and we eventually got through.  At the very start of the line, after we'd been waiting for a super long time, a few scumbags were trying to cheat the wait and dodge in ahead.  Not by my watch!  Me, the tiny helpless woman that I'm considered in this country, pushed and shoved those darned men right back until they gave up and tried the guy behind me.  HAH.  

  So finally we were ready to get darshan (divine sighting) of the Mother!  We walked down a very long, narrow, winding hallway with a bunch of other people until we reached the outside of the tunnel.  For a moment we enjoyed the amazing view of the mountains and nature all around us, and then we entered the tunnel!  I think it used to just be a long dark cave like tunnel, but to accommodate the millions of people, they turned it into a marble hallway.  Water dripped through cracks in the roof as we walked and people devotionally cupped the water in their hands and splashed it on the heads, as they would with holy water.  Finally the end!!!  After the miles and hours of hiking, I was surprised to see people getting maybe 3 - 5 seconds to view and pray to the lingams before they were ushered on by the temple workers.  Being white has it benefits however, and when we got to the altar, the pandit gave us a lengthy discourse on the meaning and significance on the shrine, and we maybe had a full minute or two!  We prayed to Divine Mother for blessings, and that was that!  Out we went.  It may seem like a seriously long and vigorous undertaking, for a simple and very very short viewing of 3 small stones, and to people not there, they may wonder if it was worth the effort.  But I am certain that everyone who has completed the pilgrimage with devotion in their hearts has definitely left feeling refreshed, regenerated, and blessed by Spirit.  

  Forgot to mention one thing!  EVERYONE,. the whole way up, and the whole way down, shouts to anyone and everyone as often as they like: Jai Mata Di!!  (Victory to Divine Mother!)  There are groups of people who get chants going for hours at time while hiking, and there are people who repeat it like a mantra when they feel too tired to carry on and need the extra strength, there are people who say it as a greeting, and people who just say it just for fun!!  We enjoyed joining in with the people and felt often that this simple statement melted away the strangeness of our foreign cultures and reminded us that we are all from one unified culture of the soul!

  Jai Mata Di!

  It's Orion now. 

  After Vaishno Devi, we took a bus to Jammu, but rather than dropping us at the main bus stand like we thought, we got dropped at the special Jammu to Katra bus stand located next to the railway station.  This was a minor setback, solved by deciding to brave the intensity of "general boarding" and taking the train instead of the bus to Pathankot.  We walked into the usual chaos characteristic of Indian train stations: garbage everywhere, people everywhere, people sleeping in garbage, strong smells ranging from dhoop to rotting flesh within a few metres of each other, mangy dogs eyeing you warily from the shadows, oppressive heat, crowds of people shoving their way through battlefield-esque line ups, and people, people, and more people, of all shapes and sizes.  We stood for a moment at the entrance, appreciating the madness, then entered the fray.  It took us several stressful minutes to figure things out, but eventually I pushed my way out triumphantly from a writhing crowd of people clutching two general tickets to Pathankot.  I was only sixty percent sure that the tickets would actually get us to Pathankot, so when we got to the platforms, we asked several people and discovered that "general boarding" means that you can take any train you want going in the direction of your destination, you just have to fight and win the battle of getting on the train.  If you lose the battle, you can still win the war, waiting until the next train and going through the same process again and again until you get on.

  We found a comfy spot against a pole and set our bags down so we didn't have to sit on the sticky concrete, and waited.  We had about an hour, so we had some snacks and mentally prepared ourselves for the coming test.  As time went on, the platform steadily filled up with more and more people, and poorer and poorer people.  We were in the right place.  At fifteen minutes to the scheduled departure time, the tracks were lined with masses of people, all looking down the tracks and conversing intensely.  The air seemed turbulent and the energy was agitated.  A few times another train would blow its whistle and people would leap up, grabbing their bags and getting ready to sprint.  This gave us a bit of a warning as to how ready we should be, and we prepared our bags for a quick escape.  

  There were several more false alarms, but eventually the actual train arrived.  It came barrelling down the tracks are breakneck speed, and the people started rushing like the rapids in a river.  We joined the flow, and watched as some of the more agile members of the group grabbed onto the handles of the doors and were whisked away by the speeding hunk of metal.  The train stopped, and our throng of thriving bodies caught up to the last car.  We looked around as we pressed viciously into the mass, and realized with amazement that this huge crowd of people, possibly a hundred, were meant to fit on one car.  We steeled ourselves and used our packs to our advantage, crushing our way a little further into the people.  The train doors had not yet opened, and there was a minute of held breath, where everyone waited and steadied themselves and pushed in on the people in front in a vain attempt to gain some ground.  Suddenly, the door sprang open.  Everyone started shouting, bags were being lifted up high to try to squeeze in closer, and the mob mentality reigned supreme.  

"Crush it!" we yelled as a battle cry, and we commenced the push.  It seemed like no one was moving at all, as about fifteen people were wedged in the opening blocking it completely, but then one person was through. Shouting triumphantly, he darted into the darkness of the train.  More people started getting on, and we realized that soon the seats would be full if we didn't catch up.  We doubled our efforts and used our weight to squeeze people aside.  I was clutching my guitar case by the neck, praying that it would not get snapped on the battlegrounds.  Finally, Marina clutched at the handle next to the door, but then slipped off, as someone ripped savagely through the opening.  We were separated by a few people, and I reached the door first.  Mustering all my strength, I elbowed the people next door aside and hauled my heavy load through the narrow opening.  I thought Marina was right behind me, but as I dashed to search for a seat I heard a cry.

"Orion! Help!"  I looked back to see Marina at the opening, but unable to get through.  She was wedged between several general boarding veterans, who were stopping at nothing to get on.  One missed step, and she was at risk of being trampled by the raving mob behind.  I ran back, offering my hand, and with a big pull, we careened through the door and rushed to find two seats conveniently waiting around the corner.

  But the war wasn't won quite yet.  We took off our pack and claimed our seats, placing our large bags at our feet.  People were continuously rushing onto the train, and everyone was shouting in many Indian languages. At one point someone came into our area and before taking his seat, yelled angrily at us for a few minutes in Hindi.  We eventually figured out that he didn't like the placement of our bags and we found places for them beneath a seat and up above on a rack. Things slowly settled down as people found their places, and we saw the people who had failed to get on walking dejectedly away.  One of the men in our compartment, a young nice guy, left through the window, explaining to us through hand gestures that he would ride on the roof of the train to be more comfortable.  The appeal in his decision was quite obvious to us as we sat squished between  several people in the heat. 

  By the time the train left everyone was happily chatting and the seating situation had improved dramatically.  Some people had climbed like monkeys to sleep on the luggage racks and people had moved places conveniently to arrange for the most comfort for everyone.  The rest of the journey was very comfortable!  I'm sure that sometimes general boarding is not the best choice, and it's probably more crowded on some other trains, but all in all, this was an enjoyable experience! The battle for our seats was exciting, and well worth the effort to not have to sit on a dusty, polluted, rocking, half broken down, bumpy bus.  Aside from almost missing our stop, all was well!  Our phone started working at the exact right time (as we left J&K) and we talked to our family in Pathankot just in time to find our proper stop and make it HOME!  Success!

  Here's Marina again:

  So we've already described Pathankot.  Home away from home.  Blessed comfort and hospitality.  How we love to relax there!  Anyway, we chilled there for a few days and then decided to go to Amristsar for a couple days, and come back to Pathankot once more before our train to Nepal!!!!

  So Amritsar!  We arrived by local bus, and Orion's YSS friend, Sushil, who lives in Amritsar but happened to be out of town at the time, called his brother Suraj, who picked us and our huge bags up at the bus station.. on a motorbike...  But it turned out to be okay!  It went like this:  Suraj, with a bag in front of him (often the pack cover would blow into his eyes, and cover his mouth and nose, and it was up to me to keep our driver from crashing or asphyxiating by moving the cover); then me, balancing a guitar on one leg and a ukulele on the other; and Orion on end, wearing the other pack, barely hanging on.  What fun!  We arrived safe and sound at Sushil and Suraj's OTHER brother's house, where we would kindly be offered a place to sleep and food to eat.  We never got the name of the other brother (though I'd bet money is started with "Su") or his wife because they didn't speak a word of English.  It was all okay until Suraj left...

  The couple who gave welcomed us into their home were very lovely and generous people, who fed us well, and gave their bed to sleep in at night, as it was the nicer room (such is the Indian hospitality.)  However, guessing from the fact that they spoke no English, I doubt they'd ever been around white people, nor had any of their friends.  Very shortly a rather large crowd for such a tiny house all crammed into our bedroom, and we knew we had no hopes of privacy (such is the Indian way.)  Not one spoke English and they all sat and talked to us though we couldn't understand, and talked to eachother about us and we couldn't understand, and tried to speak to us in English and we couldn't understand, and the whole thing was rather awkward.  Grateful as we were for their welcoming us and their genuine hospitality, we were glad to escape during the day to see the sights of Amritsar.

  Here's what we saw: The Golden Temple, The Attari India/Pakistan Border Ceremony, and the Jallianwala Bagh.

Golden Temple:  Is AMAZING.  It is like the Mecca for Sikhs, and world famous.  After checking your shoes you enter the temple grounds and are immediately cleansed by a wave of the most powerful peaceful relaxing energy.  I immediately felt at home.  The grounds are in a square, with tall beautiful white buildings walling the grounds, and then a marble walkway around the whole thing, with a gorgeous man-made lake  (called a "holy tank" haha) and the beautiful, shining, golden temple right in the centre accessible by a walkway.  If you sit on the edge of lake, you must sit cross legged, but I'm not totally sure why.  Men AND women must cover their heads, which makes perfect sense to me!  Its respectful to cover your head in a holy place, so if women have to do it, why shouldn't men?  A head is a head, male or female!!  Anyway.  So you wait in line to enter the temple, and then you get in and the energy is so great! I just loved it.  They have seriously talented musicians playing devotional music inside the temple all day.  There was an amazing tabla player, two esraj players who sang, and later the esrajs were swapped for harmoniums.  Their voices and the tones of their instruments rang out crystal clear and I knew that it wasn't man playing those instruments - It was the God inside those men, channeling creative power perfectly through their capable hands and voices.  Seriously the most BEAUTIFUL music I have ever heard.  Like angels!  We went back several times to soak up the vibes, and get the Sikh guru's blessings, and to enjoy the only real music we had heard since leaving Canada.  

India/Pakistan Border Ceremony:  Seriously the strangest I have ever seen human beings act.  What an odd spectacle this is!  30km from Amritsar is the Pakistan border.  Every single day EVER, thousands of people crowd to the border to see the ceremony.  The crowds pushing and shoving to get closest to the front of the line are very reminiscent of the General Boarding on the train.. Lucky for us, being whiteys, we get our own SPECIAL VIP entrance and get to steer clear of the madness and get the best seats!  So we found seats easy enough and surveyed the setup.  Each country has built massive grand stands to accommodate the thousands and thousands of people that show up every day to see the silly ceremony, and they are always full.  Patriotism is extremely high.  When the ceremony begins, a random guy starts shouting stuff in Hindi, and the crowd responds in unison, but we had no idea what they were saying.  The words stir everyone into a frenzy. A similar thing takes place on the Pakistan gate.  Both Indian and Pakistani guards line up on the respective sides, and then the gates between the two countries are flung open.  Each guard in turn takes his turn walking up to the edge of the gate, having a mock battle with the other side's guards and the marching back.  It is so RIDICULOUS how they walk.  Its like they are soooooooooo angry that they become comical.  They march soooo drastically fast and overdramatically, and then perform these insane high kicks that look like they may kick themselves in the head and give themselves concussions!  Then they grab the ropes of their respective flags and inside of lowering the flag normally, they do some weird dance where they throw the rope around and march angrily.  Its quite hilarious.  I took quite a view videos, so hopefully we'll get a chance to post one.

Jallianwala Bagh:  This is a mid sized park area near the Golden Temple grounds, with high walls, where almost 20,000 Indians were martyred by the British General Dyer for peacefully meeting to protest tyrannical British Laws.  The Bagh used to be an empty field, but its now been converted into a lovely park.  We walked around learning about what happened, including reading accounts of survivors, and viewing spots in the walls where actual bullet holes are still visible.  The story goes like this:  A group of people were meeting to rally against these unfair laws in a nonviolent manner.  General Dyer and his men showed up with a tank, but being only one entrance to the high walled Bagh, it wouldn't fit down the narrow passage.  So he and his men marched in with guns loaded.  The crowd did nothing to threaten them or hurt them, but without any warning or chance of surrender, Dyer ordered his men to take aim and fire into the crowd, killing as many as possible.  The actual order given to the General was to "disperse the crowd" but he took it a step further.  What followed was a horror story of people screaming and running, trying to escape.  People tried to climb the walls, only to picked off by the British soldiers or pulled down accidentally by other Indians frantic to escape.  Other people threw themselves into the well inside the Bagh trying to escape.  Over 120 bodies were found drowned in the well after the massacre.  A very few people were able to escape over the walls but in the end over 15,000 people died, including one seven-week-old baby and many women and children.  This horrible event was a major factor in getting India its Independence from the British.  If you want to learn more, I STRONGLY recommend watching the movie Gandhi with Ben Kingsley.  It has a very intense scene showing the events of that day.  If you don't want to watch the whole movie, YouTube the scene.  I'm sure its on there.  (But you should definitely watch the whole movie.. Its really good.)

SO.  That's that.  We hopped on our train and after some difficult sleeps, we are now in Gorakhpur (birthplace of Paramahansa Yogananda!!  Unfortunately his old home is 50km from town, so if we hope to visit it, it won't be until we come back to India) where you can catch a 3 hour bus to Sunauli, the India/Nepal border crossing town.  We are going to NEPAL!!!! SO EXCITED.  

On a sadder note....  Orion got his camera stolen in the New Delhi train station.  He was waiting in line and some &*(*%($*@^$&*(% nabbed it right out of his camera case.  All his photos from our whole trip thus far are now gone, except the few that we uploaded to FaceBook, and a couple that happened to get copied to the Sawal's computer in Pathankot.  We are very sad about this. :(  Whats more, he had to purchase a new camera right away, and ended up spending almost 500 dollars!  That's DOLLARS my friends...  So perhaps our trip shall have to be a tad shorter.  Or maybe we'll have to go to Europe and live on rice while we busk on the streets, earning money to continue our travels.  But, c'est la vie mes amies.  On the plus side, Orion burned some SERIOUS karma and his evolution shall be rapidly increased, well some other shmuck gained some mega bad karma and perhaps his house shall burn down or something.  Haha.  What can you do but keep your chin up and move on??  Also, he's really stoked on his new camera which has lots of fancy new features that the other one didn't have.

Anyway.  Next time you talk to us, WE SHALL BE IN NEPAL!  Wish us luck with dealing with the countless border scams we have to overcome.  

OM Shanti, Peace and Love,

Marina and Orion

P.S.  Sorry for the insane longness of the email.  It is almost as ridiculous as the Border Guards' anger dance.  Almost.

Lazily Lounging in Lakeside Luxury

August 12th, 2012 - Srinagar, Kashmir, India

Hello all you good people from Canada!

Thinking of you here as we are "lazily lounging in lakeside luxury."  I keep thinking of home so much because, here we are sitting on the deck of our houseboat (I will explain), and the ONE thing that's missing is that I HAVEN'T GONE SWIMMING.  I love swimming.  But here, I must cover my shoulders and be conservative instead of frolicking in a bathing suit like I would at home.  A shame.

If you haven't already guessed, its Marina writing this email.  I shall pick up where we left off... Leh!

So we really didn't do anything in Leh besides chill and enjoy the mountain culture.  But after recovering we didn't stay too long.  Trekking would have been lovely, but we ARE going to Nepal, and it was soooo overpriced.  So we decided to wait.  So we left!  We showed up at the bus stand with our packs and after some yelling/bargaining we hopped in the trunk/back seats of a Jeep heading to Srinagar.  You know where you normally put all your bags and things in the back of an SUV?  The place with no seats?  Well there were seats there, and that's where we sat.  With our knees bumping together, we hit the road!

It really wasn't that terrible of a drive actually.  Compared to what we'd been getting used to, it was luxury!  Somehow, our young flexible bodies were able to bend into awkward lying down positions and we managed some sleep.  I used a bag of potatoes for my pillow, and Orion used a stranger's suitcase.  In the morning we awoke to breath taking views of the mountain pass we were crossing as we descended into the Kashmir valley.  As we began to wake up enjoying the beautiful views, everyone else in the Jeep began falling asleep.  Including the driver.  We were supplied with an excellent view of his drooping eyelids and purple bags through the reflection in the rear view mirror and watched in horror as his head often lolled to one side.  Orion would shout something random about stopping for chai every once in awhile, and he would only grunt, and ask for a tip from us when we arrived.  What could we do but have faith that we were not yet supposed to leave this world?  We visualized white light around the Jeep and went back to enjoying the scenery.   

Somehow we arrived in one piece, and our driver managed to stay awake.  As soon as we began to enter the city, a van with two shouting man began to give chase to our Jeep.  We pulled over and found out they had somehow sniffed out the white people hiding in the trunk of the Jeep and wanted to show us accommodation.  We immediately refused.  After driving for awhile longer, our driver arrived at a suitably random place to dump us by the side of the road, so we got out.  The men had followed us for about half an hour and BEGGED to show us their room.  We told them our cheap budget, and they promised it would only cost that much so we reluctantly agreed to go.  We expected a cement hole in the wall in some sort of dark alley.  That's usually what you get for following the hotel touts.  But, we were presently surprised to be led to a houseboat - Srinagar's main tourist attraction.  It was a seriously funky boat, and it was shared with the actual Indian family who lived there, but the price was right so we agreed to stay.

Our room was made of whatever scraps of wood they could find nailed to the floor, roof, and walls, completely covered in random scraps of colourful fabric, and over-postered in ONE stupid Airtel (an Indian cellphone company) add.  There were actually like 30 of the SAME poster...  Our bathroom floor was slanted at a 45 degree angle, and there was a lovely hole in the boards of the wall situated directly behind the squat toilet.  Lovely.  But it was still a fun room!  We quite enjoyed moving into it.  

We discovered we were close to town as well.  All we had to do was cross a simple walking bridge!  Or so we thought...  As we strolled comfortably down the cement bridge, we were surprised to see that the bridge sort of ended halfway across...  All that was left was the framework - long boards crisscrossing over the 6m drop to the river below.   To get to the boards, we had to step off the cement about 60cm down to the sketchy boards..  Then balanced precariously, we walked across one framework beam.   When we reached the end of the beam (blocked by some random hunk of machinery), someone had placed old, splitting 2x6s in a terrifyingly sketchy "walkway" the rest of the way across.  We then stepped from the stable framework beam onto the unstable wobbly boards and made the rest of the journey across!  And LO!  The other side was waiting.  After a day or two, we became quite proficient at the art of walking the bridge.  We even attempted the feat in the rain.  One time one the way home, we had to wait at one end for a family to cross.  We were impressed to see a young little girl leading the way.  As she approached, we could see she wasn't as brave as we thought, as she was crying "MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY!"  the whole way.  But everyone made it without incident.  I guess you have to learn the ways of such things at a young age in order to survive in India!

Anyway.  So Srinagar!  The things to do here are stay on a houseboat, ride in a shikara (a gondola like boat with pillows and curtains and shade that you lounge in while being paddled around), and stay on a houseboat. I am aware that I said that twice.  We figured our houseboat/homestay experience on the river was good enough so we thought we had that checked off.  Not so!!  

We decided to get a shikara ride around the lake the next day.  We were paddled around in luxury on Dal Lake and the smaller Golden Lake.  We got a good look at the water based culture in Srinagar.  When the British were in India, for a reason I forget, they were not allowed to own land in Srinagar.  So being so clever, they built a MILLION houseboats and lived on the lake.  There are still here today, only they have been occupied by the locals.  Everything is done on the lake.  If you want to go visit your neighbour, you take your canoe, not your car.  If you want to buy fruits or veggies, you wait for the floating veggie market to come paddling by in a canoe. Or the canoe-based supermarket with chips, cigarettes, chocolate, and EVERYTHING.  Or the floating homemade soft ice cream boat with delicious cardamom flavoured ice cream for only 10 Rupees!  We (especially me) soon realized the appeal of the fancier houseboats on the lake and were convinced to look for our own immediately!  

We found a seriously CUTE little boat for just around 1 dollar over our 5 dollar each budget, which including breakfast and dinner, and the entire boat to ourselves.  Excited, we moved in the next morning, crossing the precarious death bridge with our ridiculously heavy packs and instruments, expecting to stay maybe 2 nights...

Our room has a massive comfy bed (amazing) and the bathroom is clean and doesn't smell (amazing!) and if we walk down a tiny narrow carpeted hallway, we enter our sitting room area with lovely white cotton curtains blowing in the wind, leading to our deck.  Our deck is the best part!  It has two benches for sitting, and  two bed-like loungers for lounging.  I immediately decked my side out with pillows for maximum comfort. :)  The view off our deck is of the gorgeous mountain in Srinagar with a shrine dedicated to Swami Shankara at the top of it, a quiet but lively "roadway" where lots of people in their little boats paddle past all day, and a view of other cute little houseboats.  Suddenly, 2 nights became a week.  HOW?  We got sucked in to serious chilling!  Like I said earlier, the only thing missing is that I'm not wearing a bathing suit and jumping into the lake every time I get a little too warm.  But this is India!  And Srinagar is mostly Muslim.  So I don't..

2 days ago we did a pilgrimage to the Shankaracharya temple in celebration of Krishna's birthday.  Being in a Muslim city isn't the ideal place for celebrating Hindu holidays but I think we picked the best place to be.  After paying our respects in the temple, we started the walk down and enjoyed GORGEOUS views of the city.  We even used our cameras to zoom in on our houseboat, so tiny from so far up!  We also celebrated Orion's birthday on the 8th!  There just happens to be a lot of ice cream in Srinagar, so obviously, we had ice cream. (Orion's favorite thing ever.)

Right now happens to be the Ramadan (Ramazan), the hugest Muslim celebration of the year.  The Muslims fast for 30 days from dawn until dusk with lots of prayer throughout the day.  They project their prayers through loudspeakers placed EVERYWHERE.  There are a million different people singing a million different songs all with terrible singing voices and all at the same time.  VERY loudly.  ALL the time.  And since we can't understand what they're saying, it makes it slightly more confusing.  Up on the top of the mountain, way up high, we could still here the drone of the thousands of voices.  Because of the chaos of sound, seeming to us to sound like thousands of people moaning and groaning, we have dubbed it "The Zombie Apocalypse."   (One of the reasons we were happy to leave our first houseboat was because we were literally woken up EVERY night like TEN TIMES a night to actually the LOUDEST most HORRIBLE singing ever.  Like so loud it hurt our ears and we couldn't sleep even with earplugs in.)

Well that's about it..  We plan on leaving tomorrow to spend the rest of August before our departure to Nepal hiking Vaishno Devi, visiting the Sawal's again in Pathankot, seeing the Golden Temple in Amritsar, and possibly going for a pony ride in Dalhousie.  LOTS to do.  Anyway that's all for now.  Hope this rant wasn't too boring or lengthy like all our emails tend to be.

Please everyone, after reading this email, women especially, put on your bathing suits, put on SHORTS and a SLEEVELESS SHIRT over top, go to the lake, and wearing only your bathing suit, no black robes or headscarves or ghost costumes with only tiny mesh eye holes, GO SWIMMING.  Then exalt in your freedom and rejoice in your equality! (This is aimed at women.  It is so difficult to see such oppressed women in this culture.)

LOVE Marina (And Orion who is sitting beside me patiently correcting my spelling and grammar)