Dear Family and Friends

Dear Family and Friends,

I'm coming home on Sunday! Yaaaay! I'm very excited to be coming back. But I feel like I need to explain my reasoning behind shaving my head before I'm branded as the radical hippie who shaved her head and therefore should not be taken seriously. I had many good reasons for shaving my head and they are as follows:

(1) I've always wanted to shave my head. Ever since I had that short hair cut sophomore year in high school, I've always wondered what it would be like to not have any hair at all. For me, hair has always been such a burden and I wanted to experience the freedom from brushing and washing.

(2) Since I got to India, my hair had been falling out anyways. You can ask my flat mates, everytime I took a shower, CLUMPS would come out and I would single headedly clog the drain. It was very worrisome and annoying, so I figured that if I just got rid of it in one go, I wouldn't have to worry about losing it gradually.

(3) It is very hot and dirty in India, and when you have long hair, it's disgusting. Everytime I turned my head I would get smacked in the face with this dusty, sweaty mop of hair. It was so inconvenient, and if I wanted to keep it really clean, I would have to wash it twice a day. And that would lead to more frustrating clumps coming out in the shower.

(4) I'm lazy. To be honest, I just didn't want to take care of it anymore. It was long and I had to constantly worry about my hair looking good (eventhough that was pretty much impossible), it falling out, keeping it clean and out of my face... It really was super annoying and I couldn't take it anymore.

Now, showers take less than five minutes instead of the half hour when I would spend most of my time trying to detangle my rat's nest. And when I was in freezing Tibet with no hot water, I was supremely thankful that I didn't have a massive string of hair to rinse, lather, rinse and then wait for to dry. I would have died of pneumonia. As for looking like a "man" or a "12 year old boy," we all know that vanity has never been my strongest vice and that my laziness has always won out. I knew I wouldn't look beautiful by societal standards, but that wasn't really a concern. What I was concerned about was my hygiene and my convenience.

So that was my reasoning for shaving my head. I knew that I would be going to buddhist areas so it would be normal for me to have a shaved head and that it would grow out by the time I came home. I thought about it long and hard before I did it, and in the end, I think it was one of the best decisions I've ever made. If it was socially acceptable, I would totally do it again. But since it's not, when I come home I will have a short crop of hair.

See you all soon! YAY!

Love,
J

Hong Kong, You're Ace

I know, I'm a terrible blogger/daughter/sister/niece/cousin/friend/acquaintence. But in my defense, I've been spending about two hours a day on the internet trying to find a sublet in NYC. So far, I have not been successful. How do people not already living in NYC ever find housing? Boo 'urns.

Anyways, the last time I wrote I was in Tibet. Now, I am in Hong Kong. I took the super new, awesome, fast train from Lhasa to Beijing. The train was 48 hours long. I don't know why I thought it would be cool to take a train for 48 hours, a train is just a train no matter how fancy. But the first half was really nice. The landscape was gorgeous and I got to see more of Tibet. The second day was not so interesting, but that's ok. I spent a couple days in Beijing and hung out with more Americans in one night than I have in the past nine months. I also saw my first Starbucks! That was another culture shock.

I find traveling in China extremely stressful. Everyone thinks traveling in India is hard, but it's super easy. Everyone speaks some English, signs are in English, and there are no rules, you just go and do. But in China, there are fifty rules if you want to do anything and there's no one who speaks English who will help you or explain the rules to you. Let's just give a "random example"...say you want to book a plane ticket to Hong Kong. Somehow, the travel agency can only hold your reservation for a day, but they can't print the ticket in the office (for some random reason) and they have to print it in another office. But the other office is already closed, so basically, you can't book your ticket and you have to wait on standby and just hope that a seat will open up on the day that your Chinese visa will expire. *deep breath* Yea, I was a little stressed out that day. I admire anyone traveling in China who does not speak Mandarin. But I'll come back and travel around China one day.

Now I'm in Hong Kong and it's nice to be back. At least I partially understand what people are saying and I can communicate somewhat. It has relieved some of the home sickness. I have five whole days here to myself and I don't know what I'll do. I guess eat, go shopping, and work on growing my hair out. Grow! Grow! You can do it! Right now, it's about an inch long and sticks up everywhere. I look like a Chia Pet. Ch-ch-ch-Chia! I don't really know what to do with it. But yea, I love Hong Kong. I don't care if people say there's no culture and it's just another city, or if there's a freaking roundabout every 500 m. Hong Kong has the best food, is super convenient, and has my grandmother. Hong Kong, you're ace.

Tibet!

Yes, I know, it's been a very long time...But I'm in Tibet! It is absolutely amazing here and there is so much to tell that I can't fit it all here. I just don't even know where to begin...

Tibet is devastatingly beautiful. The Tibetan plateau is one giant desert with brown hills, sand dunes, and snow capped peaks. As soon as we crossed the border from Nepal, we climbed to 4,000m and we have not descended below 3,600m since. I've gone over five passes above 5,000m. There is a reason that they call Tibet "The Roof of the World." And the sky here! I did not know that there was this kind of blue in this world. It is here, and nowhere else that heaven meets earth. You can see it in the mountains, the low lying clouds and the perfect reflection of the sky in the lakes and rivers. Really gorgeous. It's so barren it's beautiful. The rocks are made up of yellows, tans, reds, and greens that follow the contour of the land. The glacial lakes are a brilliant turquoise and stretch for miles and miles.

The Potala, of course, is as beautiful and awe inspiring as it is in photographs. It's an immense structure on top of a hill, set against the brilliant sky and snow topped hills. Across from the Potala, there is a huge cement square where all the old traditional houses used to be. There is a fountain that is synchronized to music every night at 9PM. Behind the fountain is a monument to the "Liberation of Tibet." The clothes of the first Chinese army to enter Lhasa is housed in the monument. To the right is a statue of the hard working communists and the to left is a statue of the celebrating Tibetans.

It's actually very difficult for me to write in English right now. I've been in Hindi mode for so long and now it's Mandarin/Cantonese. The past two days, I was part of a group going to Nam Tso, a beautiful salt lake at 4,700m. The group was three Chinese, one Israeli, and me. One of the Chinese girls sort of knew Cantonese, so to communicate, the Israeli guy would talk in English, I would translate into Cantonese (to the best of my ability) and then the Chinese girl would translate into Mandarin for everyone else. It was quite complex and rather difficult for me at times. I was trying to think of the word for "because" in Cantonese: Because, no. Kyon ki, nahin. parce que, non....(ten minutes later) Yun whiye!!!!!! aiyaa....All my languages are all mixed up now. I speak Cantonese with an American accent but with a Hindi intonation and cadence. No wonder no one understands me.

Random Adventures

Well not much has happened since I wrote last. Well, things have happened, but nothing big. Vera and I were supposed to go trekking together, but the morning we were supposed to leave, she had some really bad pains in her back. She was really hurting, so we went to the clinic and we found out that she had a kidney stone. So now, we're stuck in Kathmandu until she passes it. The good thing is that we've moved out of the nasty, touristy part and we've moved to the Tibetan Buddhist part of the city. I'm so much happier here and it's way more peaceful and nice.

One night we had dinner with Feia, a girl from Holland who was doing a one of her medical rotations in Nepal. She had been here for four months and could speak conversational Nepali. She also was a fan of Paul Farmer and really cool. She was living with her two Nepali friends that she had met on a trek and she invited us to have dinner with her. On the way there, it started raining. We couldn't catch a taxi because Feia had her bike, so we were kind of stranded in the rain. We started walking towards to main road to try and find a taxi. When we got to the main road there was a break in the traffic and behind was this huge mass of people protesting in the streets. They took up the whole road and they were carrying torches and yelling in Nepali. It's kind of scary when it's dark and raining and there's a mob of people with torches gaining on you, so we just ran. After that, we didn't mind the rain and cold so much. We turned off the main road and took the back alleyways to get back to our hotel.

Dinner was really nice that night. We had the traditional Nepali dinner of dhaal bhaat, which is dhal (boiled lentils) with rice and a vegetable curry. So good! It's like Indian food but much lighter and you eat mounds of rice instead of roti. The couple was really nice as well. They were from a mountain village and had gotten married against their parents wishes. They were from different castes. They got married really young and then got a divorce because of pressure from their parents. But then they really loved each other and got back together. Like in India, the bride is supposed to live with the groom's family, but his family wasn't treating her very well, so they decided to move to Kathmandu. Feia had helped them find a place to live. They were so sweet!

While we've been waiting for Vera's stone we've just been reading and visiting some monestaries. Kidney stones are really painful. They're supposed to be more painful than childbirth. I really hope I never get one. We keep saying it's like she's having a baby. Everytime she feels some sort of pain she tells me and I'm like, "Is it time!?" We have a taxi waiting on call in case the stone comes in the middle of the night and she needs to go to the clinic right away. We've named the stone Sujit. ;-)

Happy 2064!

Happy Nepali New Year! Today is the first day of the year 2064! Woohooo!!!

At the moment I am in Bhaktapur, which is a small city/large town outside Kathmandu. Supposedly, this is the place to be for the New Year. Last night we were still in Kathmandu because we saw that the giant musician that we saw at the wedding was playing at a nearby restaurant, so we stayed to watch him play. He was pretty good, but not as good as the wedding when they were just improvising. Apparently, he's the head of the oldest rock band in Nepal. I call him The Giant from Nepal, because he's huge. Like six feet seven or something like that.

This morning we tried to wake up early to catch all the different ceremonies in Bhaktapur, but I think we got here too late to catch the main stuff. But it was still awesome to walk around the city with the brown brick fronts and clay tiled roofs. We kept coming across different squares with pagodas and temples. We walked all around town until we ended up where we started and found a nice guest house.

Since we had already seen most of Bhaktapur, we went to Thimi, which is also another town outside Kathmandu. We walked down the main street and passed all the different temples and palaquins that they were preparing. They were tying the palaquins to large sticks so they could be carried around town and decorating them with everything imaginable. We stopped to watch them prepare a palaquin and to listen to a bunch of boys drumming. They reminded me of my kids from Tejgadh so much. Then it all started with an innocent tikka when they took some bright orange power and did a streak on our foreheads. Then they threw some powder on us and then a man came and just poured the powder all over me. Well, the boys thought it was unfair that Vera was so clean, so they started throwing powder all over her and then the man gave me a whole bag of powder, so Vera and I took our revenge on the boys. We were running around the stupa, lingams and the temple throwing powder all over each other. Vera even followed a boy into his house where his grandfather was taking a nap.

So even though I didn't get to have my Holi with the kids of Tejgadh, I got to have a second Holi with a buch of Nepali kids. But I don't think they normally throw powder all over each other for New Years. I think they just did it because we were foreigners and they thought it was funny. Vera and I were walking through Thimi and Bhaktapur covered in orange and everyone else was looking normal and staring at us. On the way home, we rode on the roof of the bus because there were no more seats and because we always wanted to.

It's beautiful here in Nepal. The mountains with the fields and fields of bright green rice... It's a shame that my stay here is so short. I think if I stayed for six months I could definitely fall in love with Nepal and would have to marry a Nepali man. But at the moment, Tibet is calling!

The Bhote Kosi

Hello! Last night I got back from a two day rafting trip down the Bhote Kosi. It was a pretty wild ride. The rapids we did on the second day were level III and level IV and it was really fun. On one of the rapids our guide told us to "hold on!" so we held on, and then he didn't say anything else. When we looked back we were like, "Uh...where did he go?" He had fallen off the back and was hanging off the end of the raft. He eventually hauled himself up.

Then, five minutes later our raft hit a big rock on our side and water starting filling up on my side of the raft. Everyone on my side had to jump and cling to the other side of the raft and we were just hanging there until we could climb out onto the rock. The rock was really slippery so we had to hold onto the one side of the raft that wasn't underwater so we wouldn't slip into the rapids. The people on shore started throwing a rope and pulling people to shore when the raft started floating again. I was getting kind of nervous, because if the raft got free of the rock, it would knock us all into the water. But it was fine, and we tied a rope to the raft, nudged it a little, and then all jumped in. It was cool.

The night before was really nice too. We stayed in tents at a resort and that night, one of the owners of the resort was having his wedding. So we got to watch the wedding ceremony from afar and saw the couple walking around the fire. The groom was Canadian and the bride was Nepali. Afterwards, we ate dinner with the wedding party and even got wedding cake! The groom was a musician, so he and all his musician friends were performing and they would do classic rock, jazz, traditional Nepali songs and then a fusion of Nepali and Western songs. One guy was playing the wooden flute and he was amazing. I really enjoyed the music and I had a fun time at the wedding despite not knowing anyone.

It was a really fun trip and I met a lot of cool people. Vera and I are going to go trekking with Andy and Alice. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we'll actually get to see some mountains.

Nepal!

Hey Dudes. At the moment I am in Kathmandu, Nepal. I've been here a week and it's been really cool. Kathmandu has awesome food, so I've just been living in anticipation of the next meal. Oh, and I see temples and stuff too. But I mainly eat.

Well, we did eventually make it to Darjeeling. It was kind of a let down. It was just cold and cloudy all day. I didn't get to see any nice views at all. We visited a tea plantation and a temple, but otherwise, there wasn't much there. We decided not to go to Sikkim because of convenience and time, so I left early with Tati and Vlad and headed to Nepal. It was sad saying goodbye to Richard and Albert. We had some good Uno tournaments...

Nepal is cool. It's like India, but then not. When I first crossed the border and went into the immigration office, someone actually offered to help me! It was kind of a culture shock. Usually in India, you're completely ignored by anyone behind the counter until they finish their chai/newspaper/conversation before they'll even acknowledge your presence. I was beginning to think that things in Nepal would be easier until we had to chase our bus down the street and argue our way on. The entire back row of seats was full of pineapples. Very India.

Since Vlad and Tati only have two weeks here, we went straight on a trip the second day we were here. We went to Chitwan National Park. There are a bunch of restaurants/hotels on the lazy river that borders the park. It was really hot and humid and we couldn't resist jumping in the water floating with the current our backs. We also got to bathe with an elephant! It's was so much fun to sit on the elephant in the middle of the river and have him spray water on us with his trunk. I like elephants. The next day we went on a five hour jeep safari. The first three hours were really boring. We were driving and driving and all we saw were a bird and a monkey. Yea, the same kind of monkeys I saw everyday in Baroda and Delhi. whooppee. But the last hour was better and we saw a rhino up close! It was just in the middle of the road eating and looking at us. When it turned to leave, we followed it and when we were about 15 feet from it, it all of a sudden turned around and I thought it was going to charge us. The driver picked up a metal rod and I was thinking, "What is he going to do with that? Challenge the rhino to a duel?" But luckily, it just stared at us some more and then turned to walk away.

We also went on a long bike ride to see these beautiful lakes. The bikes weren't very good, however, and most of the roads were dirt roads with LOTS of rocks. My poor butt. First the camel safari and now this. It's been about a week since we did the bike ride, but I'm still sore. After the Park, we went to the city of Pokhara. It's on the shores of the second largest lake in Nepal. It was also very beautiful and we took a boat out to the middle. There are supposed to be really nice views there, but right now it's really hazy and cloudy in Nepal, so we didn't get to see much. Sad. I guess I'll just have to come back someday.

Right now, we don't really have any defined plans for Nepal. I think we might go on a whitewater rafting trip and then I'll trek around the Kathmandu Valley. We'll see what happens.