HELLO FROM NEWBURGH, New York, USA!!!!! Hard to believe that it's all over. It seems almost impossible that I was on the other end of the world just one week ago. The past 5 months have given me more than I could've ever hoped for: memories that will last the rest of my life, and new friendships that will also hopefully last just as long. The greatest lesson I can share from my travels is this: learn from others, and always show compassion in your encounters. Every passing opportunity I had to meet someone, whether it was a fellow backpacker or a local shopowner, I was truly enlightened by the kindness of the human spirit. We all share so much, regardless of our ethnicity, nationality, or religion, and it is this underlying human bond that we should embrace. Henceforth, I will make it my professional and personal goal to spread this message. My daily conversations and interactions with new people, however fleeting, always left me a little bit brighter inside, and I could carry on my day as a better person. With a smile, happiness can shine through you to another.
My advice to everyone else is this: Travel. Go. Don't get caught up in the 'rat race' of bustling New York City, don't push off until 'next year' what you can easily do this year. It has been a life-defining experience for me, and I'm neither a superhero traveler nor a wannabe hippy-type who needs mountains and birds and 'kum-bah-yah' to be at peace.. Everyone can do this trip, it was so easy. In fact, if I had it to do over again, I would prepare even less than what I did beforehand. Here's some tips: buy your big backpack in Bangkok at the start (CHEAP), and only bring a carry-on bag so you can buy all of your clothes on Koh San Road. Don't worry about any visas beforehand (except India), as you can arrange all of that once you're there. Don't plan any itineraries beforehand, and don't even get swallowed into the Bangkok travel agencies (in fact, don't believe anything they say about resorts being 'sold out' and it being the 'busy time of the season'). Just show up and figure it out once you get there. Trust me, it's the only way to do it right. Oh yeah, and take everything Lonely Planet says with a grain of salt...a big grain of salt.
I must end my blog with the following: Below is the personal journal entry that I wrote (manually) on the plane ride to Thailand on Sunday, April 8th. Taken verbatim, it's a message to myself in preparation for what was to come.
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Sunday 8 April
Today is the start! I left Brooklyn at 6am and now I'm somewhere over continental U.S. on my way to L.A. then Tokyo and then Bangkok. So excited! (obviously). Don't hold back on this trip--this is where you will become YOU for the rest of your life. After this, I will always say: "When I was in Southeast Asia and India..." Well, now's your chance to finish the second half of that sentence. This trip is a dream come true--my dream! It will be whatever you want it to be. Live it up. No regrets. No fears. No stupid shit either. Make new friends, spend lots of time alone, laugh a lot, cry, get excited, happy, scared, angry -- do what has been foreign to you in the past. You might as well; this will be as foreign a setting as you can get to stage new emotions, feelings, and experiences. Learn more about me -- I'm too cautious & careful and too concerned for others. This is my pass out of that. With no one else around, focus on you. There's a piece of me missing - I think I can find the rest of me somewhere along this trip. Open heart, open mind. The rest will follow. I can do this. Writing in this book is proving rather challenging [airplane turbulence], but this journey, no problemo. Any questions, concerns, doubts, hesitations? 'I've never been away from home for 5 months before' OK - valid, but I'll be so busy and overstimulated and exhausted every day I won't have time to miss home. Make a kick-ass blog. Everyone wants to live vicariously through you, so don't disappoint. Be brave, have fun, fall in love with life.
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How prescient I was. I love you all so much, and I felt you all with me each step of this journey. I couldn't have done it without you. :-) Thank you for reading my blog.
LOTS OF LOVE ALWAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Thursday, August 9, 2007
The End of The Beginning, or the Beginning of the Beginning?
HELLO FROM DELHI, India!!!!!!! I am back where I started on June 17th, and I can officially say that I've come full circle on my travels through India...sitting in an internet cafe in Pahar Ganj next to Hotel Namaskar (although I'm not staying there tonight). It is great to be back in my most favorite little grimy neighborhood in all of Asia.
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HELLO FROM NEWBURGH, New York, USA!!! So much has happened since I started this blog entry one week ago (and then left it alone due to the ensuing madness that was the last 7 days). It feels like one year ago that I was in Delhi. Today, Thursday 16 August, I am in Newburgh, NY sitting in my brother's bedroom after having just finished another delicious home cooked meal by my mom. But, before we move back to Newburgh, let's recap everything that has happened since the last blog entry, if only for my own record of events. Going back, I spent my third day of sightseeing the Kathmandu Valley in Patan's Durbar Square, which is most notable for its Patan Museum. Described as 'one of the best museum in all of Asia', it was definitely creating lofty standards for itself. The museum gave an in-depth description of both Buddhism and Hinduism's central tenets and main gods of each religion, all written for a western (novice) audience. Great museum, well organized, clearly laid out, and extremely educational. Do you know the meanings of all 7 different hand poses on Buddha statues? Well, I do. :-) From Patan we went to Swaymbouth Stupa, aka the Monkey Temple, where we enjoyed great views of Kathmandu as well as popping in on the resident monks' daily prayer in the gompa. From there we headed back to Kathmandu for the evening where I met up with Alicia and Bevan before heading back to their palace. The next day Brian and I ramped up for another sight seeing extravaganza, this time at the Boudnath Stupa (yet another stupa)--but this one is the largest stupa in all of Asia (I believe). Highlight of the morning: playing ping-pong with the novice monks at a nearby monastery. Good stuff. That afternoon, Brian and I went to Pashupati Temple, which is a huge temple complex along the Bagmati River, Nepal's equivalent of the Ganges river. Nepali Hindus perform funeral burnings very much like those at Varanasi; there was a funeral going on when we got there, and we saw the husband of the woman about to be burned walk up to the body to pay his last respects. Oftentimes we tourists forget the human side to all of these customs; sight seeing is just another way to rack up photos for the collection. But when the gentleman broke down sobbing next to his wife's body, it reminded me that these are people's real lives. This man will have to go to work the next day, continue on with his daily routines, and wake up to another sunrise without his wife, and I stood right near him and his family - close enough to feel the palpable grief. Yet, near such sadness was joy: just down the river, not even 100 meters away, a group of young kids were doing flips and somersaults into the water, joyously waving at Brian and me and begging us to take photos. Quite a dichotomy to see, young kids frolicking in front of a funeral pyre. We also ran into a group of Sadhus (holy men who wear crazy/scary outfits), so we had to take their picture (for 50 rupees, no less!)
After Pashupati, Brian and I booked a white-water rafting tour for 2 days later. We were thinking of going to Royal Chitwan National Park, but to be honest, I've ridden Elephants (twice), I didn't want to go on a 3-day, 8-hour bus ride to be thrusted on top of an elephant hoping to see tigers, when they were probably hiding in the tall grass. A 2-day rafting trip was scheduled to leave with 11 other med students volunteering at a Kathmandu hospital. We opted for the safer bet for a great time. In between Pashupati day and the rafting trip, I caught up on some rest (sight seeing 4 days in a row is tiring! -- I know, you're hearts are wringing right now over my pathos) and then went into town for some souvenier shopping. Luckily, I'm a man who saves everything for the last possible minute, so gifts for mom and dad were passed over in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and India for the lovely shops of Thamel, Kathmandu. That night I slept at Brian's guest house, since we had to get up for a 5am bus ride to start the rafting trip. Our group of kids was great - they're med students from around the world who have come to Kathmandu to work in a local children's hospital. My only qualm with this noble mission is that the program sounded very laid back and lenient; the kids rarely went to the hospital to work, and spent more time being tourists than volunteers. However, to give them the benefit of the doubt, their experience in the hospital is nothing to blog about. They said that mostly they're shadowing doctors and standing far behind the action.
Day 1 of the rafting trip was great: beautiful scenery, fun company, rapid rapids - it was funny to contrast the lush greenery of the surrounding mountains in Nepal's Trisuli River with the stark desert 'moonscape' of Leh, India's Indus River surroundings I had ventured down just a week or so before. Same same, but very different. I sat in the front seat of the raft all day long, so I got pretty beaten up by the waves. We set up camp on a lovely beach next to the river, washed off in a freshwater stream nearby, and enjoyed a huge dinner before passing out from exhaustion. Day 2 was another epic journey, 4 hours straight of rafting, before calling it a day and heading back to Kathmandu (via a 5 1/2 hour busride, with the last hour consisting of bumper-to-bumper traffic through Kathmandu...ugh). All in all, a great outdoor experience in Nepal, and surely a precursor to my return trip to Nepal later in life where I will conquer Annapurna & Everest Base Camp.
August 7th (day after rafting trip) I went up to Nagarkot, a nearby town about 30 km from Kathmandu that offers stunning views of Everest and the surrounding Himalayas. Most tourists go there for the 5 am sunrise, where the sun rises behind the mountains, but with the monsoon season in full thrust, August provides pretty clouded vistas. Plus, I had a ride from Manik the driver that day, and I was sick of Kathmandu buses, so I decided to go there & back in one day and skip the sunrise. I still had pretty amazing views of the area, even with the clouds lining the horizon. Everest was covered, but it was nice to know that I was standing within (non)viewing distance of the world's highest mountain and I was yet again privliged to see mother nature on a grand scale.
That afternoon I met up with Brian one last time at our favorite coffee shop (Himalayan Java), and said goodbye to him, as he was leaving for Paris the next day. It was such a coincidence that the one friend I meet in Varanasi was also going to Kathmandu afterwards, and ALSO going to Paris after that. It was in the cards for us to befriend.
August 8th was spent vegging...hardcore. I think I watched 6 or 7 movies in a row on Alicia's flat-screen TV. I was pretty much stuck in their house for the day, so I enjoyed a wonderful movie marathon. And then the marathon trip began. On August 9th, I woke up, finished packing, and headed to the Kathmandu airport. After a crazy long line of people ('line' is used loosely), I finally got to the boarding gate and aboard the flight to Delhi. Back in Delhi, I headed to Pahar Ganj for one final night's stay (and where I started this blog entry!). After wandering around the Main Bazaar for 10 minutes, I randomly ran into my Israeli friend Hilla, so I joined her and her friend for dinner. Randomness becomes regular in the life of a backpacker, so I wasn't too shocked to see her. :-) I said my goodbyes to Pahar Ganj that night, and made a promise to be back again in the future. Along with the Koh San Road in Bangkok, Main Bazaar in Pahar Ganj is my favorite street in the world.
I woke up before dawn on the 9th and headed to the Delhi airport. On the way my taxi stopped at a red light alongside the Gandhi statue, which provided a stellar photo op, and a powerful visual reminder of the journey through which India has traveled to get to its 60th anniversary of existence today.
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OK - so, the other reason why I couldn't post any blogs since the last one is because I've been keeping a secret from my father that my return to the US was on August 12th, the day before his surprise 60th birthday! It's been in the works for months, and now that everything went off without a hitch, I can retell everything in full
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I always planned this trip with a penultimate stop in Paris, France. I wanted something in between the Main Bazaar, Delhi and Dogwood Lane, Newburgh (not very bizarre). I arrived in Paris on Friday evening, August 9th and checked into my Montmartre hotel. I quickly headed out towards the Moulin Rouge (underwhelming) before walking up the steps to the Sacre Coeur (outstanding). It was sad, exciting, shocking, etc to be in about as different a setting as I could get from this morning -- walking down a piss-filled alley in Delhi towards my awaiting taxi. But, my weekend in Paris was idyllic - touring around all of the main sights, pondering the last 4 1/2 months of my life from a streetside table at a Montmartre cafe, enjoying the Parisian nightlife among its abundantly beautiful (male) population, and preparing myself for my impending life in Europe just 4 hours away by train. All of this was exactly what I had envisioned, and it's exactly what transpired. A perfect weekend in Paris.
After a long journey to New York via London, I arrived back in Brooklyn to my brother's and Amy's apartment at 11pm, the exact same starting point from the beginning of my trip. Talk about coming full circle; I had flown around the entire world -- LITERALLY -- to come back to Carroll Gardens: New York --> LA --> Tokyo --> Bangkok --> Delhi --> Paris --> London --> New York. Around the world in 127 days!!! The following day I headed up to Newburgh, NY for my dad's surprise 60th birthday party. It was a homecoming to remember. All of my parents' friends, whom I had grown up with since birth, were there. My mom and dad walked in to the room full of friends, and then my mom gave a short speech, the end of which would signal my walking into the room for surprise #2. The look on my dad's face was priceless when he saw me. Stunned, flabbergasted, exstatic, all of the above. Truly memorable.
Ok - I've written way too much for one blog, and I apologize for my verboseness. I wanted to get it all down before I started to forget the sequence of events.
I'll save my thoughts for one last blog entry, coming up shortly.
LOTS OF LOVE ALWAYS!!!!!!
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HELLO FROM NEWBURGH, New York, USA!!! So much has happened since I started this blog entry one week ago (and then left it alone due to the ensuing madness that was the last 7 days). It feels like one year ago that I was in Delhi. Today, Thursday 16 August, I am in Newburgh, NY sitting in my brother's bedroom after having just finished another delicious home cooked meal by my mom. But, before we move back to Newburgh, let's recap everything that has happened since the last blog entry, if only for my own record of events. Going back, I spent my third day of sightseeing the Kathmandu Valley in Patan's Durbar Square, which is most notable for its Patan Museum. Described as 'one of the best museum in all of Asia', it was definitely creating lofty standards for itself. The museum gave an in-depth description of both Buddhism and Hinduism's central tenets and main gods of each religion, all written for a western (novice) audience. Great museum, well organized, clearly laid out, and extremely educational. Do you know the meanings of all 7 different hand poses on Buddha statues? Well, I do. :-) From Patan we went to Swaymbouth Stupa, aka the Monkey Temple, where we enjoyed great views of Kathmandu as well as popping in on the resident monks' daily prayer in the gompa. From there we headed back to Kathmandu for the evening where I met up with Alicia and Bevan before heading back to their palace. The next day Brian and I ramped up for another sight seeing extravaganza, this time at the Boudnath Stupa (yet another stupa)--but this one is the largest stupa in all of Asia (I believe). Highlight of the morning: playing ping-pong with the novice monks at a nearby monastery. Good stuff. That afternoon, Brian and I went to Pashupati Temple, which is a huge temple complex along the Bagmati River, Nepal's equivalent of the Ganges river. Nepali Hindus perform funeral burnings very much like those at Varanasi; there was a funeral going on when we got there, and we saw the husband of the woman about to be burned walk up to the body to pay his last respects. Oftentimes we tourists forget the human side to all of these customs; sight seeing is just another way to rack up photos for the collection. But when the gentleman broke down sobbing next to his wife's body, it reminded me that these are people's real lives. This man will have to go to work the next day, continue on with his daily routines, and wake up to another sunrise without his wife, and I stood right near him and his family - close enough to feel the palpable grief. Yet, near such sadness was joy: just down the river, not even 100 meters away, a group of young kids were doing flips and somersaults into the water, joyously waving at Brian and me and begging us to take photos. Quite a dichotomy to see, young kids frolicking in front of a funeral pyre. We also ran into a group of Sadhus (holy men who wear crazy/scary outfits), so we had to take their picture (for 50 rupees, no less!)
After Pashupati, Brian and I booked a white-water rafting tour for 2 days later. We were thinking of going to Royal Chitwan National Park, but to be honest, I've ridden Elephants (twice), I didn't want to go on a 3-day, 8-hour bus ride to be thrusted on top of an elephant hoping to see tigers, when they were probably hiding in the tall grass. A 2-day rafting trip was scheduled to leave with 11 other med students volunteering at a Kathmandu hospital. We opted for the safer bet for a great time. In between Pashupati day and the rafting trip, I caught up on some rest (sight seeing 4 days in a row is tiring! -- I know, you're hearts are wringing right now over my pathos) and then went into town for some souvenier shopping. Luckily, I'm a man who saves everything for the last possible minute, so gifts for mom and dad were passed over in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and India for the lovely shops of Thamel, Kathmandu. That night I slept at Brian's guest house, since we had to get up for a 5am bus ride to start the rafting trip. Our group of kids was great - they're med students from around the world who have come to Kathmandu to work in a local children's hospital. My only qualm with this noble mission is that the program sounded very laid back and lenient; the kids rarely went to the hospital to work, and spent more time being tourists than volunteers. However, to give them the benefit of the doubt, their experience in the hospital is nothing to blog about. They said that mostly they're shadowing doctors and standing far behind the action.
Day 1 of the rafting trip was great: beautiful scenery, fun company, rapid rapids - it was funny to contrast the lush greenery of the surrounding mountains in Nepal's Trisuli River with the stark desert 'moonscape' of Leh, India's Indus River surroundings I had ventured down just a week or so before. Same same, but very different. I sat in the front seat of the raft all day long, so I got pretty beaten up by the waves. We set up camp on a lovely beach next to the river, washed off in a freshwater stream nearby, and enjoyed a huge dinner before passing out from exhaustion. Day 2 was another epic journey, 4 hours straight of rafting, before calling it a day and heading back to Kathmandu (via a 5 1/2 hour busride, with the last hour consisting of bumper-to-bumper traffic through Kathmandu...ugh). All in all, a great outdoor experience in Nepal, and surely a precursor to my return trip to Nepal later in life where I will conquer Annapurna & Everest Base Camp.
August 7th (day after rafting trip) I went up to Nagarkot, a nearby town about 30 km from Kathmandu that offers stunning views of Everest and the surrounding Himalayas. Most tourists go there for the 5 am sunrise, where the sun rises behind the mountains, but with the monsoon season in full thrust, August provides pretty clouded vistas. Plus, I had a ride from Manik the driver that day, and I was sick of Kathmandu buses, so I decided to go there & back in one day and skip the sunrise. I still had pretty amazing views of the area, even with the clouds lining the horizon. Everest was covered, but it was nice to know that I was standing within (non)viewing distance of the world's highest mountain and I was yet again privliged to see mother nature on a grand scale.
That afternoon I met up with Brian one last time at our favorite coffee shop (Himalayan Java), and said goodbye to him, as he was leaving for Paris the next day. It was such a coincidence that the one friend I meet in Varanasi was also going to Kathmandu afterwards, and ALSO going to Paris after that. It was in the cards for us to befriend.
August 8th was spent vegging...hardcore. I think I watched 6 or 7 movies in a row on Alicia's flat-screen TV. I was pretty much stuck in their house for the day, so I enjoyed a wonderful movie marathon. And then the marathon trip began. On August 9th, I woke up, finished packing, and headed to the Kathmandu airport. After a crazy long line of people ('line' is used loosely), I finally got to the boarding gate and aboard the flight to Delhi. Back in Delhi, I headed to Pahar Ganj for one final night's stay (and where I started this blog entry!). After wandering around the Main Bazaar for 10 minutes, I randomly ran into my Israeli friend Hilla, so I joined her and her friend for dinner. Randomness becomes regular in the life of a backpacker, so I wasn't too shocked to see her. :-) I said my goodbyes to Pahar Ganj that night, and made a promise to be back again in the future. Along with the Koh San Road in Bangkok, Main Bazaar in Pahar Ganj is my favorite street in the world.
I woke up before dawn on the 9th and headed to the Delhi airport. On the way my taxi stopped at a red light alongside the Gandhi statue, which provided a stellar photo op, and a powerful visual reminder of the journey through which India has traveled to get to its 60th anniversary of existence today.
----
OK - so, the other reason why I couldn't post any blogs since the last one is because I've been keeping a secret from my father that my return to the US was on August 12th, the day before his surprise 60th birthday! It's been in the works for months, and now that everything went off without a hitch, I can retell everything in full
----
I always planned this trip with a penultimate stop in Paris, France. I wanted something in between the Main Bazaar, Delhi and Dogwood Lane, Newburgh (not very bizarre). I arrived in Paris on Friday evening, August 9th and checked into my Montmartre hotel. I quickly headed out towards the Moulin Rouge (underwhelming) before walking up the steps to the Sacre Coeur (outstanding). It was sad, exciting, shocking, etc to be in about as different a setting as I could get from this morning -- walking down a piss-filled alley in Delhi towards my awaiting taxi. But, my weekend in Paris was idyllic - touring around all of the main sights, pondering the last 4 1/2 months of my life from a streetside table at a Montmartre cafe, enjoying the Parisian nightlife among its abundantly beautiful (male) population, and preparing myself for my impending life in Europe just 4 hours away by train. All of this was exactly what I had envisioned, and it's exactly what transpired. A perfect weekend in Paris.
After a long journey to New York via London, I arrived back in Brooklyn to my brother's and Amy's apartment at 11pm, the exact same starting point from the beginning of my trip. Talk about coming full circle; I had flown around the entire world -- LITERALLY -- to come back to Carroll Gardens: New York --> LA --> Tokyo --> Bangkok --> Delhi --> Paris --> London --> New York. Around the world in 127 days!!! The following day I headed up to Newburgh, NY for my dad's surprise 60th birthday party. It was a homecoming to remember. All of my parents' friends, whom I had grown up with since birth, were there. My mom and dad walked in to the room full of friends, and then my mom gave a short speech, the end of which would signal my walking into the room for surprise #2. The look on my dad's face was priceless when he saw me. Stunned, flabbergasted, exstatic, all of the above. Truly memorable.
Ok - I've written way too much for one blog, and I apologize for my verboseness. I wanted to get it all down before I started to forget the sequence of events.
I'll save my thoughts for one last blog entry, coming up shortly.
LOTS OF LOVE ALWAYS!!!!!!
Thursday, August 2, 2007
'Good Luck Exploring The Infinite Abyss'
HELLO (again) FROM KATHMANDU, Nepal!!!
So I just finished watching the movie 'Garden State' (again), a seminal movie for the life of a 20-something American, especially me. Zach Braff's character is stuck in that middle period between adolescence and adulthood, where the concept of 'home' no longer refers to the house in which his parents reside and where he spent his childhood years. The movie teaches us that there's a point when life starts to switch into a higher gear, we grow older, accept more responsibility, and before we know it, 'home' is something new: an apartment in the city, a temporary guest house in a foreign land while traveling the world, or the stability and security of a budding relationship. Once this happens--and once we realize it is happening--we can no longer passively allow life to continue the same way. We then enter a new mindset, one that resolutely captures each interaction with complete authenticity, allowing ourselves to actively embrace and foster whatever 'home' we happen to occupy at that time. Using the movie's analogy of waking up from a lithium-induced fog, a more tangible link to our surroundings arises and we become closer to our truest self.
There's a scene in the movie where Zach Braff, Natalie Portman, and Peter Sarsgaard venture down to the bottom of a mine quarry on the edge of a newly-uncovered 'abyss' that accidentally opened up among the rocks of a construction site. They visit a man and his wife living in a houseboat at the bottom of the quarry, whose main task is to protect the natural 'abyss' by preventing further construction of a new mall at the quarry site, but he also secretly climbs down the quarry at night to fulfill a personal desire. (The man collects antique jewlery and also happened to purchase Zach Braff's dead mom's antique necklace, stolen from the grave by Peter Sarsgaard's character, a gravedigger---random intricate storyline). Anyway, once the three main characters leave the boathouse with the recovered necklace, Zach Braff cheekily shouts at the boathouse owner: "Good luck exploring the infinite abyss!", and just as Zach Braff turns to leave, the boathouse owner shouts back: "Hey! You too!" Right then, it all made sense to me...I think I even teared up a bit. Our life is an infinite abyss, waiting to be discovered. There are unique possibilities everywhere ahead of us, just like the infinitely unique possibilities of discovery upon venturing into an untouched quarry mine for the first time. We hold the light; it is up to us to shine it into the infinite abyss that is our future and uncover it for ourselves.
At 25, I'm about to venture into a whole new chapter of my life: moving to Europe, meeting new friends, and returning to the life of a student. I know that I am ready to embrace each upcoming step without fear and without hesitation. Ever the wanderlust/vagabond/transient soul, I don't know yet what my new 'home' will be, what it will look like, or with whom I will share it, but I do know that the solid foundation of my original home (see previous blog entry)--upon which I have built my solid character--will always shine brightly in my heart.
The movie 'Garden State' will always make me think of Noah Browne...he and I saw it together in DC when it first came out during the summer of 2004 and we were first embracing the post-college, neophyte working life. We shared a new 'home' back then: 1810 California Street, and all of the memorable fun that apartment brought during those 2 years. Until I settle down and recreate the stable home that most closely resembles my parents', I hope that each subsequent new 'home' is as wonderful and exciting as that time on California Street, Washington DC.
Lots of love always!!!
So I just finished watching the movie 'Garden State' (again), a seminal movie for the life of a 20-something American, especially me. Zach Braff's character is stuck in that middle period between adolescence and adulthood, where the concept of 'home' no longer refers to the house in which his parents reside and where he spent his childhood years. The movie teaches us that there's a point when life starts to switch into a higher gear, we grow older, accept more responsibility, and before we know it, 'home' is something new: an apartment in the city, a temporary guest house in a foreign land while traveling the world, or the stability and security of a budding relationship. Once this happens--and once we realize it is happening--we can no longer passively allow life to continue the same way. We then enter a new mindset, one that resolutely captures each interaction with complete authenticity, allowing ourselves to actively embrace and foster whatever 'home' we happen to occupy at that time. Using the movie's analogy of waking up from a lithium-induced fog, a more tangible link to our surroundings arises and we become closer to our truest self.
There's a scene in the movie where Zach Braff, Natalie Portman, and Peter Sarsgaard venture down to the bottom of a mine quarry on the edge of a newly-uncovered 'abyss' that accidentally opened up among the rocks of a construction site. They visit a man and his wife living in a houseboat at the bottom of the quarry, whose main task is to protect the natural 'abyss' by preventing further construction of a new mall at the quarry site, but he also secretly climbs down the quarry at night to fulfill a personal desire. (The man collects antique jewlery and also happened to purchase Zach Braff's dead mom's antique necklace, stolen from the grave by Peter Sarsgaard's character, a gravedigger---random intricate storyline). Anyway, once the three main characters leave the boathouse with the recovered necklace, Zach Braff cheekily shouts at the boathouse owner: "Good luck exploring the infinite abyss!", and just as Zach Braff turns to leave, the boathouse owner shouts back: "Hey! You too!" Right then, it all made sense to me...I think I even teared up a bit. Our life is an infinite abyss, waiting to be discovered. There are unique possibilities everywhere ahead of us, just like the infinitely unique possibilities of discovery upon venturing into an untouched quarry mine for the first time. We hold the light; it is up to us to shine it into the infinite abyss that is our future and uncover it for ourselves.
At 25, I'm about to venture into a whole new chapter of my life: moving to Europe, meeting new friends, and returning to the life of a student. I know that I am ready to embrace each upcoming step without fear and without hesitation. Ever the wanderlust/vagabond/transient soul, I don't know yet what my new 'home' will be, what it will look like, or with whom I will share it, but I do know that the solid foundation of my original home (see previous blog entry)--upon which I have built my solid character--will always shine brightly in my heart.
The movie 'Garden State' will always make me think of Noah Browne...he and I saw it together in DC when it first came out during the summer of 2004 and we were first embracing the post-college, neophyte working life. We shared a new 'home' back then: 1810 California Street, and all of the memorable fun that apartment brought during those 2 years. Until I settle down and recreate the stable home that most closely resembles my parents', I hope that each subsequent new 'home' is as wonderful and exciting as that time on California Street, Washington DC.
Lots of love always!!!
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Kickin' It In Kathmandu
HELLO FROM KATHMANDU, Nepal!!!!!! Another blog entry, another country to recount. I have officially entered the final month of my trip, which is hard to believe, although it feels like I've been away forever.Leaving Varanasi was surprisingly bittersweet; one would think that after 3 days of cowshit-filled alleyways, dead bodies visibly floating in the Ganges, and incessant heckling from innumerable touts, I would jump at the chance to leave the place. However, all of those things added to the charm and beauty of Varanasi. I must say, along with Udaipur's gorgeous lake setting, Varanasi has been my favorite city in India.
I left Varanasi on Monday 30 July and took a brief yet rocky flight to Kathmandu. Through my lovely friend Kim in DC, I am friends with a couple who are stationed in Kathmandu for 2 years through the US government, Alicia and Bevon. I met Alicia in DC a couple of years ago, and she gladly agreed to host me while I'm in Kathmandu. Being a backpacker for the last 4 months, I've gotten used to crappy living conditions, dirty hostels, unknown sanitation levels of food, water, etc. I'm pretty easy to please when it comes to a place to stay for the night and some food to fill my stomach (I do put my foot down at sick
ness-inducing food, though). I didn't really understand the level of high living standards to which I was about to be exposed when I joined Alicia and Bevon's foreign service life. Their driver, Manik (pronounced 'Monica' without the 'a') picked me up from the airport and drove me back to the house. Once the security guard opened the gates, I had a full view of the gorgeous grand palace I could now call my home for the next 10 days. Three storeys, marble tile floors, sweeping staircase, plush amenities, furniture, a driver, housemaid, security guard(s), fully-stocked DVD collection, flatscreen TV, etc etc...it's a gorgeous home. To go from the Ganpati Guest House in Varanasi (which was my favorite guest house in India, by the way) to a cozy bed in my own bedroom in a fancy home is quite shocking. I spent the afternoon awaiting my hosts' arrival from work watching "The Last King of Scotland" DVD on their flat screen TV. Great film. Their mini dog, Chi-Chi, was my date for the event. A part of me feel
s like I am undeserving of such grandeur and privilige, but after being on the road for so long, and staying in places marginally better than squalor (Number 9 Guesthouse in Cambodia, but I'm not naming any names) I think I should answer this opportunity knock. I owe you Kim, big time.
ness-inducing food, though). I didn't really understand the level of high living standards to which I was about to be exposed when I joined Alicia and Bevon's foreign service life. Their driver, Manik (pronounced 'Monica' without the 'a') picked me up from the airport and drove me back to the house. Once the security guard opened the gates, I had a full view of the gorgeous grand palace I could now call my home for the next 10 days. Three storeys, marble tile floors, sweeping staircase, plush amenities, furniture, a driver, housemaid, security guard(s), fully-stocked DVD collection, flatscreen TV, etc etc...it's a gorgeous home. To go from the Ganpati Guest House in Varanasi (which was my favorite guest house in India, by the way) to a cozy bed in my own bedroom in a fancy home is quite shocking. I spent the afternoon awaiting my hosts' arrival from work watching "The Last King of Scotland" DVD on their flat screen TV. Great film. Their mini dog, Chi-Chi, was my date for the event. A part of me feel
s like I am undeserving of such grandeur and privilige, but after being on the road for so long, and staying in places marginally better than squalor (Number 9 Guesthouse in Cambodia, but I'm not naming any names) I think I should answer this opportunity knock. I owe you Kim, big time.Yesterday I woke up from a recuperative sleep (it felt like the first real sleep in ages), rode into town via 'my' driver, and spent the whole day sightseeing around Kathmandu. Crowded, dirty, old, magnificent, detailed, intricate are a few adjectives I'd use to describe the city. I joined my friend Brian, and we followed the Lonely Planet walking tour of the city, soaking in Durbar Square and then venturing into the intricate maze of streets lined with numerous temples, shrines, stupas, ancient buildings, and shops galore. As you
know, walking around cities is one of my favorite hobbies, so I was a happy boy yesterday. Backpacker world in Kathmandu is called Thamel (silent H) -- it's pretty much the Koh Sahn Road of Kathmandu, but spread out over a larger radius and less congested than KSR -- and I spent the evening walking around there stopping at various chotchky stores, ending up at Himalayan Java for a delicious pot of tea before being picked up by Alicia and Bevon on their way back home.Today was sightseeing day numero dos, and Brian and I headed to the nearby town of Bhaktapur. Starting in their own Durbar Square (Durbar means palace, and every major town/city in Nepal has a Durbar Square), we did another walking tour of Bhaktapur, but the setting was quite different from the day before. Bhaktapur is a quaint, quiet, and quite pict
uresque little storybook town. It feels like you've stepped back in time and are among a people not yet exposed to modernity...that is, of course, until you realize that the children know how to ask for "1 rupees". The ugly stain of globalization and tourism, ugh. That aside, I had a great afternoon strolling around the town, stopping to watch locals play cards, children play badminton, women knitting something out of yarn, and children walking home from school. Again, the town boasts gorgeous multi-tiered-roofed, pagoda-style temples, priceless stone sculptures, and amazing wood-carved window shutters/frames (one in particular, the Peacock Window, is notorious throughout the town). After a few hours' stroll, Brian and I headed up to Changu Narayan, an exquisite temple situated on top of a hill overlooking Bhaktapur and the Kathmandu Valley that dates back to the 3rd century A.C.E. As one of the oldest, if not
the oldest, temple in Nepal, it was quite awe-inspiring to be in the presence of such long-time residents: the surrounding hills and the temple itself.This evening I treated myself to a delicious Tibetan dinner and then great live jazz music at 'Jazz Upstairs', a dark, smoky, crowded bar [ie, perfect] located on the second floor of a home. I hadn't seen live jazz since Hanoi Vietnam with Brad back in May!!! Brian is quite a jazz connoisseur, so he knew many of the contemporary jazz songs played tonight. I enjoyed my first Nepali beer (Gourka), which was actually my first beer in a few weeks. Quality night to end a quality day.
Tomorrow is more sight seeing: Patan, and a few more temples/stupas in the area. Lots more photos to come!!! Since the weather is not optimal for
trekking in Nepal, I will save Annapurna and Everest Base Camp for my next visit during more opportune months. For now, I'll soak up as much as I can, and hopefully I'll get to do some overnight trips to the national park or some other outdoor excursion. Not to worry everyone, I'll be hard pressed not to keep myself occupied while in Nepal (I'm sure this is a major concern of everyone out there). :-)Lots of love always!!!!!
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