Back in India

I’m in Rishikesh! It’s one of the places I have been wanting to come to for a while.

As you have probably figud, I didn’t do the fun run in Delhi – basically I haven’t been well enough. But, now I am back in India, Tony, my crazy Tai-Chi teacher is here and I have decided health is the most important thing (again)

So, I have given up sugar – again – and am putting a lot of effort into my diet to make sure I eat enough vegies. I’m doing Tai-Chi and I’m looking into Yoga classes to do as well.

It is nice to be back in India, I feel more relaxed and ‘at home’ here than I did in Nepal and Thailand. Will try to update you all again soon – and get some photo’s up.

crazy, crazy few weeks

Since my last post so much has happened I’m not too sure where to start.

Firstly, I went to one of the Thai Islands. It was shit, I had some serious health problems, got seriously sunburned, bit by a crab and couldn’t walk properly. On top of that, even though I was sleeping in a ‘quiet’ part of the island there were a few nights where I couldn’t sleep because the party music was too much.

Anyway, so I left there and went to Malaysia. Dan had been in Malaysia to see a Buddhist teacher, his name is His Eminence Tsem Tulku Rinpoche. Please don’t stress at this point, I’m not becoming Buddhist, I just find it fascinating (especially since soo soooo much of it is just what Jesus said, eg, be good to people, let go of hate etc).

So I went to this Birthday party and Rinpoche taught in person – apparently this makes me really lucky because he only teaches in person 6 times a year or so – and I have to say it was amazing. I’m fairly sceptical about it all, I don’t believe in karma or being reborn as an animal or any of that, but his talk was amazing, about forgiving people, about looking at your life and thinking about what you have done (is it positive or could you have helped more people), about  making changes to yourself for the benefit of others instead of expecting them to change. Then at the end of his talk I spoke to him in person, I can’t even describe it, it’s not like meeting Bono or some kind of celebrity, it was more like i would expect meeting Mother Teresa to feel like. He put me completely at ease and made me feel so excited at the same time, he gave me some presents (books, a pendant) and told me to keep going on my spiritual path and that he hoped I would some back to his organisation at some point.

 

 

The same night I had already committed to joining the ’soup kitchen’ part of this Buddhist organisation for the night. Every Saturday night they drive around the streets of Kuala Lumpur and give a hot meal and a bad og cold food to the homeless, these people are al registered and also get basic medical care if required. So until about 4am (although I fell asleep at 3) we were driving around giving out food.

Then I had a few more days in KL before heading back to Bangkok. I have been hanging around there with Dan watching movies and stuff for a week (i guess) and now we are both at Cha-am its a beach about 3 hours south of Bangkok.

I like it here, this is where Thai people come on holidays so there are not as many drunk and irritating westerners around. The beach is really long and the people here are all really nice. I’m going to stay for a little while and get back into my Tai-Chi and running. Health is now the number 1 priority again.

new photos

I thought I already did this post, but It doesn’t seem to be there.

Photos of the nepal part of my trip are now on my flickr site. You can find them by clicking on the photos to the side of this page

Some from the meditation course and some from bungee jumping.

beach time :)

Almost.

Tomorrow I am picking up my visa (and passport) from the Indian Embassy and then catching a 12 hour bus south, then a 2 hour ferry to one of the islands.

It’s going to be great. I’m looking forward to going for a swim, it’s been months and months.

Bangkok, Thailand

I’m in Thailand!

I love Thailand!

It seems really quiet and peaceful, even though I am in the middle of Bangkok. I think that might have something to do with the lack of car horn use. People here manage to just drive without holding their hand on the horn like in India.

It is really nice to be somewhere clean and organised, at least it feels clean and organised. in the past two days I have had a hair treatment, a facial and a foot massage. I’ve eaten some  great Thai food, i’m still sticking with being vego, but that might all fall apart when I get to the beach and there are fresh prawns to be eaten.

I know it’s all probably just frame of mind, but I was struggling in Nepal. Now, I’m happy again. It’s warm and humid and most places have air conditioning so you get that great feeling when you walk outside of being engulfed by the warmth. I love it.

I’m in Bangkok until I get my Indian visa (monday) then I am going to hang about on a beach. Women here actually show some skin, so it will be nice to be able to walk around in a bikini and not be putting myself in danger

One, Two, Three, Bungee!!

After a  few weeks if being really tired and lazy yesterday I got off my ass to do something with my time.

Bungee Jumping! The day started badly, I’m not good at early mornings (they make me nauseous) or bus trips (they also make me nauseous) so the 4 hour trip to ‘The Last Resort’ was horrible. The first half I was just counting my breaths to attempt to distract myself enough to not vomit, the second half I went to sleep on the flat bit of the bus beside the driver, but still work up multiple times feeling really really bad.

Then, I got ultra sunburned while waiting for my turn to jump.

The jump itself was AMAZING. I do love jumping, it feels like flying. Apparently I have ‘good form’ more of a dive and it looked good. It felt good. It was a great feeling, it only lasts a few seconds, but still its great.

The walk back up wasn’t so great. I lost most of the adrenaline rush because of the huge hike back up the hill, about 30mins all going up.

Still, after I calmed down from that, it was great. I had some friend there, one from Leh, and we all started drinking together. When it was finally time to leave, we got a spare couple of beers for the road and decided to ride on the roof off the bus. My first time travelling on the roof, and its heaps better for my bus sickness because you have to put effort in not to fall off.

It rained on us a little, but it wasnt cold at all. Once I got too tired we got back inside the bus where I fell asleep for most of the remainder of the trip. I was laying across the back seat with my legs over a cute Welsh guy.

So, all in all the afternoon was great. If it wasn’t for the expense (the last resort charges way, way, way too much to jump) and the hard walk back up I would have gone again. Actually, even if the staff had have asked how my jump  was and if I was interested in doing a second jump I probably would have, but I wasn’t going to seek them out to help them rip me off again.

All in all, I highly recommend bungee jumping, just find somewhere better than the last resort to do it.

It has perked me up again, I have some excitement back.

let the running training begin!

I’m in Kathmandu, Nepal, and I don’t actually like it much It was draining me of energy and I wasn’t all that happy.  Then I remembered about getting sponsors for this charity fun run in November.

Now I am really excited. Within 2 hours of putting stuff on Facebook about it I had 4 people say they would donate!

So, now I really need to train. Ive decided to give up sugar in the lead up to this run. Today I had a salad and fruit juice for lunch. It’s going to be great.

So, email me if you are interested in sponsoring me, messyfruit@gmail.com

The info about the charity can be found at www. thedeafway.org

Kathmandu, Nepal

I’ve been in Nepal for 5 nights now, and so far I have done next to nothing!

The first day or two were brilliant. Sean (a friend from my time in Leh) met me at the airport and then gave me a tour of the bars of Kathmandu. The next day we went to Durbar Square, which is one of Kathmandu’s major attractions, its a world heritage site and it had a road running through the middle! Then, as the afternoon rains kicked in (monsoon isn’t quite over) we found more places to drink.

That night I was violently ill all night, and I have been sick since then. Today I started anti-biotics and tablets to kill parasites (because i’m not sure which one it is). Should be better soon.

In 2 days I am starting a 10 day retreat at a Buddhist Monastery. It’s 10 days of meditation, good vego food and time to practice my tai-chi. I’m looking forward to it.

I had been hoping to do some adventure sports before this retreat. Nepal is known for its rafting, canyoning, and bungee jumping among other things. I think with my health as it is I will have to leave that until after the retreat. It’s going to be brilliant!

But, overall im doing well. Its been a over a month since I stopped my medication and that is going fine. Its a bit strange to go back to travelling on my own, but I guess I will meet people  in this retreat.

Delhi & Agra

Its been a hectic few days.

Yesterday I went to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. I will put photos up tomorrow. It blew me away. If it wasn’t so hot I think I could have just sat and looked at it for ages. When you first walk in, it looks fake, like a big plastic sheet with a picture painted on it. It looks to amazing and symmetrical to be real.

Today Dan got his laser eye surgery. I have been a little sick too so the both of us just layed around watching movies and sleeping. Very boring, but still with this heat and being a bit sick I am exhausted.

While we have been in Delhi, I have caught up with some friends from my vipassana course. One of them is an Indian guy who runs an organisation to empower deaf Indian people. It seems like a great organisation. The other day (after a beer) Arun was talking about a ‘fun run’ they are going in to raise money for their organisation ( I believe it runs on donations) and so I said I would go in it. If all goes well, I will be running a half marathon in 2 months in the heat of Delhi, if not so well, then 7km  SO, BE PREPARED FOR AN EMAIL ASKING FOR SPONSORSHIP SOON.

http://www.thedeafway.org/ if you want info on the cause

On the whole I am well, just a little sick and feeling oppressed by the heat of Delhi.

on the way to Delhi

Its been a crazy few weeks.

Yesterday I was on a 17 hour bus trip that lasted 22 hours, this is in part because the bus driver decided to sleep during the night instead of drive (it was an overnight trip) and partly because we were held up by a road blockade (some villagers were a little annoyed that they didn’t have enough rice).
Anyway, tomorrow I fly to Delhi. I’m going to be there for a week. The plan is to catch up with some friends that live there and help Dan when he gets his lazer eye surgery and do a day trip to the Taj Mahal.
Today had been fairly relaxed, this town isnt as easy as Leh (where I was for the past 2 months) but its nice. This afternoon I am going for a boat ride around a lake. Hopefully the sun will come out so I can get some good photos.
All in all, things are good. I’m happy to have moved on from Leh, but also a little sad because life was good there.