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| success!!
I uploaded 6 pictures and it took me almost 2 hours.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=3jjfp47e.bgo3a372&Uy=ewqyrn&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=1
I hope the link works? who knows, let me know.
The pic of the dude is at Pashupati, the holiest of Nepali temples. The goat pic is at Buktapur, the pic of Gasing and me is at Dubar Square, and the pic of the kids is at a Buddist temple. The monkey is also at Pashupati, and the two cool Hindu dudes are at Dubar Square as well.
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| hey slackas
lucky you! two updates in as many days. Ok , I tried to upload some pics because now i'm in a restaruant w/ wireless and I dragged my laptop out here, but still no luck, it's taking forever just to load one picture!!! anwaysy I guess I'll show them to you guys when I get back. I have some cool pics of the local ppl here. I've met some interesting Nepali people, most are very friendly but everyone stares at the foreigners especially b/c I'm asian and ppl don't belive that I'm from canada.
anywyas, i think i told you guys of my airplane ride here, so i'll go into some details about my 1st week. I've actually been here for almost 2 weeks now since I arrived last last thursday and its already wednesday.
day 1: arrival, ate dinner w/ the other volunteers
day 2: got a "tour" of Thamel, which is the touristy area of kathmandu where the volunteer house i near, after a short tour me and gasing where on our own and got majorly lost. saw some sort of soccer game, go drunk. we arrived early and one of the volunteers was planning to come later so we had a few days free.
day 3: more wondering Thamel and more soccer watching and drinking
day 4: more of the above
day 5: went to visit Pashupatinath. this is the most holy site in nepal located on a river that connects to the Ganges River in india. its a temple where people are creamated and their ashes are pushed into the river. i have some really cool pics of ppl getting creameted and some monkeys b/c they're everywhere, but no such luck of uploading
day 6: went to visit Dubar Square which is an area in Kathmandu w/ a bunch of temples, also many pics but u won't see them any time soon. also went to visit other assorted temples, houses of living goddesses etc
day 7: went to the Monkey Temple which is on top of some crazy montain that we had to hike up so many freaking stairs, i almost passed out halfway up and there were old ladies and monkeys and dogs passing me on the stairs. its a buddist temple w/ a bunch of monkeys and dogs everywhere. the dogs have rabbies..well some ....we were supposed to see an awesome sunrise so we left our house at 4am, but when we got there it was too cloudy...i was not impressed. also saw a big cockroach that day
day 8: went to the Bouda which is some other large place of worship..they're sorta all the same haha
day 9: went to Buktapur which is a city right outside Kathmandu , but w/in the Kathmandu valley. inside the valley there are 3 cities: kathmandu, buktapur, and pattan. buktapur is an interesting place, and really pretty, there was a lot of pottery making there, i think thats the place to get a clay pot if you want a nice one.
day 10: went to a traditional Nepali restaurant complete w/ Nepali traditional dancers. the restauraante was inside an old palace so it was neat. we had free unlimited Roxy which is a Nepali whiskey. i was gone after a few shots of that. after the dinner we went to a "disco" which is just a club w/ crazy Nepalis. listened to some strange music and danced w/ strange men. in Nepal guys don't show affection to girls but guys hold each other's hand and stuff and its the cultural norm. after that went to some bar to watch the final game of the world cup. gasing managed to get some random guys number haha ..so funny
so that was last sunday. the entire week we were learning Nepali language every morning. i'm so bad at it. at least i know how to say my name is:
Mero naam Kayun ho!!
yes it's sad.
once again appologies for the lack of pics. i'm here for 2 months so hopefully i'll forage for a decent connection somewhere....
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| hey slackas
Time for an update!! but once again, no pics becasue the internet is sooooooooo slow!!! andthe space bar is messed so i might be missing spaces haha.
So week one is over and donewith, we visited many touristy placesduring our orientation week like temples,temples andmore temples. Ihavesomereally awesome pics iwish i had thepatiencetoloadup but idon't. foodhereis really good, you can buy whatever you wantin the toursty areas, today wehad some tasty jap food, for 3 ppl it was about$10!!itsso ridiculous, i think iwanttolive in 3rd worldcountry haha.
yeah...notmuch tosayin this blog exceptthatihave some cool pics thati wont beposting,but gasing has some on his xanga, or sohe plans.
no volunteering todaybecasus it's "guru" holiday which is just a holiday forschool.teachers.i.think.nepal.just.has.holidays.for.no.reason.so.they.have.an.excuse.not.to.go.to.work.they. actually.shut.down.the.hosptial!!.its.so.weird.well.the. hospital.is.a.shit.hole.anyways.compared.to.a.public.washroom.in.canada.but.they.offer.free.healthcare. to.all.the.poor. children.in.nepal.so.thats.good.on.my.first.day.i.observed.a.doc.do.physio.on.1.patient.andthen.he.told.me.to. start.working.and.he.left!!!! so ihad to do random limb excercises with babies, and someof them wereactually paying forthe service becasueafterthe 6th visit you haveto pay...it was halarious in a not so halarious way.
ok space bar is annoying. i'll update w/ better stories when i find amore decent internet cafe.
Latas
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| Hey Slackas
WARNING: huge blog about nepal w/ no pictures so be prepared to read w/out visual stimulation.
I'm in Kathmandu, Nepal now. I arrived Thursday evening. The plane ride here was scary and bumpy and smelly, though the food was ok. We flew with Royal Nepal Airlines and we were supposed to be able to see Mt. Everest. I even requested window seats on the right side of the plane to ensure a good view but there were too many clouds to see anything...boo. On the bright side, after standing in line with a bunch of strange Nepalese for 15mins in the Hong Kong airport to check into the flight, a lady took us to the Business Class section to check in and avoid waiting in the line..sweet..most likely cuz we were obviously out of place among all the brown people haha. And the nice airline lady let us check in our luggage w/out hassle even though our luggage was more than 10pounds over the limit and they made the Nepalese lady beside us pay a big fine for being 1kg over limit...so being yellow has for once paid off haha.
After getting off the plane my initial impression was that the airport was a piece of shit and I chose the wrong country to go to. In the immigration section I got a visa for 63 days which is good cuz usually they only give you 60days and i would have to pay another $30US for the extra few days which is gay but luckily the lady was nice and didn't try to pocket my money. Outside the airport there was a bunch of sketchy ppl trying to "help" me with my bags, it was sorta scary. And then we saw the dude w/ the Volunteer Abroad sign way in the back and immediately some kids grabbed my luggage and the dude w/ the sign said it was ok...so i thought ok...maybe they work for the company. then he lead us to some unmarked shitmobile and then i started to panic...i seriously though he was going to drive us out so some ravine, steal my laptop and feed me to the cows. but it turns out the kids were just hustling for $$ and they started knocking on my window and asking for "tips" but i was told to ignore them. Anyways, the car trip to the hostel i'm living in was interesting. there were few paved roads and it looked like a 3rd world country..which it is. but i was still shocked. there were ppl sitting there in the dark, squatting near fires and there were wild dogs and cows everywhere. The traffic was INSANE and the only goal of the driver is to get to the destination which ever way is most convenient, not paying attention to which side of the road they're driving on or whether or not they're driving through an intersection heading into other vehicles. there were also a gazillion ppl walking around and motorcycles too. during the car ride the dude told me to relax cuz i was obviously looking freaked out haha.
Anyways, the house we're staying in is like a nice new shiny mansion compared to the surrounding buildings. it has regular toilets (but you're not allowed to flush toilet paper, you have to put it in a wastebasket), hot running water, electricity, and Internet and tv! yeah. but after living in hong kong w/ a maid and eating at the country club it was a HUGE adjustment.
On Friday (the 2nd day we were there) the dude gave us a 2 hour tour of the city and then we wandered around ourselves. so after walking 30 steps from where he left us we were lost and spent the next two hours trying to figure out how to get home..it was sad..but also very hot...so bringing all those sweaters for the cold Himalayan nights was a totally stupid idea cuz its always hot here. At night we went to see superman at the posh theater with the other volunteers which is nicer than the theater at eagle ridge, complete with a balcony! then we went to a bar to watch the soccer game (which i thought was really insanely boring) and got wasted.
Anyways. sorry for no pics but i don't feel comfortable taking my camera places because it's worth more money than some ppl make there in 2 years, and i don't want to get stabbed. I'll update more later when I have actual interesting things to say haha. | | |
| Hey slackas
So far these are the things I've noticed or made sweeping generalizations about Hong Kong that really show how immensely ignorant I am about a country my parents grew up in:
1. The escalators move a lot faster and have more flat areas at the beginning and end
2. It's a buyers market out here, stores are whoring for your business and if your a savy shopper (unlike me) you can get some good deals
3. They use massive amount of energy to power air-con, even in stores that are open to the street. It's like walking around in a humid oven outside and then walking into a fridge (sorta like walking into a 4C fridge for all those science nerds out there). Instead of killing people slowly with pollution and energy consumption, they should just build a bio dome or a giant sun shade
4. even though it's a million degrees here, not that many people wear tanks/sleeveless shirts and no one sweats!! I don't get it. maybe they've evolved and sweat only on the soles of their feet or something.
5. people here have no shame!!! in an one hour period I've seen a man's hairy belly, a person clipping their toe nails on the street, and a guy sitting on a chair w/ his eyes closed picking at his whiskers. also I feel like I'm invisible, no one really acknowledges you since there's like a trillion other people right behind you and NO ONE says sorry/or excuse me when they bump into you (although I read that apologizing for no particular reason is the Canadian way)
6. there are weird names for buildings and organizations, like the "productivity council" and the "environmental club"
7. after riding around on the MTR w/ that awesome octapus card I've realized that the infastructure in Vancouver really sucks ass, although we have more trees so I guess that makes up for it?
8. I saw a lot of hotels advertising for 2 hour or 1 hour stays for super cheap. is that for ppl who fratinize w/ hookers? cuz I didn't see any hookers around, or maybe hookers in hk don't look like east hastings' hookers but who knows
On a brighter note, I went to Nathan Road yesterday to do some shopping and picked up a camera. It came with so many freebies like an extra 1 gig memory card, an extra battery, a tripod, screen protector, lens cloth, memory card case and plastic tote w/ a doggy on it. It was ridiculous. and on top of that my aunt managed to talk the dude into give me a discount. also, I like how all the shoes and clothes there are shrink wrapped, I'm guessing to keep them from getting wet but also probably because people like things here shiny and clean (for the most part) which also may explain why there aren't many carpeted floors. Anyway the camera I got is a Samsung digimax i6, it has a mp3 player in it and all these stupid features I'll never use. the sales guy asked me (in english! yeah no chinglish needed) what features I wanted and I said "ah...a camera that takes pictures of stuff?"..yes I know I'm retarded.
oks I rambled enough. more incoherent thoughts later! (sorry no pics yet, but check out gasing's xanga he'll put some up later)
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