Kathmandu!

Namaste! (Which literally means "I greet the divine within you") Every where I go, this how I am greeted. I am also called "sister" all the time, which is very endearing. Needless to say, Kathmandu is really wonderful.

As some of you may know, there is a strong Indian influence in Nepal, but the people seem different from what I understand. I've been in Kathmandu for about a week and am starting to learn the Nepalese language. I am staying in a fairly touristy area, but enjoying it all the same. The streets are not all paved, the traffic is super crazy (even crazier and more dangerous than Taiwan and China), there is a lot of poverty and sometimes electricity cuts out (sometimes while you are in the middle of typing an e-mail or making an addition to your blog), but the people... oh the amazing people... are a constant display of happiness and kindness.

Over the weekend, I visited the Royal Chitwan National Park for a short safari. It was really beautiful, quiet and I was completely surrounded by nature, some tourists and other indigenous villages. On the safari, I went for a jungle walk, took a lovely canoe ride in a dug out tree trunk, saw gorgeous wild animals such as deer, boar, crocodiles, monkeys, many birds and bugs, elephants and rhinos! I also got to meet some delightful baby elephants at the breeding center there. The baby elephants were curious, hungry (for the cookies that the center sold), and so docile. They knew that cookies were coming and came right up to the fence for some treats. They would climb up on the fences if I bribed them with a cookie. One of my fondest memories is the youngest baby, only 6 months old, who wasn't that coordinated, as she stumbled trying to climb the fence, then the cookie didn't seem to get down her throat so well, so she choked a bit, then trumpeted her horn a bit and ran back to be by her mother's side. So cute! Also, I heard a baby elephant fart, as he tried to climb a little embankment, the sound gave me a bit of a surprise, it was really loud!

However, the highlight of the trip was taking a bath with an elephant. For a small fee, I climbed onto the back of an elephant as it waded through the Rapti River and squirted me with river water, then gently rolled over and I fell into the river, over and over again. I fed it bananas and stroked it's rough and hair prickly skin as I stood eye level with the huge beast. It was a really wonderful experience.

Today is the Buddah's birthday, Buddha Jayanti and I am headed to the one of the largest Buddha stupas in all of Asia to see the celebration. More pictures and stories coming soon... The internet is slow here, so it takes a while.

Hugs!