Sorry for the delay

Hi all

Ok we've been having some serious technical issues. The movie has been ready for over a week, but it seems to have a bit of a bug (and yes, I've reexported it several times) and refuses to post.

In light of the headache, what I'm going to do for this one is type the contents of the film with some pics so you have an idea of what's going on...

Everest Day 6 & 7

Hi there, this is both the day 6 & 7 report as on day 6 my camera battery cacked out on me. I've just been able to recharge it now, it costs about $5 for the use of an outlet for 1 hour. Things up here in the mountains get pretty expensive that way.

(cough) Health is still not great. In fact, we just adjusted the plans of the hike unfortunately around my health. Because of the fact that I'm still dealing with this cold and we're getting to higher and higher altitudes and to top it off, and old knee injury has come into play as well.

(laugh) It's very humbling being up here in the mountains. Whether it's the mountain itself you have to deal with or just the physical limitations of your body. I'm generally in good health, I'm the type who'll stick around at the gym and do a second class. But up here, if your body just decides ; no, that's not happening, then it makes up it's mind and that's the case.

so right now, Sandy and our guide are off on a day hike. Our guide was desperate to get me to come with them, but as I explained; the reason we're spending a second day here is for me to rest and get better. and a 5 hr day hike defeats that purpose. So I'm just taking the day and resting today

But yesterday was about a 6 hr hike, it was a good long one. Toward the end we were literally walking through the clouds. as our elevation changed, so did the scenery. We went above the tree line, so there is nothing more than small shrubs at this point. The place has a bit of medieval feel to it with the stone fences and such at this height. As we were coming through the clouds coming to this new kind of landscape, it reminded me of the land of Modor from Lord of the Rings.

so far, so good, I am feeling a little better today (although visually, I look terrible) and if all goes as planned it should be 3 days to Everest base camp so I'll keep you tuned

Namaste

note: we woke up the next morning to the sound of a shovel, yes, they had an unseasonal snow fall during the night on the little town - and yes, that first pic is of someone's laundry!

Everest Day 5

Hello, well here we are on day 5 of our trek. We hiked about 5 hours from Namche Bazzar to a "village" (can you call a monastary & 4 buildings a village?) called Tengboche. There we got to see a yak tussle and the second photo contains the yak I named "skunk yak"!

I had forgotten to mention that a little side quest of mine was that in order to help drive Sandy a little over the edge, I had been promising/threatening to sing showtunes all the way up the mountains. So in that spirit, each day I have been singing a different tune from a different show. Some old, some new - some appropriate for the events of the day, some just popped into my head.

Thus far in the trip I've done "We're off to see the wizard" as our day one, "Send in the Clowns" regarding our frustration of trying to get around a particularly slow tour group, "into the woods" as we entered the park itself, "Chitty chitty bang bang" as it just kind of went with my wheezing that day and day 5 was "I just Can't wait to be King" as a nod to my Disney pals and our ongoing teasing to our guide that we were waiting to see a snow leopard any time now. (if you're not familiar they are probably one of the most elusive creatures on the earth, and people who make finding them their career often spend weeks or months searching for a glimpse). As part of our joke on Sandy, when we entered brush, our guide Naresh would let out a pathetic meow, I'd yell "snow leopard" and point at a shrubbery (even though we were still at too low an elevation to see them). Sandy was not amused, but we thought we were pretty funny. Upon the line from the song, "working on my roar" - to my surprise Naresh let out his meow on cue!

Shorter video today, enjoy

Namaste

Everest day 4

Namaste

Well we made it to the big town of Namche Bazar, last stop of civilization in the mountains.

Some people have asked me what kind of medication I've required for this trip. In many parts of India I needed to take pills to avoid catching malaria. At this point in the mountains I was on a large variety of things - I had caught a travellers tummy bug and food poisoning at the same time (in India) and the doc in Kathmandu put me on 3 different meds to clear it up. At this point in the trip I was also starting the meds to avoid altitude sickness.

Enjoy!

everest day 3

Yak Parking, how often do you see that????

After two days of hiking, we have finally entered the "actual park" as they have a buffer zone surrounding it.

Enjoy!

Namaste

Lesley

Everest Day 1&2

Hello all

As you've been patiently awaiting here's the first instalment of the "Quest for Everest". As I've discovered facebook's notifications are several days behind (no idea...) I'll just let you know that I planning to put a new one up at least every other day for this adventure.

I will warn you... this part of the trip truly reflects the "glamour" in the glamour tour!

Enjoy and keep those comments coming!

Namaste

Lesley

Elephant bath time

Hi all

Here's a video for you of some elephant bath time and "driving". The trainer is standing at the back of the basket just giving verbal commands to the elephant.

I've added Colonel Hathi's march from the jungle book as a nod to Rudyard Kipling being inspired from one of the national parks in this region. The two that are arguing are both in India, but Chittwan National park is just over the border from them.

As this is my first video post, PLEASE let me know if there are any technical issues.

And to those in the industry, no this is not a demo reel. These videos are being quickly put together for friends and family, please consider them as such : )

Enjoy!

Chittwan National Park

Hello all

I have just made it home at this point, but I still wanted to share some adventures of chittwan NP (our last stop on our tour) and then I'll start posting the Everest journey.

chittwan was very cool. Many of you know that I have a love of elephants and this park allows you to do elephant safaris and even an elephant bath!

We saw barking deer, spotted deer, wild pigs and chickens, rhinos and even a wild asparagus plant! We stayed on an island in the park itself and due to the 40 + degrees celcius, for the most part we were two of 4 people at the resort. A shout out to John from Scotland and Alex from Germany for being two of the most fun people to be stranded on a island with - we had a hoot!

I do have to say though that nothing topped the elephant bath, not sure who got the bath... but that's ok!

this funky town

Namaste

Still in Katmandu, which is one very cool place. "funky" is the only term I can really think of to describe it. The rooftop scape is quite interesting. There is a dog who likes to sit with his front paws hanging over the edge of a roof and bark at the passersby below on the street. May be a bit intimidating if it wasn't 5 stories up.

Yesterday we went and saw the palace. Only 4 years ago, nepal was still a kingdom, today it's a democracy and they've opened up the palace as a museum. It was quite interesting , the royal family had had a rather troubled past within the last decade, which actually resulted in a shooting spree by the kings brother. Quite a troubled family history... put an interesting museum.

Also found a "secret garden" which was absolutely beautiful. Spent some time relaxing with a drink in the garden.

Tomorrow we're off to Chitwan national park to do an elephant safari and have a good time.

More later...

We're back...

Hello all

We've returned from everest and are happy to say we're still in one piece!

Turns out Sandy and I are quite fast and we did the trek in less time than expected so we're back in Katmandu a couple of days early. We had a great time, although it was unseasonably cold (we were in snow for over a week) maybe that was what kept us moving...

As I know many of you were really interested in this leg of the journey aNd i couldn't access interent, i did something different... As i head home a week today, what I did was record video updates each day of the trek, so you can live it along with me. i'll start uploading those when i get home. So what i'll do is continue with my regular updates as they happen, and then when i get home you can enjoy the Everest section of the trip. Sound good?

I'll just warn you - 3 weeks, 2 showers.... need I say more? It ain't pretty, but what an adventure.

So for the next few days I'll be in katmandu, if anyone has heard about the riots that took place, don't worry they're not near the tourist areas.

Until later

Namaste

The hills are alive...

Namaste all
I promised to write about my arrival in Nepal before I head into the mountains tomorrow. So here it is.

We arrived at the airport to a smiling faced, Sarba (our guide) waving wildly at us. He had gone with Sandy a few years back when Sandy had become extreamly ill and was unable to make it to base camp due to food poisoning. Sandy has raved about him since, so there was no question who we'd be going with. He wisked us out to the car and presented us with floral necklaces as a welcome and the chatted non-stop all the way to the hotel. Turns out that when Sandy went with him in 2007, it was just him operating out of his living room, but now he has an office with several guides. Unfortunately he was not going to be accompanying us on our hike, but was sending us with his brother instead, as things at the office were just too busy to take 3 weeks away (personally, I think the fact he has a one year old at home, as well as another small child may have something to do with it as well).

After freshing up at the hotel, we walked to Durbur square which is a really cool square with all sorts of things going on, huge giant temples, street merchants, people carrying things 5 times the size of me, you name it - it's happening. After we met up with Sarba at the end of his work day and went out to dinner with him so that they could catch up. I did run into some credit card issues, but thanks to a wonderful friend and cousin at the bank, those have been fixed : )

The following day was spent with a driver doing "the sites of Katmandu" which included a very cool Buddist temple with prayer wheels that were 8 feet tall and prayer flags draped everywhere. It's so pretty. Another older kind of town square with some cool temples and finally the "monkey temple". which surprisingly enough was quite devoid of monkeys. Sandy had been to this temple before and remembers them being everywhere, but this time we had to search for 45 min before we saw any of them! Eventually we stumbled across a few which followed us back up to the temple. Sure was glad we got to play with the ones in Jaipur!

Later that evening Sarba and his wife and 2 little boys took us to a traditional Nepalese dinner which included music and dancing. It was a great night with so much food!!! Unfortunately my tummy had continued giving me issues since earlier in the week, but it wasn't the normal travellers issues. We decided that with it not getting any better and heading out into the mountains tomorrow - we'd better get me to a doctor.

So Sarba the amazing, walked me down to a local pharmacy, spoke to the pharmacist and somehow convinced him to call the doctor in specially for me. So within a half hour I had an appt with the doc, 3 different kinds of meds (turns out he thinks I had food poisoning in Goa along with a travellers bug) and was on our way back to meet Sandy at the hotel. Yeah Sarba!!!!!
What an awesome guy!

If anyone would like to see the route we'll be doing over the next 3 weeks you can check it out at
www.nepalnomad.com it's the 22 day Gokyo lake , Cholapass, Everest Base Camp trek
what that means is that there won't be any updates for that time period as there's no internet on the side of the mountains! I promise to make up for the updates when I get back - but yes, I will be disappearing off the face of the earth for the next 3 weeks (in other words, mum, I'm fine!).

I'll talk to you all in three weeks!

namaste

farewell India, hello Nepal

Namaste
Sorry for the delay, there were supposed to be a couple of opportunities for me to get a blog entry in this week that didn't actually materialize. Largely the internet in Mumbai, didn't really happen, I was hoping to post some photos - but it was taking forever, and as it is Sandy's netbook, I did kind of need to share... a few did make it onto my facebook page, so for those of you who are on that you can see some kayaking & body surfing ones there.

Since I left off, I had been wanting to take a cooking course while I was in India as I love Indian food. Although I'll be honest that on this trip I've been a little disappointed as I guess I was expecting the food to be like when you go to Thailand. If you like Thai food, the food in Thailand is amazing! The Indian food here, isn't really any better than you can find in some good Indian restaurants in T.O.. Oh well, I've enjoyed it none the less.

So I signed myself up for a cooking class, Sandy wanted to have no part of it. I met a lovely young woman who taught me how to make veggie masala (without using stuff from a jar!). It was really good, and surprsingly easy. It gave me the confidence to experiment more at home.
I also learned that not only are school all private here, but most of them teach strictly English until about gr 3, as they figure the kids are getting Hindi at home - interesting concept!

The remainder of the day was spent lounging and shopping. The next morning I had something that didn't agree with me at breakfast, so the remainder of the day was spent lying in bed, moaning as my stomach wretched. Fun way to spend my last day in Goa eh?

The following day was spent getting to the aiport and flying to Mumbai. Eventually we made it to the hotel and just took it easy as the internet was moving at turtle speed. Only really interesting moment was being asked for our boarding cards as we were getting off the plane.... (and yes, we had been asked for it when we got on). Off the plane... I kept waiting for the guy to smile and let us in on the joke - but no... that wasn't to happen, that's just India.

kicking tan

Hello all

Here I am again in sunny Goa. What Sandy and I have discovered on this part of the adventure is that there really isn't as much to do here as we originally thought. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining - I'm on a beautiful beach, with warm weather and water. We've discovered many restaurants and have a few favs that we've been frequenting, I even have a favourite waiter... (he's just always smiling, and sits down with you to take your order- it's cute). We just seem to be falling into a regular routine: get up, breakfast, walk, swim (and by swim I mean play in the waves), shower, lunch , read on porch, swim, shower, dinner - repeat.

So I know the question most of you have... how is Glassford dealing without a/c? Well after day 3, he decided he needed the a/c so off we went that am to find better digs. Turns out, there are only a few places with a/c and all of them were twice the price and a bigger dive then where we're staying; so we're staying put. He's referring to our temporary home as "one step up from a slum" but I really don't think it's that bad - it's less than $10 a night! I'll post photos later this week. You can judge for yourselves!

The other morning I had quite the surprise. I had got up early and headed for the main street leaving Sandy lounging at our hut; I had bought a danish for breakfast and was walking along the street with it when I noticed a figure following me. I quickened my pace, so did he. The follower got closer and closer until he brushed into my arm. At that point I turned to face him and said in a forceful tone "get your own breakfast cow!". That seemed to do the trick as he left me and my danish alone. Poor cow, pushy cow! : ) Still cute though.

Got to love those cows!

Namaste

sunny sunny Goa

Hello all

After much running around at breakneck speed, Sandy and I have made our way to Goa. Beaches, beaches and more beaches... We figured that by this point we'd need a bit of down time, and by me falling asleep in a chair earlier today - I'd say we were right!

From the airport we had a crazy taxi ride down to our beach of choice. Here we've found a little shack on the beach (which will be torn down next month in preparation for the monsoons) for less than $10 a night. Mosiquito netting, a fan, a porch and our own bathroom with cold and cold running water. I'm ok here, we'll see how long Sandy lasts without the a/c .

We've met up with a couple of my friends from the ashram and went for dinner last night. It's a quiet sleepy town here and I'm not sure if we'll be going a bit nuts near the end of the week, but for now it's all good.

Only appointment for today is to hit the 4 o'clock waves. As that's when they start getting big and you can just spend a couple of hours riding them into shore. Hudson would love it!

It's much more of a laid back atmosphere here, which I'm enjoying. So this week's entries may not be the most interesting, but I'm just operating at a bit of a slower pace.

Did have another giggle this morning at breakfast. Now as the owner of a Golden retriever I'm quite used to having company watching me eat. We'll even go as far to say "being stared at" while I'm eating. Well this morning I was having my toast, getting that exact same feeling that I was being watched. I turned around to discover a young calf had entered the restaurant and was behind me eyeing my toast, before getting chased off by the waiter. Ya gotta love the cows!

Hope everyone is well and the spring weather is upon you

Namaste

one last shot...

Isn't she gorgeous? Taken early morning at Ranthamborne National Park.

Monkey Temple in Jaipur

These guys were just plain cute. We had the "Monkey master" with us so he knew which ones to approach and which to avoid. So mum, you can relax. Sandy and I are feeding him peanuts in the one shot with the cool temple in the background.

This other little guy had already had peanuts from me, had inspected that my hands were both empty and yet, decided to sit and just hold my hands for a few minutes...

Pushkar - my pal Johnny

Here's Mr. Goodlooking for you all to admire. He really is a good camel, didn't throw me off once and very kind., I had a great time with him.

You'll also notice the picture of Sandy's camel named Donny. As soon as Sandy got off for a break Donny stretched right out like a certain Golden retriever I know!

We have wireless!

After much searching we've secured a hotel in Mumbai that has wifi, we did have to move rooms to get it working - but I'm hoping to be able to upload some photos for you.

Ha ha! Once successful image! This is a photo of the ashram I stayed at in my first week. The owner loves flowers and so the gardens are amaazing. The tall building you're looking at contained my room on the 3rd floor overlooking the courtyard. To it's right is the dining hall and at the extreame left you can see a tiny bit of the temple.

The other photo (top right) is my view from where we did our yoga practice every am as the sun came up and pm as the sun went down. It was so peaceful as all you could hear would be birds and the river.

and the photo top, top left (clearly I have some layout to learn) is of the water fall we walked to. It has been slightlt enhanced by a bored Sandy, but these colours are closer to what it actually looks like!

As it takes a long time to upload these photos, more will come in a separate post, so I don't run the risk of losing them

namaste

this is the train that never ends...

After a lovely relaxing time in the little town of Orchha, we went to the train station to catch our overnight train to Varanasi. We had a lovely cab driver not only drop us of, but came in to verify we had the right platform and show us the "upper class" waiting are (you, know for super models and the like)

You have to understand that train stations in India are a bit different than at home. Everyone is camped out, literally sitting and sleeping, everywhere all over the ground. The upper class waiting area (as cramped as that was) was appealing due to the lack of whack-a-doodles in the room. You don't have to be quite a paranoid as on the main platform, keeping an eye out for your belongings. One really sweet addition to the main platform was a mother dog with 6 pups who were probably about 5 weeks old. They were so cute! I gather the station master had a soft spot and hadn't run them off.

So being that we're in India, 1 1/4 hours after our train was due to depart it arrived in the station. We boarded to discover we weren't ticketed for the class we had hoped,but also that it was scheduled to take 12 hours to cover the 575km distance. After an attempt at sleeping the sun rose and there we were waiting yet again for the train to move. This one just seemed to stop contstantly, with out any apparent reason. The a/c was weak at best (it's 44 degrees C here today) and Sandy was going greener by the minute.

After having arrived at the train station at 9pm, we arrived in Varanasi at 1pm. Thankfully the guide that had been booked had waited the additional 3 hours and we stepped off to a "Welcome Lesley" sign which was the only thing that kept Sandy from a mini breakdown. He whisked us off to our hotel (which was quite nice) where Sandy became one with the bed and bathroom while I went off on a boat ride down the river. For the record, Sandy has been to Varanasi before and told me to go without him, since I'd have our guide with me.

It still seems a bit strange to me when we passed the burning gates (where they cremate bodies 24hrs/day) I did see a body wrapped up in the adorned fabric. But thankfully I wasn't able to identify anything that was currently burning. The truely crazy part were how many people were just downriver swimming. Candles are set a drift amongst flowers and it made for a beautiful sunset.

Sandy is looking better now, hopefully it lasts!

Namaste

India supermodel!

Hello all

Here I am again, this time in the sleepy little town of Orchha. I'm enjoying small town life for a couple of days and I've found an internet cafe where my fingers don't ache after a half hour of typing (i have to admit I'm surprised by the lack of technology here). Tonight we are catching the night train to Varanasi so we're getting a chance to catch up on e-mail for a bit before a final dip in the pool and off we go...

I just had an opportunity to read over some earlier blogs and would just like to make a sweeping apology for spelling errors. As I mentioned you have to put some muscle behind these keyboards and I guess my fingers just aren't that strong. So some errors I don't notice - some I'm too tired to fix. I have had requests for additional details in my blogs so I'll do the best I can. Please don't forget to leave comments, I love hearing from people!

So the other day we were in Agra and went to see the mighty Taj Mahal. After paying literally 40x the price of the locals we were issued booties and water and joined the line. It took a little bit for me to recognize that I was the only female in line, I then noticed an all female line and figured that I better go join that one! As is the norm in India it was a very close line (hence the reason for separating the sexes). An older lady behind me decided to take me under her wing and have me do this line "right", so she put one hand on my shoulder in the appropriate shove position and gently escorted me up to the front.

Of course Sandy was no where to be seen as they had 3 guards checking the guys and only one checking the women and all of their handbags! I eventually got through, thanked the lady behind me and found Sandy.

You know all of those pictures you see of the Taj Mahal being quiet and peaceful - they've all been taken before it opened! Loads of people everywhere trying to get the ultimate shot in front of the archetectual wonder (just too tired to go back and fix spelling there!). Personally, I've always really wondered what it looked like inside, so knowing there was only an hour until close, we made a beeline for the line to get in.

Is it possible to be disappointed by one of the 7 wonders of the world? Ya, outside is stunning no question. But inside is nothing but a crypt. I had no idea! But for whatever reason (maybe we should blame the heat for this one) I couldn't stop giggling. I just couldn't believe that it was empty.

Outside we were there to get stunning photos as the sun went down. While getting those photos an Indian woman approached me. At first I didn't understand what she was asking, I thought she wanted me to take a picture of her , but then I got it. She wanted her photo taken with me. The weird part is, by no means is this the first time I've had this request while I'm here. Many like to say hello an wave, some want to shake my hand, I've had entire parades of children following me (not asking for anything,just following me), but any one with the means wants photographic proof that they saw me. Perhaps its just how pale I am (just today I'm starting to notice the first signs of a tan) or the theory that I've chosen to adopt....
"INDIA SUPERMODEL"! After all it is the glamour tour isn't it?

Namaste

early morning giggle

Just wanted to share a quick moment I saw this morning. As those of you who know me understand that I'm not the swiftest bunny first thing in the morning, you'll understand when I was starring blankly at a fruit cart. Next thing I know a dark figure appeared behind said cart. Then a head of the most lovely cow came up over the edge to smell the oranges, limes and lemons. The owner of the juice cart had wandered off and this was the cow's big chance!

She wandered over to the far end and proceeded to find the small container of freshly squeezed juice. She happily lapped it up until the cart owner, saw what was happening and chased her off.

Yeah! Cow got some juice - go cow, go!

Here kitty, kitty,kitty....

Hello all
Well we made it to Rathamborne (sp?) National Park and in addition to checking out a cool old fort, went on two safaris. One of the safaris we saw the "Queen of Rathamborne" who is the oldest tiger in the park, sitting patiently in a den watching the deer walk past. Obviously she wasn't hungry! We waited for an hour and a half for her to get up, as she did we all waited with baited breath.... for her to lie down again. Yes ladies and gentleman, it's official, we had a shift!
Thankfully that morning we had been really fortunate and seen one of her daughters for quite a while ( a little far away) but I got some decent shots anyways. We also saw crocs, mongoose and a large variety of deer and birds. The important thing, I achieved one of my goals since I was a little kid, to see a tiger in the wild!!!!
We're now in Agra and are heading out to see the Taj Mahal.

Hoping everyone is having a good week, and yes my tummy is better - thanks for the well wishes!

Namaste

my pal Johnny

Hello everyone
You'll be pleased to know that I have met up with Sandy and we're off on our latest adventure. It was a late night arrival followed by an early morning as we set out at 8am to arrive in Pushkar for 4:30pm (yes, I was a vision!). It was after a quick dip in the pool that I got to meet my new pal Johnny! Johnny is a 7 year old camel who likes long walks, an occasional jog and all the snacks he can reach along the way. He was a good guy and we had a great time riding into the dunes (I have some awesome photos, but yet, substandard internet - hey, we'll be lucky if the lights stay on - will post pics as soon as possible). Johnny and Sandy's camel Donny both floped down in the dunes on their break and stretched out much the same way an exhausted golden retriever I know does...
This morning we hiked up to a temple to watch the sun rise. Although the monkeys their made up the entertainment factor, I couldn't help but feel a bit sad for the people of India. Their pollution has hit such a point that even when I was up in the mountains the sky is never a pure blue. The grasses aren't a pure green. Their enviroment in total (at least at this time of year) seems to be verying degrees of neutral grays and browns. I understand why the women wear such brightly coloured saris (other than the fact they're gorgeous!). It's really the only place other than ads where colour is infused in their lives... makes me really appreciate home.
We have now travelled to a larger city called Jaipur. It's a big busy city. Today we went and visited a fort, which was beautiful, all the carvings and the detail are so intricate! We also did a bit of shopping between my sprints for bathrooms as my tummy has not been happy. Time to break into the meds we brought...
Tomorrow we head out early and start the drive to Rathamborne National Park to pursue my dream of seeing a tiger in the wild. (I actually saw a leopard Saturday afternoon on the way to the train station, my cab was waiting at a railway crossing and we spotted in it the bush 20m away - very cool!). I would be very surprised if there's internet there, so lets assume I'll be disappearing for a couple of days
Hope you're all well ~ namaste

almost kind of...

good morning all, and happy Easter.

It was 8 years ago this weekend when Paul proposed to me - what a sweetie eh?

Some have been interested in the schedule at the ashram:
5:30 wake up
6 meditation
6:30 chanting (which I never really got)
7 yoga
9 breakfast
9:30 clean up
10:30 meditative walk
12:30 lunch
4 discussion
5 yoga
7 sunset ritual,singing and dinner
8:30 meditation
nighty-night!

Well I've wrapped things up at the ashram and am headed back to Delhi. As a final hurrah, we had caught word that the Dalai Lama was going to be speaking in a nearby town. As there has coincidently been a major hindu festival nearby, taxi's haven't really felt like working and it's been tough to get to civilization. So we decided to walk and listen to his talk before I headed to the train station. So up we got at 4am I packed up my stuff and off we went. I would like to take a moment to thank Jeremy of New Liskard ON for taking my pack as "good exercise" as we walked over 10k (3.5 hours of hills) to discover that he's actually coming tomorrow.... well, we tried...

Just got word that Sandy is coming in tonight, so I better get finding a cab

Namaste

Monkey Brain!

Hello from Northern India, where apparently, it's cool out! ('bout 35 degrees today). I'm having a great time and have met some wonderful people. I will admit to missing a couple of things at home (other than my boys, I look at their pictures daily and they often drift into my meditation).

Speaking of which, I've discovered that I kind of suck at meditation. My brain has been compared to a "drunken monkey with a pointy stick". It's amazing just how accurate that description is...

I'm actually doing quite well with the silence all morning. My biggest challenge, having grown up Scottish, is staying quiet at meals. It's actually quite peaceful.

My yoga is coming along well, and my meditation is at least improving! We do yoga on the roof for both sunrise and sunset overlooking mountains, the garden, lush forrest and the river Ganga. It's stunning to say the least!

every day we've been doing walks which have taken us to beaches, waterfalls and streams -it's all so beautiful up here.Yesterday we hiked to a waterfall that looked like something right out of avatar; I climbed up into the caves behind the falls, the cool water being such a contrast from the heat. I have a feeling this place will be a fav within India. I love the country side, even the small town nearby is all about the pushing and shoving (politely though), I guess that's just the way.

Hope all is well with all of you. I can probably get back on Saturday am, as the ashram is substantially out of town and a bit of a challenge to get to. But today we managed to flag a cab on the country road.

Namaste

ashram

Hey all

Well I have made it to the ashram. It's a lovely place and wonderful to get away from the noise. That seems to be the biggest challenge I'm facing here in India- the sheer noise of the car horns!

The ashram is gorgeous (I'll post photos when I can, this internet cafe doesn't allow you to use the usb) it's in the foothills of the Himalyas next to a river. The people are wonderful and I'm already learning (and we don't start orientation until this afternoon).

Since Tuesday, I have finally had a night of sleep and feeling sooooo much better. It's really hot, the scary part is everyone else is wandering around commenting on how cool it is here... yikes.

I've realized that I should have been training for sitting crossed legged as that's not only meditation pose, but how we sit to eat dinner (yes on the floor, with my tin tray, cup and spoon for the week). It's kind of funky! And my dad will be pleased to know that my bed is 2 inches of foam over plywood - it's sure not the Hilton, but I'm having a great time!

Gotta run, sorry it's short - I'll post more later in the week.

I made it (eventually)

Hey all

Well this adventure started at Pearson, upon my attempt to check in a whole lot of head shaking began. Turns out my flight to Newark was seriously delayed and I was informed there was no way I'd make the connecting flight to Delhi.

The Continental agent managed to put me on stand-by to Frankfurt (why is it I only fly stand by when I'm heading half way around the world?) , a 6 hour layover in Frankfurt and then on to Delhi. I do have to give Frankfurt airport a shout out as the little carts are only used occasionally, most staff are on bicycles. Getting me into Delhi and through customs by 3am. Our driver (who will be with us for a chunk of the India tour) was there to meet me (even with the new times) and took me to my prepaid hotel for a couple of hours before my train was to leave.

Driving in this country is nuts. Whether 3am or mid day the roads are always packed and the horns seem to be connected directly to both the accelerator and brake pedals. Got to the train station and Rakesh even took me to my specific seat before heading out. Talk about a whole lot of people, it seems that as long as it's done gently, pushing is an acceptable behaviour.

The train ride itself was quite lovely. I was sitting with another Canuk, American & Japanese girl. We yacked for the entire ride (getting my talking in now before the ashram!) The American girl had spent extensive time in India and arranged a cab for me. Only challenge the cab driver didn't speak English, didn't know exactly where he was going, and it turns out - can't actually get there from here. After a couple of hours on the road (during which time we nearly missed 2 cows and countless vehicles), we called the ashram they've led us to a foot bridge (bless him, he carried my pack the whole way over) and I'm talking a break to get this to you before I take another cab on this side of the river the last 5K.

Not sure how frequently I'll be able to post this week as I think I need a bit of time away from traffic and I believe this is the closest internet.

But I thought I'd let you know that I'm here safe and looking forward to a bit of yoga and meditation.

I have no doubt that I'm looking pretty glamourous right now : )

Hugs,

Lesley

Ok, I'm packed! It wasn't pretty, but it's done. 24 hours from now, I'll be somewhere over the Atlantic on my way to Delhi (via New Jersey of course, 'cause when you think of India, you think of Jersey!)

I don't think it's a bad job seeing as over half of it is a sleeping bag and hiking boots. And I'm sure it's a heck of a lot better looking than I am right now. So tired... must go to bed.

Special thanks to Dave who's letting Paul off of work to take me to the airport tomorrow. Yeah Dave!

Don't worry... these posts will get more interesting. Just wanted to make sure that I could post easily with the new camera while I still had consistent internet access.

the packing begins

Trying something new on this trip - packing more than 24hrs in advance. Started this afternoon, and got distracted within a couple of hours (45 min of which was spent looking for my swimsuit).

The great debate was deciding which backpack to bring with me. My old standard is starting to show it's wear and looks like it's already spent a month in India. So Paul was kind enough to offer me the use of his pack and after a period of resizing - Paul's pack wins! Now to fill it. That which is currently spread out over the entire floor of the spare room will need to go into a pack that I'll be heaving around for the next two months. Was planning to have everything packed this afternoon, I guess that will have to happen tomorrow.

Many of you having been asking about Paul & Hudson. Without a doubt, being away from them will be the hardest part of this trip for me. No worries, though we have someone making sure that they're fed and watered...

Who, What, Where, When, Why & How

Hey all, thought I should pass along some of the logistics of trip.

Who - me! Also meeting up with my buddy Sandy (many of you know from travels in Africa & South-east Asia) for the majority of the trip. For those of you who don't know him, it tends to "up" the entertainment value for all when we travel together. Sadly, my husband Paul is unable to escape his current work contract, so he and our dog Hudson will be cheering us on from Toronto.

What - travelling around India and Nepal. Most of the time in Nepal will be spent attempting the trek to Everest Base Camp. This will be Sandy's 4th attempt, let's see if I can do it the first time and show him up! (no.... we're not competitive at all....)

Where - planned stops in India are: fly into Delhi, a week at an ashram in Rishikesh at the base of the Himalayas where I'll be studying yoga & meditation, return to Delhi, Pushkar, Jaipur, Rathamborne National Park, Agra (Taj Mahal), Orccha, Varanasi, Mumbai & Goa

Stops in Nepal: Katmandu, trip up & hopefully down Mt. Everest, & Chittwan National Park.

When - I leave Wed. March 24, which means I get to Delhi the night of March 25. I return home the morning of Friday May 21 just in time for the May 24 weekend!

Why - Why not? After all - it's there...

How - you'll have to keep reading to find out; as I really have no idea...

Welcome to the Glamour Tour!

Hello everyone! With less than a month until lift off, I've had a lot of requests to keep people up to date with my upcoming adventure. As I haven't done a blog before, I thought I'd better figure out the technology prior to leaving for the trip.

I'll do a few posts before heading off, but once I head out this will be my primary means of communication. I hope you'll enjoy the adventures of India and Nepal!