Serendipity

thanks everyone for all your support on my journey–for your comments, appreciation, support, emails, good vibes, and love. along with God above me, it was the desire to see my friends again that helped me through my darkest moments. thank you.

whoa, what a way to “finish” off a spiritual journey… basically i had a bit of abreakdown in israel due in part to the negative vibes there. i needed professional help even, and spent almost a week in an Israeli hospital!!! what an experience… now I’m back in Canada, and am staying in a hospital in Edmonton. It’s actually rather nice here, and despite a few drawbacks it’s better than most of the places I stayed in on my trip! so, wow, this is how it “ends”.

I still have many more destinations to go on my flight, so I think I will take advantage of that. but I figured out what I wanted to do with my life, so from now on I’ll be basically working on that stuff, and enjoying life/having fun while doing it.

So it’s still a ride, but now I’ve switched cars so to speak, and I’m not a backpacking tourist any more (not that there’s anything wrong with that .

Thanks everyone for your positive energy and support. I’m sure it helped me through “the tough times”.

So this website is unofficially finished. But look for more work from me, in one form or another, in the future!!!

Cheers all, namaste, peace and love and all of that
yours,
Steven

goa was strange. i met all sorts of different people there. i found opportunities, got challenged, did some partying, it was a whole new world again, for the second time in the same country.
i met a plutonic couple from pensylvania/chicago who were in a cult. met a director at a bar, he seemed like he was on acid. he said to me “you change clothes a lot, huh?” i said, yeah, does it mean something? we had a strange connection going on. he told me he wanted to make a movie but he wasn’t good at practical things. i told him i had a lot of skills that would fit production. i think i could have went for it, but i didn’t. i hesitated–i don’t know shit about movie production. but it was an opportunity. and next time i’ll be more ready. met a 74 year old guy still going strong. a 45 year old ex drug-rehab worker about to move out of the city to a ranch. said we needed to get back to nature. that it was too late for the planet. i said i thought we still had time but couldn’t really say why.
so i’ve left beachy, zooish, touristy goa. it was getting pretty tough to find a good party there in early season. but now that i’ve arrived in bombay i found it’s off here too. i had heard about the circumstance in question already but didn’t quite fathom the significance. the dance or ‘chandi’ bars have all been shut down. seems the man figures they’re a source of moral decrepitude and decadence. bombay seems a place a bit out of time. old-world. civilized. anyway, thrill seekers and geezers are heading elsewhere, bangalore, dheli, singapore, wherever to get their kicks, and business goes on.
so it’s a good place to do some shopping, and hanging out in my hotel room. went to the art gallery today. nice exhibition of an Indian artist named Sabavala. maybe he’ll be rising up now that he’s expired. heard one of his paintings just went for 6 kora, whatever those are. (it’s a lot)
back to the important thing, oh yes–shopping. randomly went up to a side of the road tailoring shop, and found my self getting fitted for some new tailored clothes. two shirts, one chinese collar (yes!), light blue, and one french collar, maroon. one single breasted blazer w/ 3 buttons, the fancy kind (where will i put this?). one pair trousers. bought a copy of harvard business review. (huh?) i’m still trying to figure out what i’m up to. oh yes. and new shoes. the only fashion thing i get obsessive about is shoes; takes me forever to decide what to get. after trying on about 10 pair i settled for some black smart-casual style, which basically means they look like bowling shoes. i saw some killer shiny maroon red dress shoes, but i figured they might look a little funny hanging from the side of my trekking backpack. ah yes but i will remember them, yes precious, yes.
off to tel aviv tomorrow. too bad, wednesday night is hot in bombay.

almost time to leave Goa for Bombay, then off to Israel. Goa is great, there are so many nice people here, and beaches everywhere. The other night was a great party, and it kept going till sunrise. I would really like to come back here and spend more time. It’s easy to dream here.

Posted some pics finally!
The big Durga festival in varanasi - click

From the lodge in varanasi, the shiva ganga
The scenery around the ganges view
Pics from the sreet
From Varanasi to Goa.

i was not trapped in any earthquakes, i avoided the bombings in New Dehli, and i was not in the train crash in Kerala. i’m having good luck here! I’ve traveled to Gokarna because I heard there was a village here with many artists and alternative-type people. Could be because it’s early in the season, but haven’t seen much of that sort here. So now we’re off to Anjuna in north Goa, spending a few days there before I head to Bombay and then Tel Aviv. Right now I feel pretty tired, so I’ll make it “shanti” (relaxed) for a while. I’ll try to post some pics!

wow…. now i’m in goa hanging by the beach. it’s been kind of a dramatic finish to my stay in varanasi. one of my friends from varanasi wanted to leave to goa, and i also wanted to go there so we planned to go together. we booked a train ticket to go to bombay and then on to madgao. then robin got sick. he had dengue fever i think. his temperature was 104 the first night and he was totally freaked out; i took him to the hospital and tried to do what i could to help out. it was a bit of work because the hospitals in varanasi make the ones back home actually look decent. although some nurses were nice, there was a general lack of professional care in this place (very fitting for Varanasi). Varanasi is a place where nobody helps one another unless there is a rupee involved, the service is generally unfriendly as a rule; some establishments have learned that friendly service brings money. i guess i’m a bit cynical… but anyway i love it all the same.

well anyway for the 3rd time in my life i was in a hospital room to support a friend–one with cancer, another with the dreaded spinal cord syndrome, and now some sort of crazy fever. so, pretty much the whole time i was there i was just bored, i’m like–ok i’ve done this before, this is easy. i slept there two nights, which was ok because there were nice shops nearby and a tv. robin mostly just lied there in pain. i kicked back and chilled. after two days the energy of the place started to get to me and i went back to my guest house and slept for about a day. i felt better after that.

during this hospital time i rebooked the tickets, robin figured he’d be out on monday so i booked the tickets for tuesday. by monday robin was still not better, his fever was about 38 or 39C. i told him the place was no good for him and he would feel better on the beach. he agreed and he asked to leave the hospital. i came before and got the discharge arranged and then we were off. i still had to meet my yoga teacher to say goodbye, pay the train tickets, say goodbye to my tabla teacher and return his guitar, hang out with gitamo, pack, etc. so the last day was a blur.

we left the next morning in a hurry, i woke up and said goodbye to the ganges, doing a small puja before leaving. paid the hotel and we were off; we caught the train with 5 minutes to spare and we were in another world for the next 30hrs. we took 2nd ac so there were 4 beds to a compartment. mostly we just listened to music or read. i ate a lot on the train because i was so hungry from the yoga the last few days. we arrived in bombay in what seemed a shorter ride than expected. again another world for about 7 hours. we made it to marine drive and got to catch a sunset over the bay. bombay is a splendid place, it had a civil feeling to me.

next train was to goa, overnight in 3rd AC. a schoolgroup of small girls were on a field trip, there were many, so cute! this train ride wasn’t that great because basically we just slept, then expected to arrive at the station. but we actually didn’t arrive until 2pm or so. after that we caught a cab ride with a british man named Terry, and the 3 went to a quiet beach in Goa about an hour away.

now we are here, i am catching up on some yoga practice as i now know how to do a basic yoga session independently, so i don’t want to forget it. i think if i keep up practice i can start teaching, that would be pretty fun to do. it’s also a good excuse to attract girls on the beach. (the effectiveness of this is presently dubious) but obviously, i’m here to have fun, so i’m trying to play as much as i can!

how’s robin? he’s is almost good as new now and can laugh about the horrific hospital experience. that is a relief!

yea, yea, its a brand new day

Things are going really well here–I’ve settled into a bit of a routine, but I try not to do the same things every day. The other day was really wonderful. In the morning I had a yoga lesson at 9, then one of my first tabla lessons. I bought a kite to fly in the afternoon. After lunch I taught my first Reiki student –Gitamo from japan– and brought him to level 1. It was a good experience for both of us and was pretty successful too. After that I spent some time relaxing by the river and then flew my kite. It was hard to tie it properly and I needed some help from the hindu monks at the temple. They are pretty cool and sometimes play badminton or chess by the river side. I hadn’t flown one for so long; I needed help to get it in the air but after that it was all good. It was a wonderful feeling to feel the sensation of the kite string in my fingers and looking at it flying in the air. There were many birds flying around as well, all around the sky and near my kite. The sun was setting and the wind seemed to be dying down, so I brought the kite back in. There was a very strong energy in the air, as there was a lunar eclipse just the day before. I laid down on my back and closed my eyes and just relaxed and tried to absorb it, it was wonderful. Later that evening there was a music jam session in my room with Gitamo, who’s also learning tabla, and two other musicians who were staying in the same guest house. We’re all beginners and tried to do a simple Indian raga; it came out pretty well for the first time but will be much better in a week or two I’m sure. Anyway we all had fun. I hope we can do a recording before everybody leaves!

Today was my second day learning the Tabla and I must say it is pretty fun! It takes a lot of concentration which is good for me. After only 5 days here I’m into learning yoga and tabla. If I’m not careful I’m going to stress myself out! Probably I’ll stay another 2 weeks or so and take it from there. Varanasi is strange, it has a really spiritual feel but you can hardly trust anyone here to be honest. I thought the owners of the guest house were honest but even they were running their schemes. Go figure.

I arrived to Varanasi three days ago. I had planned to stay in nepal 1 month but it was more like a month an a half. My last 3 days I spent at chitwan national park on a really touristy package including elephant ride, jungle trek, and the like. It wasn’t so spectacular and I felt sorry for the elephants. It’s not so easy to sit on an elephant, even when there is a platform to sit on. I saw Rhinos, which was cool. They remind me of Triceratops, which was probably my favorite dinousaur back in the day.

I set off to India from Chitwan in the morning, without a solid plan, but I thought I’d have to stay at the border overnight and continue on. But as it worked out I got an easy train connection from the travel agent. I crossed into India without incident then caught a ride to the next city from a returning cab driver. He told me the story of his life how he was selected (after 3 stages of selection) for the national cricket team but could not afford to pay the required fee, then his brother died and now he has to take care of his family by driving a tourist cab. He wanted to open a shop but needed to save the money. I felt sorry for him and gave him a tip, he was happy with that.

So i was dropped off at the train station and had to wait for a while there for the train to Varanasi. I had my first meal outside the train station, one kid tried to lead me to a place where i had to sit by a loud generator, but I declined. Everyone was pestering me to eat at their restaurant, which I was not in the mood for. I walked away and circled back, finally came to a reasonable place and ate a huge meal for about $0.80. The place was kind of a dive. The train station and area around were really dirty. The whole place had a kind of stale smell. I drank a coffee and it came in an unvarnished clay cup. Those are the disposable cups in India! It tasted good but you kind of get a taste of clay in your coffee. I suppose it’s not bad for you.

I was in a sleeper car — I got in and sat down on the bench. it was wet because it just rained and the window was open. i wiped it off and lay down, but I had to move anyway because i was supposed to be in the top bunk. i argued with the train conductor a bit because the sign was confusing, but he seemed to have an attitude about it. i switched and fell asleep. I was abruptly awakened by the train conductor at 5:30AM, because the train had arrived. In the chinese trains they give you some warning, but here I pretty much had to jump off a moving train with all my bags. I had forgotten a towel and he was nice enough to throw it on the ground at me as the train sped away. I was standing around, dazed and half-asleep when a nice accountant man came towards me and asked me where I was going. I told him and he helped me get an auto-rickshaw to my intended guest-house. I had gotten a recommendation from someone in Kathmandu.
So at sunrise I had a drive through the twists and turns of Varanasi, seeing familiar sights like cows, chickens, and mangy dogs wandering around the streets. It was dense and dirty, and reminded me of Indonesia. With a mixture of advice and intuition I made it to the guest house and checked in, the place seemed good. You can walk 1 minute and overlook the ganges river. It’s relaxed and quiet there, the owners of the place pretty much just lie around all day and it’s really casual. I intend to stay a while.

I’ve been in Nepal for about a month. I’ve still got some things I wanted to write about Tibet, I think the situation there calls for some calculated ranting. But as I’ll be shooting off to India anytime now (prying myself away from Nepal is becoming a seemingly daunting task) I’d better write something while I’m here and still have some impressions of the place.
I’m starting to really like Nepal. Laos is great, but not many people speak english. China is an alternate universe. Tibet is different and interesting, but the plight of the people there makes you want to cry.
I’ve started off here volunteering for two weeks, working in a small village to help build a new orphanage. I had basically hitched a ride to Nepal from Tibet, coming from everest base camp with a group of volunteers based in Kathmandu. I rode for 3 days in the rear of a Toyota landcruiser, lying on backpacks. It was a bone-jarring experience, but I was happy to have a ride. They were a really fun bunch and when we arrived to Kathmandu I continued to hang out with them, just relaxing, partying and chilling out in Thamel, and staying up all night on the roof of our hotel room. It was good to hang out with some friends again! Eventually I decided it wouldn’t kill me to do some volunteering. It turned out that we didn’t do much work after all. The first week we got some good days in, but the second week it rained almost every day so I was just hanging out in the nepali home in the small village where I was stationed.

For the first week of work it was myself, Eddie, and Adrian. Eddie was from Scotland and Adrian from England. After the first week we, along with another friend decided to go on a rafting trip down a really fast river. We were a bit scared because the river was going so fast, it looked pretty mean. But we all managed to climb in the raft. the first bit was really intense and quite a rush. no one fell out of the raft. Our guide would yell at us when to paddle to shoot the rapids and move along the safe path. After skirting “certain death” as we joked, we were all in high spirits and that night we had a party along the side of the river. For some reason there were no other tourists there and we had the stereo and pool table for ourselves. The next day we went on the same river route, it was fun but we had lost the fear so it wasn’t as much of a rush.

Thamel is the home base of operations here in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. It’s a sort of small traveller’s city within a city, an oasis for backpackers caravaning through asia–where visions of hot showers, western food, and the trappings of decadent western life materialize in the midst of the otherwise normal city. You walk from your hotel room, get breakfast, check internet, maybe watch a movie. Not that there aren’t hassels–you are a moving target for all sorts of hawkers. “Hello sir”, “OK! rickshaw!”, “smoke hash?”, “go trekking sir”. You don’t dare look around, appear to be new, lost, or looking for anything in particular–an innocent lamb for the lions

After my brief volunteering stint I went to Pokara to see the place and maybe do a trek. I ended up going for 6 days. It was really nice because everything was so easy. I hired a porter/guide to carry my bag and show me around because I didn’t know where to go. I didn’t have to worry about anything except walking, which was quite blissful. And trekking in Nepal is a little different than what you might expect. Along the main routes there are little restaurants and guesthouses everywhere–pretty cushy. some places we had really good food, and some lodges were so comfortable. One reminded me of a ski lodge! It rained a couple of days, and we had to contend with these little leeches that climb onto your shoes and try to get to your skin–every little while you have to sweep them off with salt. It was early in the season, still the monsoon time. Usually it’s pretty dry. I’d like to come back some day and do the annapurna circuit trek. It takes 3 weeks and you circle around the himalayan annapurna range.

Pokhara was a welcome change from Thamel. It was so peaceful and quiet, mostly because the main tourist season hadn’t started yet. Plus my room at the guest house was very clean and comfortable; when I wasn’t on the trek I mostly hung around and read, relaxed, and caught up on some meditation in my room. Looks like I’m turning into mom and dad! The food was good too so I took advantage of the room service. Pretty cushy.

Upon returning to Kathmandu I finished up the Reiki course that I took to supplement and refresh my previous training. The people at the center were really nice so sometimes I just went in to hang out and chat. I also collected my Indian visa from the embassy, which was a big relief due to the long lines there. At this point I began to realize I was really starting to like Nepal, and I’m a bit attached to the place.

The political situation here feels like it’s almost at a crisis point. It appears to be an insoluable problem. There is a unscrupulous king controlling the military and who almost nobody likes. There is an innefectual coalition of political parties who are corrupt and lacking in popular support. And there are the maoists, who are popular with the poor peasants in remote areas of nepal, but who lack political legitimacy and representation. A couple of weeks the maoists called a ceacefire and lately there have been many more pro-democracy demonstations. Students and party leaders were arrested, beaten, tortured by police. the other day I went out to try to take a bus and there were police everywhere just standing around with guns and bulletproof vests. they had closed off this street where the buses normally wait for apparently no reason. this city seems so crazy, but yet above the noise and traffic and army everywhere it seems so relaxed and peaceful, and the people are just going about their daily business. but sometimes i see somebody’s face and get a sense of the tension. it’s a magic place.

the finger

i saw a girl turn around and give me the finger
it wasn’t meant for me
probaly the guys passed her were rude
she was wearing jeans and had dark eyes

caught up to her and her friend
the other one had a picture of Che
looks like she made it herself
lots of protests lately

the town is buzzing, will there be a change?
maybe it’s part of it, the jeans girl, the finger
bring down the king, change something
then those boys wont be rude any more