Sunrise in Tibet

so after the crazy border crossing, we slept at the boder for a few hours (2 actually, thank to the scottish father-son duo... thanks guys! haha) and were up at 2:30am for a rather l-o-n-g drive day. the first 4.5 hrs before the sun rose, it was a super bumpy ride (understatement) over dreadfully steep cliffs in the dark. no one slept (comfortably).

(me in front of Everest just after sunrise. it's the one on the far left)

but then the sun rose and it cast the most amazing colours onto the clouds... at first i opened my sleepy eyes to find the normally jet black sky lined with glowing blue...this was the first time that i could make out the outline of the himalayan mountain range in tibet. suddenly, the sleep deprivation didn't matter... i was too excited to care.

(Mt. Everest)

the light slowly filled in the details of my towering surrounding as i fell into a spell. where was i? how was i so lucky to be there?

a little tib. village at the time of sunrise.

then the villages started becoming more frequent... every few minutes our convoy would pass another small group of houses and local people with beautifully weathered faces.

now, i know that i have been away from home for a long time, but last time i checked it was spelt a little differently...

i may not have a chance to post the rest of my story into tibet or the madness that ensued on the way, but maybe in a bit... i have to see if this post goes through first.


but the quick run down of the next few weeks is that i leave tomorrow for another 5-6day return to katmandu and stop off at mt everest basecamp on the way! we will do a quick 2 hours up and back down... and then from the border we have to try to get a bus or a ride with a truck... not sure yet. then i'll be in kopan monastery for two weeks (july 4-18th) and i am not sure yet if i have internet access this time. after that i hope to do some volunteer work and eventually head to europe and then home on sept 2nd! HOME! it's not enough time, but too much...


lots of love, and keep the emails coming. they help!


thank you! love you!


adrienne :)

Border crossing Katmandu - Tibet

above is sunset after the first long drive day (5 days total)

crossing the border into China (Tibet)... or trying to. it took a LONG time and as you can see, the cars used the road as a parking lot. also, they didnt have any specific order of which side to drive on...

this was a waterfall we crossed over by the border...

this is a shot from the bus window... the mountains were great!

these are some houses on the Nepal side before the border into China.

the streets of katmandu

These pictures are mostly from the region of katmandu called 'Thamel'

oh look, a monk-shroom!

Boudha, Katmandu (prayers for the dali lama)

(above is a man that was thrilled to have his pic taken. he was adorable! many of them are happy to have a picture taken because someone is documenting an important moment in their life.)

these are pics from the bodena we went to yesterday. for the last month, all of the important lamas from the area have gathered here and done punja's (blessings) for the dali lama since it is his unlucky year. we were lucky enough to catch the last day that they gathered to do this!
actually, it was really cool because i was able to meet the Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche the other night at the monastery and ask him a question. it was a really great moment because he is a very hard man to see. i was just lucky that i am staying at the kopan monastery while he happens to be there. above is the crowd of people who were following lama zopa as he left.

so you will see the word stupa a lot... it's essentially a place where buddhists walk clockwise around and pray. it is believed that they are very powerful places and that grant your wishes. it was packed full of people sending the dali lama their best.

this is the side of the stupa... taken from the highest level we could walk on.

view of buildings from up on stupa.

this is one of the statues that was on the stopa. here i am standing in front of the yellow building where the high lamas were gathered to do the puja blessing for the dali lama.
the nuns and monks were allowed on the first floor, and the lamas on the 2nd.

Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal

for the last few days i have been staying at the Kopan Buddhist Monastery at a hill overlooking Kathmandu, Nepal. everything there is GREAT!! the views (as you can see) are great, and so are the people! i have made many friends and really enjoy speaking with the monks and nuns... they are lovely people!
here are some of the young monks playing... a lot of the time you will see them throwing things at each other, or hitting each other with books - just like normal little boys. this is my favorite view. it's taken from our dining hall's balcony. it is an unfinished monastery in the distance and has a really surreal feel to it. a lot of the time you can also see two hawks flying by. i don't have any other pics of the monastery itself yet, but i will try to get some up!

Pics of Mt. Everest, Nepal

so i finally made it safe & sound to nepal! it was a totally rushed and i lost my passport in the cab on the way to the airport, thank goodness a lot of luck was on my side and i was able to track it down! i JUST made it onto the singapore- bangkok flight and then waited 3 hours in thailand before going to kathmandu.
i arrived yesterday afternoon totally overtired after only having a few hours of sleep the night before and a full day of flying. i met up with calum (friend i met in peru and then again in melbourne) and had a great night with these sweet italian girls. this morning we took a flight to see Mt. Everest - damn, it was great!

the colour is a bit off because of the plane's window.

me - i was supposed to be showing the cotton in my ears...

if you check out www.calumsbigtrip.blogspot.com in a few days calum should have some other ones up in a few days.

lots of love from nepal!!

addy :)

Scuba Addy Meets the Great Barrier Reef

hey everyone!!

a few weeks ago i decided to leave alice springs and pack my bags again... you know, hit the open road... or in this case water. for a few days i have been chilling out in a gorgeous rain forest, and today i went suba diving/snorkeling at the great barrier reef. as i'm sure you can guess - it was a GREAT experience!

big long one... i'm not sure if it's an eel or what... let me know if you do!
some more pretty fish...
yes - that's a shark! it was about 5 feet long, but not a scarry one. it was actually really lovely to watch swim and once i realized it was close to me, it was really close to me. at first i thought it wa a REALLY big fish! hahaa...

this is what the coral looked like from the scuba position. i dove twice today, the first time i couldn't bring the camera, the second time i could...i'm really pleased that i could! by the way, doesn't that one coral look like a pancake? or maybe a mushroom?

this is me looking slightly frieghtened because the photographer looked really close to the coral... in case you didnt know it, the coral dies if you touch it... not good!