Adrienne's Excellent Adventures

Nepal - retreat!

this is a picture of the people in the retreat in the gompa where we did our meditations... such great people i miss you guys already!!

above is kopan on the mountain... it's on the right side surrounded by trees
below are other pictures from kopan:

this is a picture of a yogi who we were lucky enough to visit. he meditated in a cave for over 30 years after which the dalai lama called him down to join civilization. he is one of the four people on the planet right now (according to the dalai lama) that is enlightened. usually yogi´s have long hair, but when they are preparing to pass away (yes, prepare) they shave their heads.

after seeing the yogi karen, vallery and i went on a picknic and the goats were everywhere! they kept trying to eat our food.... in the background was their keeper who was really sweet and always had to call them away from us.

this are two monk friends from a different monastery down the mountain in kathmandu.

Labels: buddhism, katmandu, Nepal

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.

Labels: Border crossing, Nepal

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!

Labels: Kopan Monastery, Nepal

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!