Happy New Year from Kathmandu

NEPAL | Sunday, 30 December 2007 | Views [159]

Dear Friends and Family!

Have a Happy and Healthy New Year!

In 2008 may we all be peaceful, content and accepting of life's many tribulations!

My favorite saying these days is: "One can never discover new things without consenting to loose sight of familiar shores." I wish that we all discover new things in 2008!

Teodora and I have made it to Kathmandu, capital of Nepal, a small Himalayan kingdom,
the culture of which we just started learning about. Kathmandu is a huge market of many densely populated narrow dusty streets, where trade and prayer is happening in close quarters with each others, where ancient Hindu and Buddhist temples range in height from half a meter to overbearing heights, where overly zealous bicycle rickshaws also sell Hashish, where there is a large and competitive clothing industry selling colorful Nepalese cloths that are never worn by the locals,
where there are many orphanages, where the current King have murdered his whole family in 2001because they opposed his marriage, where.....Teodora and I will meat our New Year (mostly in quite reflection in our hotel room, but with a bottle of whine :-) ), where we will review and renew (RR) our marriage vows and chart our next 6 months of travel..

According to Teodora's and mine calculations, during our 6 months of travels we have actually spent together as much time as an average urban couple spends together in 10 years of marriage :-) and we are still madly in love! Right, Teodora?

At this junction in our travels everything seems to point towards continuing self-study of yoga and Buddhism as we have not met a perfect Guru or an inspiring teacher we could study with. While we at times speculate about reasons for this,
the fact remains and we have to rescue ourselves from the swamp of habit and ignorance :-)
which we firmly plan to continue doing during our self-created 10 days silent retreat at the Kopan monastery on January 2 (30 min from the center of Kathmandu). Then, on Jan 14 we will travel to Pochara, a supposedly peaceful lake side town, 6 hours away from Kathmandu, where we plan to volunteer and
practice yoga. After that we thinking of continuing on to Thailand for our winter vacation (yes, you read write, all travellers in India need a holiday! Our phantasy is warm and sunny Thailand beeches, where we hope to wash off all the dust, thaw our frozen limbs and soften all the hardships India had to offer. And then....and then...

If you still interested hearing our Russian Bards songs we have recorded just before leaving Toronto, here is a link to a few songs I have managed to transplant to Internet:

http://www.garageband.com/artist/misha_teodora/songs
you may need Adobe Flash MP3 player to have good sound.

Also, a few first pictures from Kathmandu are at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/69781927@N00/sets/

Enjoy!

Thank you soooo much to all of you who continue writing to us and remembering us.
Your letters mean alot, especially at times when we are filled with longing for familiar comforts and routine and all those homey things which can only be given their full appreciation in Asia! The slogan should read: come to Asia to renew your love for Motherland! (or Fatherland in some languages.)

Love to yo all,

Misha
Kathmandu, Nepal

Misha Gitberg
my visuals: http://www.flickr.com/photos/69781927@N00/sets/
my narratives:
http://journals.worldnomads.com/misha/

Tags: Culture

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