South Asia or Bust

French Invasion

2008-05-13T00:39:00.000-07:00

My trip to Paris with the family was great. Our first day they slept most of the afternoon to recover from jetlag. That first evening we decided to meet up with one of my friends that lives there who I attended training with. Over the next few days we were able to see so many sites. We saw the Tower, took a boat ride on the Seine. We were able to walk on Champs Elleyses and see some neat things like the Arc de Triomphe. We also took a day trip to Versailles to see the gardens there. The fountains are turned on on weekends. We also lucked out because the first Sunday of every month the museums are free, so we decided to see the Louvre and the D' Orsay those days. After this trip Dad and Glenda came to India where we were able to see the Taj Mahal and spend the night in our partner's village. It was a great trip.

The Mona Lisa (it's really small and overrated)
There were some paintings in the same room that were much more spectacular

Venus de Milo

Monet perhaps

Napoleon in all his glory

Spiral stairs of the Arc de Triomphe

Beautiful fountains of Versailles Gardens

More fountains and me in my langar

Some dude

Need I say more?

Grand Palace

D' Orsay Museum where the impressionist paintings are held (better than the Louvre)

Notre Dame Cathedral

Napoleon's tomb

Walk Like an Egyptian

2008-05-12T11:20:00.000-07:00

The first of April I made a trip to Egypt. It was a great experience. There are so many historical things to see there. It was also my first time in a predominantly Muslim country. I really had a great experience, and I would recommend it to anyone. I would say the highlight of my trip was hiking up to Mount Sinai. It was a great experience and it was amazing to walk where Moses walked. We did so many things in the country. Our trip began in Cairo. Here was our trip itinerary:

Day One (Cairo): Egyptian Museum

You could really spend all day in this museum. The highlight was the mummy exhibit were you get to see real life mummies that have been partially uncovered.

Day Two (Giza and Cairo): Pyramids

The pyramids are truly amazing. We were able to go down in one of the pyramids. If you are claustrophobic it is not for you. We also got to ride camels and horses around. Horses are definitely the better of the two species.

Day Three (Luxor): Temples of Karnak

At the temples of Karnak there are so many amazing statues and ruins from ancient Egyptian times. We spent so much time walking around

Day Four (Luxor): Valley of the Kings, Queens, and Hatshupset Temple

We took a guided tour through these places and it really helped us to appreciate it. There was this one Korean girl that lost her ticket at the Valley of the Kings, and we were all like that silly Asian girl. Then I lost my ticket at the temple.

Day Five and Six (Sinai): Hiked up Mt. Sinai

After spending the whole day taking the bus ride from hell, we departed at 2 am to hike up the mountain which took about two hours, and we waited for the sun to rise. It was really amazing. On the way back we were able to stop at the Red Sea.

Day Seven (Alexandria):

In Alexandria there are all kinds of neat things to see. We saw the library and some other cool sites. Above all the atmosphere is really cool there.

Bedouin camp where we stayed

Women wailing at a Muslim funeral

Red Sea

Castle on the Mediterranean in Alexandria

In front of the Sphinx

Let's snuggle

Temple of Karnak

Hatshupset Temple

Sunrise on Mount Sinai

Aya Sophia in Istanbul

Redneck Camel Ride

Bedouin hat

Panorama

Nepal and Wedding

2008-01-10T23:59:00.001-08:00

Crazy Bungy Jump... it was really scary, but it was fun.

Nepal is a beautiful country. The tallest mountain in the world (Mt. Everest) is in Nepal. There is a plane that you can take that flies by the mountain. They even let you go up to the cockpit and take pictures!

Buddha Air.

Mount Everest is the one in the middle with the cloud over it.

When you are done they give you a cheesy certificate that says, "I did not climb Mt. Everest, but I touched it with my heart."

When I went to the states recently, we had snow on the day of my sis's wedding. It was beautiful. The wedding was very pretty. I am very happy for my sis, and I know that she will have a happy life with Matt.

Return from the Blogging Slumber

2007-10-27T11:03:00.000-07:00

So I'm pretty bad about blogging. I guess there is just something about waiting for pictures to upload and thinking about interesting stuff from my life that I find difficult. But I have some cool things to share, and I have some pictures (also another problem, not a big picture taker). At the beginning of December we went to a city named Pune to visit some friends, and while we were there we attended an interesting Hindu celebration where teams train to build a human pyramid and attempt to break an elevated ball filled with Curd. It is to celebrate the god Krishna who enjoyed breaking things. It was also accompanied by lots of dancing and water which was dripped on everyone down below.

I was also able to make a trip up to the mountains this past month. We had a meeting with some friends, and we rode the train through the mountains that the British built about a hundred years ago. It was an interesting ride, and we had a great visit there. It will definitely be a place to take the fam and friends when they visit.

Everywhere's a Toilet, Right??!

If you ever have the chance to come and visit this country, you will find that in some places there is not an abundance of restroom so people just follow the rule that everywhere is a toilet. Well, I think the Indians have this skill master, and I am still working on it. I was chaperoning a friend of mine to the post office to pick up a package, and when he was going in to get his package I really had to use the restroom. However, there was not a bathroom in sight, so I saw a sort of alley way behind the post office that had lots of trash, and I decided that there would not be a better place to create my own toilet. About that time an Indian girl walked through the alley and caught me in the act. It was quite embarrassing. I told my friend about the incident, and he gave me a hard time. We shared quite the laugh. I guess next time I will just hold it.

Thailand and What Not

2007-07-17T23:38:00.000-07:00

I just recently returned from Thailand. It was a great experience and a much needed break. It is very necessary to get out of the country and recharge. That is what purpose this trip served for me. I really do feel refreshed and motivated to begin another phase of my time here. First, I made a trip to the Northeast where I was able to spend time with my good friend, Matt. It was a very precious time of fellowship. Then we had our regional meeting which was great!! It was amazing to be around so many like-minded people. After our meeting I went on a scuba diving trip with some friends. It was my first time in almost ten years to scuba dive, and I really enjoyed it. We dove around and looked at some coral and also went down to a shipwreck. The problem with the shipwreck was the visibility was really bad and my mask wouldn't seal, so I basically saw the ship, cut my leg on it and then we had to ascend. The overall visibility wasn't that great, but we did get some good pictures

Making the descent

A camouflaged squid

Self-explanatory

Hey, where's the TP?

2007-06-12T00:09:00.000-07:00

I recently spent three weeks in a village and it was quite an experience. The purpose of staying there was to practice language and it was a good time. I stayed with a nice family who took care of me and helped me to get settled into the culture. Our days were filled with visiting different people's home and drinking lots of chai. I was able to hear many people's stories and it was quite fascinating. Many people had been oppressed by sickness or demonic spirits and were healed by JC. In the evenings we would travel around the district for meetings in villages. The Father is doing some great work in these villages. Most of the people that we met with were first generations followers of JC. There was one meeting that had well over 100 new followers. It is great to see what the Father is doing out here, and I am blown away by his mercy and grace.

As you can imagine this experience helped me learn much about the culture. Everyone shares what they have. It is not uncommon for a friend to come and use your motorcycle for a day to make a trip, and extended family will often stay with each other. At the house that I stayed the nephew lived there most of the time. They are a very communal society. During the summertime most people sleep outside because it is cooler there. When my roommate came out to visit me we had quite the crowd following us. There were probably 50 kids in the village that were following us around. Eventually they just started coming into the house and bothering us, but I just tried to have fun with them. Toward the end of the village stay I was ready to go back to my city. I was tired of hearing and speaking Punjabi all the time. Overall it was a great experience, and I am glad that I was given that opportunity.

Some of the Rascals that were following us around

The little boy who lived with me

My first turban tying

The finished product

No April Showers Here, Just a Cool Waterfall

2007-04-26T09:54:00.000-07:00

Alright, so it has been quite a while since I last wrote on here. I have been crazy busy. Well, I have had a very days of down time, but not much. I have done a good job this month keeping myself busy. The first half of my month was spent up north in the Himalayan foothills. It was truly a beautiful trip and a huge blessing to be up there. I feel like I really received some renewal from being up in the mountains and getting away from the hustle and bustle of Metro Chandigarh life. The trip up there was long and treacherous, but it was definitely worth the journey. We had some meetings and celebrated Easter together. Perhaps the highlight of the trip was when we hiked up to a waterfall on Easter Sunday. It was a long hike, and I definitely received a workout, but it was worth it. We had a picnic up there with all of our friends. The weather was perfect. It is much different from the 100+ weather that we are experiencing down here, and it is a dry heat, which makes it not as bad as being humid, but it is no walk in the park believe you me.

A few days after We were also privileged to meet with our friend Elbert who came in from the states. We were able to catch up with him which was a huge blessing. Then we finally made it back to Chandigarh after spending a week and a half up in the foothills. We had some friends come down the next weekend, and we ate wild boar, which our landlord warned us to not talk of. Ooops!!! It has been a great month, and I am about to go and stay out in a village for three weeks to learn the language better. It will be quite an experience.

Nice picture of us at the waterfall
(Melissa and I have our eyes closed)

Village Life in India

2007-03-17T08:15:00.000-07:00

I wanted to write to you briefly about village life in India. We have made several trips to the village since I have been here, and the experience is remarkably different from what you would experience in the city. People are very friendly and hospitable. They always want to give you what they have regardless of the fact that they don't have much. One of the problems I face in the village if I visit several people's homes is that I don't have enough room in my stomach to eat all they want to serve me. Their food is always so good. In the village, most people are farmers so they have places for their livestock to stay. Many times the livestock live in very close proximity to the homes. Life is quiet and peaceful. It is very simple without all of the hustle and bustle. It is a great place to practice language because people continue to make the effort to speak to you. You don't feel like you are an outsider even if there is a language barrier because people treat you as part of their family. In fact, if they know you through a friend, they will often call you brother, or the children will call you uncle. It's a very warm environment. Most homes only consist of one bedroom where the parents and children sleep together. They will often have lots of room outside for guests to sit. If people are well off, they will have more than one room in their house. Sometimes it is very difficult to drive out in the village because the roads are so narrow. Oftentimes you will be overtaken by tractors or big trucks. When the rain comes, the roads flood alot and the ground is often very muddy. It is a very simple life, and it helps remind how simple life can be. We distract ourselves with sin and complicate things, but really the Father just demands for us simple obedience. People of humble means can easily understand this. They are willing to give their all to Him!

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