So awesome!

We're in Windhoek for the day. It's SO AWESOME here!!!! :) I'm having a great time. The place is awesome, the people are awesome, the animals are awesome, what we're doing is awesome! :) Been here at the sanctuary for a week now, got another week to go. The volunteers are split into three groups and we rotate between three groups of activities. #1 Food prep 8-10:30, carnivore feed (go feed the lions, cheetahs, wild dogs, and leopards 11-1, food prep again after our long lunch break 2:30-5 and then some presentations at 5:30 and then dinner is at 6. #2 group is caracal walk 8-10:30, junior baboon walk 11-1 and then either research work (game count, tracking etc) or project work (digging trenches, building enclosures etc) in the afternoon. Group #3 is enclosure patrol 8-10:30 (you walk around all the carnivore enclosures, measuring the electric fences, check to make sure no one is digging out or in and check the health of the animals), enclosure cleaning 11-1 (that's the close enclosures, baboons, chickens, sheep, rabbits etc) and then baby baboon walk in the afternoon....which really is more like baby baboon carry! :)

Here are some pics:
 

 

My tent, on the inside, that back part is where the beds are. It's lit by solar power.

 

Me on enclosure patrol. That's one of the leopards behind me. They're probably scarier than almost any other of the cats!

 

Carlos and his "baby". that's Sheila, a 2 month old orphaned baby baboon. She LOVES Carlos!!!

 Me petting Samira. She's an ooooold girl! 14 years old, and unable to be released...she was hand-raised and too humanized. She was fed on cows milk, which isn't good for them, and so doesn't have all her teeth. She's a total sweetie. You're allowed to go into the enclosure with her.

 Mom helping bathe the baby baboon Bobby, before having him sleep with her and dad. They don't have to be bathed...but they're kinda stinky, so it's for our benefit. That's Sam, a longer-term volunteer on the left.

 This cheetah was darted to put her tracking collar on before release. She put up quite a struggle! She looked like she was out of it, but she woke up when they picked her up. And then she started coming out of it again long before she should have. She SHOULD have been out for several hours, but she had cubs, and so the adrenaline woke her up way early. Very very interesting time! :)

 Meatball enjoying his lunch. Meatball, isn't that cute? :) hee hee. You don't look this boy in the eye...he REALLY doesn't like that!

I'm here!

Well, can I just say that Namibia is better than I could ever have imagined! After mroe than 48 hours I arrived in Windhoek, and then we drove to the coast to Swapokmund. Today we toured around here, looking at dunes, flamingoes, the ocean and this cool area called the "Moon Landscape". Tomorrow up the coast a bit then inland and north to Etosha.

:) More later, gotta go to bed, it's late! And besides...I'm kinda just borrowing someone's computer. I'M SO HAPPY TO BE HERE!!!!!!

Gemsbok, springbok, eland, oryx, kudu?

I've spent quite a bit of time trying to familiarize myself with a lot of the animals we're going to be seeing. Some things are quite obvious...cheetah, lion, giraffe...DUH! :) But the antelopes and gazelles...they're hard! It's all about the horns. Sheesh. What if they're young and their horns aren't developed yet?

I'm going to be keeping a "Safari Diary", trying to list all the animals I see. I haven't said it in this post: I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!! Although I'm also kinda freaking out about how quickly it's coming up. I need to make sure I get everything done that I need to get done. And I haven't quite figured out my packing yet. I just found out that the luggage weight limit is lower than I thought it was. Hmmm....  :)

Countdown to Africa

This year I'm going Namibia, AFRICA!!!!! :) I'm so excited, I can't wait. I am going with my parents to volunteer at a wildlife conservation place, N/a’an ku sê. We'll be there for two weeks, and then my mom and dad are staying a week longer to work out in the field tracking and monitoring cheetah. How cool is that???

Before we get to  N/a’an ku sê we're going to do a self-drive safari for a week. Namibia is one of the safest African countries to travel by yourself. We're going to go from Windhoek over to the coast, see Dune 7 outside Walvis Bay, then up the Skeleton Coast to see the Cape Cross seal colony, and then to Etosha National Park, which is a Big 5 park. Mom and dad are leaving this weekend and will spend the next week around Victoria Falls in Zambia and then travel through the Caprivi Strip/Okavango Delta, meeting me in Windhoek on Aug 14th. I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!! :)

I will update and upload pictures as much as I can. it may be even less than in India! :) Not sure what our Internet access is going to be like. But I'll be in touch, as I can.... Have I said yet that I'M SO EXCITED!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Nepal and Tibet

I loved Nepal. I'd go back in a heartbeat and I really would like to do the Annapurna Circuit. Nepal is a beautiful place and I only got to see a very very small part of it. The first day we were there I hit a brick wall in terms of my energy. I just could NOT go on another visit...I needed to sleep. So I went to sleep as soon as we got to the hotel at about noon and basically slept through to the next day. I felt better after that...but man, I needed it.

This is probably my favourite picture of the trip:
We visited Swayambhunath, otherwise known as the Monkey Temple. It was, of course, a beautiful site...but what I found most enticing was the monkeys. I call the above picture "Monkey in full flight". Hee hee. He was sitting on that roof behind him. I zoomed in for a closeup and just as I clicked, boom he jumped! :) Awesome! So then I fed him half a bananas. That same day we visited Bodnath with it's huge stupa. It's an amazing site too. Of all the sites we visited, I think it was the one with the most "presence". It just has...a feeling to it. A feeling of joy and peace. I can't explain it. Here I am at it:
We visited a temple in the square are I filmed a Buddhist monk prayer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzetVEsingI Have I said yet in this post that it was amazing??? :)

Tibet is a simply beautiful place. Look at this:
But...it's just so sad! We went to Potala Palace and 3 or 4 monasteries. All of them were fabulous, incredible, AMAZING! But... empty. I've heard all about the Free Tibet movement, of course. But I never understood it. Now having been there...yea. Tibet left me with an overwhelming sadness. Our guide, native Tibetan, was not allowed to talk to us about certain things. It is illegal for them to possess their own flag or to talk about their spiritual leader. It's just wrong.

I highly recommend India and Nepal as places to visit, but I cannot recommend Tibet. It's beautiful, but what's happening there is just wrong.

Picture gallery up

I've started to get my pictures up. There will be a LOT of them!!! :) When I'm home I'll have a much easier time of it, but for now, this is what's here. I haven't had time to name all of them, but I will... :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chandravan/sets/72157628045292055/

End of the tour

I haven't been able to update as much as I'd like. It's been a fabulous trip though. I've started a set on my Flickr account (lookon the right-hand column of this blog and you'll see a link), but there are only 6 pictures in there. I'm hoping to have time later today at the airport to upload more, but if not i'll have to wait til I get home. I highly recommend India and Nepal to anyone and everyone. Tibet....well, the landscape is amazingly beautiful and the Tibetan people are fabulous...but it's just such a sad place.

I'll be back later....

Some pictures - not in order.

I'm still SOOOOO surprised at how long it takes to upload anything....so the below is the most you're going to get today. :) WE're back in Nepal after 3 days in TIbet. Have to say, not at all sad to leave Tibet. It's just a really really sad place. Nelap is great. We're here for a couple days, so hopefully I can come back and update with words. :)
The Himilayas from our plane into Lhasa.

Our tent at the desert camp at Pushkar Camel Fair Camel Fair Sunset on our camel ride

Icky catfish at a sacred site. They really grossed me out. Chandra at the Rat Temple. That rat approaching my toes nibbled on my toenail! :)

Sunset camel ride

Last night we had a camel ride at sunset. It was fabulous. right now we're in Jaisalmer, in the Great Indian Thar Desert and we went out to Sam in the dunes. It was amazing. I'll upload photos as soon as i get a good connection. We saw a fabulous Jain temple in the fort here yesterday. Such intricate designs and amazing craftsmanship. You know, I realize I'm using the word "amazing" a lot....but really, nothing else fits! :)

The hotel here, the Rangmahal, as the best pool yet. Before the camel ride excursion we had some time to rest and relax. I spent it all by or in the pool. Beautiful. Today we're off to Jodhpur, the "Blue City". Then on to Pushkar and the PUSHKAR CAMEL FAIR!!!!!! :) Look it up, it's..... AMAZING!!!!! :) Hee hee

Rat Temple and a palace

Wow, talk about contrasts! :) Yesterday we did two fabulous things. We saw the Rat Temple and stayed overnight in a palace! I mean, how much better does it get? :) I've been excited about the Rat Temple ever since i found out about it. The rats are sacred and live there. They've lived there for several centuries, and do not carry disease. Pretty amazing. In fact, the nearby town has not suffered from any plagues, even when other towns in the wider area have. You can't wear shoes inside, but you can wear socks. I thought....since I'm here, do as the locals. So I went barefoot. If a rat touches you, you're considered blessed. Well...several did sniff me, and one nibbled on a toenail. I'll admit, I like rodents, but that did freak me out just a little. The one that nibbled on me is the one approaching my toes. it was really amazing. Some in our our group had a really hard time with it, but everyone went in.

But after, to make up for that, we spent the night in an honest to god palace! In the 90's the Indian government offered palace owners who were having a hard time keeping up with maintenance, a loan to renovate/update and turn it into a hotel. Then only 40% of that loan needed to be paid back over 20 years. So, we stayed in the Laxmi Niwas Palace Hotel in Jaipur. It was AMAZING! here's mom and dad at dinner in one of the two courtyards.

Not only that, but the hotel owners' son was getting married this weekend. So last night was the first of three days of celebration. they had 640 guests last night, tonight there are 5,000!!!! It was amazing to see. Not only did we get to see a high-class Indian wedding, but it was at a real palace. Awesome.

Today we drove to Jaisalmer. We're really in the desert now! As a treat, they took us out to the ruins of an ancient Brahman village that was abandoned in the 1800's to watch the sunset with cocktails. I tell you, each time I think it can't get better...it does! Rats, palaces and desert sunsets with cocktails. I'm a happy camper!

Tomorrow we're off to tour around Jaisalmer in the morning, then to the village of Sam in the dunes of the desert and a fancy dinner in the desert with traditional Rajesthani folk dancing! We're here in Jaisalmer two nights, so hopefully I can update again. It's taken 45 minutes to upload 2 pictures!!. Then it's off to Jodhpur and finally Pushkar for the Camel Fair. I'm so excited for that. I've been gone less than a week...sure feels like longer.

Hmm, evidently the rat temple pics will NOT load. Sorry, you'll have to make do with just the one above pic. Ill try again soon...