I am in Pokhara, Nepal right now! It is absolutely beautiful with nature all around me. There's a beautiful lake and the view of Himalayas right behind it. The air is fresh and the people are down to earth. The highlight of my trip was when I rowed a boat to a random island that nobody went to and just went on my own adventure. I was ripping through the forest and then I heard the sound of water somewhere. So I decided to create a new path to follow the sound. Behold, it was a small waterfall with a pond [View Full Entry]

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Chitwan- An elephant I am in Chitwan, the rainforest part of Nepal! I had a full day activity with elephants. They are so fat and peaceful. They never cause any harm to others even though they are the biggest. I went to a jungle safari on the back of an elephant and we got so close to other animals because they weren’t afraid of the elephant. Deer and rhinos were just relaxing around us. Then I went elephant bathing with them in the river. The elephant was having so much fun taking a bath. Afterwards I went to an elephant breeding [View Full Entry]

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Day 1: I want to quit. There’s no way anybody should be put through this. I want to quit, I want to quit, please let me quit. 10 hours of meditation everyday? No talking, no reading, no writing, no eye contact, no yoga, no music, no humming, no whistling… this is suffering. I want to quit, this is ridiculous that we have to wake up at 4 every morning and meditate for two straight hours! Oh my Buddha, I can’t believe I have ten more days to go, please, I want to run away! Haha, this thought came up on [View Full Entry]

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I am in Bodh Gaya, the most holy site for any Buddhists. Bodh Gaya is the town where Siddhartha attained enlightenment. I went up to the cave where he meditated for 6 years. It was small, stuffy and hot! Respect to him for being able to concentrate under those conditions. There are 22 different Buddhist temples all over the town including ones from Japan, Bhutan, Burma, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Korean, Taiwan, China and many other countries. It was truly a peaceful town where all different sects of Buddhism would have tremendous respect for each other. They were all brought together [View Full Entry]

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I am in Khajuraho, a small town famous for its erotic temples! This place was highly recommended to me not because I’m bien tai(perverted) but because the sculptures are truly unique. The old kingdom in Khajuraho had a small population and so they heavily promoted sex so that their society can grow. It eventually grew to a very large kingdom. From what I can tell by the sculptures, it seems they're really enjoying sex! There's so many different poses to learn from... At first I thought these sculptures were going to make me giggle like a little girl but by [View Full Entry]

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Happy Diwali everybody! Today is the biggest festival in all of India, it’s called Diwali (festival of lights)! It’s absolutely wild here. My friend, Arun, said that Diwali is equivalent to Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years put together. It reminds me of Chinese New Year, which I haven’t celebrated in over 4 years now. There’s prayers, stories, firecrackers, fireworks, feast and lots of candles. Diwali is a celebration of Lord Rama’s return from exile after 14 years. It follows the lunar calendar and can only be celebrated when there isn’t a moon at [View Full Entry]

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I am at the northwest region of India right now, Rajasthan! It’s like a desert kingdom out here where there’s lots of grand palaces. The train ride between Jaipur and Jodhpur provided a great view of the landscape. Jodhpur is referred to as the blue city because a lot of the buildings are painted in blue. The Brahmins, one of the highest caste, painted their buildings blue because the color is considered holy. A lot of the gods like Shiva, Rama and Krishna are all blue. The fool got scammed! It was only a matter of time before I got [View Full Entry]

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Breathtaking. Absolutely, positively breathtaking. I’ve been waiting all my life to be here at the Taj Mahal, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The cost of entry for an Indian is 10 rupees and the cost for foreigner...750 rupees! That’s the biggest gap in price discrimination I’ve ever witnessed, haha, I could have paid for 75 Indians to go in! But no doubt, it was worth every rupee, Everything was clean, there was nice paths, beautiful gardens and a long hallway before entering the main entrance. Walking through the entrance felt a lot like my first time going [View Full Entry]

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Wow, so everything is a bit different here in the north side of India. For one thing, most girls are wearing jeans and not those beautiful silk dresses that ALL the girls wear in South India. It’s a fast pace city and just a bit dirtier than New York City. The vibe I get from this city is that it’s free and chaotic. As oppose to Boston or Tokyo where there are so many rules. ‘Anything goes’ vibe is comforting for a traveler because I don’t have to worry about accidently disrespecting the culture by inadvertently breaking the rules. I [View Full Entry]

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I've never really written a short story before and I just wanted to try it out. Once I started, I realized how much effort goes into character development. Oddly, I had to think about the dynamics of each character and how they would react to one another. Almost like giving them life and trying to find the chemistry between them. All and all it was fun to to do some creative writing again but I think it's tough. Don't have too much expectation because this is just experimental! The reason I wrote the short story was because it would help me [View Full Entry]

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