Pictures!

Newari New Year's

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This is chalk art done by neigborhood children to celebrate the year 1125 according to the Newari calendar.

Dashinkali bus ride

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This is the family that I met while at Dashinkali, a holy place visited on Tuesdays and Saturdays to worship Kali, the mean version of Parvati, aka goddess of destruction. Hindus visit this temple to sacrifice animals (goats, ducks, chickens, etc...) to keep Kali content and not to strike their family. There are sadus, or holy men there blessing people and giving tikhas (the red dots on the forehead). The Nepali family and I got tikhaed by the same guy. This picture is on the way back to Kathmandu. There were 6 of us sitting on a seat for 3. Later there were 2 more women who joined us. It was a tight squeeze by about 5 too many....

Beauty

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This is Beauty, the village Rhino near Royal Chitwan National Park. She's 4 years old almost and is quite tame and is loved by all who visit. The villagers probably don't feel the same kind of love for her since she tends to walk into shops to forage for food and homes, she's almost too big to go into! It's too funny to see her wander around town. I'm with her early in the morning- she's still snoozing after a wild night out.

tiger print

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Although I didn't get to see any tigers, there was one paw print by a watering hole that was a bit old. I guess a paw print is better than nothing....afterall, I did see a Giant Hornbill!

Wild Rhino eating elephant grass

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Saw this wild rhino while on an elephant ride through the outskirts of the park. It was cool to see a wild one having his dinner of grass...yum.

early morning grass gathering

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This was my last morning in Chitwan and I went bird watching again at 7am. On the other side of the field from where I was standing, there was an elephant with 2 men gathering elephant grass for the other elephants that the government uses for tours. Elephant grass is called so because it grows as tall or taller than elephants and elephants love to eat it. I guess so do Rhinos...

Sunset on Panagsama Beach in Cebu

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This is overlooking the beach from the resort's restaurant balcony. The boat you see is what we took out for dives around the western coast of Cebu.

Loboc River

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This is the Loboc River in Bohol, a neighboring island, east of Cebu. We stayed in a place called Nuts Huts right by the river. It was absolutely incredible to walk out onto the porch and just see so much green!

Chocolate Hills

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One of the main attractions on Bohol is the Chocolate Hills. There are over 1200 hill that are shaped I guess like big round mounds of chocolate. I suppose they're called that because during the dry season, the hills are mostly brown. Anyhow, it's a geological wonder and it's taken millions of years for these hills to form. We didn't have that great of visibility that day, but they were cool to see. Noam, my traveling buddy from Israel and I by the wonderous Chocolate Hills...

Philippine Tarsier

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This is one of the smallest pre-primates in the world. They're about 4-6 inches long, minus the tail and have eyes that are each larger than their brains! Imagine if your one eye was bigger than your brain...I guess we'd look like them too- a little wide-eyed and shell-shocked looking. Funny creatures. Because they're nocturnal, this little guy didn't move very much, even when our guide was moving the branch. It's no wonder they're endangered.

Sunrise over Australia from the plane

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Breathtaking sunrise over Australia. It really is flat. Really flat. Reminds me a little bit of Texas...haha not really. The people are much nicer and the beach is less than 30 minutes away walking....might have to move here if the Bush administration continues to make Americans enemies of the world. It might be easy to pick up an Australian accent in a couple of weeks. Permanent visa is sounding better and better... haha