Riding an elephant is on my top ten best things to do list ever!

Paul and Nancy enjoying the view.

The best seat in town.

This rhino thought twice about charging our elephant.  It's good to be on the biggest ride in the jungle!

Blowing bubbles in the water is ever so much fun.

Dust baths are enjoyable too.

Wild baby elephants.

Chitwan Fire Department

Royal Chitwan National Park - a World Heritage Site

Our little lodges

Is there anything better than finally arriving at a destination you have dreamed of visiting?  Maybe, but it's pretty high on the list!  The Chitwan Park is in the southern lowlands of Nepal.  A small percentage of the park allows humans, the rest is left for the animals.  

Happy Travelers

Do they look like tourists?

Nepali life outside the city

A match made in heaven--Hindu god and goddess

An earthly angel

Working

At play

Traveling in air-conditioned comfort?

Working women

The "Monkey" Temple

So many things to see and visit!

"Nepali Eyes" - Boudanath, the great stupa of Nepal

Tibetan refugee weaving at the rug factory

Tibetan artist at Boudha Stupa Thanka Centre

Monk in front of prayer wheels

It's not the 1960's hippie mecca any more!

Kathmandu, Nepal

The population is over 1 million, the place is really crowded and very poor.  Our guide, Naryan, explained that people move in from the villages to try to earn a living.  The air was very dirty and hard to breathe.  It was also quite fascinating in many ways.  We visited Thamel, which is crammed with shops and restaurants, a short walk from our hotel.  We bought lots of souvenirs there, of course.

Thailand

We were only in Thailand a few days.  The King's Palace in Bangkok was worth seeing.  It was the only place that looked like the King of Siam movie!  The rest is pretty modern and cosmopolitan.  We did spend one night outside of the city on the river.  After we got a little rest OFF the plane, we flew to Katmandu, Nepal.

Frustration is.....

....having a Mac computer that isn't compatible with drop and drag so everything is crunched into the blog instead of nicely spread out like other blogs......oh, well..

New best friends

The Tiger Temple was established by local monks who care for abandoned wild animals.  Tum told us it had gotten very tourist-y and it has, but still, I got to pet a tiger!  The fur was oily and not at all soft and fluffy like I expected.  Nancy, running behind a tiger in the hopes of getting to pet it, got peed on instead.  Call it a wilderness experience if you like.

Getting a "massage" from an elephant caused me to question my sanity!

Nancy's new best friend

Thai River Boat

"Do you have the patience to wait until your mind settles and the water is clear?"--Lao Tzu 

Thai Village Children

"We often look so long and so regretfully at the closed door that we do not notice the one which has opened for us." --Helen Keller

Walt Whitman

Let your soul stand

cool and composed 

before a million universes.

This is a little altar at a restaurant where we ate lunch in Thailand.  There are so many tales to tell about our trip that it's hard to know where to begin.  It was exotic and exhausting and exhilarating  all together....a million new universes.

Sanskrit Saying

God sleeps in the minerals,

awakens in the plants, 

walks in the animals, 

and thinks in you.

Dancing with Matt

Stream of Life

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day

runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth

in numberless blades of grass

and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth

and of death, in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.

And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.

--Rabindranath Tagore

This poem is being sung by Palbasha Siddique, a 17 year old Bengali girl, who lives in Minneapolis.  This song was written for Matt Harding for his Dancing video.  

Beautiful in all ways.

Brogan

Big dogs rule!  Almost my whole life I have lived with dogs--"the gods of play."  I can't imagine my life without my animal friends.

Getting this picture involved getting on the ground which gave Brogan an invitation to come try and sit on my head.  He's a handful to play with but he's such a sweet boy.

Summer Sunset

The air is warm and sultry, the sky a little stormy.  There is the wispy hope of rain.  The setting sun has lit up Dry Fork Canyon.  How lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place!

Rumi

Out beyond ideas of Wrongdoing and Rightdoing, there is a field.

I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,

the world is too full to talk about.

Ideas, language, and even the phrase 'each other' doesn't make any sense

William Blake

To see the world in a grain of sand, 

and to see heaven in a wild flower, 

hold infinity in the palm of your hands,

and eternity in an hour

Summertime and the livin' is easy?

Maybe years ago life was slower but has it ever been easy?