Author Archives: shutterbugjj

After a couple of wonderful days seeing old friends and making purchases, it’s time to settle down and get with the program,  which starts with the introductory session tomorrow evening.

The weather has been amazing lately. I have been coming to Nepal now for 15 years and have seen Himalayan mountains that I have never seen before. They have always been shrouded in clouds. Not very easy to share via photos because they are so far away. But zoom in if you can.

View from Kopan of the Kathmandu valley

Kopan gompa (sorta like a temple) our meeting/teaching place. Photos will be coming soon

Stupas in the garden

Lama Lhundrup stupa on the left and Lama Conchog Stupa on the right

Boudhanath  Stupa with Himalayas in the background

The top portion of the stupa was damaged during the earthquake so they had to completely remove it and repair it. They also re-plated it in gold and are in the process of repainting the entire stupa.

Worker on stupa

The wiring on the right matches the traffic below. But it all seems to work …….most of the time!

Vendors at the stupa

Nepali men. 95 years young on the left, 92 on the right

This may be my last post for awhile. The internet gets cut off today at the monastery but I will be going into town in a week or so, so I may be able to post more. If not, I won’t be back until Dec. 5.

Swayambunath Stupa thru the smog

Distant Himalayan peaks

Tibet Guest House (just for you Rebecca)

I will be moving to Kopan Monastery today. So I hope to get some anti-smog photos sent out soon.

If you look closely at the bottom center of the video, you will see a woman and her family cooking on an open wood fire on the roof of their building. No need for modern cooking apparatus here! You gotta make due with what ya got.      (sorry for the shakiness of the video, it’s hard to hold a 4 pound camera still)

Tibetan Buddhist thangka painting in my room……..with a belly like mine!

Only a few more days of these until I become a temporary “monk for a month”

My laptop tells me that it is Monday Oct. 31 2016 at 5:03 PM Nepal time. I really have no clue as to what time, day or date it is. The flight from San Francisco to Singapore took 17 hours! How is it possible for a jet to not run out of fuel without refueling after 17 hours?  It’s one thing if you are a military jet and get refueled in flight but this should not be allowed for commercial jets! Especially if there are old fat people on board. And I can tell you….as an older guy that is not in shape, after about ten hours it hurt big time. I did plan ahead a little bit and got an exit seat so that I could get up at anytime and had somewhere to stand. Which helped some. But it was not an enjoyable flight at all. And then it was 13 hours hanging out at the airport in Singapore. It’s probably one of the nicest airports I have every been to. Free wi-fi, a free movie theater, a transit hotel onsite, Koi ponds everywhere, growing flowers everywhere, fast transit rail between terminals, just a real nice airport.

Okay, so here are some photos I took today. More to follow in the days to come:

There is a Hindu festival of light going on at the moment and will be for the next 2 days. Impromptu parade of what ever you would like to do. And just do it down the busiest streets around without any police support?! Needless to say……gridlock and nowhere else to go until they all passed by which took hours. These are the only 2 photos I could download. Slow third world country stuff………..

View from the top of the Tibet Guest House in Thamel Kathmandu. My home for the next few days. Owned by a Tibetan family and friends of mine.

I am going to have to reduce the quality of anymore photos I send from here. They are too large to upload. So that’s it for now.

Just a test to see if all is still working okay when I post.

Home

San Francisco is not the most beautiful city in the world as some people claim it to be. Of all the major cities I have been to in the world, Sydney and it’s surrounding harbors, is by far the most beautiful to my eyes. I don’t particularly like big cities and would never live in one but I could manage in a place like Mosman Bay near Sydney.

Before I arrived in Australia I posted a list of the expected cost of items in Australia. I can now confirm that they were all true. If you drink any kind of sugar sweet soda, aka Coke, it will cost you double or more to buy it. As will everything else you will buy there. Taxi’s…double, hotel rooms…double, food….double, beer…double or more. Why? Because they pay decent wages and the Chinese and Japanese are buying property like there is no tomorrow.

All of the local non indigenous people that I met were very friendly and very helpful. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to meet with any indigenous people. Just as we did here in the US, the same has happened to the Aboriginal People of Australia. If you take away the land that they survive on and pen them up somewhere and give them money to live on and there is no land for them to live off of, they turn to alcohol. I guess it’s human legacy, because it has been happening from the beginning of human existence. Divide and conquer.

I enjoyed my trip to Australia. Especially the overland trip thru the Outback. And connecting with a Tibetan Buddhist center in Sydney. I had hoped to travel to Bendigo where the Great Stupa is being built and where Ven. Gyatso is building a monastery. It didn’t happen this time but maybe in the future it will.

For those of you who live in the US and may have heard the expression “throw some shrimp on the barbie”, I didn’t see anyone doing that. And I also didn’t see anyone drinking Fosters beer. And most places don’t even sell it.

This last photo of Australia is one of my favorites. I have been asked to post a few photos of where I live. I will do so soon. Thank you all for following along and your comments. I take them all to heart.

I have been in Sydney now for almost a week, I think. I’m not keeping track of the date or the days. I do know that I head for home this Sat. and have asked everyone to remind me when it gets close. I have three flights to get back home. Sydney to Kuala Lumper, 8 hours. Kuala Lumper to Amsterdam, 12 hours and Amsterdam to SFO, 12 hours. 32 hours total! I figured out how far I will have traveled from the start of my trip until I get home. 38,000 miles. Not a very good carbon footprint for me. Sorry planet.

Sydney harbor

down town

2 of the many ferries that ply the waters of the bay, constantly. Very handy for getting around and great views.

Balmoral Bay

Mosman Bay where Robert lives

small cottage overlooking Mosman Bay

waterfront property

The video below is of all of the photos I took while in Australia. All 1400 of them. I have compressed it down to around 5 minutes. Hang on to something while you travel around part of Aus

Another day trip. This one with Billy Tea Safari’s. Had a full day of traveling north up the coast and back. The Daintree Rainforest is said to be the oldest rainforest in the world. Even older than the Amazon. I can’t say for sure. I’m old but not that old.

You won’t see anybody swimming outside of the netted areas in the sea at this time of year. For 6 months there are small Box Jellyfish floating everywhere. If one brushes up against you, the poison from it can kill you in minutes.

Where the rainforest meets the sea

Seed pod high up in canopy

The Daintree River

1 year old croc

2 year old croc

I took a day trip to Kuranda, which is in the mountains above Cairns, via the railway that was built in the late 1800’s and came back on the skyrail that takes you over the rainforest. Of course it rained most of the time I was there. That’s why they call it a rain forest, duh.

Stony Creek Falls

bush turkey

Barron Falls

Barron Falls up close

Skyrail

view from Skyrail

I went out to the outer reef, along with 100 other people, and snorkeled for around 3 hours. This trip is out to a floating anchored barge type thing built specifically for the purpose of allowing people to dive, snorkel, hardhat dive, ride in a semi submersible and view the reef from a glass bottom boat. We left Cairns at 9am and returned at 5pm. The basic cost was $200. Snorkeling, glass bottom boat, semi submersible, lunch and coffee/tea are included in the price. Everything else is extra. The weather was okay but not spectacular. It is the rainy season, so there were clouds around all day with a little sunshine mixed in. But no rain.

I rented an underwater camera for the shots that follow. Wally, the resident Maori Wrasse, enjoyed being petted like a dog and would come to you if you waved your hand at him. He’s about 4 feet long. He seemed to follow me around, so I got to pet/rub his body 5-6 times. I took over 300 photos and about 40 min. of video. About 20 photos came out okay but all of the rest were blurred or out of focus. And this was a $500 camera I was using. At least I have the memories but some good photos would have been nice.

Wally

I am staying at a B&B in Yorkeys Knob, which is just north of Cairns. It is situated on a cliff overlooking the Coral Sea. It’s called A Villa Gail.  Gail, the owner, does everything. Breakfast, cleaning, washing, she even picks you up from the airport. And she arranges all of the trips. She is a very nice and talkative lady.

View from sitting area next to my room

sunrise from A Villa Gail