Pictures HERE!

So, I made it to Nepal…I had a 1 night transit in india, and had visa issue, but it seems that I am the luckiest guy on earth, and I made it without any problem :)

The city is great, the people are friendly and charming. The architecture is also amazing.

I spent most of my days walking around the small busy streets, visiting nice temples…meeting interesting people.

The place is just great, and very cheap! I am able to have a great dinner for under 1$.

I also spent an evening in an orphanage recording children signing. You should hear those kids, they are the best..and they are simply beautiful :)

One night we ended up in an hindu temple, where they do the puja celebration, and where they do the body cremation, next to a sacred river.

I have never seen a cremation before, and I must say. The feeling is weird, strange, and beautiful. There was a big ceremony at the same time, with people dancing, music, and random hindu ritual I cannot really explain.

Anyways, I dont have much time to write right now.

And I am also leaving tomorrow for a 10-14 days trek in the Himalayas.

I doubt I will be able to communicate in any way. But I will post more when I come back to Kathmandu.

Namaste

Pictures HERE!

Arugam Bay,

It has been amazing, simply the best…I was really not expecting that.

The bay is beautiful, the beach is amazing, the water is hot and the chillies are red and spicy!

I spent the first few days walking for hours around Arugam and Panama, the area is amazing. There is wild elephants down the road, peacocks, lizards, huge turtles..and beautiful colorful birds  :)

It feels great just to walk around and see all those things living freely around you.

I did surf a little bit, but its pretty expensive, so I wasnt able to afford it as much as I wanted, but I had a great time.

I was also able to convince the guesthouse where I live to let me use their kitchen. So we spent a day gathering ingredients, getting fish from the fisherman and veggies from the market.. I ended up cooking a huge batch of rice, fish & veggies curry with friends. It was a great night, I missed cooking a lot.

But, the best night in Arugam was when we decided to go camping in the cave at “crocodile rock”.

The place is basically a huge rock, about 1 hour walk from the village. Next to the sea. From which you can see the sunset and the sunrise. We ended up with a nice mix of about 10 people from all around the world.

We picked up a few kilos of fresh fish from the market and a bunch of veggies and cooked them all up on the campfire. and of course, beers ;)

Funny story about the fish; by the time we started cutting them,  it was nighttime, and we had to cut them down the rock, to clean them in the fresh water pond. But when some local saw that, they told us it wasnt a really good idea, because crocodiles are in the pond, and the fish smell would attract them..So 1 guy ended up cutting the fish quiclky, while I was checking out for crodociles, with a half working flashlight…The adrenaline rush was pretty good…

At the end , the meal was simply amazing.

But the best time is when me and a canadian girl decided to go swim in the sea late at night…
When we entered the water, we started seeing lights around us in the water…Glowing plankton!

Hundreds of tiny little lights were appearing in the water everywhere around us! They glow when you disturb them, so when you move a little bit in the water, you are just surrounded by little dots of light…

So think about it, its late a night, the sky is covered with stars, there is not one cloud, you are there, in Sri Lanka, on an empty beach, swimming in the sea, surrounded by hundreds of little glowing organisms…

That was one of the most beautiful moments in my life!

We all slept there, and were lucky to have an amazing sunrise in the morning.

That night was just perfect, no other words to describe it…perfect!
This is life as it should be!

On another note, the plans have changed again. I will not be staying in Sri Lanka until may as I was supposed to. I am heading to Nepal on saturday.

How did that happened?

While eating at the restaurant, I met a girl from Spain who is heading to Nepal. We ended up spending a lot of time together. And one day, while walking on the beach, she said laughing “Why dont you come to Nepal with me??”.

I though about it for about 3 minutes and a half…and said yes.

Why?

Since going to india, I had Nepal in the back of my head, for some reason I really wanted to go there… And I remembered, while in Delhi, I met a guy from Sherbrooke, who was heading to nepal alone. And I said to myself “If I didnt have those tickets to go to Sri Lanka, I would totally follow him”

And now I get to Sri Lanka, and meet this girl, who offer me to go with her… I think life has given me enough signs…I must go…

So I changed my flight back to India for april 17…
We came back to Colombo yesterday…I fly back to India tomorrow, meet up with her in Chennai on sunday morning, then together we fly to Kathmandu.

So yeah, at first, when I got my flight tickets to go to Sri Lanka, I didnt know anything about the country, I had no idea why I was going there…

But I think I know now.

And I know that I will be back, because this country look and feel amazing!

and the spices are tasty!

to be continued ;)

So, I left Delhi…Leaving Marylin behind was very hard :(

Anyway, getting to Arugam Bay in Sri lanka was not very easy…

I had to take a 40hours train to Chennai, spent 1 night there. then a plane to Colombo in the morning, then 1.5hours bus to get to the bus station, wait 5hours, then a 10hours horrible bus ride to get to Pottuvil, then a Tuk-Tuk to Arugam bay…

oh and I would like to thank Jet Airways for upgrading my free flight tickets to first class..it was awesome! and Thanx for all the beers. I must confess, I think I abused the mini-bar a little bit ;)

So yeah, I finally made it to Arugam Bay, which is a small bay at the south-east side of Sri lanka. Beautiful beach, amazing ocean, and some the friendliest people alive. Oh and there is about only 15 tourists in the bay at the moment. I feel lucky to know about this place.

Anyway, I dont have much to say now, since I just arrived, except that I have hooked up the with the local surf crew and im starting surf lessons tomorrow.

to be continued