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Flower Clown Cleveland Ohio Flower Entertainment balloon twister
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Asia 2007 |
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| Friday, May 11, 2007
Back home.... Well we made it back home Monday night after some 30 hours of traveling. We were quite exhausted, so we slept for a good 5 hours before being wide awake at 5am. Then we cleaned the house from top to bottom and back again for about 12 hours. We had a beautiful new bathroom when we came home, thanks to the hard work of our friend, Rich, who slaved for 100 hours while we were away. His hard work looks gorgeous! Since returning home we have caught up on some sleep and are jetlagging much less. Time for some hard work so we can make some money to return next year. We had the best trip yet! We had the honor to make some truly great new friends and share some incredible experiences. Our friend, Piya Dhammo Piku, the Thai monk, graced us with some really heartful gifts and the joy of telling us he will name our first child. How do you turn that down?! We will remember him everyday and strive to live our lives closer to Buddha, as he does. We are so thankful for another new friendship, Dej Bulsuk. He originally brought McDonald's to Thailand some 25 years ago, after being in school in the States and realizing the popularity of this fast food fad. He was 50% owner in McThai for 22 years, before "retiring" to do what he really loves, teaching and composing music. When we saw him he was always working and impacting people's lives. Which he has told us he will do for us, if we wish it. He has many important friends across the world and he took time to introduce Ronnie to some of them. He is so impressed with Ronnie's talents and personality that he has offered to introduce him to all the mall and hotel owners, ambassadors, ex-Prime Minister's wife and many more influential people, who could use his talents. He tells us that Ronnie will have to get lots of TV exposure, which he will make happen with some of those friends, and then we will need to hire a manager to control all the bookings that will roll in. We have decided to take him up on this offer and are planning to make our return to Thailand early next year, to hopefully give birth to the baby that we will concieve very soon (Insha Allah, God willing), and test the business waters. We plan on giving it a 4 month try. If the bookings roll in as Dej promises, then we may live in Thailand half a year, during the slow season here and then return home for the summer bookings. The future plan is to live in Thailand full time in the next 5-7 years. This idea has also been blessed by Piya and our stars. It is as if this is too good to be true, but it may really be true! One of the highlights was our wedding in Nepal. We were so touched that our friends, Bumm, and Shant and Tischa came to celebrate with us. And the 120 others who attended the party surrounded us with love and well wishes! In the end, it was a truly magical moment. Thanks to Pradeep, Sina, Bina and everyone else who chipped in to make it a huge success and fun for all. Ronnie is beginning the arduous task of going through the 9900+ photos and videos from the trip. We are trying to dwindle that number down and chose some of the best to post on this page. For those who live near we will have them printed so that you can enjoy them close-up. It will be worth the wait! Another highlight was meeting Sanu, the owner of the Fair Tade factory, Chandra Handicrafts in Bhaktapur, Nepal. We spent alot of time watching the women weave shawls, knit hats, make paper& dye silk yarns. We are proud to have begun a working relationship with Sanu, as we bought some lovely hand-made Batik print bedcovers, Chinese silk meditation pillows, Flower Clown wall hangings and much more. Some of these items will be for sale on Ebay.com in the next month or so. The women who work there are all widows, have children or disabilities and they all make a very decent wage and have health insurance. If you are interested in any of the items we have for sale, contact us and we will get you out some photos. As we close we wish everyone love and peace! We will post those photos very soon. Stacy and Ronnie
Sunday, May 06, 2007 On our way home Well it has been 98 days in Asia. Tonight at 3am we will get a taxi and return to Cleveland. We had some good times here in Asia. The wedding was a highlight. I will print out some photos on my return to share with all of you. See you soon.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007 Here we go.... Ok, we are at a much better internet shop with a much connection. So we will attempt an update. We returned to Thailand on Friday with our Nepali friend, Ashok, in tow. He had actually planned to come here for hoilday before we made it to Nepal. the more we thought about the time we had planned here before returning home we knew we needed more, so we changed our flight. Ashok was very thankful, as it was his foirst time out of Nepal and he was a bit nervous. We helped to ease his nerves a bit. Then on our first full day here, he happened upon an old friend from Nepal who works in the south for a tailoring center. So he took Ashok along with him on his return to Koh Samui, one of Thailand's most beautiful islands. He has been having the time of his life, racing around on speedboats and lounging on the beach. We on the other hand have been taking it easy!! Thetemps are way into the 90's , so most days are spent in AC. We are off to watch the fliming of Thai game show/comedy show tomorrow with Bumm. That should be fun! We have not made alot of big plans for the next couple of week so on this trip. But we will see what happens! We are now off to wait for the return of Ashok. More to come soon. We have some exciting news to share when we return home...no babies in the oven yet!! Other good news! Be well!
Back in BKK This is the third time I will try posting this blog. This is a test because I have lost the other 2 postings with an error and I have to pay for my time on line. I give up, too many errors!
Friday, April 06, 2007 Our last week in India, and various ramblings We are back in Nepal and have been for a few days now. All is well here. But we needed to update you all of our last week in India. We arrived on the 27th in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) at 9Am. Of course the train out of Bodhgaya was delayed about 2.5 hours. Our arrival in Kolkata was greeted by 100 degree temps and our dear friend, Bathin. We made our way to Bathin's brother, Barin's house for lunch and some much needed rest. As the days passed the temps rose higher (106). So during the days we mostly stayed semi-cool in the house in front of the fans. Many days we all took about 3 showers to try to keep that body temp low, but really nothing worked. Seeing as Ronnie and I had both been to Kolkata 2 times previous, the experiences and sites we saw were more for Pradeep and the girls. We did something new for us also on our first day out into the heat...we hit a sort-of amusement park, Science City. The highlight was the IMAX theatre, granted it was a bit less impressive as we have in the West. But we all enjoyed the "Shark" movie quite a bit, especially since it was Pradeep, Sina and Bina's first time seeing this sort of movie. Then we had many laughs and great photo opportunities in the Hall of Mirrors. It was a fun day and well worth the sweat! The other days we did the typical Kolkata sights, The Victoria Memorial, The Planeterium and the downtown area. We decided to take Pradeep and the girls to somewhere they had never been, to see something they had never seen. Little did we know it would be a first for us in many ways!! We took a local, non-AC bus 5 hours south to Digha, on the Bay of Bengal. Upon arrival everything looked nice and welcoming. But as we made our way to town to find a hotel for the weekend we sensed something different was about to rear its head. We soon learned that that something different, was....US!! Yes, Ronnie and I are two of the western/non-Indian in appearance tourists to visit Digha in as long as any local could remember. When Bathin and family told us that Digha was nice and we should go we never thought we would be such a rare commodity. Even the guide book failed to mention that fact! It would seem to be a good thing to be the only foreign tourist, except that everywhere we went locals were walking into one another while their jaws hit the ground. And Pradeep was asked by a couple of the locals, things such as "Why are they so white?"and "They really eat rice?" Another disadvantage to our being "so White" was that when we went to the beach, we gathered a crowd of usually 50 or so Indians. When we tried to say "Hello" or the more recognizable greeting of "Namaste" the people simply did not know how to respond, so they chose the easiest thing to do and that was to say nothing! The shock that we really do breath the same air and like to have fun had stunned them silent, as they must have been shocked that we really exist outside of the TV set. Now without giving ourselves too much credit for being "so white" and western, it really made for some good laughs for all of us. It was certainly the first time this had happened to such a large extent. We were greeted again with open arms upon our return to Bathin and family in the Beliaghata neighborhood of Kolkata. Ronnie did a magic/balloon show for the locals one night in town and everyone was thrilled! Barin's wife took such great care of us and fed us way too much food, including the delicious sweets that Kolkata is known for. So much so that I am now on a salad and soup diet, as rice and dal (lentil soup) that is typical in India and Nepal, has put too much meat on our bones. Ronnie and I have been doing some cooking the past few nights at home in Bhaktapur. This brings laughs and delight from the family here, as they are quite happy with the very typical food they eat 2, sometimes 3 times a day, dal bhat. We are slowly bringing them around to trying new culinary delights as spaghetti, stir-fry and boiled (instead of fried) veggies. Tuesday begins the Newari New Year, Bisket Jatra. This brings about 150,000 people to the small town of Bhaktapur. It is 7 days of festivities, such as pulling a wooden chariot thru the small winding roads, stone throwing and animal sacrifices. It really is a fantastic week of events and fun!! We will post some photos as the New Year begins. After Bisket, Ronnie and I will try to take a trip to Pokhara, Nepal. This is about 12 hours from Kathmandu and is so beautiful. We will post more new, exciting stories soon.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007 New video on Youtube Hello from India MySpace was not working so well today so I posted a new video on YouTube. I will try again and post one here. Going to Calcutta tonight on the night train.
Monday, March 26, 2007 Update from India Category: Travel and Places Back in India!!! It has been a few years sence Stacy and I have traveled to India and where do we end up? Back in Varanasi at Hotel Arti where we had many long nights with Daryl, Ran, Jenny and Pradeep and family. Well this time we are here with Pradeep, Wife and sister-in-law but his son had to stay in Bhaktapur because of his final exams. The people at the hotle rembered us and told me how much his daughter loved the balloons and they still have my sticker in there house. We got in late because the flight was delayed for almost 4 hours. The sun was setting as we landed in Varanasi and the airport was about an hour drive outside of town. It is dark and not safe to walk around so we just ate near the hotel and sat in Pradeep's room to chat for an hour. It was nice to take a shower. Nepal has many problems like "load shedding" scheluled blackouts. Lack of water and now with the fighting at the Indian border towns gas is not being shipped into Kathmandu and there have been lines up to 2 miles if cars waiting for gas. The more things change in Nepal the more they stay the same. It was a good thing we got out when we did, I just hope things get a little better befor we return. If there is no gas we might have to walk back from the airport. With the 5 of us and all our bags that could take hours. Sorry about the lack of e-mails. Shanti did a good job with his so I just copied and pasted them. Being in Nepal is like being at home. The family is there and I am getting orders in and working with my tailors. Not much new. The wedding was a high point this year and Stacy and I were very busy at that time with Bumm, Shanti, Tisha and all our Nepali friends. There was some loose strings we had take care of. The DJ was book on the day of the party. Pradeep did a good job but there are times he waits till the very last moment. Our ticket to India was just boked the day before even though we have been telling him for a week when we wanted to go. Time was running out before we had to be back in Nepal for Bisket Jatra "New Years". Back to the wedding... We had a late start getting readydue to the make-up lady who came and did Stacy's make-up and henna. The henna was a temp tattoo but didn't want to stick to Stacy's hands. Half of it came off with in an hour and other parts had to be removed with gas. The car picked us up (which was booked the night before) and took us to Surabeniack temple. Stacy had to walk up to the top of the hill in high heals (she never wears heals). At the top we waited for the braman to get everything ready. I walked around taking photos while Stacy stayed in her cage with the girls. Every thing is ready and Shanti and the kids (Thisha and Bumm) had arrived. The whole thing took an hour but it could have gone on for 3 hours. The bramen had 6 weddings that day so I think he was in kind of a rush. That was a good thing because it was getting hot sitting in the sun in a suite and Stacy in a full suri. We then went off and talked to a few reporters (We made 4 news papers) who were interviewing us for the Kathmandu papers. We had a catered lunch for 62 people who came to see the service. Every thing went well, Stacy looked great, Ama and Ba were happy. Now on to the party. Bumm and I got to the hotel around 2pm to start blowing up balloons for the party. I made 4 flower vases with balloons and Bumm and I blew up a lot of round balloons because the long balloons can't handle the dust in Nepal and were popping. The staff were putting out Christmas light and setting up the tables and chairs. I have been to many Nepali wedding parties and I was not going to let our party be any thing like them. The parties I have been to are just lines of chairs where everyone sits side by side. The staff brings around drinks and snacks. Dinner is served and everyone goes home. Our wedding was not to norm for Nepal. Bumm started with walk around magic and balloons then did a stage show befor dinner was served. The DJ played a mix of Hindi, Nepali and I had my laptop hooked into the mixer so so of our music was also in the mix. The only problem is the DJ didn't keep the kids away from the computer. The owner of the hotel had a son around 12 years old who would sit down at the computer while a song was being played and change the song in the middle. I also busted him with my new camera. ARRRR... After dinner the DJ turned up the music and everyone started dancing. This was the first time most of the women had ever danced. Everyone was having a good time, most of the men were drunk and then arounf 10:30pm it all came to an end. The lady who lived next to the hotel was not happy about the loud music. She and a few others came into the hotel grounds and started fighting with the owner. This of course drew a crowd and the party came to an end. We took the train from Varanasi which was 2.5 hours late. We got into Gaya at 1pm book our ticket to Calcutta for the third day after and took a tuk-tuk (auto rickshaw) to Bodhgaya where the Buddha reached inlightment. It is a very small town and for India it is nothing. Most of the cities in India are so over crowded that you can't move. Bodhgaya has one small road with hotels and shops. Then there is the spot where Buddha sat and there is a large temple and the Bodhi Tree at which he sat under. At the Thai Wat there is a party going on because the King of Thailand is 80 years old, he has been in power 50 years, the Wat is 50 and Buddha achieved enlightenment 2550 years ago. Need and more reasons to have a party. Tomorrow we will visit a few more temples and then take the night train to Calcutta to see our friend Bhatin. After our friends from Nepal what to see the sea so we will spend a few days relaxing on the water front.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007 On our way...... Hello~
We have decided to take a trip to India. We are on our way to Varanasi tomorrow with Pradeep, Sina and Bina. We will make our way by train to Bodhgaya, Gaya and then onto Kolkata. WE will be away from Nepal for about 2.5 weeks. We will do our best to update the blog with news and photos. Everyone be well! Love and Peace! Stacy and Ronnie
Tuesday, March 20, 2007 Shanti's last e-mail from KTM Friends, It's now only hours before we return. Yesterday Tischa and me stayed in Kathmandu, roaming the streets. Got another Thanka! Bought some statues and more presents. In the afternoon we went to the zoo. The closest place to get an elephant ride. Tischa is Tip-Top. It's only a walk through the zoo, but it's great fun. We give the elephant cookies, and I play with it's large penis in it's face... Huge! We walk through the zoo, but not much compared to the well subsidized zoo's of Holland. She gets into the local roller coaster, which is all but exiting. She screams though, so the picture is complete. The traffic in Kathmandu is like a continues traffic Jam. Tischa gets herself a horse. I am teaching her to bargain. Every time the man says no and calls another price she comes running back. I tell her to tell him he's crazy by making the sign to her forehead. The laugh and finally she gets what she wants. Another horse for her collection. We buy some presents for her friends and eat a pizza in the local Italian restaurant. Back to bed. Today I arranged my confirmation for the flight back, get a mountain view ticket , get my photo's from the shop, get all Thanka's packed and get in the taxi for Patan, where we will meet Ronnie and Stacey again. Patan is not far from Kathmandu, and is also a museum. We pay to get into town. The local art is making these bronze gold plated statues with painted faces. I get in this shopping mood again and bargain 4 more statues. My house will look like a monastery when I get back. They are all high quality, and beautiful. Patan is small and beautiful. Today however I am not in the mood to talk with all these guys trying to get you into their shop or business. And their incredible prices... I am a bit annoyed. We eat in a beautiful old building and enjoy telling stories. Tischa is happy, bought a wooden bird, and played with Pradeeps cousin. We make a last round and leave for our hotel in Kathmandu. Tomorrow we fly twice, see Ronnie, Stacey and Pradeep for the last time, and go home. My bag with Thanka's weighs 20 kg, and my backpack is getting close to that. Tischa still travels reasonably light. Just arrange good transport and all be well... Hope to see you soon Love Tischa and Shanti
Shanti's email 4 Friends, We are in Kathmandu now. Yesterday I went to see goodbye to all friends, and went to the Internet shop to look for the orphanage 'Hamro Jivan' (http://www.hamrojivan.org ), the orphanage where the children were sexually molested by this Dutch guy who ran the place. There have been some articles in the newspaper about this, and had asked Ronnie before if he wanted to do a show for them. I found their website and wrote down their address. Back in the hotel I pack everything. I had a bag customized to have the Thanka's in, which are rolled up inside a pvc tube. Ronnie and Stacey come along to Kathmandu, as is Pradeep. The family of pradeep is there to say goodbye. Even the hotel owner has a goodbye present for me, a little wood carved window with a peacock. We made an impression here, and we will keep in contact through our e-mail. In Kathmandu we take a little more expensive hotel. I want the last days with Tischa in luxury. After getting our stuff in the room we head for the orphanage. Ronnie is doing a show, and I bought the drinks and sweets. Lets give them a party! Two dutch girls get us from the place where we made the appointment, and we are updated about the story. It's a small building with a few floors, all rooms with double beds and a big gathering room. Before Ronnie starts he has to prepare, and I take the opportunity to make an intervieuw with the girls. They are fantastic. Just after high school and being in such a mess, trying to do the best for these kids! The girl I interview initiated the investigation, and is organizing the reorganization with the Nepali government and different organizations. Children are big business here, and they have serious tough situations to deal with. I have serious respect for them. I am keeping myself from crying, trying to focus on the interview, and later the photo shoot. This is so bad. These kids are seriously being sexually abused, and I can see it in their looks and behavior. Ronnie gets his show started, and the kids get into the whole story, getting one balloon after the other looking like monkey's, guitars, fancy hats, fish and rod, etc. I try to get good pictures of them and a small video to get to the Dutch media. I am struggling inside, not to get emotional. I feel so helpless for them.Tischa is watching the whole thing, and I explain a bit about these kids background. The Dutch girls are happy and thank full that we came by, as were the kids. Outside Stacy and me let a tear. We leave for Thamel, Kathmandu, to get my last Thanka and say goodbye to Ronnie and Stacey, who will be going back to Bhaktapur. It started raining again. Stacey loves my Thanka. It's huge, and the tailor has done a great job on the material. Tischa and me leave for dinner and ATM. We will see Ronnie and Stacey on Sunday, when we leave for Holland again. It really started to rain now, and I decide to step into the travel agency to cancel the trip. River rafting with Tischa in the rain is not something i look forward too. They promised with rain we would get our money back, but he refuses. We can get only partly back, and I really get annoyed. This is a rip off. It gets seriously loud, but after a call with Ronnie and Pradeep, threatening with the tourist police, I settle with the loss. I have better things to do. Tischa and me get on the road looking for a nice restaurant, when I see 6 kids using glue. It has been in the local newspapers and Ronnie told me about it, but here I see them on the pavement in public, breathing in and out of small plastic bags. I go to them and tell them to quit this, because it will kill them! I tough them, address each of them trying to get them to understand how dangerous it is for them to do this. They only call back for food, and point to the local supermarket. I walk over there with one of the kids, wanting to buy him some food when more kids walk in. It is terrible to see this, and I talk to the owner of the Supermarket. I give him NRs 1000, and ask him to give them everyday some fruit or bread, but only if they don't smell of glue, look straight, and keep off this drug. They help. I ask the kids for their bags of glue, and give some rupees for each bag. I give the bags to the shopkeeper to throw away, and walk away. So sad. We get into the Thanka shop where my Thanka is hanging and my tears break out. What can I do. Develop your heart, the Dalai Lama says, and yes, my heart is glowing. I do what I can, asking the shop keeper to do the same with his neighborhood kids. We are hungry and go out for some food. Pfff.... Back in the hotel we watch some TV. I fall asleep. Not for a long time though. My allergy starts again. O no! Not another night without sleep. And here I am, in the morning, no sleep, at opening time of the Internet cafe.
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