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3 new live videos are up!

Hey all! Thanks for making the latest Metropol gig so special! It's always great to have such a wonderful crowd, and pack the place to capacity in my home town! Here are some vids from the night:

3 new Live vids up! Check it out!

http://tiny.cc/n5lay
http://tiny.cc/7xxmc
http://tiny.cc/hhrus.

Enjoy the tunes!

food food food.

Those of you who know me know I love food more than pretty much anything. Rather than having a proper food blog, I am a very active Yelper. For today's entry, I invite to check out my food reviews at http://leib.yelp.com.

Enough said. As for music, I'm working hard. Make sure you make your rezzies for March 20th at the Metropol, last one sold out!

Warmly,

Sar

Reality check: The city of angels

Hey all!

It's been a while. Since I got so into writing on this blog during my trip, I don't want to let it fall by the wayside. I've been back in Los Angeles for two months now--hard to believe that that's 2/3rds of the length of my trip! Wow. Anyway, I'm back into the swing of things. For those of you who came to my first gig back at LA's Metropol, thanks so much! It was a fantastic gig that SOLD OUT, and got me excited to do more. So I'll be singing December 3rd at Hear Noho, and then there's a very special gig with two of my dear friends, an ultra special New Years Eve at the Metropol with Kathleen Grace and Sara Gazarek! If you want to hear vocal superstar-dom, that's the place to do it! Plus a four course dinner and champagne?! Get outta here! Details on the website. Plus at the December 3rd Hear Noho gig, it's very likely that we'll be having an *actual* superstar or two join us on stage (spoiler: U2 meets broadway kinda superstar). You'll just have to come to see what I'm talking about. In any case, both gigs promise to be amazingly special!

Other than that, my teaching gig t LA Music Academy has been keeping me busy. I'm loving it! I'm living in mid-wilshire, but might move to the east side in the next couple months. I've been talking with record labels, trying to figure out a way to get my next record out to you, so stay tuned for more news on that as it comes.

If you're in LA and want to hang out let me know! I've come out of post-trip hibernation.

love,

sar

Post trip wrap-up

So, I've been back almost two weeks now, but I'm still only getting used to it. Today I walked into Whole Foods and nearly had a heart attack over how many choices I had. And last week I had a $16 drink at a hotel. Holy bejeesus. But, good things are happening after all. Got a great gig on Oct. 24th...first full band one back in town, you should come.

So here's a wrap-up of what I think about the trip. To see Spain and Morocco pics, come over. I've also made a 'best of' album and a 'best of food' album I can show you in person when I see you!

BEST FOOD:
Thailand, Greece, and Morocco. Tie, don't ask me to pick just one.


FAVORITE COUNTRIES:
Cambodia, Thailand, Nepal, and Morocco.


POOREST (GDP): Nepal

RICHEST (GDP):
Finland


BEST MOMENTS:

Sitting at the top of a sand dune and looking out at the Sahara Desert

Turning on the first light of the solar lighting system in Nepal.

Staring at the huge stone faces at Angkor Thom.

Teatro in Madrid

Giving the workshop in Greece.

Chasing kangaroos in the Hunter Valley, Australia.

Fire Fairies and the Wind Brothers in New Zealand.


FAVORITE REGIONAL DISHES:

New Zealand - lamb, green-lipped mussels, Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc

Australia - Wine.

Nepal - Aloo. Nepali pickle. And decidedly not Daal Baat.

Thailand - Oh god, where to start?
Tom Yum Koong, Kanom Krok, green curry, pork broth soup, EVERYTHING.

Cambodia - Amok (red fish curry custard wrapped in banana leaf).

China - Steamed pork ribs in spicy black bean sauce, roasted goose.

Finland - Meatballs, berries, blackcurrants, and salmon/potato soup.

Italy - Cannelloni, gelato (hazlenut).

Greece - lamb, figs, dates, chicken, olives, olive oil, octopus, and best of all...Kanelli's mom's avgolemono meatballs!

Spain - Carcamusa, jamon iberico, Rueda Verdejos, Ribera Del Dueros, manchego curado.

Morocco - Harira, tagines. And believe it or not, fresh orange juice!


I met so many amazing people and had such a wonderful time, I hope I can make a habit of this and do a trip every five years that takes me around the world.

I'm still having a tough time adapting to life alone back in LA, so if you're in town, give a call.

Warmly,

Sar

Marvelous Marrakech

Salaam Aleichhem!

This blog should be alternately named "there's no such thing as just looking".

Marrakech is a wonder. A flurry of activity, a mess of colour, a city of smells, alight with energy. I'm staying in a Riad in the Medina, a maze of street after street, cobblestone after cobblestone, all long-necked corridors and dark cornered elbows, like a baby giraffe.

After a mess of blocks that I had to pay someone to take me through, I walked from a dark, dank, narrow alleyway through a fairly short door into a beautiful central courtyard, surrounded by our rooms. All of the people in the Riad are lovely, both those who work here and those who are staying here. Yesterday my new Riad friends, a lovely melange of Brits, Americans, and Australians, toured around together, went to dinner together and tasted each others' tagines, and smoked the hookah on the Riad roof. Today we went to the souks, soaking up the lively enegergy, which now is a little bit more tame I'm told, as it's Ramadan and everyone is tired and hungry during the day. This hasn't stopped many shopkeepers from trying their very best to woo us as customers.

Speaking of wooing me as a customer, the buying culture here is more different than I ever could have imagined. I've never experienced anything quite like it. Not in South Africa, Nepal, Guatemala, nowhere. Shopping is a dance. But not the kind you're used to. When we shop, we ask the price of something. That generally determines whether ew like it enough--is it worth $20? Yes? I'll take it. $20?!!!! No thanks, and we walk away. Here in Marrakech, there is no price. Nothing is too high, and prices are often picked at random. Today I saw the same kind of rug for sale for one price, and at another place for a price that was exactly 1000 times the first. So, when I ask how much something costs, I get "you give what you like." Then there's the part of the dance where you stumble over your partner's feet. You divide their original price by four, say your price, and the shopkeep feigns taking complete offense, as if the price you named couldn't buy it if it were soaked in shit.

Next, the haggle. The haggle I can do...it's these first steps that have me so off my game. This part of the culture is so phenomenally strange that all of the
folks in the riad come home and talk about what we paid for certain items. Then we ask our Riad manager what we should've paid, and take our great newfound esteem in haggling skills and shove them, lowering our tails between our legs after finding we've once again overpaid.

Today all of the girls and I went to the hammam. Similar to a Turkish bath, we got washed with black soap, massaged, and rinsed down. Then we got scrubbed raw with a scrubber. It was alarming to see the amount of dead skin come off each of us like we were practically molting. Then our hair was washed. Then they put natural musk all over us and left us to bake in a hot room, sweating ourselves into slippery messes. We were than washed off again with soap, and that was the end of it. A very enjoyable experience, as we girls were blabbing the entire time and giggling when our feet were scrubbed, even if it was only a fun ritual rather than a weekly need for cleanliness.

Today I'll wander around a but more before leaving tomorrow morning for a trip that will take me to the Atlas Mountains and the Sahara deset. I am REALLY excited. To think I almost didn't come to Morocco is razy. I'm SO glad I did!

Ma Ha Salaama,

Sara, aka Kanchi

España, parte uno

Spain has gone without a hitch. I am staying with two lovely people, Lola and Roberto, friends of my friends Vincent and Alex. I arrived and went straight from the airport to a picnic that Lola had planned with friends in the park. Chorizo, spaghetti, bread, and Spanish tortilla and we were having agooood time! Luckily there were some neat college students nearby having a picnic/hootenany. We sang together, and they told me about the hippest place to hear jazz. Sunday night brought a blues session with a completely packed house...we were playing until 4:30 in the morning!

I REALLY loved the Museo de Reina Sofia. Modern art. Yum. Saw Picasso's Guernica and tons of other beautiful things. The Prado, on the other hand, wasn't as interesting to me, but I guess that's just taste. Now onto maybe the most interesting museum of all...EL MUSEO DEL JAMON! Yes, this is a small chain of restaurant/cefeterias specializing in ham and cured meats of all sorts. I sampled some yum yums there as well as manchegos. The aged manchego (o manchego curado) is absolutely do DIE for. It has that aged texture of a little crytallization, like aged gryuere, and is just wonderfully funky.

Tuesday night I was invited to sing again at El Junco and again we were there all night. A super fun time. Surprisingly aggressive in terms of the music, though. The place was packed like a sardine can and loud, and it was kind of a New York session scene. All fast, all the time. But the good news is they were super happy to play with me...they loved singers so that was great fun and again we were there til after 3 a.m. I don't know how the Spanish do it. They don't even think about dinner until like 9:30 p.m...how does everyone get up and go to work?

also, the other day we went to see a theatre show that turned out to be the most inspiring thing I've even seen! AMAZING...
http://www.bosquimanoskoryak.com

On Thursday I went to Toledo, Spain. Toledo is the old capital, and it gets the prize for the most charming city on the trip thus far. Think Rome is romantic? Toledo is just the greatest. Spent the day running around with new friends Pablo and Alcira (incidentally from SoCal and one of the most interesting people I have met thus far...a super duper liberal evangelical christian, which seems to be a contradiction of terms, but she's way open minded, i love it!). Saw an old San Juan de los Reyes (beautiful) and two ancient synagogues that dated pre 1492 (before Jews were kicked out of Spain), one of which was absolutely stunning, both of which were later turned into churches. The first, Synagoga De Santa Maria Blanca, http://www.sacred-destinations.com/spain/toledo-sinagoga-de-santa-maria-la-blanca.htm (it has the name as it was later turned into a church) looks more like a mosque than a synagogue. Which brings back around the blog I wrote in Nepal. If you go back far enough, we're all one. Spawned from the same anscestors, praying to the same all mighty, eating fruit from the same earth. It was easy to look at the architecture at the next synagogue, El Transito Synagogue (which also now also now houses the Sephardic Museum), and be stunned by the obvious Arabic influence, something we so rarely see in Ashkenazic Judiasm in the States. El Transito is gorgeous--and was kept in its original form even when used as a church, so the original structure remains. Tons of pictures to come. Sitting there staring up at the Mudejar ceiling it was so clear to me the silliness of our society's focus on our human differences, as opposed to similarities.

On that I'll leave you. This weekend I think I'm going to go to a festival in Colmenar, where I'll get to eat chorizo and see bullfights. Then Monday I'm off to Marakech, Morocco!

Sorry about the lack of pics with this blog. I'm on a Linux comp, and haven't figured out how to download picasa...

All for now...

s

Greece, a vacation from my vacation.

Alternate titles could be:

"There's something about Kanelli"

"My first nude gig!"

"Three naked sirens sing in three part harmony in the Mediteranean Sea..."

"Love, luck, and Doty".

"Don't sleep in your skivvies in Athens unless you want those skeeters to have a smorgasboard."

I just realized that none of these are very funny unless you're me. Oh well. Anyway, I arrived in Athens, an no sooner had I walked out of the baggage claim with my backpack than George, Kanelli's friend, appeared smiling in his bright pink t-shirt (so I could recognize him...the funny thing was that there were like 6 guys in bright pink t's at that airport that evening...weird). George was going to go down to the village where Kanelli's family has a house anyway, so conveniently he just picked me up along the way! So, whap, boom, sciddadle, and we were on a 4 1/2 hour drive down. We talked organic food, Greek dishes, U.S. meat production and slaughterhouses...you know, polite small talk. ;)

Let's tell you a little about Kanelli. I met Kanelli through Dan, my friend in South Africa who is really more like a brother. When I was singing and visiting Dan in S. Africa, a lovely singer came to one of my gigs. Later this singer and I shared dinner, and after that an amazing day where she took me to Khyelitsha to a school there that she supported that provided education to (mostly) orphaned children of AIDS victims. Together we donated food and Kanelli told me about the work she was doing with the school (computer classes, etc.) to help them help themselves. Anyway, now you know Kanelli is a special person. So when she invited me to Greece, I jumped at the chance.

Neapoli is a village in Southern Greece inhabited almost solely by locals and visited in the summer by Athenians, like Kanelli, who flock to its unbelievably crystal clear beaches. There's one bar in town, one main strip, one butcher, a few little markets, some tavernas, and three or four coffee/dessert shops. Oh, and a baklava shop, of course. :) Kanelli's house turned out to be a three bedroom, 2 and a half bath gorgeous white place on a hill overlooking the sea. My bedroom had a crossbreeze in it from the windows that faced out at the hills and a local church...the wind blew across me in the morning (okay, afternoon) like the sweetest alarm nature could ever sound. EVERYONE should be able to experience at some point.

Kanelli, her boyfriend Vangelis, and George and I were joined by Kanelli and Vag's guitarist Stellios and his girlfriend Lotte (hereto referred to as "Doty", but you have to say it with George's Brooklyn accent or it's not funny), who's also a great singer! We all did a gig at a local place called "Bellini's"...they rented sound equipment, the place was packed to the gills, and we were outside in front of the sea...does it get better than THAT?!

So, as you'll see from the photos, most of what we did was eat. Eat, beach, eat, beach. It was kind of like that for 9 days. The beaches didn't have that many people on them, as many folks go to Santorini or Crete or other islands...this allowed us to cavort around naked on various beaches. Punda beach, and even one that had an ancient petrified forest! Raph, you's have LOVED it. What was so lovely was to be surrounded by wonderful, warm people, good musicians, who appreciated a great meal and a nice bottle of wine. We cooked (I made my jerk chicken), we talked about silly things, we philosophised...it was the perfect vacation. The thing about the village is that people don't go to the beach early, as the sun is too hot and damaging. So we woke every day at about noon. Ate breakfast/lunch (this usually involved nutella, bread, greek yoghurt, and fruit) on the terrace looking out at the sea, dawdled around for a bit (or went to get an ice cream), then off to the beach somewhere between 2 and 4 p.m. It stays light and warm out all evening there, so we'd stay at the beach until between 8 and 9 p.m. Then we'd go home, shower, dress, and go to a taverna either in or out of town. Once we'd stuffed ourselves to the gills, it was usually between 11 and 12, and we'd go to the village main strip, have an ice cream, chat, and always be surprised when 5 minutes went by and it was already three in the morning. Rinse, repeat, and that was my 9 days.

At the end of the trip I went to Athens, saw the Acropolis, and did a workshop that went splendidly! Let's take a minute to talk about the Acropolis. As I may not have said before, the amazing thing about Rome is that all the the huge ancient historical buildings are right there in the middle fo the city! I hadn't seen anywhere like that before (except Kathmandu, now that I think about it). Anyway, back to Greece. We studied this stuff as kids, but we in the U.S. are just so generally self-centered taht we hardly recognize that there's an entire WORLD out there outside our borders! This suddenly hit me as a hiked up to the Parthenon. I'd spent my childhood hearing about ancient Greece in class and history books, and somehow it had hardly occured that this place actually, REALLY existed! There it was! In front of my eyes! AMAZING.

So, that's the story of my wonderful Greek vacation. The 9 days went faster than any consecutive 9 days of the trip thus far. The weather was stunning, the people even better, and the food, well...unparalleled. Actually, the food climbed the ranks high high HIGH and tooks its place beside Thailand as the best food of the trip (official rating announcements will come at the end of the trip in the wrap up section).

Hope you enjoy the photos!

http://picasaweb.google.com/leibolicious

love,

sar

ancient streets, spaghetti, antique.

Buena Sera!

I'm in Rome, Italy, at an internet cafe. Nursing a hangover today with water, spaghetti, and diet coke--they don't really know how to make drinks here so they're really strong. That combined with my penchant for sweet drinks masked the alcohol, and that's how I ended up with this crazy headache. Also, my nose injury hurts again. Mysterious.

Anyway, my arrival in Rome had me finding it difficult to find a place to stay (I hadn't really needed to book in advance in Asia, because everywhere's dying for you to stay with them). I also made a "friend" who close a bit too close for comfort. But once those two things were sorted (don't worry mom, everything's totally fine), Rome became enchanting. I'm staying in a marvelous bed and breakfast on Via Principe Amadeo that's basically an apartment. For $35/night (about a third the price of a hotel I saw with a room half as nice and half as clean) I get Cold A/C, big comfy bed (the bed since my beautiful guest houes in Chiang Mai), lovely private bathroom, and super clean. There's a shared kitchen, and the bes tpart is that they're letting my leave the big suitcase there while I'm in Greece.

I've seen colosseum, went to st. peter's sq and the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, the catacombs of San Sebastian, visited the old Jewish ghetto and the Synagogue, partied (a little too hard) with the locals on the street thay they call "gay street" (there are only two gay bars, but with the pope like a mile away, everyone seems to be happy with this).

I've sampled countless salumi (salamis), prosciutto (which I previously didn't like), went to a mozzerella bar, had the local wine, lasagna, spaghetti, and more gelati than I can count. Good times. I mean, I'm sure you know from the pictures, but this whole trip is basically one big excuse to eat around the world. I'll have to do some wrap-up posts at the end, with best ofs and food lists and such. So you can look forward to that!

By the way, the best thing I've overheard in Rome thus far:
In the Sistine Chapel:
Mom, talking to her young son: Honey, this is the Sistine Chapel!
Son: Yeah, but what do you DO here?

The news is that since I'm keenly aware that this city was meant to be my now-defunct-marriage's honeymoon, I thought two weeks in Rome would just depress me. It's romantic and wonderful and I'm really enjoying myself, but of course there's an ache when you walk the streets alone. So, it worked out that my friend Kanelli is in Greece, and the ticket there cost about as much as staying at my B and B would for the week. Her family has a house on a Greek island, so we'll be there for a few days. She's hooked up a gig there, and it promises much sun, fun, and aveglomono before we head back to Athens where I'll give a masterclass for some former voice students of the Berklee partner school there. Sounds great, ey? I know. Then it's off to Madrid, and then Marrakech, Morocco. And Sept. 8th I'll be home! Crazy that there's just a month left.

Anyhow, that's it for now. I figured out how to connect my photos with this blog, but just in case you need the link again, here it is: Otherwise, see below.
http://picasaweb.google.it/leibolicious/Roma#


Also, I hope that you'll post a comment on this blog!

love,

sar



 
 
 
 

In love with Helsinki...

Hi friends,



I won't blog here about Finland, as I was only there for about 48 hours. The pictures pretty much tell the story of the whole time, but suffuce to say, I WILL be back, and I am completely in love with Finland. The saunas, the people, and best of all, the modern design. Even the drinks are good and made from wild berries! Oh, Helsinki, I adore you! Also, there are a few pics of me singing at Helsinki's biggest jazz club, Storeyvlile. Enjoy!



Here are the pics, including a little video of a Swiss guy yodeling for me at the Helsinki docks.



http://picasaweb.google.com/leibolicious







love,



sara

Healing, facing facism, and the mystery of China.

Hi, friends,


Where to begin? I'll start by saying that it took me a full week before I began to warm up to China. Which is weird, because everything was pointing to an awesome time.

Upon arrival I met up with a wonderful singer and songwriter named Jess Meider. Check her out at http://www.blog.jessmeider.com. Careful, you might think you're falling in love with her, her songs are so good. :)

Jess was good enough to host me on my first night, and hooked me up with a few great musicians, and we played a lovely concert at a nice place in town, and also went and sat in at a few clubs, most memorably the East Shore Live Jazz Cafe. Hanging out with them has been wonderful, and Jess also teaches yoga. Most of you know that I like meditation and (sometimes) exercise, but NOT put together. Jess is such a brilliant teacher that she changed all of that, mostly due to the fact that she herself is so keenly aware that she's able to communicate in a really beautiful way to her students the importance of mindfulness and bringing the mind back to the breath, where other teachers just tell you to breath without explaination.

If everything's so awesome, then why did I start out hating China? A few days into my stay here, I was walking along street and looking at some of the jewelry people were selling on the street when all-of-a-sudden the police came by and everyone went in a mad dash to clear up their things. Most of them didn't get it all, and the police confiscated it. Yelling, anger, crying, begging, and pleading ensued. I got some of this on film until a policeman made me stop. Then there's the fact that the Chinese government blocks the use of Facebook, Youtube, Picasa, Blogger (hence the lack of photos and blogs for so long), Twitter, and of bunch of other useful websites that we Americans consider a human right to use on a daily, if not hourly basis. Basically there's a HUGE firewall that you can't get around unless you have a proxy, but most proxies are taken down within just a couple of days. Oh, and no one here speaks English. That wouldn't be a problem, but China is also very self-centered, much like the U.S., and people here really couldn't care less about tourism and tourists. The economy's booming, so there's no need for tourism money or learning English. Which, of course, puts me in a awkward position. Walking happily around a shop getting ready to take photos of all the different kids of ginseng and being angrily gesticulated at that no photos are allowed. All this was coupled with bad smog, huge bustling city with everyone pushing and shoving, and I was NOT a happy camper. Since then, several people have told me stories, one of which was that this guy Carl couldn't get out of the train station for so long (it was so packed) that he finally had to start pushing people out of the way (something I've seen people do a lot here--it's very much move or get moved). After a few minutes of trying to do this, the police came over. Carl thought he was in trouble, when the people began to beat people who weren't getting out of the way fast enough with their batons.

Then last night people at my guest house told me that they were at a tourist site and were approched by an old woman begging for money. They were taking out their wallets when the police came up and arrested the woman. Apparently it was a place where begging isn't allowed. So, friends, this is the face of facism, real, and true, grim and relentless, as you literally never know when it might strike.

Nonethless, I tried to be positive. Moved from an awful hostel to a lovely Hutong Guest House (see photos). I saw the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and the 798 Arts District (thanks for that suggestion, Gurri), all of which were super interesting. The 798 arts district in particular is a huge district FULL of modern art galleries, installations, museums, shops, and cafes. Everything is stone, glass, and concrete, and well--you can see why I liked it.

I met up with some Americans at the Wangfujing market and together we ate scorpions and seahorses. I say together, but really I was the one who bought them and they only tried it because I think otherwise they'd had felt like real wussies after watching me try them. Then we tried a skewer of something that someone later told us was dog. This did NOT make me happy, and I prefer not to know whether it was a joke or wasn't.

Then I began to take Beijing at my pace. I feel like a bit of an old lady, but Beijing is so overwhelming and the smog and pollution is so tiring that I'll often find myself coming back home for a respite after only a few hours. What's warming me up to China, then? Well, in unexpected places people are very nice. Like in tea shops. And nail salons. The guy who owns my guest house, Bobby, has been writing everything down for me in Mandarin so the taxi drivers know where I want to go. Also, his English is good, so we've had some good conversations and he's been able to explain things I haven't yet been able to understand, like why people even still so love Chairman Mao, despite the 30 million people dead (most people who died were of the upper clsses, and since he did good things for the poor, the general population still reveres him as their quality of life has increased tremendously).

I've tried roasted goose, hot pot (but Paul, it wasn't as good as your family's), Sichuan food (delicious, but not as spicy as people would have you think, at least after just having been in Thailand), took a cooking class (you can expect a dinner party when I get back) AND went to the Din Tai Fung *IN* China! That's 3 continents, now, and the best dumplings in the world (even the NY Times says so).

But I think the thing that's turned me around the most is this. The most I could ask for from this trip was to have my faith in the human spirit restored, after what was the most painful time in my life thus far. But through Jess and her amazing music, plus the little crush I developed here (just a crush, nothing to write about), I was reminded of my faith in myself, and able to revel in the glory of feeling emotions that I'd thought were gone forever.

So, it looks like I'll be adding a stop in Greece to my trip, which is really exciting. So, for now, China shall remain a mystery. My little tiny glimpse of China was just that--a glimpse. It's not the first on my list to return too, but I'm sure one day I'll back. Off for now...and if you know anyone in Rome, I donät know anywhere and Iäd love to have a friend. Let me know!

here the the pics of China:
http://picasaweb.google.com/leibolicious


love,

sar

Beyond Bangkok.

Chiang Mai couldn't be lovlier. I remember thinking Thailand was my favorite country that I'd ever visited, and particularly liking Chiang Mai. So I came to CHiang Mai without rigid plans, and found a beautiful guest house for $18 a night that includes breakfast, A/C, and modern fixtures. I made friends with two nice Brits named Gavin and Patrick, and we hung out together for a few nights after meeting at the Chiang Mai Sunday walking market, where they stuck a fried grasshopper
leg in my mouth and then decided they approved of me when I ate it with a smile, rather then chewing them out or slappng them for putting a bug in my mouth. Then they cecame fans when I sat in with a jazz band at a bar (more on that to come).

My friend Maya Levine was on a terrible tour (the tour wasn't terrible, but everyone was 18 just wanted to party) and she dropped out of it and met me here. We decided to go on a trek (really just a long extended hike), and found a wonderful travel company with a woman whose English was good enough to tell us which teks were super touristy (you just get driven from place to place to buy trinkets) and which weren't. Still, we weren't expecting much, and ended up being SO surprised and having and absolutely amazing time. We were 2 of 11 people who were all very nice, and we drove out of Chiang Mai and then hiked a few hours to get to a Karen Hilltribe village, complete with Villagers, chickens, pigs, cows, buffalo, dogs, and huts. We stayed the night there, and it was just us and the villagers, not hoards of others tourists, which was lovely. There was an outhouse with a big bucket of water, which was good, because I don't think I've ever sweat so much in my entire life! Our guides cooked a lovely dinner of rice and red curry, with the basil for the curry picked right from the ground.

The next day held a long, challenging hike uphill to a waterfall. Then came a downpour, which was awesome! We all got soaking wet, ate lunch, watched the waterfall grow into a roar, and hiked in the slippery mud, forded a river (okay a few rivers), and ended up at an elephant camp where I rode bareback on the neck of the elephant, who I fell in love with, and who also had learned how to beg for bananas. It was cute, 'cause he take his trunk and swing it backwards up toward me until I fed him. After that we went for a ride on a bamboo raft (typical tourist thing to do in Chiang Mai, and the scenery is stunning, so I see why).

Maya's boyfriend Adam has met us here in Chiang Mai, and today we'll go to Doi Suthep together before they head off to Laos. I have a fun concert last night with a local jazz trio, and this afternoon I'll give a masterclass/workshop at a school called Woranan Music School (http://www.Worananmusic.com). Tomorrow I head back t Bangkok and Tuesday I leave for my flight to Beijing! I'm so excited!

For now, you can copy and paste this link to my new Thailand photos. Enjoy!
http://picasaweb.google.co.th/leibolicious/Thailand2#

love,

sar

secret entry...5 things I learned in Cambodia

1) Bun Thou is really funny. I mean, he's really hysterical. And he can tell Cambodian ghost stories with the best of them, even if they don't translate that well.

2) Contrary to what I previously thought, I can sleep anywhere. I mean anywhere. Even on stairs.

3) Infinity pool plus $2 lychee martini= HEAVEN.

4) Wait, scratch that. 4 hands massage for $22 for 2 hours=heaven.

5) If I click my mouth, I can make the same sound the geckos do.

6) It is better to bite bugs than to be bitten by them.

(that last one was free, no charge)

Angkor WHAT?!

So, while I was skinny-dipping in the rooftop pool of the fancy Quay hotel in Phnom Penh, I managed to convince my friend Sony to come with me to Siem Reap, as that day he took his final exam for his bachelors degree, and had never been to Angkor! Sony had the awesome idea of bringing his moto on the bus to Siem Reap, so we wouldn't be dependent on tuk tuks, and have to pay a lot.

Sony and I have been getting along famously. Rather than arguing, as people who travel together often do, we've been disagreeing on whose BRILIANT idea it was to do such and such activity, because it was SO AWESOME. :)

Angkor is better than I ever could have imagined! It's not just Angkor Wat, that's only one huge complex...there's Angkor Thom, Bayon...there are tons and TONS of little and big ruins and wats all over, each one a little different. Thanks to our independence because of the moto (okay, THAT one WAS Sony's idea), we were abe to see a lot on the short time that we had there. I won't write to much about it, because the pictures are the only thing that might give justice to the vast awesomeness (in the eral sense of the word) that is Angkor.

After Angkor, Sony invited e to spend a night at his hometown vilage in Prey Veng Province. SO after we got back to PP, we were off on the moto for a two hour ride (and a short ferry) to see his mom and dad and younger brother. They live in a wood house on stilts, a very typical Cambodian house in the countryside. Everyone sleeps on the floor of the house (they had mosquito netting, which I am SOOO thankful for...as there must've been the largest amount of bugs in one place there than anywhere I've EVER been). The cows sleep at night in a pan just below the house...dog, cat, and chicken wander around. The bathroom is outback, and unlike Nepal, there's no running water to the kitchen or bathroom, so getting water means pumping it from a well into huge buckets and carrying them. Speaking of huge buckets of water, does anynoe know why it is that we humans feel so much more vulnerable re: bugs when we're naked? That said, I learned how to shower from a bucket. People have been doing it for ever, so...now I can, too. And believe me, you can't go a day here without showering.

Sony's parents are lovely, alhtuogh his mom speaks no English at all, and though his dad speaks French and Khmer (by the way, here Khmer is pronounced "Kmai") and teaches high school Khmer, he only has a few phrases in English. Which is more than I have in Cambodian, so...Sony was good enough to act as an interpreter. His dad was generous enough to tell me what life was ike for him under the Khmer Rouge rule. It's actually very similar to what's depicted in the film "The Killing Fields". His father was imprisoned for more than 500 days. His mother was forced to work in the fields. They could not talk to one another, couldn't really even look at one another, couldn't eat anything, even if it was available...save for the small amount of rice gruel they were given. Basically, they wer starving. His dad had to [retend that he could neither read nor write...he had to feign like he didn't understand things and wasn't educated. This saved his life. He described to me allof the different ways he saw people killed, the moost graphc of which was people being hangednupside down and being hit to death on the head with a big wooden stick. In fact, I saw evidence of this at the killing fields where many of the skulls were missing pieces. I asked him how he lived through such unspeakable horros and still managed to raise such a kind, generous son. He told me all of his children were great, but that it wasn't all the parents' doing. Sony has his own mind, and has been great ever since high school. In fact, Sony and I are constantly eating at markets, and from the beginning, he advised me to keep my "small money" in a seperate pocket for beggars. I haven't seen him turn down a single beggar who has asked him for money when he's had it. Not a single one. He also wants to start an organisation to help Cambodian children, and once it's off the ground, will lok to all of his foreign friends for help.

Sony's dad was in prison with hundreds of others. Today only aruond 20 live. He has written his story down, along with 4 other people, and hopes to one day publish it as a book, with the photos of himself and 4 others inside. I told Sony when that happens he MUST translate it so I can read it.

Anyway, it was a whilwind few days, bnut absolutely stunning in every way. I can't WAIT to get the photos up, but unfortunately the comps are soooo slow. Coming soon, probably on the 10th once I'm back in Thailand.

Love to everyone, and please! Write me! Tell me whjat's happening, I lvoe to hear it, even if it's mundane stuff like my parents write when they tell me what they had for dinner. I LOVE that.

love,

sar

Here are the pictures!
http://picasaweb.google.com/leibolicious

What these trees have seen; Cambodia and the killing fields.

Despite the fact that I seem to have gottena cold, I'm having a great time here. I don't know what they were talking about when several friends told me there's nothing to do in Phnom Penh. I love it here!

The day I got in, I went straight to the Bohdi Tree Guest House, which is lovely and emplys underpriviledged Cambodians. However, they were out or rooms with A/C, and I was on to another place called Her Royal Highness Hotel. They don't have a lift, so as the floors go up the prices cheapen. I'm in the 3rd floor (read, actually the 4th), and my clean, AC room with private bathroom and hot water? $15/night. I know! Anyway, insert your joke about her royal high-ness here. The hotel's not too far from the Riverfront, so I went for dinner and a massage ($6/hour). Afterwards, I wandered into a super modern-looking hotel (read: the standard downdown) and went up to the rooftop terrace. There's an infinity pool, $8 drinks, gorgeous view, and geckos on the ceilings, it's wonderous. More importantly, I made friends with a nice guy named Sony, who's one of the supervisors. Several free drinks and great English conversation later, Sony and his best friend BanThou were off work and I was hanging onto the back of them on their motorbike. We ate at a place that they love and come to regularly, and I see why. They had dishes of grilled beef and fried quail ($2 each) and they drank plenty of Ankgor Beer. I was stuffed, but happy to try the beef, and glad I did, because it was absolutely out of this world. It's served with a dish of pepper, sugar, and salt, and a dish of fresh veggies and limes. You squeeze the limes into the pepper, and dip the beef and veggies in this pepper sauce. A sort of Cambodian carne asada, if you will. After that, it was like 1 a.m., but they showed me to a club that they frequent. Now I'm not such a heavy partier, but this place was great! There were young people everywhere, smoke, laser beams, beer aplenty as well as this dried beef stuff sort of like beef jerky that they serve along with it. It was fun! We danced, made dancing friends, and then Sony drive me back to my hotel once I was peetering out (*finding* the hotel was another matter--I'd forgotten the name).

Today was a different story. I awoke late because I neede the sleep. and hired a tuk tuk driver, who, for $12, was to take me outside the city to the Killing Fields and to the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. What follwed was absolutely horrifcally, unspeakably horrifying. At the killing fields I opted for a tour guide. My guide, Mao Thel, was only 15 when the Khmer Rouge was in power in the late 70s. His mother and father, both doctors, were both burdered, and his sister and uncle died of starvation. He survived my working in the rice fields. There are over a hundred mass graves there. They're shallow, not deep, and although they've been excavated in 1980, there are still shards of bone everywhere you walk, unavoidably showing through the dirt, as if we need another reminder of the unspeakable horrors commited there, after seeing the thousands of skulls in the genocide memorial.

Another guy, Rith, who sells flowers and incense at the memorial, had 8 people in his family killed, including his grandparents, some by murder, some of starvation. Pith told me of how the problems live on. In Cambodian Culture, on the new year they pray to the spirits of the dead. His family had no where to pray because there were no graves, so they converted for their native Buddhism to Christianity.

There are beautiful palm trees everywhere. Mao Thel showed me up close to one of them. The leaves on the branches have thin, saw-like teeth on the sides of them. There are still marks on some of them. He told me they were used to cut the necks of Cambodians off. What these trees have seen. Thank goodness trees don't have hearts, I think they would have been broken 30 years ago. When I started to cry, Mao Thel walked up to me, gave me a half-hearted (or heavy-hearted) pat on the back, and told me it was okay. "Terrible, senseless," he said. Them who'd lost his entire family.

There is a school just next to the killing fields, just beyond the mass graves. When you walk around, you can hear the children singing, a creepy reminder that no matter how tragic the loss, the human spirit cannot be killed.

Photos to come. The internet cafe is closing, so I think that's where I will end for now. Tomorrow will hold more adventures, muss less somber.

Goodnight,

sara

a day in Bangkok...

So, when I first got into town I took a bus straight to Khoa San road, because that's where everyone seemed to be going. Despite the fact that I had a watermelon/passionfruit smoothie that was to DIE for, I hated Khoa San Road. Tourists, bad motels that were dank and sorta gross...I didn't come all this way just so I could hang out with more people like me. Oh no...So I hired a taxi who agreed to take me around to different places til I found a hotel I liked. And what $30 can get you is a beautiful, modern, clean hotel with a king sized bed and air conditioning. Well, I'll be!

Thailand is more expensive than I remember it, but then again, the food is a million times better than my memory could recall. That's an EASY trade. Got a massage, a tom yum from the night market that makes the adjective orgasmic seem insuffient, and off to bed in my clean AC'd room.

The following day had me wking up late and off to the King'd Palace, which somehow I'd missed last time I was here. Of course it's phenomenally gorgeous. Met some nice guys from MI who were there for a destination wedding (good friends!!) and we took turns taking each others photos in front of the various wat stuppahs. After that, I noticed that there was some market/festival/busy happening going on around the corner, and far be it for me to miss a festival or a market (remember the living goddess, anyone?!) so I wandered around. For HOURS. I discovered a fruit that's called "sala" (pronounced just the way my name is pronounced) that's found in the jungle. It looks a bit like rambutan, but it brown and more spikey and also not as round but more oblong coming to a tip. I guess it's found in the forests. Anyway, it's super interesting, because I can't really describe the flavor. It's kind of like a tropical custard mixed with rotten banana, but a little sour as well as sweet--in a good way. They have them here in Cambodia as well. I LOVE them! Had some stupendous grilled, skewered, pork, and that was about all my tummy could handle given the heat.

Since I'd heard that The Mandarin Oriental Hotel was the place to hear good jazz, and got advice from someone on how to take the bus (Thailand is so easy to get around, it's brilliant. It might be the perfect country. Except, you know, for all the terrorism in the South). So I hopped on the bus, and lo and behold, a lovely, semi-English speaking couple in their 40s wanted to know where I was going to make sure I was headed in the right direction. I was, but when I asked where they were going, they said to the Chinatown Market. I replied that that sounded way more fun than the Mandarin Oriental, and they invited me along for dinner! What came next was a gastronomic revelation. I follwed them through the sweet vendors in the drizzle. They stopped along the way and got some steamed water chestnuts and put some in my hand. Delicious! After several blocks of restaurants and vendors that were all selling food that looked like it was to die for, we came upon a nondescript corner of food vendors. They knowingly went *right* where they intended, took their seats, and beckoned me over (I was staring at more fruit smoothies, of course, but they assured me we could order them from our plastic chair seats behind the vendors). One watermelon/lychee smoothie and a pretty good plate of Pad Thai later (whihc they'd ordered for me, fearing the soup would be too hot spicy and not knowing I don't really like pad thai, but this was actually very tasty), I was happy as a clam! The wife (we never even got each others'names, now that I think about it) had me taste her soup. THIS. STUFF. MUST'VE. BEEN. MADE. BY GOD'S PERSONAL CHEF. Holy awesome, Muriel! It was simple, and looked like nothing more than a bowl of brother with a few pieces of meat in it and some cilantro on top. Oh, but the flavor!!!! It was hot spicy, extremely black peppery, and meatily savory in that way that makes you want 5 more helping of mom's matzo ball soup. The kicker, however, was that the pork pieces in it were juicy and chewy, while either end of them was rendered, fried, crispy fatty goodness that magically stayed crispy, even while in the broth! I can't explain it, but even with the awesome Khmer food I had for dinner, I'm hankering for this stuff in a major way. Maybe there was crack in it. Or opium. Anyway, of course with this kind of miraculous adventure, I had to pay for dinner, but the husband was too quick and insistent, and I failed at my one mission. After that, it was dessert of grilled buttered bread with some kind of milk stuff in the middle (maybe sweetened, condensed milk?) that, even to my tummy full of noodles and broth, was magical. After that, the couple pointed me back to the way we'd come, and I was back on my way to the Mandarin. Thank goodness for small miracles, huh? What a phenomenal night. Ohhhhhhhhh, the broth. Must. Have. More. I feel that women who needs the greens from Into the Woods.

The Mandarin was more like a palce than a hotel, and the prices are about what we'd pay back home. That said, it's beautiful, and the singer who was there, Cherryl Hayes, is totally awesome. She was super cool between sets and hipped me to where to come for the jams sessions when I get back from Cambodia...

Speaking of which, on to Phnom Penh...

Travelling again...

So, I'm stuck in the Hong Kong Airport for 8-12 hours, depending on whether or not I gt into an earlier flight to Bangkok. And to tell you the truth, I'm not the least bit annoyed about it! There's food, water you can drink (!!!), and air conditioning. It's kind of like heaven. Speaking of water you can drink, let's talk about water you CAN'T. It was my last day in Kathmandu, and Sajju and I were back at Boudha Stuppa checking out the Monastary and some wares. The monastary is the most beautiful thnig I've ever seen...I'll upload a video fo the paintings on the walls and ceiling later. Anyway, The monks called me over to get blessed...and as we all know from Friday nights, I don't shy away from blessing no matter WHO's giving them! In any case, they said some words in Tibetan, held a thingy up against my head, said some blessings, and then poured some water out of the thingy into my hand, and uttered, "holy water. drink". Well, I'm not one to be disrespectful but what was I to do in this predicament? They knew I was a tourist, they wouldn't be offering me Kathmandu tap water, would they? Or WOULD they?

I'd found myself in this predicament before. It was in the mountains, on the way to Phaplu. There was lemonade. Or lemon water. Of course this was made with water. I eventually kept control over myself, swigged my bad-tasting-but-safe-to-drink-boiled-water-in-my-bottle and turned my lemonade over to a Nepali friend who enjoyed it in two gulps.

This time I wasn't as keen. I slurped a little, then made a pretend slurping "noise"...but still got a good sip of it in my mouth. No matter...Sajju and I ent on to a very enjoyable evening listening to Lindsey Feldmeth give an opera recital at the Kathmandu Russian cultural center, then to dinner at a nice place called the Chinese House, then to say hello/goodbye to Mariano, and then I went to bed so I'd be ready for travel the next day. Unfortunately I awoke at around 3 or 4 in the manana to a rumbling in my tummy something awful. I had the shakes, and sweats, and the good ole' Montezuma's. One azithromyecin in the morning gave me an upset tummy but at least it's not beena day and a half of travel with the shits. Sorry...but that's what traveller's do...talk about about our poo.


Anyway, on to better things. I saw the Kumari live an in person, as it was festival day. The Kumari is a living goddess, a young girl picked as a goddess incarnate. But for some reason she loses this status once she gets her period. It's weird and seems cruel to the girl, but...I'd gone to the temple to see her but foreigners aren't allowed to go to see her, and no one's allowed to take photos. So when it was festical day Sajju took me around, and lo and behold! Who were they carrying in that chariot thingy? I darted through traffic across the street like a true Nepali (although a real Nepali wouldn't dart, just mosey...) and there she was! I ran along taking photos which you can see here, along with many others:
http://picasaweb.google.com/leibolicious/Nepal2#

We also went to Pushapati, which is a holy place for Hindus as well as the place where Hindus in Kathmandu go to cremate the remains of their loved ones. It was an appropriately gloomy, monsoony, rainy day, and Sajju and I were soaked. Death is sad any way you put it, and we looked on from above, so as not to be direspectful. I expected it to smell awful like they said it smelled at the concetration camps in Germany...but after getting used to the smell of burning trash in Kathmandu, burning flesh and wood wasn't too bad. It was, however, unbelivably morbid to have ashes falling down on us, mixing with the raindrops, and standing there soaking and feeling very odd abhout being so entraced by the circumstances surrounding other peoples' grief.

After a while, we had to get out of there. But then we saw monkeys!! Macaques, actually. Note the amazing picture of the baby monkey. Might be the best photos I've ever taken.

I've not mentioned yet what an interesting juxtaposotion of experienced this has been. During the day, I'm just Kanchi, wandering the muddy streets, sweating through my clothes and getting my fingers caked with dust any time I touch anything. By night...I'm still the same (albeit more bug bitten...i learned to wear long pants finally), but I get to hang with the biggest Nepali rock stars, the ex-pats, and the elite members of Napali society. It's fun, it's interesting. I should say, when I talk about rock stars, I'm talking about the group 1974 A.D., comepletely UNarguably THE biggest thing in Nepal. When I was talking with Robyn, a lovely guy who works in a tea shop in Thamel (that happaned to be across from whre I was picking up my laundry) and also plays guitar and sings, he literally gaped when I told him I'd be playing with Nirakar and Adrian from 1974 A.D. Not only had Robyn not gotten the chance to attend a real concert, but these guys were his idols, he even played me a song of theirs. So of course he came as my guest to the concert, which I sat in on, and was super fun. I even got all the Nepalis and tourist kids up on their feet dancing! Plus they were smoking hash in the audience (I could smell it from the stage), which made ME feel like more of a rock star than a jazz one, so that fun, and Robyn seemed to really appreciate it. Nirakar is a partner with the Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory, and he and Adrian literally couldn't be nicer. They are not only the nicest rock stars I've ever met, but the most genuine (of course, next to Tom and Nick, who will always be my number 1 rock stars), kind, and friendly.
Pictures of them are up as well, I'll try and label who's who now.

After this, I'm in Bangkok for a couple of nights, then off to Cambodia and then back to Thailand, where I'll probably catch a train to Chiang Mai, as I LOVE it there.

See you in SE Asia!

Love,

sara

p.s. Rodney, I got you the trinket you asked for from Nepal, don't worry. It's being sent in a box to my folks house, so I'll give it to you in person when I get back. :)

Alternate Changes, Kanchi, and the neverending path to Phaplu...

Life is full of alternate changes. In jazz, this adds more complexity to the sound of the chord. In life, I think it does the same. You might say the alternate changes make the chord sound darker. But no less beautiful. Perhaps even more so. The more you hear it, the more you get used to the sound, and to the trained ear , it's nothing less than gorgeous.

I expected my life to sound one way, and when it didn't turn out that way, it sounded different. Darker. With more complexity, you might say. But, I'm learning, in time, no less beautiful. And I hope, in time, it'll sound nothing less than gorgeous.


Part I
We arrived at the Kangel airport. Airport is using the term loosely, as it was just a strip on the side of a mountain, and I nearly had a heart attack when I realized that that's what we had to land on. No matter. Kangel, along with Mukli and everywhere else I'll be talking about, is in the Southern part of the Everest Region in Nepal, in the Solukhumbu district. After three hours of rigorous walking/climbing/trekking (let's not get into how I fell off the side of a hill and hung on to get pulled back up by one arm...or how I fell in the mud), we arrived in Mukli, and saw the health post on the way! At the place where we were staying, I was introduced to several people from the Young Stars Club. The club is a local organization that does things like provides locals with seeds for planting, classes on farming, hygiene, health. They've also started a local radio station, which people listen to on battery-powered radios, or, more often, their cell phones. People in Mukli have enough to eat. But learning how to grow more allows them to grow extra and sell it, to generate a little bit of income, instead of surviving solely on the subsistence living that they've been surviving on for generations.

The next morning (Saturday), we were up with the roosters to get started on installing the solar lighting system! Upon arrival I was greeted and honored with Khatas, white scarves from the Tibetan tradition. Many people were there, generally people who were on the health post committee or involved in some way. Yadav began by explaining the real cost of the system (my time, his time, my flight, all on top the actual cost of the system and the flight from Kathmandu to Kangel). He asked that two people from the Mulki community be there as we installed it so that if there needs to be any small maintenance in the future, they can do it themselves. I was thanked over and over by the committee chairman. It turns that I'm the first visitor of this kind to this community, because most tourists and visitors just want to go to Mount Everest of the Annapurna Region to see the mountains. They committed to upkeep of the system, and then the Young Stars Club committed to paying for any necessary upkeep.

You can see in the pictures, but it turns out that my training wasn't SO important, as there were a number of strong men happy to help. Once everyone decided where the lights should go, in what positions, etc, it took a while to get the first one done. But after that, the following three were up in no time! We were done by 4 'o clock or so, tired, happy, celebrating, and back home...

to see a goat get killed! It happened that the following day they were planning a big ceremony both to honor the villagers who had worked with the Young Stars Club in implementing some of their programs, and to celebrate me and the new solar power system. They only kill goats like this a few times a year, so it was a real honor. And kinda gross. And beautiful. And nice to be totally in touch with the food I was going to eat. This was no boneless chicken breast wrapped in plastic wrap. Check the photos, you'll see.

Part II

Nepali tea:
Tea Leaves
Water
Sugar
Cardamom
Cloves
Buffalo milk (you can use cow)

Boil, and drink! Yummy.

Nepalese Aloo Bandaghobi:
Mustard Oil
Potatoes
Cabbage
Mehti (Fenugreek)
Turmeric
Garlic
Coriander seed
Red Chilli


Heat mustard oil in a pan/wok.
Put in 1/2 tsp turmeric and a little mehti (fenugreek).
Put in sliced potatoes and sliced cabbage. Cover and cook a few minutes. Then add a little water (maybe 1/4-1/2 cup) as needed and cover to steam.

In the meantime, make the masala by crushing in a mortar and pestle (or food processor, I suppose) the garlic, dried red chillli, and coriander seed until it's finely ground.

Mix masala into the potato/cabbage mixture. Add a spoon of garam masala and cover to steam until cooked through.
Serve, with rice and Nepali pickle.

Nepali Pickle:
Mustard Oil
Tomatoes
Cumin
Mehti (Fenugreek)
Ginger
Garlic
Chilli
Garam Masala
Peas

Heat mustard oil in a pan. Add the mehti and a pinch of cumin seed and fry until mehti turns black. Add a little turmeric. Add tomatoes and a little water, and boil until cooked. Mess/mush tomatoes. Put in masala (ground fresh ginger, garlic, and chili), a pinch of garam masala, fresh peas and cook a few minutes with a small fresh green chili, split in two. Take off fire and serve with rice and Aloo Bandghobi.

Part III (an except from my journal)
I have not come on this journey to find myself. In fact, i've always known who I am. It's clear now that I spend more time in an attempt to ignore this knowledge rather than embrace it. You see, a spiritual journey is nothing but a vehicle. Hindus believe that every god has many vehicles, so that man can understand god. Lackshmi, goddess of wealth, presents on earth as a cow. So they worship the cow as Lackshmi.

When Yadav and I ate our first meal in Mukli, I was given a spoon and everyone else ate with their hand. When I asked why, Yadav said, "When you eat with your hand, you can touch and feel every grain of rice that comes between your fingers".
"So you can appreciate them more"? I asked?
He nodded, and mixed more dal into his baat.

I spend my life separating one thing from another. Dirst from clean, good from bad, Ab from Eb, jazz from classical, pain from pleasure, sweet from sour, beauty from ugliness, salty from bitter. I have spent the last 5 days being very concerned with the cleanliness of my hands and feet. Water is plentiful here. It flows as streams around every corner, and is coaxed with tubing into every kitchen and outhouse/bathroom. Why, then, are people so dirty? Don't they understand that they should be cleaner? I've walked around gingerly, careful where I sit, watching every step so as to avoid the unavoidable cow, goat, chicken, and water buffalo dung all over the ground. i've been careful not to kick up dirt, avoiding stomping too hard so that mud from the rain won't splash at my ankles. At some point in Mukli, as I sat by the open wood kitchen fire and stared at my new friends' feet, hands, the dirt in their clothes and under their fingernails... I looked at the floor. The floor was made of earth. Earth is dirt. The wood was being burned to ash. The ash was used to clean the dishes. our waste eventually turned into manure to feed the crops, and the crops, in turn, fed us. Why, then, do i spend so many of the waking hours of my life trying to separate that which cannot be separated? The language barrier stopped me from asking what I already knew the answer to. Why would I spend so much time washing off the dirt when the dirt is not separate from myself? Dirt grows food, which eventually becomes a part of us. Dirt grows trees, which we eventually cut down for our homes. Why, then, do I spend all of this mental time separating Ab from Eb when the two are one in the same? Musical, scientific manifestations of the beautiful force of the world, or what others call god.

I did not come on this journey to find myself. I've known who I am all along. I am you, you are me, and we are all connected, from the record studios in Hollywood to the wood and clay stoves in the mountains on Nepal. People around the world just have different ways of expressing this oneness.

From Nepal, and safely back in Kathmandu,

Sara/Kanchi/just a name

some nepal pics til i get back to kathmandu...

managed to get these up yesterday before the internet went down. i'm currently stuck in a village in the mountains of nepal where's there's nothing but goats ( i trudged through the mud to another village that has dial up to get on this comp), so pray that the weather gets better for me so that my plane will come tomorrow (it's been cancelled twice now)...otherwise i'll have to walk for 3 more days and take a 10 hour bus ride.!



hope these pictures hold you over for now! a nwe, great blog is coming frmo kathmandu. hope you like the pics!



LOVE,



S

http://picasaweb.google.com/leibolicious/SaraSPhotos?authkey=G

Taste of Nepal.

Namaste, friends!


where to start, where to start?


I feel like I've been so lax about writing since I've gotten to Nepal, I don't even know where to begin!


Here are some choice titles for this blog:


"Deedee, you are a little bit fat, yes?"

"If you don't know suffering, how will you know happiness"?...I hear ya brotha.

I stopped counting mosquito bites when I found more than 20 on just one limb.



Plane ticket to Nepal: $1500-ish dollars.

Entrance to Buddha Stuppa: 100 rupees ($1.25)

Anti diarheal meds, baby wipes, and 2-lpy toilet paper: PRICELESS.



Here goes:



I arrived in Nepal, and as I said before, have a lovely apartment, thanks for the Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory. If you'er a jazz friend and you have nothing to do, you should come teach here. You'll have no other possibility other than to love it. Ranjan, the kid I told you about before, takes care fo the apartment, and lives in the flat one floor down. He has hot water in his palce, so I have to go down there every time I shower. This suits me okay, since there's no seperate shower stall, and showering means yuo get the whole bathroom wet...so mine stays dry, and he doesn't seem to mind. Well, I guess it's his job not to.

When I wake in the morning he comes up and asks me if I want tea. No? Water? Toast? Egg? Won't I take something to eat? The weather is so hot, it's tough to stomach more than just one meal a day. I'll go ahead and assume I've not turned to skin and bones because the above fat comment was from Ranjan. It's my favorite thing he's said, along with the phrase "mind blowing".



The day after I got here, there was something called a "banda". The Maoist political party was takingn revenge or something...someone got kidnapped and killed...therefor there were no roads open and every place was closed. No matter to me, as I was up at like 6 a.m. and didn't know any of this before the hot 15 minute walk from my place in Lalitpur to the Patan Durbar Square (Palace square). I'd stay I ran into Uttp, but I know he ran into me. Uttp is a Newari of Tibetan descent who works as un (unofficial) tour guide and part time Thanka painter. Unfortunately you're going to ahve to do with my verbal communications for a while, as I can't figure out how to get my pics down to a size that's reasonably uploadble. Suggestions are welcome.



Uttp showed me the Temple of Jaganarian. There are all sorts of kama sutra positions depicted on this temple, as young people who were to marry would come to it so they'd know how to have sex. We reasoned that that part is obsoltet now due to MTV. I couldn't get any good erasno why there was a horse doing a woman from behind, nor why all of the depicted positions were from behind. Put that in your pipe and ponder it...



Every temple we go to, we walk around clockwise. It's much more auspicious and for good luck. In fact, lots fo things here are auspicious, but the definitions of WHY they are so vary depending on whom you ask. It's pretty funny, actually. Most of the answers one gets are that you just do it, because it's good luck. I should mention that Nepal is a melting pot of Buddhism (people who came down from the Himalayas) and Hinduism (people from here, India, the lower part of Nepal, ie. Kathmandu valley). One man said it's like a masala (mixtuer of spices). So in fact most places you go have a huge Buddhist stuppah, next to which are several Hindu god statues...Vishnu, Hanuman...etc, in various incarnations, or vehicles (all of the Hindu gods have animal vehiclesn through which they are depicted). Uttm took me to the Goden Temple, the oldest in Patan, there was a gorgeous mandala on the ceiling that I think was from the 13th century!



Back at KJC (Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory), I met Nick Jost and Eric Slaughter, two jazz musicians who are at the end of their 3 months teaching here. They are absolute master jazz musicians, and it was a pleasure to hear and play with them. We're plannign to try and do a little mini tour of the midwest, as they're from St. Louis. I'm thinking the Bistro, Green Mill in Chitown, and a couple places ni Michigan. We gave a concert two nights ago in Thamel, the toursty distrcit of the city. The place was packed, hot as an oven, and totally jumping with both foreigners and Nepalis.



Yesterday we accepted an invitation do be on a radio show! Kantipur FM 96.1. Lovely! What I didn't realize was that it was basuically going to be the Sara Leib show. And for that matter, ot was a 2 hour show. For those of you have have been on the radio, you'll know...2 hours is a LOT of space to fill. By the end of, we were all torn up and in need of a rest.



Good thing the day before I found a massage parlor, where, for $8 U.S. I got a massage by a man so awesome that the very first massage was like he knew me...like a lover you've been with for a long time. It. was. awesome.



Then it was off to the Kathmandu Hyatt, where the boys had a gig playing a concert for the World Bank people. I'm not kidding. There was booze, food, and Laura (Nick, the bass player's girlfriend who'd also visiting) and I went to the Buddha Stuppa, a huge mecca-like stuppah just a few minutes wakl from the Hyatt. It was amazing! Wait til you see the pictues. People walking around it clockwise there times. Doing mindful prostration on the ground (they repeat this 108 times!!!!)...it was amazing.



The Hyatt is the only place I've been in KTM that a) has airconditioning and b) it like a hotalo you'd see in the states. That said, it's completely weird and out of place do drive from the rocky, uinpaved streets into a marble and granite palatial place that looks more like a clean temple than anythign else. THAT said, I was grateful for the AC. But the BEST part was the concert! My tummy was acting up, and there's no better place to have the runs than a fancy hotel (sorry for the gross detail), so Laura and I cam back in time for the concert, which was absolutely UNBELIEVABLE. It was a well known group here, a trio or sitar, tabla, and Sarangi, a sort fo Nepali violin, with four strings but only tuned to two notes a fifth apart. The tricky part is that tyou don't put your fingers on the fret, you use your fingernails. It's HARD! I tried... Anyway, this trio (the Sarangi plater had come to our concert the night before and was very complimentary) was joined with Nick on bass, Eric on guitar, and Mariano, the head of JJC, no soprano sax. The outcome was something so amazing, I wanted it to never end. It was the kind of concert you'd pay $65 to see at UCLA Live. AMAZING. The buffet afterwards (with cesear salad you could actually EAT!) was pretty sweet, too.



Now to today. Today was amazing. Yadav arrived to pick me up just as I rolled out of Ranjan's hot shower. People keep catching mere in my towel, which seems like it must be awfully inappropriate, but no ones ever seems to flinch. Anyway, today was the day that I was off to train to learn how to install my solar lighting panel system! Yippee! We were off to lotus energy company, Adam Friedonsohn's non NGO company that makes and distributse solar panel systems all over Nepal. The place was amazing. It was a plant, like the one my dad had for furniture when I was a kid. But this place makes solar energy systems that help people help themselves! They have systems for homes, more major systems, and even a solar vaccine erfridgeration system! Amazing. Maybe that's what I'll install next time I come. Or maybe YOU should come and install one! Anyway, a had a 2 or three hour lesson that involved using a wire cutter, remembering which wires weer positive/negative (red means positive, just like on your car battery), stripping wires, nails, scrwes, washers, electrical tape, light switches...etc. Do I have any technical knowledge? No. Did I get the system to work, and light up the lights we attached? YES. It was gleeful, exciting, and joyous, even in the extreme heat. So that was a success. Thanks to those of you who donated to this project as well...please see previous email if you'd like to. Your contribution will make a big difference, as I'm undertaking (read: underwriting) this myself, and it's a cost usually shared by a group. Plus you get to be a part of, and keep up by blog! Yay.



After the successful training session, it was off to the "monkey temple" ( i acn't remembr it's real name, as it's reALLY long and i left my postcards with the name at the apt) with Yadav's brother Ram, who, conveniently, is a tour guide!. There were monkeys (macaques, Linda), stuppahs, prayer flags galore. The place was gorgeous, and up at the top *once we'd walked around the whole thing clockwose, which I kept forgtting to do and had to keep being reminded of) there was a view of the entire Kathmandu valley, surrounded by mountains. Stunning. I strolled through shop after shop, and finally, exhausted we picked up my laundry in Thamel and I came back. That bring me here to the internet cafe. Tomorrow it's onto a place to Phaplu, where we'll stay the night before walking to the solar installation health center site. I'm excited that it's supposed to me much cooler up there. and supposedly there aren't mosquitos. Which is good because I'm scratching like a...someone who scratches a lot...like that monkey at the temple earlier.



Anyway...I'm exhausted and I have to get up early to catch the place. Be sure to donate at Paypal to saraleib@yahoo.com, and follow my blogs! Seeing as how there's no electricity up there, I won't be updating for 4-5 days. After that, I'll put up the picstures and the rest of the video (check my facebook profile for videos, btw).



Love you lots, and thanks for coming on my journey with me!



love,



sar

Name that city....

3 cities. 24 hours. No. That's not right. 4 cities, 40 hours. Or something like that.

I'll start by saying that after I left you in the Hong Kong airport I sat in with some Philipino guys in a lounge band for several songs, met a nice Dutch guy who liked my voice and bought me dinner, and finally, FINALLY got to New Delhi, only to find that there were in fact, no showers, no food, no one particularly helpful, no ANYTHING. My ten hours would have to be spent in a waiting area with gaggles of people and it was, well...gross is kind of an understatement. Til I got the idea from an entreprenuring taxi driver to get a hotel, which, in my comeplete delerium, I did. An hour and a half of sleep and on gorgeous shower later wide awake in Delhi with 6 hurs 'til my flight. So I called the cab diver and he took me on a lovely little tour of new Delhi, with highlights including a Hanuman temple, a sweets shop, a Shiva temple, the India gate, and a gross liquor store (never mind that one, but they didn't have bottled water, so, let's say I was the only one not drinking).

The plane ride into Delhi was so stereotypical! I don't even feel right saying it. Babies cried, BO abounded, people talked RIDICULOUSLY loudly...I was at my wit's end. But all the time I at least smiled and chaclked it up to a culteral experience. Needless to say, this part fo the trip shoudl really be called, "how to spend $160 in 10 hours in Delhi". *sigh* Never mind that I had cramps the whole time. Damn.

Finally in lovely short 1 hour long flight to nepal I was sad again. Tired, listening to the Rescues, and writing song lyrics...but something happened as we descended into the Kathmandu Valley. I wish I coudl say what it was--I don't know. Saw mountains on one side, Kathmandu on the other, and I just got this *feeling*. It was going to be good.
I got in and Sunita was waiting for me with a sign. She is the assistant to Mariano here at the Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory, which is totally amazing. The facilities are cool, clean, modern...they're running Logic Pro on a Mac, have practice rooms, a recording studio, and best of all? A bathroom with toilet paper.

Let me backtrack. I have a Nepalese number now. Skype me any time, I'd love to hear from you. As far as I can tell, my number is 098081552790 give or take the 0 at the beginning. The country code is 977, and mind the time difference. I'll try and set up the voicemail tomorrow. So Sunita took me to the apartments that KJC keeps for its teachers. It's in Lallipur. I was greeted by Ranjan, a lovely boy (actually, he's 18) who takes care fo the place in exchange for a room, paycheck, and free lessons. He was orphaned as a baby, and Mariano has taken him under his wing a bit. Essenially, I have my own apartment in Kathmandu, which is awesome. Bathroom, shower (i'm on the 5th floor wherethere's no hot water, but really it's so damned hot I wouldn't want a hot shower anyway), kitchen, balcony, air conditioning. Just kidding about the air conditioning.

Then it was off to see KJC and meet Mariano, who is lovely, and immediately was warm and awesome, and explained to me some things about Nepal, including the exeedingly high number of NGOs here, many (most) of which don't seem to use their money for much other than making rich people richer. I just hope HLF isn't like that. It's got a good repuataion, so I'm not too worried. Mariano also explained caste systems as they exist here today, and how Ranjan's life story is all too common here in Nepal. He subscribes rightly to making people be able to earn their living, as Raph always says, rather than a handout.

Tomorrow I'll have a rehearsal for our gig on the 16th, get in touch with HLF (http://www.hlf.org.np), and maybe see some sights/sites.

Oh, I forgot the whole point. Which is that I was considering changing my trip a day so that I might see the Taj Mahal on my way back. Now that I've seen Nepal, I have absolutely no intention of going back to India. Nepal is beautiful, the people I've encountered thus far are super duper nice, and everything seems to cost somewhere between 50 cents and 2 USD. The people are still poor but the landscape is nice and the whole city, is, well...pretty. Mmm...Nepal. I'm going to go back to my lovely apartment and collapse from exhaustion.

here re the pics!

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1020487007/a=21470763_21470763/fromupload=true/imagecount=42/videocount=0/


love,

sar

p.s. Kathleen, a concrete cell? Seriously?!

getting to kathmandu...

Well, I'm in the Hong Kong airport for 8 hours after my 9 hour trip here from Sydney. THen it's off to New Delhi, where I'll have another 10 hour wait. Apparently you can pay $16 for a shower there, I think I'm gonna spring for it. :) If only I had an AMEX black card or was a business class member, I could shower and lounge around for free. Marc, this makes me feel less bad about all the travelling you do. They also have massage therapists in these places. I just keep telling myself how much a hundred bucks could get me in Kathmandu so I don't spend it here. Also...massages in Thailand will cost like $5 and I will get one every day. Every. Day. I've already made a pact with myself.

So with all this time, I figure I should catch up on blogging.

For some reason today I've been lonely. Maybe it's that I'd gotten used to the lovely company of Jane. Maybe it was that I watched "The Reader" (fantastic, by the way) on the plane and cried my eyes out. maybe this is normal. in any case, i appreciate that I have a place to write and people who will read it...even if it's not my partner. makes me feel less alone wherever I am in the world.

So...my last couple days in Sydney were lovely, and not quite as jam packed, which I think Jane and I both needed. We went to the Sydney Museum, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and a bunch of private art galleries that were lovely. AND we had Din Tai Fung! Even if Jane liked it but wasn't blown away. There's no accounting for taste (that's for you, Jane). :P I'm not sure if I just haven't been to a Museum in a while or what, but the art gallery of NSW was AMAZING! I mean, I went for the Aboriginal art, but ALL of the exhibits were awesome. Easten art, modern art too. will put up 2 pictures of my favorite works once I get to Nepal. Interestingly enough, I found that I like other Oceanic Aboriginal art better that Australian. Bornean and stuff from Papua New Guinea in particular. The Australian market is so saturated, apparently, with Australian Aboriginal art, that there's not much of a market for the other. Which allowed me to buy and post home some REALLY cool stuff from Papua New Guinea at less-than-antique prices.

Other interesting things about Australia:

They say "post" instead of "mail", when using it as a verb.
They call movers "removalists". I LOVE this.
When they say the word "no" it sounds like "noy".
They call pharmacies "chemists". This made for a fun picture when ther was a rainbow (gay-friendly) triangle next to a "chemist" sign that made it look like an ad for a gay chemist. I dont know why I found that so cute.

By the way, I'm not sure I've quite mentioned it, but I'm kind of in love with Sydney as a city. It has the bricks and house architecture of chicago, the neighborhoods of San Francisco, and the night life of New York City. What more could you ask for?

So on my last night, Jane and I met up with Linda's Jon (whom I'd already seen once in Auckland, as he was there on business while I was there), who'd invited us to a fundraiser for a Mexican Orphanage. Who could turn that down? The fundrasier was at a place called and RSL. Oh, but if we had those in the U.S. As I understand it, RSLs (something something League) are somewhat like shriners places in the States. It's in honor of veterans, and it's a membership thing, but nowadays memberships are extremely cheap, like $5 a year or something. They have food, cheap drinks (there are members discounts), and...wait for it...gambling! Also, they have a vending machine that serves meat pies. And event rooms. Our party/fundraiser was in one such room. It was the cutest thing ever. Basically we paid a fee, had drinks, and sat and played trivia by the table (tables of 10). Ours was table 8 and included Jane, Jon, me, and a bunch fo Jon's mates. Oh! That's another thing! Everyone in Oz is a mate. Even when they stamp your passport at the airport they'll say "Have a good trip, mate" or "cheers, mate!". It's so cute! Also, Jon's apartment is AMAZING. It has views of the whole city and harbor. Linda, you'd love it. Anyway, back to the fundraiser. There were questions like "spell 1999 in using Roman numerals" and things like that. And there were auction items. So basically it was a bunch of Aussies (the place was packed) throwing money around, buying drinks, and taking trivia! It was so fun! There was something really sweet about it. Like, people weren't going to raves and taking ecstacy. They were having fun with friends and playing trivia! Kind of makes me want to move to Sydney, if that's what my weekends would be like.

Anyhoo...this blog is no longer so mini. Off to bide my 5 more hours here. Pray to your god for me that I'll be able to sleep on the way to Delhi. And get hungry enough for some dumplings. Or duck. Or something like that.

Sar

insert blog title here.

I've had several ideas as to how to title this blog entry:

"Kanga Bangas"
"Kangaroo chasing with Sara and Jane"
"Wallabys, Wombats, and Echidnas, Oh MY!"
"Dingoes Ate My Baby!"
"Can I spelunk in that?"
"Snow, kangaroos, and rainforest. All in 600 kilometers."
"I'm completely in love with Jane Withers. In a platonic sort of way."

I'm daunted even at the idea of starting this blog. let me begin by saying that I LOVE LOVE LOVE the ways Aussies say the word, "here". They say "hee-yah". There's something about it that makes me giggle and repeat it every time. So far no one's gotten offended. Thank goodness for that.

After getting through customs at the Sydney airport, I walked up to the baggage claim area, waited 45 seconds, and then my first bag came out. Let this be a lessons to LAX which take 45 MINUTES top get the bags out. Jane and the Withers family are friend with my friends the Solomons. Jane was penpals with Rachel Solomon (sister of my dear friend Sarah Solomon (Rosenfeld)), and she and Len have kept in touch. Lucky for me, she and her family are the nicest people EVER, and
there she was, waiting for me at the airport after my whollopping 45-second wait. Let me just remind you reader, andmyself, that it's winter here. And I'm freazing my face off. Not quite as bad as Auckland was in terms of temperature, but when you're wet and it starts to snow and you've been up since godknowswhen...brrr...

Anyhoo...upron arrival Jane took me all around city by car. We saw Bondi Beach, and Opera House, King's Cross. And at night we went back out to see the special light show going on around SYney this month, which includes art projections onto the Sydney Opera House. So when you see the picture of the Opera House that looks like the fish in Finding Nemo, don't be alarmed.

Yesterday was epic. EPIC. E-P-I-C.
We decided to make a go for what was to be a long day. First to see all manner of indigenous animals at the Featherdale Park. There were Wallabys, Kangaroos that I fed by hand, Koala bears that made me want to die of cuteness, and all sorts of crazy other animals like Echidnas and Wombats, parrots, cocktoos, dingoes, crocodiles...

Next we were off the the Blue Mountains, where me may have frozen our tits off but damn if we didn't have fun. The blue mountains are in the bush, but house an entirely different ecosystem, including rainforest, limestone mountains...

Speaking of limestone, after thr mountains we drove an hour and a half to the Janolan Caves. Well I'll be. These are the most amazing things I've ever seen. Well at least the most amazing caves I've ever seen. There are 300 or so of them, and tons that have yet to be discovered! Google it if you don't believe me. My photos uploads are taking their sweet time, they'll be up soon.

For now, we went to the Hunter Valley today. We ate cheese and drank wine. We woke up late. Then I chased kangaroos at dusk. Jane trusily stayed in the car where it was warm, and even made U-turns at my request.; And just so you know, U-turns going right are really different than the U-turns I'm used to. And slightly illegal.

For a FAN-FRIGGING-TASTIC video of my kangaroog chasing (and Jane's adept U-turning skills), click here: Or "hee-yah":
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/video/video.php?v=107933733759&ref=nf

Here's a link to all my pictures so far!:
http://www2.snapfish.com.au/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=977310007/a=21470763_21470763/


Tomorrow it's Aboriginal Art at the museum and some shops, and lunch at Din Tai Fing Australia (for goodness sake, I have to show Jane something, don't I?).

Lastly, I'd like to say if you're reading this and have the time, write me an email and tell me what you're up to. I'd love to hear, even if I don't have the time to write back to everybody.

Love,

Sar

fire fairies, magic, and the kindness of the human spirit.

It's impossible to express the kind of lovely comfort, happiness, and gratefulness I'm feeling right now.

Roger Mannins and Caroline Lynn are two jazz musicians in Auckland. They teach at the University here, and they arranged with me beforehand to sit in on Rog's gig on Friday at the London Bar (Tierney, apparently you sat in there when you were here, too!). And then on Sat to give a master class and a concert at their house. Friday night was lovely. Craig and Frank, my new couchsurfing friends, showed up and we chatted while we listened to some great musicians play the first set. For the second, I sat in, and we just had a lovely, lovely time. Rog then picked up all of my stuff from the hostel and of we were to their house just outside Auckland, only about a 15 minute drive. The house is so lovely and quaint. There's a coal fire in the fireplace, there's always some tea on, and kiwifruit (both green and golden) are aplenty. But the best thing about it is their amazing daughter Milli. She's 5, brilliant, hysterically honest as most 5-year-olds are, and an artist like no other 5 year I've ever met. She can draw, fingerknit, and make all sorts of fun art projects.

Yesterday all manner of people showed up for the class--singers, instrumentalists, singer-instrumentalists. The piled into the living room and we had a nice long chat about where/why/how extensions are available, guide tones lines on the blues, and I even got to hear 3 of them sing and give them a bit of constructive criticism. They're all actually beautiful singers with big, powerful voices--many of them are students of Caroline and some of the guys from the band.

After the class people started showing up for a barbeque! We grilled sausages, had wine, beer, I made my jerk chicken...and we completely forgot to grill the lamb we'd gotten--it's all right, now we'll have it for dinner tonight. Everything was delicious, and the company couldn't have been brighter. Craig and Frank showed up, and all told there were probably 30-35 people here for the bbq and concert. Warm, smiling faces, and donations in the pot so by the end of the night I was able to pay the band a bit. Our bass player Tom Dennison is only 19 and has great time and feel. The concert was a hit, the students seemed to be inspired, and I unpoaded (sold) a bunch od CDs and signed autographs, which is lovely because those CDs were making my suitcase awfully heavy.

After cleaning up from the day, Roger, Caroline, Milli and I sat around the fireplace. Milli told me some stories she learned at school about the fire fairie and the wind brothers. I then concocted a tale of how the fire fairie and wind brothers are actually cousins, who sometimes get in an argument, and that's what makes the candle flame flicker. Milli liked it. It was a long day, and we all went to bed happy and smiling. Today it was morning tea, a bit of internet, and then I think they'll take me for a NZ adventure. All said, the people here are so kind, generous, warm, and lovely, it's a wonder to behold. I couldn't be happier or more grateful.

Signing off for now, and cheers from New Zealand. I'll speak to you next from Sydney, Australia.

love,

sara

P1000465 (1 photo), by sara leib

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
http://www2.snapfish.com/fbshareredirect/p=86441244105206964/l=1920203007/g=21470763/redirectURL=viewsharedphoto/otsi=SPICBL/AlbumID=909132007/PictureID=31606938007/a=21470763_21470763/usercomments=I_xqd%20like%20to%20share%20my%20Snapfish%20photos%20with%20you.%20Once%20you%20have%20checked%20out%20my%20photos%20you%20can%20order%20prints%20and%20upload%20your%20own%20photos%20to%20share./counttext=1%20photo/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

new zealand #1

Dear friends,



As you know, I’ve just begun my trip around the world. If you’re on this email list, it’s either because I thought you’d want to be or because you requested to be.



As some of you may not know, Erin and I (and Erin ’s friend Ron) were in a car accident Saturday night. It was kind of a bad one, but we escaped relatively unharmed—until the hospital broke my nose. But that’s another story. Anyway, we’re glad to be safe and healthy. And sad about Erin ’s car.



As you can imagine, I was afraid that my plane flight to New Zealand was going to be horribly painful and uncomfortable. Luckily a nice fellow named Patrick heard my plea and sat me in a row all by myself (!!!!). Quantas is AMAZING. Like 60 movies, food, drinks (including New Zealand and Australian wine)…it was kind of like being in a flying hotel. Plus, I slept.



Upson arrival I saw the sun come up over the bay...

http://www2.snapfish.com/slideshow/AlbumID=909132007/PictureID=31606938007/a=21470763_21470763/otsc=SHR/otsi=SPIClink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

After getting here, I went to a couchsurfer’s place names Craig, who is absolutely lovely. I realized quickly that my coming and going, however, might be quite the pain in the ass for him. So I’m writing you from a hostel that’s nice. I like hostels, and this is the first one I’ve stayed in, but it’s pretty clean and the people are nice. And I can come and go as I please and all that.



The most exciting part of my day yesterday was when I ran into two girls from my plane on the street here in Auckland , and they decided to join me on my journey to try a find a plce called “5 below”. It’s just like the bar in the ice hotel! You have to put on huge parkas, boots, mittens…and you walk into a bar that has walls made of ice, ice sculptures, the bar is made of ice…the whole thing is ice! All the way down to the glasses that hold your drinks…also made of ice! Oh and there are couches (albeit hard ones) made of ice, too, and covered with animal hides. I’ve always wanted to go to the bar in the ice hotel, and now I don’t have to! It was lovely…here are pics to prove it.

Note that the glasses we're holding are made out of ice.

http://www2.snapfish.com/slideshow/AlbumID=909132007/PictureID=31606941007/a=21470763_21470763/otsc=SHR/otsi=SPIClink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

TodayI splurged and took a ferry over to Waiheke Island and took a wine tour. It. Is. GORGEOUS. Here.
http://www2.snapfish.com/slideshow/AlbumID=909132007/PictureID=31610794007/a=21470763_21470763/otsc=SHR/otsi=SPIClink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

http://www2.snapfish.com/slideshow/AlbumID=909132007/PictureID=31610795007/a=21470763_21470763/otsc=SHR/otsi=SPIClink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

http://www2.snapfish.com/slideshow/AlbumID=909132007/PictureID=31610797007/a=21470763_21470763/otsc=SHR/otsi=SPIClink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/
A heron!
http://www2.snapfish.com/slideshow/AlbumID=909132007/PictureID=31606948007/a=21470763_21470763/otsc=SHR/otsi=SPIClink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

I've just eaten a not that good lamb gyro thing (I'm trying to eat as much NZ land and NZ green lipped mussels as possible...in fact I bought lamb at the shop and will make it tomorrow...yum.

Now I'm off to go and see Linda's friend Jon Capal! He's on business and Auckland and I'll stay with him in Sydney once I get there. I'm really looking forward to trying these fejoa and passionfruit flavored spirits they have here, so we're going to try and make it to a bar.

cheers!

love,

sar

angelique kidjo, live and incomparable

friends of mine know i've been down lately. if this woman doesn't move you, i know don't what will. thank god for her concert tonight. it lifted my spirits 'til they soared. this is why I make music. for this kind of beauty. not sure if the vid will capture it, but at least it'll give you a taste. I screamed for her to sing "Batonga" and she did it as her encore. *sigh*.

Guate, round 2, Retaluleu and beyond...

Guatemala:

Food and 23-year-old rum for 12 (11 1/2) people: $50.

Minor tornado during outdoor jazz performance: messed up coda and flying papers.

Warmth and generosity of Central Americans: Priceless.

That's my mastercard ad for the week.

First let me say that Don Zacapa rum *is* all it's cracked up to be. So smooth! The ride to Reu gave me a awful headache--bumpy roads mixed with lack of sleep and the air thick with heat. Got there and the hotel was historical and neat. And the weather was HOT!! And muggy. The concert went well, even though there were bugs and wind so rough that even our clothespins didn't work. Other than that, good.

This morning I fell asleep in the car on the way out of Reu, and when I awoke, I was in the chipper-est mood I've been in in a while. Not sure if it was because of the Thay book I was listening to on my ipod, the extra rest, or the gorgeous scenery outside of Antigua, but it was marvelous.

Fortunate as I am, Ivonne decided we'd stop in Antigua, both to find Jordan's thing and because it's Semana Santa, there were going to be religious processions! It was very exciting. I don't remember loving Antigua so much. Here are some pictures:




Here's a video of the procession:


Amazing, huh? I've been invited into homes. People here are so warm, kind, and generous. Also, they're never tasted Thai food. Next time I come (to sing at the National Theatre, the grounds of which are fantastic, by the way), I'll bring some Thai curry paste, if they'll let me in the country with it.

That's all for now. There's more but I'm getting sleepy. I'll be back tomorrow, and then back to realidad.