I'll take you in my backpack

Up early to catch the Jeep safari into the Chitwan National Park. A quick coffee (making sure not to consume too much liquid because I was told it was four hours in the bush with no toilet. Yikes!) Sunrise was stunning this morning, granted I missed actual sunrise, but what I did catch was beautiful! To get to the jeep tour you take a small wooden boat across the river and board the jeep. The jeep safari was amazing. I was hoping to see big cats, wild elephants and basically all of the crazy shit you see on discovery. While I didn't see that, I did see an endless amount of rhinos, which is a gift because they are on the endangered species list. I was able to see many mamas with babies too, which is nice for that very reason, hopefully reproduction and their existence in a nature preserve will ultimately protect them from poachers and extinction. One can only hope. At one point during the jeep safari we were attacked by horse flies, I'm not talking a cou...

2/25/18 Find what you love, and never stop doing it! Yesterday I did something that I've wanted to do for a REALLY long time! I've seen photos and lusted over this adventure. Why it took me so long I have no idea, but I'm so glad that I cashed in on life'ing with this one! Seeing the snow monkeys in Nagano at the natural hot spring was something that I'll never forget. I highly recommend it for anyone who is in Japan (fun fact you don't have to go in the winter, they're open year round, the monkeys are always there (free range, not caged or contained). I would even venture to say that it may be better to visit during the "off" season because as you can imagine this place is riddled with tourists, which becomes annoying. My annoyance increased because some people literally have zero respect for animals, their habitat, and personal space. More often than not tourists would get uncomfortably close to the monkeys, babies, mamas with babies, in...

9/27/15 Completely exhausted from a full day of shopping yesterday (and a not so fabulous nights sleep), I got up nice and early to get to my tour meeting place to catch the bus. To be honest I didn't even look at the information for what we were doing and knew little more that it involved being outside and seeing waterfalls. And that was perfectly fine! The bus took us to Saga, a prefecture approximately an hour away, like much of Kyushu, filled with rice and mountains as far as the eye can see. Some winding mountain roads and we reached our first waterfall.  At the top there was a shrine with a beautiful view of the valley below. A monk was caring for it and going through some rituals when I hiked up to see it.  On my way back down (and for the second day in a row) I saw a praying mantis. That had to be good luck right? It's not every day that you see those, but seeing them two days in a row?! After the waterfall it was bac...

8/8/15 Sleep was nearly impossible with the various nature sounds. The roosters internal clocks are WAY off. The dogs on the property barked outside of my door in the middle of the night and kept me up, starting again very early in the morning. Then there are the eleventy billion bits I have on my body something on my foot I'm chalking up to ants or some kind of poisonous plant. All in all I think the relaxing lazy day is much needed! I had to switch rooms today from the riverview to one up in the elephant camp.  I went down for breakfast and just kind oflounged around for most of the morning. I crossed the crazy suspension bridge to the other side of the river and spent some time playing with a young elephant.  The Mahout even got him to give me a big kiss on the cheek with his trunk. Today was room switch day so I lounged around at the cafe (Internet has been down since last night) and read some on my iPad (kindle app).  I feel like I've exhausted the things to do here ...