So, I've somehow ended up in southern India in a strange town called Auroville. Nepal was a really great experience. After the trek I visited Pokhara for a few days. I explored around for a while and ended up going Paragliding. Really a great experience. It lasted around 45 minutes. I went tandem with an expert. You basically wait for a good gust of wind, get the parachute flying and then jump off of a cliff. We caught some good thermal gusts and soared high over 2000 meters. Took tons of pictures..bit trigger happy. I went back to Kathmandu to get my Indian Visa after that, then I went to the lowlands of Nepal, an area called Chitawan national park. It's a jungle reserve full of lots of wild animals. I was only there for around 2 days because I had to catch a train down through India to be able to meet up with some friends. The second day I was there, I hired two guides (because you have to) and went on a canoe trip and jungle walk. You need 2 guides and three bamboo staffs for self defence because it's quite dangerous to walk through the jungle. The guides experienced in staving off wild animals like Tigers, Rhinos, bears etc. Apparently one guide was injured by a rhino the day before I arrived and was in hospital. He's ok though. We saw around 9 wild crocodiles and a rhino on the walk/canoe ride. At one point while on foot, the guide in front spotted something and started running back to us. Instincutally we started running as well, then realizing that we weren't being followed, we stopped and started walking forward very slowly. It was a large black sloth bear...later I learned that it's one of the most vicious animals in this jungle. They don't go straight for the face apparently. We started to follow it and I took some pictures. Then my camera died. The one guide motioned for us to get ready to follow him. He lifted his staff above his head and smacked it as hard as he could against the ground which sent off a loud echo. The bear turned and looked right at us. I got chills. The guide in front then raised his staff above his head, motioned for us to follow and ran towards the bear. So naturally I followed suit and the three of us charged the bear. He turned and fled. We chased him through the jungle with our staffs above our heads for approximately 2 or 3 minutes until he escaped into a denser area. I don't think I've ever had a similar adrenaline rush. It was most certainly one of the coolest experiences of my life.
Afterwards we picked some ferns to put into curry. It was somewhat exciting as well...mainly due to the adrenaline surge which stayed with me until around 3 days afterward.
If that wasn't enough, after the walk, I was reaching shore in the canoe and an elephant was being bathed. One guide suggested that I join, so I stripped down to my boxers and hopped on the elephants back via his trunk. It would douse me with water with it's trunk, then fling me off into the water, then help me up again. This all happened in the span of around an hour and a half. It was an incredibly surreal experience. The next day I rode on an elephant through the jungle with a couple of other people. We saw some rhinos, monkeys deer etc.
Anyway, I'll tell more about Auroville a little later on...once I know more about it.
Until then...
Afterwards we picked some ferns to put into curry. It was somewhat exciting as well...mainly due to the adrenaline surge which stayed with me until around 3 days afterward.
If that wasn't enough, after the walk, I was reaching shore in the canoe and an elephant was being bathed. One guide suggested that I join, so I stripped down to my boxers and hopped on the elephants back via his trunk. It would douse me with water with it's trunk, then fling me off into the water, then help me up again. This all happened in the span of around an hour and a half. It was an incredibly surreal experience. The next day I rode on an elephant through the jungle with a couple of other people. We saw some rhinos, monkeys deer etc.
Anyway, I'll tell more about Auroville a little later on...once I know more about it.
Until then...
posted by Justin at 4:59 AM
9 Comments:
Hey Just,
Oh man, what an experience!Are you sure those ferns you picked weren't hallucinagins.You always have things with more than two legs looking you right in the eyes.And if those bears don't go right for your face, you can be sure they go right for your nuts so you just narrowly escaped with your jewels.
Love Belle
Wow, I'm calling you Tarzan from now on. Justin doesn't do you justice. You are fantastic. One day, they'll make a movie about you. So stay alive so you can tell them all about your adventures!!!
Hope you meet your Jane, that would complete the movie scenario, since you already have the monkey, cheetah. I'm calling HBO right now!!! Cuz Maureen
i agree with Maureen, Tarzan is a fitting name. you are insane and i looove it. charging black sloth bears ahaha; intense. is that creature a mix between a black bear and a sloth? that would be one fugly animal. nvm i just looked up a picture, and their kind of cute...i suppose. maybe cuter when not charging your face.
thats also so cool about the elephant. i didnt know they were nice and playful like that.
oh hey, when you slow down and get a chance to breath - mind summarizing Kant, Hegel and Heidegger for me? hahaha jokes. you would need about 15 days of free time. but eff them. they're confusing and on my exam. BAH
the pictures you took from you last adventure sounds promising, i hope we get to see them soon!
Casey
Justin, do see any weddings in the village/town/cities that you pass through?
George
Mother,
I recall doing parasailing with you as a child. Dropped on my head? Not sure...you tell me, I wasn't fully conscious yet...maybe thats cause you dropped me on my head. Repeatedly. And I didn't climb a mountain, I just ascended it via the feet.
Belle,
things with more than two legs seem to be attracted to my eyes. And they may very well have been hallucinogens because I've been acting strange for a while now...but that might be pre-ferns. maybe it stems back to some repeated childhood incidents.
Maureen,
Thanks for the nickname. I'm lacking in a loin cloth at the moment unfortunately. At the very least, I have been getting some good movie ideas, so maybe I can assemble some of these things and make one later.
Lacey,
Yeah, they are kinda cute, and luckily it didn't charge my face, had it done so I would probably no longer have one.
Elephants are sometimes playful, and this particular one was, but also foul tempered. It later punched me in the face...or trunked me in the face. It was painful.
As for Kant, Hegel and Heidegger...ummm
After a brief refresher...Kant thought that the mind was not a blank slate, but rather something that actively creates. Perception comes from inside the mind. I think it might be both inside and partly outside but I don't remember...the main thing is that it comes from within and so subjectivity (everything you see and experience) could just be a creation of your own mind.
Hegel had his theory of dialectics which talked about "thesis antithesis and synthesis" and it works for most things in life. On a massive scale you could look at warring ideas that clash, come together and create a synthesis of both ideas. Opposites crashing into each other to create a new synthesis of them. That's pretty much how all of history works.
Heidegger wrote being and time and talked about being a Dasein (being in the world)I think..I think that was him. something about being in the world..research required...gotcha. Phenomenology. That one's a bitch. It's something about perceiving an object from one angle and having it completed in your mind, even though you can't see the other side of it, and can never see the entire object at one time. And you can never see behind you either, so it could just be chaos going on until you look at it and then it stabilizes, so in a sense, your viewing an object solidifies from one angle, but there are infinite other angles at which to perceive that single object.
Hope some of that made sense. And I hope I didn't write it too late...also these guys had a lot of theories...I just assumed you did the main ones, so yeah. haha, bet you didn't expect me to answer.
Thanks for making me miss uni.
George,
No, I haven't seen any weddings, but I've seen brides and grooms walking the streets, or getting into cars. Why do you ask?
Alright, you have proven that you're not just another pretty face. How the heck do you remember all that stuff from school? I guess I am just a simple thinker cause I DON'T GET IT!
Belle
JUSTIN YOU GOOF. i was kidding! i feel bad now haha, i hope that didnt waste to much of your time. by the way, that IS exactly what i was talking about. you're smmmmmart. thanks!
heidegger is a mofo. i want to look at things through my angle ONLY haha
Casey
i actually love heidegger, casey just = frustrated. i felt bad for calling him a mofo haha. i want to talk to you about philosophyyy. its overtaken my life and im boring everyone with new things i've learned. but we seem to have a mutual interest so maybe you wont be bored haha
casey
Shelley,
I didn't remember it all. Had to refresh myself online for a bit of it.
Lacey,
That's sweet that you like philosophy. You should take the existentialism class at Kings with Dr. Leonard (I think that was his name)
And Heidegger was a mofo actually...he later joined the Nazis. That's grounds for mofoism.
Post a Comment
<< Home