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Finding Karma in Dharamsala from littlewoo on Vimeo.

In April 2012, I visited the town of Dharamsala at the tail end of my trip to India.

In this mountain town where the Dalai Lama lives in exile, many come to connect with Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan culture.

There, I attended a local Tibetan folk music concert hosted by Karma Lodoe.  I asked if I could take a Tibetan language lesson and learn a Tibetan folk song from him.

After our lesson, he shared a bit more about his experience escaping from Tibet when he was only 12 years old…

This is the process I went through in Bangkok, in case this information may help you one day!  Of course, the process will vary depending on which country your passport is lost/stolen.

First Steps:

1.  If any credit cards are missing, report immediately to your credit card company.

2.  Whether your passport is lost or stolen, file a police report.
- In Bangkok, I was directed to the Tourist Police Office
- This is very important for the Embassy’s paperwork and for potential insurance coverage you may have (private travel insurance or credit card travel insurance)

3. Contact family members or friends so that you have some help from back home.  (They may have to wire you money or do an errand on your behalf)

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Ironically, I had not lost anything while traveling 4 months in India on all kinds of buses, cars, rickshaws, boats, trains and planes.  But after taking a late night bus from Koh Tao to Bangkok, I discovered that my moneybelt was gone!  It contained my passport, credit card, bank card, memory cards and other important papers…

I don’t know whether it fell off my shoulder during the commotion of our bus’ arrival or whether someone actually took it.  Just a week prior, my island bungalow in Koh Tao had been broken into so it was strange to experience these things at the very end of my trip.

Abundant Kindness

1. At the hotel near Khaosan Road, I received immediate help from a Thai ladyboy (whom I’d met on Koh Tao because I was filming at the ladyboy cabaret and had performed with them on one night).  She allowed me to stay in her room for the night and gave me some cash for food!

2. A Thai man at the hotel overheard my situation and also gave me some cash for food. Read more

In late December 2011, I launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise funds for clean drinking water in needed areas of Thailand.  This was sparked by my personal connection to Thailand (having traveled there in 2008, 2011 and 2012) and by the severe flooding they experienced in late 2011.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this campaign!  After expenses, we raised a total of $1169 canadian so I topped it up to $1200.  Ironically, after conversion to US dollars, it was back to $1170 as a total.
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Life on the Ganges from littlewoo on Vimeo.

April 23-April 26, 2012
As my time in India was coming to a close, I decided to visit Varanasi – considered one of the oldest “living” cities on Earth!  It is also one of the most venerated Hindu pilgrimage sites; they believe that those who die here will attain instant “Moksha” (liberation from the cycle of birth and death).  Thus, near the burning ghats,  there are hospices full of people who have come specifically to die in Varanasi. Read more

You know how something can both repel/disgust you yet also totally mesmerize you?

Well, while on a camel trek in Jaisalmer (India), our group got to enjoy the frothing gurgles of one of the “horny” camels.  Whenever his engorged tongue slipped out and bubbled wildly, we could not look away.  My friend Hamish coined it the camel’s “sex bubble”. After a while, it was almost endearing. Almost.

(This video is actually one of his tamer bubbles as i couldn’t catch him at his horniest)

March 31 til April 8, 2012
After two nights in Jodhpur, my Australian friends and I felt gung-ho to head towards our mutual destination of Jaisalmer. There, we anticipated going on the infamous camel trek. After a very bumpy, hot and noisy 5-hour bus journey, we arrived in the Golden City of the Thar Desert…

Though I have experience in desert camping from going to Burning Man (Nevada Desert), I was really curious about the novel experience of riding a camel, sleeping openly under the stars on a sand dune and trekking for 2 days in the desert heat… Read more

March 29, 2012
Leaving wonderful Udaipur was not easy but the desert was calling and I wanted to make it to Jaisalmer before it got too hot to fathom…

Wishing to make the long journey more palatable, I discovered that you could hire a private taxi to Jodhpur (the Blue City) and see a few formidable sights on the way.

Sharing the road trip with a very sweet couple from Australia, we thoroughly enjoyed the tremendous Kumbhalgarh Fort and the jaw-dropping Jain Temple in Ranakpur. This is a MUST-see if you are in Rajasthan – with infinite deities and psychedelic-patterned dome ceilings carved in resplendent white marble. Remember to pick your jaw off the temple floor before you leave…