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Family Travel Blog
by Jamie 2 Comments
by Jamie 30 Comments
Since we were trapped in the house all day yesterday while the hurricanes past around Hawaii, we had to get out of the house today! So we drove north to the Dole Plantation in Wahiawa. My sister is visiting this week and she wanted a Dole whip, and my son wanted to ride the train, so it was the perfect afternoon adventure.
The Dole Plantation has a botanical garden, corn maze, train ride, farmers market and a big store with lots of pineapple paraphernalia. There’s also food, drinks and Dole whips!
When we were in line to buy our tickets on the train, a boy found a gecko and put it in a plastic bag. As he closed the bag the other people in line gasped and said the boy was going to kill it. I tried to get the family’s attention but they didn’t speak English and didn’t seem to understand. My sister said someone walked over and saved the gecko while I was purchasing our tickets.
In line for the train ride (a 30 minute wait on a Saturday) a family with a little boy around my son’s age told us we had to go feed the koi fish in the pond afterwards. She said they went to the store beforehand to buy fish food because it was too expensive to buy it from the machine by the pond. Then she grabbed a paper bag and filled it with about 3 cups worth of fish food and handed it to us.
After we threw large handfuls of fish food at the pile of koi, we were done, but still had some left in the bag. There was a little boy next to us who was grabbing fish food off the ground that others had dropped and throwing it to the fish. So we offered him our leftover bag, and he looked confused and said “Why?” I told him we were done and he took off running with the bag. As we walked away from the pond he came running back with his sister and yelled “Thanks!” as they ran to the pond.
After the train ride and fish feeding, we went to get some food! My sister got the traditional Dole whip in a bowl, my son got a Dole whip cone, and I got a huge bowl of pineapple. While he was stealing my pineapple he dropped his cone and didn’t seem too concerned. He ended up eating almost all my pineapple! If you have never had pineapple in Hawaii I can’t even explain how amazing it is. You just have to try it. At least he didn’t get upset about the dropped cone!
There were even a few chickens and a female peacock that showed up. It was a great afternoon at the Dole Plantation!
by Jamie 13 Comments
In May 2001, I traveled around Nepal for two weeks. We walked around Kathmandu, visited temples, and fought off the monkeys that chased us. One afternoon as I walked near the Bagmati River, I heard loud wailing surround me as a funeral procession slowly made its way towards the water. The dead body was carried above them on a mat; flowers and white sheets covered the body. The crowd wailed their way to the river, and they lit the body on fire. Hair and flesh burned, a bonfire blazed in the daylight. To be honest, I was kind of terrified, but I was trying hard to appreciate the sacredness of the ceremony.
Hindus believe that burning the body releases the spirit, and the flames represent the creator. They believe that touching a person’s body after death pollutes them. Family and friends will gather near the body immediately after the death to pray over it, even though they can’t touch it. Then the dead body is often paraded through the streets of the city, to places that were important to the person while he or she was living. Most traditional Hindus believe in reincarnation, that the spirit moves on to another body, so the funeral is often a celebration of a new beginning as well as a memorial for the deceased.
According to Hindu tradition, they must dip the corpse in the Bagmati River three times before cremating it. After they say their prayers, they dump the charcoaled remains into the river. The Bagmati is considered holy (by Hindus and Buddhists alike) and mourners often bathe in the holy river or sprinkle it on them after the cremation. Further downstream women collected river water in jugs. Two little boys kicked a ball around and it fell down into the river. One of the boys ran splashing into the river to retrieve it.
by Jamie 2 Comments