Speaker 1: She said, it's now never. I got fighting in my blood.
Speaker 2: I'm tiff.
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Speaker 2: Here she is everyone, It's Karen Vaughan. She's back. Karen Vaughan,
Speaker 2: our favorite regular guest. How are you mate?
Speaker 1: I'm good? How are you?
Speaker 2: Where have you been? I've been more waiting for you
Speaker 2: to get back here.
Speaker 1: Well, I've been in a poll. Look at my look
Speaker 1: at my visual for anyone. If you're just listening on
Speaker 1: the audio, you need to go to YouTube and have
Speaker 1: a crack at this. But been in a pol I.
Speaker 2: Guess I'll have to put this episode on YouTube. Then
Speaker 2: now you said that you're bastard.
Speaker 1: I'm getting paid by YouTube. Now you don't have to
Speaker 1: put on YouTube. I've got a beautiful picture of the
Speaker 1: Himalayas behind me.
Speaker 3: Oh god, oh what a place, What a place. You're
Speaker 3: going to have to tell me about your your trip?
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course I will. What do you want to know?
Speaker 1: Do you want to just start your start there?
Speaker 3: Go bad?
Speaker 2: I want to start there.
Speaker 3: I want to hear all about it because it feels
Speaker 3: it feels like so long ago since I was at
Speaker 3: the Himalayas, which was not in the pool for me.
Speaker 3: But god, what a beautiful and massively impacting space.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but now I live with you. Agree that there's
Speaker 1: a real energy, a real deep energy.
Speaker 2: Yeah it was yep.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you cannot. I don't believe you can go
Speaker 3: there and not be moved by it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And even if you don't feel the energy, the magnitude,
Speaker 1: holy shit, you know it's just well anyway, so right,
Speaker 1: where do I start?
Speaker 3: So?
Speaker 1: Actually, all right, so where do I start? I got
Speaker 1: jealous of you when you it's been on my bucket list. Well,
Speaker 1: when I say my bucket list has been on my
Speaker 1: Oh that'd be nice to do some day, if ever,
Speaker 1: I could dinner. You know, it was when one of
Speaker 1: those are things. But then you were talking about it
Speaker 1: and it sparked and re sparked me, you know, it
Speaker 1: lit me up again, and I thought, why the hell
Speaker 1: haven't you been, Karen? What the hell has stopped you
Speaker 1: from going? And then I thought, actually nothing, I just
Speaker 1: I just don't know. Neple's one of those places that
Speaker 1: you feel is a bit big for you as a individual.
Speaker 1: This is how I feel. It's like it's a bit
Speaker 1: it's a bit big, it's a bit mountain, it's a
Speaker 1: bit snowy, it's a bit you know, trekky. It's not
Speaker 1: my kind of thing, and I'm not a trekker. And
Speaker 1: then I started to I was. I was on a
Speaker 1: zoom court, not a I was on a zoom call
Speaker 1: with this sister group that I have from a retreat
Speaker 1: in Balley and and one of them was doing this
Speaker 1: leaded meditator leading us into meditation, and she said, put
Speaker 1: on a big pair of boots and take five big
Speaker 1: leaps and where do you land? And the first one
Speaker 1: was in my paddock, and the next one was like
Speaker 1: I was in I was in Nepal, And next next
Speaker 1: one I was doing. Yeah, I remember anyway, retreats in Nepal.
Speaker 1: I can't remember anyway. But but Nepal was like the
Speaker 1: second one. And I thought, and so I just me
Speaker 1: being me, and you know me too. If I just
Speaker 1: decide on something, throw throw my boots in and all
Speaker 1: and promise people ship that I don't even know if
Speaker 1: I can deliver. So so I put in the crow.
Speaker 1: After I got off, I said, you know, my big
Speaker 1: thing was Nepal. And I think, oh, I think I'm
Speaker 1: going to run women's retreats in Nepal because I do
Speaker 1: them in Cambodia. So I thought, well, what the hell
Speaker 1: is just transferring to another country and as well as Cambodia,
Speaker 1: And so everyone in the group's like, I'm coming, I'm coming,
Speaker 1: I'm coming. So that it's like everything I do in life.
Speaker 1: People say I'm coming. Then I'm like, well, fucking now,
Speaker 1: I'm going to do it anyway. So I just decided,
Speaker 1: fuck it, I'm going to do it. Now. Let me
Speaker 1: tell you this bit. This is the best bit.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: I knew nothing about Nepal. I didn't know where to start.
Speaker 1: So now I'm not one for years and chat gpt
Speaker 1: to cheat, you know, and say, claim work is mine,
Speaker 1: but geez, I love it for ideas. So I punched
Speaker 1: in there, I want to run a women's women's retreat
Speaker 1: to Nepal. Give me an itinery, you know for eight
Speaker 1: day itinery? And it did, and then I was like,
Speaker 1: then I wanted to find tune it. Oh well, well
Speaker 1: what will I do there? You know, how is this
Speaker 1: benefit beneficial to women? And blah blah. Anyway, it ended
Speaker 1: up giving me. I did have to find tune it
Speaker 1: a bit, but it was so there you go. If
Speaker 1: you want to know where to go for holiday, just
Speaker 1: ask chat tell you what it wasn't. It wasn't bad
Speaker 1: at all. So when did Catman do?
Speaker 3: So?
Speaker 1: I ended up going with my sister because I you know,
Speaker 1: my sister and I have always been close, but we've
Speaker 1: become much closer, you know. And I said, you want
Speaker 1: to come to Nepal with me? She's like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: what do we can do? And I said, don't know,
Speaker 1: and we're just going to go check it out. So
Speaker 1: wen do Catman do? I won't give you a you know,
Speaker 1: I'll let you ask some questions in there at some point.
Speaker 1: I won't just give you the whole bloody truth.
Speaker 2: I'm just sitting back mate. Actually, I'm just going to
Speaker 2: grab some popcorn.
Speaker 1: Shed like a story. Tell you that if I remember,
Speaker 1: when I get to the end, I tell you now.
Speaker 1: Oh you know, I run my Confident Leaders group and
Speaker 1: there's one woman in there, Kathy. Oh you know Kathy.
Speaker 2: She's the best.
Speaker 1: Shout out to you, Kathy. She makes me laugh so
Speaker 1: bloody hard. And she does this mimicking of cradling a
Speaker 1: bucket of popcorn and then she just keeps putting her
Speaker 1: hands come out. Then she said, I just love sitting
Speaker 1: back one listen than to dramas she had them. And
Speaker 1: the more she laughed and mimicked her chewing popcorn. God,
Speaker 1: she's funny. Anyways, you enjoy your popcorn. Sorry, I completely digress. Anyway,
Speaker 1: we get into Catman Do and we got to ride
Speaker 1: from the airport. And I know, even if you haven't
Speaker 1: been to Katman, if you've been to Katman Do, you'll
Speaker 1: be saying yes if that's what it's like if you haven't.
Speaker 1: We were down all it's a mazes just like Amazer Labyrinth.
Speaker 1: Do you know? Are we going down on his dark elyways?
Speaker 1: And I'm like far out, I hope he's actually taking
Speaker 1: as to where was bos were going, and we end
Speaker 1: up in this beautiful little it's called the hotel Thrive,
Speaker 1: and it was like an It's this incredible, beautiful oasis
Speaker 1: in the middle of a dusty city. Camando is actually
Speaker 1: city of wood, that's what it means, and everything is
Speaker 1: carved of wood. Is absolutely beautiful. But next morning we
Speaker 1: go out and we only got as far as the
Speaker 1: first intersection. And I mean when I say intersection, it's
Speaker 1: like these little roads that are no bigger than your
Speaker 1: bedroom door, just about you know, and that wide motorbikes
Speaker 1: and push push bikes and people and carts and god
Speaker 1: knows on. We just stood there. I was readier for
Speaker 1: the motorbikes and my sister was like, oh, this isn't
Speaker 1: this is no. I don't trust his traping one. It
Speaker 1: was it was just like like a star, like a
Speaker 1: how can I say it, like a wheel and you're
Speaker 1: at the hub of the wheel and all the roads
Speaker 1: let off like spokes. That's incredible. Actually, this young guy
Speaker 1: comes up and he's he's saying, you know, do you
Speaker 1: want I'm an artist, do you want to see my aunt?
Speaker 1: You know, all this and stuff. So he took us
Speaker 1: back to this like a like an art cave, and
Speaker 1: we met his master, and he does he's a Buddhist artist,
Speaker 1: and they go up into the Himalayas and for weeks
Speaker 1: to paint paintings, do you know, And they're only the art.
Speaker 1: Only the masters are allowed to paint certain things, you know,
Speaker 1: like mandulas and like particular mandelas and everything else. And
Speaker 1: it takes ten years to become a master. So we
Speaker 1: did that, and then he and we bought a painting.
Speaker 1: Each said, I wouldn't have known that.
Speaker 2: Do you know what?
Speaker 1: If we just stood there and tried to work our
Speaker 1: own way around cam and do one, we'd be lost,
Speaker 1: never find that out. But then he took us around.
Speaker 1: He showed us all the temples and it was just
Speaker 1: bloody fabulous. And I think that sometimes we travel and
Speaker 1: we don't want to talk to people, you know, we
Speaker 1: kind of like do I trust people? Do I know?
Speaker 1: But we would never have found that, you know, he
Speaker 1: enjoyed it, and we've got these beautiful paintings that were
Speaker 1: done by a Buddhist master artist and there's just bloody fantastic.
Speaker 1: And anyway, that was about x me. I stayed there
Speaker 1: one night, and then we went out to Penauti Village
Speaker 1: or Penaughty Village. And it's one of the things I
Speaker 1: asked chat GPT is about women's you know, like give
Speaker 1: me some stuff about women. And there's it's called Community
Speaker 1: Homestay Network and it's really big in Nepal and I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's anywhere else, but it's definitely big
Speaker 1: in the pau And all these women open their homes
Speaker 1: like some have got husbands and some haven't, but the
Speaker 1: women run it. They open their homes for you to
Speaker 1: stay it, you know, and it's great. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: not going to say it's luxurious. It certainly isn't very basic,
Speaker 1: but you eat with the family, you cook with them,
Speaker 1: it are far out. It was magnificent. So we spent
Speaker 1: three nights there with Mina and she took us around
Speaker 1: the village to to her friends pass who couldn't speak English.
Speaker 1: But we just sat there and had tea cups of
Speaker 1: teas and it was just bloody magnificent. And I'll tell
Speaker 1: you what, I'm really tough because she doesn't speak English
Speaker 1: and she's got a couple, two daughters and a daughter
Speaker 1: in law who do all the translating, and one of
Speaker 1: the daughters said to us on the last second, last day,
Speaker 1: Mum wants to take you up to Namba Buddha Temple,
Speaker 1: which was the highest point we got to it, which
Speaker 1: was about eighteen hundred meters, and she said, Mum's never
Speaker 1: ever done that for anyone. She said, she always sends
Speaker 1: one of ours. And so she got us a little
Speaker 1: tiktook with a female driver. Shit, no, shit, the hills
Speaker 1: are like about whatever that is, but very very steep,
Speaker 1: and we went up to this temple. It was just
Speaker 1: bloody beautiful. I absolutely would say if you're going to Nepal,
Speaker 1: go and spend a couple of days or you know,
Speaker 1: at a at a community home stay and with a
Speaker 1: family far out, dear, it was amazing and we can
Speaker 1: come back twenty of this or you're gonna ask me
Speaker 1: a question, won't you.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 3: I just well, I'm just thinking like it's reminding me,
Speaker 3: it's taking me right back there and that that energy
Speaker 3: you're talking about. And I remember the last day sitting
Speaker 3: at the home like we were. We stayed at the
Speaker 3: Christia something temple Chrishna Temple in Nagar and I'm sitting there,
Speaker 3: you know, and the food they cook is exquisite but
Speaker 3: so fucking basic and the way you appreciate it. And
Speaker 3: I'm just sat there and I thought. I remember thinking,
Speaker 3: I don't want to go. I'd stay here by myself
Speaker 3: with this family, like I'd let my friends could go home,
Speaker 3: and I could stay here indefinitely and appreciate every moment
Speaker 3: and like.
Speaker 2: I'm a foodie, you know, when when.
Speaker 3: It came lunchtime and we had when we're on the
Speaker 3: mountain and we had to unpack our lunch box and
Speaker 3: there would be a like a shit sand We'd like
Speaker 3: a literally like a sandwich. You'd get it primary school,
Speaker 3: like do you shit Cole's white bread? And a piece
Speaker 3: of plastic cheese and some you know, and it was
Speaker 3: there was such gratitude and I loved it. And it
Speaker 3: was just like if this gut served me in Australia,
Speaker 3: I'd throw it at somebody. But because you've got so
Speaker 3: much awe around you, because the people are so connected
Speaker 3: with you, it changes.
Speaker 2: It changes you. You're changed in that moment.
Speaker 1: I agree, Harry, I agree.
Speaker 2: Tell me more.
Speaker 1: Right then we went to It's just so good, except
Speaker 1: so my initial thought was I'm going to go over
Speaker 1: there and see if it would suit a women's retreat. Body.
Speaker 1: I I'm an art about that a lot. And it
Speaker 1: was all right at first, and yeah, but then if
Speaker 1: we stay, how would we all stay in a home,
Speaker 1: stay and be you know, different homestays and be close
Speaker 1: to each other, and a lot of questions. But then
Speaker 1: we went to Bandapur and you know, only because acause
Speaker 1: Chatchi he told me do. But as I was talking
Speaker 1: to you know, Nepolice people, they were saying, oh, band
Speaker 1: a p that's the most beautiful town in Nepal, just
Speaker 1: absolutely beautiful. And it's this really old village I'm going
Speaker 1: to guess, and I'm guessing five six hundred years old,
Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, like and it was still
Speaker 1: functional building. Some of the doorways are like crookeder there's
Speaker 1: leaning over and that, and it's all these little cafes
Speaker 1: and it's they've blocked off the main street so that
Speaker 1: you you drive and it goes all the way up
Speaker 1: this hill like, oh my god, a long way up
Speaker 1: and then tiny little windy road all the way up.
Speaker 1: But when you get to the top, cars a und
Speaker 1: aloud past the entrance of the town. So it's all
Speaker 1: just pedestrians, do you you know, And oh my god,
Speaker 1: what a what a what a place. And we stayed
Speaker 1: in this place and and I kept looking out going,
Speaker 1: oh god, look at those clouds and just you know,
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. And then that night we had
Speaker 1: a thunderstorm. We stayed in this place. We didn't have power,
Speaker 1: two nights, we didn't have any old water. Would I
Speaker 1: wouldn't recommend it a luxury, but anyway there was. It was fine.
Speaker 1: And then we had a thunderstorm the first night and
Speaker 1: then I was standing outside looking and I went, that's
Speaker 1: not clouds, that's the humalayas were snow on them, you know,
Speaker 1: and it was like, oh my god, you know, and
Speaker 1: it was just like this amazingness. It was just incredible.
Speaker 1: And the next morning we see it properly, you know,
Speaker 1: it wasn't shrouded by thunderstorm and everything else, which by
Speaker 1: the way, made it beautiful. And we went up to
Speaker 1: that there's this solo monk and that one of the
Speaker 1: real things I wanted to be in this Bandapoo is
Speaker 1: there's this Buddhist temple up on the hill behind the village,
Speaker 1: and it's one solo monk thereby himself, do you know,
Speaker 1: And he's trying to extend it so that hopefully more
Speaker 1: more monks will join him. But we went up to
Speaker 1: look for this temple and there's a lookout and I
Speaker 1: said I might as well have a look at the lookout.
Speaker 1: Holy shit, it was just this unbroken view of the
Speaker 1: Himalayas is covered in snow, and I was just like, yeah, shit,
Speaker 1: it's like he could touch them, do you know. I'm
Speaker 1: sure we were still a couple of kilometers away from it,
Speaker 1: you know, a time, but it was amazing. Then we
Speaker 1: saw when I saw the monk, and oh my god,
Speaker 1: he blessed our beads and gave us tea and tea
Speaker 1: and pick your best cup of tea. Oh my godfather,
Speaker 1: I don't know what they do with their tea over there.
Speaker 1: Tea and milk and sugar, cheese, cross, honey, lovely, And
Speaker 1: it was just magnificent. We went back up to that
Speaker 1: temple the next morning to see sunrise, and it's big
Speaker 1: mountain and the sun just cracks its way around the
Speaker 1: edge of the mountain and then starts to light up
Speaker 1: the humalays in light up the snow. Ah Jesus, there
Speaker 1: were so many of those moments that were just like
Speaker 1: there was surreal, you know, and you could literally this
Speaker 1: might be woo woo for some people. I don't give
Speaker 1: a ship and a state anyway. You can literally feel
Speaker 1: your soul buzzed.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: It was just like wow. But I tell you, but
Speaker 1: there's this one thing though, because I'm imagining taking you know,
Speaker 1: eight women over there and getting a minibus and you know,
Speaker 1: and so we drove from Penaudi village to Bandit one
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty kilometers not far, is it, tiff if
Speaker 1: you live in Boody Country, Victoria one hundreds of kilomeus
Speaker 1: took us eight and a half hours.
Speaker 2: I was going to say, that's on roads there, that's.
Speaker 1: Darnees and buses coming at you on THEREI mountains, landslides
Speaker 1: and yeah, monkeys, ah, you name it. And it was like, oh,
Speaker 1: you you know, and you don't really stop for a toilet.
Speaker 1: We did. We stopped for lunch and Jesus, you know, no,
Speaker 1: put it this way. I don't think a bus full
Speaker 1: of sixty year old women or fifty would go, oh
Speaker 1: that's a good squat hole, let me have a crack
Speaker 1: in that. I think the road, I think the road
Speaker 1: journey is probably not the best for a women's retreat,
Speaker 1: but that was great. We stayed a couple of nights
Speaker 1: and go shout out to Mina was the woman I
Speaker 1: stayed with him Penadi and shep far at you beautiful.
Speaker 1: And Babita we met in Bandit Poot and she made
Speaker 1: all those Nipolie clothes. I should have won one of
Speaker 1: my Nepalese tops on. I should have done that for you,
Speaker 1: just for the energy. I bought so many clyent Nepalese tops.
Speaker 1: I love them. I used to wear them long time ago.
Speaker 1: I haven't found me for ages. And I saw this
Speaker 1: little kid in a little outfit and a little Marone outfit,
Speaker 1: and I said to my sister, the kids only about three.
Speaker 1: I so I want I want one of them. No,
Speaker 1: I got all these buddy fantastic clothes. And Babita, who
Speaker 1: owns this little shop there, she's just a beautiful, beautiful woman.
Speaker 1: And the you know, all the kids begging for chocolates,
Speaker 1: all the kids everywhere Gonney chocolate, gone chocolate.
Speaker 3: Anyway. Oh god, I sound like.
Speaker 1: A kid in a bloody lolly shop. Don't know, and
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know. Why for some reason,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of there's a lot of Indian tourists,
Speaker 1: and the Indian women were very attracted to Susan, my sister,
Speaker 1: like they all wanted to have a photo with, you know,
Speaker 1: and all the neple Lee's women were attracted to me.
Speaker 1: It was a very funny thing. But this family said
Speaker 1: they haven't and a couple at a cafe in this
Speaker 1: this family, I think they're Indian, come past and they
Speaker 1: just wanted to take photos with us, you know. And
Speaker 1: the mother was she got to a point taking a
Speaker 1: photo with us that she was laughing so much that
Speaker 1: it was like joy just bursting from a gut to you,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 1: It was amazing. Do I sound like a kid in
Speaker 1: a china shop? I do? Or in a lolly shop?
Speaker 2: I do? Don't I my face from just smiling with
Speaker 2: the excitement of it all. And then we went to.
Speaker 1: After that, we went to Pokra, which was about a
Speaker 1: two and a half hour drive. That wasn't far away.
Speaker 1: There was about fifty bloody guys, but anywhere everything takes
Speaker 1: so long. The road was mildly better and we stayed
Speaker 1: in at that time, we stayed in a five Star
Speaker 1: Resort with it. I'm going to try it all, you know,
Speaker 1: to see if I'm going to bring women here, what
Speaker 1: what's going to work and what's not And like poker.
Speaker 1: At first, when we first got there, I found it
Speaker 1: a little bit sailsy and pushy, do you know, whereas
Speaker 1: whereas there's none of that in the other places. I
Speaker 1: just didn't find that. But well, I think it was
Speaker 1: because I was tired and grumpy too, don't you know
Speaker 1: when you're you know, you've been in the car and
Speaker 1: if you're just pissed off and it's like, nah, it's
Speaker 1: I'm just enough enough, already enough of the car banging
Speaker 1: me bloody bones around. And it turned out quite nice.
Speaker 1: It was right on the lake, and one reason I
Speaker 1: wanted to go there was because there's a well it's
Speaker 1: on a lake and it's utterly beautiful, you know. But
Speaker 1: there's this little island with a Hindu temple and I thought, oh,
Speaker 1: that'ud be so nice. People say, get a rowboat, go
Speaker 1: out to this temple. But what I discovered learned before
Speaker 1: we went, so I knew about it. On a Saturday.
Speaker 1: They have animal sacrifices out there and they take out
Speaker 1: chickens and ducks and baby goats and all that shit
Speaker 1: to sacrifice to the gods, which for a religion, don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong, not bag and Hindu. I'm just saying
Speaker 1: that this doesn't sit with me. To worship animals, you know,
Speaker 1: and be vegetarian you know, and all that sort of stuff,
Speaker 1: and then to sacrifice things like baby goats so that
Speaker 1: God will be kind to me. I kind of find that.
Speaker 1: In fact, that was my biggest challenge. Actually, let me
Speaker 1: tell you the next bit, Bega, then I'll come back
Speaker 1: to that, because I was really challenged by that part
Speaker 1: of the religion. One of the guys who was the
Speaker 1: what was he the food and hospitality manager, said, oh,
Speaker 1: I can get you a car and a taxi and
Speaker 1: you know, you can go up to the Sheiva temple
Speaker 1: right up the top. And we went up. When they
Speaker 1: say you can get a taxi up there, Ah, yeah,
Speaker 1: the taxi takes your part of the way and then
Speaker 1: you've got a high, cup bloody mountain for about half
Speaker 1: an hour before you get to it, which we didn't
Speaker 1: know about that, but we still made it work. And
Speaker 1: that was just incredible, this beautiful, big Hindu temple. It
Speaker 1: was massive and straight with a view straight onto the Himalays,
Speaker 1: you know, just beautiful. Then we went to the World
Speaker 1: Peace Stupa, which is a Buddhist temple, and the same
Speaker 1: same thing is you have to hike up a hill
Speaker 1: bloody half an hour to get to it, but still
Speaker 1: with a view of the Himalays. Oh my god, it's majestic.
Speaker 1: And then he says, you know, so he says, go
Speaker 1: to the Shiva Temple, go to the World Peace stupor
Speaker 1: go to Mahendra Cave and then go to the Diva Falls.
Speaker 1: And so we thought that was our that was our
Speaker 1: itinerary for the day. We went to Mahendra Cave and.
Speaker 3: It is in.
Speaker 1: Well, actually I think it's man. I might be saying
Speaker 1: the wrong cave anyway, I started with an M. And
Speaker 1: it's in the near Pokra and Pokra and we went
Speaker 1: there and we knew it was a cave that was
Speaker 1: a temple. Well we didn't know and didn't expect, and
Speaker 1: I got very pissed off. Be honest, here, some of
Speaker 1: the Indian men were just because they come and visit
Speaker 1: the temples, were just fucking rude. Do it, just like
Speaker 1: really fucking horrible and not everybody, but just and I'm
Speaker 1: not being racist, but it was just like an entitlement,
Speaker 1: you know that. And I'm a man, and several times
Speaker 1: I tried to buy tickets and you know, stuff like that,
Speaker 1: and they were just push in front of me and
Speaker 1: elbow me in the face, you know, just and get
Speaker 1: And by the time we got to these caves, I
Speaker 1: was a bit pissed off with it, you know, and
Speaker 1: so I started standing up for myself a little bit
Speaker 1: and not didn't go against me, but still didn't bloody
Speaker 1: help do you know, still still served him first. But
Speaker 1: I sort of was really agitated about it by then.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm like, you, man, you know, your assholes
Speaker 1: don't fucking do that. You know, just because I'm a female,
Speaker 1: you don't get to bloody just pushing and you just
Speaker 1: don't get to.
Speaker 3: Do that, you know.
Speaker 1: And clearly, I'm not going to punch someone in the
Speaker 1: face in a strange country, not that I do that anyway,
Speaker 1: but you know what I mean, Clearly I'm not going
Speaker 1: to start a fight and bloody Nepal. But we got
Speaker 1: our tickets and it was you have to go down
Speaker 1: all these spiral stairs and into the cave and with
Speaker 1: everyone pushing, like I'm talking hundreds of people pushing into
Speaker 1: your back to get to this cow statue, which was
Speaker 1: you know, worshiping part. And then after that you go
Speaker 1: down more stairs into another layer of cave to the
Speaker 1: next bit of the temple. And we got into this
Speaker 1: cave and everybody's pushing. I'm talking hundreds of people going
Speaker 1: down the same little stair well, and you just went
Speaker 1: with it, you know, and they're chanting, and that didn't
Speaker 1: bother me. But it was quite a um can I
Speaker 1: say about the chant It was kind of like almost
Speaker 1: hypnotic that they didn't even know they were where they were.
Speaker 1: It was like they're like that left their body and
Speaker 1: they were just sort of which is wonderful, but not
Speaker 1: when you're in the middle of it, not when you're
Speaker 1: in the middle of getting dragged down these stairs and
Speaker 1: everything else. And then we got down there and I
Speaker 1: looked up and thought, it's stunk. It was mil dewy
Speaker 1: and mossy. Fuck it smell black mold. Was buddy gonna
Speaker 1: kill me? And it's stunk. There was water just dripping
Speaker 1: all over the floor. The floor was slippery. People were
Speaker 1: just pushing and then I went a little bit further
Speaker 1: into my catastrophic thinking and went, fuck earthquakes, landslides. I'm
Speaker 1: under the mountain here, I'm in a cave with hundreds
Speaker 1: of people. Can't breathe. I said to my sister, we're
Speaker 1: out of here. We're not going down to the second level.
Speaker 1: We're getting out of here. And then we had to
Speaker 1: fight back through everybody to get to get back. It
Speaker 1: was awful. And they've got all these shops around the
Speaker 1: entrance and they're real, real pushy, say you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? And I just said, I can't do this,
Speaker 1: Diva falls. I just can't, you know, like I've had
Speaker 1: enough enough. So I think I sort of grumpied myself
Speaker 1: out of a good day, do you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: But the first two temples up on the all they
Speaker 1: were bloody fantastic.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And we got a cable car. Oh that's right. And
Speaker 1: then we wanted to see the sunrise and we went
Speaker 1: to the reception, said what time do we how can
Speaker 1: we see sunrise? How can we get this? She said,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, bus comes up four am. Oh god, this
Speaker 1: is funny. The bus comes at four am. We'll get
Speaker 1: a shuttle bus.
Speaker 3: And so.
Speaker 1: She booked us a bus for four am, and so
Speaker 1: we're waiting in the lobby at the hotel five star,
Speaker 1: five star, well, you know, we wouldn't call it a
Speaker 1: five star, but anyway, it was for there waiting for
Speaker 1: a shuttle bus. Next thing she goes, go go, it's
Speaker 1: coming run out of the front. Who had to run
Speaker 1: out onto the road if one of the public buses came. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it was full, absolutely all of people. So I'm
Speaker 1: sitting on the gearbox box, you know, the fun others
Speaker 1: send up some blokes me half way up the bush
Speaker 1: and I'm trying to hang on some blakes shaking my
Speaker 1: hand and I'm like, Jesus, I need that hand to
Speaker 1: hang on to the side of the blade. They were
Speaker 1: around the corners and when they drive, they just like drive, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're going, We're go. And I liken it to a
Speaker 1: four year old boy from driving a go cart. You know. God.
Speaker 1: He took us up to the up to the cable
Speaker 1: car and we we we saw the sun right, Oh
Speaker 1: my god, that was that was spectacle. That's where this
Speaker 1: photo is behind me, but not that anyone can see
Speaker 1: it because you don't put things on YouTube, and you
Speaker 1: deprive people of great scenery.
Speaker 3: But well, you send me a bloody picture of you
Speaker 3: in front of it, I'll use it as the caver image.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah, okay, I think I have one. I
Speaker 1: don't know.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 1: So it was incredible that that was utterly incredible, was
Speaker 1: worth a four am start, was worth it, worth the
Speaker 1: driving the bus like afoorteen year old go cart driver.
Speaker 1: It was bloody, it was bloody great. And by the
Speaker 1: time when we came home Catman dou Airport, I'm not
Speaker 1: I'm not going to give it any praise. There's nothing
Speaker 1: I can say about it that's good. And you know,
Speaker 1: still she bastards and you know, I was just like,
Speaker 1: I was so glad to get on the plane but
Speaker 1: from the airport, the airport was shipped. But wow, and
Speaker 1: that's about it in a nutshell. But now you can
Speaker 1: ask me anything, tif I will allow it.
Speaker 2: Mate. What a bloody ride? What a ride?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what it was like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what changed you or what did you feel that
Speaker 2: you didn't expect to feel there or when you came home?
Speaker 1: Gratitude, A lot of gratitude, you know, yeah, a lot
Speaker 1: of warmth. I don't know actually I can say those
Speaker 1: two things, but I also had a lot of anger
Speaker 1: and which kind of don't go together, you know. I
Speaker 1: had a lot of conflict, to be honest, because oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I was going to say about hind You know, Hindu
Speaker 1: part of the Hindu religion is that the cows are
Speaker 1: so acre and in Pokra, cows were just walking in
Speaker 1: the shops or they were sleeping on the roads. You
Speaker 1: had to drive around them, you know, just walking up
Speaker 1: the town. No worries that. I love that. But everywhere
Speaker 1: else they were tied you know, through the nose and
Speaker 1: on very short ropes, and when I'm saying, like less
Speaker 1: than two foot of rope, you know, tied to a pole.
Speaker 1: And they would they would come out and be tied
Speaker 1: to these poles in this like maybe three meters by
Speaker 1: three meters kind of patch, you know, and they would
Speaker 1: just sit there all day. I didn't see any water,
Speaker 1: you know, there's there's hay. They'd gone. Hey, But then
Speaker 1: they went into a shed in the afternoon, so they
Speaker 1: brought out into the sun every day, which that's I
Speaker 1: don't know. See I'm big on animals having shelter, but anyway, whatever,
Speaker 1: some people might disagree. And then then later in the afternoon,
Speaker 1: they put them back in this little shed and to
Speaker 1: close the doors, but they were tied to poles in
Speaker 1: the shed, and I, you know, patched this little calf,
Speaker 1: and I spent a bit of time with this little calf,
Speaker 1: and all I wanted to do was just cuddle into
Speaker 1: me this and I reckon it's the first bit of
Speaker 1: love it's ever ever got. And I was really deeply conflicted,
Speaker 1: you know, really in a lot of pain, and thought,
Speaker 1: how can you on one hand revere you know, cows
Speaker 1: or cattle, not all cattle, because they eat the buffalo,
Speaker 1: eat the yeah, buffalo, But how can you on one
Speaker 1: hand do that and then sort of not knock. I
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe that is what they how they care
Speaker 1: for them, But all I could think was, why can't
Speaker 1: you put a little fence around and just let them
Speaker 1: roam free within that area, even though it's a tiny area,
Speaker 1: you know, just not be tied up by the nose
Speaker 1: through this this rope through the nose. But anyway, that
Speaker 1: was one thing, and then there was a lot of
Speaker 1: dogs that actually looked quite well, do you you know,
Speaker 1: like to be honest for dogs at the street dogs
Speaker 1: that's the best in the world. I've ever seen street dogs.
Speaker 1: They looked okay, and people seem to care about them
Speaker 1: to you know, just everyone was not no one well
Speaker 1: basically there was no beating and no you know. I
Speaker 1: only saw one really awful dog in Van der Purn
Speaker 1: that had a terrible skin condition. There were tons of
Speaker 1: Golden retrievers. Mina had a Golden Retriever God Simba. It
Speaker 1: was I loved, but lots of Golden Retrievers. But when
Speaker 1: I was in Panaudi, we went down into the old
Speaker 1: village and I was patting all the dogs and I'm
Speaker 1: sure people were thinking, don't do that. You don't know anyway,
Speaker 1: I'm not just still rare. I was a bit careful,
Speaker 1: you know, just making sure they looked like they were
Speaker 1: a bit sane before adding a rabid dog.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: But this one dog, he was absolutely majestic and a
Speaker 1: stunning God. He was a beautiful dog and looked almost dingo.
Speaker 1: He just there was something about him. I had this
Speaker 1: presence that was just incredible. And I noticed he had
Speaker 1: three like scars on his leg that were just like,
Speaker 1: look just healed up and real deep. I'm talking big,
Speaker 1: probably a centimeter wide, you know, and maybe six centimeters long,
Speaker 1: big gashes, three of them, and I took a photo
Speaker 1: with him, cuddled him, he kissed my face. You know,
Speaker 1: we loved a little scratch. It was just beautiful, shared
Speaker 1: this beautiful moment. And then I walked away and I
Speaker 1: hear him. Not even twenty seconds later, I hear this
Speaker 1: sickening crack and this dog just scream. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I've never heard a dog scream like it. And I
Speaker 1: turned around and it was that dog. And there was
Speaker 1: a woman sitting on the footpath selling no no, I
Speaker 1: don't know what. She had, vegetables or something. I didn't
Speaker 1: look enough because I actually wanted to killer in the moment,
Speaker 1: but she she had a metal pole and she had
Speaker 1: hit it that heard on the leg that all the
Speaker 1: all the three wounds had opened up and they were bleeding,
Speaker 1: and and it was carrying its leg like its leg
Speaker 1: was broken, you know, And I was I can't tell you.
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 1: Now, I'm not saying people in Nepolo crawled dogs, because
Speaker 1: they're not. This this one that was the only well
Speaker 1: maybe scared or something, but this is the only instance
Speaker 1: of cruelty that I saw like that. But I was
Speaker 1: so conflicted, I like, I wanted to pick up that
Speaker 1: stick and just whack her. You know, I was so
Speaker 1: fucking angry I wanted the dog just looked at me,
Speaker 1: and I just felt fucking sick. I felt like, you know,
Speaker 1: oh I said, was that, I'm so sorry. Do you
Speaker 1: know I couldn't help it. There's nothing I could friggin do. Actually,
Speaker 1: now I've spoken to people who are vet vets and
Speaker 1: vetnases and that kind of stuff. There is actually a
Speaker 1: black there's a magic powder you can get. It's like
Speaker 1: a black puffer powder, you know, anyway, and you can
Speaker 1: actually just puff it on and it's and it heals
Speaker 1: up wounds. So next time I go to any of
Speaker 1: those places, I'm taking some so that the least I
Speaker 1: can do if I see a dog in that that's in,
Speaker 1: you know, I can at least put some bloody out
Speaker 1: puffer and accepting. It's called black magic or something like.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it's called, but anyway, I know
Speaker 1: I found it, and so in future I'll be able
Speaker 1: to do that. But I was really sickened by it,
Speaker 1: and I asked Shrezanna, who was Mena's daughter in law.
Speaker 1: I said, do you how do people in Nepal feel
Speaker 1: about dogs. You're about dog cruelty and she said, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: we don't do that. We don't hurt dogs. And said
Speaker 1: that woman just did and she said, yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: maybe scared of it. Maybe it's she said, it's not okay.
Speaker 1: People in the pool don't think that's okay. And I said,
Speaker 1: and she said, we have a big dog festival and
Speaker 1: they do which they do in October to celebrate dogs. So,
Speaker 1: you know, on one hand, I was sickened by it,
Speaker 1: never wanted to go back there again. This is in
Speaker 1: the in the moment, you know, just really cranky. But
Speaker 1: then then I thought, well, shit, you know there are
Speaker 1: fucking assholes in Australia too, you know. Don't don't just
Speaker 1: be thinking it's people there, you know, And I've I
Speaker 1: know some cruel bastards, not friends, but you know that
Speaker 1: are just as bloody cruel And look what we do
Speaker 1: to our in our meat industry, do you know. Hey,
Speaker 1: On one hand, I'm saying, you know, you shouldn't have
Speaker 1: bloody ropes through noses and time to two foot two
Speaker 1: foot bits of thing, but we're just as bloody cruel.
Speaker 1: So I had a lot of I had a lot
Speaker 1: of conflict I'm gonna tell you. And I don't think
Speaker 1: it was Nepal. I think my psyche was ready, do
Speaker 1: you know, to have some challenges, and I just think
Speaker 1: it happened to be Nepal. And yeah, but I did,
Speaker 1: like from then on, every dog I saw, I made
Speaker 1: sure I gave every dog I saw some loved, you know,
Speaker 1: just so they knew someone cared. But yeah, I was
Speaker 1: kind of like that, real deep love and gratitude, but
Speaker 1: also anger and fury and conflict, and started questioning religion
Speaker 1: A lot. I like Buddhism a lot I born. If
Speaker 1: you would say born Christian, I would don't know if
Speaker 1: I'd even bother to say that. But you know, I
Speaker 1: don't follow any religion, but Buddhism I like, and because
Speaker 1: of its kindness. And but this all this business with
Speaker 1: all these Hindu temples and that, and everybody sort of
Speaker 1: pushing you out of the way and just caring about
Speaker 1: their own, you know, you know, Lord Shiva, whoever they
Speaker 1: brain to give me protection, give me money, give me success,
Speaker 1: give me give me me, me, me, me me, you know.
Speaker 1: And when I was in the Buddhist temple before that
Speaker 1: in Banditpur, all I was asking for and this is
Speaker 1: all I ever asked for a liddle candle, and I'm
Speaker 1: asking for, you know, world peace, and you know, whatever
Speaker 1: I can do, show me how to do that, you know,
Speaker 1: give me the whatever I need to make sure I
Speaker 1: can contribute to world peace. And to me, that's maybe
Speaker 1: I'm just being Maybe I'm just being self righteous. I
Speaker 1: don't know, but I don't under I think if you're
Speaker 1: going to do that, you, if you truly care about stuff,
Speaker 1: that wouldn't you be asking for bigger than yourself. Wouldn't
Speaker 1: you be asking for? So I got conflicted by that.
Speaker 1: Well do you know that, how can religion be so selfish?
Speaker 1: You know that people they keep it's their own success
Speaker 1: and they'll push anyone out of the way just to
Speaker 1: get their own success. So I'm not bagging any religion.
Speaker 1: I'm not bagging any individuals, you know. It just was
Speaker 1: just my own in a conflict that. Yeah, it took
Speaker 1: a real beating to be honest. So on one hand,
Speaker 1: it's exciting, fun, beautiful, loving, and then I had some
Speaker 1: real I had some real challenges to be honest.
Speaker 3: I remember before I went to India feeling challenged because
Speaker 3: a few people that had been and been to Delhi specifically,
Speaker 3: were telling me about how it was, but also I
Speaker 3: just kept the message I kept hearing for better or worse,
Speaker 3: whether or not that was their intention, but was you're
Speaker 3: a Caucasian female, and you won't be safe, fair, and
Speaker 3: you won't be respected. And so I found myself feeling
Speaker 3: quite angry and unwelcome before it had even gotten there.
Speaker 3: So when I got there and my entire experience was
Speaker 3: the exact opposite to that, it was incredible. But yeah,
Speaker 3: it's a polarizing place. I remember, you know, you're confronted
Speaker 3: by the very, very poor and thett and it's very The.
Speaker 2: City's just filth, just filthy.
Speaker 3: And I remember walking through Old Deli and seeing three
Speaker 3: rows of people squatting like they like on their feet,
Speaker 3: but squatting like fully onto the ground in positions that
Speaker 3: we can't get to in our western world, but three
Speaker 3: rows on both sides of this small little street. And
Speaker 3: the I'd gone for dinner with a guy from India
Speaker 3: at my hotel the one night that I had stayed
Speaker 3: by myself, and he took me to this beautiful restaurant
Speaker 3: in Old Deli and he walks down there and he said,
Speaker 3: do you want me to buy them food, and it
Speaker 3: was this restaurant that cooks plates of food for them
Speaker 3: and you can go and pay for a certain number
Speaker 3: of plates and that feeds the homeless people that are
Speaker 3: waiting in the lines.
Speaker 2: Wow, who were seeing things like that?
Speaker 3: I remember they have these free hospitals as well, so
Speaker 3: you can go and be cared for in these free
Speaker 3: healthcare and free hospitals. So it's got some really confronting
Speaker 3: aspects where you just you don't want to see what
Speaker 3: the reality of what is some people are living like.
Speaker 3: But also there is a really beautiful, generous richness.
Speaker 2: To it as well that I wasn't aware of.
Speaker 1: It's crazy, Yeah, it's very It is polarizing. Yeah, polarizing,
Speaker 1: I think is a great Nepal wasn't like that definitely?
Speaker 2: That was Delhi?
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, that was right in the city
Speaker 3: of Delhi. Did you say it Delhi at all?
Speaker 1: No? I didn't go. I just flew straight to I
Speaker 1: went to Singapore, then to cat man Do. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: we flew. We drove all the way over to Pakara
Speaker 1: via multiple towns, but then we flew back from Pokra
Speaker 1: to cat Mandu. So I didn't know I didn't go
Speaker 1: anywhere near India other other than it's very close to
Speaker 1: the board. I did, very close. But yeah, it's funny,
Speaker 1: isn't it. I think it's life changing. And I don't
Speaker 1: think it's a bad thing to be polarized. And I
Speaker 1: don't think it's a bad thing to be confronted or
Speaker 1: to be to have conflict and to question yourself. I don't.
Speaker 1: I think that's a really good thing. And so as
Speaker 1: much as there were things that I didn't like and
Speaker 1: you would have been the same things you didn't like,
Speaker 1: the opportunity to see them and be confronted and be
Speaker 1: conflicted and to be angry and to be empathetic and
Speaker 1: to be upset and to be like the emotions are
Speaker 1: just just staggering, you know, the speed and the depth
Speaker 1: of the emotions. But what what what are we on
Speaker 1: this earth for, you know, to be to be comfortable
Speaker 1: and sheltered and live in a world where you know,
Speaker 1: we expect everyone to be like us? Or are we
Speaker 1: here to to grow and become even I think we
Speaker 1: constantly on a spiritual growth and an emotion emotional intelligence
Speaker 1: growth journey, and I think you can't grow. I think
Speaker 1: it's called growing pains for a reason, like I think
Speaker 1: pain causes growth, and would I was I pissed off?
Speaker 2: Fuck?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: Would I was? I cranky at Katmandu Airport, yet never
Speaker 1: come back here at the end because I was so
Speaker 1: shitted off with everyone by then and men spitting on
Speaker 1: the ground. I'm gonna say that in the poll the
Speaker 1: men spit on the ground, and I did. I did
Speaker 1: not like that. By the time I got to the airport,
Speaker 1: I was sitting at a row of seats waiting to
Speaker 1: check in, and there was a water machine, you know,
Speaker 1: a water dispenser running, and all fuck I counted, I counted,
Speaker 1: worked out to be two hundred people every hour were
Speaker 1: coming up to this. I didn't count for the whole
Speaker 1: air I just didn't average. I'm coming up to this thing.
Speaker 1: But they would drink it, and then they would spit.
Speaker 1: They'd lift the bin lid right next to me and
Speaker 1: into the bin, and I was like, can you imagine,
Speaker 1: like I'm just I don't there's nowhere else to set
Speaker 1: and oh my god. And then and then they get
Speaker 1: the bushy people trying to one body shop to buy food.
Speaker 1: It was awful food and trying to buy it, and
Speaker 1: I just, oh my god, get me on that fucking plane.
Speaker 1: And I don't care if I don't care if you
Speaker 1: feed me plastic cheese and a sandwich, just get me out.
Speaker 2: They were the best plastic cheese sound just to ever.
Speaker 3: Happy with that.
Speaker 1: But by the by the time I got home and
Speaker 1: had to sleep, and you know, and you know, settled
Speaker 1: down the next day and looked at all the clothes
Speaker 1: I bought, and so when I spend a few hours
Speaker 1: taking them up to for my stumpy little arms and
Speaker 1: all that sort of stuff, by then I was back
Speaker 1: to fondness, did you know?
Speaker 3: So I think.
Speaker 1: I think when we travel like that, we have to
Speaker 1: take into consideration what tiredness does for us, you know.
Speaker 3: And I just.
Speaker 1: Ask yourself, am I too tired to process this? And
Speaker 1: if I am, let me, let me make a decision
Speaker 1: tomorrow that sort of thing. Would I go again? Absolutely do.
Speaker 1: I think it is a women's retreat, and maybe maybe
Speaker 1: I need to do some more pondering on that. But
Speaker 1: it'll be flying. It won't be driving, because that's just
Speaker 1: way too way too tough through the mountains. But I'm
Speaker 1: definitely going to do a leadership retreat, and hopefully every
Speaker 1: year and so I mean as Son is actually a
Speaker 1: guide goes up into the him eyes and he's actually
Speaker 1: been voted in Nepal's Best Guide to Be. So it
Speaker 1: was sort of luck that I landed there. But he's
Speaker 1: he's he wants to work with me to take leaders
Speaker 1: over there. And I think that would be good because
Speaker 1: I think be extraordinarily touch challenging. But to go up
Speaker 1: into the mounds, but not too high, like I needed
Speaker 1: about two thousand meters or three thousand, so not where
Speaker 1: you get altitude sickness, you know, not to that level.
Speaker 1: And like maybe hike with not much, not much of
Speaker 1: a backpack, just a day day back.
Speaker 3: The way we did it, I mean we had we
Speaker 3: had horses take our stuff, so we had a day pack.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I wouldn't I wouldn't have the hall. I
Speaker 1: would just go two hours and then go back to
Speaker 1: And what I want to do is take a group
Speaker 1: hike two hours into the Himalayas, sit there, have lunch,
Speaker 1: and then have leadership conversations and deep I'm talking deep vulnerability,
Speaker 1: he really deep conversation, and then come back to that
Speaker 1: place and drive up to the next one and then
Speaker 1: go another two hours. So you still go into different places,
Speaker 1: but it's not it's not the hardship of trying to
Speaker 1: camp and trying to do all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: But it's still enough to challenge you, you know, and
Speaker 1: still enough to and hiking two hours is enough to go.
Speaker 3: I did this.
Speaker 1: I did it, you know, I did it. I made it.
Speaker 1: So it's not really like a trick. It's just enough
Speaker 1: to go, fucking hell, I did this, and I suddenly
Speaker 1: humalayas you know, and I confronted my whatever, you know,
Speaker 1: my fears I have of talking about vulnerability. I confronted humility,
Speaker 1: do you you know that sort of stuff. And so
Speaker 1: that's what that's what I want to do. And I
Speaker 1: think that would be perfect for that, you know, the energy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so no no writing stuff, no theory, is no power
Speaker 1: points now that ship, you know, just just just kind
Speaker 1: of really deep, rich, vulnerable conversations. Yeah, yeah, that's my plan.
Speaker 2: That's good mate.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you've taken me right back there again. You've made
Speaker 3: me want to go back again, so like.
Speaker 2: And yeah, it travels, and the tricky thing is.
Speaker 3: The wanting to return to places but also realizing that
Speaker 3: was once at that place that wasn't even on my
Speaker 3: bucket list to go to Sema. And so when I
Speaker 3: think about wanting another thing that impacts me as much
Speaker 3: as that, it's like, well, you can't go to the
Speaker 3: same place because it'll I mean, that'll be beautiful again,
Speaker 3: but it won't be the same way because it's expectation.
Speaker 3: Sometimes the expectation, and I just like to land somewhere
Speaker 3: and have no idea what's going to unfold, and you know,
Speaker 3: finding those experiences.
Speaker 2: I remember.
Speaker 3: When I went to Vietnam the year before with my
Speaker 3: one of my best mates, Courtney, and we were going
Speaker 3: to go every couple of years to a different you know,
Speaker 3: just a short kind of we wit did it through Intrepid,
Speaker 3: which are.
Speaker 2: Great, by the way, they do great solo travel holidays.
Speaker 3: And the one of the ones she picked out was
Speaker 3: Nepal and it was a women's retreat and they take
Speaker 3: you to I can't remember it exactly entirely, but they
Speaker 3: teach you about some of the women's practices over there
Speaker 3: and some of the stuff that they're trying to change
Speaker 3: for women over there.
Speaker 2: So there was a lot will be that'll be.
Speaker 1: The community's homestay network, I think, because that's what the
Speaker 1: that's what they focus on all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I'll have to have it.
Speaker 3: I'll have to look back through wherever she originally sent
Speaker 3: me the details, because I was like, oh, that'd be
Speaker 3: interesting because you're learning, so I like to learn something.
Speaker 3: I remember my favorite well, it's hard to say favorite
Speaker 3: now because I think India took the cake for me.
Speaker 3: But prior to that, my favorite trip was Kakadu in
Speaker 3: twenty thirteen.
Speaker 2: We'd Save the Children.
Speaker 3: It was their first Australian track and we went to
Speaker 3: places that you just couldn't You couldn't get the photographer
Speaker 3: that was coming where this couldn't get.
Speaker 2: Through with the gear.
Speaker 3: It was just wow, magic and we and they taught
Speaker 3: us about the culture, so immersed in the culture, but
Speaker 3: throughout just walking through there, we were also learning about
Speaker 3: Aboriginal culture and the land and families and we had
Speaker 3: a family day and the idea was their mission was
Speaker 3: to get more of the Indigenous children that weren't making
Speaker 3: it to school, to get them to school. And I
Speaker 3: remember learning things like the reasons that the kids weren't
Speaker 3: making it to school weren't what you would assume they were,
Speaker 3: things like the family their washing machine had broken, and
Speaker 3: they were too ashamed to send their child in dirty clothes,
Speaker 3: so they didn't send them. So it was things like that,
Speaker 3: or you know, and just understand learning about culture and
Speaker 3: learning about things that change your lens of the world.
Speaker 3: They were the most beautiful children we spent the day
Speaker 3: with I'm not deaf Boddy having a school yard of
Speaker 3: kids to amuse all day. But that was one of
Speaker 3: the best days ever. And I remember just going, these
Speaker 3: are the most beautiful children ever. They're so polite and
Speaker 3: they were so oh. I was just overwhelmed.
Speaker 1: Wow, that would be fantastic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it really was.
Speaker 3: And when I first went on when we went to Vietnam,
Speaker 3: my idea at that point was I wanted to go
Speaker 3: to Uluru because I wanted to seek that out again.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, I want another.
Speaker 3: Experience where I see our land and I have a
Speaker 3: really spiritual kind of connection with where I am and
Speaker 3: I learn about culture. And then in walk to court
Speaker 3: me and said, now let's go to Vietnam.
Speaker 1: Where'd you go to? Where'd you go to? In Vietnam?
Speaker 2: We did a cycling tour through the north of Vietnam.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was beautiful.
Speaker 3: And we started in Hanoi, and then we ended up
Speaker 3: where's the that on the river? Like on the boat
Speaker 3: where the boats are?
Speaker 2: What's that called? I can't remember. Everyone talks about it,
Speaker 2: but I've completely escaped.
Speaker 1: How Long Bay?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 2: How Long Bay?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: So and we finished there and it was great.
Speaker 3: Like sometimes sometimes we're at homestays and sometimes we were
Speaker 3: at a hotel and it was amazing. There was this
Speaker 3: one time, right we're riding the bikes up this big hill.
Speaker 3: There was only one really strenuous stretch and we're powering
Speaker 3: up this hill and there's you know, the buffaloes.
Speaker 2: They're just beautiful. It's amazing.
Speaker 3: And we get to this buffalo and our guide goes
Speaker 3: me and Courtney heading, you know, like we're one and
Speaker 3: two in the pack. We're like, let's fucking let's go.
Speaker 3: And we get to this buffalo and he is, oh,
Speaker 3: it's the two guys. Is it's a boy, he's him?
Speaker 2: Is it the boys that are aggressive or the girls?
Speaker 3: I can't remember anyway, whatever, it's this one. Yeah, he
Speaker 3: might he might attack. And we're kind of laughing. And
Speaker 3: then we're not laughing and fucking looking at us and
Speaker 3: we're right on a cliff edge, like there's a cliff edge,
Speaker 3: and there's there's this fucking buffalo, and then we've shit
Speaker 3: ourselves and he had to get in between us and
Speaker 3: eat and he was kind of waving it along and
Speaker 3: it's kind of trying to go around him, and it's
Speaker 3: looking at.
Speaker 2: Us and shit shitting, shitting bricks. I was like, I'm
Speaker 2: really scared and I don't know what to do. This
Speaker 2: is really scary. This is not fun anymore. Oh my god.
Speaker 2: So there was that because the rest of him are
Speaker 2: so beautiful.
Speaker 3: They walk along like they're very proud of They walk
Speaker 3: along with their buffalo, feeding them, finding them grass, and
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh.
Speaker 2: How amazing. And he's like, yeah, this one's some. This
Speaker 2: one's not going to be amazing. I'm like, where is
Speaker 2: the fucking owner. He's like, I don't know, Jesus, he's somewhere,
Speaker 2: but you're just gonna have to be careful.
Speaker 3: Love it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the best.
Speaker 3: And also I remember the great thing about Intrepid is
Speaker 3: they're known for their great tour guides. And we were
Speaker 3: traveling through this little village and we stopped and this
Speaker 3: beautiful old lady. She was in her late eighties, I think,
Speaker 3: so she's older than the expected age of Yeah, of
Speaker 3: most Vietnamese people beautiful tiny.
Speaker 2: You know, as they start growing down. So she's getting
Speaker 2: shorter by the second.
Speaker 3: As we're speaking to her, I can't speak English, and
Speaker 3: she's got completely black. She was walking back it's lunchtime,
Speaker 3: and he goes, she's been out in the field since
Speaker 3: five five am doing the crops, and she had pitch
Speaker 3: black teeth, pitch black, and so he stopped her and
Speaker 3: asked her to explain why about the teeth, and they
Speaker 3: were it was like a mark of beauty and respect
Speaker 3: for the older women there. And she choose a particular
Speaker 3: leaf in order to stay in her teeth.
Speaker 1: They were black.
Speaker 3: Oh, well, like that were painted black. It was amazing,
Speaker 3: and she had this beautiful she walked up to my friend.
Speaker 3: My friend has a my friend. No matter where she goes,
Speaker 3: she has tends to have this connection with indigenous culture.
Speaker 3: She spent a lot of time in.
Speaker 2: Up in was it Cairns, I think.
Speaker 3: Or broom broom with Aboriginal children and communities, and the
Speaker 3: same thing happened there. But she walks, this woman walks
Speaker 3: straight through past all of us, straight up to Courtney,
Speaker 3: grabs her by both hands and looks into her eyes
Speaker 3: and she said something. She looked at him and he
Speaker 3: had to translate, and she was just she was just so.
Speaker 1: I don't know what she saw, but it was just
Speaker 1: stotted by her.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And everyone was like, wow, what's going on there?
Speaker 1: Wow?
Speaker 3: Yeah, And it's funny because Courtney's courts like, she's such
Speaker 3: a like she's she's loud, she's boisterous, she's funny. She's
Speaker 3: just like the life of the party, the life of
Speaker 3: the party. And then you get these things like that
Speaker 3: happened and everyone was.
Speaker 2: Like, whoa, what's going on there?
Speaker 1: What do we miss?
Speaker 2: She's like, I'm fucking spiritual, I'm special. But yeah, it's
Speaker 2: moments like that, like they're just it's so good.
Speaker 1: That beautiful travel good for the soul. Oh, I agree,
Speaker 1: you know what. Yeah, we've got to go to school.
Speaker 1: We're gonna learn the you know, the three and all
Speaker 1: that shit. But the end of the day, and we
Speaker 1: have to do it because we've got to work and
Speaker 1: we've got to we will survive. But I think you
Speaker 1: learn all your best education is through travel. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: you you grow, you're really it's a it's a different education. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love it. I don't want to stop. But now
Speaker 1: I guess one day, my one day, my feet are
Speaker 1: going to catch up to me. He Nana, leggs are
Speaker 1: going to catch me. But until they do, you know,
Speaker 1: fucking I'm moving.
Speaker 2: It's you've got a long time yet.
Speaker 1: Oh shit, I hope, So I hope. So I keep
Speaker 1: thinking one how long I've got left to travel? And
Speaker 1: you know, I'm hoping to get at least to get
Speaker 1: another ten years in. But you know, you don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm sixty two. You don't know what's you know, I'm
Speaker 1: noticing that every time I hit a decade, something else
Speaker 1: bloody starts failing. You know, So you don't know, like
Speaker 1: when you hit seventy, you know what's not working? Then
Speaker 1: who knows? But I just think. I think for the
Speaker 1: people that say, you know, when I get long service leave,
Speaker 1: when I retire, when I pay my house off, I
Speaker 1: just think, no, I don't don't because yeah, yeah, in
Speaker 1: a I don't want to say this in a morbid way,
Speaker 1: but you know, people are dropping all over the place.
Speaker 1: I just don't don't get it. If you you want
Speaker 1: to be somewhere, you want to go somewhere, you want
Speaker 1: to experience something God, say go and do it, you know,
Speaker 1: just find a way to do it, because tomorrow may
Speaker 1: never come. It just might not.
Speaker 3: So get and do it, you know, and we become stories,
Speaker 3: like we tell ourselves stories. I can be a shocker
Speaker 3: for it, you know, like I have, I've thought so
Speaker 3: long with that.
Speaker 2: Not enough, I haven't haven't got enough, I've not enough yet.
Speaker 2: I can't. I can't do it yet. I can't, you know,
Speaker 2: like we're not there yet.
Speaker 3: That it's like, that's that's just just youve got to
Speaker 3: recognize when stories are stories and when then when they're
Speaker 3: not fucking real?
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I reckon, yeah, no, God, no, that's all
Speaker 2: I was just going to ramble on about it.
Speaker 1: No, but it's true. And I think if we're going
Speaker 1: to tell stories, wouldn't you rather tell a true story
Speaker 1: about an adventure that you had instead of tell bullshit
Speaker 1: story about why you can't do?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 1: Where? We're bloody good at that, bloody good at telling ourselves.
Speaker 1: I can't. I can't I count. But well, how many,
Speaker 1: how many? How many heart giggles did I give you today?
Speaker 1: Thinking about this, like, it's so it's so good to
Speaker 1: relive real stories, isn't.
Speaker 2: It except for the dog one.
Speaker 1: No, I don't like that one. But you know what,
Speaker 1: it's still as much as I don't like it, it
Speaker 1: still makes me. It's still an experience I probably needed
Speaker 1: to have to build a better me, do you you know?
Speaker 1: And I think I don't know the reason for it.
Speaker 1: I think I need to, but I think you just
Speaker 1: well you know, no rain no rainbow.
Speaker 2: Hey, yeah, yeah. Pain teaches us, Pain teaches us who
Speaker 2: we what matters to us?
Speaker 1: M yeah, well pain and pain uncovers your values, doesn't it?
Speaker 1: By christy bloody shootout. When you're pissed off, you're wondering
Speaker 1: what your value? Think about what really fucking pisces you off?
Speaker 1: And you'll spontigure out your values. Jesus, Ah, you're the best.
Speaker 2: Tell all my listeners how they can get more caring
Speaker 2: in their life.
Speaker 1: Oh, thank you, you know the best. We have a
Speaker 1: mutual lover fest love fest to finish off if you're
Speaker 1: the best as.
Speaker 2: Always. Yeah, we haven't told everyone where to find you.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that come on? I want more of Karen.
Speaker 3: Where do we go?
Speaker 1: Well, just I think go to my website Karen Vaughan
Speaker 1: dot com and well the Cambodi you retreat. That's with
Speaker 1: girls with Hammers dot com dot au. And I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think the best thing is just oh, LinkedIn, just
Speaker 1: Karen Vaughan. Yeah, and just you know, I've really even
Speaker 1: got really I've got really slack on doing newsletters. It's
Speaker 1: not slack. I just like hell, got no time, so
Speaker 1: I don't do that. But if you want to connect
Speaker 1: with me LinkedIn or just through my website Karen Vaughn
Speaker 1: dot com, there we are nice and easy.
Speaker 2: Thanks mate, Thanks for coming back on.
Speaker 1: My pleasure anytime. Love chatting with you because we do
Speaker 1: the nuts and bolts and I love it. Yes, I
Speaker 1: cut you off, sea you next time. Thanks see everyone.
Speaker 1: She said, it's now never. I got fighting in my blood.
Speaker 3: Got it, got it, got it, got it,