May 25, 2025 • 63 mins
My mate Kerryn Vaughan is back and fresh off a soul-stirring trip to Nepal, and wow, strap in because this convo goes everywhere. From being swept off her feet by the energy of the Himalayas to raw moments of anger and conflict that cracked her heart wide open.
Kerryn shares the wild beauty of community homestays, being guided by Buddhist artists, sunrise blessings from solo monks, and the kind of encounters that shift your view of the world forever. But it's not all serene mountain tops and mandalas. We dive into some deeply uncomfortable truths too... animal cruelty, religious contradictions, gender dynamics, and that messy space where reverence and rage co-exist.
This is travel as it should be. Soul-expanding, perspective-challenging, emotionally unfiltered, and full of heart. You’ll laugh, you’ll feel, and you’ll probably book a flight. It’s that good.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
She said, it's now never. I got fighting in my blood.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I'm tiff.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
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Speaker 2 (00:52):
Here she is everyone, It's Karen Vaughan. She's back. Karen Vaughan,
our favorite regular guest. How are you mate?
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I'm good? How are you?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Where have you been? I've been more waiting for you
to get back here.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Well, I've been in a poll. Look at my look
at my visual for anyone. If you're just listening on
the audio, you need to go to YouTube and have
a crack at this. But been in a pol I.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Guess I'll have to put this episode on YouTube. Then
now you said that you're bastard.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
I'm getting paid by YouTube. Now you don't have to
put on YouTube. I've got a beautiful picture of the
Himalayas behind me.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Oh god, oh what a place, What a place. You're
going to have to tell me about your your trip?
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yeah, of course I will. What do you want to know?
Do you want to just start your start there?
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Go bad?
Speaker 2 (01:44):
I want to start there.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
I want to hear all about it because it feels
it feels like so long ago since I was at
the Himalayas, which was not in the pool for me.
But god, what a beautiful and massively impacting space.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yeah, but now I live with you. Agree that there's
a real energy, a real deep energy.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah it was yep.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Yeah, and you cannot. I don't believe you can go
there and not be moved by it.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yeah. And even if you don't feel the energy, the magnitude,
holy shit, you know it's just well anyway, so right,
where do I start?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
So?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Actually, all right, so where do I start? I got
jealous of you when you it's been on my bucket list. Well,
when I say my bucket list has been on my
Oh that'd be nice to do some day, if ever,
I could dinner. You know, it was when one of
those are things. But then you were talking about it
and it sparked and re sparked me, you know, it
(02:46):
lit me up again, and I thought, why the hell
haven't you been, Karen? What the hell has stopped you
from going? And then I thought, actually nothing, I just
I just don't know. Neple's one of those places that
you feel is a bit big for you as a individual.
This is how I feel. It's like it's a bit
it's a bit big, it's a bit mountain, it's a
(03:06):
bit snowy, it's a bit you know, trekky. It's not
my kind of thing, and I'm not a trekker. And
then I started to I was. I was on a
zoom court, not a I was on a zoom call
with this sister group that I have from a retreat
in Balley and and one of them was doing this
leaded meditator leading us into meditation, and she said, put
(03:28):
on a big pair of boots and take five big
leaps and where do you land? And the first one
was in my paddock, and the next one was like
I was in I was in Nepal, And next next
one I was doing. Yeah, I remember anyway, retreats in Nepal.
I can't remember anyway. But but Nepal was like the
second one. And I thought, and so I just me
(03:51):
being me, and you know me too. If I just
decide on something, throw throw my boots in and all
and promise people ship that I don't even know if
I can deliver. So so I put in the crow.
After I got off, I said, you know, my big
thing was Nepal. And I think, oh, I think I'm
going to run women's retreats in Nepal because I do
them in Cambodia. So I thought, well, what the hell
(04:13):
is just transferring to another country and as well as Cambodia,
And so everyone in the group's like, I'm coming, I'm coming,
I'm coming. So that it's like everything I do in life.
People say I'm coming. Then I'm like, well, fucking now,
I'm going to do it anyway. So I just decided,
fuck it, I'm going to do it. Now. Let me
tell you this bit. This is the best bit.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Right.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
I knew nothing about Nepal. I didn't know where to start.
So now I'm not one for years and chat gpt
to cheat, you know, and say, claim work is mine,
but geez, I love it for ideas. So I punched
in there, I want to run a women's women's retreat
to Nepal. Give me an itinery, you know for eight
day itinery? And it did, and then I was like,
(04:57):
then I wanted to find tune it. Oh well, well
what will I do there? You know, how is this
benefit beneficial to women? And blah blah. Anyway, it ended
up giving me. I did have to find tune it
a bit, but it was so there you go. If
you want to know where to go for holiday, just
ask chat tell you what it wasn't. It wasn't bad
at all. So when did Catman do?
Speaker 3 (05:18):
So?
Speaker 1 (05:18):
I ended up going with my sister because I you know,
my sister and I have always been close, but we've
become much closer, you know. And I said, you want
to come to Nepal with me? She's like, oh, yeah,
what do we can do? And I said, don't know,
and we're just going to go check it out. So
wen do Catman do? I won't give you a you know,
I'll let you ask some questions in there at some point.
(05:40):
I won't just give you the whole bloody truth.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
I'm just sitting back mate. Actually, I'm just going to
grab some popcorn.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Shed like a story. Tell you that if I remember,
when I get to the end, I tell you now.
Oh you know, I run my Confident Leaders group and
there's one woman in there, Kathy. Oh you know Kathy.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
She's the best.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Shout out to you, Kathy. She makes me laugh so
bloody hard. And she does this mimicking of cradling a
bucket of popcorn and then she just keeps putting her
hands come out. Then she said, I just love sitting
back one listen than to dramas she had them. And
the more she laughed and mimicked her chewing popcorn. God,
(06:23):
she's funny. Anyways, you enjoy your popcorn. Sorry, I completely digress. Anyway,
we get into Catman Do and we got to ride
from the airport. And I know, even if you haven't
been to Katman, if you've been to Katman Do, you'll
be saying yes if that's what it's like if you haven't.
We were down all it's a mazes just like Amazer Labyrinth.
(06:47):
Do you know? Are we going down on his dark elyways?
And I'm like far out, I hope he's actually taking
as to where was bos were going, and we end
up in this beautiful little it's called the hotel Thrive,
and it was like an It's this incredible, beautiful oasis
in the middle of a dusty city. Camando is actually
(07:07):
city of wood, that's what it means, and everything is
carved of wood. Is absolutely beautiful. But next morning we
go out and we only got as far as the
first intersection. And I mean when I say intersection, it's
like these little roads that are no bigger than your
bedroom door, just about you know, and that wide motorbikes
(07:28):
and push push bikes and people and carts and god
knows on. We just stood there. I was readier for
the motorbikes and my sister was like, oh, this isn't
this is no. I don't trust his traping one. It
was it was just like like a star, like a
(07:48):
how can I say it, like a wheel and you're
at the hub of the wheel and all the roads
let off like spokes. That's incredible. Actually, this young guy
comes up and he's he's saying, you know, do you
want I'm an artist, do you want to see my aunt?
You know, all this and stuff. So he took us
back to this like a like an art cave, and
(08:08):
we met his master, and he does he's a Buddhist artist,
and they go up into the Himalayas and for weeks
to paint paintings, do you know, And they're only the art.
Only the masters are allowed to paint certain things, you know,
like mandulas and like particular mandelas and everything else. And
it takes ten years to become a master. So we
(08:28):
did that, and then he and we bought a painting.
Each said, I wouldn't have known that.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Do you know what?
Speaker 1 (08:32):
If we just stood there and tried to work our
own way around cam and do one, we'd be lost,
never find that out. But then he took us around.
He showed us all the temples and it was just
bloody fabulous. And I think that sometimes we travel and
we don't want to talk to people, you know, we
kind of like do I trust people? Do I know?
But we would never have found that, you know, he
(08:55):
enjoyed it, and we've got these beautiful paintings that were
done by a Buddhist master artist and there's just bloody fantastic.
And anyway, that was about x me. I stayed there
one night, and then we went out to Penauti Village
or Penaughty Village. And it's one of the things I
asked chat GPT is about women's you know, like give
(09:18):
me some stuff about women. And there's it's called Community
Homestay Network and it's really big in Nepal and I
don't know if it's anywhere else, but it's definitely big
in the pau And all these women open their homes
like some have got husbands and some haven't, but the
women run it. They open their homes for you to
stay it, you know, and it's great. I mean, it's
(09:42):
not going to say it's luxurious. It certainly isn't very basic,
but you eat with the family, you cook with them,
it are far out. It was magnificent. So we spent
three nights there with Mina and she took us around
the village to to her friends pass who couldn't speak English.
(10:02):
But we just sat there and had tea cups of
teas and it was just bloody magnificent. And I'll tell
you what, I'm really tough because she doesn't speak English
and she's got a couple, two daughters and a daughter
in law who do all the translating, and one of
(10:23):
the daughters said to us on the last second, last day,
Mum wants to take you up to Namba Buddha Temple,
which was the highest point we got to it, which
was about eighteen hundred meters, and she said, Mum's never
ever done that for anyone. She said, she always sends
one of ours. And so she got us a little
(10:46):
tiktook with a female driver. Shit, no, shit, the hills
are like about whatever that is, but very very steep,
and we went up to this temple. It was just
bloody beautiful. I absolutely would say if you're going to Nepal,
go and spend a couple of days or you know,
(11:07):
at a at a community home stay and with a
family far out, dear, it was amazing and we can
come back twenty of this or you're gonna ask me
a question, won't you.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
No.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
I just well, I'm just thinking like it's reminding me,
it's taking me right back there and that that energy
you're talking about. And I remember the last day sitting
at the home like we were. We stayed at the
Christia something temple Chrishna Temple in Nagar and I'm sitting there,
(11:41):
you know, and the food they cook is exquisite but
so fucking basic and the way you appreciate it. And
I'm just sat there and I thought. I remember thinking,
I don't want to go. I'd stay here by myself
with this family, like I'd let my friends could go home,
and I could stay here indefinitely and appreciate every moment
(12:01):
and like.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I'm a foodie, you know, when when.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
It came lunchtime and we had when we're on the
mountain and we had to unpack our lunch box and
there would be a like a shit sand We'd like
a literally like a sandwich. You'd get it primary school,
like do you shit Cole's white bread? And a piece
of plastic cheese and some you know, and it was
there was such gratitude and I loved it. And it
(12:28):
was just like if this gut served me in Australia,
I'd throw it at somebody. But because you've got so
much awe around you, because the people are so connected
with you, it changes.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
It changes you. You're changed in that moment.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
I agree, Harry, I agree.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Tell me more.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Right then we went to It's just so good, except
so my initial thought was I'm going to go over
there and see if it would suit a women's retreat. Body.
I I'm an art about that a lot. And it
was all right at first, and yeah, but then if
we stay, how would we all stay in a home,
stay and be you know, different homestays and be close
(13:09):
to each other, and a lot of questions. But then
we went to Bandapur and you know, only because acause
Chatchi he told me do. But as I was talking
to you know, Nepolice people, they were saying, oh, band
a p that's the most beautiful town in Nepal, just
absolutely beautiful. And it's this really old village I'm going
(13:33):
to guess, and I'm guessing five six hundred years old,
I don't know, you know, like and it was still
functional building. Some of the doorways are like crookeder there's
leaning over and that, and it's all these little cafes
and it's they've blocked off the main street so that
you you drive and it goes all the way up
this hill like, oh my god, a long way up
(13:55):
and then tiny little windy road all the way up.
But when you get to the top, cars a und
aloud past the entrance of the town. So it's all
just pedestrians, do you you know, And oh my god,
what a what a what a place. And we stayed
in this place and and I kept looking out going,
oh god, look at those clouds and just you know,
(14:18):
that sort of thing. And then that night we had
a thunderstorm. We stayed in this place. We didn't have power,
two nights, we didn't have any old water. Would I
wouldn't recommend it a luxury, but anyway there was. It was fine.
And then we had a thunderstorm the first night and
then I was standing outside looking and I went, that's
(14:40):
not clouds, that's the humalayas were snow on them, you know,
and it was like, oh my god, you know, and
it was just like this amazingness. It was just incredible.
And the next morning we see it properly, you know,
it wasn't shrouded by thunderstorm and everything else, which by
the way, made it beautiful. And we went up to
(15:02):
that there's this solo monk and that one of the
real things I wanted to be in this Bandapoo is
there's this Buddhist temple up on the hill behind the village,
and it's one solo monk thereby himself, do you know,
And he's trying to extend it so that hopefully more
more monks will join him. But we went up to
look for this temple and there's a lookout and I
(15:25):
said I might as well have a look at the lookout.
Holy shit, it was just this unbroken view of the
Himalayas is covered in snow, and I was just like, yeah, shit,
it's like he could touch them, do you know. I'm
sure we were still a couple of kilometers away from it,
you know, a time, but it was amazing. Then we
saw when I saw the monk, and oh my god,
(15:47):
he blessed our beads and gave us tea and tea
and pick your best cup of tea. Oh my godfather,
I don't know what they do with their tea over there.
Tea and milk and sugar, cheese, cross, honey, lovely, And
it was just magnificent. We went back up to that
temple the next morning to see sunrise, and it's big
(16:09):
mountain and the sun just cracks its way around the
edge of the mountain and then starts to light up
the humalays in light up the snow. Ah Jesus, there
were so many of those moments that were just like
there was surreal, you know, and you could literally this
might be woo woo for some people. I don't give
a ship and a state anyway. You can literally feel
(16:31):
your soul buzzed.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
You know.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
It was just like wow. But I tell you, but
there's this one thing though, because I'm imagining taking you know,
eight women over there and getting a minibus and you know,
and so we drove from Penaudi village to Bandit one
hundred and thirty kilometers not far, is it, tiff if
(16:55):
you live in Boody Country, Victoria one hundreds of kilomeus
took us eight and a half hours.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
I was going to say, that's on roads there, that's.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Darnees and buses coming at you on THEREI mountains, landslides
and yeah, monkeys, ah, you name it. And it was like, oh,
you you know, and you don't really stop for a toilet.
We did. We stopped for lunch and Jesus, you know, no,
put it this way. I don't think a bus full
(17:31):
of sixty year old women or fifty would go, oh
that's a good squat hole, let me have a crack
in that. I think the road, I think the road
journey is probably not the best for a women's retreat,
but that was great. We stayed a couple of nights
and go shout out to Mina was the woman I
stayed with him Penadi and shep far at you beautiful.
(17:54):
And Babita we met in Bandit Poot and she made
all those Nipolie clothes. I should have won one of
my Nepalese tops on. I should have done that for you,
just for the energy. I bought so many clyent Nepalese tops.
I love them. I used to wear them long time ago.
I haven't found me for ages. And I saw this
little kid in a little outfit and a little Marone outfit,
(18:16):
and I said to my sister, the kids only about three.
I so I want I want one of them. No,
I got all these buddy fantastic clothes. And Babita, who
owns this little shop there, she's just a beautiful, beautiful woman.
And the you know, all the kids begging for chocolates,
(18:37):
all the kids everywhere Gonney chocolate, gone chocolate.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Anyway. Oh god, I sound like.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
A kid in a bloody lolly shop. Don't know, and
I don't know, I don't know. Why for some reason,
there's a lot of there's a lot of Indian tourists,
and the Indian women were very attracted to Susan, my sister,
like they all wanted to have a photo with, you know,
and all the neple Lee's women were attracted to me.
It was a very funny thing. But this family said
(19:07):
they haven't and a couple at a cafe in this
this family, I think they're Indian, come past and they
just wanted to take photos with us, you know. And
the mother was she got to a point taking a
photo with us that she was laughing so much that
it was like joy just bursting from a gut to you,
(19:29):
you know.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
It was.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
It was amazing. Do I sound like a kid in
a china shop? I do? Or in a lolly shop?
Speaker 2 (19:36):
I do? Don't I my face from just smiling with
the excitement of it all. And then we went to.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
After that, we went to Pokra, which was about a
two and a half hour drive. That wasn't far away.
There was about fifty bloody guys, but anywhere everything takes
so long. The road was mildly better and we stayed
in at that time, we stayed in a five Star
Resort with it. I'm going to try it all, you know,
to see if I'm going to bring women here, what
what's going to work and what's not And like poker.
(20:11):
At first, when we first got there, I found it
a little bit sailsy and pushy, do you know, whereas
whereas there's none of that in the other places. I
just didn't find that. But well, I think it was
because I was tired and grumpy too, don't you know
when you're you know, you've been in the car and
if you're just pissed off and it's like, nah, it's
I'm just enough enough, already enough of the car banging
(20:35):
me bloody bones around. And it turned out quite nice.
It was right on the lake, and one reason I
wanted to go there was because there's a well it's
on a lake and it's utterly beautiful, you know. But
there's this little island with a Hindu temple and I thought, oh,
(20:56):
that'ud be so nice. People say, get a rowboat, go
out to this temple. But what I discovered learned before
we went, so I knew about it. On a Saturday.
They have animal sacrifices out there and they take out
chickens and ducks and baby goats and all that shit
to sacrifice to the gods, which for a religion, don't
get me wrong, not bag and Hindu. I'm just saying
(21:18):
that this doesn't sit with me. To worship animals, you know,
and be vegetarian you know, and all that sort of stuff,
and then to sacrifice things like baby goats so that
God will be kind to me. I kind of find that.
In fact, that was my biggest challenge. Actually, let me
tell you the next bit, Bega, then I'll come back
(21:39):
to that, because I was really challenged by that part
of the religion. One of the guys who was the
what was he the food and hospitality manager, said, oh,
I can get you a car and a taxi and
you know, you can go up to the Sheiva temple
right up the top. And we went up. When they
say you can get a taxi up there, Ah, yeah,
(22:02):
the taxi takes your part of the way and then
you've got a high, cup bloody mountain for about half
an hour before you get to it, which we didn't
know about that, but we still made it work. And
that was just incredible, this beautiful, big Hindu temple. It
was massive and straight with a view straight onto the Himalays,
you know, just beautiful. Then we went to the World
(22:24):
Peace Stupa, which is a Buddhist temple, and the same
same thing is you have to hike up a hill
bloody half an hour to get to it, but still
with a view of the Himalays. Oh my god, it's majestic.
And then he says, you know, so he says, go
to the Shiva Temple, go to the World Peace stupor
go to Mahendra Cave and then go to the Diva Falls.
(22:48):
And so we thought that was our that was our
itinerary for the day. We went to Mahendra Cave and.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
It is in.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Well, actually I think it's man. I might be saying
the wrong cave anyway, I started with an M. And
it's in the near Pokra and Pokra and we went
there and we knew it was a cave that was
a temple. Well we didn't know and didn't expect, and
I got very pissed off. Be honest, here, some of
(23:19):
the Indian men were just because they come and visit
the temples, were just fucking rude. Do it, just like
really fucking horrible and not everybody, but just and I'm
not being racist, but it was just like an entitlement,
you know that. And I'm a man, and several times
I tried to buy tickets and you know, stuff like that,
(23:42):
and they were just push in front of me and
elbow me in the face, you know, just and get
And by the time we got to these caves, I
was a bit pissed off with it, you know, and
so I started standing up for myself a little bit
and not didn't go against me, but still didn't bloody
help do you know, still still served him first. But
I sort of was really agitated about it by then.
(24:04):
You know, I'm like, you, man, you know, your assholes
don't fucking do that. You know, just because I'm a female,
you don't get to bloody just pushing and you just
don't get to.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Do that, you know.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
And clearly, I'm not going to punch someone in the
face in a strange country, not that I do that anyway,
but you know what I mean, Clearly I'm not going
to start a fight and bloody Nepal. But we got
our tickets and it was you have to go down
all these spiral stairs and into the cave and with
(24:37):
everyone pushing, like I'm talking hundreds of people pushing into
your back to get to this cow statue, which was
you know, worshiping part. And then after that you go
down more stairs into another layer of cave to the
next bit of the temple. And we got into this
(25:00):
cave and everybody's pushing. I'm talking hundreds of people going
down the same little stair well, and you just went
with it, you know, and they're chanting, and that didn't
bother me. But it was quite a um can I
say about the chant It was kind of like almost
(25:21):
hypnotic that they didn't even know they were where they were.
It was like they're like that left their body and
they were just sort of which is wonderful, but not
when you're in the middle of it, not when you're
in the middle of getting dragged down these stairs and
everything else. And then we got down there and I
looked up and thought, it's stunk. It was mil dewy
(25:42):
and mossy. Fuck it smell black mold. Was buddy gonna
kill me? And it's stunk. There was water just dripping
all over the floor. The floor was slippery. People were
just pushing and then I went a little bit further
into my catastrophic thinking and went, fuck earthquakes, landslides. I'm
(26:04):
under the mountain here, I'm in a cave with hundreds
of people. Can't breathe. I said to my sister, we're
out of here. We're not going down to the second level.
We're getting out of here. And then we had to
fight back through everybody to get to get back. It
was awful. And they've got all these shops around the
(26:25):
entrance and they're real, real pushy, say you know what
I mean? And I just said, I can't do this,
Diva falls. I just can't, you know, like I've had
enough enough. So I think I sort of grumpied myself
out of a good day, do you know what I mean.
But the first two temples up on the all they
were bloody fantastic.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
And we got a cable car. Oh that's right. And
then we wanted to see the sunrise and we went
to the reception, said what time do we how can
we see sunrise? How can we get this? She said,
oh yeah, bus comes up four am. Oh god, this
is funny. The bus comes at four am. We'll get
a shuttle bus.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
And so.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
She booked us a bus for four am, and so
we're waiting in the lobby at the hotel five star,
five star, well, you know, we wouldn't call it a
five star, but anyway, it was for there waiting for
a shuttle bus. Next thing she goes, go go, it's
coming run out of the front. Who had to run
out onto the road if one of the public buses came. Yeah,
(27:31):
and it was full, absolutely all of people. So I'm
sitting on the gearbox box, you know, the fun others
send up some blokes me half way up the bush
and I'm trying to hang on some blakes shaking my
hand and I'm like, Jesus, I need that hand to
hang on to the side of the blade. They were
(27:53):
around the corners and when they drive, they just like drive, yeah,
we're going, We're go. And I liken it to a
four year old boy from driving a go cart. You know. God.
He took us up to the up to the cable
car and we we we saw the sun right, Oh
my god, that was that was spectacle. That's where this
(28:15):
photo is behind me, but not that anyone can see
it because you don't put things on YouTube, and you
deprive people of great scenery.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
But well, you send me a bloody picture of you
in front of it, I'll use it as the caver image.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Yeah, oh yeah, okay, I think I have one. I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
So.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
So it was incredible that that was utterly incredible, was
worth a four am start, was worth it, worth the
driving the bus like afoorteen year old go cart driver.
It was bloody, it was bloody great. And by the
time when we came home Catman dou Airport, I'm not
I'm not going to give it any praise. There's nothing
(28:55):
I can say about it that's good. And you know,
still she bastards and you know, I was just like,
I was so glad to get on the plane but
from the airport, the airport was shipped. But wow, and
that's about it in a nutshell. But now you can
ask me anything, tif I will allow it.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Mate. What a bloody ride? What a ride?
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Yeah, that's what it was like.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yeah, what changed you or what did you feel that
you didn't expect to feel there or when you came home?
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Gratitude, A lot of gratitude, you know, yeah, a lot
of warmth. I don't know actually I can say those
two things, but I also had a lot of anger
and which kind of don't go together, you know. I
had a lot of conflict, to be honest, because oh yeah,
(29:53):
I was going to say about hind You know, Hindu
part of the Hindu religion is that the cows are
so acre and in Pokra, cows were just walking in
the shops or they were sleeping on the roads. You
had to drive around them, you know, just walking up
the town. No worries that. I love that. But everywhere
(30:14):
else they were tied you know, through the nose and
on very short ropes, and when I'm saying, like less
than two foot of rope, you know, tied to a pole.
And they would they would come out and be tied
to these poles in this like maybe three meters by
three meters kind of patch, you know, and they would
(30:36):
just sit there all day. I didn't see any water,
you know, there's there's hay. They'd gone. Hey, But then
they went into a shed in the afternoon, so they
brought out into the sun every day, which that's I
don't know. See I'm big on animals having shelter, but anyway, whatever,
some people might disagree. And then then later in the afternoon,
(30:57):
they put them back in this little shed and to
close the doors, but they were tied to poles in
the shed, and I, you know, patched this little calf,
and I spent a bit of time with this little calf,
and all I wanted to do was just cuddle into
me this and I reckon it's the first bit of
love it's ever ever got. And I was really deeply conflicted,
(31:22):
you know, really in a lot of pain, and thought,
how can you on one hand revere you know, cows
or cattle, not all cattle, because they eat the buffalo,
eat the yeah, buffalo, But how can you on one
hand do that and then sort of not knock. I
(31:43):
don't know, maybe that is what they how they care
for them, But all I could think was, why can't
you put a little fence around and just let them
roam free within that area, even though it's a tiny area,
you know, just not be tied up by the nose
through this this rope through the nose. But anyway, that
was one thing, and then there was a lot of
dogs that actually looked quite well, do you you know,
(32:06):
like to be honest for dogs at the street dogs
that's the best in the world. I've ever seen street dogs.
They looked okay, and people seem to care about them
to you know, just everyone was not no one well
basically there was no beating and no you know. I
only saw one really awful dog in Van der Purn
that had a terrible skin condition. There were tons of
(32:28):
Golden retrievers. Mina had a Golden Retriever God Simba. It
was I loved, but lots of Golden Retrievers. But when
I was in Panaudi, we went down into the old
village and I was patting all the dogs and I'm
sure people were thinking, don't do that. You don't know anyway,
(32:51):
I'm not just still rare. I was a bit careful,
you know, just making sure they looked like they were
a bit sane before adding a rabid dog.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
You know.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
But this one dog, he was absolutely majestic and a
stunning God. He was a beautiful dog and looked almost dingo.
He just there was something about him. I had this
presence that was just incredible. And I noticed he had
three like scars on his leg that were just like,
look just healed up and real deep. I'm talking big,
(33:23):
probably a centimeter wide, you know, and maybe six centimeters long,
big gashes, three of them, and I took a photo
with him, cuddled him, he kissed my face. You know,
we loved a little scratch. It was just beautiful, shared
this beautiful moment. And then I walked away and I
hear him. Not even twenty seconds later, I hear this
(33:44):
sickening crack and this dog just scream. Oh my god,
I've never heard a dog scream like it. And I
turned around and it was that dog. And there was
a woman sitting on the footpath selling no no, I
don't know what. She had, vegetables or something. I didn't
look enough because I actually wanted to killer in the moment,
but she she had a metal pole and she had
(34:07):
hit it that heard on the leg that all the
all the three wounds had opened up and they were bleeding,
and and it was carrying its leg like its leg
was broken, you know, And I was I can't tell you.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
I was.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Now, I'm not saying people in Nepolo crawled dogs, because
they're not. This this one that was the only well
maybe scared or something, but this is the only instance
of cruelty that I saw like that. But I was
so conflicted, I like, I wanted to pick up that
stick and just whack her. You know, I was so
(34:44):
fucking angry I wanted the dog just looked at me,
and I just felt fucking sick. I felt like, you know,
oh I said, was that, I'm so sorry. Do you
know I couldn't help it. There's nothing I could friggin do. Actually,
now I've spoken to people who are vet vets and
vetnases and that kind of stuff. There is actually a
(35:05):
black there's a magic powder you can get. It's like
a black puffer powder, you know, anyway, and you can
actually just puff it on and it's and it heals
up wounds. So next time I go to any of
those places, I'm taking some so that the least I
can do if I see a dog in that that's in,
you know, I can at least put some bloody out
(35:27):
puffer and accepting. It's called black magic or something like.
I don't know what it's called, but anyway, I know
I found it, and so in future I'll be able
to do that. But I was really sickened by it,
and I asked Shrezanna, who was Mena's daughter in law.
I said, do you how do people in Nepal feel
(35:47):
about dogs. You're about dog cruelty and she said, no, no, no,
we don't do that. We don't hurt dogs. And said
that woman just did and she said, yeah, I know,
maybe scared of it. Maybe it's she said, it's not okay.
People in the pool don't think that's okay. And I said,
and she said, we have a big dog festival and
they do which they do in October to celebrate dogs. So,
(36:11):
you know, on one hand, I was sickened by it,
never wanted to go back there again. This is in
the in the moment, you know, just really cranky. But
then then I thought, well, shit, you know there are
fucking assholes in Australia too, you know. Don't don't just
be thinking it's people there, you know, And I've I
know some cruel bastards, not friends, but you know that
(36:36):
are just as bloody cruel And look what we do
to our in our meat industry, do you know. Hey,
On one hand, I'm saying, you know, you shouldn't have
bloody ropes through noses and time to two foot two
foot bits of thing, but we're just as bloody cruel.
So I had a lot of I had a lot
(36:59):
of conflict I'm gonna tell you. And I don't think
it was Nepal. I think my psyche was ready, do
you know, to have some challenges, and I just think
it happened to be Nepal. And yeah, but I did,
like from then on, every dog I saw, I made
sure I gave every dog I saw some loved, you know,
(37:19):
just so they knew someone cared. But yeah, I was
kind of like that, real deep love and gratitude, but
also anger and fury and conflict, and started questioning religion
A lot. I like Buddhism a lot I born. If
(37:39):
you would say born Christian, I would don't know if
I'd even bother to say that. But you know, I
don't follow any religion, but Buddhism I like, and because
of its kindness. And but this all this business with
all these Hindu temples and that, and everybody sort of
pushing you out of the way and just caring about
(38:00):
their own, you know, you know, Lord Shiva, whoever they
brain to give me protection, give me money, give me success,
give me give me me, me, me, me me, you know.
And when I was in the Buddhist temple before that
in Banditpur, all I was asking for and this is
(38:22):
all I ever asked for a liddle candle, and I'm
asking for, you know, world peace, and you know, whatever
I can do, show me how to do that, you know,
give me the whatever I need to make sure I
can contribute to world peace. And to me, that's maybe
I'm just being Maybe I'm just being self righteous. I
(38:42):
don't know, but I don't under I think if you're
going to do that, you, if you truly care about stuff,
that wouldn't you be asking for bigger than yourself. Wouldn't
you be asking for? So I got conflicted by that.
Well do you know that, how can religion be so selfish?
(39:06):
You know that people they keep it's their own success
and they'll push anyone out of the way just to
get their own success. So I'm not bagging any religion.
I'm not bagging any individuals, you know. It just was
just my own in a conflict that. Yeah, it took
a real beating to be honest. So on one hand,
it's exciting, fun, beautiful, loving, and then I had some
(39:30):
real I had some real challenges to be honest.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
I remember before I went to India feeling challenged because
a few people that had been and been to Delhi specifically,
were telling me about how it was, but also I
just kept the message I kept hearing for better or worse,
whether or not that was their intention, but was you're
(39:55):
a Caucasian female, and you won't be safe, fair, and
you won't be respected. And so I found myself feeling
quite angry and unwelcome before it had even gotten there.
So when I got there and my entire experience was
the exact opposite to that, it was incredible. But yeah,
(40:18):
it's a polarizing place. I remember, you know, you're confronted
by the very, very poor and thett and it's very The.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
City's just filth, just filthy.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
And I remember walking through Old Deli and seeing three
rows of people squatting like they like on their feet,
but squatting like fully onto the ground in positions that
we can't get to in our western world, but three
rows on both sides of this small little street. And
(40:55):
the I'd gone for dinner with a guy from India
at my hotel the one night that I had stayed
by myself, and he took me to this beautiful restaurant
in Old Deli and he walks down there and he said,
do you want me to buy them food, and it
was this restaurant that cooks plates of food for them
and you can go and pay for a certain number
of plates and that feeds the homeless people that are
(41:17):
waiting in the lines.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Wow, who were seeing things like that?
Speaker 3 (41:20):
I remember they have these free hospitals as well, so
you can go and be cared for in these free
healthcare and free hospitals. So it's got some really confronting
aspects where you just you don't want to see what
the reality of what is some people are living like.
(41:43):
But also there is a really beautiful, generous richness.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
To it as well that I wasn't aware of.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
It's crazy, Yeah, it's very It is polarizing. Yeah, polarizing,
I think is a great Nepal wasn't like that definitely?
Speaker 2 (42:02):
That was Delhi?
Speaker 3 (42:02):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, that was right in the city
of Delhi. Did you say it Delhi at all?
Speaker 1 (42:09):
No? I didn't go. I just flew straight to I
went to Singapore, then to cat man Do. Yeah, and
we flew. We drove all the way over to Pakara
via multiple towns, but then we flew back from Pokra
to cat Mandu. So I didn't know I didn't go
anywhere near India other other than it's very close to
(42:30):
the board. I did, very close. But yeah, it's funny,
isn't it. I think it's life changing. And I don't
think it's a bad thing to be polarized. And I
don't think it's a bad thing to be confronted or
to be to have conflict and to question yourself. I don't.
(42:50):
I think that's a really good thing. And so as
much as there were things that I didn't like and
you would have been the same things you didn't like,
the opportunity to see them and be confronted and be
conflicted and to be angry and to be empathetic and
to be upset and to be like the emotions are
just just staggering, you know, the speed and the depth
(43:16):
of the emotions. But what what what are we on
this earth for, you know, to be to be comfortable
and sheltered and live in a world where you know,
we expect everyone to be like us? Or are we
here to to grow and become even I think we
constantly on a spiritual growth and an emotion emotional intelligence
(43:42):
growth journey, and I think you can't grow. I think
it's called growing pains for a reason, like I think
pain causes growth, and would I was I pissed off?
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Fuck?
Speaker 3 (43:56):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (43:56):
Would I was? I cranky at Katmandu Airport, yet never
come back here at the end because I was so
shitted off with everyone by then and men spitting on
the ground. I'm gonna say that in the poll the
men spit on the ground, and I did. I did
not like that. By the time I got to the airport,
I was sitting at a row of seats waiting to
check in, and there was a water machine, you know,
(44:19):
a water dispenser running, and all fuck I counted, I counted,
worked out to be two hundred people every hour were
coming up to this. I didn't count for the whole
air I just didn't average. I'm coming up to this thing.
But they would drink it, and then they would spit.
They'd lift the bin lid right next to me and
(44:40):
into the bin, and I was like, can you imagine,
like I'm just I don't there's nowhere else to set
and oh my god. And then and then they get
the bushy people trying to one body shop to buy food.
It was awful food and trying to buy it, and
I just, oh my god, get me on that fucking plane.
(45:02):
And I don't care if I don't care if you
feed me plastic cheese and a sandwich, just get me out.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
They were the best plastic cheese sound just to ever.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
Happy with that.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
But by the by the time I got home and
had to sleep, and you know, and you know, settled
down the next day and looked at all the clothes
I bought, and so when I spend a few hours
taking them up to for my stumpy little arms and
all that sort of stuff, by then I was back
to fondness, did you know?
Speaker 3 (45:33):
So I think.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
I think when we travel like that, we have to
take into consideration what tiredness does for us, you know.
Speaker 3 (45:42):
And I just.
Speaker 1 (45:44):
Ask yourself, am I too tired to process this? And
if I am, let me, let me make a decision
tomorrow that sort of thing. Would I go again? Absolutely do.
I think it is a women's retreat, and maybe maybe
I need to do some more pondering on that. But
it'll be flying. It won't be driving, because that's just
(46:05):
way too way too tough through the mountains. But I'm
definitely going to do a leadership retreat, and hopefully every
year and so I mean as Son is actually a
guide goes up into the him eyes and he's actually
been voted in Nepal's Best Guide to Be. So it
(46:27):
was sort of luck that I landed there. But he's
he's he wants to work with me to take leaders
over there. And I think that would be good because
I think be extraordinarily touch challenging. But to go up
into the mounds, but not too high, like I needed
about two thousand meters or three thousand, so not where
(46:48):
you get altitude sickness, you know, not to that level.
And like maybe hike with not much, not much of
a backpack, just a day day back.
Speaker 3 (47:00):
The way we did it, I mean we had we
had horses take our stuff, so we had a day pack.
Speaker 1 (47:05):
Yeah, but I wouldn't I wouldn't have the hall. I
would just go two hours and then go back to
And what I want to do is take a group
hike two hours into the Himalayas, sit there, have lunch,
and then have leadership conversations and deep I'm talking deep vulnerability,
he really deep conversation, and then come back to that
(47:27):
place and drive up to the next one and then
go another two hours. So you still go into different places,
but it's not it's not the hardship of trying to
camp and trying to do all that sort of stuff.
But it's still enough to challenge you, you know, and
still enough to and hiking two hours is enough to go.
Speaker 3 (47:52):
I did this.
Speaker 1 (47:53):
I did it, you know, I did it. I made it.
So it's not really like a trick. It's just enough
to go, fucking hell, I did this, and I suddenly
humalayas you know, and I confronted my whatever, you know,
my fears I have of talking about vulnerability. I confronted humility,
(48:14):
do you you know that sort of stuff. And so
that's what that's what I want to do. And I
think that would be perfect for that, you know, the energy. Yeah,
so no no writing stuff, no theory, is no power
points now that ship, you know, just just just kind
of really deep, rich, vulnerable conversations. Yeah, yeah, that's my plan.
Speaker 2 (48:41):
That's good mate.
Speaker 3 (48:43):
Yeah, you've taken me right back there again. You've made
me want to go back again, so like.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
And yeah, it travels, and the tricky thing is.
Speaker 3 (48:58):
The wanting to return to places but also realizing that
was once at that place that wasn't even on my
bucket list to go to Sema. And so when I
think about wanting another thing that impacts me as much
as that, it's like, well, you can't go to the
(49:19):
same place because it'll I mean, that'll be beautiful again,
but it won't be the same way because it's expectation.
Sometimes the expectation, and I just like to land somewhere
and have no idea what's going to unfold, and you know,
finding those experiences.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
I remember.
Speaker 3 (49:36):
When I went to Vietnam the year before with my
one of my best mates, Courtney, and we were going
to go every couple of years to a different you know,
just a short kind of we wit did it through Intrepid,
which are.
Speaker 2 (49:49):
Great, by the way, they do great solo travel holidays.
Speaker 3 (49:53):
And the one of the ones she picked out was
Nepal and it was a women's retreat and they take
you to I can't remember it exactly entirely, but they
teach you about some of the women's practices over there
and some of the stuff that they're trying to change
for women over there.
Speaker 2 (50:12):
So there was a lot will be that'll be.
Speaker 1 (50:14):
The community's homestay network, I think, because that's what the
that's what they focus on all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2 (50:19):
Yeah, yeah, I'll have to have it.
Speaker 3 (50:22):
I'll have to look back through wherever she originally sent
me the details, because I was like, oh, that'd be
interesting because you're learning, so I like to learn something.
I remember my favorite well, it's hard to say favorite
now because I think India took the cake for me.
But prior to that, my favorite trip was Kakadu in
twenty thirteen.
Speaker 2 (50:41):
We'd Save the Children.
Speaker 3 (50:42):
It was their first Australian track and we went to
places that you just couldn't You couldn't get the photographer
that was coming where this couldn't get.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
Through with the gear.
Speaker 3 (50:51):
It was just wow, magic and we and they taught
us about the culture, so immersed in the culture, but
throughout just walking through there, we were also learning about
Aboriginal culture and the land and families and we had
a family day and the idea was their mission was
(51:15):
to get more of the Indigenous children that weren't making
it to school, to get them to school. And I
remember learning things like the reasons that the kids weren't
making it to school weren't what you would assume they were,
things like the family their washing machine had broken, and
(51:35):
they were too ashamed to send their child in dirty clothes,
so they didn't send them. So it was things like that,
or you know, and just understand learning about culture and
learning about things that change your lens of the world.
They were the most beautiful children we spent the day
(51:56):
with I'm not deaf Boddy having a school yard of
kids to amuse all day. But that was one of
the best days ever. And I remember just going, these
are the most beautiful children ever. They're so polite and
they were so oh. I was just overwhelmed.
Speaker 1 (52:17):
Wow, that would be fantastic.
Speaker 2 (52:20):
Yeah, it really was.
Speaker 3 (52:21):
And when I first went on when we went to Vietnam,
my idea at that point was I wanted to go
to Uluru because I wanted to seek that out again.
Speaker 2 (52:28):
I was like, oh, I want another.
Speaker 3 (52:31):
Experience where I see our land and I have a
really spiritual kind of connection with where I am and
I learn about culture. And then in walk to court
me and said, now let's go to Vietnam.
Speaker 1 (52:47):
Where'd you go to? Where'd you go to? In Vietnam?
Speaker 2 (52:50):
We did a cycling tour through the north of Vietnam.
Speaker 1 (52:53):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (52:54):
Yeah, it was beautiful.
Speaker 3 (52:56):
And we started in Hanoi, and then we ended up
where's the that on the river? Like on the boat
where the boats are?
Speaker 2 (53:10):
What's that called? I can't remember. Everyone talks about it,
but I've completely escaped.
Speaker 1 (53:20):
How Long Bay?
Speaker 3 (53:21):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (53:21):
How Long Bay?
Speaker 3 (53:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (53:23):
So and we finished there and it was great.
Speaker 3 (53:25):
Like sometimes sometimes we're at homestays and sometimes we were
at a hotel and it was amazing. There was this
one time, right we're riding the bikes up this big hill.
There was only one really strenuous stretch and we're powering
up this hill and there's you know, the buffaloes.
Speaker 2 (53:44):
They're just beautiful. It's amazing.
Speaker 3 (53:46):
And we get to this buffalo and our guide goes
me and Courtney heading, you know, like we're one and
two in the pack. We're like, let's fucking let's go.
And we get to this buffalo and he is, oh,
it's the two guys. Is it's a boy, he's him?
Speaker 2 (54:04):
Is it the boys that are aggressive or the girls?
Speaker 3 (54:05):
I can't remember anyway, whatever, it's this one. Yeah, he
might he might attack. And we're kind of laughing. And
then we're not laughing and fucking looking at us and
we're right on a cliff edge, like there's a cliff edge,
and there's there's this fucking buffalo, and then we've shit
(54:26):
ourselves and he had to get in between us and
eat and he was kind of waving it along and
it's kind of trying to go around him, and it's
looking at.
Speaker 2 (54:38):
Us and shit shitting, shitting bricks. I was like, I'm
really scared and I don't know what to do. This
is really scary. This is not fun anymore. Oh my god.
So there was that because the rest of him are
so beautiful.
Speaker 3 (54:58):
They walk along like they're very proud of They walk
along with their buffalo, feeding them, finding them grass, and
I'm like, oh.
Speaker 2 (55:05):
How amazing. And he's like, yeah, this one's some. This
one's not going to be amazing. I'm like, where is
the fucking owner. He's like, I don't know, Jesus, he's somewhere,
but you're just gonna have to be careful.
Speaker 3 (55:22):
Love it.
Speaker 2 (55:23):
Yeah, the best.
Speaker 3 (55:24):
And also I remember the great thing about Intrepid is
they're known for their great tour guides. And we were
traveling through this little village and we stopped and this
beautiful old lady. She was in her late eighties, I think,
so she's older than the expected age of Yeah, of
(55:45):
most Vietnamese people beautiful tiny.
Speaker 2 (55:48):
You know, as they start growing down. So she's getting
shorter by the second.
Speaker 3 (55:51):
As we're speaking to her, I can't speak English, and
she's got completely black. She was walking back it's lunchtime,
and he goes, she's been out in the field since
five five am doing the crops, and she had pitch
black teeth, pitch black, and so he stopped her and
asked her to explain why about the teeth, and they
(56:13):
were it was like a mark of beauty and respect
for the older women there. And she choose a particular
leaf in order to stay in her teeth.
Speaker 1 (56:22):
They were black.
Speaker 3 (56:24):
Oh, well, like that were painted black. It was amazing,
and she had this beautiful she walked up to my friend.
My friend has a my friend. No matter where she goes,
she has tends to have this connection with indigenous culture.
She spent a lot of time in.
Speaker 2 (56:41):
Up in was it Cairns, I think.
Speaker 3 (56:46):
Or broom broom with Aboriginal children and communities, and the
same thing happened there. But she walks, this woman walks
straight through past all of us, straight up to Courtney,
grabs her by both hands and looks into her eyes
and she said something. She looked at him and he
had to translate, and she was just she was just so.
Speaker 1 (57:09):
I don't know what she saw, but it was just
stotted by her.
Speaker 2 (57:12):
Yeah, And everyone was like, wow, what's going on there?
Speaker 1 (57:17):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (57:18):
Yeah, And it's funny because Courtney's courts like, she's such
a like she's she's loud, she's boisterous, she's funny. She's
just like the life of the party, the life of
the party. And then you get these things like that
happened and everyone was.
Speaker 2 (57:34):
Like, whoa, what's going on there?
Speaker 1 (57:38):
What do we miss?
Speaker 2 (57:39):
She's like, I'm fucking spiritual, I'm special. But yeah, it's
moments like that, like they're just it's so good.
Speaker 1 (57:49):
That beautiful travel good for the soul. Oh, I agree,
you know what. Yeah, we've got to go to school.
We're gonna learn the you know, the three and all
that shit. But the end of the day, and we
have to do it because we've got to work and
we've got to we will survive. But I think you
(58:09):
learn all your best education is through travel. Yeah, and
you you grow, you're really it's a it's a different education. Yeah,
I love it. I don't want to stop. But now
I guess one day, my one day, my feet are
going to catch up to me. He Nana, leggs are
(58:32):
going to catch me. But until they do, you know,
fucking I'm moving.
Speaker 2 (58:37):
It's you've got a long time yet.
Speaker 1 (58:40):
Oh shit, I hope, So I hope. So I keep
thinking one how long I've got left to travel? And
you know, I'm hoping to get at least to get
another ten years in. But you know, you don't know.
I'm sixty two. You don't know what's you know, I'm
noticing that every time I hit a decade, something else
bloody starts failing. You know, So you don't know, like
(59:01):
when you hit seventy, you know what's not working? Then
who knows? But I just think. I think for the
people that say, you know, when I get long service leave,
when I retire, when I pay my house off, I
just think, no, I don't don't because yeah, yeah, in
a I don't want to say this in a morbid way,
(59:24):
but you know, people are dropping all over the place.
I just don't don't get it. If you you want
to be somewhere, you want to go somewhere, you want
to experience something God, say go and do it, you know,
just find a way to do it, because tomorrow may
never come. It just might not.
Speaker 3 (59:40):
So get and do it, you know, and we become stories,
like we tell ourselves stories. I can be a shocker
for it, you know, like I have, I've thought so
long with that.
Speaker 2 (59:54):
Not enough, I haven't haven't got enough, I've not enough yet.
I can't. I can't do it yet. I can't, you know,
like we're not there yet.
Speaker 3 (01:00:03):
That it's like, that's that's just just youve got to
recognize when stories are stories and when then when they're
not fucking real?
Speaker 2 (01:00:12):
Yeah, and I reckon, yeah, no, God, no, that's all
I was just going to ramble on about it.
Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
No, but it's true. And I think if we're going
to tell stories, wouldn't you rather tell a true story
about an adventure that you had instead of tell bullshit
story about why you can't do?
Speaker 3 (01:00:29):
You know?
Speaker 1 (01:00:29):
Where? We're bloody good at that, bloody good at telling ourselves.
I can't. I can't I count. But well, how many,
how many? How many heart giggles did I give you today?
Thinking about this, like, it's so it's so good to
relive real stories, isn't.
Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
It except for the dog one.
Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
No, I don't like that one. But you know what,
it's still as much as I don't like it, it
still makes me. It's still an experience I probably needed
to have to build a better me, do you you know?
And I think I don't know the reason for it.
I think I need to, but I think you just
(01:01:14):
well you know, no rain no rainbow.
Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
Hey, yeah, yeah. Pain teaches us, Pain teaches us who
we what matters to us?
Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
M yeah, well pain and pain uncovers your values, doesn't it?
By christy bloody shootout. When you're pissed off, you're wondering
what your value? Think about what really fucking pisces you off?
And you'll spontigure out your values. Jesus, Ah, you're the best.
Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
Tell all my listeners how they can get more caring
in their life.
Speaker 1 (01:01:53):
Oh, thank you, you know the best. We have a
mutual lover fest love fest to finish off if you're
the best as.
Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
Always. Yeah, we haven't told everyone where to find you.
Oh yeah, that come on? I want more of Karen.
Speaker 3 (01:02:14):
Where do we go?
Speaker 1 (01:02:15):
Well, just I think go to my website Karen Vaughan
dot com and well the Cambodi you retreat. That's with
girls with Hammers dot com dot au. And I don't know.
I think the best thing is just oh, LinkedIn, just
Karen Vaughan. Yeah, and just you know, I've really even
(01:02:36):
got really I've got really slack on doing newsletters. It's
not slack. I just like hell, got no time, so
I don't do that. But if you want to connect
with me LinkedIn or just through my website Karen Vaughn
dot com, there we are nice and easy.
Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
Thanks mate, Thanks for coming back on.
Speaker 1 (01:02:54):
My pleasure anytime. Love chatting with you because we do
the nuts and bolts and I love it. Yes, I
cut you off, sea you next time. Thanks see everyone.
She said, it's now never. I got fighting in my blood.
Speaker 3 (01:03:19):
Got it, got it, got it, got it,
She said, it's now never. I got fighting in my blood.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I'm tiff.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
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Speaker 2 (00:52):
Here she is everyone, It's Karen Vaughan. She's back. Karen Vaughan,
our favorite regular guest. How are you mate?
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I'm good? How are you?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Where have you been? I've been more waiting for you
to get back here.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Well, I've been in a poll. Look at my look
at my visual for anyone. If you're just listening on
the audio, you need to go to YouTube and have
a crack at this. But been in a pol I.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Guess I'll have to put this episode on YouTube. Then
now you said that you're bastard.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
I'm getting paid by YouTube. Now you don't have to
put on YouTube. I've got a beautiful picture of the
Himalayas behind me.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Oh god, oh what a place, What a place. You're
going to have to tell me about your your trip?
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yeah, of course I will. What do you want to know?
Do you want to just start your start there?
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Go bad?
Speaker 2 (01:44):
I want to start there.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
I want to hear all about it because it feels
it feels like so long ago since I was at
the Himalayas, which was not in the pool for me.
But god, what a beautiful and massively impacting space.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yeah, but now I live with you. Agree that there's
a real energy, a real deep energy.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah it was yep.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Yeah, and you cannot. I don't believe you can go
there and not be moved by it.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yeah. And even if you don't feel the energy, the magnitude,
holy shit, you know it's just well anyway, so right,
where do I start?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
So?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Actually, all right, so where do I start? I got
jealous of you when you it's been on my bucket list. Well,
when I say my bucket list has been on my
Oh that'd be nice to do some day, if ever,
I could dinner. You know, it was when one of
those are things. But then you were talking about it
and it sparked and re sparked me, you know, it
(02:46):
lit me up again, and I thought, why the hell
haven't you been, Karen? What the hell has stopped you
from going? And then I thought, actually nothing, I just
I just don't know. Neple's one of those places that
you feel is a bit big for you as a individual.
This is how I feel. It's like it's a bit
it's a bit big, it's a bit mountain, it's a
(03:06):
bit snowy, it's a bit you know, trekky. It's not
my kind of thing, and I'm not a trekker. And
then I started to I was. I was on a
zoom court, not a I was on a zoom call
with this sister group that I have from a retreat
in Balley and and one of them was doing this
leaded meditator leading us into meditation, and she said, put
(03:28):
on a big pair of boots and take five big
leaps and where do you land? And the first one
was in my paddock, and the next one was like
I was in I was in Nepal, And next next
one I was doing. Yeah, I remember anyway, retreats in Nepal.
I can't remember anyway. But but Nepal was like the
second one. And I thought, and so I just me
(03:51):
being me, and you know me too. If I just
decide on something, throw throw my boots in and all
and promise people ship that I don't even know if
I can deliver. So so I put in the crow.
After I got off, I said, you know, my big
thing was Nepal. And I think, oh, I think I'm
going to run women's retreats in Nepal because I do
them in Cambodia. So I thought, well, what the hell
(04:13):
is just transferring to another country and as well as Cambodia,
And so everyone in the group's like, I'm coming, I'm coming,
I'm coming. So that it's like everything I do in life.
People say I'm coming. Then I'm like, well, fucking now,
I'm going to do it anyway. So I just decided,
fuck it, I'm going to do it. Now. Let me
tell you this bit. This is the best bit.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Right.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
I knew nothing about Nepal. I didn't know where to start.
So now I'm not one for years and chat gpt
to cheat, you know, and say, claim work is mine,
but geez, I love it for ideas. So I punched
in there, I want to run a women's women's retreat
to Nepal. Give me an itinery, you know for eight
day itinery? And it did, and then I was like,
(04:57):
then I wanted to find tune it. Oh well, well
what will I do there? You know, how is this
benefit beneficial to women? And blah blah. Anyway, it ended
up giving me. I did have to find tune it
a bit, but it was so there you go. If
you want to know where to go for holiday, just
ask chat tell you what it wasn't. It wasn't bad
at all. So when did Catman do?
Speaker 3 (05:18):
So?
Speaker 1 (05:18):
I ended up going with my sister because I you know,
my sister and I have always been close, but we've
become much closer, you know. And I said, you want
to come to Nepal with me? She's like, oh, yeah,
what do we can do? And I said, don't know,
and we're just going to go check it out. So
wen do Catman do? I won't give you a you know,
I'll let you ask some questions in there at some point.
(05:40):
I won't just give you the whole bloody truth.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
I'm just sitting back mate. Actually, I'm just going to
grab some popcorn.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Shed like a story. Tell you that if I remember,
when I get to the end, I tell you now.
Oh you know, I run my Confident Leaders group and
there's one woman in there, Kathy. Oh you know Kathy.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
She's the best.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Shout out to you, Kathy. She makes me laugh so
bloody hard. And she does this mimicking of cradling a
bucket of popcorn and then she just keeps putting her
hands come out. Then she said, I just love sitting
back one listen than to dramas she had them. And
the more she laughed and mimicked her chewing popcorn. God,
(06:23):
she's funny. Anyways, you enjoy your popcorn. Sorry, I completely digress. Anyway,
we get into Catman Do and we got to ride
from the airport. And I know, even if you haven't
been to Katman, if you've been to Katman Do, you'll
be saying yes if that's what it's like if you haven't.
We were down all it's a mazes just like Amazer Labyrinth.
(06:47):
Do you know? Are we going down on his dark elyways?
And I'm like far out, I hope he's actually taking
as to where was bos were going, and we end
up in this beautiful little it's called the hotel Thrive,
and it was like an It's this incredible, beautiful oasis
in the middle of a dusty city. Camando is actually
(07:07):
city of wood, that's what it means, and everything is
carved of wood. Is absolutely beautiful. But next morning we
go out and we only got as far as the
first intersection. And I mean when I say intersection, it's
like these little roads that are no bigger than your
bedroom door, just about you know, and that wide motorbikes
(07:28):
and push push bikes and people and carts and god
knows on. We just stood there. I was readier for
the motorbikes and my sister was like, oh, this isn't
this is no. I don't trust his traping one. It
was it was just like like a star, like a
(07:48):
how can I say it, like a wheel and you're
at the hub of the wheel and all the roads
let off like spokes. That's incredible. Actually, this young guy
comes up and he's he's saying, you know, do you
want I'm an artist, do you want to see my aunt?
You know, all this and stuff. So he took us
back to this like a like an art cave, and
(08:08):
we met his master, and he does he's a Buddhist artist,
and they go up into the Himalayas and for weeks
to paint paintings, do you know, And they're only the art.
Only the masters are allowed to paint certain things, you know,
like mandulas and like particular mandelas and everything else. And
it takes ten years to become a master. So we
(08:28):
did that, and then he and we bought a painting.
Each said, I wouldn't have known that.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Do you know what?
Speaker 1 (08:32):
If we just stood there and tried to work our
own way around cam and do one, we'd be lost,
never find that out. But then he took us around.
He showed us all the temples and it was just
bloody fabulous. And I think that sometimes we travel and
we don't want to talk to people, you know, we
kind of like do I trust people? Do I know?
But we would never have found that, you know, he
(08:55):
enjoyed it, and we've got these beautiful paintings that were
done by a Buddhist master artist and there's just bloody fantastic.
And anyway, that was about x me. I stayed there
one night, and then we went out to Penauti Village
or Penaughty Village. And it's one of the things I
asked chat GPT is about women's you know, like give
(09:18):
me some stuff about women. And there's it's called Community
Homestay Network and it's really big in Nepal and I
don't know if it's anywhere else, but it's definitely big
in the pau And all these women open their homes
like some have got husbands and some haven't, but the
women run it. They open their homes for you to
stay it, you know, and it's great. I mean, it's
(09:42):
not going to say it's luxurious. It certainly isn't very basic,
but you eat with the family, you cook with them,
it are far out. It was magnificent. So we spent
three nights there with Mina and she took us around
the village to to her friends pass who couldn't speak English.
(10:02):
But we just sat there and had tea cups of
teas and it was just bloody magnificent. And I'll tell
you what, I'm really tough because she doesn't speak English
and she's got a couple, two daughters and a daughter
in law who do all the translating, and one of
(10:23):
the daughters said to us on the last second, last day,
Mum wants to take you up to Namba Buddha Temple,
which was the highest point we got to it, which
was about eighteen hundred meters, and she said, Mum's never
ever done that for anyone. She said, she always sends
one of ours. And so she got us a little
(10:46):
tiktook with a female driver. Shit, no, shit, the hills
are like about whatever that is, but very very steep,
and we went up to this temple. It was just
bloody beautiful. I absolutely would say if you're going to Nepal,
go and spend a couple of days or you know,
(11:07):
at a at a community home stay and with a
family far out, dear, it was amazing and we can
come back twenty of this or you're gonna ask me
a question, won't you.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
No.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
I just well, I'm just thinking like it's reminding me,
it's taking me right back there and that that energy
you're talking about. And I remember the last day sitting
at the home like we were. We stayed at the
Christia something temple Chrishna Temple in Nagar and I'm sitting there,
(11:41):
you know, and the food they cook is exquisite but
so fucking basic and the way you appreciate it. And
I'm just sat there and I thought. I remember thinking,
I don't want to go. I'd stay here by myself
with this family, like I'd let my friends could go home,
and I could stay here indefinitely and appreciate every moment
(12:01):
and like.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I'm a foodie, you know, when when.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
It came lunchtime and we had when we're on the
mountain and we had to unpack our lunch box and
there would be a like a shit sand We'd like
a literally like a sandwich. You'd get it primary school,
like do you shit Cole's white bread? And a piece
of plastic cheese and some you know, and it was
there was such gratitude and I loved it. And it
(12:28):
was just like if this gut served me in Australia,
I'd throw it at somebody. But because you've got so
much awe around you, because the people are so connected
with you, it changes.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
It changes you. You're changed in that moment.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
I agree, Harry, I agree.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Tell me more.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Right then we went to It's just so good, except
so my initial thought was I'm going to go over
there and see if it would suit a women's retreat. Body.
I I'm an art about that a lot. And it
was all right at first, and yeah, but then if
we stay, how would we all stay in a home,
stay and be you know, different homestays and be close
(13:09):
to each other, and a lot of questions. But then
we went to Bandapur and you know, only because acause
Chatchi he told me do. But as I was talking
to you know, Nepolice people, they were saying, oh, band
a p that's the most beautiful town in Nepal, just
absolutely beautiful. And it's this really old village I'm going
(13:33):
to guess, and I'm guessing five six hundred years old,
I don't know, you know, like and it was still
functional building. Some of the doorways are like crookeder there's
leaning over and that, and it's all these little cafes
and it's they've blocked off the main street so that
you you drive and it goes all the way up
this hill like, oh my god, a long way up
(13:55):
and then tiny little windy road all the way up.
But when you get to the top, cars a und
aloud past the entrance of the town. So it's all
just pedestrians, do you you know, And oh my god,
what a what a what a place. And we stayed
in this place and and I kept looking out going,
oh god, look at those clouds and just you know,
(14:18):
that sort of thing. And then that night we had
a thunderstorm. We stayed in this place. We didn't have power,
two nights, we didn't have any old water. Would I
wouldn't recommend it a luxury, but anyway there was. It was fine.
And then we had a thunderstorm the first night and
then I was standing outside looking and I went, that's
(14:40):
not clouds, that's the humalayas were snow on them, you know,
and it was like, oh my god, you know, and
it was just like this amazingness. It was just incredible.
And the next morning we see it properly, you know,
it wasn't shrouded by thunderstorm and everything else, which by
the way, made it beautiful. And we went up to
(15:02):
that there's this solo monk and that one of the
real things I wanted to be in this Bandapoo is
there's this Buddhist temple up on the hill behind the village,
and it's one solo monk thereby himself, do you know,
And he's trying to extend it so that hopefully more
more monks will join him. But we went up to
look for this temple and there's a lookout and I
(15:25):
said I might as well have a look at the lookout.
Holy shit, it was just this unbroken view of the
Himalayas is covered in snow, and I was just like, yeah, shit,
it's like he could touch them, do you know. I'm
sure we were still a couple of kilometers away from it,
you know, a time, but it was amazing. Then we
saw when I saw the monk, and oh my god,
(15:47):
he blessed our beads and gave us tea and tea
and pick your best cup of tea. Oh my godfather,
I don't know what they do with their tea over there.
Tea and milk and sugar, cheese, cross, honey, lovely, And
it was just magnificent. We went back up to that
temple the next morning to see sunrise, and it's big
(16:09):
mountain and the sun just cracks its way around the
edge of the mountain and then starts to light up
the humalays in light up the snow. Ah Jesus, there
were so many of those moments that were just like
there was surreal, you know, and you could literally this
might be woo woo for some people. I don't give
a ship and a state anyway. You can literally feel
(16:31):
your soul buzzed.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
You know.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
It was just like wow. But I tell you, but
there's this one thing though, because I'm imagining taking you know,
eight women over there and getting a minibus and you know,
and so we drove from Penaudi village to Bandit one
hundred and thirty kilometers not far, is it, tiff if
(16:55):
you live in Boody Country, Victoria one hundreds of kilomeus
took us eight and a half hours.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
I was going to say, that's on roads there, that's.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Darnees and buses coming at you on THEREI mountains, landslides
and yeah, monkeys, ah, you name it. And it was like, oh,
you you know, and you don't really stop for a toilet.
We did. We stopped for lunch and Jesus, you know, no,
put it this way. I don't think a bus full
(17:31):
of sixty year old women or fifty would go, oh
that's a good squat hole, let me have a crack
in that. I think the road, I think the road
journey is probably not the best for a women's retreat,
but that was great. We stayed a couple of nights
and go shout out to Mina was the woman I
stayed with him Penadi and shep far at you beautiful.
(17:54):
And Babita we met in Bandit Poot and she made
all those Nipolie clothes. I should have won one of
my Nepalese tops on. I should have done that for you,
just for the energy. I bought so many clyent Nepalese tops.
I love them. I used to wear them long time ago.
I haven't found me for ages. And I saw this
little kid in a little outfit and a little Marone outfit,
(18:16):
and I said to my sister, the kids only about three.
I so I want I want one of them. No,
I got all these buddy fantastic clothes. And Babita, who
owns this little shop there, she's just a beautiful, beautiful woman.
And the you know, all the kids begging for chocolates,
(18:37):
all the kids everywhere Gonney chocolate, gone chocolate.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Anyway. Oh god, I sound like.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
A kid in a bloody lolly shop. Don't know, and
I don't know, I don't know. Why for some reason,
there's a lot of there's a lot of Indian tourists,
and the Indian women were very attracted to Susan, my sister,
like they all wanted to have a photo with, you know,
and all the neple Lee's women were attracted to me.
It was a very funny thing. But this family said
(19:07):
they haven't and a couple at a cafe in this
this family, I think they're Indian, come past and they
just wanted to take photos with us, you know. And
the mother was she got to a point taking a
photo with us that she was laughing so much that
it was like joy just bursting from a gut to you,
(19:29):
you know.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
It was.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
It was amazing. Do I sound like a kid in
a china shop? I do? Or in a lolly shop?
Speaker 2 (19:36):
I do? Don't I my face from just smiling with
the excitement of it all. And then we went to.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
After that, we went to Pokra, which was about a
two and a half hour drive. That wasn't far away.
There was about fifty bloody guys, but anywhere everything takes
so long. The road was mildly better and we stayed
in at that time, we stayed in a five Star
Resort with it. I'm going to try it all, you know,
to see if I'm going to bring women here, what
what's going to work and what's not And like poker.
(20:11):
At first, when we first got there, I found it
a little bit sailsy and pushy, do you know, whereas
whereas there's none of that in the other places. I
just didn't find that. But well, I think it was
because I was tired and grumpy too, don't you know
when you're you know, you've been in the car and
if you're just pissed off and it's like, nah, it's
I'm just enough enough, already enough of the car banging
(20:35):
me bloody bones around. And it turned out quite nice.
It was right on the lake, and one reason I
wanted to go there was because there's a well it's
on a lake and it's utterly beautiful, you know. But
there's this little island with a Hindu temple and I thought, oh,
(20:56):
that'ud be so nice. People say, get a rowboat, go
out to this temple. But what I discovered learned before
we went, so I knew about it. On a Saturday.
They have animal sacrifices out there and they take out
chickens and ducks and baby goats and all that shit
to sacrifice to the gods, which for a religion, don't
get me wrong, not bag and Hindu. I'm just saying
(21:18):
that this doesn't sit with me. To worship animals, you know,
and be vegetarian you know, and all that sort of stuff,
and then to sacrifice things like baby goats so that
God will be kind to me. I kind of find that.
In fact, that was my biggest challenge. Actually, let me
tell you the next bit, Bega, then I'll come back
(21:39):
to that, because I was really challenged by that part
of the religion. One of the guys who was the
what was he the food and hospitality manager, said, oh,
I can get you a car and a taxi and
you know, you can go up to the Sheiva temple
right up the top. And we went up. When they
say you can get a taxi up there, Ah, yeah,
(22:02):
the taxi takes your part of the way and then
you've got a high, cup bloody mountain for about half
an hour before you get to it, which we didn't
know about that, but we still made it work. And
that was just incredible, this beautiful, big Hindu temple. It
was massive and straight with a view straight onto the Himalays,
you know, just beautiful. Then we went to the World
(22:24):
Peace Stupa, which is a Buddhist temple, and the same
same thing is you have to hike up a hill
bloody half an hour to get to it, but still
with a view of the Himalays. Oh my god, it's majestic.
And then he says, you know, so he says, go
to the Shiva Temple, go to the World Peace stupor
go to Mahendra Cave and then go to the Diva Falls.
(22:48):
And so we thought that was our that was our
itinerary for the day. We went to Mahendra Cave and.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
It is in.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Well, actually I think it's man. I might be saying
the wrong cave anyway, I started with an M. And
it's in the near Pokra and Pokra and we went
there and we knew it was a cave that was
a temple. Well we didn't know and didn't expect, and
I got very pissed off. Be honest, here, some of
(23:19):
the Indian men were just because they come and visit
the temples, were just fucking rude. Do it, just like
really fucking horrible and not everybody, but just and I'm
not being racist, but it was just like an entitlement,
you know that. And I'm a man, and several times
I tried to buy tickets and you know, stuff like that,
(23:42):
and they were just push in front of me and
elbow me in the face, you know, just and get
And by the time we got to these caves, I
was a bit pissed off with it, you know, and
so I started standing up for myself a little bit
and not didn't go against me, but still didn't bloody
help do you know, still still served him first. But
I sort of was really agitated about it by then.
(24:04):
You know, I'm like, you, man, you know, your assholes
don't fucking do that. You know, just because I'm a female,
you don't get to bloody just pushing and you just
don't get to.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Do that, you know.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
And clearly, I'm not going to punch someone in the
face in a strange country, not that I do that anyway,
but you know what I mean, Clearly I'm not going
to start a fight and bloody Nepal. But we got
our tickets and it was you have to go down
all these spiral stairs and into the cave and with
(24:37):
everyone pushing, like I'm talking hundreds of people pushing into
your back to get to this cow statue, which was
you know, worshiping part. And then after that you go
down more stairs into another layer of cave to the
next bit of the temple. And we got into this
(25:00):
cave and everybody's pushing. I'm talking hundreds of people going
down the same little stair well, and you just went
with it, you know, and they're chanting, and that didn't
bother me. But it was quite a um can I
say about the chant It was kind of like almost
(25:21):
hypnotic that they didn't even know they were where they were.
It was like they're like that left their body and
they were just sort of which is wonderful, but not
when you're in the middle of it, not when you're
in the middle of getting dragged down these stairs and
everything else. And then we got down there and I
looked up and thought, it's stunk. It was mil dewy
(25:42):
and mossy. Fuck it smell black mold. Was buddy gonna
kill me? And it's stunk. There was water just dripping
all over the floor. The floor was slippery. People were
just pushing and then I went a little bit further
into my catastrophic thinking and went, fuck earthquakes, landslides. I'm
(26:04):
under the mountain here, I'm in a cave with hundreds
of people. Can't breathe. I said to my sister, we're
out of here. We're not going down to the second level.
We're getting out of here. And then we had to
fight back through everybody to get to get back. It
was awful. And they've got all these shops around the
(26:25):
entrance and they're real, real pushy, say you know what
I mean? And I just said, I can't do this,
Diva falls. I just can't, you know, like I've had
enough enough. So I think I sort of grumpied myself
out of a good day, do you know what I mean.
But the first two temples up on the all they
were bloody fantastic.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
And we got a cable car. Oh that's right. And
then we wanted to see the sunrise and we went
to the reception, said what time do we how can
we see sunrise? How can we get this? She said,
oh yeah, bus comes up four am. Oh god, this
is funny. The bus comes at four am. We'll get
a shuttle bus.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
And so.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
She booked us a bus for four am, and so
we're waiting in the lobby at the hotel five star,
five star, well, you know, we wouldn't call it a
five star, but anyway, it was for there waiting for
a shuttle bus. Next thing she goes, go go, it's
coming run out of the front. Who had to run
out onto the road if one of the public buses came. Yeah,
(27:31):
and it was full, absolutely all of people. So I'm
sitting on the gearbox box, you know, the fun others
send up some blokes me half way up the bush
and I'm trying to hang on some blakes shaking my
hand and I'm like, Jesus, I need that hand to
hang on to the side of the blade. They were
(27:53):
around the corners and when they drive, they just like drive, yeah,
we're going, We're go. And I liken it to a
four year old boy from driving a go cart. You know. God.
He took us up to the up to the cable
car and we we we saw the sun right, Oh
my god, that was that was spectacle. That's where this
(28:15):
photo is behind me, but not that anyone can see
it because you don't put things on YouTube, and you
deprive people of great scenery.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
But well, you send me a bloody picture of you
in front of it, I'll use it as the caver image.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Yeah, oh yeah, okay, I think I have one. I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
So.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
So it was incredible that that was utterly incredible, was
worth a four am start, was worth it, worth the
driving the bus like afoorteen year old go cart driver.
It was bloody, it was bloody great. And by the
time when we came home Catman dou Airport, I'm not
I'm not going to give it any praise. There's nothing
(28:55):
I can say about it that's good. And you know,
still she bastards and you know, I was just like,
I was so glad to get on the plane but
from the airport, the airport was shipped. But wow, and
that's about it in a nutshell. But now you can
ask me anything, tif I will allow it.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Mate. What a bloody ride? What a ride?
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Yeah, that's what it was like.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yeah, what changed you or what did you feel that
you didn't expect to feel there or when you came home?
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Gratitude, A lot of gratitude, you know, yeah, a lot
of warmth. I don't know actually I can say those
two things, but I also had a lot of anger
and which kind of don't go together, you know. I
had a lot of conflict, to be honest, because oh yeah,
(29:53):
I was going to say about hind You know, Hindu
part of the Hindu religion is that the cows are
so acre and in Pokra, cows were just walking in
the shops or they were sleeping on the roads. You
had to drive around them, you know, just walking up
the town. No worries that. I love that. But everywhere
(30:14):
else they were tied you know, through the nose and
on very short ropes, and when I'm saying, like less
than two foot of rope, you know, tied to a pole.
And they would they would come out and be tied
to these poles in this like maybe three meters by
three meters kind of patch, you know, and they would
(30:36):
just sit there all day. I didn't see any water,
you know, there's there's hay. They'd gone. Hey, But then
they went into a shed in the afternoon, so they
brought out into the sun every day, which that's I
don't know. See I'm big on animals having shelter, but anyway, whatever,
some people might disagree. And then then later in the afternoon,
(30:57):
they put them back in this little shed and to
close the doors, but they were tied to poles in
the shed, and I, you know, patched this little calf,
and I spent a bit of time with this little calf,
and all I wanted to do was just cuddle into
me this and I reckon it's the first bit of
love it's ever ever got. And I was really deeply conflicted,
(31:22):
you know, really in a lot of pain, and thought,
how can you on one hand revere you know, cows
or cattle, not all cattle, because they eat the buffalo,
eat the yeah, buffalo, But how can you on one
hand do that and then sort of not knock. I
(31:43):
don't know, maybe that is what they how they care
for them, But all I could think was, why can't
you put a little fence around and just let them
roam free within that area, even though it's a tiny area,
you know, just not be tied up by the nose
through this this rope through the nose. But anyway, that
was one thing, and then there was a lot of
dogs that actually looked quite well, do you you know,
(32:06):
like to be honest for dogs at the street dogs
that's the best in the world. I've ever seen street dogs.
They looked okay, and people seem to care about them
to you know, just everyone was not no one well
basically there was no beating and no you know. I
only saw one really awful dog in Van der Purn
that had a terrible skin condition. There were tons of
(32:28):
Golden retrievers. Mina had a Golden Retriever God Simba. It
was I loved, but lots of Golden Retrievers. But when
I was in Panaudi, we went down into the old
village and I was patting all the dogs and I'm
sure people were thinking, don't do that. You don't know anyway,
(32:51):
I'm not just still rare. I was a bit careful,
you know, just making sure they looked like they were
a bit sane before adding a rabid dog.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
You know.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
But this one dog, he was absolutely majestic and a
stunning God. He was a beautiful dog and looked almost dingo.
He just there was something about him. I had this
presence that was just incredible. And I noticed he had
three like scars on his leg that were just like,
look just healed up and real deep. I'm talking big,
(33:23):
probably a centimeter wide, you know, and maybe six centimeters long,
big gashes, three of them, and I took a photo
with him, cuddled him, he kissed my face. You know,
we loved a little scratch. It was just beautiful, shared
this beautiful moment. And then I walked away and I
hear him. Not even twenty seconds later, I hear this
(33:44):
sickening crack and this dog just scream. Oh my god,
I've never heard a dog scream like it. And I
turned around and it was that dog. And there was
a woman sitting on the footpath selling no no, I
don't know what. She had, vegetables or something. I didn't
look enough because I actually wanted to killer in the moment,
but she she had a metal pole and she had
(34:07):
hit it that heard on the leg that all the
all the three wounds had opened up and they were bleeding,
and and it was carrying its leg like its leg
was broken, you know, And I was I can't tell you.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
I was.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Now, I'm not saying people in Nepolo crawled dogs, because
they're not. This this one that was the only well
maybe scared or something, but this is the only instance
of cruelty that I saw like that. But I was
so conflicted, I like, I wanted to pick up that
stick and just whack her. You know, I was so
(34:44):
fucking angry I wanted the dog just looked at me,
and I just felt fucking sick. I felt like, you know,
oh I said, was that, I'm so sorry. Do you
know I couldn't help it. There's nothing I could friggin do. Actually,
now I've spoken to people who are vet vets and
vetnases and that kind of stuff. There is actually a
(35:05):
black there's a magic powder you can get. It's like
a black puffer powder, you know, anyway, and you can
actually just puff it on and it's and it heals
up wounds. So next time I go to any of
those places, I'm taking some so that the least I
can do if I see a dog in that that's in,
you know, I can at least put some bloody out
(35:27):
puffer and accepting. It's called black magic or something like.
I don't know what it's called, but anyway, I know
I found it, and so in future I'll be able
to do that. But I was really sickened by it,
and I asked Shrezanna, who was Mena's daughter in law.
I said, do you how do people in Nepal feel
(35:47):
about dogs. You're about dog cruelty and she said, no, no, no,
we don't do that. We don't hurt dogs. And said
that woman just did and she said, yeah, I know,
maybe scared of it. Maybe it's she said, it's not okay.
People in the pool don't think that's okay. And I said,
and she said, we have a big dog festival and
they do which they do in October to celebrate dogs. So,
(36:11):
you know, on one hand, I was sickened by it,
never wanted to go back there again. This is in
the in the moment, you know, just really cranky. But
then then I thought, well, shit, you know there are
fucking assholes in Australia too, you know. Don't don't just
be thinking it's people there, you know, And I've I
know some cruel bastards, not friends, but you know that
(36:36):
are just as bloody cruel And look what we do
to our in our meat industry, do you know. Hey,
On one hand, I'm saying, you know, you shouldn't have
bloody ropes through noses and time to two foot two
foot bits of thing, but we're just as bloody cruel.
So I had a lot of I had a lot
(36:59):
of conflict I'm gonna tell you. And I don't think
it was Nepal. I think my psyche was ready, do
you know, to have some challenges, and I just think
it happened to be Nepal. And yeah, but I did,
like from then on, every dog I saw, I made
sure I gave every dog I saw some loved, you know,
(37:19):
just so they knew someone cared. But yeah, I was
kind of like that, real deep love and gratitude, but
also anger and fury and conflict, and started questioning religion
A lot. I like Buddhism a lot I born. If
(37:39):
you would say born Christian, I would don't know if
I'd even bother to say that. But you know, I
don't follow any religion, but Buddhism I like, and because
of its kindness. And but this all this business with
all these Hindu temples and that, and everybody sort of
pushing you out of the way and just caring about
(38:00):
their own, you know, you know, Lord Shiva, whoever they
brain to give me protection, give me money, give me success,
give me give me me, me, me, me me, you know.
And when I was in the Buddhist temple before that
in Banditpur, all I was asking for and this is
(38:22):
all I ever asked for a liddle candle, and I'm
asking for, you know, world peace, and you know, whatever
I can do, show me how to do that, you know,
give me the whatever I need to make sure I
can contribute to world peace. And to me, that's maybe
I'm just being Maybe I'm just being self righteous. I
(38:42):
don't know, but I don't under I think if you're
going to do that, you, if you truly care about stuff,
that wouldn't you be asking for bigger than yourself. Wouldn't
you be asking for? So I got conflicted by that.
Well do you know that, how can religion be so selfish?
(39:06):
You know that people they keep it's their own success
and they'll push anyone out of the way just to
get their own success. So I'm not bagging any religion.
I'm not bagging any individuals, you know. It just was
just my own in a conflict that. Yeah, it took
a real beating to be honest. So on one hand,
it's exciting, fun, beautiful, loving, and then I had some
(39:30):
real I had some real challenges to be honest.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
I remember before I went to India feeling challenged because
a few people that had been and been to Delhi specifically,
were telling me about how it was, but also I
just kept the message I kept hearing for better or worse,
whether or not that was their intention, but was you're
(39:55):
a Caucasian female, and you won't be safe, fair, and
you won't be respected. And so I found myself feeling
quite angry and unwelcome before it had even gotten there.
So when I got there and my entire experience was
the exact opposite to that, it was incredible. But yeah,
(40:18):
it's a polarizing place. I remember, you know, you're confronted
by the very, very poor and thett and it's very The.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
City's just filth, just filthy.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
And I remember walking through Old Deli and seeing three
rows of people squatting like they like on their feet,
but squatting like fully onto the ground in positions that
we can't get to in our western world, but three
rows on both sides of this small little street. And
(40:55):
the I'd gone for dinner with a guy from India
at my hotel the one night that I had stayed
by myself, and he took me to this beautiful restaurant
in Old Deli and he walks down there and he said,
do you want me to buy them food, and it
was this restaurant that cooks plates of food for them
and you can go and pay for a certain number
of plates and that feeds the homeless people that are
(41:17):
waiting in the lines.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Wow, who were seeing things like that?
Speaker 3 (41:20):
I remember they have these free hospitals as well, so
you can go and be cared for in these free
healthcare and free hospitals. So it's got some really confronting
aspects where you just you don't want to see what
the reality of what is some people are living like.
(41:43):
But also there is a really beautiful, generous richness.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
To it as well that I wasn't aware of.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
It's crazy, Yeah, it's very It is polarizing. Yeah, polarizing,
I think is a great Nepal wasn't like that definitely?
Speaker 2 (42:02):
That was Delhi?
Speaker 3 (42:02):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, that was right in the city
of Delhi. Did you say it Delhi at all?
Speaker 1 (42:09):
No? I didn't go. I just flew straight to I
went to Singapore, then to cat man Do. Yeah, and
we flew. We drove all the way over to Pakara
via multiple towns, but then we flew back from Pokra
to cat Mandu. So I didn't know I didn't go
anywhere near India other other than it's very close to
(42:30):
the board. I did, very close. But yeah, it's funny,
isn't it. I think it's life changing. And I don't
think it's a bad thing to be polarized. And I
don't think it's a bad thing to be confronted or
to be to have conflict and to question yourself. I don't.
(42:50):
I think that's a really good thing. And so as
much as there were things that I didn't like and
you would have been the same things you didn't like,
the opportunity to see them and be confronted and be
conflicted and to be angry and to be empathetic and
to be upset and to be like the emotions are
just just staggering, you know, the speed and the depth
(43:16):
of the emotions. But what what what are we on
this earth for, you know, to be to be comfortable
and sheltered and live in a world where you know,
we expect everyone to be like us? Or are we
here to to grow and become even I think we
constantly on a spiritual growth and an emotion emotional intelligence
(43:42):
growth journey, and I think you can't grow. I think
it's called growing pains for a reason, like I think
pain causes growth, and would I was I pissed off?
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Fuck?
Speaker 3 (43:56):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (43:56):
Would I was? I cranky at Katmandu Airport, yet never
come back here at the end because I was so
shitted off with everyone by then and men spitting on
the ground. I'm gonna say that in the poll the
men spit on the ground, and I did. I did
not like that. By the time I got to the airport,
I was sitting at a row of seats waiting to
check in, and there was a water machine, you know,
(44:19):
a water dispenser running, and all fuck I counted, I counted,
worked out to be two hundred people every hour were
coming up to this. I didn't count for the whole
air I just didn't average. I'm coming up to this thing.
But they would drink it, and then they would spit.
They'd lift the bin lid right next to me and
(44:40):
into the bin, and I was like, can you imagine,
like I'm just I don't there's nowhere else to set
and oh my god. And then and then they get
the bushy people trying to one body shop to buy food.
It was awful food and trying to buy it, and
I just, oh my god, get me on that fucking plane.
(45:02):
And I don't care if I don't care if you
feed me plastic cheese and a sandwich, just get me out.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
They were the best plastic cheese sound just to ever.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
Happy with that.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
But by the by the time I got home and
had to sleep, and you know, and you know, settled
down the next day and looked at all the clothes
I bought, and so when I spend a few hours
taking them up to for my stumpy little arms and
all that sort of stuff, by then I was back
to fondness, did you know?
Speaker 3 (45:33):
So I think.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
I think when we travel like that, we have to
take into consideration what tiredness does for us, you know.
Speaker 3 (45:42):
And I just.
Speaker 1 (45:44):
Ask yourself, am I too tired to process this? And
if I am, let me, let me make a decision
tomorrow that sort of thing. Would I go again? Absolutely do.
I think it is a women's retreat, and maybe maybe
I need to do some more pondering on that. But
it'll be flying. It won't be driving, because that's just
(46:05):
way too way too tough through the mountains. But I'm
definitely going to do a leadership retreat, and hopefully every
year and so I mean as Son is actually a
guide goes up into the him eyes and he's actually
been voted in Nepal's Best Guide to Be. So it
(46:27):
was sort of luck that I landed there. But he's
he's he wants to work with me to take leaders
over there. And I think that would be good because
I think be extraordinarily touch challenging. But to go up
into the mounds, but not too high, like I needed
about two thousand meters or three thousand, so not where
(46:48):
you get altitude sickness, you know, not to that level.
And like maybe hike with not much, not much of
a backpack, just a day day back.
Speaker 3 (47:00):
The way we did it, I mean we had we
had horses take our stuff, so we had a day pack.
Speaker 1 (47:05):
Yeah, but I wouldn't I wouldn't have the hall. I
would just go two hours and then go back to
And what I want to do is take a group
hike two hours into the Himalayas, sit there, have lunch,
and then have leadership conversations and deep I'm talking deep vulnerability,
he really deep conversation, and then come back to that
(47:27):
place and drive up to the next one and then
go another two hours. So you still go into different places,
but it's not it's not the hardship of trying to
camp and trying to do all that sort of stuff.
But it's still enough to challenge you, you know, and
still enough to and hiking two hours is enough to go.
Speaker 3 (47:52):
I did this.
Speaker 1 (47:53):
I did it, you know, I did it. I made it.
So it's not really like a trick. It's just enough
to go, fucking hell, I did this, and I suddenly
humalayas you know, and I confronted my whatever, you know,
my fears I have of talking about vulnerability. I confronted humility,
(48:14):
do you you know that sort of stuff. And so
that's what that's what I want to do. And I
think that would be perfect for that, you know, the energy. Yeah,
so no no writing stuff, no theory, is no power
points now that ship, you know, just just just kind
of really deep, rich, vulnerable conversations. Yeah, yeah, that's my plan.
Speaker 2 (48:41):
That's good mate.
Speaker 3 (48:43):
Yeah, you've taken me right back there again. You've made
me want to go back again, so like.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
And yeah, it travels, and the tricky thing is.
Speaker 3 (48:58):
The wanting to return to places but also realizing that
was once at that place that wasn't even on my
bucket list to go to Sema. And so when I
think about wanting another thing that impacts me as much
as that, it's like, well, you can't go to the
(49:19):
same place because it'll I mean, that'll be beautiful again,
but it won't be the same way because it's expectation.
Sometimes the expectation, and I just like to land somewhere
and have no idea what's going to unfold, and you know,
finding those experiences.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
I remember.
Speaker 3 (49:36):
When I went to Vietnam the year before with my
one of my best mates, Courtney, and we were going
to go every couple of years to a different you know,
just a short kind of we wit did it through Intrepid,
which are.
Speaker 2 (49:49):
Great, by the way, they do great solo travel holidays.
Speaker 3 (49:53):
And the one of the ones she picked out was
Nepal and it was a women's retreat and they take
you to I can't remember it exactly entirely, but they
teach you about some of the women's practices over there
and some of the stuff that they're trying to change
for women over there.
Speaker 2 (50:12):
So there was a lot will be that'll be.
Speaker 1 (50:14):
The community's homestay network, I think, because that's what the
that's what they focus on all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2 (50:19):
Yeah, yeah, I'll have to have it.
Speaker 3 (50:22):
I'll have to look back through wherever she originally sent
me the details, because I was like, oh, that'd be
interesting because you're learning, so I like to learn something.
I remember my favorite well, it's hard to say favorite
now because I think India took the cake for me.
But prior to that, my favorite trip was Kakadu in
twenty thirteen.
Speaker 2 (50:41):
We'd Save the Children.
Speaker 3 (50:42):
It was their first Australian track and we went to
places that you just couldn't You couldn't get the photographer
that was coming where this couldn't get.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
Through with the gear.
Speaker 3 (50:51):
It was just wow, magic and we and they taught
us about the culture, so immersed in the culture, but
throughout just walking through there, we were also learning about
Aboriginal culture and the land and families and we had
a family day and the idea was their mission was
(51:15):
to get more of the Indigenous children that weren't making
it to school, to get them to school. And I
remember learning things like the reasons that the kids weren't
making it to school weren't what you would assume they were,
things like the family their washing machine had broken, and
(51:35):
they were too ashamed to send their child in dirty clothes,
so they didn't send them. So it was things like that,
or you know, and just understand learning about culture and
learning about things that change your lens of the world.
They were the most beautiful children we spent the day
(51:56):
with I'm not deaf Boddy having a school yard of
kids to amuse all day. But that was one of
the best days ever. And I remember just going, these
are the most beautiful children ever. They're so polite and
they were so oh. I was just overwhelmed.
Speaker 1 (52:17):
Wow, that would be fantastic.
Speaker 2 (52:20):
Yeah, it really was.
Speaker 3 (52:21):
And when I first went on when we went to Vietnam,
my idea at that point was I wanted to go
to Uluru because I wanted to seek that out again.
Speaker 2 (52:28):
I was like, oh, I want another.
Speaker 3 (52:31):
Experience where I see our land and I have a
really spiritual kind of connection with where I am and
I learn about culture. And then in walk to court
me and said, now let's go to Vietnam.
Speaker 1 (52:47):
Where'd you go to? Where'd you go to? In Vietnam?
Speaker 2 (52:50):
We did a cycling tour through the north of Vietnam.
Speaker 1 (52:53):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (52:54):
Yeah, it was beautiful.
Speaker 3 (52:56):
And we started in Hanoi, and then we ended up
where's the that on the river? Like on the boat
where the boats are?
Speaker 2 (53:10):
What's that called? I can't remember. Everyone talks about it,
but I've completely escaped.
Speaker 1 (53:20):
How Long Bay?
Speaker 3 (53:21):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (53:21):
How Long Bay?
Speaker 3 (53:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (53:23):
So and we finished there and it was great.
Speaker 3 (53:25):
Like sometimes sometimes we're at homestays and sometimes we were
at a hotel and it was amazing. There was this
one time, right we're riding the bikes up this big hill.
There was only one really strenuous stretch and we're powering
up this hill and there's you know, the buffaloes.
Speaker 2 (53:44):
They're just beautiful. It's amazing.
Speaker 3 (53:46):
And we get to this buffalo and our guide goes
me and Courtney heading, you know, like we're one and
two in the pack. We're like, let's fucking let's go.
And we get to this buffalo and he is, oh,
it's the two guys. Is it's a boy, he's him?
Speaker 2 (54:04):
Is it the boys that are aggressive or the girls?
Speaker 3 (54:05):
I can't remember anyway, whatever, it's this one. Yeah, he
might he might attack. And we're kind of laughing. And
then we're not laughing and fucking looking at us and
we're right on a cliff edge, like there's a cliff edge,
and there's there's this fucking buffalo, and then we've shit
(54:26):
ourselves and he had to get in between us and
eat and he was kind of waving it along and
it's kind of trying to go around him, and it's
looking at.
Speaker 2 (54:38):
Us and shit shitting, shitting bricks. I was like, I'm
really scared and I don't know what to do. This
is really scary. This is not fun anymore. Oh my god.
So there was that because the rest of him are
so beautiful.
Speaker 3 (54:58):
They walk along like they're very proud of They walk
along with their buffalo, feeding them, finding them grass, and
I'm like, oh.
Speaker 2 (55:05):
How amazing. And he's like, yeah, this one's some. This
one's not going to be amazing. I'm like, where is
the fucking owner. He's like, I don't know, Jesus, he's somewhere,
but you're just gonna have to be careful.
Speaker 3 (55:22):
Love it.
Speaker 2 (55:23):
Yeah, the best.
Speaker 3 (55:24):
And also I remember the great thing about Intrepid is
they're known for their great tour guides. And we were
traveling through this little village and we stopped and this
beautiful old lady. She was in her late eighties, I think,
so she's older than the expected age of Yeah, of
(55:45):
most Vietnamese people beautiful tiny.
Speaker 2 (55:48):
You know, as they start growing down. So she's getting
shorter by the second.
Speaker 3 (55:51):
As we're speaking to her, I can't speak English, and
she's got completely black. She was walking back it's lunchtime,
and he goes, she's been out in the field since
five five am doing the crops, and she had pitch
black teeth, pitch black, and so he stopped her and
asked her to explain why about the teeth, and they
(56:13):
were it was like a mark of beauty and respect
for the older women there. And she choose a particular
leaf in order to stay in her teeth.
Speaker 1 (56:22):
They were black.
Speaker 3 (56:24):
Oh, well, like that were painted black. It was amazing,
and she had this beautiful she walked up to my friend.
My friend has a my friend. No matter where she goes,
she has tends to have this connection with indigenous culture.
She spent a lot of time in.
Speaker 2 (56:41):
Up in was it Cairns, I think.
Speaker 3 (56:46):
Or broom broom with Aboriginal children and communities, and the
same thing happened there. But she walks, this woman walks
straight through past all of us, straight up to Courtney,
grabs her by both hands and looks into her eyes
and she said something. She looked at him and he
had to translate, and she was just she was just so.
Speaker 1 (57:09):
I don't know what she saw, but it was just
stotted by her.
Speaker 2 (57:12):
Yeah, And everyone was like, wow, what's going on there?
Speaker 1 (57:17):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (57:18):
Yeah, And it's funny because Courtney's courts like, she's such
a like she's she's loud, she's boisterous, she's funny. She's
just like the life of the party, the life of
the party. And then you get these things like that
happened and everyone was.
Speaker 2 (57:34):
Like, whoa, what's going on there?
Speaker 1 (57:38):
What do we miss?
Speaker 2 (57:39):
She's like, I'm fucking spiritual, I'm special. But yeah, it's
moments like that, like they're just it's so good.
Speaker 1 (57:49):
That beautiful travel good for the soul. Oh, I agree,
you know what. Yeah, we've got to go to school.
We're gonna learn the you know, the three and all
that shit. But the end of the day, and we
have to do it because we've got to work and
we've got to we will survive. But I think you
(58:09):
learn all your best education is through travel. Yeah, and
you you grow, you're really it's a it's a different education. Yeah,
I love it. I don't want to stop. But now
I guess one day, my one day, my feet are
going to catch up to me. He Nana, leggs are
(58:32):
going to catch me. But until they do, you know,
fucking I'm moving.
Speaker 2 (58:37):
It's you've got a long time yet.
Speaker 1 (58:40):
Oh shit, I hope, So I hope. So I keep
thinking one how long I've got left to travel? And
you know, I'm hoping to get at least to get
another ten years in. But you know, you don't know.
I'm sixty two. You don't know what's you know, I'm
noticing that every time I hit a decade, something else
bloody starts failing. You know, So you don't know, like
(59:01):
when you hit seventy, you know what's not working? Then
who knows? But I just think. I think for the
people that say, you know, when I get long service leave,
when I retire, when I pay my house off, I
just think, no, I don't don't because yeah, yeah, in
a I don't want to say this in a morbid way,
(59:24):
but you know, people are dropping all over the place.
I just don't don't get it. If you you want
to be somewhere, you want to go somewhere, you want
to experience something God, say go and do it, you know,
just find a way to do it, because tomorrow may
never come. It just might not.
Speaker 3 (59:40):
So get and do it, you know, and we become stories,
like we tell ourselves stories. I can be a shocker
for it, you know, like I have, I've thought so
long with that.
Speaker 2 (59:54):
Not enough, I haven't haven't got enough, I've not enough yet.
I can't. I can't do it yet. I can't, you know,
like we're not there yet.
Speaker 3 (01:00:03):
That it's like, that's that's just just youve got to
recognize when stories are stories and when then when they're
not fucking real?
Speaker 2 (01:00:12):
Yeah, and I reckon, yeah, no, God, no, that's all
I was just going to ramble on about it.
Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
No, but it's true. And I think if we're going
to tell stories, wouldn't you rather tell a true story
about an adventure that you had instead of tell bullshit
story about why you can't do?
Speaker 3 (01:00:29):
You know?
Speaker 1 (01:00:29):
Where? We're bloody good at that, bloody good at telling ourselves.
I can't. I can't I count. But well, how many,
how many? How many heart giggles did I give you today?
Thinking about this, like, it's so it's so good to
relive real stories, isn't.
Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
It except for the dog one.
Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
No, I don't like that one. But you know what,
it's still as much as I don't like it, it
still makes me. It's still an experience I probably needed
to have to build a better me, do you you know?
And I think I don't know the reason for it.
I think I need to, but I think you just
(01:01:14):
well you know, no rain no rainbow.
Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
Hey, yeah, yeah. Pain teaches us, Pain teaches us who
we what matters to us?
Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
M yeah, well pain and pain uncovers your values, doesn't it?
By christy bloody shootout. When you're pissed off, you're wondering
what your value? Think about what really fucking pisces you off?
And you'll spontigure out your values. Jesus, Ah, you're the best.
Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
Tell all my listeners how they can get more caring
in their life.
Speaker 1 (01:01:53):
Oh, thank you, you know the best. We have a
mutual lover fest love fest to finish off if you're
the best as.
Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
Always. Yeah, we haven't told everyone where to find you.
Oh yeah, that come on? I want more of Karen.
Speaker 3 (01:02:14):
Where do we go?
Speaker 1 (01:02:15):
Well, just I think go to my website Karen Vaughan
dot com and well the Cambodi you retreat. That's with
girls with Hammers dot com dot au. And I don't know.
I think the best thing is just oh, LinkedIn, just
Karen Vaughan. Yeah, and just you know, I've really even
(01:02:36):
got really I've got really slack on doing newsletters. It's
not slack. I just like hell, got no time, so
I don't do that. But if you want to connect
with me LinkedIn or just through my website Karen Vaughn
dot com, there we are nice and easy.
Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
Thanks mate, Thanks for coming back on.
Speaker 1 (01:02:54):
My pleasure anytime. Love chatting with you because we do
the nuts and bolts and I love it. Yes, I
cut you off, sea you next time. Thanks see everyone.
She said, it's now never. I got fighting in my blood.
Speaker 3 (01:03:19):
Got it, got it, got it, got it,
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