Adam Woodall Band

SHOWS

Last updated March 14, 2006

cd release party
for "silver ring" our new album!
thu, mar 16, 2006
the buffalo club
1161 granville street, vancouver
800 pm doors

every monday
seymour's pub
north vancouver
900 pm start, no cover

every saturday and sunday afternoon (adam solo)
joe fortes seafood and chop house
1230 to 230 pm
downtown vancouver

updated by Derek

NEWS

November 28, 2004 - 1:39 PM:

Adam sends greetings from India!

Hello to all my friends.

Here's what's been going on so far...

I flew from Vancouver to Hong Kong in which I only had a stop over of about twenty minutes. Stressed? Noooo... I caught my flight with five minutes to spare in which I ate something that I thought was chocolate but turned out to be dried shrimp. Ya, you get the picture, twelve hours on a plane, un-showered, in a cramped seat followed by a hasty shrimp snack. Let's move on. From Hong Kong I flew to Bangkok for a quick stay overnight in an airport hotel that smelled like wet dishrags. The bell-man was extremely gay with very shiny lips... I think he was a transvestite. We crammed into an elevator with 5 other foreigners so I ended up face to face with him as he stroked my phallic shaped guitar case and blew me kisses... Uncomfortable? Noooo... ..

The next morning, I flew to Kathmandu, Nepal. I arrived at night time but I couldn't get a good picture of what it was like... My sister picked me up with her beautiful baby Maya and it was great to see her. Maya looks exactly like the Gerber baby. My initial driving experience was total culture shock. High speed driving with what seemed like near misses, passing pedestrians with mere millimeters. We got to our guest house safely, settled in with a nice cup of chia (tea) and headed out for some food. The place we were staying was called Dragons Guest House and had a beautiful courtyard with green grass and a view of a Buddhist monastery. The area we stayed is called Bouddha with small winding streets with a strong Tibetan population. That night, we walked down to the main Stupa (Buddhist temple) where there were tons of butter lamps lit and we lit some as well. It was quite beautiful.

The next day Jamie and I went up to Nagarkot, which is a beautiful village near the base of the Ganesh Himal range. These peaks are the highest in the world. The village was quite small and we headed out for some amazing local food. We drank a local alcohol called Tongba which is made from fermented barley. It tastes kind of like Japanese saki. It is served heated in a large wooden cylinder. We stayed in a guest house that was literally at the very top of a mountain peak overlooking the Ganesh Himal Range. In the morning, we had a big breakfast and headed off for a long walk down into the valley below. We asked some locals about a good route and they told us of a local trail which passed through many small villages and beautiful landscapes filled with mustard seed flowers, barley terraced fields, and pine trees. (A mix between back home and far away...) The trail took us through a time warp--most villagers were in tradition clothing. There was really no sign of the modern world. People were harvesting barley, playing traditional music (on the sarangi-a small Nepalese violin), and going about with their day. They were extremely friendly and quite surprised to see Maya. There are very few western children here so it is quite a surprise.

We passed through ancient temples like Changu Narayan which is the oldest Hindu temple in the Kathmandu valley. We walked for five hours and finally arrived in Bhaktapur. We stayed in the Himalayan Guest House which has hot water... can you believe it? That night, we wandered the streets, ate food, drank beer, and had an early night. The next morning, we wandered through Bhaktapur. It is one of the old kingdoms of the Kathmandu valley. All streets are cobblestone and there are outside markets everywhere. Bhaktapur is filled with huge temples which towered above us. I really enjoyed it and was sad to leave.

The next few days we spent back exploring Kathmandu. Some of the highlights were mountain biking in the hills, playing guitar at a small school with underprivileged children, meeting our family's sponsor-child Karma and taking her out for lunch (I think she really enjoyed it). One morning, we went to Pashupati--it is where they bring the dead to have their bodies burned on funeral pyres. I have never seen something more intense than a burning body. The temple is filled with monkeys that are quite aggressive. Pashupati is a highly spiritual temple for Hindus.

I happened to be in Kathmandu for Diwali festival which is the festival of lights. It was totally insane. You could not move there were so many people. You have to remember that Kathmandu is about 1/3 the size of Vancouver with over 4 million people so you are pretty much packed like sardines. We went to see the Kumari who is a "living goddess". She lives in a temple in which she cannot touch the ground until a new goddess is found around the age of 13. So, in other words, she never leaves the house and has never touched the ground. On rare occasions, she will look at the window, and if you happen to see her, it is extremely lucky. Many people wait for hours hoping that she will show her face and guess what? We showed up and she looked out the window.

While we were in Kathmandu, a main government building was bombed by the Maoists. There was also a small bomb blast in Bhaktapur. The Maoists are a political party which is struggling for the rights of rural Nepalis. The Maoists get a bad name from the press but the more you look into it, you realize they are merely fighting a corrupt government. There are a few people in high government/royal positions who are extremely rich, and all of the money that comes in to Nepal to help Nepalese people rarely gets to them. So this is the conflict.

I met many of Jamie's friends and we spent evenings drinking Everest beer and playing guitar and singing. My sister works for an youth program taking kids on trips throughout Nepal, Tibet and Northern India. I have become good friends with many of the students.

From Kathmandu we caught a flight to Bhadrapur which lies on the Nepal-India border. We flew right by Everest which was quite amazing... The mountains are massive--impossible to describe. We had to stay on the border overnight due to a strike in India, but no big deal. Another early night...

The next morning, we rented a jeep, crossed the Nepal border into India, and headed up into the mountains. I just want to mention that the temperature in India was probably 95 degrees (in Bhadrapur)... As we headed towards Darjeeling, which is in Northern India, we passed beautiful jungles and slowly gained elevation. We passed huge tea gardens which rolled over hills for as far as the eye could see. Now we are in Darjeeling which is higher than the top of Whistler and that is only the beginning of the Himalayas. We stayed overnight in a beautiful home, got a good sleep, and now it is morning and I am heading off for the town to check stuff out and eat some weird Indian food. The mist is clearing and the mountains are starting to show... the average temperature here is about 7 degrees! It makes me think of skiing on Cypress.

In the next couple of days we will be heading further north near Tibet and Bhutan to go even deeper into the Himalayas. It has been an amazing journey so far, with so much more to come.

I miss all my friends and family back home and I'll see you soon (Dec 15).

Peace

- Adam

posted by Adam [LINK]

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