Thank You!!

We have many people to thank for their help during this most beautiful year in our lives. Without their help our journey would not have been such a great and successful one. Both of us agree that the entire experience is just beyond words.

We feel very lucky to have had such a wonderful opportunity, especially after meeting so many people who hardly have enough food to feed their family for the day.

We would like to thank a never-ending list of people who were happy provide us with a bed, advice or suggestions about places they’ve travelled to, and to everyone who has left comments on our blog (especially Miguel, our official fan). We do not know how to repay you for your kindness, and we hope that we can do the same thing with you when you visit us in our tiny Malta.

Finally, we want to thank the many people we met along the way. People everywhere were just incredibly kind and enthusiastic, and helped enrich our trip in so many ways. It was a great privilege for us to meet them and learn so much about their lives, and we thank them for sharing so much with us. We would like to mention a few special ones!

In Kenya thanks to Dr. Haller, Sonal, Florence, Lennox, Micheal Mjomba, Gideon, Maureen, Omari, Mohammed, Hubert and in particular to our Italian friends who are based in Nairobi for their infinite kindness and hospitality - Paolo, Filippo and Miresi.

We would like thank our Ugandan friends at Kyabirwa Primary School especially Moses Owino and his family who had the pleasure to accommodate us at their home. We also would like to show our appreciation to Morence Mpora for having us stay at the orphanage he runs.

We would like to show gratitude to Rebecca Bell and her flatmates, Trudi, Becks, Daniel and his sister Sera, whom we met during our Africa trip, for being so friendly and hospitable towards us in New Zealand. We are really sorry for not having time to visit our Australian friends Bianca, Cameron and Dan in Melbourne and Sydney... don’t worry it will be next time :)

Big thanks to Uncle Manwel, Aunty Phyliss, Sharon and Josh and little Ben for making our Maltese-Australian experience unforgettable.

We also would like to thank our friends in Dharamsala (India) especially sister Tenzin Lladron and all the nuns at Jamyang Choling Institute, Sonam from Lha, and Norbu, Jampa, Tsering and Lhamo.

We cannot forget to mention our friends in the UK, especially Sally and Barry who kept our winter clothes for a whole year at their house, Leo and Esteban who accommodated us during our stay in Oxford, and Aurelie and Nicolas who provided us with lodging when were in Southampton.

And, now that we’re back in our little island Malta, we will thank in advance everyone who will help us with re-entry to a normal life. We suspect it will take a bit of time for us to adjust, but I am sure that our families will do anything to make us feel home.

We would also like to invite to Malta all our friends who have never been here and, to ask the others who have been here already to come back.

We hope you have enjoyed reading our blog as much as we have enjoyed working on it.

Butter sculpture

Vegetable momos

Indian band playing before wedding

Singing bowl

Walking up to Triund

The peak

Tibetan picnic

Foothills of the Himalayas

Tibetan musical instrument

Lucienne in a Tibetan dance

Jampa

Lucienne's surprise birthday party

Football in India!

Tibetan medicine

Wearing traditional Tibetan attire

Making momos

Golden Temple, Amritsar

Mahabodhi Temple, Bodhgaya, where Buddhist philosophy was conceived

Varanasi

Taking a dip in the sacred Ganges river

Main ghat

Burning ghats, where most of the public cremations occur

Sadu

Daily fire puja to the Ganges

Taj Mahal, Agra

Our Tibetan english language students

Having a traditional tibetan meal at their apartment

Perfectly parked cow!!

Plumbing indian style!

Tibetan students

During a computer lesson

Initial phase of the sand mandala...

The sand mandala is finished after two weeks

The Mandala is destroyed!

Norbulingka Institute - Opened in 1995 and is run by Tibetan refugees. They opened this institute to preserve the Tibetan culture. Tibetans make wood carvings, metal sculptures and thangka paintings.

Tibetan Geshe

Melting metal for sculpture

Sculpting the head of a Buddha

Monks debating at our monestary

Monks gathered chanting

Prayer Wheels

Incense

After 3 hours waiting for this H.H. Dalai Lama to arrive finally we managed to see him

Dinner with our Japanese and Tibetan friends

Momos

Tibetan calligraphy

Puja Ritual

Preparing butter tea in gigantic pots!

Waiting for the arrival of H.H. Dalai Lama at Jamyang Choling Nunnery

H.H. delivering his speech