LIFE FOR A LIFE(!)

Travel Stories…
Absolutely petrified. That’s one way of
describing my anxiety before jumping out a
plane at 15,000 feet. But I had never done
anything like this before so that made it
desirable. What makes traveling different is
the unknown, the ability to experience new
things without over thinking it. So that’s
what I did; at 15,000 feet of course. And I
can honestly say that it was the best
experience of my life. Complete silence as I
free fell into nothingness. It was exhilarating.
We were in Kathmandu waiting for Kumari to
come out of the palace. She is a goddess and a
very young girl, chosen among a large number of
Newari female candidates according to strict body
figures and after frightful trials. She cannot lay her
feet on the ground, so servants carry her on a
sedan out of the palace. She’s not looking to
anything in particular with her composed gaze,
almost ignoring everyone. It’s a bittersweet
condition: her destiny is already written, she soon
will be a woman and will lose her goddess status,
as another Kumari shall be appointed.
Kumari Goddess on Kathmandu
Joana Nielsen
It’s true that it’s the people who make the difference!
I’m lucky to be traveling with my best friend Hannah
but don’t worry about doing it alone either because we
have met the most incredible people….
Like stopping for a bike break in Hoi An and ending up
doing shots of rice wine at the insistence of Vietnamese
War Veterans, some of which were missing limbs but
still had the biggest smiles and funniest stories.
Nela Nicolsenkya