End of our Jouney

We have finally reached the furthest end of saltha and are ready to make our trek back home. We are a little sad, though we knew our trip couldn't last forever. We have made a few friends here at the resort, and are sad to have to say goodbye.

Right now I am writing this on my laptop computer, riding a Kes cab to the capital city. We havn't descided yet if we want to spend any time, and may go straight to Ten Terak through the night to get there by the morning and see our friends.

I hope you enjoyed reading about our expiences here, and have found them as enlightning as we have found these journeys. I feel if everyone just took the trip to Saltha (Though I realize that finacialy and chromaticly diffuclt or impossible) they would no longer have any walls of hate because of ingorance. They would see Salthans, as real people who have a rich culture and are extemly open and friendly and loving as any human. Then maybe many (but I'm not omptimistic enough to expect all) of the wars would stop and we would get along better.

Well, I'm rired and I'm going to try to sleep. It's been a long day. Good night.

Uske

We are staying at the resort town of Uksa, enjoying the sun and the beach. The surf is famous as the best in the entire country (Though I've never tried surfing myself). There is also pleanty of scuba diving, swimming, fishing sun bathing as well.

Most of the hotels here are resort hotels and so are very nicly furnished, but being in a resort town that means expensive too. There are one or two inns on the further eastern side of the town, away from the sea that are more modestly priced, but they are still a little more expensive than the cheaper hotels in other towns. It is well worth it if you can afford it to stay at one of the sea side hotels.

The bigger hotels are furnished with swimming pools, a small 9-hole golf course and tennis courts.

Bok Pres

We pressed on and came to the very historic town of Bok Pres. As you might guess from the name, it is derived from the english words "Book press", because it is here that around 5 NG, a group of english speaking foreiners came to start a plantation and brought with them the invention of books to what was a very isolated country. The use of books, and their obvious superiority of storing and durability caught on very quick. So, some of the settlers wisely descided to make book binderies, paper mills and show how to make these books. The technology of books spread quickly through the country. In Bok pas there are quite a number of book binders here. There is even a large library-museum devoted to historical books and documents that are on display, like a very old copy of "Das Ksy". or "The way", a orginal santh holy scroll (dating about 446 KG), and the first book copy, written in 12 NG, printed a little over 450 years later.

The Mountain Monastary

We are back in Lupa after spending the last few days at the monastary on Dysen da Tisiha (Mountain of the sun). I havn't posted because, as you might expect there isn't any internet connection up there! The climb was hard, but not extremly so. But when we got to the top, the view was breath taking. We turned around and just stood there silently for a few minutes. The monastary is also very beautifull, built with very simple stone design, but inlaid with golden trim and salthan art. the Priests get frequent visitors, both pilgrims and curious tourists, and so for a small fee provide a bed and breakfast.
We're going to rest in Lupa for a few days, and contenue on our journey, going westword.

Lupa, City of Ginira's Birth

Lupa, what used to be a very small town, just a few miles northwest of Ten Terak is the birthplace of the famous Santh prophet, Ginira(488-392 GK). There is a temple built on the traditional place of his birth, and the site he was supposed to have his coming of age cerimony and had the vision that prompted his change of name to Panasanth (It means "Mouth of Santh".) Every year hundreds of pilgrims come to visit these holy sites. We visited both, and we enjoyed the tours. (I translated for my son, since he only speaks very little salthan.)

Next we will be going up to Dysen De Tisiha, which is a little distance to north west from here. About half way up is a monastary of Santh. After that we will be contenuing westword.

Coming of age cerimony

It's hard to beleive it's already june. We descided to stay in Ten Terak for another few months because of Lail's birthday which was yesterday, but we cellebrated it last
saturday. This was a very special birthday because it was his 10th birthday, which is the year that a salthan boy is considered to be on the first step to becoming a man.

I was surprised when Lail asked my son to be the one who would serve as a sort of "man of honor" at this important cerimony. I think perhaps his parents were surprised too. They told me that they have never heard of a human being chosen for this place of honor.

They had only known each other for a few months now, but apparently they fast became best friends. I was quite touched that the two, who are so different on the outside would become such good friends.

I explained to my son the responsibilty of this posistion, and things he would be expected to go through along aside Lail. He did seem nervous about it (As I expected), but he made it clear he understood and was willing to do it. I told him it would be entirly his desicsion.

In many cultures withstanding pain is a sign of being a man. In salthan tradtion, the boy and his chosen friend stands before the assembled witnessess, nude (only male freinds and family are allowed to attend) wearing paint in colorfull patterns on their bodies. First they are one by one dunked in a vat of near freezing water and then quickly in to a vat of hot water (so the hot water feels even hotter). Then the boys are whipped 10 strikes across their backsides with a switch. After that they redress and birthday boy choose a new name for himself, and and everyone cellebrates with a big feast. It was hard to watch my son be hurt, but I was proud of him. He was very brave and it was over fairly quickly. Zack said that of course the cerimony hurt, but he was happy to stand by his friend and showed how much he cared for him. (I asked Zack's permission to post this)

We've had a wonderful time in Ten Terak, and we're sad to go, but now we're off to the next city, Lupa. Though we plan to return to Ten Terak on our way back home.

One month

It's hard to beleive we've been here a whole month! It seems we just can't get away, and keep delaying our date of depateure another week at a time because we don't want to say goodbye to the Datomenkaps and because we are having such a good time in Ten Terak