1 Down, 6 To Go!

Here’s some more fun with numbers:

-          3.5 - That’s how far (in miles) I grew up from my best friend, Andy Wilcox.



Map from my house to Andy's house.



-          557 – Current population of our hometown of Little River, KS.

-          19 – Number of people in our graduating class.

-          5 – Number of Females in our graduating class.

-          10 – Number of years it’s been since we graduated high school.

-          5 – Number of years we lived together in college.



-          8344 – Miles between Little River and Brisbane, Australia, where Andy and his wife Molly live.

-          6333 – Miles Andy and Molly Traveled to meet up  in New Delhi, India.

-          7791 – Miles between Little River and New Delhi

-          11,007,835 – Population of New Delhi



Map from Little River to Delhi. (As the crow flies)

Although I was running on fumes from our excursion in Nepal, I was just as excited about the next leg of our trip. My good friends Andy and Molly Wilcox had flown up from Australia to meet us in New Delhi for a visit to the Taj Mahal.

Like most of my good friends from college and before, I only get to see Andy a couple times a year, especially now that we live on different continents (neither of them being North America). But like all good friends, when you do finally get to meet up, it feels like nothing has changed. This time was no exception as we undoubtedly made a scene with our over the top displays of friendly affection when we saw each other in the hotel lobby. (instance number 6,397 that I’m sure at least one Indian mumbled “stupid American” under their breath about something I did).

The 4 of us proceeded to the beautiful pool at the hotel where we ordered some drinks and caught each other up on our lives. I also got to hear their first impressions on India, because they arrived several hours before us. I always get a kick out of Americans trying to explain India after their arrival. Andy and Molly even had an exciting story about a stalker they acquired in their first three hours here!



The lovely ladies enjoying the pool.

After the pool, we went to the concierge desk to inquire about dinner. After informing us that the hotel was home to one of the top 10 restaurants in the world (per Conde Naste traveler magazine) that made our decision easy. Taking a look at our pool gear we were still wearing, probably disgusted by our lack of modesty in his 5 star hotel, he informed us that the dress code was “smart casual”. AKA dress up a little bit. Ruh roh. Hadn’t planned on that. My suitcase was full of clothes I had packed for Nepal, and nothing that would be deemed “smart casual”. I did dig out a plaid-ish collared shirt and jeans that I had worn about 5 times since their last washing, and Andy (who had come prepared) lent me a pair of Merril hiking shoes (as all I had were flip flops and tennis shoes). But I still felt extremely awkward and underdressed compared to the rest of my party. I looked like a freaking lumberjack. But they didn’t kick me out of the restaurant and we had a lovely, albeit expensive dinner.

View of the restaurant, The Spice Route. Everything was hand painted and hand carved.

The next morning I was insistent on leaving at 5:00, as it was a 4 hour drive to Agra, where the Taj Mahal is. Somehow all 4 of us were up and at ‘em enough to leave by 5:30! The drive to Agra from Delhi is one of the craziest drives you’ll ever take. You pretty much just sit with your camera on your lap, as there’s something to take a picture of ever two miles or so. Cows, monkeys doing flips, overloaded trucks overturned on the road, tuk tuks packed with 15 people (seriously), camels, you see a little bit of everything. Being used to seeing that kind of stuff, it’s more of a nuisance to me, but Andy, Molly, and Emily are amazed and delighted by what they see. Sidenote: I’m a little upset that I’m more annoyed than interested by that stuff these days. I guess I’ve become a tad bit jaded, and much of the “India Charm” has worn off for me. Oh well.


It's like a freaking clown car, but in real life. (Photo stolen from Andy)



Maybe lighten the load next time? (Photo also stolen from Andy)

After a long drive and a breakfast of naan and Coke at a restaurant our driver took us to in the middle of nowhere (although I had asked to be taken to a specific coffee shop back in Delhi), we finally reached Agra. Again, more stimulation overload. We met our guide, froggered (that’s a new verb that you learn when trying to cross the street in India) across a few streets, and we were at entrance of the Taj Mahal. The rickshaws pulled by camels were tempting, but we walked to the gates instead.

I wonder how many horepower 1 camel is? I'm sure there's a conversion out there somewhere...



The lines at the Taj can be ridiculous, which is one reason why I insisted on leaving so early. Although they were still pretty long when we got there, they were twice as long by the time we left. Also, everywhere you went, there was a separate line for VIPs (which from what I could tell meant white people) and a separate line for Indians. Now I’m not complaining, because we sped through the "VIP" lines, but I’m not sure how I would handle that if I were going to see say, Independence Hall in Philly, and Americans had to stand in a big long line while foreigners didn’t. But I’ve learned to not waste too much time trying to make sense of certain things here.



Our guide pushed about 6 people out of the way so we could get this picture. Glad he did!



Our guide was very knowledgeable, and very eager to take our pictures, which was nice. We even had a few locals ask to take pictures with us. Our guide informed us that they were probably from outside villages, and we might be the first white people they’ve ever seen. That’s happened to me a few times here, but from experience with other friends here, I’m pretty sure they really just wanted pictures with the two fair skinned beautiful American women. Sidenote B: It’s funny to me how Indians strive to have lighter skin, while Americans strive to have darker, tanned skin. I guess you always want what you don’t have.

Cliche picture...but I like it.

I’ll spare you the in depth details, as I can already tell that this will be yet another post that’s too long, so I’ll just list some Taj Mahal fun facts:

-          The Taj Mahal is actually a mausoleum built by Shah Jahan for his third wife, after she died while giving birth to their 14^th child.

-          It took 22 years to complete, construction ending in 1653. (and in 2012 I can't find a drywall guy to build a straight wall)

-           The constructors used over 1000 elephants to carry construction materials from all over Asia.

-          It is made entirely of marble quarried from 7 different countries, inlayed with 28 different varieties of semi-precious and precious stones.

-          20,000 laborers were used to build the Taj Mahal.

o   There are stories that say the architects and some workers had their hands cut off to prevent them from duplicating the building ever again. Not sure if that's true or not.

-          Decendents of the original stone masons and carvers still perform the repairs. They are taught the craft from birth.

o   We toured their workshop to see them in action, and I bought a small elephant from them, for the story. It will be a lovely conversation piece!

-          The Taj Mahal was actually built by Muslims, where as 90% of the population today is Hindu.

After a couple of hours at the Taj Mahal and a couple of other stops at shops (where I’m sure our guide gets a cut of the proceeds should anyone buy anything) we had a delicious Pizza Hut lunch and made the 4 hour drive back to Delhi to catch our late flight back to Bangalore.

There haven’t been many times where I’ve actually been excited to get on a plane and head back to Bangalore, but this was one of them. It had been a crazy whirlwind week, and returning to something familiar was a very welcome sight. Plus Bangalore looks like paradise when you compare it to Kathmandu or Delhi. It was nice to sleep in my own bed again. I had also come down with a horrendous case of “Delhi Belly” which is not a lot of fun. Basically you are scared to be anywhere outside of a 15 second sprint radius of a toilet. After living in the country for three months, of course I would come down with it for the first time the week I had visitors.

Yes, apparently giant baskets do float.

The following morning we made the drive to the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu to see some waterfalls, as recommended by my driver Shyam. He also recommended that we get the "hot oil massages from the big burly men" that had their business set up close by. After explaining that it sounded like that was right up Andy’s alley, I politefully declined, as did the others. It was dreadfully hot, but we braved the heat and got a tour in the big basket boats they have on the river. It was a fun little ride! Andy even purchased a fresh coconut from a vendor floating by in another boat, so we got to try coconut milk for the first time.  Shyam recommended the Indian style fish that was caught in the river and cooked in a pan over a fire about 30 feet up the bank. We also passed on that, as it looked and smelled less than appetizing. I've also seen what they throw into the rivers here. I think he was disappointed and confused why we weren’t taking his suggestions, but that didn't stop him from eating a fish. 

I'm on a boat....never gets old.

 It was a long drive there and back, but it was quite scenic. It wasn’t quite mountainous, mostly large rocky hills covered with palm trees. It was good to drive in the countryside through the small villages, and see another side of India that even I had yet to see.  Plus I’ll never complain about listening to country music and catching up with good friends for a few hours, even if it is in the back of a van.

After a little bit of pool time back at my apartment, we ended the evening with a lovely traditional Indian dinner.

The next day we toured the Bull Temple in Bangalore, which is a temple built around a giant statue of a bull honoring some sort of god. After that  the other three had lunch and did some shopping on famous Commercial Street while I spent my afternoon running from my bed to the toilet.



Emily and I after being "dotted" at the Bull Temple. We didn't get struck by lightning, so God must not have been too pissed.



That night we had dinner at Shiro, which is a somewhat famous Japanese restaurant in UB City, where my guests got to meet many of my other expat friends. Andy and Molly were taking off that night after it seemed like they had just arrived. I loved that they were able to make it up to see me, though. I’m sure they enjoyed their experience, and hopefully I’ll be making a trip down to see them in Australia this time next year!

Emily was in town for a few more days, but we pretty much just tried to recover from the previous week and a half of chaos. She came to work with me one day so she got to experience being a Target India employee, as well as go to a jobsite meeting. I’m not sure we got a lot done because I doubt my construction workers see blond haired white women very often other than on TV. The next day was a pool/spa day. On Friday she got to experience a Romano’s karaoke night, and then she was off as well. It was a bummer to see her go, but we had a lot of fun while she was here.

Overall, between my visitors and my week in Nepal, it definitely was my favorite two weeks abroad thus far. A lot of once in a lifetime experiences that I’m glad I got to share with close friends. Before Andy and Molly left, we made a pact to see the all 7 wonders of the world together. We already have the Taj Mahal under our belts.

1 down, 6 to go!

Playing in the Himalayas, Part Deux

Now it’s time to pick up where we left preparing to leave for Pokhara.

Wednesday

This was the part of the trip I had been waiting for. Finally, we were going to get up close and personal with the tallest mountains on the planet.

I wasn’t mentally prepared for what it would take to get there, however. I thought the International terminal of the Kathmandu airport was bad. But I’m pretty sure the Wright Brothers had a better terminal for their inaugural flight at Kitty Hawk than what we found at the Domestic Terminal in Kathmandu. First of all, you have to have your ticket confirmation in hand to even get into the parking lot of the airport. Why? Because the man at the front gate with the AK-47 says so. As soon as we walk in, it’s total chaos. Before I knew what happened, I had handed over our bags to two men with official looking badges on. It took about 10 seconds to realize that they don’t work for the airport, but work for tips as they help you get through the “system”. They sit at the entrances and prey on ignorant white people like me. The “system” includes finding your airline desk (which looks like a small information booth at the state fair) and giving them your confirmation. But they tell you that first you need to go to the other desk to pay the airport tax. It’s all a very inefficient and preposterous process that I’m pretty sure is designed specifically to confuse foreigners. Before I knew it they had our tickets there for us waiting for a tip. They asked which country we were from, and I mistakenly said the United States. To them this meant that we could afford a bigger tip than the 100 rupees we gave them. Finally they got frustrated and moved onto their next fair skinned victim. That meant we were off to our Buddha Airlines flight. There was also a Yeti Airlines, but we didn’t get to fly on that one.



View of the mountains from our Buddha Air flight.

25 minutes after takeoff, we landed in Pokhara where we would be spending the day. Pokhara is a lovely little holiday town on a lake in the foothills of the Himalayas. It’s pretty much the gateway for anyone who is going to trek the Annapurna Range, which accounts for about 60% of the Himalaya visitor traffic.  The vibe of the town couldn’t have been more different than that of Kathmandu. The main drag that curled around the lake was still lined with shops, hotels, and restaurants, but all had a much more laid back feel to them, which was very welcome after two days in Kathmandu. There was even a ping pong table set up near the side of the lake! I wanted to ask them if I could play, but I’m pretty sure they were a little beyond my skill level.

The guy on the left is known as the Forest Gump of the Himalayas.

We met our guide for the next two days got a quick tour of some of the sights around the city, like a waterfall and a cave at the bottom of the falls. Then we were paddled around the lake and visited a temple that was built on an island in the middle of the lake. It was a much needed relaxing afternoon after the hustle and bustle from the first couple days of our trip.

Later that afternoon/early evening we walked the main drag along the lake, doing some window shopping at some of the shops. These shops seemed more legit than the Kathmandu shops, and they felt much more “local”. After reaching the end of the strip, we decided to stop at one of the local restaurants for happy hour. (We also saw signs for “happiness hour” and “joy hour”. Some things just get lost in translation I guess!) The ice cold Ghorka (a local Nepalese beer) tasted awesome, so we had another. We worked our way back down the strip, occasionally stopping at random shops and other random “joy hours”. That’s when something shocking happened.

I think I’ve described Emily as being frugal before, which is a good quality. I just don’t understand her methodology fully. I can’t count the number of times that we will be somewhere and she’ll see something she really likes. Then she’ll look at the price tag and say, “Wow, that’s a really good price. I really like this.” Then she looks at it for a couple more seconds, puts it back, and walks away…leaving me wondering why she didn’t make the purchase. Maybe it’s a guy thing, because when I shop, I shop with a purpose. I usually don’t just go shopping to walk around and look at stuff. If I’m out shopping and I see what I want at a good price, I buy it. Sometimes it’s not even at a good price because it’s worth it to me to pay a couple extra bucks to not have to walk around for another hour looking for it cheaper somewhere else.


Temple on an Island.

Anyway, back to my story. We walk into a shop that has all of these neat handmade quilts with elephants and other animals and markings that make them distinctively southwest Asian. So Emily wants to stop in and I assume it will be the same old thing. We’ll look for 2 minutes and walk out, leaving behind a very disappointed street vendor. But this time was different. Emily showed her usual interest, and asked the price, which I thought was pretty reasonable. She asked about a couple specific blankets, letting the nice young man know which ones she liked. Just like that, he sprinted out of his shop saying he’d be right back. 3 minutes later, he returns breathing heavily, his arms full with 20 others that he thought she might like. At this point I was a little worried. They had shown her probably 30 already that they unfolded and then just threw into the corner. The floor was covered with them. I felt really badly because I knew how it would end. She would find one she really likes, haggle a decent price, and then walk out of the store, effectively crushing the hopes and dreams of the shop workers who probably only make a sale or two per day, if that. This time was different however! I don’t know if it was the few beers we had at joy hour, or if she felt badly that they went to so much trouble to show her 50 different quilts, but she actually made a purchase. I was shocked.

This seemed to open the flood gates. We kept bar hopping and street vendor hopping back to our hotel, buying gifts for other people and an occasional trinket for ourselves. It was clear that all of our new purchases wouldn’t fit in our luggage, so I even bought a fake North Face backpack from one of the dozens of shops selling knockoff trekking gear. After another delicious pizza dinner (making that three nights in a row), a few more Ghorkas and a couple of last minute impulse buys consisting of an elephant carved out of a yak horn and a bronze door knocker shaped like a lion (I still don’t know what drove me to buy that. actually yes I do.) we called it a night and headed back to the hotel to rest up for our big hike the next day.

Thursday

The day started with the alarm clock going off at 5 AM. We had decided the previous day to take our guide up on his offer to take us to a popular viewing spot to watch the sunrise over the Himalayas. In hindsight I’m really glad we did it, because it’s really a once in a lifetime opportunity. At the time I was not happy about our decision. My head was letting me know that it wasn’t pleased with the amount of beer I had consumed the previous night, and staying in bed sounded a lot more appealing to me than taking a bumpy 45 minute car ride. Luckily we drug ourselves out of bed, because the scenery was breathtaking. Unfortunately March isn’t the best time to visit Nepal because it is very hazy (which is unfortunate for picture taking) but when you can see it in real life, it’s tough to describe the beauty of it. Just trying to wrap your head around the fact that the peaks you are looking at are FIVE MILES above sea level is mind boggling.



Pretty badass experience. I felt like I was living in a Bob Ross painting.

 We also purchased some pashminas (cashmere scarves) from local women who were making them on the spot with their looms. This was my best haggling job yet, as I only had a little bit of money on me. She started at $90 and I had like $30. Apparently she thought I wasn’t being serious when I said I only had $30. It went like this. 90?- All I have is 30. -These are hand made by my family right here. -They are beautiful, but unfortunately all I have is 30. -80 then? -30. -Ok, 50 and we have a deal. -All I have is 30 (as I walk away). -Ok, your price sir, your price. BINGO!



I really wanted to learn how to do this. Something tells me it would take more than a 10 minute lesson however.

 After descending down the hill where we watched the sunrise, we had a few hours to kill before we left for our trek, so we decided to get a good breakfast. We found the place we had noted on one of our walks that advertised “American Breakfast” and free WiFi. We sat down and were soon greeted by 7 or 8 year old girl who brought us menus. I thought it was quite cute to have her as kind of a greeter person who sat people and gave them menus. I was even more surprised when she came back to take our orders. Being a little leery of her getting my order correct I was very specific and pointed to everything on the menu that I wanted. She of course didn’t need my extra help. After helping me log onto their WiFi on my iPad, I decided that she was about the most capable little girl that I had ever encountered. In Nepal, school doesn’t start until 10 AM, so she just works for her family’s restaurant in the mornings before school. Hell, she gets in some good math practice, as she totaled our bill by hand. She even drew us flowers! It was so cool to meet her.

Finally we were off to our trek! Our driver dropped us two and our guide off on the side of the road about a 45 minutes away from our hotel and we were off. Now Emily and I are in pretty good shape, but it didn’t take long for us to get fatigued. Basically it’s like doing a stair master for a few hours straight carrying a heavy backpack in the sweltering heat. The website said it would be about a 4 hour hike to where we were going. But since we were keeping up with Deepak (our guide) pretty well he just kept going! Basically the path we were hiking was paved with stones. The people in the villages that we hiked through built them to be able to carry supplies more efficiently from one place to another. The little villages we hiked through were amazing. Most of the buildings were stone walls and either tin or grass roofs. As we kept climbing, we got incredible views of the terraces that the farmers had cut out of the mountains in order to farm maize, wheat, and rice. The incredible amount of work they have to go through to farm an area that might be 10 meters wide by 50 meters long is mind boggling. All along the hike we were greeted by adorable little village children who always say “Namaste!” and then motion to their mouths and say “sweets!?” wanting us to give them candy. Our guide warns us not to give them anything though, because he says they will start thinking that they will be given everything in life and won’t have to work for it.



View of the the farming terrain from our hiking path.

 It was only about 2 hours later that we had reached the village of Dhampus, which was our destination for the day. Our guide informed us we had climbed nearly a quarter of a mile in altitude, so we were really moving. So much of the hike made me feel like we were in the 1700s. From the stone paths and walls to the crude structures to the technology we saw (except for an occasional cell phone and a few power lines). It was so cool to experience. Dhampus is about as charming of a village as you’ll ever see, and our lodging was no exception. We stayed in what they call a tea house, which had probably 12 or so different rooms in two different buildings. The floor of our room was concrete and there were two rock-hard single beds for us to sleep on, but it was actually pretty cool. For 8 US dollars a night, you can’t go wrong! Deepak took us on a walking tour of the village’s winding paths up to a hill where we had an amazing sunset view. The 20 minutes we spent on the top of Dhampus Hill was the highlight of the trip for me. On one side you were looking down on an awesome village, on the other side you have the tallest mountains in the world. Incredible.

View of Dhampus from the hill.

The place had a restaurant where everyone staying in the complex huddled around one big table at night for dinner telling stories of their treks. Such a neat experience. The “restaurant” was filled with Australians, Japanese, us crazy Americans, and a mid sixties German man who had been hiking for 30 straight days with his two Sherpas. (A Sherpa is a local guide who also carries all of your stuff for you. Like a tour guide/pack mule). We had a delicious meal of traditional Nepalese food accompanied with a cup of their own special tea, which was also exquisite. It was an amazing end to my favorite day in Nepal.

Friday

We awoke on Friday early again to watch the sunrise. Luckily this time all we had to do was walk out our door to the amazing views. Luckily this was the clearest day out of any we were there. It was one of those times where you wish you could just press pause and stop time so we could sit there and drink tea and look at the mountains all day. But alas we had a flight to catch back in Pokhara, so we had to leave.



Hotel sign with Himalayas in background.

 We went back down the mountain on a different route, and although we were walking downhill, it wasn’t a whole lot easier. But it was nice to see different views and different scenery.


 On the way down, I saw something that actually stopped me in my tracks. I guess it never really occurred to me how they farmed those little terraces, until I saw some farmers in action. Sure enough, there were two water buffalo pulling a wooden plow tilling up the soil. Closely following behind the farmer and his water buffalo was the wife, dropping the maize seeds into the trench left behind the plow. I’m sure my jaw just dropped. I guess it never occurred to me that people still farmed like that, or maybe I just thought I’d never actually see it with my own eyes. It was so cool to see. Makes me feel bad for complaining about some of the farm equipment I grew up using. (I still hate that stupid swather. Quick show of hands, who knows what at swather is? Merriam Webster doesn’t even know, because I’m getting a red squiggly line under it when I type it.)

Nepalese farming. Looks like fun.

I felt a little sad when our trek was over, even though I was exhausted. That meant that we had to fly back to Kathmandu for another night there, and then our Nepal vacation was over. But Pohkara didn’t stop giving me material for my blog just yet! While sitting in the airport restaurant, the nice gentleman handed us a menu that had three headings. All three were either misspelled or misinterpreted. My favorite was “Sand Witches”. I’m not sure what a sand witch is, but I’m glad we didn’t encounter one on our travels. Here’s a question. Do you think sand witches ride magic carpets as opposed to brooms? (Crickets….crickets….)

Another lovely lost in translation moment brought to you by Southwest Asia.

We got back to Kathmandu, but had to wait at the baggage claim (because they wouldn’t let Emily carry on a 2 foot long wooden sign), which consisted of them pulling their tractor with cart full of luggage up to a table and throwing everyone’s bags up, which just causes a melee. Luckily I was able to elbow my way up front to grab our belongings. Then we were off to the same hotel we were at earlier for one more night. We bought some last minute gifts for people back home and called it an early night, after another pizza dinner. (I make fun of how much Emily wanted to eat pizza, but I understand. You can’t really trust the food at many of those places with our weak American stomachs. Plus, the pizza was pretty damn good.)

Saturday

We awoke early to head to the airport to catch our early flight. Part of me was sad to be leaving Nepal, because we saw a lot cool things that I’ll never forget. The other part of me was glad to be leaving the chaos of Kathmandu. All of me was excited to fly to Delhi for our next adventure, and to see my visiting friends from Australia.

If I ever go back, I’ll do a couple of things different. First of all I’ll go in December when it’s less hazy. I would also want to spend more time in the mountains. Both of those things come with drawbacks however. December is peak tourist time, so there are a lot of people. And to really get up into the mountains themselves you need to devote a minimum of 10 days to it, as it takes 4-5 more days of hiking just to get to the Annapurna base camp, which is the most popular trekking point. But I’m more than happy with the trip we had. It was the perfect mixture of history, culture, and nature.

Well, that was Nepal! I’m interested to see how many I scared away from going over my last 2 blogs, and how many people want to experience it for themselves. Next up will be our adventures in Delhi and Agra at the Taj Mahal!



Playing in the Himalayas Part 1

Prior to my trip to Nepal, I fully expected to tell you to again throw away your travel bucket list again and start anew with Nepal taking over the top spot. But I just can’t do it. For a select few of you, yes. By all means go. It really is an incredible place to see. But in all honesty, I don’t think that the trip would be that enjoyable for a large chunk of you. I’ll let you decide for yourself after reading. (Kelly and Bethany….go ahead and cross it off your list. No need to continue reading.) And if you go, do it before you have kids...or just leave them at home. Not a kid friendly place, especially for us soft Americans.

Personally, I loved it.  For me it was a fascinating mix of culture, crazy city life, history, and the stark beauties of the natural world. But I think it takes a special person to be able to put up with the rigors of traveling in Nepal. As much of a zoo as I’ve described India as being, Nepal is just the same….maybe even worse. Traffic? Just as bad. Cows? More of them. Stray dogs? I counted 63 on the streets on our 30 minute ride back to the airport. Trash? Yep, pile it on the side of the street and light it on fire. Electricity? I think we had electricity maybe 25% of the time we were in our hotel rooms. Restrooms? I hope you’re a good aimer while hovering over a hole in the ground. Hot showers? If you’re lucky. Sounds glamorous, right?


This could be why they have electricity problems.

 If I hadn’t been battle hardened in India for 3 months beforehand, I’m not sure I could have done it. I definitely wouldn’t want to do it alone. So without further ado, here is the candid account of our little trip. Sit back and enjoy. Maybe I’ll convince you to go someday, and maybe I’ll convince you to stay at home and experience it on the Discovery Channel.

Monday

Our flight left Bangalore at 7:00 AM, which meant arriving at the airport by 5:00 AM (international flight), which meant leaving my place by 4, which meant waking up at 3:30. Brutal start. But the flights went rather smoothly and after a short connection in Delhi we touched down in Kathmandu around 2:30. Looking back, the condition of the airport was a great pre-cursor to what the rest of our trip was like. For being the country’s main international airport in a city of 4 million people, I guess I expected more. But as we load the bus to take us to the arrival terminal (they don’t have any actual gates, just places where you load or unload busses full of people) it looks like we’re being taken to an old elementary school built in the 1950s. Turns out, that exactly what it looks, feels, and smells like on the inside. But in its own little way it’s charming. At least until we stand in line for two hours waiting to get our tourist visa. In India, they make you jump through hoops weeks in advance to get a visa. In Nepal, they make you stand in line for an hour and pay $25. So I guess I shouldn’t complain.

I guess I should back up a little bit and explain how I planned our little vacation. It started just like any good plan does, with a Google Search. My “Nepal vacations” search eventually led me to a website, where I found a vacation package that sounded like what we wanted. The gentleman at the travel company was very helpful and responsive the entire time, but still I was a little worried that there would be no one with a Mr. Clifford Olander sign waiting on us at the airport and that we would have to fend for ourselves for a week. Luckily that wasn’t the case as we were greeted with a smile and piled into the back of 1985 Toyota something or other and were whisked off to our hotel.  I didn’t think anywhere could have roads as bad as India. I was wrong. I’ve described India road maps looking like a two year old’s scribbles. Well, Kathmandu’s road map would look very similar to what a plate of spaghetti dropped on the ground would look like. Between that and the smog and the dust and the smells that accompany it all, it’s quite the sensory overload. It feels as though we’ve traveled from the outside of a maze to the very middle, where our hotel was.

We check in to a charming little hotel that had a lovely little courtyard that despite being only a block away from the madness of the main market streets of Kathmandu, is surprisingly peaceful and quiet. Having sat in airports, airplanes, and cars all day, we were excited to get out in the city and explore. As soon as we turn the corner, I’m stopped in my tracks. I have no clue which way to turn. Shop after shop line both sides of the narrow road. People selling just about everything under the sun from tiny little spaces. Every time you walk past one, if you even glance in the way of their shop, the owner pounces, trying to sell you their wares. In its own chaotic manner, it’s very charming. But you also learn quickly to not make eye contact with anyone.  We keep walking. Street after street, block after block, the same thing. For the most part they are all selling the same little trinkets and pashmina scarves , but yet they all look a little different. It was such cool stuff though! It was all I could do to keep myself from spending thousands rupees at every store we passed. (1000 Nepali rupees = $12).


Craziness. Not sure what their signage strategy is here.

 Somehow we run into one of the restaurants that was recommended to us by Ram (the guy from the travel company we used), grab a quick bite consisting of delicious pizza washed down with a couple of local beers, hit up an Irish Pub with a local 80’s cover band (they were actually quite good) and call it a night.

Tuesday

After eating the hotel breakfast which consisted of beans and toast, we were picked up by our guide for our historical tour of Kathmandu. We started in Durbar Square, which is a large area that houses the old royal palace grounds as well as several temples that are hundreds of years old. Amongst the temples was the “Hippie Temple”, so named because that’s where the hippies used to smoke pot when they invaded Kathmandu in the 60’s and 70’s, and the Temple of Erotic Carvings, which was built because an old king was worried because the population of his kingdom was dropping rapidly, and he thought it was because people were spending too much time praying in the temples and not enough time procreating. Gotta hand it to him, it was a creative solution. Although many of the carvings depict acts that aren’t very holy….



Emily and I up at the top of the Hippie Temple.

One of the craziest experiences from Durbar Square was the visit to the Kumari Ghar Palace. After a morning of hearing about different temples, and them all kind of running together in my head, I was only half listening to our guide when he started talking about a palace with a living goddess. That’s when my interest perked up a little bit. Apparently there is a girl whom Hindus and Buddhists believe is the bodily incarnation of the goddess Taleju. Just as that was registering, he got really excited and told us to look up. As we were standing in the courtyard of this building, the Kumari (child goddess) appeared at the window. It was a surreal experience to actually see a girl whom hundreds of millions of people think is an actual goddess. She looked around at the crowd for a minute, and then disappeared back into her room.

Goddess Kumari, as borrowed from Google Images, since we weren't allowed to take pictures of her.

Because I’m fascinated with the whole thing I’ll share a few more facts that I learned from our guide and from the internet. The Kumari is chosen from a certain caste to which Buddha belonged to. They must pass 32 different tests to be chosen. The most brutal is that she is put in a dark room with the heads of ritually slaughtered goats and buffalo illuminated by candlelight. Then men with masks appear and try to scare her. If she shows any fear, she is not worthy and is replaced by another candidate. Then she must spend the night alone with the heads. Mind you these little girls are between 3-6 years old. After one is chosen, she is locked in her palace, and can only come outside 14 times a year for different festivals. During those times she can’t walk on the ground and is carried around on a platform the entire time. The girl is the Kumari until she has her first menstruation, which is a sign of the goddess leaving her body. Only then can her feet touch the ground outside for the first time in 10 or so years. Craziness. What I didn’t find was if they have a decent psychiatrist on staff to deal with all of the delusions that would result from being cooped up for 10 years thinking you were a goddess.

Pigeons everywhere...apparently they are a sign of peace so they feed them everywhere. I didn't tell them I used to shoot their sacred bird with my Red Ryder BB gun in my barn when i was a kid. Oh, and some more random cows. And some temples.

From there it was off to Swoyambhunath, also known as Monkey Temple, which is a Buddhist Stupa that is situated on a hill overlooking Kathmandu. Very cool to see and experience.

One of the monkeys at the monkey temple.

After that, we went to Bouddhanath, also known as Little Tibet. This is an area that is a place of refuge from persecution for Tibetan Monks, and also houses one of the largest Stupas in the world. Very cool, clean area.

Buddhist Stupa, with more damn pigeons.

After our historical tour and a couple hours of relaxing, we were back to the markets to really start our haggling with the street vendors. This time we actually made a couple purchases too. We finally figured out that if they won’t agree to your price, if you just start walking away, they’ll chase you down and give you their best offer. We probably still got taken on some items, but when you’re haggling over 100 rupees (about a buck twenty) what does it really matter?

Then it was off to dinner and then off to the rockhard mattress in our electricity-less room. And because we were still without electricity the next morning, the shower was nice and cold. I probably didn’t even faze the layers of dirt and pollution that had accumulated on my skin by that point. After another breakfast of baked beans and toast, it was off to the airport to fly to Pokhara!

Now that I’ve come to a decent stopping point, I’ll take the opportunity to cut this post off, in order to try to control the length and spare your attention spans. More to come on the rest of our trip in the mountains soon! (Was that a good enough cliffhanger? No? Well I guess I’ll have to include a picture of what’s to come next post to get you to come back!)

Sun rising over the Himalayas. Not too shabby, eh?