Typical.

I took a little weekend getaway from Kathmandu for a few days. These are the results.


We began in Royal Chitwan National Park, it is a 5 hour bus ride from Kathmandu and rather bumpy. I was feeling slightly sick from breathing in the dust and the exhaust so it wasn't one of the more pleasurable bus rides I've enjoyed. The end result was well worth it though. These are the sights that you wake up to there.



I took these photo's right out side of our room. It is completely amazing. This was at about 6 in the morning so the lighting was extremely beautiful. I have this weird obsession with lighting, and the light was perfect. Unfortunately it was super dusty which wasn't super helpful with the pictures. I guess that comes with elephants though.

We took an elephant safari through the forest. Since it was so early in the morning it was very mystical. Literally. It was extremely green and there was this magical mist everywhere. It was amazing. I thought just riding an elephant needed to happen, and I was very pleasantly surprised by how great the actual park was.


On our big guy we were able to walk through a large river, on the other side we were lucky enough to have a Rhino waiting for us. I was super excited about the outcome of that. I went on a Safari in Africa a few years ago and one of the only animals that we never were able to see was a rhino. So it was pretty great to finally see one in the wild. I'd have to say that they are very interesting creatures. We just walked right up to it on our Elephant and stood next to it for a little while. He just stared right back at us the whole time like, "Are you done, can I get back to my breakfast now?"


Well worth it.

We also were able to take a canoe ride down an alligator infested river, as well as, see the only set of elephant twins that there are in the world. They didn't have the little guys chained up like they would the large elephants so they came out to play. They came up to about my chest in height, and could easily take me out. I tried to take a picture with one and it nuzzled right into me and almost succeeded in taking me out. They are so cute.



Afterwords, we headed to Pokhara. I'd been trying to get there for a few weeks now with some friends. We never made it, but I made it with Josh. It's a fun tourist town that is kind of the starting and ending place for many treks. It's nestled in the hills near the Himalaya's with a great view of Anna Purna and its nearby peaks. It's got a lovely little lake, and is a nice retreat when you want to get out of the dirty air of Kathmandu.

Getting back to the dirty air, kind of felt like home though. It's nice coming back after a long weekend. This picture is how I feel about all the great things there are to buy in Kathmandu.



Josh and I explored the city a little more. I took him back to some of the places I'd been figuring he'd enjoy them. I'd been around the city a lot but I never really have a camera. It's nice to finally be able to take some pictures of what I've been doing for the last while. This is at Swayabhunath in western Kathmandu.

Amazing.

I've never had an actual bucket list. If I did have one, it would be significantly smaller after this extended vacation I'm on.

Josh arrived a few days ago and so I started my touring portion of the trip. To start off we were able to walk around Kathmandu for a few days. I've been to most of the places but they were always for a purpose, so this was my first chance to just be a tourist and really experience the sites. We were able to see some temple's, Boudda Stupa, eat excellent Mexican food, buy awesome trinkets, Etc. I really got to learn where I'm at in Katmandu, and I finally feel like I know my way around a little.


Nearby the Boudda temple (below) is where many Buddhists live. It is a huge temple that is mostly white that you walk around on, then lower you walk around a huge circle with shops and prayer wheels. You always walk clockwise around these temples. So we joined the monks and walked around for awhile. It is so amazing. These type temples are all over Kathmandu. This is just one of the larger ones.



We took a ride on a bicycle taxi one day, not as much because we were lazy, but because they need to be experienced. The seat is about 3 ft off the ground, and is leaning forward. While bouncing allover the place you actually feel quite unsafe. I've road bicycle taxi's in other countries and Nepal's are by far the scariest. After bouncing up and down on their terrible roads you are quite happy when the ride is over.


We also went through Kathmandu's Durbar square and walked around all the temples and through all the surrounding little streets. It's a very neat area. One of the things that I've most enjoyed about Nepal is that it has so many influences. Nepal is placed almost in the center of Asia leaving it to be influenced by many of its neighbors. Many Tibetan immigrants have ended up in Nepal, largely influencing its culture. There also is a huge influence from India. Almost all of its pop-culture comes from India, all of it's movies, T.V., and music as well as most of Nepal's style's. If you walk to some holy sites there is a large Indian and Hindu influence, where as areas like Durbar Square are more influenced by Chinese architecture. Nepal is like a cultural Melting pot. The western trekkers that are everywhere have a large influence as well as India, China, and the rest of Southeast Asia.



Nepal's landscape is marked by three very different type's of topography. The north is covered by the Himalayan Range, the center by very large rolling hills, and the south with the flat plains heading into India. Each area within Nepal is different and has different influences. Parts of the north are more Tibetan whereas some southern areas are very Indian. Depending on which area you go you will see differences in the culture.


One of the main places I've always wanted to go is Tibet. I will soon be checking that off. I leave in a few days to drive up through the Himalaya's and past Everest then through Tibet up to Lhasa. I don't imagine I will really ever have the opportunity to go there again. I figured I should take advantage of that while I can. It is going to be one of the longest crappiest drives I've ever had to experience, and one of the most amazing. The Himalaya's are beautiful, they are so big and shoot up into the sky from this dry dusty landscape. I'm really excited to get up even closer and be able to drive right through them.


This is my serious photo I had to take for my visa. It took me about ten try's to not smile. Not smiling is way more difficult than you would imagine. I feel for you Mal.

Silly, Katmandu

Katmandu is out of control. I wish I could draw you a diagram but that's too difficult. If you are driving from point A to point B you would usually take the shortest route. Not in Katmandu. If you are going about a mile away. You'll drive about 3 miles because of 1 way roads, traffic, and weird rules. To get anywhere. Plan for twice as long as you'd think, maybe 3 times. There was zero planning in the creation of Katmandu. Walking. Still not a good option. I tried that and it didn't work out so well.

The good news is that I finally am able to get home. I've been staying with a Nepali family, and they don't have street names here. So giving an address to someone does nothing for them. It's taken me about a week and a half to memorize my confusing way home. I finally don't need taxi's to call my home for me! Just in time for me to move out in a few days. Perfect.

Nepal is crazy, but it is great. I really am loving it here. I've been working on a hydropower project which is awesome, because they only get about 5 hours of power everday it feels like. It shuts off every night because there just isn't enough. So anything will help. I've also made some great friends that have shown me around a little. They are going around to schools and restaurants, singing and sharing their talents with the world. They are teaching students that god loves them and they can do whatever they want. That they are all beautiful and just need to practice there talents so that they can help change Nepal. JoJo is from India and all the kids love him, the are absolutely amazed by him and his voice, and want to be just like him. It is so awesome.



The boys super stardom has rubbed off on me and the children have made me feel like a rockstar. It's been really fun tagging along with them and getting to hang out with the kids. While the boys are performing I'm playing counsler to the kids and helping them work out their issues. It's super funny. Also, I sign autographs now, and am excepting fan mail.



I don't really know what I'm doing here, but I love Nepal. The people are amazing and super generous. The kids here are really smart and will hopefully grow up and want to help their city sort out some of its issues. and I think they'll be able to, at least have some kind of positive effect on it. They also practice modeling in their spare time. That's a job we are really in need of. Some of the girls were practicing their runway walks. T.V. is ridiculous.

I had a 12 year old girl ask me if Hannah Montana was really on drugs, and she really hoped that it wasn't true. My answer, "No way, drugs are bad." Like I talk to Hannah all the time.

Namaste

Nepal

I've made it! Nepal is great!

My first day was spent in Thamel in Kathmandu. I was by myself at a guest house. It's slightly awkward traveling by yourself. I luckily had people take pity on me and come talk to me a lot. I've made a few different friends I hope to see throughout my stay. There are a lot of other travelers in Nepal, but the majority are here for trekking. I had a guy and his daughter let me join in and we walked around Kathmandu all morning. We went to the monkey palace. Its a Buddhist and Hindu temple that is surrounded by a lot of monkeys. It was quite the trek itself up the stairs to it. We saw some large Buddha statues. Saw the dirty river. Later I walked around the tourist markets for awhile. It's like Nic Nak heaven. I love it. Everything I love about little trinkets and ugly clothing was all in one place, and better than ever. It's great.


I'm now lucky enough to stay at Bishnu's home. He has a great family that has taken me in. They have cooked every meal for me, which have all been awesome. They are great cooks. I've got to play games with them (Mom, I thought you'd be jealous I played take two with them). During the day I've been tagging along with Bishnu, learning about some of the projects Choice is going to be participating in. Hopefully I will start helping to make them happen! It's been nice living with a family so that I really get to experience the culture. It's also been nice having a home base instead of moving from place to place still.


Nepal facts I've learned while here:

* Even in the nicer neighborhoods of Kathmandu families have to take turns getting water pumped to them. Water rotates between neighborhoods every three days. Water is stored for the two days between, when it's your turn you go outside and pump water into your tank for storage.

* Power goes out every night, or a few times a day it seems like. It can last mins-hours. They don't have enough power, so it happens everywhere in the city. They are pre-scheduled, and there isn't a way around them. Most places have generators for at least their main room.

* They can't sale cow meat here. It's against the law to hurt a cow. Other than you can find it at some tourist restaurants if you look hard.

* Children go to school 6 days a week, but have 5-10 holiday's a month they are excused for. They also have many reasons to cancel school the day before as well.

* You always wear shoes outside, never inside. They don't like if I don't wear my shoes when I'm outside.

* I could be wrong on this. But Hindu's and Buddhist's are very similar and share many of their temples. Hindu's have around 3 gods, while Buddhist's have hundreds.


* Prayer flags are everywhere, as well as prayer wheels. You walk by prayer wheels clockwise spinning them with your right hand. Every rotation inside is a prayer, they go on forever. Your arm get's tired before you run out of prayer wheels.