Leavin' on a jet plane

Time to finally complete my travel musings, before I forget all the adventures!

Friday, we slept in a little and then set out to explore Jaipur. We took a cab to the fort on top of the hill, and hiked up the staircases carved into the hillside. The fort itself is massive and beautiful. It’s built into the side of a mountain, and overlooks the whole valley. It was originally a home and stronghold for Mughal emperors, and now is simply a truly lovely tribute to Mughal workmanship and culture. The fort itself houses several palaces. One of them is the palace of mirrors, and it actually still has all of the mirrors in place. The sun and everything in the courtyard is reflected a thousand times off of the mirrors, and it’s just beautiful. We also walked around the outer walls to view the surrounding mountains, and explored a tunnel down into the bowels of the fort that was filled with dust and bats and smelled, frankly, of urine. On our way out of the fort, we heard music playing and stopped to see what the deal was. Snake charmers! I forgot that snake charming is a thing out in the western and northern states of India. We watched (Nolan was HORRIFIED) as cobras rose out of baskets, swaying, and occasionally snapping around other directions. I thought it was fascinating.

Afterwards, we went back to our hotel to try and find a good lunch spot. We were originally going to have our driver take us around for the day, but listen: something we learned in India is that everyone has an angle. If someone offers to show you to a good restaurant when you ask them for suggestions, it’s because the restaurant they choose happens to give them 20% commission if they bring us there. If someone helps you in any way, they ask you for a tip. If you happen to give someone a tip, they tell you it’s not enough and demand more. If you don’t give them what they ask for, they turn nasty. We discovered, sadly, that you have to be pretty independent and firm to save yourself from getting scammed at every turn and emptying your wallet needlessly.

Anyway: we started wandering around to find lunch, and ended up taking a rickshaw to a restaurant somewhere in Jaipur. We were more or less lost, as we had no map. So we ate, then went with Nolan’s gut on how to find the main road, and…he led us straight there. Guys, I have to tell you one other thing I learned in India: Nolan’s sense of direction is impeccable. We were constantly ending up in confusing places without maps or directions, and he always led me by the hand straight back to where we needed to be, without asking directions. SO impressive! Not to mention all the other things he handled swiftly – the bartering, the arranging of getting around, and figuring out how to use the train system in India…the list goes on. I often don’t even look up when we cross streets anymore because I implicitly trust his guidance in just about everything.

After lunch, we walked along the main road for awhile, looking for a money changer to exchange our Nepali bills, and then finding a ride back to our neighbourhood. We stayed in our room for a few hours, enjoying the A/C and getting work done, and then sat on our rooftop at the hotel restaurant and ate our last meal in Jaipur and sipped masala tea. Confession: I ordered some fries and a veg “burger” because my last few curries had literally burned through me, and I needed something safe 
Next morning, we got a SUPER early ride to the train station, and boarded our train to Delhi. Once we got there, we took a rickshaw to our hotel, which was in the busy tourist area and easily accessible to the metro station and airport. As in most hotels abroad, they asked us for our passports, to make copies of those and our visas. What I was about to discover, was that my passport was nowhere to be found. The compartment I usually keep it in was open, and there was nothing anywhere. I tore through my bags in our room, but still couldn’t find it. I had copies of the documents in my suitcase, so I gave those to the hotel, but was panicking, as our flight home was the next day. The hotel manager was trying to reassure me by saying, “At least you’re not here as long as one of our customers from America, Mr. Alan! He has been here 3 months. But he is different, it is because he had drugs in his suitcases.”  Hah.

So Nolan started researching and calling the embassy, the police station, and figuring out how we needed to go about getting me an emergency passport and exit visa. I realized then, that I had no memory of my passport being handed back to me at our hotel in Jaipur. So the hotel manager kept trying to reach the hotel, and finally got someone who told him, “I’m at the temple, I’ll call you when I go back to the hotel.” Great. An hour later, still no response on the phones. We managed to get an appointment at the embassy, so as we were about to head out the door to file a police report (you have to file one and bring the receipt to the embassy in order to get an emergency passport, but the tricky thing is that once you file that report, your Indian visa immediately becomes void…so there’s no going back), our hotel manager said, “let me try one more time on the phone.” On the last ring, they picked up, and said that they had my passport at the hotel. PHEW. What you have to understand is that getting the emergency visa would take a day or two or three, so I might have to get a new flight…but getting an Indian exit visa could take weeks or longer, depending on when they felt like processing it. So to hear that somewhere, someone had my passport? LIFESAVING. I was willing to even get back on the train for 6 hours out to Jaipur and come back in the same day just to make my flight. But what we were lucky enough to get was a taxi driver in Jaipur who was willing to drive it to us. Our awesome hotel manager arranged everything, and we ended up paying only $50 in the end, which is pretty incredible. The best part was, he had a sense of humour about the whole thing. When we got back that night and asked if the driver had arrived with the passport yet, he said, “Oh, actually he lied. They now say that they cannot find the passport. I am sorry.” He said this so sincerely, and since we had experienced very similar issues in India, we totally believed it to be true. Nolan started freaking out, I was dying a little bit inside…and then the manager said, “no, it’s only a joke. It’s here.” And pulled it out. Best trick ever. Nolan didn’t think it was very funny.


So we thanked both the manager and of course the driver, PROFUSELY, and then put our minds at ease with an ice cream and settled down for the night.

I should probably mention that while we were anxiously awaiting news about my passport, we took the metro and checked out a couple Delhi markets. The metro in Delhi is super impressive. I can't believe I'm saying that about any kind of train or transportation in general in India...but it's true. It's way better than Muni or BART, and that means it's cleaner (gasp!), faster, goes more places, and is so easy to use. We definitely noticed the British influence in the metro system they've put in place :)

For the most part, the markets we found were retail shops and expensive goods, though eventually we found the Delhi Haat, which was the handicrafts market. Once there, we continued Nolan's hunt for an elaborately carved Kashmiri wooden box. One of the vendors took us on a long rickshaw ride to a shop that actually ended up having exactly what we were looking for. BEAUTIFUL stuff. But, very expensive. So after a couple hours of negotiation, we left empty-handed.

The next day, we woke up for breakfast, then hopped on the metro again and went to about a million shops, emporiums, etc. on a few different rickshaws and MANY peoples' advice on where to get the box we were looking for. Nobody was right, and they all got commission from where they sent us. So we were a little ticked by the time we decided to take a break and head over to a giant temple for some sight-seeing. The temple was beautiful, but due to a recent terrorist threat, we weren't allowed to bring the camera or anything else inside. It was recently built, so not a historical monument, but definitely built in the old Indian style architecture, and very ornate and gorgeous to look at. We hopped back on the metro again to Connaught square, and sat down for some Indian fast food (had to try it!). A random guy found us, and ended up putting us in a rickshaw to what we decided would be our last attempt at finding a shop to buy this box. When the rickshaw pulled up, it turned out to be the perfect (but expensive) shop we were at the day before. Nolan decided to give the negotiating one more try with the bullish shop-keeper, and after almost 4 hours, some ice cream and diet cokes that the shop-keeper bought us (loyalty measures, haha!)...we finally had our prize! Nolan did an amazing job of negotiating down to a price we felt good about, and he's now the proud owner of an amazing, one of a kind (the sculptor is no longer living) Kashmiri piece of art. You'll have to come admire it sometime.

After our long day, we headed back to the market for a last sweep of looking around, then back to our hotel. I feel like we got to be pros at the metro system.

Our awesome hotel manager scored a huge win again when not only did he give us our room for free until we left for the airport, so that we could shower and nap and pack (so great!), but also when we asked him for the best restaurant around, and he sent us to a place that served what I think was my favourite meal in India. We ate slow, as we had a few hours to burn before our taxi to the airport, and it was THE BEST meal ever. We ordered chicken tikka, and the chef humoured our request to make it spicy and served it in a "mutton gravy" which was pretty similar to a rogan josh sauce. SO delicious. The mushroom palak was also super tasty.

We walked around a bit more, bought one last pistachio kulfi, and then sat in our hotel lobby chatting with the manager (who ordered us free chai from the street's chai walla!), and waiting for our flight. The notorious "Mr. Alan" walked in, and we finally got to meet him and hear his story, which was crazy and involved 90 days in Indian prison, drug smuggling, and numerous tales of medication woes. The man's an older gentleman from South Carolina, and if he really ever does write a book like he's threatened to do, I'll be the first to buy it just to hear the end of the story.

When we finally were on our way and waiting at the airport, we finished watching 12 Years a Slave, and said our temporary goodbyes, since we had different flights home. We watched the clock turn to midnight and Nolan's birthday, and got on our respective planes. He had a layover in Beijing, and I had one in Seoul. Though it sounds like his layover was spent in massive security lines for hours on end due to the Malaysian plane disappearance, mine was rather pleasant, and spent  watching a South Korean cultural show at the airport cultural center, and walking literally every inch of the International Terminal. 

When we finally both got home, we kissed the ground (almost literally), and smelled the fresh California air. I picked up Milo, did some laundry, went for a run, and then we went out to dinner at Pluto's (fresh, cold greens! Heaven!) for Nolan's birthday, and finished off the night with a stop at Cream for ice cream sandwiches :) Hey, when you're technically still on vacation, you gotta enjoy the treats on your last day! Especially when it's the birthday of your favourite person in the whole world.

I guess you could say we had an exciting trip. It was definitely an adventure, very stressful, but very fun at the same time. It was such an interesting place to go, and though I'll do things a little differently next time we go back there, it was a great way to spend the last 2 weeks.

Onward, ho!

Monkeys be the boss

Taking advantage of the wifi while I have it-sitting in the airport in Seoul, South Korea. I have a 4 hour layover, which is just an hour shy of how long you need to do a layover city tour, so I've walked every inch of this place and now have about an hour left to wait before boarding. Not too bad. Let's keep going with the adventure re-telling, though, or I'll start to forget stuff!

The day after Holi, we woke up early to catch our train to Agra. It took an hour for a rickshaw driver to show up from the time Nolan first had requested one (hey-oh, Indian standard time!). Our train was a quick 40 min ride or so, and we had the nicer A/C chair car class tickets. INFINITELY better than sleeper class. We had our own seats, air conditioning, and they even served us breakfast and free water bottles. You have to understand that this is very fancy in India.

We arrived in Agra and met a rickshaw driver who dropped us at our hotel and then drove us around for the rest of the day.  He took us first to see the Baby Taj Mahal, which was built as a tomb and memorial for the in-laws of Shahjehan (the Mughal emperor and builder of the actual Taj Mahal), who were Iranian. It's very beautiful and has a lot of the delicate scrollwork and intricacies of Persian architecture. Then we saw a few smaller sites, stopped along the river for sweeping views of the Taj Mahal at a distance, and stopped for lunch at a little restaurant and garden in some random back alley that our driver knew.

After lunch we went to Agra fort. I feel like the Taj Mahal gets so much hoopla that nobody hears much about Agra fort, which is actually very impressive and beautiful. It was built by 4 Mughal emperors over 95 years and stands on top of a hill in lovely red walls and entrenched by double moats. Inside are several palaces made of red and white marble- some decorated with mirrors, others originally with gold and gems, others simply marble with Persian script. There are old gardens, breathtaking views of the city and river and the Taj Mahal itself, whose royal builder was imprisoned in the fort by his son and had to view his masterpiece through windows in the wall.

After Agra fort, we finally arrived at the famous Taj Mahal. We've seen many of the world's wonders, and this one certainly did not disappoint. All the pictures you see can't prepare you for the beauty of the place. It is so perfectly designed that it looks fake in pictures, and when the sun is setting on it, it looks like it's glowing. We walked through the actual tomb, around the other areas and temples and took pictures for a long time, just enjoying such a gorgeous place. Nolan took this picture of me enjoying the view during sunset. Nice, eh?

Our hotel was walking distance from the Taj Mahal, so we wandered home to rest briefly before finding dinner and looking for wifi. We found both at a weird little place that turned out to have the best chicken tikka masala and palak paneer we'd had yet. It was fabulous-and so spicy that I could feel it burning its way through me. Ah well. A little ras malai cured the burn quick.

Next morning, we were at the train station early for our early train, which was running a casual hour late. Indian train stations aren't the most pleasant places to wait for long times. I won't go into detail, but let me put it this way: Nolan refused to eat a banana there because it was so gross there that it felt like the filth may have seeped through the peel. Once the train arrived, we were on it (in little bunks) for 6 hours on our way to Jaipur. We went through desolate areas and remote fields, and I'm telling you: I saw people every second of the way. The population of India is just so large that people are EVERYWHERE.

Finally we made it to Jaipur and settled into our hotel briefly before hopping back into a cab to go see the water palace. It's a small palace built in the middle of a lake, and very pretty in its setting, though a relatively plain building in itself. Next we went to the monkey temple, and climbed to the top of the hill. Though there weren't monkeys in the temple itself (we are wondering now if we ended up at the wrong place), they were totally swarming the hill on the way up. They were all along the steps and street as we climbed up, wrestling, eating little nuts, scratching themselves, staring at us...a little scary to be surrounded by that many wild monkeys, but fun! They were super cute. We stopped for dinner, saw a couple shops, then went back to our neighborhood in the rickshaw and walked around for awhile and ate kulfi (like ice cream but made from actual thickened cream and in this case, pistachios). Mmm. Another fantastic day!

Holi Cow

Yes, this is my second time blogging in a day - we are resting in our hotel and taking advantage of wifi and a/c.

Monday morning we woke up and had our granola and peanut butter. We generally keep these things with us when we travel because often breakfast is either tough to find in other countries, at least before 10am, or it's hotel food and way overpriced. This way, all we have to buy is the milk- we borrow utensils from the hotels. After hearing about Holi from many people here and in Nepal, we had made the wise decision to buy super cheap clothes to wear for this day so we could throw them away afterwards. Smart, smart choice. Also smart: we wore sunglasses and brought a bottle of water. Not smart: didn't put oil on our hair or skin as we read about, and I really wish I had bought a facemask or something. Why? Sit ye back and I'll tell you why Holi isn't for the faint of heart.

Firstly, we decided to spend Holi in Vrindavan/Mathura, which is said to be the birthplace of Krishna, who is one of the Hindu gods. So this place is a sacred place and also is known to be the absolute best place to celebrate and experience Holi around India. When people here in Jaipur even ask us about where we "played Holi" (that's what they say), and we say Vrindavan, they all go, "Oh! Very nice place for Holi!"

Secondly, we had targets on us as there weren't a ton of tourists around, and as it is everywhere we go people come up to us and either want a "snap" (picture) with us or want to ask all about where we are from. As a side note, they always ask Nolan these things-including if they can "take a snap with madam"...like I'm his pet or something. Nobody talks directly to me, and they often disregard anything I say. This doesn't keep men from staring at me or saying inappropriate things to me, for which I've had to keep Nolan from lashing out a couple times...but I digress. Inequality and disrespect for women in India is something I could say a lot more about from my brief experience here so far.

It sucks that I can't walk out to find us ice cream by myself here.

So, Holi: we put on our cheap clothes and ventured outside our room. Before we even made it out of the hotel courtyard, we had been sprayed with purple liquid dye, smeared with turquoise dye powder and blessed with a sprinkle of pink. Again, before we even made it outside. Still feeling excited and adventurous, we went out into the streets and...it was utter chaos. People hanging out of rickshaws and motorcycles and pelting you with dye as they zoomed past yelling, "Happy Holi!" Wild little kids with literally buckets of dye that they poured on you even if you said no. Other wild little kids who slung cow poo at you (here cow poo is good luck-they apparently often bring a cow into new houses and have it poo to bless the home) and mud. The ladies politely wish you a happy Holi and touch your forehead and hair with dye powder. The absolute worst villains of the day are the men-particularly young men. They walk up to you and smear it on your face, in your hair, and take liberties wiping it all over you on the one day they can't really get into trouble for molesting you. For me, they would dump it down the front of my shirt (which wasn't low cut even!), or more particularly shove it in my mouth and all over my lips. 

As a note to you readers: generally this isn't edible dye or nontoxic even. The standard here is industrial strength material dye. So...now re-imagine all that I just described. Our water bottle was used primarily for rinsing out our mouths and lips and even eyes. 

EVERYONE wanted pictures with us again, and I gained a small amount of sympathy for celebrities as it's exhausting and very irritating. 
"You said 1 snap, that was 1!" "No sir, now another".

On Holi, you cannot say "No" to people, you cannot escape them, and the only place you may find five minutes to eat your roti without a thousand million hands on your face is right next to the food seller.

So many hands touching us. So, so many. Even the poor cows had dye on them, and the monkeys were scampering nervously away on the walls.

There are basically 3 forms of dye used on Holi. First is the liquid dye. This stains easily and is often applied by the bucketful, but is easily wiped away from orifices. Second is the powdered dye. Ooh, I hate this stuff. We bought 2 bags so we could play too, but we threw it pretty mildly I think. This stuff sticks to you, stains (it all does), fills your mouth, ears and nose, and makes it hard to breathe or drink water or see out of your glasses. It also clumps in your hair and forms a sort of shell. Third and worst is the foam. All of the above, but it sticks easier, is difficult to wipe off, smells awful, and is always, ALWAYS aimed directly at the face.

After about 2-3 hours of this madness, we beat a hasty retreat to our hotel, hopped in the shower, and scrubbed each other for quite awhile only to find that the dye wasn't coming off of our hair and skin and would be our companion for a few days. The harsh chemicals dried out my skin and especially hair. I'm still a little afraid I'm going to wake up missing clumps. We hung up our ruined clothing and ran stealthily to the hotel cafe for a safe meal avoiding the chaos. The rest of the day we spent indoors trying to get wifi, debating sticking our heads outside to look for milk or bottled water, and I actually spent it napping since I wasn't feeling so hot. Nolan was brave enough to venture out for granola, fruit and milk, and we had that for dinner as we waited out the rest of the crazy day in our room. Holi is exhausting!

As I write this, Nolan is pointing out that it sounds like Holi is terrible. It's not. I just want to convey the intensity of it, which we were wholly unprepared for. It was beautiful, crazy fun and so interesting to take part in such a joyous holiday with another culture. It was everything (okay, and way more) than I imagined, and I heartily recommend it, if you're up to it. However, like I've said, it's not for the faint of heart and there were definitely parts of it I was uncomfortable with...but that's part of the experience!

Happy Holi!

Rickshawing to Holi Town

Saturday morning, we ate a light last breakfast on the patio overlooking the river in Chitwan, then hopped on our bus to Kathmandu. It was relatively empty - just us and a couple other people on the whole thing, so at first we thought it would be a quiet, quick ride. Nope. The thing about these buses, is that the driver is paid through the bus company to drive these routes, and each passenger buys a ticket, which includes transportation to their city, and lunch. However, if the bus has any room, the driver pulls a little side business and picks up his friends and what we're pretty sure is every person he's ever met, and charges them just a small amount to hitch a ride also. So not only did we stop every 5 minutes, but the bus got noisy and crowded fast. By the time we got to our lunch spot, we were pretty over the bus thing. It would have taken us hours less to drive ourselves…though that still would have been more dangerous than was worth it (and that's from us, who drive and scooter in every country we visit). After lunch, we spent FOREVER on the second leg of the journey to Kathmandu. The roads were horrible, traffic was bad, and it was just exhausting. When we arrived in Kathmandu, the taxi driver had a hard time finding our hotel, since the area of Thamel we were staying in is like a maze. 

Finally we checked in, and headed out for the evening for dinner and exploring. We found a dirty little Indian place (seriously, Nolan was craving Indian food again BAD) that was almost literally a hole in the wall. Super tasty. After more walking around, and some tasting of Nepali sweets (tasty, but unbearably sugary!), we plopped down on the sofa at our hotel, and just chatted with one of the hotel managers, who made us hot tea and talked about world politics and random other topics. He had a book collection in the sitting room with a bunch of good reads…and 50 Shades of Grey. Apparently he thought it was a criminal justice book because of the handcuffs on the cover. Hah. We told him what it really was and he was super embarrassed and ripped it off the shelf.. 

Sometimes, those connections and conversations with people that we meet on our trips can make a day or place so much more colourful and enjoyable.

Sunday morning, we woke up for breakfast, then hopped in our cab to the airport. On the way, we stopped at the Boudhanath, which is a Buddhist Stupa that is very famous in Kathmandu. That famous picture of the eyes is taken from this Stupa. Very interesting place - many, many worshippers there singing and spinning the bell-like things on the side for good luck. After some pictures, we continued on to the airport, where we caught our flight to Delhi, then hopped in a rickshaw for 45 minutes to the train station, then ate a surprisingly very tasty (considering it was railroad food!) biryani lunch, and boarded our first sketchy Indian train. We had decided to brave sleeper class since it was only a 2-3 hour trip, and it was...interesting. Not the lowest class, so it wasn't like we had people or animals on top of us, but it was definitely very crowded, hot, smelly and dirty. I felt a little confined, so I ended up sitting on the step to the train for a big chunk of the way - for as long as I felt safe, hanging out of the train door while hurtling along the tracks. It was exhilarating and helped me forget about feeling off-colour. Finally we arrived at our station in Mathura, and got into a rickshaw to our hotel, which was NOT near the train station as I thought - but in the next town over. Oh well. So after almost 13 hours of various travel that day, we made it to our hotel. We set off in search of food, I had someone "bless" my white sweater with bright red dye in a pre-Holi celebration (Nolan had to restrain me from flipping out there), and we wound our way through back alleys just to find our way to the entrance to what seemed to be the only restaurant in town. Generally we like to eat a lot of street food, but street food here is very different...and very scary in that everything is dipped in or washed in or contains tap water, which is highly non-potable. 

After dinner, we headed off to bed to sleep off our travels and prepare to celebrate Holi the next day!

JuJu Dau and NorthFace

Our time in Bhaktapur was great - the medieval architecture and beautiful handicrafts there are truly unique. We caught our ride to Kathmandu airport and waited there for our next flight to Pokhara. The Kathmandu airport is one of the smallest I've been in, especially for a capital city. Oddly enough, it has the fastest wifi we've come across, so we were able to get some things done while there instead of just sitting and finishing a movie. Our flight was 30 minutes, so we just had time to get up in the air before beginning our descent again, hah. Also: one of the scarier descents/landings I've experienced. And that's from someone who's travelled a fair amount into random places. Pokhara is located just 30 miles from 3 of the highest peaks in the world, so you can imagine that it's a bit hard to get into, since it's surrounded by mountains. It also borders a big lake, so there's that too. You descend in jerks, and then bank steeply to the right as you're about to land - scary. 

Once we got settled into our hotel, we walked down to the lake and rented a canoe for few hours to watch the sunset from the water. Out on the water was so peaceful - you can see the World Peace Pagoda on top of the hill, and watch locals canoeing across the lake to their homes. There are definitely more tourists in Pokhara than Nagarkot or Bhaktapur, so we saw those too. After the boat, we walked to a little Indian and Nepali restaurant we found, since I have been loving Nepali food and Nolan's been missing Indian food. Compromise at its finest! Food was delicious, as usual. 

A typical Nepali set is called Dal Bhat, and means "soup and rice". You get some Dal, which is lentil soup, and then you get a plate that has a little bit of rice on it, some kind of a curried vegetable, other vegetables, pickled sauce, and then a tiny bowl of curd, to help with digestion afterwards. The curd usually tastes like plain yogurt, except in Bhaktapur, where they make a special type of curd called King Curd or "JuJu Dau". It's a bit more solid and sweet, and actually really delicious. In the Newari areas of the country (one of the ethnic groups here), you can also get a Newari set, which is similar to the Dal Bhat, but has fried vegetables (and really interesting kinds I've never seen, too!), curried something or other, pickled sauce, and then the rice is a dry, pounded thin rice (looks like dry oats) sprinkled on the middle of the plate with dry beans and lentils in it. I think it's actually super delicious. 

Anyway, after dinner we walked around Pokhara some more, and bought a fair amount of NorthFace goodies - they sell them very cheap since many are manufactured in the area. We tried a local version of a "cheesecake" on our walk back….not great.

Next morning we woke up before dawn to drive up to Sarangkot to see the sunrise. It was crowded and a long drive, but absolutely worth it. The top of that hill affords not only a view of the Pokhara valley and lakes, but more importantly: a front-row seat to the Himalayas and some of the highest, deadliest, and most majestic mountains in the world. The Annapurna range was within what felt like throwing distance, and ABSOLUTELY breathtaking. It's one thing to see pictures of mountains like that, but it is simply incomparable in reality. We stayed up there for awhile, taking pictures and videos, sipping hot masala tea, and just admiring the incredible creation.

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to eat a quick breakfast, and then put on our backpacks and headed up to the mountains for a day of trekking! We just did a 6-hour trek up to Australian camp, but it was challenging enough that we were exhausted afterwards. It was gorgeous up in those mountains, with an even closer view of the "scary mountains", as I call them. Air was fresh, we got to wander through isolated villages, and truly admire the beauty of the countryside. Since we were so tired, we walked back to the same spot for dinner as before, Nolan got a haircut (his first non-Anneliese haircut in many years1), and we walked the streets for awhile. It was nice to have a relaxing night, as I was recovering from 2 days of a really sore throat and congestion. I call this my Paris disease, as I get this same sickness every time I go to Paris or any other place where the pollution and air quality is bad enough to make me sick.

Next morning, we ate a light breakfast and hopped on a bus to Chitwan. Nice bus - for here, downright luxurious. It had wifi, air conditioning, power outlets, and they even handed out free water bottles. We spent 3-4 hours winding along roads to a lunch spot, then hopped back on for another 2 hours until arriving at Chitwan, where we made our way to our hotel. We took a walking tour through the local village, got to visit the elephant stables, then walked through the jungle for an hour or so to get back to our hotel for dinner and then a cultural dance show - not a typical thing we would do, but part of our hotel's offerings, so we thought we might as well take advantage of it. Afterwards we sat down for some hot chocolate pudding on the patio, and then headed off to bed.

The next morning we got up for breakfast, then walked down to the river for a canoe ride. We spent about an hour or more in that dumb boat - it would have been so peaceful except for the Chinese tourists in the boat next to ours, and sitting behind me. Seriously. The group was so loud and obnoxious even our guides were telling them to knock it off. Normally, flipping over in a canoe isn't too bad - especially in such a lovely river…but since this river has a remarkably high population of a "very aggressive" crocodile species in it…probably best to stay in the boat. Apparently 6-7 people are eaten by these crocs each year. 

Fortunately, we got to head off on our own after the canoe landed, and we spent almost 2 hours trekking through the jungles. It's amazing that our guide knew where he was, as we weren't on trails most of the time, and were just looking for animals and crunching through the underbrush. We saw a rhino from a distance, and several crocodiles…but nothing spectacular. Finally we got back to the jeeps and made it back to our hotel for lunch. By this time, Nolan's got some kind of sickness lingering - a fever and muscle aches with heavy cold symptoms. He keeps saying he has Dengue fever but who knows. He's been going back and forth between really cold and really hot, and we're hoping he's on the mend now after the Tylenol helped his fever break a little.

Anyway, after lunch we had about 2 hours to rest, which was great for Nolan to sleep and try to get better a bit. I was busy booking another hotel and checking email and such, and then decided to take myself out on a walk to battle some restlessness. I picked up some more waters, printed out our train tickets for India, and then got a couple little ice creams to perk us up before our Elephant Safari.

The Elephant Safari was fantastic. We rode on a sweet little elephant who carried us through the jungle for two hours. Since the animals can't tell the humans are on the elephants, they don't run off the same way they do when it's just people walking around. So we saw several rhinos, VERY close (10 meters or less!), lots of spotted deer, and of course loads of monkeys. At the end, we bought a bunch of bananas and gave them to our little elephant friend as a tip :) We headed back to our hotel, sat down for a nice relaxing dinner by the river, and spent our last evening in Chitwan peacing out before the next few days of travel.

MoMo Time: First days in Nepal

First off: internet here in Nepal so far has been spotty at best...so these posts may be few and far between. Travelling to get here was actually smooth and relaxing...until I was about to board my plane for Delhi in Munich. Until then, I had a great send-off to my trip by finishing EVERY SINGLE THING I wanted to on my work "to do" list, then had a wonderful dinner with my dad at this super cute Italian place in Burlingame before he took me to the airport. On the plane I napped, sipped coffee and delicious German food (love Lufthansa!), watched all the new Oscar winners since they had a fabulous selection, and just relaxed in my seat. So there I am, groggy in the Munich airport, wandering around deciding if I want to buy anything while there, and I get a text from Indigo airlines saying "hello, your flight today to Kathmandu has been cancelled. Sorry for the trouble!". Whaaaaat. So I'm frantically calling (note to parents: you may see a long-distance charge on the phone bill :( ) the airline, who basically tell me they'd be happy to put me on the flight two days later if I want! Hmm.

So since my flight was about to leave (I was literally the last person on the plane) I had to just get on the plane to Delhi, and hope I could wrangle a last-minute flight to Nepal from there. Whew. I landed in Delhi, and after much back and forth was able to find someone to get me on a flight (for more than twice the price of the original) to Kathmandu. It was one of the last tickets, and arrived in Nepal at the same time as Nolan...which was convenient. So I sucked it up and paid, got through security and went to wait at my gate for like...5 hours.

While sitting there, totally bored because wifi wasn't working and I didn't feel like reading, I get a text from Nolan. Seriously. He was asking where I was because he was looking for me in Delhi. Lol. To make a long story short, he had a 5 hour layover there also, which I hadn't realized, AND was on the SAME FLIGHT as the one I had just booked, which I also didn't realize! To make things more amazing, the ticket I booked was in the super roomy exit aisle and someone switched seats so we got to sit together! So we were reunited randomly in the Delhi airport, and spent our 4 hours until our flight eating a slow breakfast together and catching up. BEST SURPRISE EVER.

I wouldn't know how to top that, but it just got even better.

We arrived in Nepal, got our Visas, and hopped in the car to our lodging way up in the mountains, in Nagarkot. As it turns out, Nagarkot is AMAZING. You can see Everest and many of the highest peaks of the Himalayas from there at sunset and at sunrise. So we settled in as literally the only people staying in this beautiful lodge at the top of a mountain, sat by the fire in the common room, and sipped hot masala chai while having a private date together :) They cooked us a delicious Nepali dinner from scratch, and we had one of the most romantic and relaxing evenings we can remember in many years. It's so quiet and peaceful up in those mountains, and the air is so fresh and cold, that you can't help but feel removed and totally at peace. Before bed, we got extra blankets and two rubber water bottles to stick in our bed at our feet. Those babies stayed hot ALL NIGHT and made the room super warm. We still can't figure out how they stayed hot so long.

When we woke up for sunrise, the whole mountain was completely fogged in, so no sunrise mountain viewing :( But it was still beautiful, so we walked around outside for a bit before a lovely breakfast and more masala tea (I'm going to overdose here, I know it). Nolan surprised me again with a (very early - you know us!) birthday present he had gotten me in Hyderabad. Something I had wanted for a long time: really, really nice pearls, which apparently are a specialty in Hyderabad. He spoils me, truly. So now I'm feeling all fancy...and pretty nervous that someone's going to steal my luggage and my pearls before we leave.

We left Nagarkot mid-morning to stop at the view tower, which was still foggy, and then continue on our way to Bhaktapur in the Kathmandu Valley. It was foggy and also SUPER smogged in because of the Kathmandu factories. Sad. We arrived in Bhaktapur around lunchtime, and checked into our hotel and grabbed lunch after wandering around for awhile. This place is incredibly well-preserved and beautiful. It's a medieval Nepali town that's been preserved by fees you pay for entrance into the old part. The whole town is old pink brick, delicate and amazingly intricate wood scrollwork, and bronze statues. I'd post pictures of the place, but the internet is terrible. Food here is just okay. I really like the unique vegetables and the smashed dry rice and ALL the masala tea, but Nolan's kind of gunning for more Indian curry. We did get to try MoMos (Nepali spicy dumplings) and JuJu Dau (King Curd - like a sweet cream curd that's only really made here in Bhaktapur), and they were delicious!

Today we're exploring a little more, then heading to Pokhara and the lake there for a few days of mountain viewing, boating, biking, and getting to know more Nepal! The people here are lovely and kind, and as they like to say: always smiling. I've heard more people walking around singing here than anywhere else - it's a beautiful thing.

Hopefully will update again sometime soon.

Thankful Thursday

Let's start this post with some happiness, and end on a note of thankfulness, shall we? When it feels like there is just too much going on around me, it always helps to focus on the beautiful things. Like this Indian wedding that Nolan got to be at - he was invited in after hearing it from his hotel, and was made to feel like an honoured guest. How cool!

 This week at work my boss and I celebrated our 5-year anniversaries at McKesson (since they're pretty close together) by going out for a super nice lunch and spending non-office time together. She even arranged a sweet surprise after the meal with a "Happy Anniversary" chocolate message on it. She's the best. Here we are, about to enjoy our little treat!

I also got to leaf through my booklet of gifts - you get to pick one when you "turn 5" at McKesson. 

 And now I have a shiny new trophy for my desk :)

It's hard to believe it's been a little over 5 years since I joined McKesson. Only God knew that this would be just the right place for me. It's pretty mind-boggling when I reflect back on it all. Every day I'm SO thankful to be where I am, for my colleagues, and my career...and the fact that I love going to work each day!

There's a sushi place walking distance from our house, and despite the fact that we love sushi, we've never been. Because it's not a buffet, and therefore not good "value" for Nolan. So Julie and I waited until we had a night where just the two of us would go out without our husbands, and we indulged in what turned out to be actually really tasty and unique sushi! We also ordered a lot of it. Oops. 

So onto the thankfulness now, I think.

1. I'm SO SO SO thankful that I get to join Nolan in a couple days! My plane leaves in less than a day now (woo!) and after a very long flight, we'll be reunited once again. Preferably with a hot bowl of delicious curry nearby. Seriously though - SO.EXCITED. cannot.even.tell.you.

2. I'm thankful for a little vacation. I've been keeping myself so busy with work and personal responsibilities, that I haven't made time to stop and smell the roses. Which is probably why I've been bad at blogging. So vacation will be nice - much needed away time.

3. I'm thankful for our friends who take care of our pets. Without them, our adventuring just wouldn't be possible.

4. I'm thankful for (again) my job and my boss and my work that I get to return to in a couple weeks. I won't overdo it with words but simply put, I genuinely love where I'm at.

5. I'm thankful for a new outlook and renewed energy - I finished a series of books recently that really reinvigorated my relationship with God, and although I have a long way to go, I'm so grateful to finally feel that I'm climbing out of the desert I've been in, and getting to know myself a little more in the process.

What are you thankful for?