On learning to like (if not tolerate) spicy foods

As it has been a few days since my last post, I thought I would update you all on my week.

We spend around 5 days in Pokhara, too long to spend in any one place really. The first couple days were amazing, we hiked up to the World Peace Pagoda, erected by the Japanese some time ago. The pagoda itself was beautiful, but the view was amazing (its really all about the views here). We've been trying to watch our wallets, so we don't end up starving at the end of this trip. Therefore, we have been splitting dinners of veggie curry everywhere. Exceptions to the penny-pinching rule were made for tissues (which are in high demand around the area of my sinuses) and, of course, chocolate. Twix and Mars bars, more specifically.

We spent a few more days in Pokhara, basically stalling because we were at a loss for what to do next. One day we rented a boat for 5 hours and went out on the great lake we were staying near. Most of the gigantic mountain range visible in Pokhara is reflected in this lake. It was, needless to say, a wonderful day. I believe it was that night or the next when we were lulled into a restaurant by the sounds of Van Morrison's "Sweet Thing" followed by many more of the classics. Imagine our disappointment when Van the Man was abandoned in favor of Bob Marley. If I don't hear another Bob Marley song in my life, it would be too soon (though I'll most likely hear one tonight). He seems to be the most significant leftover from the once prominent hippie movement that had its claws in the Nepalese tourist scene in the mid-late 90's. Bob Marley and hemp necklaces.

A few days later, we took a bus back to Kathmandu with hopes of fixing our flight situation. We only have a ticket from Mumbai to Egypt (as India was our original plan) and wanted to change it for little, if no money. Turns out changing it would cost us $300 each! We were bummed because we just don't have very much money. Thankfully two men came to our rescue. Their names (and I'm not shitting you) are pronounced 'Props' and 'Achoo.' They each seem to know the comedy that is their name, as they laughed every time they said it. Anyway, Props and Achoo proceeded to look online and make a few phone calls, eventually getting us a visa to India for the next day (today) and train tickets to Mumbai for considerably less than we had expected. Man, and I thought the Egyptians were helpful!

We ended up striking up a little friendship with these oddly-named men, and went to eat with them last night. We went to a restaurant that was famous in Kathmandu, I guess. Props ordered us food and drink. I had no idea what he said, but turns out he had ordered us so much food it would make a pig blush. Also, we drank the Nepali rice wine out of a barrel basically. It was delicious. The place was lively and the food was so spicy at times it felt like torture. But once I wiped off the chilies, the food was actually delicious. We met a German man, George, who had been living in Nepal for 20 years and lived on a farm. I loved him. I'm sure the man I marry will be a carbon copy of this man.

Today is rainy, we've taken to sitting in cafes and reading on these days. It suits us fine.

my so-called trek

Why, hello...I didn't see you standing there. Oh, me? This is my 6th day in Nepal and, well, could I ask you a favor? Could you just chop of my legs, for see, I am by no means a 'trekker' and walking up that mountain has made me to feel as if someone was beating the shit out of my lower half all night.

Ok, ok, it's not that bad. In fact, going up the mountain wasn't too bad at all...it was coming down that did me in. Every time I would stop to rest my legs would wobble and almost give out from underneath me. I know, I know, these things would not happen were it not for my poor shape. However, if you had the choice of paying half a dollar for a ride up/down to/from the unbelievably gorgeous mountain town or walking up/down the mountain to get there, you'd walk too...right? Well, maybe not.

Ok, I'm getting ahead of myself. As I have said, we had a layover in Sharjah, UAE. A very clean fishing town on the Arabian Gulf with ABSOLUTLY nothing to do. Nothing. There are only so many times you can eat, drink or go on the internet in a day before you go batshit crazy. But, we did see a movie (Dan in Real Life) and managed to obtain a picture of the ease at which Arabic is translated into English:

We got into Nepal, got a hostel in Kathmandu and slept...for a while. This traveling stuff sure makes me sleepy. Exploring Kathmandu is a bit stressful, for everyone is desperatly trying to sell you something and the streets are packed. Really, not all that different from Cairo actually. I am getting the impression that because of the political instablity here (there is an ongoing civil war betweetn the Maoists and the Government) the tourism sector has taken a huge blow. But nothing has happened lately and it all seems pretty safe for us travelers, so no worries. We wanted desperatly to get out of Kathmandu for it was much too polluted and stressful for us. I will, however, be posting some fine pictures of the city (and the rest of our trip) as soon as I get back to Cairo, because connection is slow here and it costs money!

Taking a 6:30 am bus out of the city, we reached a town called Dumre, small with nothing much to see but directly below another town called Bandipur. Bandipur may be my favorite place I have ever been. We hiked up the mountain to get there (hence this painful feeling in my legs)...and man, there is nothing quite like the view of the Himalayas from atop a mountain, even if its one of the small ones! I tried to get a good picture of the snow-capped mountains in the background, but the air was foggy and a good picture was not to be had.

We reached the top and spotted a small village of great little Magar huts, animals, and little children running everywhere. There was a small, old guesthouse nearby, so we got a room and, you guessed it, took a nap. That night we simply took in the town, met some fellow travelers (Canadians...they were the only ones around!), ate some great food and drank some not-so-great beer. FYI- Everest is a watery ghost of a decent beer. They also enjoy Oranjeboom and Lowenbrau here. I take the Lowenbrau, every time.

The next day we decided to take the hour long hike to Siddha Gopa, "the largest cave in Nepal." Two hours later, we reach said cave. Two hours of constand downhill, my god did we have the shakes. The cave,however, was worth it. We found a guide just sitting in front of the cave with a fire and a beginners book in English. This guy's job is to sit on top of a mountain, sometimes walk around in a huge cave and occasionally learn some English for the sake of his communication with tourists.

The cave was amazing. Huge, really, huge. There were some natural formations in the shapes of trees, lions and cobras. We saw a flock (is that the word?) of bats sleeping on the ceiling. Though we would have been happy simply looking at the first room of this monstrosity, our guide insisted we follow him down tiny little latters, up rocks wet from the small waterfalls flowing over them, and inside a terribly hot tiny room that you need to crawl through the smallest of spaces to enter.

The next morning we took a bus from Dumre to Pokhara, another touristy city with a great lake and beautiful view of the Annapurna mountains. We are going to take a boatride today and maybe tomorrow head down to Chitwan Park for an Elephant Safari or two.

I promise, I will post all of my pictures in due time!

I hope all is well with you. I miss you all.

We arrive...somewhere

Day one of our stay in Nepal. As we were very tired from sleeping 6 hours on Airport chairs switching sides whenever a leg went numb, we took accomodations staight from the airport. A bit more expensive than we will pay again, but it was our first day, so...it's alright.

We are now in the process of tracking down some couchsurfers to stay with, to bring our costs down significantly. We saw most of the tourist area yesterday but are going to venture out to the city and maybe some surrounding areas. Also, plans will be made to trek in the mountains at some point--maybe for 2 or 3 days.

This post is mainly to ease the worries of the few people who actually read this blog. So, Mom, Dad, Lisa, Emily---I'm ok.

ps. It's beautiful here.

Detour

Ok...say you were living in a country other than your own, oh I don't know, let's say Egypt. You wish to got to India (well, really Kenya but those plans were derailed due to some disputed ballots) and book a fairly cheap ticket leaving from Alexandria, a few hours away from you by train. Ok, buy tickets. check. Acquire spending money. check. Buy train ticket to Alexandria. check. Get Indian Visa. Oh shit. But wait, it says here on the handy website for the Indian Embassy in Cairo that anybody can get same day tickets! Score, we'll be golden! But, just to be sure, let's go two days before in case any problems arise. What? We don't get visa's at the Embassy but at the consulate that is located in the place from which I just took a taxi and it's only open tomorrow from 9am-11am? Ok, that's cutting it a little close, but remember these words- same day visas- still golden. Next day-arrive at the consulate promptly at 9am. Hand our passports over, pay the 30 LE fee (wow, thats cheap!). What, excuse me, whats that? The 'same day visa' only applies to Egyptians? And we'll have to wait until Wednesday for ours? But, we have tickets for tomorrow morning at 2am! Shit! There is nothing you can do? Even if we go in the back and put on a show for you...NOTHING?!! Ok, ok, calm down! We'll simply have to see if we can push back our flight! Ok, to the travel agent! Hooooooold on there Charlie, can't change flights less than 24 hours beforehand. Fuck.


OK, this is you. Do you:

a. book a later flight to mumbai, losing 200$ in the process but possibly saving your sanity?

b. Pitch a fit at the Indian consulate, requiring either a pity visa or forced withdrawl from the building?

c. book a flight from the Mumbai airport to another city bordering it, waiting in that country to get your Indian Visas.

We picked C. And we decided on Nepal. Kathmandu sounds interesting and has some pretty classic songs written about it.

Problem--the cheapest flight was 303$. Ok, ok, we're in a bind, we'll pay. Wait, what? They have to mail the tickets, no etickets...and they'll be happy to mail them express to the United States? Oh, thanks Jet Airways.

We're screwed. scramble scramble scramble. Do we go, do we not. We go. We have to. What's the worst that can happen? We get stuck in the Mumbai Airport for three weeks and the whole thing turns into a situation dangerously close to a bad-accented Tom Hanks movie and this blog gets pathetically interesting.

Oh man, all this scrambling, we missed our train to Alexandria. Its ok, we'll just take a later one. The train station, being run around by tourism police trying to get us a ticket on the 8pm train. Finally, the train is taking off so we run and jump onto it, spending most of the trip sitting on the floor in various places, one being right in front of the bathroom.

Alexandria Airport. Looks like my first high school. Small, dirty, intimate. Alright, this is it, if we're asked anything about Visa's or ongoing flights, play dumb. Excuse me, we thought we could just show up in Mumbai without a ticket or visa. No? oh man, we're just two girls, without a place to go on vacation. Ok, we'll see what you have for trips to Kathmandu, but it's probably going to be too much money. What's that you say? It's $150 cheaper than the flight we were planning on buying in Mumbai? I guess we'll take it. A problem you say? We need to spend a day in the United Arab Emirates? Hmm...would I like to see a beautiful country I haven't been to for the same price as not seeing it? Sure, why not.

And that's where I am right now. In Sharaja, UAE...with a belly full of delicious Indian food and great coffee. We're off to find a park to sleep in. Next stop: Kathmandu. After that, who knows.

Look for us in the next Bollywood release...

Sara and I are off...off to the land of brightly colored fabrics. We will be traveling around India until the 8th of February, when we will resume the daily struggle of teaching Egyptian children the present continuous (and all that crap). Our flight leaves from Alexandria on Friday, so we're heading up there tomorrow afternoon. While in India, we will be relying on the hospitality of our fellow couchsurfers to let us into their homes so we can draw mustaches on all of their pictures.

Plans are tentative, but as of now we are visiting Mumbai, Goa and probably Agra. It's a little spaced out, and a few more cities will defiantly be in the mix there. We'll be spending a lot of time in the bunks of Indian trains, so think of us often and fondly (maybe pray if thats your thing). I will try to get at least one blog in there, but we all know how good I am at keeping up with this god-blasted thing.