Best of Nepal - yup - from 2008

It only took me about six years....but I finally got though one more country from our big round-the-world trip back in 2007/2008. That means I only have South Africa, Mozambique, Swaziland, and one day in the UAE to go!! Woohoo! The part that is funny about all of this is that you can tell we have aged since this trip.... perhaps we are a few pounds more normal (we got sick more than once in 13 months and lost a crap load of weight that wasn't there to lose) and a few more wrinkles have snuck in there.

We loved Nepal even though we only had two weeks there. At the time we had two choices - spend another two weeks in Southeast Asia where we had already been for about five months or spend two weeks in Nepal before heading to Africa. Nepal won.....we were close, we used frequent flyer miles for Jay's flight, and what the heck right? We loved it! Kathmandu was crazy and awesome, our short trek was lovely, and the food was so damn fantastic. 

I took this photo from the plane as we came in to land. Judging by our flight track, I think *think* think this might be Everest.

Colorful Kathmandu

I put this photo in here because I thought I'd entertain you with all the funny Julie stories I could from this trip. The rest of the stories you can gather from reading the captions in the photo album which is linked below. On to funny story #1 - As many of you already know, I'm not a fan of flying. I fly because I love to travel but it doesn't mean I'm happy about being on a plane (it is a control freak thing, ya know?). A few scary plane incidents in my life didn't help that fear.... but I've discovered that martinis do!! My favorite thing to do before a flight is to arrive at the airport early enough to grab a stiff martini or two. Being a bit tipsy is a great thing when you don't like flying. Having a husband that loves to fly also helps, but he wasn't on this flight with me because he used frequent flyer miles and was arriving in Kathmandu via India on Jet Airways. So now I was alone on a flight into Nepal, no man was there to stop me, and Thai Airways spoils passengers rotten on their flights with booze. So every time the flight attendants passed by with wine or port I reached over the kind non-drinking Muslim sitting next to me and boozed it up. Thank goodness! No one had warned me how insane the approach was to the runway in Kathmandu. I felt like we were dropping out of the sky and no amount of alcohol was going to make me think everything was fine. Surprisingly, we survived and I teetered off the plane to be greeted by Jay who had waited several hours at the airport for me. Drunk and giggly Julie went through customs with a very sober Jay at her side. Somehow I answered all the officer's questions properly and Nepal allowed us in! We headed straight to our hotel where we were eaten alive by bedbugs. Awesome.

Drying out corn for popcorn....my favorite snack on the trek

Dead Julie

Funny story #2  starts with our short trek along the beginning of the Annapurna Trek. Remember, we only had two weeks....so we spent all of our time exploring Kathmandu, Pokhara, and completing a five-day stairmaster trek. On our first day I remember thinking I would be O.K. on the hike since we had just come from trekking in Burma and we walked everywhere we went, every day. Well, Nepal kicked my butt. I persevered on the stairmaster for the entire day. But at the end of the day our guide looked at Jay and then looked at me and said "he is strong, but you....I think you are not so strong". Ha haaaaaaa! What can I say, I was always a better swimmer than I was a walker. I still loved every minute.

View from our first night on the trek - stunning

Two of my favorite things in the world - Jay and mountains (in this case, Annapurna South)

The forests we trekked through were gorgeous - draped in green and loaded with dripping rain and, wait for it, leeches! Yes! Nepal is known for its leeches! At one point on the trek I pulled one off of Jay's forehead. It must have fallen from a branch. We tried to combat the leeches by tucking our pants into our socks, but this wasn't always foolproof. Leeches have their ways.

 

Funny story #3 - Julie sits down at a tea house for lunch and feels something warm and moist moving around the edge of her socks that were tucked into her pants. She pulls her pants out of her sock and this massive and very full leech falls out (see leech to left of my hiking boot). She might have sworn a bit but it is unlikely she screamed because she is a biologist after all. The Nepali caretakers of the tea house break into giggles at the tall, blonde, white girl who just discovered a leech had bit her on the ass. Of course, leech bites bleed a lot - so I got to spend the rest of the day showing off a side butt blood spot from my souvenir leech bite. And it really was a souvenir - that bite itched for weeks! It was insane! I think our guide got a kick out of all my issues (the stairmaster, I puked once from altitude, and then the leech) but I hope he liked me in the end because I was always happy.... despite the funny mishaps.

My favorite image of Annapurna South

Heading back down

Back in Kathmandu after the trek and a few dreamy days in Pokhara.... we visited the stunning Boudha Temple and watched people walk round and round and round the temple.

Funny story #4 - The day after we saw the Boudha Temple we headed to another temple called the Swayambhun Temple - but it is better known as the Monkey Temple. The monkeys used the prayer flags here as their climbing ropes and they were a hoot to watch. Well, those monkeys must have been watching me as well. At one point I walked under the overhanging roof of a nearby building and felt a warm liquid hit my head. The Nepalis all started giggling (this was a common occurrence that I loved and usually deserved). I looked up and spotted a monkey looking down on me. Peed on by a monkey. Yup. We didn't leave right away - I was determined to get my sunset view of the city from the temple - pee in my hair or not.

Here is that Kathmandu sunset view! 

Final funny story (#5) - This is a good one. I stuck in a photo of the Nepali rupee for a reason (although it is pretty isn't it?). In order to fly out of Nepal you have to pay a departure tax at the airport in cash...Nepali rupee cash. Not so conveniently, the Nepali rupee can't be exchanged for other currencies outside of Nepal, so you either needed to exchange what you had left for US dollars or spend what you had before leaving the country. We had spent most of our cash and actually needed to go to an ATM to get enough cash for the departure tax. One problem - I had consumed some coffee. Now, good friends know I don't like flying and good friends also know that I'm a naturally wired individual who doesn't need caffeine. I get super punchy, jittery, wired, jumpy, you name it. But I love the taste of coffee. I have solved this problem in the USA because I can buy strong, dark roast, decaf coffee. But you can't get that in Nepal. So I got sucked into a lovely coffee the morning we were flying out. And then I went to the ATM to take out a few thousand rupee for the departure tax (1000 rupee is about $9 US). But I punched in a some extra zeros in my jittery caffeinated state and took out a few hundred US dollars worth of rupees....which are worthless outside of Nepal! I flipped! I was wired after all! I didn't think we would be able to exchange it! Life was coming to an end! Jay firmly sent me to our hotel room. While I paced and paced alone in the room, he disappeared into the Nepali black market and exchanged the rupees for dollars and we left the country without losing a dime (minus ATM transaction fees). Man.

Best of photos are here: https://plus.google.com/photos/103045486528969944500/albums/6132601733482106177?banner=pwa&authkey=CLTr0seg1vmumgE

Our blogs that were written when we were really traveling in Nepal - just two!
http://jj-adventure.blogspot.com/2008/09/everest-and-annapurnas.html
http://jj-adventure.blogspot.com/2008/09/trekking-in-nepal.html