Nepal!
Hey Dudes. At the moment I am in Kathmandu, Nepal. I've been here a week and it's been really cool. Kathmandu has awesome food, so I've just been living in anticipation of the next meal. Oh, and I see temples and stuff too. But I mainly eat.
Well, we did eventually make it to Darjeeling. It was kind of a let down. It was just cold and cloudy all day. I didn't get to see any nice views at all. We visited a tea plantation and a temple, but otherwise, there wasn't much there. We decided not to go to Sikkim because of convenience and time, so I left early with Tati and Vlad and headed to Nepal. It was sad saying goodbye to Richard and Albert. We had some good Uno tournaments...
Nepal is cool. It's like India, but then not. When I first crossed the border and went into the immigration office, someone actually offered to help me! It was kind of a culture shock. Usually in India, you're completely ignored by anyone behind the counter until they finish their chai/newspaper/conversation before they'll even acknowledge your presence. I was beginning to think that things in Nepal would be easier until we had to chase our bus down the street and argue our way on. The entire back row of seats was full of pineapples. Very India.
Since Vlad and Tati only have two weeks here, we went straight on a trip the second day we were here. We went to Chitwan National Park. There are a bunch of restaurants/hotels on the lazy river that borders the park. It was really hot and humid and we couldn't resist jumping in the water floating with the current our backs. We also got to bathe with an elephant! It's was so much fun to sit on the elephant in the middle of the river and have him spray water on us with his trunk. I like elephants. The next day we went on a five hour jeep safari. The first three hours were really boring. We were driving and driving and all we saw were a bird and a monkey. Yea, the same kind of monkeys I saw everyday in Baroda and Delhi. whooppee. But the last hour was better and we saw a rhino up close! It was just in the middle of the road eating and looking at us. When it turned to leave, we followed it and when we were about 15 feet from it, it all of a sudden turned around and I thought it was going to charge us. The driver picked up a metal rod and I was thinking, "What is he going to do with that? Challenge the rhino to a duel?" But luckily, it just stared at us some more and then turned to walk away.
We also went on a long bike ride to see these beautiful lakes. The bikes weren't very good, however, and most of the roads were dirt roads with LOTS of rocks. My poor butt. First the camel safari and now this. It's been about a week since we did the bike ride, but I'm still sore. After the Park, we went to the city of Pokhara. It's on the shores of the second largest lake in Nepal. It was also very beautiful and we took a boat out to the middle. There are supposed to be really nice views there, but right now it's really hazy and cloudy in Nepal, so we didn't get to see much. Sad. I guess I'll just have to come back someday.
Right now, we don't really have any defined plans for Nepal. I think we might go on a whitewater rafting trip and then I'll trek around the Kathmandu Valley. We'll see what happens.
Well, we did eventually make it to Darjeeling. It was kind of a let down. It was just cold and cloudy all day. I didn't get to see any nice views at all. We visited a tea plantation and a temple, but otherwise, there wasn't much there. We decided not to go to Sikkim because of convenience and time, so I left early with Tati and Vlad and headed to Nepal. It was sad saying goodbye to Richard and Albert. We had some good Uno tournaments...
Nepal is cool. It's like India, but then not. When I first crossed the border and went into the immigration office, someone actually offered to help me! It was kind of a culture shock. Usually in India, you're completely ignored by anyone behind the counter until they finish their chai/newspaper/conversation before they'll even acknowledge your presence. I was beginning to think that things in Nepal would be easier until we had to chase our bus down the street and argue our way on. The entire back row of seats was full of pineapples. Very India.
Since Vlad and Tati only have two weeks here, we went straight on a trip the second day we were here. We went to Chitwan National Park. There are a bunch of restaurants/hotels on the lazy river that borders the park. It was really hot and humid and we couldn't resist jumping in the water floating with the current our backs. We also got to bathe with an elephant! It's was so much fun to sit on the elephant in the middle of the river and have him spray water on us with his trunk. I like elephants. The next day we went on a five hour jeep safari. The first three hours were really boring. We were driving and driving and all we saw were a bird and a monkey. Yea, the same kind of monkeys I saw everyday in Baroda and Delhi. whooppee. But the last hour was better and we saw a rhino up close! It was just in the middle of the road eating and looking at us. When it turned to leave, we followed it and when we were about 15 feet from it, it all of a sudden turned around and I thought it was going to charge us. The driver picked up a metal rod and I was thinking, "What is he going to do with that? Challenge the rhino to a duel?" But luckily, it just stared at us some more and then turned to walk away.
We also went on a long bike ride to see these beautiful lakes. The bikes weren't very good, however, and most of the roads were dirt roads with LOTS of rocks. My poor butt. First the camel safari and now this. It's been about a week since we did the bike ride, but I'm still sore. After the Park, we went to the city of Pokhara. It's on the shores of the second largest lake in Nepal. It was also very beautiful and we took a boat out to the middle. There are supposed to be really nice views there, but right now it's really hazy and cloudy in Nepal, so we didn't get to see much. Sad. I guess I'll just have to come back someday.
Right now, we don't really have any defined plans for Nepal. I think we might go on a whitewater rafting trip and then I'll trek around the Kathmandu Valley. We'll see what happens.
posted by Jenna Furley | 10:53 PM
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