The one in Nepal!

And so here is the start of the second chapter.... the wonders of Nepal!!

After a long flight to the airport and somewhat of a mission to get my visa sorted.... it really did not have to be so complicated had I looked into it and had the people at the airport been an ounce of help, but after getting money out, exchanging it into USA$ I finally claimed my bag... little did I know that the guy had not stamped my passport with the actual visa, and that I actually needed to take my receipt to another guy for that. Anyway.... I left the airport and after several minutes of an overwhelming amount of taxi men wanting to help me, I found the rep from our hotel (that I'd brilliantly booked over the internet) and was taken back to dump my bags, before returning to pick up my beautiful comrade. The drive to the hotel and back was too much to take in and I felt a surreal bubble encase me on the journey. Coming from the bright lights and big city of Auckland to Kathmandu, well you could not get much different to be honest. The city itself is pretty dirty, rubbish is piled up in corners and dust has covered them in a grey snow. Vehicles drive pretty much wherever they so wish as long as it gets them to their destination on time, their horns orchestrate the air with what quickly becomes an annoying drone. Add to that the dogs and chickens running around, the goats on the side and the occasional cow to add to the confusion... you've got yourself a jam packed road for my first journey!
So we returned to the airport with 5 mins to kill before Anna's flight landed.... I rolled with the locals and stood by arrivals in a big sweaty crowd waiting for the face I longed to see.... an hour and a half later, my heart double speed and my worry levels sky high, she walked through arrivals (Visa's proving a longer process than we'd both imagined). And so the two of us reunited in an embrace and trundled back into the van back to the hotel, jumping from one conversation to the next with 5 months worth of news to catch up on!! Our first evening was spent on a rooftop terrace with a curry and beer over looking the mountains. Lush!

The adventure really began the next day with me realising the lack of visa in my passport and so spent several hours looking for the immigration office... feeling thoroughly overwhelmed from the busy streets, the complete culture change and the ever present image of poverty, one that I had only ever really viewed via the TV, litter really did reign the streets. We finally made it to the office and spent a confusing hour getting my passport stamped.... half the guys claiming to work there were actually 'nobodies' offering help and trying to carry your documents so to get a tip at the end claiming it was added visa costs, thankfully the official passport stamper warned me and kept me clear, so no extra costs for me. The rest of the day was spent getting a little lost due to Anna's (lack of) skill of mapp reading, and wandering around Durbur Square looking at all the temples. If you looked past the mass of people, it really was a beautfiul place and I imagine before the introduction of cars and motorcycles quite peaceful. We sat apon a couple of temples and had a brief look inside the courtyard of the home of a real live goddess - poor girl is about 10 and is basically locked up in a temple her whole life being worshipped! The square itself is beautiful, but we found it quite stressful and busy due to the run up of their big festival Dasain.... the number of beggars, holy men and trinket sellers wanting money proved a little too much on our first day and so made it back to Thamel to relax for the eveing.

Wednesday was the big 25th... I awoke to a display of cards and gifts which was brilliant to open, made the day feel official! We then headed to the internet cafe where Anna showed me a video friends from home had put together - think fancy dress, playground and my own personal birthday song and you probably still won't appreciate the brilliance of it (I'll add the link at the bottom... it's so so good). After a few tears we went for breakfast... this is where the day took a somewhat strange turn and the birthday fun disappeared somewhat... we spent most of the day in the heat trying to find a bus to Nargakot, a place up in the mountains that we'd been informed was truly beautiful with one of the best sunrises, but no one seemed to know anything about the bus and were sent on a wild goose chase. Eventually we decided to get a bus to Bhaktapur where we changed onto another bus up to Nargakot. The buses are something else here also.... seems to be more the merrier, including the chickens! On other buses you even see Goats hitching a ride on the roof! I spent the ride squished onto a seat with a man and his two daughters, Anna spent the journey balancing on several bags of rice! Other people were pushed onto the roof, so when it started raining we became quite thankful for our cramped conditions. We finally made it to Nagarkot, and walked up the mountain road to our hotel. ON the way I began to feel somewhat queasy and by the time we arrived at the hotel I needed to sleep off the strange wave of nausea that had come over me. After an hours kip Anna woke me to go for dinner.... I did not feel great, and the rest of the evening I battled with stomach cramps, light headedness and an aching torso.... so on my 25th birthday I had a celebratory meal of water and boiled rice and was in bed asleep come 9pm! Wuay, Happy birthday me.... We put it down to a leathal mix of jet lag, heat exhaustion, slight altitude sickness (as we were about 2300m up) and maybe something dodgy in my tummy.... either that or it was my body congratulating me on turning 1/4 century... the first step towards being old "Happy birthday you're going to start falling apart!" Great!
Anyway we decided to celebrate my birthday on Thursday to compensate and awoke early to watch the 'Amazing' sunrise only to be greeted with heavy monsoon clouds and a view all of 10m in front of us. We did not let this set the tone of the day and decided to walk down the mountain towards Kathmandu. It was beautiful, a true glimpse of Nepal... tiny villages made up of a small collection of huts, goats being hurded along the dirt track, the locals out working the rice fields, and the children running around amusing themselves with whatever they could get their hands on.... one happily played with a stick mounted onto two small wheels. I'd like to see any english child find that so amusing! Most of the children were fascinated by us and took the opportunity to practise their english, which compromised of "hello" and "where you from", "What your name".... better than my nepalese thats for sure! They all looked so blissfully happy and carefree and really did put a smile on our faces. Come lunctime the heat proved a little too much and when we made it to the town of Sankhu we decided to jump on a bus! We hopped back off again in Bodnath (Boudha) to wander around the Stupa - an impressive buddhist building, it really was a beuatiful sight and gave off such a peaceful and spiritual aura. The the square it sat and the building itself was decorated in tibetan peace flgas, and people from all over walked around clockwise turning the pray wheels as they went. After a relaxing afternoon soaking it all in we headed back to the Thamel as the sky opened with yet another monsoon shower. The evening was spent reading all my delightful birthday messages on the internet and speaking with my beautiful parents, so a lovely end to a wonderful day... and the day I will remember as 'my 25th'.

Friday was the first day of Dasain festival... a massive religious festival here in Nepal, where bloodthirsty goddess Durga Puja is worshipped over one of the biggest animal sacrifices of the year... goats and oxes getting the brunt of it (you can imagine the heavy heart every time we saw a goat being herded into town). The streets reflected its importance, it was hard to move anywhere without being barged the other way, beeped at by some vehicle, asked for money and the likes.... I'd been up early at the Indian Embassy for the first day of applying for a visa, so the morning was relatively relaxed if not long and boring, but to go from that to masses of people on the streets was quite a wake up call for the day! We seemed to spend the entire day trying to get 'somewhere' but never really knew where we wanted to go, as the crowds, sights, smells distracted us somewhat.... we headed on back to Thamel, which now seems to be our Haven, although the tourist mecca of Kathmandu, showered off the days heat and grime and headed back out for the evening for dinner and drinks. After a yummy nepalese-style curry we headed into the 'Reggae Bar' after hearing the music of a live band through its windows. Inside was like stepping into a different world.... a nepalese world of money! 'Cobweb' were blasting out the covers, and so happened to be one of the countries biggest bands, the bar almost-full with wealthy nepalese teens and up, all very western-ised and sporting labels, phones and cash.... one drunken guy literally throwing notes at the band. The night was quite surreal, and was topped off with the band doing a cover of Michael Jackson's 'Beat it' as another guy dressed up as the musical legend danced the moonwalk and cut some michael jackson shaped moves, a few songs of metallica and pink floyd later they blasted spongebob squarepants out! Very bizarre, we were joined at our table by some nepalese lads who informed us of the band and joined us in drinking. Stepping out from that onto the dusty streets where a lady and her child slept in the gutter and other boys of no older than 12 scarped around for money really made you question how there can be such a divide on one doorstep. And so I went to sleep with battling thoughts of the day and this beautiful and yet horribly poor country.

Saturday we decided to have a 'chill day', one that didn't involve stressfully walking around the crowded streets... and so we lay in, had brunch and pottered around all the wonderful trinket stalls, read our books in the sun (got sunburnt, whoops) and generally relaxed until bedtime. Falling asleep with the knowledge that we really are two very lucky ladies to have this opportunity laid out in front of us, and to of come from such priviledged backgrounds.... so already the trip proving a wonderful lesson in life and appreciation.

Thank you all for such wonderful birthday messages, it really was warming to be thought of by so many! And despite the feeling generally ill I have had a wonderful 25th and one that will never be matched in such a way I imagine. I hope all are well back home, love as always!

Lessons Learnt:
... where do I start!
Always investigate where visa's are concerned.
Don't expect anything for free in this country.
Nepalese would rather give a wrong answer than no answer at all in fear of disappointment, so take directions with a pinch of salt.
Don't let Anna map read.... you will get lost.
To be thankful for what you have.... the smallest things that we often take for granted could make someone elses week, month.
That I am blessed with the greatest family and some of the best friends a girl could possibly ever wish for... thank you!

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Part of trip: New Zealand...

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