Blogs from Kathmandu, Nepal, Asia
May 17th 2012
Nepal: After a month in China I was looking forward to getting to a new country. My attempt to go to Tibet was not to be. I wasn't able to find 3 other Americans to sign up for a tour group (a new law that went into effect that week). I did fly though Lhasa, so I was able to see a bit of Tibet. Getting off the plane to switch to my connecting flight, I could feel the elevation difference. The land looked arid until the snow capped mountains. Kathmandu - One of the main reasons I came to Nepal was because I wasn't able to get a visa for India in China, due to time restrictions I had in Beijing. It was also on the way to India and made for a good stop ... read more
I can't believe it, I got nominated.
Published: April 23rd 2012Asia » Nepal » Kathmandu » Durbar Square
April 23rd 2012
I can't believe it, the blog that I published about my volunteer experience in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia entitled, Orang Asli Children of Cameron Highlands, Malaysia was nominated at the Malaysia International Tourism Bloggers Conference and Awards this May. Well, if you have a minute, please click on this link http://www.mitbca.com/category.php?id=10 and then look for my blog address ( http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Intuitivetraveler/) which at this time is on the 2nd page, Your vote is very much appreciated. But I really want the organization, REACH, to get some kind of recognization especially for allowing me to lend my skills and help the Orang Asli children. Thank you very much.... read more
April 22nd 2012
I've been in Nepal for over a month now and I can't say enough how much I'm enjoying living here. It's just such a great country to learn about living in a 3rd world country. I've lived in other parts of the world and by far Nepal has given me so much with regards to living the life. I don't have a lot of materials things that I was used to back in Chicago but I didn't need that much here either. I learned to just live with simplicity and take everything in stride. In the next 3 weeks or so, I'll be heading to Everest Base Camp. I couldn't believe that I'm actually doing this trek ever since I thought about it 5 years ago. So now I'm just waiting for that time to come ... read more
April 22nd 2012
Back in Kathmandu wrapping up the remainder of the trip. The original plan was to spend the last few days in India, however I came to find out I we were not able to obtain a visa at the border and needed to go back to Kathmandu to the Indian Embassy. I went into a panic mode for a bit, because visas sometimes take a week to obtain, it was the weekend, the embassy was closed, and we needed to fly out on Monday to make our connection. India has a transit visa, which is only valid for three days, and allows you to travel through India. Several people, including our local travel agent, said we did not need one if we did not leave the airport and flew directly to Delhi, but there seems to ... read more
April 16th 2012
The previous nights indulgent excesses meant I did not enjoy the short journey from Royal Beach to Kathmandu one bit. Upon arrival in Kathmandu I said a half hearted goodbye to Kristina our truck (this would be the last time we would see her), ordered lunch at our hotel, realised I felt far too sick to eat lunch and then promptly went to bed (after familiarising myself several times with the toilet of course). As it would turn out, bed is a place I would become very familiar with whilst in Kathmandu. After sleeping most of the day I woke up shortly before it was time to leave for our final goodbye meal (this actually turned out to be one of many, many, many goodbye meals), despite sleeping all afternoon I still felt like a turd ... read more
Nepal arrival, Chitwan National Park, Royal Beach and Kathmandu
Published: April 30th 2012Asia » Nepal » Kathmandu
April 16th 2012
It was a short hour or so drive to the Nepalese border from the beautiful (haha) town of Siliguri. I find land borders are often much more interesting places to enter a country than the usual airport in the capital/major city route. While border towns are usually fairly ugly places they do provide a fascinating insight into the people and commodities of a country which is quite different to what you would see if arriving into the capital or a major city by air. Security at the border seemed rather relaxed, indeed we had to search out the Indian emigration building which we eventually found down a small dusty path. Indian emigration was staffed by one man who will not be winning awards any time soon for his dedication to interrogation, indeed he scarcely looked up ... read more
A journey to Tibet - The Roof of the world!
Published: April 25th 2012Asia » Nepal » Kathmandu » Thamal
April 15th 2012
April 2, 2012 After a fun and rewarding winter season in Florida, I'm off on another adventure trip. This time a motorcycle trip through Nepal and Tibet. Before leaving Toronto, I had spent some very enjoyable time with my kids and grandkids. Michelle and Travis gave birth to their second child, Lily Naomi, on March 31. She is absolutely beautiful and healthy and is being taken good care of by her big 2 year old sister Maya Sophia. Robbie is busy working full time with Interactive Sports Technologies. He is doing very well, traveling all over the world, most recently a trip to China for the Asian Golf Association trade show. Johnny graduates this month in Business from Georgian College (Way to go Johnny!) There are 2 rumors going around about Johnny, one is that he ... read more
April 13th 2012
Today was our first full day and last in Kathmandu. It is a hard city to describe; it is truly the 4th world. However, there is something utterly magical and fantastic about this place, and the people more than make up for it's filthiness. We are greeted at every turn with "Namaste," and a half bow. First we met with a travel agent named Ram, who comes from a long line of Ghurka soldiers. He helped arrange for our very own Sherpa guide when we trek in the Himalayas, our rafting, rappelling, and Elephant safari. We later wandered around the city, taking the recommended tourist walking tour to the Durbar Square. We walked past ancient temples, shrines and stupas wedged in between ramshackle buildings. Several parts of this city look as though there were bombed, and ... read more
April 12th 2012
I woke up today saddened by the fact that we are leaving Tibet, and chances are I will never return. These people have touched me, and their plight and oppression will haunt me forever. We arrived at the Nepalese border after going through 4 Chinese military checkpoints, within 8 kilometers. At customs I was told that my Lonely Planet book would be confiscated due to it’s accurate depiction of historical events. I had carefully cut out pages from my China lonely planet to fit the Tibet one before I had left and happily it worked. A Chinese immigration officer confiscated someone’s travel guide right before us, so I was definitely feeling the stress as if I was smuggling illegal goods. Our bags were first x-rayed, then rummaged through by hand. They showed keen interest in some ... read more
April 8th 2012
Had the best night out in Pokhara. Lyndesy and myself went to the Silk Road resturant where we saw the two girls we met there the other night and invited them to join us along with Philippa, her husband and a very funny man from their kayaking trip. Ate my last momos, which I will miss a lot. Throughout the past few weeks I kept joking with Philippa i'd order a party bucket (very very big drink) on my last night. Managed to convince the two girls to join me and then the bar tender to let me make it. So for one night only I got to work as a bar tender making the very big cocktail, which was served in a vase. So was a very fun last night, though a bit sad saying ... read more
