SEPT. 23, 2008 The differences between mountain life and valley life are striking. Spending the morning at the Lukla Airport all bundled up with hats, mitts and jackets then arriving in Kathmandu to the start of a 30+ degree day. The race for the showers was intense after 15 days gone without. We also had to sort all our laundry to be put in for washing and what we would take with us to Chitwan National Park and Pokhara. A mini bus picked us up at another hotel to take us to the Park, where my friend Alex has been teaching [View Full Entry]

---

---

Stranded at the border of Vietnam and Laos. No Passport. A twelve hour bus ride to get to the border. A striking communist building surrounded by mountains and a thick fog. Short little men wearing green uniforms and tall hats with a star marching around. No one speaks English. This is how I got myself into this situation! I was leaving Hanoi, Vietnam with my three girl friends, saying goodbye to the other four we'd been traveling with. The Italian on his way to Thailand, Frenchie who was going to China, and Beth and Mike my friends from Seoul who were [View Full Entry]

---

---

Sept. 9 2008 DAY 1 Our guide picked us up at our hotel at the crack of dawn to head to airport in Kathmandu. It was chaos, organized in it's own Nepali fashion. There were bags of trekking gear everywhere and people with their own packs. They threw our bags onto a massive retro scale and onto a tiny little cart that went out to our plane. The planes have an estimated time of departure, we went between 6:30 and 7:00. Once standing next to the plane for a few minutes and watched our bags get shoved into tiny compartments in [View Full Entry]

---

---

September 1, 2008 My stomach began to hurt at breakfast and didn’t stop for the next couple days. Dale called me the zombie because every chance I had to sit down at the Mehrahgarh Fort I did. It cost 250Rs (5$) to get in, and included an audio tour. The tour was fantastic and really informative. It was a beautiful fort with amazing views of the blue city below. There were so many pilgrims that decided to stop off at the fort along their way. For foreigners it may be 250Rs, but for Indians only 10 or 20Rs. We ran [View Full Entry]

---

---

August 27, 2008 We arrived unscathed in Jaipur, but we didn’t leave in much the same state. We were envying our 30 hours on the train compared to Jaipur! We went to the old city- nicknamed the Pink City. It turned out to be more orange/brown than anything! I re-named Jaipur, India’s Dust Pan. We were haggled from the moment we left the hotel! Non-stop asking the whole day “you want a rickshaw ma’am?” “You like bangles?” “Come, you look my shop. No buying, just looking.” I think it was a combo of heat and dust that turned [View Full Entry]

---

---

August 17, 2008 The day of hassle begins at the Mumbai Airport. We arrived at 4 am, my bag cover now has a rip in it, a Chinese student latched on to us and began talking our ear off! We needed a place to sleep for the day and hopefully grab a train that night to Goa. I called a place and we were going to get a taxi in to stay there. But I thought I would make a new friend at the AirTel counter! He seemed very happy and helpful and went out of his way to help [View Full Entry]

---

---

Oman was an amazing break from India. It was clean, sunny, mosquito free... and did I mention clean? This country is the best kept secret of the middle east, hands down. The streets were lined with amazing white mansions, that belong to ordinary middle class families, and streets with beautiful new cars. Most of the men are in white traditional wear with a small cap, and the women in long black jackets and black scarves on their head. As soon as we stepped out of the airport the heat hit us. About 35*C at 11:00 at night. Nice. Our friend Salim [View Full Entry]

---

---

August 9, 2008 While we were eating breakfast in Jalgon, we got approached by two Canadians wondering if we would like to share a hired car with them to the Ajanta Caves. Got into the jeep with them, Aruna and Mike and took the hour drive to these caves. The Ajanta caves are more of a U shape and are quite close together. Some of the caves were pretty cool and interesting because they are really old, some were a little boring! especially the office cave... we found a historical cave that was now a present day office. It took a [View Full Entry]

---

---

Through the rain, maybe it was hard to tell sometimes that we are in India! But then we would see someone urinating on the side of the road and then pass a stray dog and a bone-thin cow and realize... actually we are in India! It turned out that there was a car accident on the Nepal side of the Indian border, stopping us from our original plan of going to Varanasi! Quickly our plans changed and we bought a plane ticket to Delhi. August 3, 2008 HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! Of course I had no idea what to expect when we [View Full Entry]

---

---

August 1st, 2008 Waiting in queue to check in for our flight, Bangkok to Kathmandu, we had our first taste of Nepal. Every cart was loaded with at least 10 tiny bags, or 3 oversized ones. Bags were created out of tape. I want a tape bag next time. Also, no real line was formed! Closest to the counter wins. Flying into Kathmandu was not what I was expecting. It was very flat, even once we began our descent. Then suddenly there were some mountains, and the huge valley that the city of Kathmandu (pop. 740 000) lies. Many of [View Full Entry]

---

---