Tales of India & Nepal

WOW!!!! It seems like quite some time ago that I first set foot in India. I must say that I was a bit skeptical pre-arrival as I just didn't really know what to expect. Apart from the few friends I have at home who are Indian-Americans the only other real interactions I'd had with people from an Indian origin seemed a bit cold and rigid. I am guilty of something that we all are guilty of at some point or another.... stereotyping and assuming. I assumed that I wouldn't like the people and I assumed from the one time that I'd eaten Indian food that it all was going to be as bad as that hole-in-the-wall restaurant on Hillsborough St. (do not eat there NCSU Students). Well, I've spent a month in India and Nepal now and I can say that it only took me a few days to dismiss my ignorance. First of all, the people are very nice for the most part in the southern regions. I have set my number on being about 20% of all the people that are genuine assholes, out to scam you, pick your pocket, take you somewhere you don't want to be, or just generally annoy the crap out of you. The other 80% are great people. I'd also point out that while the mustache is going out of style around the Western World, it is very much alive and well here in India. I'd guess that 70-80% of the guys around here sport mustaches and they start growing them at about age 6. They make them look good! As far as the food goes.... It's awesome! Some of the best food that I've eaten since I've been gone. While there is no beef anywhere to be seen (it's a free country for cows - Hinduism), the chicken is always great, the curry is BANGIN', and the vegetables are awesome. In fact, I would have to say that I've eaten probably around 80% vegetarian meals over the last 3 weeks. That is shocking to me considering I love meat and usually have to have it in a meal. Most of our time here has been spent in the Northern regions of India and in Nepal, therefore we've eaten mostly Northern food. While I have heard lots of people talk about the southern food, which is good, I love the food from up north. Much harder to come across chicken, but the food is delicious! A new food has been added to my list of favorites.... Mo Mo's. Dumplings with veggies and/or meat added. The Buffalo Mo Mo's are awesome but the best ones tend to be the veg. Mo Mo's. One place had such awesome Mo Mo's that Nate and I ate there 4 straight meals! So I have a much more open mind about India (Nepal I've always wanted to go to). As far as our actual travels have been concerned it's been pretty incredible and even more tiring. After Nate and I began to head north we went to Auli where I climbed a mountain solo, spent a little bit of time to myself up top and then proceeded to snowboard down, all while staring at the 16th tallest mountain in the world. Afterwards it was on to Nepal.

We were very eager to reach Nepal and had been anticipating the visit for a couple of weeks. The time had actually come. When we got to the bottom of Auli we hitched a ride with a few guys we'd met who owned a call center (rode in a nice car with leather seats! Big Deal) and thought we were set until we got out of the car and asked the guy at the bus station how to get to Banbassa. Well.... it took 3 days and about 7 buses later to actually get to Nepal, not exactly what we had in mind. An interesting side note: When you go to these bus stations as Nate and I have done for the past couple of months, most especially the past month, you are always the only foreigners around. We rode buses/jeeps for nearly 4 weeks and close to 100 hours over Northern India and through Nepal and never saw another foreigner. Well, after a couple of tries at aimlessly walking around the bus station looking lost and dumb you eventually get a good radar attached to yourself that allows you to spot that one guy in the whole crowd that can help you. He's generally got a big mustache, is a somewhat stern looking guy, and has chewing tobacco in his mouth.... wait that's everybody you look at. It's just the radar, you just know, you have this connection where you look at him and the light starts blinking.... that's our guy! It happened on numerous occasions where Nate and I found him at the same time, looked at each other, and just knew we were thinking the same thing. One of the many small things you learn by traveling the world trying your hardest to get away from the tourists and into the company of local people. Also the fact that we are on a budget, that we picked interesting places to visit that many people look over, and that we have figured out how to mingle with the locals instead of at the tourist bars and restaurants. So we finally made it to Nepal, crossing through one of the least used border crossings that exists in the country. Our first night in Nepal Nate and I went looking for food. As usual instead of walking aimlessly looking for a restaurants that suits us one of us (me this time) just points at a place and says "that one... we're going there." OK... we got our restaurant, it says it serves food, so we're in business right? Well, kind of. We walk in through the curtains, notice that the place says it's a lounge, and think hummm.... interesting. Nevertheless, we walk into a courtyard through the main sitting area and sit down at a table outside in this open space. The lady comes up, looking as though we were the first white guys she'd ever seen (not uncommon) and I try to ask what food she has. I pulled out all the stops, went through every name of food I thought she might've had, did the motion of food from hand to mouth, etc. etc. The response we got was so awesome I couldn't help but immediately without hesitation just spit out YES!! The response I had gotten to my so many requests for food was........ BEER?! Holy Moly, we hadn't seen beer in weeks. Not that we really had spent more than a couple bucks on beer in months, but this just rang out as music to our ears (Drinking is something that is actually looked down upon to a certain extent in India, so it hasn't even been on our minds). Sweet! So we now have a beer. We need to work on getting the food now. After a few minutes she managed to bring some cashews... not exactly what we were looking for but they were the best cashews ever. OK.... the guys across from us just got some food brought to them. "I want that.... food!" "No food" is the response we get. But it's right there, how can we not get food? One only knows (this is not the only time we have been told that something didn't exist when we could plainly see it). So we end up drinking a beer, then another, and somehow we ended up at this place talking with what ended up being a table full of Nepalese people by the end of it for several hours. No food, just beer. Bought a beer or two for our newly made friends and we all somehow communicated as best we could for a while even though nobody spoke the same language. It is amazing the communication abilities that grow on you as you are around so many people that don't speak the same language. It's a talent I'm very proud of and getting very good at. After our night at the western edge of Nepal we took a 21 hour bus ride to Pokhara. This was not your average bus ride. Nate and I got the seats in the back of the bus. This suited us as we had the entire back row and two seats in front of the back row. The seat by the window in front of the back row leaned back a looong ways due to a lose screw or two. So we were pretty comfortable and happy at first. Wellllll..... then the bus started moving and we began our journey. It didn't take long for us to hit the first "bump." When I say we hit a bump, I mean it was a stinking BUMP! Because we were in the back of the bus the bumps hit a little bit harder than they did for the rest of the bus. When we hit the first real bump Nate, me, and the kid sitting across the aisle from me all levitated a good foot and a half off of our seats and through the air. It caught us off guard, nearly took my head off from the rack above, and almost through Nate into the middle of the aisle, but it was fun and we all were smiling and laughing. That was the first one. The second bump was what I remember to be the worst of them all and one that immediately reminded me of the video the school bus from the US where the kids in the back fly up and hit the ceiling (literally, there were kids flying everywhere... if you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about). Well this bump was also fun and awesome and quite dangerous in that I missed the sharp corner of the rack above by only the slightest of distances. FUN, FUN, FUN, for the first couple of hours. 21 hours later however, and the bumps get to you. It was a long, long bus ride. And oh yeah, the back window(s) was missing one of the pieces that make it windows, thus allowing a buttload of cold air to blow in the bus, directly over the back seat where I eventually had the honor of spending the night due to Nate being cold and me, well I can honestly say I wasn't as cold as Nate but it still wasn't fun. Pokhara was awesome. Set in the shadow of the Himalayas, Pokhara has incredible views of the mountains. Some of the best in all of Nepal actually. From Pokhara you can see the 8th (?) & 10th tallest peaks in the world. We spent roughly 4 days in and around Pokhara. 3 of these days were spent out and about trekking through the hills of the neighboring areas at the base of the beautiful mountains. Pokhara and these mountains are the picture that you see at the top of the webpage. We spent St. Patrick's Day and Nate's birthday out on our walk with a local guy name Rajes who acted as our "guide." Didn't really need him but it was nice to have him as he made it easier to communicate with locals, showed us cool things, and was a nice guy to keep as company. While we were in the mountains it rained on us. No.... it poured on us. This sucked because it was cloudy and we didn't get to see the first sight of the huge mountains that were standing over us the whole time. It was however, also pretty cool. If you've never been in the mountains, forest, jungle, etc. during a heavy rainstorm then I will tell you that it's a very serene experience and is for the most part very relaxing. What also helped to alleviate our sense of being let down was the fact that this was the first time we had seen rain in nearly 3 months. We had ventured away from the dry season of SE Asia and India to the south to the fledgling beginning of the wet season in Nepal. It didn't rain during the days until late afternoon so we didn't really get rained on while walking but over the course of 3 days and 2 nights, it rained every afternoon, and it hailed a little. On March 18th (Nate's birthday) it hailed a lot. The most intense hail storm I've ever seen. In fact, I believe that the same storm caused so much damage to farmer's crops in India that over a dozen farmers have committed suicide in the past week or so. Pretty crazy and random.

We left Pokhara, headed to Kathmandu, spent the night outside of a bus station on the edge of town, immediately got on the wrong bus the next morning and drove through the city, out the other side and ended up 30 km away in a town called Nagarkot. Before I tell you about Nagarkot, let me say that our ride that we took from Pokhara to Kathmandu was done on top of the bus. That's right.... we rode on top of the bus. Check that one off the list.... it's been done. We wanted to ride on top of either a train or a bus before we left India. The ride on top of the bus wasn't the last one we took, in fact we rode on top of the bus on our way to Nagarkot, but it was probably the best one considering that we were the only two guys up there. It was a beautiful day, the temps. were awesome, and along the way we saw at least two recent accidents involving buses running off the edge of the cliffs we were riding beside the whole time, one of which killed several people. Yes Mom and Dad, I did it and although it doesn't surprise you you'll still tell me that I'm stupid. Maybe I am stupid but it ain't the way I go through life if you follow me. The ride to Nagarkot was an awesome one. We took the wrong bus (riding inside) and ended up at a place where they charge $10 (an outrageous sum of money) to see this square which is actually supposed to be pretty sweet. So Nate and I ate lunch and immediately caught another bus headed towards Nagarkot. On a clear day Nagarkot has excellent Himalayan views.... Everest can even be seen in the very far off distance. When we jumped on the next bus we were back on top again along with about a dozen other guys ranging from 10-25. This day was the day before Holi, one of the biggest Hindu festivals and religious days of the year. Well oddly enough, Holi is one huge water fight. People young and old through everything from water balloons (the weapon of choice) to buckets of water and everything in between. The ride up to Nagarkot was one that passed through several small towns where all the kids were waiting for us to ride by so that they could absolutely bombard us with balloons and water. It was awesome!!!! Great time indeed and one that I didn't walk away from dry. The next day actually was Holi and brought on more water fights and red dust that turned into paint when wet. Nate and I were the two white guys getting dowsed with water and with red faces and shirts. We spent a couple of relaxing days in Nagarkot before heading out. It was hazy the whole time as it had been the other 6 days in Nepal. It sucked but as we had traveled so much any moment we found to be still was one that we valued and took in everything. After Nagarkot we headed to Kathmandu for a day and then off to India again, passing through the eastern border of Nepal. We had traveled the entire length of the country in 10 days. 10 days at the base of the greatest mountain range the world has to offer. I would also like to say that while in Nepal I saw more eagles than I've ever thought of seeing in my life. At any given moment you could look and see 2, 3, sometimes even 4 eagles soaring in the skies. Very beautiful and graceful thing to see. So we took another 10 hour bus to the border, spent the night, and a 3 hour jeep ride to Darjeeling the next day. Darjeeling is the town where Norgay and Hilary set off to tackle Mt. Everest way back in 1953. It is the town that Tenzing Norgay is from and where his son still resides. In this town there is the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI) where Norgay was Director of Field Training and then Adviser. HMI has an awesome museum on climbing, mountaineering, and the efforts to climb the pinnacles of the world. One of the simplest but best museums I've been to, ever. HMI also shares its campus with the Darjeeling Zoo. The zoo is the highest altitude zoo in the world! Pretty cool.... they had a Siberian Tiger, an Indian Tiger (walked 10 ft. from Nate and me shouting the whole time), the clouded leopard, snow leopard, regular leopard, Tibetan wolves, Himalayan Black Bears, Red Pandas, lots of beautiful pheasants, deer, and a few monkeys (monkeys are too normal around here to be in the zoo). The zoo was fun. Also f0und the best Mo Mo's in the world in Darjeeling as described above. Darjeeling is also the place where on a clear day you can see the sun rise over 8 of the world's 9 tallest peaks at one time. Only thing is that it was hazy the whole time we were there. Oh well.... guess I'll have to go back at some point. No, I will go back another time. We left Darjeeling 3 days ago.... took a 3 hour jeep, a 12 hour train, a 36 hour train, and a 5 minute cab ride to reach the point where I am now, 3 days later. 50 hours on a train will put it to you. Combined that we have been pretty much moving non-stop for the last 3-4 weeks and I will say that for the first time I am completely and utterly worn out. I'm tired of traveling, I need a break, I need some good solid soul food from home. I need a hamburger, a steak, some fried chicken, sweet potatoes, deviled eggs, biscuits, pancakes, you name it.... I've thought about it and I miss it! I have one more week of traveling through England before I make it back to North Carolina. Lucky for me England has great beer and my Dad loves me enough to meet us in London, put us up in one of the nicest hotels in the world, and show me a familiar face! I miss my family, I miss my friends, and I miss the hell out of my dog. But I must say that WOW.... what a journey this has been. It seems like years ago that I left home, it's only been 7 months, but I've learned things and seen things that I couldn't learn in 10 years at home. There is no greater learning tool in my opinion than placing yourself in an unfamiliar environment and culture and opening your mind to soak up the different ways of the world, the different people of the world, and how these differences reflect upon the things that you call "the normal ways of life." PEACE!!!!!